History

It enabled him to imagine drones, the internet, and wireless electricity over a hundred years ago — If I asked you to define the characteristics of a genius, what would they be? It sounds like an easy question. But Dr. Craig Wright has invested years in finding an answer. Furthermore, he even wrote a book about it, and teaches a class at Yale on what makes a…

The Darkest Deeds of History’s Most Infamous Women. — It’s important to take into account the peculiar duality of the human experience before we explore some of history’s most notorious female villains. On the one hand, we possess the capacity for incredible acts of compassion, kindness, and selflessness. On the other hand, humans are able to commit the —…

The legendary outfielder had many amazing accomplishments, but his favorite moment in the sport happened off the field — When it comes to baseball legend Willie Mays, his many personal and team accomplishments should lend themselves to being candidates for what gave him his biggest thrills during his 22-year playing career. …

Be humble in the face of software complexity — Weirdly, I kind of enjoy encountering software bugs. My own bugs, to be clear! I’m an amateur self-taught programmer who writes little tools to assist in my journalism (or makes things just for fun, like my Weird Old Book Finder). …

A religion has its quirks — If you thought that queer men in the Evangelical world were just the choir directors of Southern Baptist churches—well, you’d be wrong. This ‘Pride’ month, I’m thinking about a difficult place to be gay, gayish or otherwise ‘queer’: in America’s largest religion. Evangelicalism doesn’t point them out, but fear not! They’re there. 1. King James I (1566–1625) I guess it must be God’s sense of humor that the most famous name in Evangelicalism—other than “God”—is an openly…

And that’s just how Vernon Howard wanted it — By the mid-20th century, prosperity ministries and extreme motivational seminars created a chasm between the ideals and reality of popularized metaphysics and positive-thinking spirituality. Yet one of the most distinctive and skilled spiritual thinkers of the era deftly avoided this pitfall. He was a man who began his career in…

One of the largest planned detonations ever devised — World War I was a four year meat grinder that killed millions. There are dozens and dozens of singular stories of tragedy, heroism, and horror dotted throughout. One lesser known story revolves around one of history’s most powerful explosions. In a bid to break the unending gridlock on the Western…

But we’re the inferior gender, right? Mmm-kay. If you say so. lol. — Y’all, here’s a story so whack I can hardly believe it, but it’s true. One year there was an early frost that killed the crops so a guy marched his butt down to city officials and asked why witches were “allowed” to conjure up an early frost to kill the…