Random Learnings #45
"United Nations" by japedi is licensed under CC BY 2.0. I knew that China joined the United Nations at Taiwan's expense - China also getting the permanent seat on the…
Random Learnings #44
I picked up a May 1917 National Geographic magazine ( Volume XXXI, Number 5) for its the World War I reporting, and while the articles were interesting I became sidetracked…
Random Learnings #43
Lebensraum is often attributed to Hitler and the Nazis as a component of Germany's imperial and racist visions towards the east, and contributed to the Holocaust as killing the Jews…
Old-School Advertising
The Pennsylvania Trolley Museum displays era-appropriate advertising in their restored trolleys. Besides providing a real feel to what the passengers saw at the time, it also shows how society has…
Random Learnings #40
The Carnegie Museum of Art is currently exhibiting the works of the German artist Beate Kuhn. I initially read a contemporary biography in German: despite my sehr schlecht school-boy Germany,…
Random Learnings #39
Karl Marx popularized - but did not create - the slogan From each according to his ability; to each according to his needs that is most often associated with communism.…
The Museum of Jade
In Spanish Museo del Jade, its more formal Museo del Jade y de la Cultura Precolombina (Museum of Jade and Pre-Columbian Culture) better describes its mission. Even my Costa Rican…
Random Learnings #38
My sister-in-law graduated from Western Dubuque High School oh-so-many years ago, and for no good reason I decided to deep-dive and learn more about it. Boy, it was definitely a…
National Museum of Costa Rica
Plaque commemorating the founding of the museum The Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, is, as you would rightly expect, is the national museum of Costa Rica located in the capital San…
World War I Era Maps
My interest in maps - especially older maps - has grown over the past few years, and on a Monday in late February I spent a few hours in the…