mcdspot

Great essay on the Sept. 11 falling man.

You can read all about the world as it was in 1911.

Archaeologists are calling a labyrinth filled with stone temples and pyramids found in the Yucatan a “Mayan underworld portal.”

On this historical note, this is a good gallery of ancient observatories viewed by satellite.

The Art of Manliness looks at the 35 greatest speeches in history. I’ve always liked Churchill’s ‘fight on the beaches’ speech, excerpted here:

I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary for years, if necessary alone. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Majesty’s Government-every man of them. That is the will of Parliament and the nation. The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

A device known as the Antikythera Mechanism was found in the wreckage of a ship that sank off the tiny island of Antikythera, north of Crete, over a hundred years ago. Earlier research showed that the device was probably built between 140 and 100 B.C. Amazingly, scientists have recently found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, ((conceived in Liberty, I daresay)) and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation ((or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, for that matter)) can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting ((and of course proper)) that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate ((we also can not consecrate nor hallow)) this ground. The brave men ((living, dead, and otherwise)) who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note ((unfortunately, nor long remember)) what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. ((See also Adams, John, Notes on America pp 47-9: “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”)) It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation ((under God, despite what the freethinkers say)) shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people ((by the people and for the people, it should be noted)) shall not perish from the earth.

This guy recently discovered he’s got a WWII-era German bunker in his garden.

This guy takes old digitized photographs from the new york public library and makes them look unnervingly three-dimensional. Check out them out here.