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30 votes
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IBM, Red Hat and Free Software: An old maddog's view
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Klaksvíkar Ítróttarfelag from the tiny Faroe Islands have been causing a stir across Europe this summer, and things are about to get even better
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Volvo estate owners reminisce about Swedish workhorse before its withdrawal from UK market
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Historian finds evidence for use of y'all in London from 1600s
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Charles Henry Turner’s insights into animal behavior were a century ahead of their time
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The team behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl
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Waging war on the Jamaican patty: Canada’s bizarre beef with the delicious snack | Patty vs Patty
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The buttons on Zenith’s original ‘clicker’ remote were a mechanical marvel
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Witchy women: A Sabrina the Teenage Witch retrospective
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Riddick Bowe became the undisputed world heavyweight champion at age 25 by defeating Holyfield. Today we recall the comedy, drama, legendary old school battles, and ruthless aggression he embodied.
5 votes -
The blue flash: How a careless slip led to a fatal accident in the Manhattan Project
43 votes -
Twitter’s future is a return to Elon Musk’s past
43 votes -
How America fell out of love with ice cream
39 votes -
Faced with scrap material inside a particle accelerator, physicists used a ferret to try to solve the problem
32 votes -
Drama in the snow: The crash of Scandinavian Airlines flight 751
17 votes -
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How to eat like a Celt
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The Death and Life of Great American Cities
12 votes -
The Digital Antiquarian: Diablo
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How “Big Ag” pollutes America’s water, and makes money doing it
13 votes -
New Florida standards in schools
48 votes -
Man found guilty in 2012 of supporting distribution of child porn, because he ran a Tor exit node – the story of William Weber
18 votes -
The Marian reforms weren't a thing
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Camp Century - The Hidden City Beneath the Ice
9 votes -
When Greenland was green: Ancient soil from beneath a mile of ice offers warnings for the future
16 votes -
'Oppenheimer' brings painful memories of nuclear testing radiation exposure for New Mexico Native Americans and Hispanics
25 votes -
‘They found ways to do the impossible’: Hipgnosis, the designers who changed the record sleeve for ever
8 votes -
Why Oppenheimer deserves his own movie
14 votes -
Scenes from a fallen empire: Abandoned Russian bases dot Mongolia’s border
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Bruce Lee’s garage startup years in Oakland laid the groundwork for MMA
3 votes -
A look back at some robotic inventions that didn't quite get there
12 votes -
Philadelphia I-95 bridge collapse explained
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How quantum physicists explained Earth’s oscillating weather patterns
6 votes -
Recommended books on African American history for non-Americans
Hi all. As the title says, I'm looking for recommendations on books about African American history. I'm Irish and I know the basics about the civil rights movement and some other bits through...
Hi all. As the title says, I'm looking for recommendations on books about African American history. I'm Irish and I know the basics about the civil rights movement and some other bits through documentaries like 13th . Outside of that I've realized that my understanding of what African Americans have been though over the last couple of hundred years is pretty piss poor. I'd really like to educate myself a bit more, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
22 votes -
When reading historical books, how do you keep track of timelines?
I've recently become interested in exploring history. However, though I am usually quick to read and process large amounts of information in other genres, I find myself struggling with the dates...
I've recently become interested in exploring history. However, though I am usually quick to read and process large amounts of information in other genres, I find myself struggling with the dates in history books. For example, here's a excerpt from the book I'm currently reading [1]:
During this period, tsarist policy was contradictory along its Western borders. In Finland, a Parliament was convened in 1863 for the first time in fifty-four years. In 1860, its own currency, the Finnish markka, was introduced, initially tied to the Russion rouble before being tied to the value of silver from 1865, which enabled the Duchy to trade more easily with the West. By 1906, Parliament had passed 400 separate pieces of legislation, and by 1883, Finnish had equal status as a language to Russian.
It takes me surprisingly long to process this; my mind struggles to put together the timeline and most relevant facts. This style is used throughout the whole book and others like it, where multiple dates (and names or facts) are mentioned in a short piece of text, often in seemingly random order. This makes it difficult for me to truly get something out the book -- either I don't remember the information well afterwards or I can't relax while reading because I'm constantly puzzling it together.
For people more familiar with historical works: are there any tricks to this? Does it perhaps get easier in time, when you become more familiar with the genre (similar to keeping track of the characters in fantasy books like Game of Thrones)? Or do some people have a natural affinity for dates, same as others have a mind for numbers or for languages? Looking forward to hearing your opinions and experiences.
[1] N. Taylor, "Estonia, A Modern History", 2nd edition, C. Hurst & Co, 2020.
Update: This was my first post here, and I’m loving the thoughtful replies. Here’s a summary of the tips so far:
- Combining specific dates into a higher level time periods, e.g. start/middle/late century.
- Using historical dates with a personal meaning as anchors to keep an overview of the time period.
- Paying special attention to the first line of each paragraph, the first section of each chapter, and the first chapter of each book, which should be a summary of the following paragraph, chapter, and book, respectively.
- Writing or drawing your own timeline of events, outside of the book.
- Adding context information to your own timeline, based on understanding why each event occurred in that time and that way.
17 votes -
Manmade horrors beyond our comprehension
14 votes -
The inventor of glitter, Henry Ruschmann, also helped develop the atomic bomb
14 votes -
Why did nuclear flop in Britain?
14 votes -
The last WGA/SAG strike started in 1960 – and was won by a young Ronald Reagan
15 votes