fun facts
Damnatio memoriae
We know that history is written by the winners. But remember also that sometimes the new winners erase what the old winners wrote. | learn more
Tag: history
to your health
The whipping boy for all of medicine
“If you’re looking for the whipping boy for all of medicine, and most of science, look no further than Galen of Pergamon.” History tells us that he was an uncritical propagator of the ‘four humors’ concept of medicine. This deeper […]
retail therapy
An oral history of the world’s biggest coupon
This was fun to read! “Bed Bath & Beyond’s plus-size mailer, known as Big Blue, has made it to TV, eBay, even a mobster’s kitchen drawer. “The poor mailmen,” the company’s former marketing V.P. said, “what we did to them.”” | learn […]
big ideas
The big lessons from history
“The second kind of history to learn from are the broad behaviors that show up again and again, in multiple fields and different eras. They are the 30,000-foot takeaways from events that hide layers below the main story, often going […]
retail therapy
The history of Cash on Delivery
“Discussing the evolution of the cash-on-delivery system for mailing goods, why it faded out, and where it actually remains in use.” | learn more
book recommendations
Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine
Author: Thomas Hager Before a drug can change the world, it must be discovered. Ten Drugs tells stories of these fateful discoveries. Taken together, they paint a picture of humanity’s long and complicated relationship with drugs. We often hear polarized […]
to your health
The shockingly recent history of people actually washing hands
“Cadavers, childbirth, and the rise of the Soap Industrial Complex all played a part in getting handwashing to catch on.” | learn more
big ideas
What you can’t say
This is an incredible essay by Paul Graham. “It seems to be a constant throughout history: In every period, people believed things that were just ridiculous, and believed them so strongly that you would have gotten in terrible trouble for […]
better doing
The single most important internal email in the history of Amazon
No opinion on whether the title is accurate, but the content is surely interesting. The Bezos email started off with this dictate: “All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through service interfaces.” | learn more
oh, chicago
The Illinois flag is terrible
“The North American Vexillological Association ranked Illinois’s flag 49th out of 72 state and provincial flags. So, what gives?” (From Wikipedia: Vexillology is the study of the history, symbolism and usage of flags or, by extension, any interest in flags […]