When airplanes were developed in the early 20th century, the technology developed rapidly. Within a matter of a couple of decades, aviation had become a norm for transporting people and delivering mail. As flight technology kept improving, people assumed that it would keep improving to the point where everyone would own their own personal airplanes. …
Podcast Transcript Every year, people around the world ring in the New Year. How they do this, however, can differ radically from place to place. New Year’s traditions tend to be even more varied than Christmas celebrations. As with Christmas, traditions involve drinks, food, and rituals, but usually with a lot more noise and staying …
Podcast Transcript What is the greatest movie ever made? It seems like a highly subjective question that is impossible to answer. However, in 1952 the magazine of the British Film Institute took it upon itself to come up with an answer to the question. They surveyed an international group of film professionals to ask them …
Podcast Transcript Abram Petrovich Gannibal was one of the most notable Russians of the 18th century. He was the godson of Peter the Great. He was among the most educated men and best engineers in the Russian Empire. He served as a general to Catherine the Great. ..and one of his great-grandsons was the greatest …
Podcast Transcript Approximately 700 years ago, something happened to the Earth’s climate. The world started to cool down. It wasn’t dramatic enough to cause another ice age and cause ice caps to cover the poles of the Earth, but it did result in significant changes. In fact, many historians think for a period of about …
Podcast Transcript New York City has been called the city that never sleeps, the Big Apple, and the city so nice they named it twice. It is the world center for finance, the location of the United Nations, and a center for fashion and entertainment. But why did this city become so important, and why …
In my more than decade of global wanderings, there is one place that always comes to mind first when I decide I need a culturally interesting place—one with great food, markets, and other expats—to work remotely for a few months. Even though I always look broadly to consider other cities with digital nomads and low …
Mr. Dryden: Lawrence, only two kinds of creature get fun in the desert: Bedouins and gods, and you’re neither. Take it from me, for ordinary men, it’s a burning, fiery furnace. T.E. Lawrence: No, Dryden, it’s going to be fun. -Lawrence of Arabia My all time, #1 favorite movie is Lawrence of Arabia. It is …
From the World Heritage inscription for Petra: Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the rock-cut capital city of the Nabateans, became during Hellenistic and Roman times a major caravan centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, a crossroads between …