Archive for the 'History' Category

Travel Guides

10/01/2008

This article about the old and new Baedekers travel guides has some great quotes, ranging from the ludicrous:
Readers were often advised to take full evening dress, a pith helmet and a medicine chest as well as a large number of suits and dresses.
To the insulting:
Travellers a century ago were also advised how to keep out [...]

Friends Across the Channel

16/01/2007

Startling news, apparently the Brits could have had an alliance with France, even more shocking, the could have joined the Commonwealth and had the Queen presiding over them.
So, when Eden turned down his request for a union between France and Britain the French prime minister came up with another proposal.
This time, while Eden was on [...]

The New 7 Wonders

17/10/2006

While it sounds like some sort of gimic (”Come see the all new seven wonders of the world”) Bernard Weber has started a competition to find the new seven wonders of the world. For those who don’t know, the old seven wonders comprised of (via Wikipedia):

Wonder
Date
Builder
Destroyed
Cause

Great Pyramid of Giza
2550 BC
Egyptians
still standing
still standing

Hanging Gardens of [...]

Say Hi to Dick

18/08/2006

Who’d have thought that Dick Whittington, a character in a popular pantomime story in the UK, was actually based on a real person? I thought he was all fiction.
Goes to show, you learn something new everyday.

Sandwich Spread

27/10/2005

The flippin’ Yankees are trying to barge their way into yet another British institution and failing miserably, again. They can’t make tea and they can’t make sandwiches either (mainly because they don’t know how to bake bread).
Next they’ll be trying to claim an American stole the secret recipe for scones and that only they [...]

A Few Things

21/08/2005

I was reading the BBC’s 10 Things We Didn’t Know This Time Last Week entry in the magazine section when a couple of them caught my eye.
Skip past the bit about someone registering a patent for a colonic gas (fart) -powered toy missle launcher and assembly and the mention is using urine as a stain [...]

The End Was Near

2/04/2005

Yes, folks, it may sound like the plot for a Hollywood movie (and no doubt it will be very shortly), but apparently the world really did get this close to WWIII (hat tip: Kottke).
Obviously we’re all grateful to Mr. Petrov for not hitting that button, but it raises two points (for me at least):
1) It [...]

The Lost World

15/02/2005

There is a story that has become legend in my family and, I think, shows my greatness from an early age. The story goes that shortly after reading a book about dinosaurs at around age 5, I was with my mum and my little brother in a queue in W H Smiths when I [...]

My Society

29/12/2004

One of the chapters in Backroom Boys (see Reading page) is dedicated to how the game Elite came about, from the creators’ first experiences of computer programming to how they overcame many of the technical obstacles. Ultimately it led to the creation of the world’s first computer games revolution: a game that sold almost [...]

Hotel Hitler

23/12/2004

Recently the BBC reported that the giant Rossiya Hotel in Moscow was to be demolished. They stated that the Rossiya was the world’s biggest when it was built in the 1960’s. Well, I’m afraid they were a little off. You see, I remember catching the tale-end of a program on the Seebad [...]