This is a fascinating post about 5 unintended consequences of photography, such as contributing to Abraham Lincoln becoming president, destroying the romantic view of war, poverty & strife, and liberating art.
This week David & John released a great podcast episode about Michael Collins and the economics of civil war Ireland. At the start of the episode, there's discussion of no ambush happening at all at Béal Na Bláth.
Did you know that fruit exporting companies starting putting stickers on fruit in the 1920s and 1930s because they realised that putting a name or brand on the fruit made it easier to sell more fruit? Spanish design studio El Vivero has curated an exhibition of the sticker and logo designers of over 300 Spanish brands from the 1950s onwards.
Australian scientists have discovered how to map the geological history of the earth in grains of sand, by measuring the distribution of zircon within the sand.
Check out these rare colour photos taken during World War II. The photos are native colour film photos, not recoloured, taken with rare colour film at the time.
Did you know that Pablo Escobar brought 4 hippos into his estate in Colombia? After he died in 1993, the hippos were left run wild. Fast forward almost 30 years and there are now 400 of them ravaging the ecosystem of the Colombian landscape near the estate. This great episode of shortwave debates the different conservation options that the Colombians are investigating to manage the hippo population, which could reach 500 by 2030 if left unchecked.
Test your history placement skills with the addictive game by Tom J Watson that asks you to consecutively place randomly selected events on an historic timeline.
Patrick Collison of Stripe maintains a list of big projects that have been executed fast, such as The Eiffel Tower, Amazon Prime, and most recently, The Covid-19 Vaccine. The list is a great reminder that big things can be done when needed.
