Newmark's Door

Yet another cause to add to the couple hundred already posited.

This will help you to take a second and give thanks for modern sanitation. (5-minute video.)

And all five are excellent.

"How progressive reforms helped level a historic part of black Detroit".

One-hour video produced by the BBC on the inimitable Richard Feynman.

Related: Terrific two-minute clip of "Richard Feynman on Pseudoscience".

Almost makes today's politicians look good.

Remarkable story of the overturning of long-established, unquestioned "scientific" wisdom. 

It reminds me of a story Deirdre McCloskey tells about the late, great Milton Friedman. McCloskey wrote that as a new assistant professor at Chicago he remarked that professional sports was a "Terrible Monopoly" and Friedman asked, "How do you know?" It's a question that should be asked early and often.

I hadn't known that those so very nice Canadians tried to starve the Lakota Sioux:

However, the Canadian government, fearful that the chief’s presence would incite intertribal warfare and eager to clear the Prairies for white settlement (see Numbered Treaties), refused Sitting Bull’s request for a reserve for his people. Using starvation as a tool for subjugation, official government policy directed that Indigenous peoples of the Prairies could be moved wherever best suited the interests of the government.

Another link in the Door's long-standing attempt to bring you vital information, part 2 for today.

Argument that Western history is explained by the fall of the Roman Empire: it fostered intense political competition which, in turn, explains much else.

Hardened by conflict, the European states became more integrated, slowly morphing into the nation-states of the modern era. Universal empire on a Roman scale was no longer an option. Like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, these rival states had to keep running just to stay in place – and speed up if they wanted to get ahead. Those that did – the Dutch, the British – became pioneers of a global capitalist order, while others laboured to catch up. . . .

They’re deeply rooted in the fact that, after Rome fell, Europe was intensely fragmented, both between and within different countries. Pluralism is the common denominator.