Category: Society
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Bones of diseased medieval Britons digitized and exhibited online
A new website was launched yesterday with photo’s of bones of 1,600 medieval Britons. They deceased from a range of terrifying diseases, such as syphilis and leprosy. Some diseases are uncommon today. The gruesome bones shows the importance of keeping these diseases at bay. Their deformed remains are exhibited online as study-material, but f you are…
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Making money with Lenin
The city council of Ulyanovsk, the birthplace of the Russian revolutionary leader Lenin (1870-1924), plans to create a national memorial to the Soviet Union. The plans encompass dozens of museums and shops were communist kitsch can be bought. If the Russian government approves, the construction of the 120-hectare site may begin. The costs for the “Museum of the…
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Feeling sick? Maybe you have the Neanderthal-virus
British scientists have discovered Neanderthal’ viruses in the DNA of modern sick humans. They made their discovery as they studied DNA samples of these ancient hominids and then compared them to the DNA of cancer patients alive today. As it turned out, the same DNA strings appeared in both samples. This suggests that these viruses were already…
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‘Romantic kristallnacht’ and ‘Stolpersteine’. The Kristallnacht remembered
Exactly 75 years ago, on the 9th and 10th of November 1938, the Nazis conducted a furious attacks on Jews. They set fire to their shops and synagogues, destroyed their homes. Also known as the ‘night of broken glass’, the Kristallnacht marked a new phase in the anti-Semitic policy of the Nazis. During the early…
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Dressed to kill. Fashion in the nazi-era
It is a well-known fact that Hugo Boss designed the SS-uniform, but how people dressed in Third Reich is not a much debated topic. What did clothing of the 1930s and 40s look like? What was worn in everyday life, at home , at work or on travel? Did the nazis influence fashion? With the…
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Disappointment: Germany’s oldest piggy bank is empty
Imagine you have a piggy bank that’s more than 700 years old. It must be so inviting to take a hammer, break it and marvel at the exposed riches. Luckily, that’s not the course of action taken by the Weimar Museum of History. They have Germany’s oldest piggy bank in their collection: the Tonschwein, created in…
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America’s universities were built on slave-trade
Slavery is intertwined with human history. This is emphasized by new publication on the relationship between America’s universities and slavery. It turns out that many educational institutions are historically connected with the slavery. Popular universities like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia – these elite colleges all conceal a painful history. Craig Steven…