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  • Daily History Picture: Medical Operations Medieval Style April 19, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Medical Operations Medieval Style

    Note Hemorrhoids, bottom left.  

    The Republic of the Seven Islands April 19, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The Republic of the Seven Islands

    A thalassocracy is a sea power, a realm built around the sea. The word is sometimes used to refer to maritime superpowers, like the British and French empires, but is more typically employed for chains of islands governed by a single king or council. Historical examples include Tondo; or some of the Viking polities from […]

    Daily History Picture: Early Fake Guns April 18, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Early Fake Guns

    The French build fake wooden guns in the Great War

    A Mediumistic Maid April 18, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    A Mediumistic Maid

    There is the need for a collection of all Arthur Conan Doyle’s gadding around in his ‘psychic’ years. And when that time comes Strange History will have several stories to offer up: sometimes ACD turns up as an expert on the spot, at other times the press use ACD as an expert or talking head. […]

    New History Books: Ireland’s Exiled Children April 17, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : New History Books
    New History Books: Ireland's Exiled Children

    Schmuhl, Ireland’s Exiled Children, the American connections and the Easter Rising…

    Weird Chinese Painters April 17, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
    Weird Chinese Painters

    Modern painters have used blood and vomit as paints and penis, breasts and even eyes as brushes. However, the medieval Chinese sometimes gave the modern paper-tearers a run for their money. Wang Hsia (obit 805), for example, was known as ‘ink-flinger Wang’. He would, first, get drunk, second, hurl ink at his surfaces, third, smear […]

    New History Books: Cartographic Japan April 16, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : New History Books
    New History Books: Cartographic Japan

    Love Maps, love Japan? Wigen, Cartographic Japan.

    The Hare that Got Away April 16, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    The Hare that Got Away

    Here is a short paragraph from the late nineteenth century about Pendle in Lancashire. He who visits Pendle will yet find that charms are generally resorted to amongst the lower classes; that there are hares, which in their persuasion, never can be caught, and which survive only to baffle and confound the huntsman; that each […]

    Daily History Picture: Blake Does Fairies April 15, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Blake Does Fairies

    Oberon and Titania and the marital bed: reconciled?

    Buried Six Times in Twelve Years April 15, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary
    Buried Six Times in Twelve Years

    Most cultures look with distaste on the removal of dead bodies: many families will do whatever they can to avoid such a thing for their loved ones. So imagine the trauma of being buried and reburied six times in a dozen years. Let’s start though with our death. Paul von Hindenburg, the President of Germany […]

    Daily History Picture: Sally Rand and a Heart April 14, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Sally Rand and a Heart

    Taken in 1927 with a heart, Sally Rand: speakies turned her into an erotic dancer.

    Hare Horror in Furness! Return of the Supernatural Bunnies April 14, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
    Hare Horror in Furness! Return of the Supernatural Bunnies

    Beach has recently been enjoying the splendour of supernatural rabbits and hares. Yes, dear reader, do you remember the thud of paranormal poltergeist bunnies? What about the legendary Baum Rabbit? Or the Welsh ghost rabbit as big as a sheep? Or Boudicca’s sacrificial hare? Or the Mann witch trial hare? However, everything that he has […]

    Daily History Picture: Rabbit vs Snail April 13, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Rabbit vs Snail

    Some late medieval fun, snake, rabbit, monkey (?) and a dog on stilts? 14 cent?

    The Buddha in Sicily? April 13, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient
    The Buddha in Sicily?

    The following appears in a Greek fragment of Empedocles (obit c. 430 B.C.), a Greek Sicilian and the grandfather or godfather of sophism. The problem is that we lack context. All that we know is that he is writing here to a disciple, Pausanias about an important and knowledgeable individual in the past. There was […]

    Daily History Picture: Woodstock Free Market April 12, 2016

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Woodstock Free Market

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