Here’s a technology that hasn’t changed much in at least 4000 years. The Indus Civilization was astonishing, with beautifully laid out cities, running water and waste drainage systems and a complex economy, alas, we can’t seem to crack the writing, so what we know is mostly deduction. In neighboring Mesopotamia archeologists have dug up a […]
From archaeologist Dr. Nina Willburger on Twitter about this two thousand year old unguentarium and also a great excuse to write unguentarium three times, and I’d never even heard of an unguentarium before. “This delicate Roman blue and white marbled glass unguentarium,” the good doctor begins, “a vessel to hold oil/perfume, was made from translucent […]
As you did, no doubt, I got this postcard in the mail with the government’s advice on dealing with this thing. Pretty basic stuff; wash your hands, etc. Fine. What infuriated me, much more so than more important things, was the fact that it was called PRESIDENT TRUMP’S advice to Americans (or some such wording; I forget the exact phrase, and we tore the damn thing to shreds as soon as we got it.) Not the CDC’s advice, which was exactly what it was, but PRESIDENT TRUMP’S, as if he had come up with all this stuff out of his very stable genius mind all by himself. I can just picture the CDC being told to make sure his name was in big letters on the front of the postcard. It was this act of petty egoism that really got under my skin.
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