The oldest (known) city is some 11,000 years old (ie, Damascus). The oldest (known) country is some 2,500 years old, being: San Marino (301 BCE), or Japan (660 BCE) or China (221 BCE). See 2020 ThoughtCo. article. Much more recent is geopolitics, which (probably) started with WW I (1914-18). Geopolitics represents the global interconnectedness of Politics, one of...
Ancient history
Ancient Apocalypse (Graham Hancock / Netflix)
6 Jan, 2023
Finally, I've watched all eight episodes of Graham Hancock's documentary series Ancient Apocalypse at Netflix. For people who are new to Graham Hancock's storytelling, this Netflix series is either (very) interesting or pseudoscience. I prefer the first, despite Hancock's rather annoying habits. I suppose my interest in ancient history was reignited when I visited...
Ancient origins
30 Nov, 2022
In 1995, Graham Hancock published his book Fingerprints of the Gods, which "has been translated into 27 languages and is estimated to have sold five million copies around the world." About a decade later, I received it from my then neighbours. That book raised my curiosity on ancient history. Hancock's rather annoying way of storytelling is still the same in his...
Gerontocracy and demographics
12 Jul, 2022
Late June 2022, the Times published an article: How Britain became a gerontocracy. Its subtitle was: "The pensions boost is further proof that Britain is run for the benefit of the older generation — paid for by the young". My April 2019 blog had predicted this: The future Great Divide between generations. The cause appears to be quite simple: demographics and the...
“Fact are facts.” Are they??
6 Jul, 2022
Last week, I received a reply to my Facebook post, in which I disputed the alleged neutrality of Dutch public broadcasting. The reply was: "Facts are facts." I asked him if he was aware of the views of Karl Popper (1902-1994) on this subject (eg, 1974 video). His response made clear that he was not. In the view of Karl Popper, facts are objective truths while...
“I Have to Admit, I Have a Very Low Opinion of Human Beings”
26 May, 2022
A 2020 Science alert mentions a 2020 study published in the Frontiers of Physics mapping the "odd structural similarities between the human brain and the Universe". This is the most spectacular example of a recent concept that I call macro vs micro. To some extent, we may be living in a Droste-effect (eg, my 2021 blog). Recently, a strange thought entered my mind:...
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