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Sir Ian McKellen has been taken to hospital after falling off stage during a performance of Player Kings at the Noël Coward theatre in London. The 85-year-old actor was in a fight scene when he lost his footing and fell. It is not clear whether he has sustained any injuries. The audience was evacuated from the theatre and informed that the evening show was cancelled. Player Kings is a production of Henry IV, Parts One and Two, and started its 12-week West End run in April.

For almost 400 years America has seen its citizens educating their children and themselves, though both the scope, structure and quality of education has changed somewhat during that time. For much of the history of the United States, education of children took place primarily at home, often along with private schools for some, and locally managed and supported schools for others. Education included the general ethos of Christianity and Biblical morality as well as academic subjects. The New England Primer and later, the nation-wide McGuffey's Readers (120+ million copies) were the primary instruments of education, and in helping to form...

In Deir Al-Balah, a city in the Gaza Strip, Marwa Al-Hasanat has found a way to bring some joy to her community amid the destruction and hardship of war in the form of a roadside bookstore. Al-Hasanat, 22, a lifelong lover of books inspired by her grandfather who authored three of his own on the Arabic language, started an online bookstore in June 2022 called Marwa.Book. But since the war began on Oct. 7, Al-Hasanat has not been able to purchase books to sell online from Gaza City, where she used to get her supply. The intermittent internet connection throughout...

Hollywood movies like Marley & Me or Hachi: A Dog’s Tale have brought both joy and tears to millions of viewers around the world, with their ability to capture the special bond between humans and their canine companions – aptly dubbed “man’s best friend”. In some ways, not much has changed over thousands of years. The ancient Greeks had their very own stories concerning this special relationship between man and dog. Of all the tales in Greek mythology, one of the most touching and relatable is that of the loyal dog Argos separated from his master Odysseus. Argos was Odysseus’...

Costco will no longer offer books for sale year-round and will instead stock them only for the holiday shopping period and during special promotions, according to a report — a surprise move that poses yet another threat to the publishing industry.Several publishing executives who were informed of the retailer’s plans told The New York Times that Costco will cease offering books for sale on a consistent basis starting in January.The decision was met with criticism on Reddit, where users vented that the decision was akin to “cancelling the hot dog in the food court” — a reference to Costco’s beloved...

I left off the previous post considering what might have happened if Belisarius had accepted the imperial diadem of the Western Empire when it was offered to him at the end of the first war in Italy in AD 540. Could he have remained on the throne? How would Justinian have reacted? Did Belisarius have the diplomatic and administrative skills to manage the Western Empire? Would his men have remained loyal to him and willing to advance his military goals abroad? In a best-case scenario that's perhaps not too far-fetched, the answer is yes, Belisarius could certainly have ruled...

Navy Seal Author and Historian Matt Bracken comes back on the podcast to discuss his new book Doomsday Reef, insanity of the escalation with Russia, Israel, how the United States will tear itself apart if the grid goes down and much more. Video is 1h 12m 38s

From its first issue in 1953, Playboy’s publisher Hugh Hefner sought to distinguish it from the sleazy sex magazines stored under the newsstand counter and sold in brown paper bags. He once explained that he chose a rabbit as the magazine’s mascot “because of the humorous sexual connotation,” but dressed him in a tuxedo “to add the idea of sophistication.” The models may have been nude, but the articles were written by acclaimed authors like Norman Mailer, Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Kerouac, and Vladimir Nabokov and covered highbrow topics including “Picasso, Nietzsche, [and] jazz,” to quote Hefner’s introductory editorial. Even...

We have an amendment, the Second Amendment, because in part when the colonists had no say in how their own societies should be run and what they wanted most was self-government, Britain though it a good idea to confiscate. Mostly the confiscation centered around gunpowder, but there were along with it plots and schemes to take away actual weapons such as guns and cannons. Today we have the story of The Capture of Fort William and Mary, which details a unique and fun chapter in pre-U.S. history in which the colonists said we are going to disarm you before you...

There was some amusement as well as surprise when somebody walked into Helsinki’s Oodi Central Library on Monday 27 with a book that was overdue. 84 years overdue It’s not unusual to be a little delayed in returning a library book but this one was unusual in as much as it was due back on December 26, 1939 making it just over 84 years late! The person who returned it isn’t the person who first took out the book The Refugees (Pakolaiset in Finnish) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and it is not known whether there was a fine and...

MERIDIAN, Idaho — Because of a national agenda, and far right outrage, dozens of "questionable" books have been removed from library shelves in Idaho over the last couple of years. More than twenty in Nampa schools, ten in West Ada Schools, to name a couple high-profile instances. This was before Idaho lawmakers decided to put a possible fine on libraries. Where a child who checks out such material, or if it's not removed, they and their parents could sue the library for $250, plus damages. In both public and school libraries. So, to avoid any hassle, a lot of libraries...

The Mexican writer is considered one of the most important figures of magical realism.This May 16, the Jalisco writer and photographer Juan Rulfo would be turning 107 years old today, so today we remember his birth and the best of his work. The author of Pedro Páramo was born in the town of Sayula - just a few kilometers from Ciudad Guzmán - in 1917, where he lived until 1934, that is, until he was 17 years old. It should be noted that his childhood and adolescence were strongly marked by the Cristero War, which he took from his father...

When they turn the pages of history When these days have passed long ago Will they read of us with sadness For the seeds that we let grow? We turned our gaze From the castles in the distance Eyes cast down On the path of least resistance Cities full of hatred Fear and lies Withered hearts And cruel, tormented eyes Scheming demons Dressed in kingly guise Beating down the multitude And scoffing at the wise The hypocrites are slandering The sacred halls of truth Ancient nobles showering Their bitterness on youth Can't we find The minds that made us strong?...

In life, sometimes things just drop into your lap. This is one of those times. Today I am very happy to announce the full release of Major General Ethan Allen's work A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's CaptivityWhat is cool about this is that it is a solo work, meaning it is IMHO higher quality and easier to follow. Moreover, most of my personal efforts to try to recruit others have admittedly been a failure. But this one, it was just some random person who I don't have any association with saw it and recorded it. From my view, its...

Remember the “New Atheists”? They were a big deal 15 or so years ago, bashing irrationality and superstition in bestselling books like “The God Delusion,” “The End of Faith” and “God Is Not Great.” Some of them ultimately ended up as believers, others turned to ayahuasca, and Richard Dawkins recently admitted to being a “cultural Christian.” He still doesn't believe in the big J.C., but acknowledges his worldview was shaped in a Christian context. In a similar way, I've always been a cultural libertarian. A son of the Mountain West, my traditional conservatism is heavily dosed with a “leave me...

Corporate media recently took old smears about a Revolutionary War-era flag and applied them to Justice Samuel Alito after his wife allegedly displayed the “provocative” symbol in front of his home. The meaning behind the “An Appeal To Heaven” flag, a pine-tree-adorned symbol used by squadrons of the Continental Navy during the Revolutionary War, is rather innocuous. George Washington’s secretary Col. Joseph Reed created the flag in 1775 to publicly display “an appeal to God to save the colonists from the King’s oppressive ruling.” The same outlets fomenting fake scandal about the alleged Alito flag have never taken issue with...

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Alas, the poor phone book. Once, it was the cornerstone of American connection, an indispensable resource people relied on to find pizza shops, plumbers, and the number of the cute girl in math class. But now, when a new phone book lands on a homeowner’s doorstep, the tome most often gets tossed in the recycling bin. They might be used to press flowers, or as a booster seat or a door stop, but fewer and fewer phone books are used for what they were originally intended, to look up telephone numbers.

I have been reading "The Thrid Reich in the Ivory Tower" by Stephen Norwood. It is a well researched book about the relationship between Ameriocan universities and the German NSDAP (NAZI's) in the thirties. It is especially interesting in light of recent events.

There's a right name for the "Woke" ideology, and it's critical constructivism. Critical constructivist ideology is what you "wake up" to when you go Woke. Reading this book, which originally codified it in 2005, is like reading a confession of Woke ideology. Let's talk about it.