Weekly

Neither psychology nor anthropology fully understand love: only history sees that it’s all about the time and the telling

When the Royal Museum for Central Africa reopens, it intends to finally confront a sordid part of Belgium's history — the exploitation led by King Leopold II which killed millions in Congo.

On Dec. 2, 1941, a publication date was set for Mori’s first book. Five days later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, upending the writer’s life and throwing the book’s publication into doubt.

On the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum, Steven Pifer, one of the negotiators of that document, writes that it is time for the Unites States to make good on the security assurances it made to Ukraine. Doing so could prevent future nuclear proliferation.

“Suppose the only Negro who survived some centuries hence was the Negro painted by white Americans in the novels and essays they have written. What would people in a hundred years say of black Americans?” This is the question posed by W. E. B. Du Bois in his lecture “Criteria of Negro Art.” The […]

The future is here!

A young man—not so young as some—is going to war. He is small, aquiline, Jewish, gay, cultivated, and preposterously rich. He speaks the high-toned German of fin-de-siècle Vienna, and has decent en…

I am very pleased to add to my collection this equally historical and handsome Roman Republican denarius serratus, minted by the moneyer Gaius Marius Capito in 81 BC. This moneyer, unrelated to the famous Gaius Marius, is known only from his coins struck during the dictatorship of Sulla - in the tense aftermath of his defeat of the Marians, second march on Rome and bloody proscriptions. The Damoclean sense of terror that prevailed in Rome after Sulla's total victory is chillingly described by Pl

Why is it that non-Afghans only care to learn about Afghanistan when there are pictures of women in miniskirts involved? By shifting the topic to women's clothing, broader questions around the problems facing Afghanistan become elided – and the discussion goes back to a simplistic dichotomy between Islam and secular modernity.View Post

Conservator Anna Serotta and Associate Research Scientist Federico Carò explore a small stone fragment from the Museum's collection that may hold key information about the use of high-performance abrasives in ancient Egypt.

An artist’s answer to politics.

In his work the Japanese-American artist tried to bring the disparate pieces of himself into contact | Books & arts

Can a person do evil and yet not actually be evil? What Hannah Arendt meant by ‘the banality of evil’ remains a puzzle

On April 6, 1922, Einstein met a man he would never forget. He was one of the most celebrated philosophers of the century, widely…

In Havana, where data trickles in via overloaded, government-controlled networks—if at all—the people have taken matters into their own hands.

Professor Jung is interviewed at his home in Switzerland by John Freeman.Theme music: excerpt from Les Francs-Juges by Berlioz, 1825.A lecture on Freud by Th...

With a rich legacy of building businesses in new industries, backing innovators and ploughing back profits into philanthropy, the Tata Group has operated like a venture capital firm.

The Babylonians knew an amazingly good approximation to the square root of 2 back around 1700 BC. But did they know it was just an approximation?

We built a concept corpus and recommendation network for science fiction.

Study reveals family histories of black-haired Vikings who set forth—and died—far from home

It is widely known that the vast majority of all works of ancient drama have been lost forever. We have record of literally hundreds of playwrights who wrote plays in the Greek language in ancient times, but only five of these playwrights have any plays that have survived to the present day complete or nearly … Continue reading "How Have Works of Greek Drama Survived?"

On the 11th of January 1982 twenty-two computer scientists met to discuss an issue with ‘computer mail’ (now known as email).

The story of a few good men's struggle, against their own commanders, their own fleet, their own ships and their own men.Want to support the channel? - https...

Nearly 200 years ago, Dhaka muslin was the most valuable fabric on the planet. Then it was lost altogether. How did this happen? And can we bring it back?