#history
Money illusion refers to people’s tendency to think in nominal rather than real terms, misunderstanding the economic reality. Fiscal illusion is a similar concept that occurs when tax structures or labeling disguise the real economic situation, as seen in Singapore’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) used for public services like housing and healthcare. CPF contributions, although not labeled as “taxes”, function similarly to tax-funded public programs found worldwide.
In 75 BCE, Cilician pirates captured the Roman nobleman Julius Caesar, demanding a ransom of 20 talents, which Caesar insisted be raised to 50 talents, recognising his own value.
The US government’s Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) during World War II led to substantial public investment in applied R&D.
Lieutenant Desmond Arthur of No. 2 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, died in Scotland’s first fatal aircraft accident and was initially blamed for the crash, though later cleared of responsibility by a subsequent inquiry.
Flower wars were ritualistic conflicts fought by the Aztec Triple Alliance against their enemies from the mid-1450s to 1519, detailed earliest by Texcocan nobleman Ixtlilxochitl.
The study analyses data on over 22,000 individuals born between 1000 and 2000 to understand the impact of famous immigrants, emigrants, and locals on European regions’ knowledge specializations.
Tlaxcala was a pre-Columbian city-state in central Mexico, never conquered by the Aztec Empire despite being completely surrounded by it and in constant conflict.
Gonzalo Guerrero, a sailor from Palos, Spain, was shipwrecked on the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511 and taken slave by the Maya. He eventually became a warrior and had three mestizo children.
La Malinche, a Nahua woman, played a crucial role in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire as Hernán Cortés’s interpreter, advisor, and intermediary.
This data is expressed in US dollars and is adjusted for inflation. This is the power of embracing new technology.
Here’s an extremely concise timeline of liberalism, focused on key thinkers from each era.
Marchetti’s constant is the typical daily commuting time, about one hour or 30 minutes one-way.
During the early Cold War, the U.S. and allies implemented export control regulations to prevent the transfer of Western technology to the Eastern bloc, including cryptography managed by CoCom (Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls).
Studies, including on-site examinations, indicated that uranium ore had undergone natural fission, with no alternative explanation, according to Ludovic Ferrière of Vienna’s Natural History Museum.
Louis Hartz’s fragment thesis is the core argument of this book. Hartz posits that the culture of a colony is a fragment of the culture of the coloniser at the time of colonisation. While both the coloniser and the colonised nations will evolve, the culture of the colonised nation is likely to remain heavily derivative of the coloniser at the time of colonisation. This is because the philosophies of the day tend to be enshrined in the national identity and even constitutions for each new nation, whereas colonisers are less attached to each era of politics.
Public trust in government continues to plummet since the new millennium.
According to Gallup, in 2020, economic optimism resurged to Y2K-era levels.
According to Our World in Data, in 2018, pessimism was abundant.
According to Pew, by 2006, post-9/11 pessimism deepened.
According to Pew, in 1999, Americans were all-in on technology, science, free enterprise, and free elections as the source of American prosperity.
According to Pew, in 1999, Americans were overwhelmingly optimistic and attributed much of their optimism to technology.
There are three major schools of foreign policy in the US. Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian schools of thought originated in the late 18th century, while Wilsonian emerged after WWI. While other nations have other models for foreign policy, many of them roughly map onto these philosophies.
In 1897, Indiana State Representatives proposed a bill that suggested a new method to square the circle, inadvertently implying a value of π as 3.2.