World’s Strangest

No, I’m not talking about inexpensive malt liquor — that land would’ve been my high school. I mean the language that predates modern English by some thousand years, having come about when certain Germanic tribes migrated to Britain in the fifth century A.D., the language of Beowulf and big, hairy, dark-ages dudes which looks and [...]

Those Mayan priests were way off base. The correct date for the end of the world is May 21, 2011. Harold Camping has announced that this new date corrects his previous incorrect prediction that the world would end in 1994. He acknowledges that the previous prediction was based on a “mathematical error.” The new prediction has, [...]

Stacy wrote a neat post about 5 ancient technologies that are suspiciously very, very modern but I made a mistake and published it in the past! (If you’re wondering, it’s a matter of me forgetting to update the article’s publication date). So, mea culpa, Stacy! Instead of re-publishing the piece, let me just do a [...]

Amanda Bensen of the Smithsonian blog Food & Think attended a program at that institution on the history of beer. Her post summarizes the long history of the beverage, from prehistoric soggy bread to modern microbrewing. But while beer’s popularity waned in the Middle East, it was gaining ground in northern Europe. People there somehow figured [...]

Back in 1st century A.D. (or C.E., if it pleases you), the Romans were really starting to crank things up. Things like debauchery, poisoning of rivals, fratricide…basically setting the stage for their own eventual downfall. Of the many Emperors who ruled over this lifestyle, Nero stands out as one of the nastiest. But you gotta give the [...]