Thinking about International Talk Like a Pirate Day reminded me of seeing the Niña and Pinta when they came through my area a couple years ago. They are faithful replicas of Columbus's originals. Below is a video of the ships when they visited Dubuque, Iowa:The diminutive stature of these two ships destroyed my perception of Columbus' crossing … Continue reading Columbus might not have been a pirate, but..

Being a geek and working with other like-minded individuals, sometimes we have some pretty great discussions on ancient history, technologies, and such. Today we were bouncing between the the lethality of Comanche and Mongolian bow skills and how ancient (and not so ancient) cultures had technology that was far more advanced than we often give … Continue reading Napoleon’s Fax Machine

An interesting piece of cartographical history:Finding America: University Discovers Lost Early Map of New World: German university researchers have rediscovered a 500-year-old map that had been mistakenly bound in a volume on geometry several hundred years ago. The map, by cartograther Martin Waldseemüller, is one of the first to include the term "America" in reference to the New … Continue reading Finding America: University Discovers Lost Early Map of New World

Downton Abbey and the Curse of King Tut: By Roger LuckhurstYou must surely have been tempted on occasion to curse Julian Fellowes, if not for the script of Young Victoria, then for the creation of Downton Abbey, that death star of good old-fashioned aristocratic virtue and due deference. For a little while, all public debate … Continue reading Downton Abbey and the Curse of King Tut

I'm always amused by how little credit we give our ancestors when it comes to ingenuity and mobility. The article below from Der Spiegel points this out well:Bronze Age Espionage: Did Ancient Germans Steal the Pharaoh's Chair Design?: Roughly 3,500 years ago, folding chairs remarkably similar to ones found in Egypt suddenly became must-have items in parts of … Continue reading Advanced Trade from "Primitive" Ancestors

From the Bartitsu Society:Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon: Bartitsu Club member and Titanic survivor: Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon (22 July 1862 – 20 April 1931) was a prominent Scottish landowner and athlete who is today best known as a survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic in the North Atlantic Sea on April 15, 1912.A … Continue reading Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon: Bartitsu Club member and Titanic survivor