Historical World War II air map – Denver as the center of the universe

To understand this map, think of Denver as the center of the universe. Created during World War II when airplanes were becoming common. It was an “air age” that shrunk the world down to flyable chunks, and new maps were created to show distance – in one tank of gas or two.   From Mapping the …

Alternative map of the American West – as sustainable water regions

From Mapping the Nation: A beautiful–and extremely controversial–map made by John Wesley Powell…best known for his insistence the west must be understood as an arid region, one that demanded irrigation and management rather than a reliance on rainfall. In the late 1880s, Powell undertook a large-scale survey of the far west to demonstrate that the …

New papryus shows Jesus had a wife, female minister – and it’s been proven authentic

A Harvard researcher, Karen King, has a tiny piece of papyrus – no bigger than a credit card – that is sure to shock the Christian world. It is barely readable and only fragments of sentences are available, but like a politicians gaffe on CNN, it is enough to draw attention. Jesus says “my wife” …

Set that bottle adrift…98-year old message in a bottle found

From the Smithsonian: Andrew Leaper, a Scottish skipper, has discovered the world’s oldest message in a bottle. He found the bottle while on the same fishing vessel where another mate had set the previous record, for a bottle that had been floating in the ocean for 92 years and 229 days. Now, Leaper has broken his …

Great maps of the Native American Tribes of North America

The other day I found this map in Facebook, covering the major linguistic groups of the North America. Attached to it was question, “Why isn’t this in any of our history books?” It received 3,800 likes and over 5,000 shares. Clearly, it hit a nerve with many people, after all it isn’t that high quality …

Ai WeiWei reviews London’s opening ceremony for 2012 Olympics – criticizes Beijing’s

Brilliant. It was very, very well done. This was about Great Britain; it didn’t pretend it was trying to have global appeal. Because Great Britain has self-confidence, it doesn’t need a monumental Olympics. But for China that was the only imaginable kind of international event. Beijing’s Olympics were very grand – they were trying to throw a party …

Historical film from 1947 – How a book is made (an unbelievable amount of labor!)

How about a book? Find out, 1947-style! We must say, despite the labor-intensive type-setting process, they make the publishing process look easy – Paris Review     Back before inkjets, printing was a time-comsuming laborious process, that took teams of people working together to produce just one book. Now days, any crabby person can sit …

New museum exhibit – Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology

Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology, presented by the National Geographic Society, immerses you in the science and history of field archaeology. Walk in the footsteps of beloved film hero Indiana Jones as you embark on this interactive museum adventure. This unique exhibition features : A vast and exclusive collection of Indiana Jones film props, …

Thousands of never-before-seen-photos from New York City – 100 years ago

Google Maps adds real-time traffic to driving directions

Google Maps now includes the ability to see the estimated time of your trip, based on real-time traffic conditions. The data will show up when you search for directions, and Google Maps will show how long several different routes will take with no traffic, as well as the estimated amount of time it will take …