Why the Bronze Age collapsed
Historians like to blame drought, famine and invaders. But this can’t explain why the empires never came back.
history
The Alchemists -history of oil
How oil built the world
Bessie Smith: Empress of the Blues, the Klan and Her Train
Bessie Smith toured in her own railway carriage, loved women and men and died in a 1937 crash. Plus the family's Klan story and Janis Joplin's gravestone.
The Rise and Fall of the Plasma Screen
In 1960, a team at the University of Illinois released the first version of their PLATO “computerized instruction system,” a network of what would eventually be thousands of computer terminals connected to large mainframe computers.
Any Human Ever
One life, drawn at random from all who have ever lived.
‘It could knock a whole street down’: the art of defusing a second world war bomb
The long read: On 14 January this year, army and navy squads faced an unprecedented challenge: one bomb on a Plymouth building site, another floating on a dredger in Exmouth. That afternoon, the clock started ticking
The 12th-century military disaster that forever changed global finance
After a plague-ridden crusade left Venice drowning in debt, the republic created the world's first bond market, changing the relationship between the government and its citizens.
Explosion Inside!
The story of internal combustion, part 1.
Why the Bronze Age collapsed
Historians like to blame drought, famine and invaders. But this can’t explain why the empires never came back.
The Space Review: Stars in the sky: The top secret URSALA, RAQUEL, and FARRAH satellites from the 1970s to the 21st century
History of Chess
Chess was never just a game. Before chess became a symbol of genius, it was a tiny battlefield built from war, power, and the human need to outthink fate.
From Paris to Hangzhou: The $9m Quest to Return China’s Lost Encyclopedia
For 140 years, part of the Yongle Encyclopedia sat unread in a Paris attic — a researcher’s keen eye and an entrepreneur’s deep pockets brought it back to China.
Your very own art history cheat sheet
Everything you need to know in 5 minutes
6 Famous Artworks That Are Lost Forever | TheCollector
Six masterpieces lost to history—from Van Gogh to Rembrandt—surviving only in fragments, photographs, and archival records.
Alta True Tales: Tunnel 13
Julian Smith revisits the deadly Tunnel 13 train robbery, the DeAutremont brothers, and the forensic science that cracked the case.
Rope, twine and thread: Invisible technologies of the Stone Age
Missing from the archaeological record, fiber innovations like string played a huge role in the daily lives of our ancestors. Researchers are working to weave together new insights from the traces they left behind.
Where do writing systems come from?
Writing was invented three different times in world history—in Mesopotamia, China, and Mesoamerica. But not all writing systems derive from those three original scripts. How can this be?
How One Man’s Quest for a Musketeer’s Bones Got Him Locked Up
A secret archaeological dig inside a Dutch church has led to drama worthy of Alexandre Dumas. Did Wim Dijkman really find the bones of the fourth musketeer? We may never know.
Casablanca: How an Unproduced Play Marched Into Movie History | TheCollector
Of all of Hollywood’s beloved classic films, the Warner Bros. studio’s heart-rending wartime hit Casablanca might rank first in the hearts and minds of fans.
The Forgotten Castles of the Garamantes • wild man life
The forgotten castles of the Garamantes lie buried beneath the Libyan Desert, the ruins of a civilisation that built cities, traded with Rome, and raised pyramids in the Sahara.
What Happened to Amelia Earhart in 1937? | TheCollector
American Aviator Amelia Earhart’s mysterious disappearance in 1937 sparked widespread interest, speculation, and ongoing investigations about what really happened to her.
10 Classic Films That Defined the Sci-Fi Genre’s History | TheCollector
From A Trip to the Moon to Godzilla, these ten films showcase the evolution and impact of sci-fi cinema throughout the decades.
Why Is Moscow So Weird?
Why so far north? So cold? Why not on a big river or a coast? Why the biggest city in Europe? Why the capital of the biggest country on Earth?
Why Thailand was never colonized
Diplomacy, reform, and a convenient stone
Mongkut came across a remarkable object: a four-sided, black stone monolith, about a meter high and inscribed with an unusual script. The stone would become known as the Ramkhamhaeng Stele.
The discovery of the Stele was, as it turned out, serendipitous. Over five centuries, European powers colonized virtually every other territory on Earth
Lead Belly: The Convicted Killer Who Changed American Music
Huddie Ledbetter served two prison terms for violent crimes and still became one of the most influential musicians America ever produced. The full story of Lead Belly.
A 1932 Illustrated Map of Harlem's Night Clubs: From the Cotton Club to the Savoy Ballroom
Harlem’s undergoing another Renaissance, and has been for years now. Crime’s down, real estate prices are up, and throngs of pale-faced hipsters are descending to check the area out. Sure, something’s gained, but something’s lost, too.
The Alchemists
How oil built the world
Who cares if he's evil?
It's what you do, not how you do it…
Are Memories Transferable — or Edible? | Quanta Magazine
In the 1960s, worm-training experiments and their strange implications captivated the nation. Columnist Claire L. Evans follows the neuroscientists who attempted to recapture the magic.
In the 1960s, an eccentric behavioral psychologist named James McConnell convinced the scientific establishment that planarian worms, like Pavlov’s dogs, could be classically conditioned — and that memories of this training could be transferred from worm to worm through cannibalism. These bizarre…
Riding the Steppe in the Shadow of the Scythians | TheCollector
Travel to the wide grasslands where the Scythians once roamed, and you’ll discover how their culture still shapes Eurasia today.
4 of the Greatest Hip-Hop Movie Soundtracks of the 90s
Noisey selects four of the greatest hip-hop movie soundtracks of the 90s, arguably the golden age for Black cinema and rap alike.
Backscatter Radar Site in Christmas Valley
The forlorn remains of a late Cold War radar installation are decaying in the Oregon desert
The Man Who Made Bolts Boring
On screws, agreements, and the disgruntled man who taught strangers to speak the same language
How We Got to Now PDF Summary - Steven Johnson | 12min Blog
Do you want to learn how Chinese women abort their baby girls today because the Titanic sank in 1912? Or how the bikini trend owes its existence to the Chicago sewer system of the 1860s? Or, say, how mirrors started the Renaissance? Then you will enjoy Steven Johnson’s How We…
Why America’s Rarest Coin Can Never Be Bought | TheCollector
The “ruby slippers” of coins, the 1849 Liberty Head Double Eagle, is so rare that it is essentially priceless.
The Glass Famine
Spies, war, industrial subterfuge and secret recipes. And it all really happened. Honestly, what more could you ask for?
Great Memos - Historic Business Documents Archive
A curated archive of historic business memos, strategic documents, and leadership correspondence from 112 AD to present.
The Eight Load-Bearing Humans Every Civilization Needs
Every civilization runs on eight irreducible roles. AI is hollowing out the derivative layer on top of them. Which layer does your life actually rest on?
Every society runs on the same small set of irreducible jobs, the people who grow food, heal bodies, build and fix things, move goods, transmit knowledge, defend surplus, settle disputes, and hold communities together.
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
The 40-Year Mystery of the Iron Nitride Magnet
Links:- Patreon (Support the channel directly!): https://www.patre...
The man who invented American popular music turns 200
Stephen Foster wrote some of the most enduring American songs, invented the role of songwriter, and served as a cautionary tale for his successors.
The Eerie Story of Low Background Steel
Bandits are plundering metal from old shipwrecks, in search, it seems for the world's rarest, and strangest, metal.
https://mymodernmet.com/king-arthur-manuscript-up-for-auction/
The flag stranglers - Works in Progress Magazine
Most flags used to be ugly. They were probably better that way.
How we learned what genes are made of
In the 1940s, scientists made a discovery now fundamental to biology: genes are encoded in DNA. The story involves bacteria, dead mice, and a kitchen cream separator.
Black Gold and Grey Markets
Adventures in energy trading
How the Cold War Superpowers Tried to Reduce the Threat of Nuclear Annihilation | TheCollector
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between US President Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev were a milestone in the Cold War arms race.
Map of Metal
An interactive map of Metal history and the influential bands that helped shaped the genres we know today
The Ashkenazi bottleneck: How 350 people became millions
The genetic founder event that shaped a civilisation
When the Bell Tolls – History of Marine Insurance and Lloyd’s
Lutine Bell, a historic bell that was salvaged from the shipwreck HMS Lutine in 1858, pretty much signifies what marine insurance is all about and the important role that Lloyds of London plays in it. Today the bell hangs in the rostrum of the underwriting room at the Lloyds…