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The ancient people of Uruk— who lived in modern-day southern Iraq more than 5,000 years ago— didn’t seem terribly interested in bequeathing colorful stories of their civilization to history. Rather than memorializing abundant tales of their immense works, or chisel countless tablets embellishing stories of their military victories, the main
In 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, the Union government under Abraham Lincoln passed the Homestead Act, offering 160 acres of land, for free, to just about anyone, as long as you were willing to farm it. For thousands of Norwegians, Swedes, and Germans facing poverty and land
Imagine the cost to insure James Bond against all the destruction he leaves in his wake—torched cars in Istanbul, collapsed buildings in Venice, botched assassinations in Macau. That’s why, in the real world, intelligence officers—whether they’re CIA field operatives, FBI investigators, or high-level national security officials—all carry professional liability insurance.
In 1871, as the Reconstruction-era US federal government was growing ever larger, work began on a massive office building in Washington DC to house the growing departments of State, War, and Navy. It would become known as the SWaN building, and it was designed in the high fashion of its
When mining superintendent Marcus Daly arrived in Butte, Montana in the late 1870s to evaluate a cluster of silver prospects, it was a mundane business trip— the mad western gold rush was over by then. The area was known for its patchy silver veins, and Daly’s job was to decide
When you think of hyperinflation, you might picture Zimbabwe’s trillion-dollar bills, or wheelbarrows full of cash in the streets of 1920s Weimar Germany. More recently, Venezuela’s currency collapsed under the weight of runaway printing, and Argentina has spent decades lurching from one inflation crisis to another. Throughout history, inflation isn’t
Barrick Mining Corporation—one of the world’s largest and most established gold producers—just reported its third quarter earnings yesterday— and it was an absolute blowout. The company reported third quarter profit of $1.3 billion, nearly triple last year’s Q3 earnings. And for the first nine months of 2025, Earnings per Share
By the autumn of 1648, England had been embroiled in a chaotic and bloody civil war for more than six years. Extreme ideological tensions in England had been building for decades over freedom of religion, plus the balance of power within government. King Charles was wildly unpopular. And a majority
When the Fawley Refinery opened in southern England in 1921 as an offshoot of Standard Oil, the company deliberately kept a low profile. The project was a workaround for US and UK tariffs. So there were no speeches, no ribbon cutting, not much news coverage. One day there was no
The US hostage crisis—also known as the government shutdown—has been going on for a month now. I’m all for limited government, but this shutdown feels incredibly vindictive, petty, and wildly unprofessional. When politicians can’t manage to compromise on something as basic as keeping the government open, it’s just a really
Leftists certainly have an interesting command of the English language. Minnesota governor Tim Walz, former VP Kamala Harris, Illinois governor JB Pritzker, etc. among many others have routinely referred to their political opponents— ranging from Trump, Trump’s voters, and conservatives in general as “Nazis”. Multiple CNN “experts” have called Trump
George Villiers should have been a nobody. Born into a minor family from an irrelevant English village far from London in the late 1500s, young George grew up with no real prospects for his future. But he did have one thing going for him: according to reports at the time,
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