Latest articles from our blog
Anglo-Saxon elves who caused illness, dwarves who forged the gods' treasures, an orc that appears once in a manuscript, and a hobbit born in 1937. How did four beings of such different ages end up as one standard template through Tolkien and D&D?
How has the story of crossing into another world changed, from Urashima Tarō and The Wizard of Oz to web-novel reincarnation tales? A look at why protagonists who once always came home no longer go back.
How believable are the sword-hand theory and the Napoleon legend? From American freight wagons and Britain's 1835 Highway Act to Sweden's overnight switch in 1967 and the first painted center lines, this article looks at how the rules that divide the road came to be.
Signals that began as hand waves and flags beside railway tracks became the traffic lights and turn signals on our roads. This article looks at London's exploding gas signal of 1868, the rival claims to being first, why East Asia calls green lights blue, and why rear turn signals are amber in Europe but often red in the United States.
Italy called it the French disease, France called it the Naples disease, Russia called it the Polish disease. Tracing these names reveals exactly how syphilis spread from Naples to Japan in just two decades — along with the Columbus origins debate, a 2024 ancient DNA study, and the long history of treatments from mercury to penicillin.