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Jan 24, 2024 | 
miscellanynews.org | Charles Spencer
On Saturday, Jan. 13, a storm battered the coast of Maine, leading to unprecedented levels of sea swell. A new record was set for the state, with the ocean rising almost 15 feet above normal levels. These raised water levels washed away the remaining two fishing shacks perched on the rocks of Willard Beach. The shacks are a local icon, having been there for around 150 years.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Charlotte Runcie |Cat Jarman |Charles Spencer
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Charlotte Runcie |Cat Jarman |Charles Spencer
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Oct 25, 2023 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Cat Jarman |Charlotte Runcie |Charles Spencer
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Oct 25, 2023 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Charlotte Runcie |Charles Spencer
Or do they? McDermott's project suggested that fans may look different, but the root of their behaviour is the same. Psychologist Linda Papadopoulos (who was, herself, once an adoring teenage fan of George Michael) contributed to explain the universal developmental teenage desire to forge our own identity away from existing family, and how this can come through joining ourselves on to another community.
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Oct 18, 2023 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Charles Spencer
Originally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World”, the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States. In 1865 – at the end of the American Civil War – France wanted to congratulate America on becoming a viable democracy. The statue is based on Libertas, the Roman goddess of Liberty, and in her right hand she holds a torch that lights up the path to freedom. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was the sculptor, and he based the statue’s face on that of his mother.
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Jul 26, 2023 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Charles Spencer
Trial by combat was common in Europe in the Middle Ages, when Christian belief supposed that God would ensure that the combatant with right on his side would win the contest. Duelling as we think of it now – with its rituals, such as “seconds” accompanying the combatants, and witnesses on hand to ensure fair play (and medical care) – flourished in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
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Jul 5, 2023 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Charles Spencer
Whether via crosswords, Sudoku or other puzzles, the human brain can gain huge satisfaction from correctly working out what the setters are seeking from their following. My day doesn’t properly start until I’ve cracked Wordle. Imagine the excitement, then, of Jean-François Champollion, who managed to translate the Rosetta Stone, a decree issued in Egypt’s Memphis in 196BC in Ancient Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Demotic. The Rosetta Stone had been found in 1799, 2,000 years after its creation.
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Jun 14, 2023 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Charles Spencer
When given the topic of crack regiments for our podcast, I intended to concentrate on the SAS, Delta Force and the Gurkhas. But I was distracted on finding that rulers have relied on similar elite military units for thousands of years. While they acted as bodyguards, and as a pinnacle of excellence to which other troops could aspire, they also serve now as a manifestation of the society from which they sprung.
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May 24, 2023 | 
telegraph.co.uk | Charles Spencer
On the evening of February 1 1685, following a period of ill-health, Charles II was back on his feet, looking for a hedonistic fix. After dinner, he went to the Whitehall apartments of his mistress-in-chief, Louise de Kérouaille, where luxury and debauchery reigned. A French boy sang love songs, while 20 leading courtiers gambled for £2,000 in gold. A further two of the king’s principal mistresses mingled in the dissolute entourage. Charles had long been a womaniser.
