In 1997, the former Soviet leader needed money, and Pizza Hut needed a spokesman. Greatness ensued. It’s dangerous for leaders to outlive their countries. Whether they move on or become obsessed with returning to power, they cannot escape their role as symbols of a vanished world—a condition fraught with both nostalgia and danger. Nobody knows that burden like Mikhail Gorbachev, the final leader of the Soviet Union. Since his involuntary retirement, Gorbachev has raised money for worthy causes, attempted to make a comeback in Russian politics, and, notoriously, made an advertisement for Pizza Hut.
Tag: history
Great Pyramid in 2560 BCE
The current outer surface of the Great Pyramid at Giza is made of rough limestone blocks, colored a dark sandy brown from 100s of years of pollution and weathering. But when it was first built, there was a smooth layer of fine white limestone on the outside of the structure, all cut to the same angle and polished to a shine so bright it almost glowed.
NYC Megaprojects
As a new generation of “Master Builders” transform our city at a breakneck pace, The Museum of the City of New York is taking stock of the megaprojects that have shaped New York, from Rockefeller Center and Roosevelt Island to the newly-minted Hudson Yards.
Paris in 1900
Thanks to incredible archives restored and fully colorized, this film presents a previously unseen journey through time and space. Discover, Paris in 1900 at the time of the Exposition Universelle and the very beginning of modern art and cinema. The City of Lights became a showcase city, displaying the latest technical and scientific inventions, and also boasting avant-garde art galleries, lively cabarets, the ultimate in high fashion, and… the Parisiennes. The myth of “La Belle Epoque” reigned supreme.
60K new Mayan sites
In the past, archaeologists had argued that small, disconnected city-states dotted the Maya lowlands, though that conception is falling out of favor. This study shows that the Maya could extensively “exploit and manipulate” their environment and geography. Maya agriculture sustained large populations, who in turn forged relationships across the region.
Paris Through History
In 2012, a company called Dassault Systèmes launched an interactive application that allowed you to move about in a 3D historical reconstruction of Paris at different points in its history. The application seems to have fallen into disrepair so that you can’t actually use it, but the 13-minute video above offers a tour through several time periods, including: 52 BCE. The area was home to a Celtic group called the Parisii, just before the Romans conquered the settlement. 2nd century CE. The Romans ruled here until 486 CE; they called the city Lutetia. 1165-1350. The medieval period. Paris was one of the largest cities in Europe. 1789. A look at the Bastille during the French Revolution. 1887-1889. The construction of the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 World’s Fair. It was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 40 years (eclipsed by the Chrysler Building).
5 True Tales of Manhattan
The stories include a restaurant that serves Cuban-Chinese cuisine, Sunday night jazz concerts in a Harlem apartment, and a woman who rehabs 10s of turtles in her small apartment.
Unix at 50
Maybe its pervasiveness has long obscured its origins. But Unix, the operating system that in 1 derivative or another powers nearly all smartphones sold worldwide, was born 50 years ago from the failure of an ambitious project that involved titans like Bell Labs, GE, and MIT. Largely the brainchild of a few programmers at Bell Labs, the unlikely story of Unix begins with a meeting on the top floor of an otherwise unremarkable annex at the sprawling Bell Labs complex in Murray Hill, New Jersey.
History of light beer
Chemist Joseph Owades, working for Rheingold Breweries in New York City, broke apart beer’s long carbohydrate chains to produce the world’s first “light” beer in 1967. Marketed nearly exclusively to diabetics, it went nowhere. Thus, the development of “light” beer came with a commensurate marketing challenge: how to persuade the traditionally masculine beer-drinking audience to try a lower-calorie version of their favorite brew.
Out of Africa 2.5 ma ago?
The general consensus for decades has been that Homo erectus—an upright, long-legged species—was among the first hominins (or species closely related to modern humans) to leave Africa. Scientists presume members of this species traveled through the natural corridor of the Levant, a region along the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, around 2 ma ago. Scardia’s study suggests a far earlier exit. It proposes that hominins capable of tool creation may have been on the doorstep of Asia some 500 ka earlier.
Gregor J. Rothfuss 