A bird out of hand: My reminiscences on the rise and fall of Twitter.
Twitter should be destroyed. It should not exist anywhere, at any time, in any incarnation. It is evil.
The Verge
The death of Hu Yaobang: The first chapter of a story that changed the world.
How the prosaic demise of a Chinese Communist bureaucrat triggered one of the most important movements in recent history.
The forgotten victim of the Lincoln assassination plot: The attack on William Seward.
While Booth was shooting Lincoln at Ford's Theater, another terrible crime was happening just blocks away.
Forgotten flight: The lonely voyage of Apollo 6, and the terrible day it happened.
On April 4, 1968, an unmanned rocket blasted off from Florida. Turned out it was a good day to leave Earth.
Interiors: Olden Church, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway.
Places like this are the essence of folk life in Norway in the 18th century.
Toward a theory on the death of the Republican Party.
Both of the major U.S. political parties are dead, or soon will be. Here are my thoughts on how the GOP destroyed itself.
Historic Painting: “The Choice of the Bride” by Konstantin Makovsky, 1886.
This beautiful picture depicts a bride show in the 17th century, whereby a Tsar chose his consort.