What was the cost of living like, for an average Roman? This is one of the intriguing kinds of questions of history that are often almost impossible to answer. By and large, historical records are almost exclusively concerned with the doings of kings, queens, generals and the literate upper classes
There are a variety of different pasta sauces that have come out of Italy. Most are products of the twentieth century with wealth being created by industrialisation and the knock-on effect to a burgeoning middle class. Restaurants and eateries exploded and started competing and striving for excellence, offering something more
We’re all familiar with the First Law of the Shed: never throw anything out — it might come in handy, one day. Science is a lot like a shed: you never know when some old, apparently useless thing will come in handy. In forensic science, for instance, evidence collected decades,
Is the “Stolen Generations” the biggest lie in Australian history? No-one seriously disputes the fact that many, many Aboriginal children were removed from their families in the middle decades of the 20th century. But, were they really “stolen”? Was it a deliberate policy of genocide? After all, a generation of
Weather forecaster Philip Duncan has expressed his “disappointment” in New Zealanders who did not like him calling New Zealand “Aotearoa.” Duncan said it is disappointing that many New Zealanders are still showing resistance to embracing te reo Maori. He jokingly suggested that those who had felt compelled to air their
Hobson’s Pledge Trust hobsonspledge.nz The New Zealand Geographic Board is seeking submissions on a proposal to change the name of Maxwell, after pressure from Nga Rauru, members of which fought against the Government during the 1860s conflicts. The Wanganui District Council supports changing the name to Pakaraka. This
Face it, everyone is fascinated by dinosaurs. We’re also fascinated by catastrophes, as anyone who’s ever seen lines of motorists slowing to rubberneck a car-crash knows. Put the two together and we have the prevailing theory that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a cataclysmic asteroid impact. Admittedly
According to Douglas Adams, we humans live “far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western spiral arm of the galaxy”. But, while life is a bit quiet out here in the galactic ‘burbs, there’s plenty of stellar action going on in the galactic inner-city.
I had promised Chicken Arrabiata (angry in Italian) for this week’s column, but July 4th popped up out of nowhere and you have to go with the flow. The chicken can’t get any angrier than he already is and will have to wait to be put in the
Robert Horvath La Trobe University Dr Robert Horvath is a specialist on Russian Politics, Civil Society and International Human Rights. His latest book, Putin’s ‘Preventive Counter-Revolution’ (Routledge, 2013) is a study of the programme of reforms and repression that transformed the face of Russian politics during Vladimir Putin’s
A recent BFD article reported new research suggesting that the first stars may have shone much earlier than we thought. Now we have an insight into how at least one of those first-generation stars died. Spectacularly, in a word. Most of you will be familiar with novae. These occur when
White Apologists, and those non-white people – the ones, you know the ones, those with an axe to grind… these groups seem to have a problem understanding history. They always believe that the problems they see or imagine are the fault of everyone else but themselves. Maori and Polynesian peoples from
Massimo Introvigne mercatornet.com Massimo Introvigne is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Finally, here we are. The party for the Party starts, and what
Is the excessive amount of fake news we’re subjected to daily the result of a left-wing plot to overthrow global democracy and destabilise the world? You’d think so from some of the opinions expressed about it, but cast your mind back through history and you’ll find that
