We started our hike at the Usk Bridge. Prom there, we walked around Park Farm and then a short distance along the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal until we reached the old miners’ path. We took this path and began to ascend the steep hillside. The path led to the summit and to a pillar of […]
More money is spent on art in Philadelphia than in any other American city. In fact, about one percent of the total city budget is spent on art. Philadelphia’s art museum houses an unparalleled collection from the Middle Ages onward. It has exhibits from all over the world and has a superb collection from the […]
Judo, which means “the gentle way” in Japanese, is a perfect example of how skill can overcome brute force, because it teaches a person to use an opponent’s weight against them. So, although a woman may feel intimidated by a taller male opponent, through the skilful application of throws and holds, she can overpower him. […]
A record producer who had been searching for a “white man with the Negro sound and the Negro feel” began recording the Memphis-based country singer Elvis Presley. In 1956 the 21-year-old Presley created a sensation with his rock ‘n’ roll- styled “Heartbreak Hotel”, the first of his 14 records in a row that sold more […]
According to the ancient mathematician Hero of Alexandria, Egyptian temples in 1 about 215 BC had devices from which one could get a squirt of holy water for a few small coins. Today’s vending machines, however, have their origins in coin-operated dispensers of tobacco and snuff in 18th-century England, and later in the American colonies. […]
If people are satisfied where they are, they will not migrate. Throughout history, people have left their native lands for a variety of reasons: religious or racial persecution, lack of political freedom, economic deprivation. The forces that attracted them to new homelands were the opposites of these: religious and political freedom, ethnic tolerance, economic opportunity. […]
During the Middle Ages in Europe, the cat became an object of superstitions and was associated with evil. The animal was believed to have powers of black magic – an assistant to witches and perhaps the embodiment of the devil. People who kept cats were suspected of wickedness and were often put to death along […]
History and biography have several similarities, but they are not synonymous. Both the biographer and the historian search for evidence. They evaluate the information they find to decide if it is factual and relevant. History, however, is the recorded past of human societies; it tells the story of nations, wars and movements – the whole […]
Paintings and power shovels, sonatas and submarines, dramas and dynamos – they all have one thing in common. They are fashioned by people. They are artificial, in contrast to everything that is natural – plants, animals, and minerals. The average 20th-century person would distinguish paintings, sonatas, and dramas as forms of art, while viewing power […]
The composer of some of the most influential pieces of music ever written, Ludwig van Beethoven created a bridge between the 18th-century classical period and the new beginnings of Romanticism. His greatest breakthroughs in composition came in his instrumental work, including his symphonies. Unlike his predecessor Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for whom writing music seemed to […]