9 history facts you know (that are wrong)

1. Gladiators Often1 Fought to Death



Yes, sometimes gladiators died during combat. This happens from time to time when freakishly fast, well-muscled men wielding crazy-looking weapons made of steel face off. But unlike what you’ve seen in Hollywood movies, such as the 2000 film Gladiator starring Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, gladiators were rarely forced to fight to the death. Why? "They were too valuable," says University of Vienna archaeologist Wolfgang Neubauer. Gladiator owners were sort of like the NFL owners of Ancient Rome. They were businessmen. Would Jerry Jones send Tony Romo out on the field against theNew York Giants without a helmet for the sheer amusement of watching him get his block knocked off? I don’t think so.

2. Columbus Thought the World Was Flat



No. No. No. He didn’t. How did this one ever get started, anyway? I mean, Columbus was traveling west to reach the East Indies. Repeat: West to get East. Do people think he just got lost or confused or something? No, the explorer knew the Earth was round—just not how big the bloody planet is.

3. “Nothing of importance happened today.”



We all know King George III wrote this in his diary on July 4, 1776—the day that became synonymous with America’s independence. Except he didn’t. In fact, British Library museum curator Arnold Hunt tells PBS that the tax-happy British monarch didn’t even keep a diary. The apocryphal anecdote is likely related to a diary entry Louis XVI made on the day France’s Bastille was stormed, kicking off the French Revolution that eventually claimed the Bourbon king and his family.

4. Napoleon Bonaparte Was Short



Maybe by today’s standards. But the five feet seven inches the Corsican stood was average in Europe during the early nineteenth century. So next time you hear someone sound off about “Napoleon Syndrome” you’ll have your Cliff Clavinesque response. “Actually, it's a little known fact that...”

5. 300 Spartans Held Off a Persian Hoard at a Narrow Pass for 3 Days



Well, yes. But they had a heck of a lot of help. History often forgets the 4,000 Greek allies who fought alongside the Spartans before retreating, as well as the 1,500 who stood with the Spartans during their epic last stand. We know your life likely seems to have lost all meaning upon learning this fact. After all, 1,800 doesn't have nearly as cool of a ring as 300.

6. The U.S. has 50 States 




Wrong! Virginia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania are all...wait for it...commonwealths. What’s the difference? Practically nothing, except for the fact that commonwealth sounds fancier.

7. The Polish Cavalry Charged Against German Armored Divisions During WWII



During the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the poorly equipped Polish Army was said to have resorted to repeated cavalry charges against the armored divisions of their superior German foe. Well, those charges probably never occurred. As Cambridge historian Richard M. Evans writes in his 2009 work "The Third Reich at War," "Stories of Polish cavalry squadrons quixotically charging German tanks were most probably apocryphal." Nevertheless, every now and again you'll see the claim reported in newspapers. Just ask The Guardian who a few years back "had to append a speedy correction [to a column] admitting that we had 'repeated a myth of the second world war, fostered by Nazi propagandists.'" Yep, those imaginary Polish cavalry charges we grew up hearing about likely were the work of Josep  Goebbels' propaganda machine.

8. Vikings Wore Horned Helmets, Right?

Negative. According to the History Channel, medieval depictions of Viking warriors show the Norsemen “bareheaded or clad in simple helmets likely made of either iron or leather.” So there you have it. Have you ever known the History Channel to get something wrong? 

9. Thomas Jefferson Slept With His Slaves

Maybe he did. Then again, maybe he didn’t. Wait, what? Everyone knows Jefferson fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings, you say. Not quite. The most compelling evidence that exists linking the sage of Monticello to Hemings are the results of a 1998 DNA test that show Hemings’ youngest son was fathered by someone in the Jefferson line. Media outlets at the time ran with the story and spun it as proof that the slave-owning Jefferson, the man who penned the Declaration of Independence, was a lecherous hypocrite. Today, the narrative tends to focus not on if the act happened, but whether the alleged act constitutes rape. But, as the Christian Science Monitor has pointed out, any of the “more than two dozen Jefferson men living in Virginia at the time” could have fathered Hemings’ son, Eston...[and] in fact, scholars point to Jefferson’s brother, Randolph, as the likely father of Hemings’ son.”

That’s not to say it’s clear that Jefferson didn’t father Hemings’ child. Just that there is not a preponderance of evidence—circumstantial or physical—that proves Jefferson did. As one Jefferson scholar said, “While we may never know who fathered Eston Hemings, or any of Sally Hemings’ other children, we do this great man in American history a big disservice by prematurely concluding that this centuries-old paternity case has been adequately and responsibly resolved.”

Glacier caves of Mount Hood

 

On the western side of Mount Hood lies the longest glacier cave system in the contiguous United States. In 2012, these caves were mapped to a combined length of 7,166.8 feet by cave explorers Brent McGregor and Eddy Cartaya. Currently, the total passage length is hundreds of feet less.




Glaciers are frozen rivers; they are always moving and changing. In the past five years, we have seen the caves melt, shrink and collapse in a dramatic way. The caves are formed by water carving away at the ice. 





 Surface water makes its way downward through a fracture in the glacier and melts away a vertical shaft called a moulin. The water then travels down the moulin and downhill, thus creating a horizontal 
borehole passage.




 There are three explored caves in the glacier: Snow Dragon Cave, Pure Imagination and Frozen Minotaur. There is also one cave that has not yet been explored

More giant craters spotted in Russia's far north

Moscow (AFP) - Russian scientists have now discovered seven giant craters in remote Siberia, a geologist told AFP on Thursday, adding that the mysterious phenomenon was believed to be linked to climate change.

The discovery of an enormous chasm in a far northern region known to locals as "the end of the world" in July last year prompted speculation it had been caused by a meteorite or even aliens.

A YouTube video of the hole went viral and a group of scientists was despatched to investigate.

"We have just learnt that in Yakutia, new information has emerged about a giant crater one kilometre (0.6 miles) in diameter," the deputy director of the Oil and Gas Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vasily Bogoyavlensky, told AFP.

He said this brought to seven the number of reported pits.

"Footage allows us to identify minimum seven craters, but in fact there are plenty more," he said.

View gallery

An aerial view taken on August 25, 2014, shows a crater on the Yamal Peninsula, northern Siberia (AF …

All of the craters have been discovered in the remote energy-rich Yamalo-Nenetsky region in north-western Siberia.

Scientists say that rather than aliens or meteorites, the holes are caused by the melting of underground ice in the permafrost, which has possibly been sped up by rising temperatures due to global warming.

"The phenomenon is similar to the eruption of a volcano," said Bogoyavlensky.

As the ice melts, methane gas is released which builds up pressure until an explosion takes place, leading to the formation of a crater.

The scientists are still trying to estimate what danger, if any, is posed by the holes. Methane is extremely flammable and at least one of the craters is situated near an exploited gas deposit.

An expedition is planned to the latest crater discovered to determine if it was formed in the same manner.

It may be hard to identify other craters which may have formed into lakes over time, said Bogoyavlensky.

"When they appear the craters are empty, and little by little they fill up with water. In the space of two or three years they become lakes and it is difficult to study them."

He said some may have formed dozens or hundreds of years ago, but went unnoticed in such remote regions of the planet.

US diggers unearth pharaonic tomb in Egypt's Luxor

The Egyptian antiquities authorities released this picture showing a fresco inside a tomb belonging to Sa-Mut on March 10, 2015 in Luxor

American archaeologists have unearthed a pharaonic tomb from the 18th dynasty in Egypt's famed temple city of Luxor, officials said on Tuesday.

The tomb, found at Al-Qurna archaeological site in Luxor, dates to the period of the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC) and its walls show scenes of celebrations and daily life at that time, the antiquities ministry said.

The scenes "are records of daily life practices that prevailed in that era," Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty said in a statement.

Damaty said there were signs that the tomb had been looted as some scenes and inscriptions on its walls were erased.

Last week a similar tomb was discovered at Al-Qurna.

Luxor, a city of some 500,000 people on the banks of the Nile in southern Egypt, is an open-air museum of intricate temples and pharaonic tombs.

Archaeologists find 5,600-year-old tomb in Egypt (Update)

Egypt said Wednesday archaeologists have unearthed a 5,600-year-old preserved tomb and mummy predating the pharaonic First Dynasty, a discovery that will shed new light on the pre-dynastic era.

The tomb was built before the rule of king Narmer, the founder of the First Dynasty who unified Upper and Lower Egypt in the 31th century BC, the antiquities ministry said in a statement.

The tomb was discovered in the Kom al-Ahmar region, between Luxor and Aswan, on the site of ancient Hierakonpolis, the city of the falcon, which was the capital of the Kingdom of Upper Egypt.

The archaeologists found an ivory statue of a bearded man and the mummy of the tomb's owner, who appeared to have died in his late teenage years, the ministry said.

They also found 10 ivory combs as well as tools, blades and arrow heads, it said.

The tomb's preserved state will provide new information on pre-dynastic rituals, said Renee Friedman, the head of the multinational archeological team.

The tombs of king Narmer and king Ka, a pre-dynastic pharaoh who paved the way to Egypt's unification, were previously discovered in Hierakonpolis.

Apple's Big Plan To Make You Want Things You Don't Need

The Apple Watch isn't going to flop. An Apple "flop" right now is probably a multi-billion-dollar industry, after all. Rather, the watch is the first step of the next major shift for a company that has made its money by essentially trend forecasting in the technology space. The future of tech is the future of fashion, and the Apple Watch is just one step towards that future.

Ever since the first Macintosh, Apple has pursued a goal: the borderless intermingling of hardware, software, and connectivity. This isn't necessarily different from what the competition is doing right now (mostly by taking Cupertino's lead), but companies like Samsung, Microsoft, and Google pay most of their attention to just one thing, or two at most: Google and Microsoft are more software-and-servicecompanies than hardware companies, while Samsung's mostly just a hardware company.

The difference is Apple's clarity of vision. The original Macintosh from 1984 is just as much of a part of that vision as the iPhone and iPad are today. It's bigger, clunkier, and technologically less advanced, sure, but it's the same thing Apple is selling today: a magic screen that has been designed to be as frictionless as possible. Over the years Apple has sanded and buffed that magic screen down, eliminating friction with the user where it can (making it thinner, making it faster, making it lighter) and expanding it into a range (iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iMac, and now Apple Watch), and nearly three decades later, Apple has pretty much distilled the magic screen down to its essence. There's a magic screen for everyone. And it's just about as light, thin, and powerful as it's going to be.

But what is the essence of an iPhone? This is some Plato-in-the-Cave shit, but I don't think it's too preposterous to suggest that there are some objects that are truer to their essence than other objects. A spoon, for example, might start out as a shovel, but over thousands of years of iteration and improvement, it eventually reaches a point where it is no longer reducible. People might design spoons past this point, but future iterations will all relate to the craft with which they were made, or their ornamentation. Regardless, the spoon will never become more spoony than it was before.

Apple is fastly on track towards reaching the point where there are no more major technological innovations to be made with its projects. Five years on, iPad sales are already becoming more Mac-like than iPad-like. The iPhone continues to sell in two-year upgrade cycles, but that's largely because iPhones have traditionally been tied to 24 month subsidized cellphone contracts—something that is starting to change. At what point do sales simply stall, because the innovations just aren't big enough to justify upgrading regularly anymore?

It'll eventually happen. There aren't many products that consumers regularly upgrade and replace every two to five years, once their technical innovations have topped out. Moore's Law—which essentially suggests technological innovation doubles every two years—isn't a law of nature, it's just a theory some dude came up with after noticing a pattern. Eventually, the cheapest smartphones and tablets and laptops out there will be good enough for almost everyone; heck, for many people, they already are. Apple wants to distill its gadgets down to their essence, but it still wants people to buy new ones every few years, and make roughly the same amount of profit on each new model

So to adapt, you take your lead from fashion. Fashion defies the upgrade cycle. You do not buy a new pair of pants for their technical innovation, or because your old pants wore out. You buy them for a host of other factors: what they say about you, what they are made out of, the quality with which they are produced, who else wears them, who endorse them, and so on. And you do so despite the fact that you have a closet of perfectly good pants at home.

Someday, magic screens will be as commonplace as pants. Fashion is the key to keeping magic screens exciting, once technical innovation is no longer the prime mover. Fashion is this big, crazy engine of imagination and irrationality that makes people buy a $1,000 shirt just because Kanye once wore one, or to buy a pair of $300 sneakers just because it's got the silhouette of a guy who can jump 10 feet in the air on the side. That's insane, but fashion defies so much conventional wisdom of consumerism precisely because it's so ineffably tied in with the human spirit. Logic and practicality be damned: fashion appeals to the ego and the id, all at once.

Perhaps this is the true importance of the Apple Watch. Watches have always been the bridge between technology and fashion. And it's obvious that Apple is courting the fashion world. It took out ads for the Apple Watch in Vogue. It made a huge splash at Paris Fashion Week. It hired influential fashion executives like ex-Burberry executive Angela Ahrendts. This isn't a dabbling. This is a concerted campaign.

One natural question is, "What does Apple look like as a fashion company?" But truthfully, I don't think it's that different than what Apple looks like now. Apple already has the retail presence equal to, or exceeding, that of most fashion brands. People already buy iPhone cases to express their personalities, or outwardly peacock their status, and Apple is doubling down on that with the Apple Watch, which you can purchase in 18K gold, or accompanied with a $550 chainlink strap. Even the new MacBook comes in three different finishes: black, silver, and gold.

Apple's detractors have been saying for years that the iPhone and the Mac aren't real computers, but fashion accessories. Maybe it was more right than it knew. Slowly but surely, Apple is signalling that it sees its future as being more clearly aligned with fashion and tech. That's not because it's going to stop making tech. It's because we're inevitably going to stop appreciating most gadgets as tech, any more than we think of a spoon or a watch as technology (which they both most certainly are, after their type).

These are all admittedly strange thoughts. But Apple's not just looking a couple years ahead; it's looking 30 years ahead. Today, Apple might dip a toe in fashion with the Apple Watch, Apple's most wearable magic screen yet. But who's to say that, 30 years from now, our very clotheswon't be magic screens, the appearance of which we can change by just downloading an app?

The Nuclear Talks With Iran, Explained

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told his country in 2013 that economic sanctions will never force Iran into unwelcome concessions over nuclear development.Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, via Associated Press

What the West Wants

The United States and its negotiating partners want rigorous inspections, limits on the number of centrifuges with which Iran can enrich uranium, and the removal of most of Tehran’s stockpiles of existing fuel. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry insist on limits that would prevent Iran, should it break an agreement, from producing enough fuel for a nuclear weapon within a year.

“We want to recognize the main goal here is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. And on that, Israel and the United States agree.”  John Kerry 

What Iran Wants

Tehran says it should be able to produce nuclear energy for power and medical purposes, and wants an end to sanctions that keep it from shipping oil or gaining access to global financial markets. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said that Iran would want to build peaceful nuclear enrichment capability when a negotiated agreement expired.

“Our negotiating partners, particularly the Western countries and particularly the United States, must once and for all come to the understanding that sanctions and agreement don’t go together.”

Mohammad Javad Zarif

Iran’s minister of foreign affairs

Un

What Iran Wants

Tehran says it should be able to produce nuclear energy for power and medical purposes, and wants an end to sanctions that keep it from shipping oil or gaining access to global financial markets. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said that Iran would want to build peaceful nuclear enrichment capability when a negotiated agreement expired.

“Our negotiating partners, particularly the Western countries and particularly the United States, must once and for all come to the understanding that sanctions and agreement don’t go together.”

Mohammad Javad Zarif

Iran’s minister of foreign affairs

What Critics of the Deal Want

Critics, including Israel, seek the complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, citing Tehran’s history of hiding efforts to produce nuclear fuel and pursue other weapons-related activities. They also object to any deal that would allow limits on Iran’s nuclear program to expire. In an open letter to Iran's leaders, 47 Republican senators warned Iran about making an agreement with President Obama.

"We’ll face a much more dangerous Iran, a Middle East littered with nuclear bombs and a countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare."

Benjamin Netanyahu

Israel’s prime minister

What a Deal Might Look Like

The deadline for finalizing an outline of an agreement is the end of March, and a final deal would have to be reached by June. Under an agreement, Iran’s ability to produce nuclear fuel would probably be strictly limited for at least 10 years, and restrictions would be eased gradually. Iran would ship some nuclear equipment to Russia. After the deal ends, Iran would still be subject to inspections and unable to produce bomb-grade fuel. It remains unclear whether Iran would have to answer all questions from inspectors about its suspected work on bomb designs.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, then the president of Iran, visiting the Natanz nuclear site in 2008. Iranian President's Office, via Associated Press

Blackmailers Threaten To Poison Baby Formula Over New Zealand's Pesticide Use

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — An anonymous blackmailer threatened to poison infant formula in New Zealand to protest the country's use of poisonous baits for pest control, and sent dairy giant Fonterra packets of milk powder laced with pesticide, police said Tuesday.

Prime Minister John Key said the threat was likely a hoax, and assured parents that formula was safe for babies to drink. But the announcement prompted fears of a backlash against the country's economically crucial dairy industry.

Fonterra, the world's largest exporter of dairy products and New Zealand's biggest company, and farming association Federated Farmers both received anonymous letters in November, police said. The letters were accompanied by small packages of milk powder that tested positive for a concentrated form of the agricultural pesticide 1080 (ten-eighty), which is used by the country's conservation department to control pests such as rats and possums.

The letters threatened to contaminate infant and other formula with 1080 unless New Zealand stopped using it by the end of March, New Zealand Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement said. New Zealand uses 80 percent of the 1080 produced worldwide, and many animal welfare advocates oppose its use, arguing it causes animals to suffer slow, painful deaths.

Since November, dozens of police have been trying without success to figure out who sent the letters, Clement said. The blackmailer had threatened to go public by the end of the month, prompting officials to make the announcement on Tuesday.

The nation's Ministry for Primary Industries said it had tested over 40,000 product samples and found no evidence that any were contaminated.

"We are advised it is extremely unlikely anyone could deliberately contaminate formula during the manufacturing process and there is no evidence that this has ever occurred," Key said. "While it is very likely this threat is a hoax, we as the government have to take it seriously and I can assure you that we are."

Although Fonterra received one of the letters, the blackmailer did not specifically threaten the dairy company's products, Clement said.

Still, the threat raised the prospect of consumer skittishness about the safety of the dairy giant, which suffered a brief hit to its reputation in 2013 after a false botulism scare. That incident came after it was revealed that the company processed whey protein concentrate in dirty pipes in one of its factories. Initial tests indicated the presence of botulism bacteria in the concentrate, sparking a global recall of infant formula. Subsequent tests found it to be another, less harmful bacteria. Fonterra later pleaded guilty to four food-safety violations.

New Zealand's dairy industry drives the nation's economy and any threat to its safety is treated with the utmost urgency. Companies such as Fonterra command a premium in the country's biggest export market, China, because of their reputation for providing high-quality products.

"We can fully assure our customers and consumers that all of our milk and products are safe and of high quality, and our supply chain continues to be secure and world-class," Fonterra CEO Theo Spierings said in a statement.

In New Zealand, a blackmail conviction can carry a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

New Yorkers spend nearly 60% of income on rent

New York (AFP) - Rent will gobble up nearly 60 percent of New Yorkers' income in 2015 with the median cost of an apartment to rise to $2,700 a month, a real-estate website said.

Rent prices in the city grew at nearly twice the pace of income between 2000 and 2013, estimated StreetEasy, meaning that rent has taken up an increasingly larger share of New Yorkers' incomes.

The website estimated that the median asking rent in New York is expected to reach $2,700 in 2015, amounting to a staggering 58.4 percent of median income in the city.

Brooklyn was the borough with the greatest rent burden and where a typical new renter will spend 60 percent of their income on rent in 2015.

That was followed by 52 percent in the Bronx, 49 percent in Manhattan, 41 percent in Queens and 30 percent on Staten Island, the website said.

In some neighborhoods the rent-to-income ratio is predicted to be even higher: a staggering 107 percent in Manhattan's Chinatown with a median rent of $2,485 and 86 percent in Williamsburg, the uber cool part of Brooklyn with spectacular views across the river to Manhattan.

There the median price of an apartment is estimated at $3,229 for 2015.

Renters feel the tightest squeeze in areas of relatively low income. Rent in the five most expensive markets, including Tribeca and Central Park, accounted for less than half of median income.

StreetEasy blamed a lack of housing supply, with limited and expensive development opportunities, for the crisis as well as stagnant incomes.

Competition for apartments is tough in New York and landlords often insist on proof that tenants earn around 45 times a year the monthly rent.

At the top end of the market, such as desirable property around Central Park, rents can rise in excess of $100,000 a month.

Fugitive ex-NSA contractor Snowden seeks to come home: lawyer

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian lawyer for Edward Snowden said on Tuesday the fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor who leaked details of the government's mass surveillance programs was working with American and German lawyers to return home.

In Washington, U.S. officials said they would welcome Snowden's return to the United States but he would have to face criminal charges which have been filed against him.

Snowden's lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, who has links to the Kremlin, was speaking at a news conference to present a book he has written about his client. Moscow granted Snowden asylum in 2013, straining already tense ties with Washington.

"I won't keep it secret that he... wants to return back home. And we are doing everything possible now to solve this issue. There is a group of U.S. lawyers, there is also a group of German lawyers and I'm dealing with it on the Russian side."

The United States wants Snowden to stand trial for leaking extensive secrets of electronic surveillance programs by the National Security Agency (NSA). Russia has repeatedly refused to extradite him.

Snowden has said in the past he would like to return home if he was assured he would be given a fair trial.

A deeply divisive figure, he is praised by some as a civil rights campaigner and whistleblower and condemned by others as a traitor who compromised U.S. security. Kucherena said in August Snowden had been given a three-year Russian residence permit.

U.S. Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi told Reuters: "It remains our position that Mr. Snowden should return to the United States and face the charges filed against him. If he does, he will be accorded full due process and protections."

The U.S. position is that "Snowden is not a whistleblower. He is accused of leaking classified information and there is no question his actions have inflicted serious harms on our national security," Raimondi said.

Edward Snowden 'ready to return to States'

Moscow (AFP) - Edward Snowden, the fugitive whistleblower who has been given refuge in Russia, is willing to return to the United States if he is given a fair trial, his lawyer said Tuesday.

"He is thinking about it. He has a desire to return and we are doing everything we can to make it happen," Anatoly Kucherena, the Russian lawyer who represents the former National Security Agency contractor, told a news conference.

Snowden was given political asylum in Russia in the summer of 2013 after the US revoked his passport. He now leads a reclusive life there.

"With a group of lawyers from other countries, we are working on the question of his return to America," Kucherena said.

"Snowden is ready to return to the States, but on the condition that he is given a guarantee of a legal and impartial trial," he said.

The lawyer said Snowden had so far only received a guarantee from the US Attorney General that he will not face the death penalty.

He said that Snowden is able to travel outside Russia since he has a three-year Russian residency permit, but "I suspect that as soon as he leaves Russia, he will be taken to the US embassy."

Kucherena's comments came at a presser where he presented a thriller loosely based on his encounters with Snowden.

US filmmaker Oliver Stone has bought the rights to the book as he prepares to shoot a biopic about Snowden starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.