Tag: history
-
Europe’s Hidden Buddhist Mongolian Republic
The Kalmyk people live in an unusual place. Mongols are not a group of people you’d expect to find in Europe in large numbers, unless perhaps it is the 1200s and your peasant armies currently being overrun by horse archers. Certainly a Mongol ethnic group that predominately follows Tibetan Buddhism doesn’t seem like they should…
-
NASA is Scott, China is Amundsen
There are two programs right now trying to bring back the first rock samples from the surface of Mars: one by NASA and ESA, the other by China’s CNSA. The agencies aren’t saying it’s a race, but it’s a race. And China is going to win.
-
Vikings. Vikings everywhere.
You probably have an image of a Viking in your head – a fierce warrior from the icy north, clad in armor and furs, sailing in on a longship with a dragon carved into its bow. If you know a bit more about Vikings, you may know that they reached the Americas before Columbus, and…
-
8 forgotten facts about the Olympics
Like any 130-year-old huge international event, the Olympic games have acquired some quirks over the decades. There are scandals that make the news – corruption, doping, politics, etc. – but there’s also plenty that’s just bizarre. Here are a few of the weird or obscure facts about the Olympics that I’ve come across:
-
Were the Space Shuttle’s boosters really the size of two horse butts?
I’m a Space Shuttle-horse butt truther. A copypasta/chain letter type post that dates back to at least 2001 argues the space shuttle boosters are the size of two horse butts…
-
The metal that remade time
Elon Musk says “The best part is no part”. Elon Musk says a lot of things, but there are definitely times in history when this principle shines. The best example I’ve heard is the story of Charles-Édouard Guillaume, winner of the 1920 Nobel Prize for inventing the alloy Invar…
-
When the heck did Hammurabi actually rule?
Hammurabi was the king of Babylon. He reigned about 3800 years ago in Mesopotamia, in what’s now Iraq. You may have heard of his code of laws. I say “about” 3800 years ago because there are several possibilities for exactly when he reigned. Right now, the leading…