John Camkiran

@johncamkiran

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Emerging victorious from a perilous battle at sea only to perish in a storm mere hours later is a most wicked twist of fortune. Such was the fate of many aboard HMS Bellerophon, which had just helped defeat the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. The tempest struck that night and lasted several days.

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Napoleon tried everything to curry favour with the Egyptians, including proposing the mass conversion of his army to Islam. In his memoirs, he recounts having Islamic scholars investigate whether there was any leeway on the issues of wine and circumcision. They were unexpectedly accommodating.

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The Mozart piece that recently 'dropped' was found in the Leipzig Municipal Library while staff were preparing to update the Köchel catalogue. It is part of his early chamber works from the 1760s, which were previously thought to be lost. Makes you wonder what else is 'lost' that has yet to be found.

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French agronomist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier dedicated his career to 'hyping' the potato, known only as hog feed in the 1780s. He went so far as to hire armed guards that were ordered to allow potato theft in exchange for bribes. Such tactics were successful, with the plant soon becoming a staple of the European diet.

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Eyeing the lucrative fur and tobacco trade, Sweden launched an expedition to the Americas in 1637. 'New Sweden' was founded in the Delaware Valley the following year. Though the colony was lost to the Dutch not long after, it left a lasting impact with its introduction of Lutheranism and the log cabin to North America.

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By 1633, Ottoman coffeehouses numbered around 600. That year, Sultan Murad IV attempted to ban them for their role in stirring unrest, but the ban failed and coffee culture spread westwards. The London Stock Exchange (1680) and Lloyd’s of London (1688) are among the many notable intuitions that began as coffeehouses.

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Magellan himself never circumnavigated the globe, having lost his life in the Philippines. Upon his death, leadership passed through a turbulent succession, ultimately arriving at Basque navigator Elcano, who captained the only remaining ship, Victoria, and the 18 survivors of the once 270-strong crew, back to Spain.

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Tucked away in Southern Oregon is a most unexpected architectural marvel: the Patterson Bridge. Completed in 1932, this dramatic river crossing owes its decidedly Manhattan air to the tapering and setback of its four pylons, which produce a rather striking contrast against its Tuscan order arches and Venetian windows.

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To mark the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the British staged 3 naval battles in London's Hyde Park, including Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. The fleets were composed of scale frigates specially commissioned for the reenactment (compliments of a Napoleonic budget).

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Some theory: If X is invited to a meeting and Y is similar to X, then Y is invited to the meeting with p>>0; and if Z is in turn similar to Y, then so are they, and thus the meeting grows. Discomfort arises by the intransitivity of this similarity relation, while an all-hands is almost surely prevented (at the thermodynamic limit) by conflicting schedules.

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Cleopatra lived closer in time to 'yeet' being added to English language dictionaries than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Here are her maidservants, simultaneously lamenting their majesty's death and the impending inclusion of that term:

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I'm just going to leave this here:

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In the early 1630s, a Roman composer by the name of Gregorio Allegri wrote a song that was never to be sung outside the Sistine Chapel. That was until 1770, when a 14-year-old boy transcribed it from memory after hearing it twice. So impressed, the Pope did not prevent its publication. That boy was W.A. Mozart.

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Not long ago @aviationdoctor.eth shared a modern example of Art Deco – here’s my response. This is Rose Hill, a 45-story Manhattan skyscraper by Rockefeller that opened in 2021. Big fan of the buttresses with bottom-lit chevron reliefs, which I find produce an appearance that is simultaneously imposing and refined.

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One can scarcely imagine the thrill of witnessing 'naumachiae'—staged naval battles held in Roman amphitheatres. The rapid transition between water- and land-based performances seems to have been a major draw, a testament to both the scrupulous demands of Rome's spectators and the technical prowess of its engineers.

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“Le confiseur” – delicacies from the approaching collection.

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The idea of a world's fair traces back to a British society founded in 1754 by artist William Shipley, now the Royal Society of Arts. Below is the James Barry painting depicting the annual awarding of prizes. Shipley is seen seated lower left and Elizabeth Montagu standing centre left (women weren't barred from entry).

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Built by Nero after the Great Fire of 64 AD, the Domus Aurea embodies peak Ancient Rome, with a rotating dining room simulating the movement of the heavens and an artificial lake that likely hosted its own navy. The palace was buried following Nero's death, and the lake was drained to become the site of the Colosseum.

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Spotted this gem on a recent walk with @sidshekhar along London’s Victoria Embankment. The 12-story edifice, known as Shell Mex House, opened in 1932 and was once the headquarters of a joint venture by Shell and BP. With a diameter of 25 ft, its clock face surpasses that of Big Ben, making it the largest in London.

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The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair was perhaps the most impressive exposition in history, more than filling the shoes of the 1889 Paris Expo that had introduced the Eiffel Tower. The fairgrounds were drained to form canals in which gondolas, operated by native Venetians, provided a most unique mode of transport.

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