Have you heard of Alexander von Humboldt? Not likely. The geologist turned South American explorer was a bit of an 18th century super scientist, traveling over 24,000 miles to understand the relationship between nature and habitat. George Mehler details Humboldt’s major accomplishments and why we should care about them today. H/T TEDEducation
Is it possible to make government smaller? Few think so today. Few thought so almost a century ago, following WWI. But one man proved them wrong, our 30th President, Calvin Coolidge (1923 -1929). Acclaimed historian Amity Shlaes
explains how Coolidge did more by doing less and why his governing style might just be the approach we need now. H/T Prager University
Before 1883, we didn’t have Eastern Time Zone, the Mountain Time Zone or any standardized system for keeping clocks synchronized across the United States. Every region, every city could set clocks however they wanted, and there were enormous variations. William Heuisler explains the history of time and how trains changed everything.
On this last day of 2012, pundit Dick Morris gazes back 200 years ago, to the fateful War of 1812, in which the United States sealed its fortunes as an independent nation by decisively beating back an attempt by Great Britain to reclaim the territory as a New World colony.
Dying to know how hamburgers came about in this world? While there are multiple theories, many believe the Mongols started the craze when raw beef was kept under saddles while they tried to conquer the world. The meat then became tender enough to eat after spending a good amount of time – ahem – between a horse and human backside.
Pundit Dick Morris travels back in time to the War of 1812, and examines a pivotal naval battle on Lake Champlain in upstate New York. Through the ingenuity of Commodore Thomas MacDonough, the Americans defeated the heavily armed British warship, the Comfiance, thus thwarting an attempt to invade from Canada and divide the fledgling United States in half.
Wax cylinders dating from 1902-1917 record the Wall family of London as they sing Christmas songs. The recordings are believed to be the oldest in existence documenting a family’s Christmas celebrations.
Although it is hard to pinpoint an exact date, researchers believe that beer dates back to the days of cereal agriculture, around 10,000 BC. In 3500 BC, the first recorded evidence of brewing was left on clay tablets by Sumerians in the epic of Gilgamesh. Those tablets revealed that the majority of brewers were women.
Hollywood is overrun by Leftists, but few as brazen or bombastic as Oliver Stone, whose latest anti-American screed is a propaganda-laden series called Oliver Stone’s Secret History of America, airing on Showtime. On this week’s Poliwood, Roger L. Simon and Lionel Chetwynd speak with historian and Pajamas Media Columnist Ron Radosh to discuss the series’ shoddy dishonesty and twisting of historical fact. Find out why they think this series will misinform an entire generation of Americans. H/T PJTV
Brian Switek, science writer for Smithsonian.com, once lambasted the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series as “some of the most noxious sludge in television’s bottomless chum bucket.” He was reacting to an episode that audaciously suggested that aliens had exterminated the dinosaurs to make way for the human species. That was a particularly spurious theory but this series, recently renewed for a fifth season, has been widely criticized for advancing all manner of pseudoscience and pseudohistory.
Perhaps the best take-down yet is this three-hour documentary, Ancient Aliens Debunked, by Chris White with an assist from Mike Heiser. While it’s long, it covers a lot of ground, including Puma Punku, The Pyramids, Baalbek, Incan sites and Easter Island. White and Heiser also get into ancient artifacts: Pacal’s rocket, the Nazca lines, the Tolima “fighter jets,” the Egyptian “light bulb,” UFOs in ancient art and the crystal skulls. Text issue they explore include Ezekiel’s wheel, ancient nuclear warfare, Vimana’s, the Anunnaki, and the Nephilim. If you’re curious at all about these arcane matters, give it a watch. H/T Ameristroika
