Events
Title: The Plastic Obsession: Why Popping Bubble Wrap Is So Addictive
But let’s be completely honest with ourselves. The gadget is only the second most exciting thing in that box. Your eyes are already locked onto that clear, air-filled sheets of plastic cushioning the item. Before you even realize what you are doing, your fingers have gripped the edge of the sheet. Press, snap, pop. A wave of pure, unadulterated satisfaction washes over you. You are a grown adult with bills to pay and a career to manage, yet you are completely powerless against a piece of industrial packaging material. You cannot stop until every single bubble is dead. Why does this simple plastic invention possess such a hypnotic hold over the human mind?
By Lenka Čihařová4 days ago in History
History piece: forget australia, the first massive british convict colony was actually america
But actual history is way more twisted. for seventy years before the first british convict ship ever smelled the air of australia, the british government was sending tens of thousands of its prisoners to a completely different place: the north american colonies.
By Lenka Čihařová5 days ago in History
Celebrating 819 Years of the Poet Rumi
The great Poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh, a great center of learning and culture in what is now Afghanistan. His childhood unfolded during a period of upheaval that would eventually drive his family from their home and send them westward across Central Asia.
By Tim Carmichael6 days ago in History
Radithor: When America Drank the Atomic Age
In the 1920s, radium represented the dazzling promise of modern science. Then someone decided to bottle it... America entered the 1920s looking toward the future. Electric lights had transformed the night. Automobiles were remaking cities and countryside alike. Radio carried voices invisibly through the air. Airplanes, once an impossible dream, were becoming machines of commerce and adventure. Science seemed capable of anything. And few discoveries seemed more mysterious, or more promising, than radium.
By The Iron Lighthouse7 days ago in History
The “Devil’s Wine” That French Winemakers Desperately Tried to Fix
See, the Champagne region in northeastern France was historically famous for making regular, still wines. They were in fierce competition with Burgundy. But the local cold weather ruined everything. Winter always came too early, which meant the fermentation process in the barrels stopped completely because the yeast just froze.
By Lenka Čihařová9 days ago in History
The Life and Legacy of Poet Mary Weston Fordham
I was recently at our local library when the Librarian told me about a poet I had never heard of, Mary Weston Fordham. I sat down and began reading her work on the library's computer, moving through the pages of her 1897 collection, Magnolia Leaves . I had planned to read a few poems, but I couldn't stop. One poem led me to another, and soon I was absorbed in the work of an amazing woman whose name had somehow escaped me for all these years.
By Tim Carmichael11 days ago in History
She Survived Titanic, Britannic and Olympic: The True Story of Woman Who Ocean Could Not Bury
This woman did not find herself in the freezing waters of Atlantic Ocean only once. During her life, she served on all three gigantic sister ships of the White Star Line company — on Olympic, Titanic, and Britannic. And what is most fascinating? She survived a heavy crash or sinking of every single one of them. In the history of sea travel, she gained a completely unique, even if a bit scary, status of the most resilient woman in the world.
By Lenka Čihařová11 days ago in History
Karel Hašler Died After Being Tortured in Mauthausen. The Testimony Is Chilling — and His Name Still Lives on in Sweets
Karel Hašler was a phenomenon of his time. He wrote songs that were sung all over the country, performed on stage, appeared in films and managed to reach audiences of several generations. During his life, he composed hundreds of songs, many of which became so popular that people simply considered them part of Czech folk culture.
By Lenka Čihařová12 days ago in History
Forgotten Broumov: The Place Where Thousands of Russian Prisoners of War Found Their Death
During the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian army built a huge and completely isolated prisoner-of-war camp here. It was not some small temporary collection point. More than 30,000 prisoners of war passed through this place.
By Lenka Čihařová12 days ago in History
Beneath Moscow Lies a Second City: Hidden Palaces, Secret Tunnels, Stalin and a Metro Built to Impress the World
Above you, enormous crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The walls are covered with tons of rare marble from the Urals, the ceilings are adorned with gilded mosaics, and larger-than-life bronze statues surround you. And in the middle of all this luxury, reminiscent of the residences of the tsars, an ordinary subway train comes to a screeching halt every two minutes.
By Lenka Čihařová12 days ago in History
