Science, Religion, and Political Omens: The Meaning of Eclipses in Ancient Rome
Yves here. We’ve had a run of war-related stories, so a change in programming is in order. Eclipses are significant ...
Monday, September 14, 2026
Tag: Ancient
Coffee Break: Science again, Dr. Fauci, Polio, Ancient Art, and a Parting Shot
Part the First: They Really Are Serious About Destroying American Science (but that has been clear from the beginning). The ...
A 65-year-old programming language called COBOL still quietly runs over $3 trillion in banking transactions every single day — and because the original engineers are retiring fast, banks are scrambling to pay younger coders fortunes just to keep the ancient code from collapsing
The strange thing about COBOL is not simply that it still exists. Old technologies survive everywhere. The stranger fact is ...
The oldest known written customer complaint is a 3,750-year-old clay tablet from ancient Ur, where a furious customer named Nanni accused the merchant Ea-nasir of delivering sub-standard copper — proof that bad reviews are almost as old as writing itself
In the British Museum’s Mesopotamian collection sits a palm-sized rectangle of baked clay, catalogued as UET V 81. It is ...
The Wollemi pine was known only from ancient fossils until a park ranger rappelled into a canyon outside Sydney in 1994 and found a grove still alive, and the exact location is now a state secret guarded by Australian rangers
Fewer than 100 mature Wollemi pines grow in the wild. Their exact location is a state secret, withheld from maps ...
Coffee Break: Ancient Art, the Return of Analog, Science in Distress, and Death Is for Losers
Part the First: Functional Art from the Enigmatic Daunians. William Morris famously wrote, “Have nothing in your houses that you ...
Quote of the day by Helen Mirren: “When you’re 16, 30 seems ancient. When you’re 30, 45 seems ancient. When you’re 45, 60 seems ancient. When you’re 60, nothing seems ancient.”
“When you’re 16, 30 seems ancient. When you’re 30, 45 seems ancient. When you’re 45, 60 seems ancient. When you’re ...
Coffee Break: Ancient Travelers and Artists, an Enigmatic Devonian Giant, and a Thinking Cow
After one full year the grim news on the science front – all fronts really – this Coffee Break is ...
Coffee Break: Pluto’s Republic, Dietary Guidelines, Vaccine Nonsense, Ancient Poison Arrows, and Renaissance DNA
Part the First: We Live in Pluto’s Republic. With apologies to the shade of Walt Disney, this was bound to ...
Coffee Break: CDC – Vaccines – Autism, Oh, My!; Wellness; Prioritized Science; Very Ancient Art; and MAGA
Part the First: CDC Finally “Decides” that Vaccines Cause Autism. In news that will surprise absolute nobody, while pleasing some ...
The first and only national digital and print magazine that connects individuals, families, and businesses to Fee-Only financial advisers, accountants, attorneys and college guidance counselors.