Category: Uncategorized
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Words and Things
Humanity can be characterized as a tool-using and tool-creating species. The tools we create or borrow can obviously give us enormous power, for good or ill: they will, however, always do so at a cost. We sometimes mark that cost ahead of time and choose to pay it; at other times, we don’t fully appreciate…
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Exploring the Unknown
The Untold Story of Exploration This is a book by Lowell Thomas, published in 1937. Its various chapters outline the stories of explorers who are not the most widely known. One chapter traces the career of Ulrich Schmiedel von Straubing (aka Ulrico Schmidl) who accompanied the Spanish expedition headed by Pedro de Mendoza to South…
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KFO, Time Traveler
I have had a recurring fantasy that I am transported through time and space and find myself in what appears to be ancient Rome (or some other town in Roman Italy). My first thought is “How cool is this! I have so much to learn here and I can tell them about world geography, technology,…