The hottest History Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top World Politics Topics

Hipster scum

Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends • 0 implied HN points • 10 Sep 21
🎭️ Culture History
  1. History on Wikipedia can be heavily influenced by editing wars, with truth at stake.
  2. The business of library e-books can be surprisingly lucrative, as seen with the app Libby.
  3. A conspiracy theory suggests the internet is controlled by the U.S. government, even though a significant portion of web traffic comes from bots.

Crisis averted

Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends • 0 implied HN points • 29 May 20
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Y2K and COVID-19 both show the importance of trusting experts and unseen work in crisis response.
  2. Historical events like Y2K can teach us valuable lessons about mitigating disasters and recognizing the reality of threats.
  3. Success in averting a catastrophe doesn't mean the threat wasn't real - it often reflects the effectiveness of prevention efforts.

*Be* the nerd you wish to see in the world

Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends • 0 implied HN points • 04 Jan 16
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Your Facebook News Feed is created by computer scientists, data scientists, and behavioral researchers using some mystical methods.
  2. Dogspotting online is more complex with strict rules and competitive dog photography community.
  3. An app called 'Just Not Sorry' aims to help women avoid 'ineffective' language in emails, but it may inadvertently reinforce stereotypes about femininity.

Idk, you tell me.

Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends • 0 implied HN points • 09 Mar 15
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Engaging in endless internet chats may hinder introspection and reflection.
  2. Obama has interacted with unconventional media sources, shedding light on changing interview dynamics.
  3. The return of the iconic figure Carles signifies the continuation of his unique take on online media content.
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Thank God for festive penguins

Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends • 0 implied HN points • 05 Dec 14
🎭️ Culture History
  1. OkCupid is expanding gender and orientation options to align with modern dating preferences.
  2. Mongolia's nomadic people in remote areas are embracing technology like cellphones and cable TV due to ambitious connecting programs.
  3. Online relationships can have unexpected twists, as shown by a woman spending a year unknowingly as 'the other woman' due to a partner's hidden marriage.

Eek!

Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends • 0 implied HN points • 31 Oct 14
🕹 Technology History
  1. One man uses social media to cope with memory loss after trauma by tweeting constantly. It's a unique and fascinating way of helping him remember.
  2. Podcasts have seen a resurgence in popularity due to changes in the radio industry. People now prefer on-demand, snippet-based content, which has increased podcast listeners.
  3. The concept of 'doppelnamers' explores what happens when someone else on the internet shares your name, creating an interesting digital identity phenomenon worth investigating.

Prettyyy crazy

Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends • 0 implied HN points • 13 Oct 14
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Online dating and online trading face similar challenges like too many options, impatience, and a lack of focus on the bigger picture.
  2. You can make a significant income on Twitter by sharing mostly true 'facts' and building a strong brand especially for the younger and more gullible audience.
  3. Stalking wedding hashtags can be surprisingly entertaining, giving you a peek into the often extravagant and sometimes bizarre items on registries.

Stay trending 4 ever

Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends • 0 implied HN points • 07 Apr 14
🎭️ Culture History
  1. The Internet is changing how we read and process information, affecting both online and offline settings.
  2. The 'human Barbie doll' phenomenon is a mix of Valley Girl, New Age spirituality, and plain craziness.
  3. Before emoticons, Apple icons were designed by someone with no background in digital design or computers.

Electric Mushrooms and the Circuitry that Loves Them

Cybernetic Forests • 0 implied HN points • 05 Jun 22
🔬 Science History
  1. A synthesizer transforms electricity into sound, similar to how a bassoon uses airflow to create music. The path electricity takes in a synthesizer is altered by manipulating the components and circuits.
  2. Electricity is everywhere, and the manipulation of electrical signals is crucial in creating music with synthesizers. Understanding circuits and modules in a synthesizer helps control the direction of electric pulses.
  3. Living things, like mushrooms, emit electrical signals that can be harnessed and interpreted by synthesizers. Electric currents from organisms can be used as control signals, influencing the flow and shape of generated waves.

Welcome to Laundry World

Cybernetic Forests • 0 implied HN points • 22 Aug 21
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Laundromats have an interesting history as places of communal laundry before washing machines became common in individual homes.
  2. Laundromats served as a prototype for modern tech companies like Uber and Lyft by centralizing capital for industrial machines but offering equal access through small fees.
  3. The closure of laundromats due to increasing real estate value in cities like San Francisco is leading to decreased access to laundry facilities for local residents.

When The Visitors Come Inside

Cybernetic Forests • 0 implied HN points • 13 Jun 21
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Resonance is about the emotional echo between communication parties, be it through vibrations, music, or words, creating meaningful interactions and kinship.
  2. Maintaining loose connections and boundaries is essential for equilibrium in relationships and systems to prevent dissonance and noise.
  3. Social media feeds and online interactions can often provide a false sense of community, lacking the true resonance found in meaningful human connections.

The Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy

Cybernetic Forests • 0 implied HN points • 25 Apr 21
🎭️ Culture History
  1. When it comes to promoting excitement about science and technology, big ambitious projects like the moon landing can be powerful tools.
  2. The story of the Zambia National Academy of Science, Space Research and Philosophy challenges colonial narratives and highlights the role of anti-colonial sentiment in scientific endeavors.
  3. Imagination and creativity play a crucial role in inspiring youth and driving progress in science and technology, even in unconventional or unconventional settings.

The Culture of Progress

Trantor Publishing • 0 implied HN points • 20 Aug 22
📚 Literature History
  1. In the pursuit of progress, dissent is handled through reeducation or reassessment before resorting to more aggressive measures
  2. The concept of history is deemed problematic by Progress, leading to extreme measures to abolish the past to ensure a perfect future
  3. Even the most guarded treasures, like the past's knowledge, may be disregarded if deemed useless or unlearned by future generations

Love letter to Wikipedia editor Agent 86

Penelope Trunk's Substack • 0 implied HN points • 28 Jun 23
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Wikipedia editing can be a complex process with rules and challenges, like dealing with page deletions and revisions.
  2. Gender bias is apparent on Wikipedia, with women editors facing obstacles and women's topics often getting less coverage.
  3. Promoting gender parity on Wikipedia by comparing pages of individuals of different sexes can help address biases and inconsistencies.

Thoughts on pre-modern family economics

Tom Thought • 0 implied HN points • 08 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture History
  1. A single person in pre-modern times could grow more food than they needed, allowing for the support of non-working dependents as well.
  2. Labor was not typically the bottleneck for agricultural output in households, leading to significant labor surpluses.
  3. In pre-modern societies, women were responsible for a large portion of non-agricultural activities within the household, especially in manufacturing clothing.

Norse Cosmology Part II: The Shape of the World

Norse Mythology & Germanic Lore • 0 implied HN points • 08 Dec 23
🎭️ Culture History
  1. The Norse mythological world is not neatly divided into nine realms as commonly believed, but rather revolves around Yggdrasill, a tree with roots connecting different locations.
  2. Descriptions of the Norse cosmos, including the locations of various beings, are influenced by Christian ideology, leading to unique interpretations of the layout of the world.
  3. Ancient Norse people likely viewed the world as an expansive, uncharted territory with limited geographical knowledge, shaping their mythological depictions of travel between realms.

What Good Centurions Do

The Radar • 0 implied HN points • 28 Sep 23
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Effective leadership involves knowing, motivating, and taking care of every individual in the team, inspiring them to reach new levels of performance.
  2. A successful handover in leadership focuses on continuity and ensuring the well-being and growth of the team, rather than just impressing superiors.
  3. Leadership lessons from Roman Centurions emphasize the importance of having constrained team sizes to allow leaders to effectively lead without getting spread too thin.

Thomas Mader: This image will become important later

Do Not Research • 0 implied HN points • 16 Oct 22
🎨 Art & Illustration History
  1. The Pink Panther imagery was adapted by the far-right, showcasing how political agendas can exploit seemingly innocuous symbols.
  2. The power of memes lies in their adaptability and personalized storytelling within social movements.
  3. The challenge of reclaiming images from far-right associations raises questions about desirability and time frames for such efforts.

Pneumatic Materials: Digital Pseudepigraphy

Do Not Research • 0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎭️ Culture History
  1. The internet's resharing culture, particularly of anonymous texts and images, raises questions of authority and authorship in a digital age.
  2. Anonymity on platforms like 4chan gives an aura of authority to content, blurring the lines between human authorship and collective knowledge.
  3. False attribution has been a longstanding practice, lending authority to texts and ideas across history, just as contemporary online content can create a veneer of authenticity through obscurity.

Rachel Jackson: Chris Chan’s Gift to Mia Hamm: No More Virgin With Rage

Do Not Research • 0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 22
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Chris Chan's gift to Mia Hamm to end his 'virgin with rage' status was unique and detailed, showcasing his unusual taste.
  2. The existence of the gift basket itself serves as a mysterious, tangible symbol of an event in Chris Chan's life recorded only in text.
  3. The attempt to recreate the gift's physical form on a 3D printed bowl highlights the challenges and distortions in translating virtual items to reality.

Grace Menninger: Archive at the End of History

Do Not Research • 0 implied HN points • 15 Sep 21
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Archives hold the voices of the dead, preserving their stories and impact on history.
  2. Archiving involves confronting challenging materials, like racist documents, and making decisions on what to preserve.
  3. The role of an archive is to secure, contain, and protect historical artifacts, preserving them for the future despite the impossibility of saving everything.

Grace Menninger: Invisible Hand

Do Not Research • 0 implied HN points • 05 Jul 21
🎭️ Culture History
  1. The United States is deeply shaped by the intersection of religion and capitalism, evident in places like factories and churches that dominate the landscape.
  2. American Protestantism and Mormonism exemplify how religion and capitalism intertwine, with Protestantism showcasing the country's work ethic and devotion, and Mormonism reflecting a blend of Christian faith and financial interests.
  3. The Midwest landscapes convey a sense of divine apocalypse through elements like tornado-twisted trees, abandoned factories, endless train tracks, and the eerie coexistence of religious symbols and capitalist remnants.

Logan Marrow: Leaving Babylon

Do Not Research • 0 implied HN points • 21 Jun 21
⛪ Faith & Spirituality History
  1. Rastafari originated in the Caribbean in the late 1920s with ties to anti-western imperialist thought and a 'back-to-Africa' ethos
  2. The ironic Rasta memes in modern social media serve as a gateway to leftist ideology through humor and righteous references to unfamiliar religions
  3. The integration of spirituality with political views, as seen in Rasta memes, challenges the separation of religion from everyday activities in liberal American society

Jak Ritger: The MLM Project Log 3: Zombie Capitalism

Do Not Research • 0 implied HN points • 19 Mar 21
🎭️ Culture History
  1. MLMs can lead to transformation of social relationships into a zombified version, causing participants to accumulate unsold products, reflecting a zombie form of capital logic.
  2. Historical examples like the Dust Bowl and modern instances like the Human Futures Market show how zombie capital drives extraction beyond limits, resulting in ecological disasters and social anxieties.
  3. MLMs and markets like the Human Futures Market reflect a post-human desire for more accumulation, pushing past logic and exhausting resources.

Greensleeves (What Child is This)

Variations on a Theme • 0 implied HN points • 22 Dec 23
🎶 Music History
  1. Greensleeves, also known as 'What Child is This,' is a traditional English song from the 16th century associated with Christmas.
  2. The song has an interesting history, with its lyrics tying to the idea of Lady Green Sleeves, and it was associated with Christmas as far back as 1686.
  3. Different lyrics variations are connected to the song, with one popular version being William Chatterton Dix's 'What Child Is This.'

Five... Pieces of London's Porter-Brewing History

Londonist: Time Machine • 0 implied HN points • 10 Mar 24
🍲 Food & Drink History
  1. London's porter-brewing history offers insights into the city's past, including the development of the first London beer widely exported and its impact on the workforce.
  2. Portering was a demanding job in the 18th century, with around 5,000 fulltime porters supporting the city’s trade and daily life. Pubs played a crucial role as fuelling stops for porters, with stout porter being a popular choice.
  3. Check out Martyn Cornell's writings on Zythophile for more detailed explorations on London's porter history, including the forgotten story of London's porters and the brewing of porter.

5 Weekend Reads: 10 December 2023

Londonist: Time Machine • 0 implied HN points • 10 Dec 23
🏝 Travel History
  1. The post includes a roundup of five interesting London history links every week for paying supporters.
  2. John Betjeman's famous documentary Metroland turned 50 years old, which is highlighted in the post.
  3. Readers can access the full post archives with a 7-day free trial subscription to Londonist: Time Machine.

5 Weekend Reads: 26 November 2023

Londonist: Time Machine • 0 implied HN points • 26 Nov 23
🏝 Travel History
  1. The post is a roundup of five interesting London history links curated weekly for paying supporters.
  2. The curated links cover topics like vintage posters, mansion blocks, and unique historical sites around London.
  3. Readers can access these curated links by subscribing to Londonist: Time Machine, which offers a 7-day free trial for new subscribers.

5 Weekend Reads: 29 October 2023

Londonist: Time Machine • 0 implied HN points • 29 Oct 23
🏝 Travel History
  1. The post offers a weekly roundup of five interesting London history links just for paid subscribers.
  2. There is a mention of an upcoming site visit on 23 November for subscribers to Londonist: Time Machine.
  3. Readers can access the full post archives with a 7-day free trial by subscribing to Londonist.

5 Weekend Reads: 1 October 2023

Londonist: Time Machine • 0 implied HN points • 01 Oct 23
🎭️ Culture History
  1. Today marks the start of Black History Month, with an exceptional feature about Akyaaba Addai-Sebo on The Guardian.
  2. Londonist's 'Time Machine' offers paid subscribers weekly curated links on London history.
  3. Readers can access a 7-day free trial of Londonist: Time Machine to explore more posts and archives.

5 Weekend Reads: 10 September 2023

Londonist: Time Machine • 0 implied HN points • 10 Sep 23
🎭️ Culture History
  1. The post shares 5 weekend reads about London history, featuring the top London chroniclers, the Swingin' 60s, and Hyde Park Airport.
  2. The post directs paid subscribers to a weekly links roundup for London history enthusiasts, offering exclusive content every Sunday.
  3. Readers are encouraged to subscribe to Londonist: Time Machine for a 7-day free trial to access the full post archives.