Author: Burt Likko

On March 15, 33 44 BCE, Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated. The empire of the Roman Republic had decapitated itself and a lengthy historical metamorphosis now called the Roman Revolution moved into its endgame....

Programmer Mike Mika hacked in to the code for the classic video game Donkey Kong so that his three-year-old daughter could play as Pauline instead of Mario. He writes: “She really did seem to enjoy...

Going all the way back in his study to the original Dongan Charter of New York, granted by King James II Stuart in 1686, today the Honorable Milton A. Tingling of the New York State...

Hey, do you remember Bradley Manning? I’m really not all that surprised that he pled guilty to a number of the lesser charges against him. But since he did, we can set aside questions...

The rules of the game — you may pick one “could” and one “should” in italics below. First, read this recent op-ed from Jon Huntsman in The American Conservative. A few money quotes: The...

So a meteor struck in the middle of a town in southern Russia yesterday. The Beeb has some pretty cool video. Well, it wasn’t very cool if you were one of the people who...

Let’s say you live in a remote rural settlement, far away from any outside help. There is no organized police force, although there are some respected folks about town who occasionally contact each other...

Hey, Northeastern US and eastern Canadian Gentlemen and Gentlewomen! How’s that awfully amazing blizzard working out for you? Everyone staying safe and warm I hope?

How does it come to be that the bodily remains of a former king of England were found buried under a municipal parking lot?

Today non-Muslim women are encouraged by a social networking effort to voluntarily wear a hijab, or a head-scarf traditional to western and central Asian countries and associated with Islam. “Organisers of this event say...

It’s so much fun to be able to jump up and down and say “I’m right! I’m right!” only when what you’re right about isn’t particularly happy news, that feels like it’s sort of...

There must be something decidedly but pointlessly cruel in human nature. If this study’s results are representative, two percent of people give in to that something on an impulse, with nothing to gain but...

The question on the floor is whether an offensively stupid remark that is now fourteen years old, made by a man who was at the time a member of the United States Senate, is now...

On July 1, 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated U.S. Circuit Court Judge Robert H. Bork to the United States Supreme Court and while this nomination was not the first politically controversial nomination to the...

Sometimes the singer just needs a break. Or a line. Or sometimes the players want to demonstrate their virtuoso skills — quite often the drummer. And sometimes there’s this super-fun groove that you don’t want...

The author of the funniest caption will win a preview of an upcoming Monday Trivia question at Not A Potted Plant.

The Supreme Court is in conference today, considering certiorari petitions for ten cases addressing the issue of same-sex marriage. Eight of them are challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act, one of them is...