A Roman emperor grovelling to a Persian king: the message behind a new statue in Tehran
A new statue in Tehran
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Category Archives: history
The Shroud of Turin and an Infinite Series
Having a somewhat skeptical bent and a long interest in pseudo-science An article on Medium about the Shroud of Turin caught my eye. For some background see Unraveling the Myths Surrounding the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud first appeared about 1355 A.D.:
The Battle Pope’s Elephant Collection
Notes from a presentation by Ada Palmer at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 8, 2024. I have added web links where I found them helpful. Any mistakes are mine. The speaker is not responsible for any errors here.
…And other funny stories about the Renaissance.
More about the Timna copper mines
World War I at Sea: Jutland and beyond
More from Robert K. Massie, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea.
Decades ago I read John Irving’s The Smoke Screen of Jutland and so was familiar with the course of the battle. I had not known, or had forgotten one story:
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World War I at Sea: 1914
I recently read Robert K. Massie’s, Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea
Some of this story I knew from other books, notably Dan Van der Vat’s The Ship that Changed the World: The Escape of the Goeben to the Dardanelles in 1914. In the 1920s Winston Churchill wrote that the Goeben brought “more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship.” This was because the Goeben forced the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the German side. This in turn led to the breakup of the Ottoman Empires. Long after Churchill wrote those words we are still dealing with the consequences of that: Modern Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel were all Ottoman provinces in 1914.
The Bronze Lie
Notes and quotes concerning Myke Cole’s, The Bronze Lie: Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy. From Amazon:
“The last stand at Thermopylae made the Spartans legends in their own time, famous for their toughness, stoicism and martial prowess – but was this reputation earned?”
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Steel Lobsters
Notes and quotes concerning Myke Cole, Steel Lobsters: Crown, Commonwealth, and the Last Knights in England
“The total time from the moment they donned their armor , to the battle that would see them pass into legend, was about a month. It was a bright, final flash of glory – like the sparkling sun on their polished metal armor – before winking out forever.”
Hitler, Mussolini, and Rommel
In Some of my summer reading (2020), when discussing James Holland’s The Rise of Germany, 1939-1941: The War in the West, Volume One:
…. while Italy was allied with Germany, it was a net liability rather than an asset. The Italians failed in North Africa and the Balkans, and so Germany had to commit substantial forces to bail them out.
Grant Piper makes the same point, arguing that The Real Reason Germany Lost World War II was that Italy was a German ally.
A couple notes on Ancient Greek Astronomy
Following up on these posts:
Today I read Beyond the Book (and What the Greeks Knew About the Earth) in which Professor Matt Strassler explains one of the ways the ancient Greeks knew that the Earth was round and how one of them (Eratosthenes of Cyrene} was able to make a reasonably accurate calculation of its circumference. This calculation assumes that the Sun is much further away from the Earth than the Moon, and hence much bigger, than the Earth of the Moon. Which is Bigger, the Sun or the Earth? Check it Yourself! explains how the Greeks knew this.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 