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If Helen of Troy were meant to be an African woman, Homer might have told his readers that fact in his telling of the greatest and most timeless epic poems in Western history – The Iliad and The Odyssey. Her appearance being so contrary to everyone else in the Greek world certainly would have warranted a mention. This much, at least, should be obvious to everyone. Imagining Helen’s appearance to be that of an African woman is just farcical, if one has any respect for the source material at all. It would make no sense for a high-budget production to...

AbstractThe Homeric epics are among the greatest masterpieces of literature, but when they were produced is not known with certainty. Here we apply evolutionary-linguistic phylogenetic statistical methods to differences in Homeric, Modern Greek and ancient Hittite vocabulary items to estimate a date of approximately 710-760 BCE for these great works. Our analysis compared a common set of vocabulary items among the three pairs of languages, recording for each item whether the words in the two languages were cognate - derived from a shared ancestral word - or not. We then used a likelihood-based Markov chain Monte Carlo procedure to estimate...

So what does a 2,400-year-old wooden bird that once flew have to do with us today? The answer is more than one might expect.The vision of Archytas fundamentally shaped our world by proving that mechanics is a creative force that could drive humanity forward. He founded the field of mathematical mechanics, bridging the gap between abstract theory and real-world applications through tangible inventions. That ancient pigeon, described by the Roman writer Aulus Gellius as being propelled by a jet of steam, was the ancestor of every modern engine, drone, and robot.Although this may sound like an exaggeration, it truly is...

In 1849, Cayley built his first full-sized glider based on the same designs he created back in 1799, and successfully flew a 10 year old boy on one short flight. In 1853, he built a larger glider and sent his coachman flying 900 feet across a Brompton dale. Some say it was his grandson and not the coachman who took flight. Still others insist it was neither, but the butler instead.

00:50 — The World Today: Rising Hatred & Global Tensions 01:53 — Brigitte Gabriel’s Childhood in the Middle East 04:19 — Growing Up During the Lebanese Civil War 06:03 — Learning How to Survive in a War Zone 08:42 — How War Shapes Identity at a Young Age 11:41 — Why Israel Became a Lifeline, Not an Enemy 14:11 — What Hatred Really Looks Like Up Close 17:09 — Witnessing the Compassion of Israel Firsthand 19:44 — Lessons the World Refuses to Learn 27:05 — A Wounded Mother & the Journey to an Israeli Hospital 29:42 — Humanity in War:...

Commemorative coins made from aluminum salvaged from the SS United States are being produced at Northwest Florida State College through a collaboration with Okaloosa County's Natural Resources team ahead of the ship's artificial reef deployment.Natural Resources Coordinator Ryan Ashley with a finished SSUS Commemorative Coin (Photo courtesy of Kevin Dukes/Destin-Fort Walton Beach)The coins, machined on campus in Niceville, feature the Destin-Fort Walton Beach logo on one side with the words “Home of the SSUS” and “Made from SSUS Aluminum.” The reverse side depicts the vessel alongside the phrases “World’s Largest Artificial Reef” and “990 feet long.” Each coin is individually...

In the mountains of Pontos in Anatolia another Byzantine / Roman state clung on for years after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. But, the Empire of Trebizond was conquered by the Ottomans on August 15, 1461, after over 250 years since it became independent from Constantinople. They had been a unique Roman refuge in Anatolia, surviving the threats of Seljuks and Mongols. They remained as the rest of Anatolia was conquered by the Turks. But they had got on the list of targets of Sultan Mehmed II, and they were destined to be under the rule of Constantinople again...

In Portugal, archaeologists uncover mass graves from a medieval clash that rewrote European history. The evidence reveals brutal close-quarters combat and the shocking tactics that secured a nation's survival. The Forgotten Battle That Saved a Kingdom Medieval Dead | S2 E3 | Full Episode | 44:11 Forbidden Mysteries | 5.55K subscribers | 9,611 views | December 21, 2025 YouTube transcript can be processed at reformatted at textformatter.ai.

Socialist extremist plans for Los Angeles have been exposed – just as their champion Nithya Raman launches her bid to be Mayor. In a chilling document, the Democratic Socialists of America, of whom Raman is a member, detail their “Program for Los Angeles”, outlining a commitment to disarming police, ending fossil fuel use, closing jails, raising taxes and de-criminalizing drugs. They also vehemently oppose the 2028 Olympics and even want to seize golf courses and convert the land to public housing. Raman, one of three DSA members on LA City council, is an outspoken advocate of defunding the police and...

Borrowing from novelist James Hilton, who coined the word “Shangri-La” to describe a Tibetan utopia in a 1933 novel, Franklin Roosevelt gave that name to the peaceful retreat we know as Camp David. For California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Democrats, Shangri-La hasn’t become synonymous with a place that connotes peace on earth. It stands for a hellish homeless housing nightmare, eye-popping alleged fraud, and the ease and scale with which alleged con-artists rip off taxpayers. In October, federal agents arrested Cody Holmes, the 31-year-old former CFO of Shangri-La Industries, a downtown Los Angeles-based developer who was supposed to...

Top Democratic lawmakers are digging their heels in opposition to a federal voter identification requirement, despite polling showing that close to three-quarters of their voters back it. A colossal 83% of US adults support requiring some form of government-issued photo ID to vote, including 71% of Democrats and 95% of Republicans, a survey by Pew Research last year found. Only 16% of American adults oppose it. “It’s Jim Crow 2.0,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told MS NOW last week when presented with that polling data and asked about his opposition to the GOP’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE)...

Amateurs using metal detector located the tomb and after the initial major finds they contacted the archaeological authorities.The well-preserved grave contained an uncharacteristically large 12th-century sword as well as what appeared to be a Viking-age blade that may have been part of a cremation ceremony.The find was brought to light in a field in Hyvikkälä, Janakkala, which had showed signs of pre-historic settlement, by amateur metal detectorists After uncovering a few minor objects, the metal detector picked up a spear tip and an axe blade. After some digging, the group discovered a broken sword. At this point, the hobbyists broke...

With no actual proof informing the public one way or the other about D.B. Cooper's survival, we have to make arguments using circumstantial evidence. For years the biggest piece of circumstantial evidence used against his survival might turn out to be the biggest indication of his survival. Just my two cents.

Awhile back, I covered U-166. A submarine rather famous for her sinking in the Gulf of Mexico. And, of course, the way her wreck is so deeply buried on the bottom. Today, we'll be looking at another U-Boat lost off the American coast. This time the East Coast, in the form of U-576. A much smaller Type VII boat, though far more intact than her larger cousin. This submarine was sunk in...strange circumstances, to say the least. Leaving a mostly intact wreck on the bottom, in the modern day. One with all the features of her class still recognizable, at...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is under fire this week after a Los Angeles Times report claiming she successfully altered in her favor a critical after-action report on the devastating southern California wildfires that killed 31 people. While Bass has repeatedly denied that she interfered with the report, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing two sources, that Bass was concerned that the city could be exposed to legal liability for its lack of preparedness and removed or softened language implicating the city. One of the key changes, according to the Los Angeles Times, was altering details about failures to fully...

Trump: All Your Safe Space Are Belong to Us. The inauguration of President Trump destroys every safe space and protest in Washington DC. The Invasion of the Deplorables has begun. You have no place to hide, stream your crying. All Your Base Are Belong to Us. All Your Base Are Belong To Trump

Historians never tire of analyzing the fall of Rome. There were many causes, but an oft-neglected one is the corruption of the Roman family and the related population collapse that occurred in the centuries before the empire’s fall. Rome’s original greatness depended in part on its commitment to family. A classic Roman virtue extolled in the quintessential Roman poem the “Aeneid,”—was “pietas” or “piety.” This term referred to deep devotedness to one’s family, particularly one’s parents, as well as gods and country. Early Romans valued marriage, fidelity, honor, and looked down on self-indulgence. Their successes must be attributed, at least...

A small group of pro-wealth activists clashed with socialist demonstrators Saturday over California’s proposed “billionaire’s tax,” as dueling protests played out on the streets of San Francisco. The rally, dubbed the “March for Billionaires,” drew supporters of the state’s ultra-wealthy residents, who are in the crosshairs of a proposal that would force them to hand over five percent of their net worth to California each year. Organizer Derik Kauffman said many onlookers assumed the march was a joke, given it was staged in ultra-liberal San Francisco. “Vilifying billionaires is popular. Losing them is expensive,” reads a message on the event’s...

Bob Fosse was up to his usual tricks when he was asked to do some extra work with Janet Leigh during pre-production on My Sister Eileen, his fourth Hollywood movie role and his first as a choreographer. Leigh was nervous and asked Columbia, her studio, if she could rehearse with him "to get sort of seasoned" and started three weeks of what amounted to a private tutorial with the man who would become the most famous choreographer in American musicals. (Leigh has said she had never made a musical before but that wasn't true: in 1951 she had starred in...

Besides scrutiny from the feds, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband’s winery could land the embattled power couple in hot water with imams too. Political consultant Tim Mynett converted to Islam to marry Omar, a practicing Muslim — but selling booze is strictly banned in Islamic law, which considers anything to do with alcohol sinful — or “haram.” “I assure you that they got married in accordance with Islam and the law, and Ilhan’s husband converted to Islam,” a spokesperson for Omar’s office told BBC Somalia at the time of the 2020 wedding. It was Mynett’s California-based wine company eStCru, together with...