Where did stoicism come from? It was invented in Athens in 300 BC, by Zeno of Citium (modern day Cyprus). Stoicism is a philosophy that seems to enjoying a revival these days. You see lots of videos of people on Instagram and YouTube who espouse the stoic lifestyle. So, what exactly is stoicism? Stoics believe […]
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Was Robin Hood real? Probably not, but the legend could have been based on a real person. Robin Hood has been made famous by the many movies that have been made about him. His story is legendary. In all of the modern stories, he is a lord and while he is away fighting in the
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How many countries are nuclear powers? There are 9 countries that have nuclear weapons. They are the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea. Between them, they have a grand total of 13,000 nuclear weapons. One nuclear weapon can destroy a city. If all 13,000 of those nuclear
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Why is there an obelisk in Rome? There is more than one and the Romans took them from Egypt as a show of power. During the Roman Empire, 50 obelisks were taken from Egypt and 13 of those survive today. 8 of those 13 were made in Ancient Egypt and the other 5 were commissioned
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What is impressionism? It was a style of art where the artist was trying to capture an impression of the moment. Claude Monet is probably the most famous impressionist, and he was one of the few artists who was able to make money while he was alive. Impressionism began in Paris in the late 1800s
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Why did the Chinese government move to Taiwan? The Republic of China’s government lost a war with the Chinese Communist Party in 1949 and fled to Taiwan. We have to go back a bit further than 1949 to look at this question. People have lived on the island of Taiwan for thousands of years. Stone
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When does history start? This is a difficult question, but we have prehistory, protohistory, and then history. Protohistory is the point where prehistory becomes history and it is probably in about 3400 BC. This is an impossible question because there is no concrete date. History is said to begin with the development of writing systems
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Geoffrey Chaucer was known as the Father of English Literature. This is obviously a topic that is only important to English speaking countries, but he was a significant force in the revitalization of English after the Norman invasion of England. Chaucer wasn’t the only writer that was operating at that time, but he was even
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What is racketeering? It is a criminal act that usually involves extortion or a scheme to extract illegal profits. Racketeering became a big thing on October 15, 1970, when the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act became law in the United States. You may have heard of it in a movie because it is shorted
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In the 1440s, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and changed the world. It is not very often where you can say that an invention caused such enormous ripples that without it, we wouldn’t be where we are today. The wheel seems an obvious example. The printing press made the spread of information, knowledge, discoveries,
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