#history
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.
Over 25% of nations are currently governed by populists.
New Zealand is mentioned in the Australian Constitution as a potential state. At the time, it was not clear if New Zealand would want to join, so they were included just in case.
A short book that serves as a great standalone account of the life and philosophy of Bob Hawke, possibly Australia’s best Prime Minister.
A study reveals that human ancestors in Africa faced near extinction around 900,000 years ago, with the population of breeding individuals dropping to just 1,280.
An astounding 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec Empire.
During WWII, Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Rome protected dozens of Jewish refugees by claiming they had a fake disease called ‘K Disease’.
In 1791, the metre was changed to be a fraction of the Earth’s curve through Paris.