Imgur user thrillfight put together this history of Westeros (from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO’s series Game of Thrones, in case you live beyond the Wall or something) from the days of the Children of the Forest to Aegon’s Conquest, with the possibility of more to follow (h/t Nick):
See also this history of Aegon’s Conquest.
Less than two weeks until season 4.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, I was planning on writing a snarky fake history of how the holiday came to be, involving an ancient barbarian warlord who sat upon a throne made of human hearts or something. I was going to name him Val-on-Tyne and say he lived in northern England. Two things stopped me: (1) Such an account would require either a heavily-Photoshopped picture or an actual drawing. I don’t want to devote the time to the first and a lack the skill for the second. (2) What little is known about the real St. Valentine is gruesome enough.
Via Americans Against the Tea Party
Via Wikipedia:
Though the extant accounts of the martyrdoms of the first two listed saints are of a late date and contain legendary elements, a common nucleus of fact may underlie the two accounts and they may refer to one single person.[14] According to the official biography of the Diocese of Terni, Bishop Valentine was born and lived in Interamna and was imprisoned and tortured in Rome on February 14, 273, while on a temporary stay there. His body was buried in a hurry at a nearby cemetery and a few nights later his disciples came and carried him home.[15]
Via Saints.SQPN.com:
Profile
Priest in Rome, possibly a bishop. Physician. Imprisoned for giving aid to martyrs in prison, and while there converted the jailer by restoring sight to the jailer‘s daughter. While Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome sometimes have separate entries in martyrologies and biographies, most scholars believe they are the same person.
There are several theories about the origin of Valentine’s Day celebrations that relate to love and sentiment. Some believe the Romans had a mid-February custom where boys drew the names of girls in honour of the sex and fertility goddess, Februata Juno; pastors “baptised” this holiday, like some others, by substituting the names of saints such as Valentine to suppress the practice. Others maintain that the custom of sending Valentines on 14 February stems from the belief that birds begin to pair on that date; by 1477 the English associated lovers with the feast of Valentine because on that day “every bird chooses him a mate.” The custom of men and women writing love letters to their Valentine started on this day. Other “romance” traditions have become attached to this feast, including pinning bay leaves to your pillow on Valentine’s Eve so that you will see your future mate that night in your dreams.
It’s an interesting enough story as it is. Just fill in the blanks with some political intrigue. Maybe picture Ciarán Hinds in the role of Valentine.
Russia maintained an outpost called Fort Ross in northern California, about 91 miles north of San Francisco, from 1812 to 1842. According to Wikipedia, on March 15, 1812, “Ivan Kuskov with 25 Russians and 80 Native Alaskans arrive[d] at Port Rumiantsev and proceed[ed] north to establish Fortress Ross.”
Spain still held most of California at the time, and they weren’t too thrilled to have Russians that close by. They built the Mission San Francisco de Solano near Sonoma in 1823 to keep an eye on them. Later on, after Mexican independence, Mexico built El Presidio de Sonoma in the area in 1836 for the same reason.
The fort provided agricultural products for Russia’s Alaskan colony, including crops and furs, but it ceased to be viable in the 1840’s when the Alaskan colony started obtaining goods elsewhere. The Russians sold it to a guy for $30,000, although Russian historians claim he never paid for it, and that the land is still titled to Russia. I’m sure they’ll be claiming on that any day now.
This is one of those things we never learned about in school, so I just thought you should know.
Russia also established a fort on the island of Kauai, Hawaii in 1817. They turned it over to the Hawaiians later the same year, though.
Photo credit: ‘The chapel in Fort Ross (reconstructed), California, USA’ by Introvert [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons.
Monday was the fiftieth anniversary of Starfish Prime, a high-altitude nuclear test the U.S. conducted over the Pacific Ocean. Via Phil Plait, a/k/a Bad Astronomer:
On July 9, 1962, the US launched a Thor missile from Johnston island, an atoll about 1500 kilometers (900 miles) southwest of Hawaii. The missile arced up to a height of over 1100 km (660 miles), then came back down. At the preprogrammed height of 400 km (240 miles), just seconds after 09:00 UTC, the 1.4 megaton nuclear warhead detonated.
And all hell broke loose.
It pretty much looks like what you would expect a nuclear explosion in low-earth orbit would look like. Nuclear explosions release huge amounts of radiation, obviously, plus electrons and heavy ions. The electrons basically crashed into the molecules of the atmosphere and created an aurora visible for thousands of miles. Then it got crazier: Continue reading
About twenty years ago I spent roughly 24 hours in Finland. Thanks to jet lag, I spent around fourteen of those hours sleeping. What time I did manage to spend conscious, I remember it being quite enjoyable. I mostly remember blondes and a total lack of any sunset.
I also have a poser-ish affinity for European metal bands, many of which hail from the Scandinavian region. I was therefore thrilled to learn that, according to a probably less-than-scientifically rigorous study, Finland has the most metal bands per capita of any country in the world.
It might be worth taking a look at the country, tucked away as it is so tidily up there, kind of out of the way. As it turns out (and I sort of already knew this, but damn), the Finns are kind of, well, epic bad-asses.
History
First off, the Finns didn’t half-ass their prehistory. According to Wikipedia, “prehistoric Finland” persisted all the way up to 1150 CE. While the Normans were conquering England and the Western Roman Empire was celebrating its seventh century of no longer existing, Finland was doing its own thing in such a bad-ass way, no one even bothered to write it down (which is what I assume “prehistoric” means.) People have actually lived there for at least ten thousand years, but as for what was going on before 1150, I guess we just shouldn’t worry our pretty little heads about it.
From 1150 until 1809, Finland was ruled by the Swedes, who as we all know, can slay dragons with the sheer power of rock.
![Yngwie Malmsteen's "Triology" album [Fair use]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:YngwieJMalmsteen-Trilogy.jpg "Yngwie Malmsteen's \"Triology\" album [Fair use]")
I think the Swedish National Anthem was chosen from this album
