Interesting Links for 11-12-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Study Finds Young People Now Watch More YouTube Content Than Zoetropes Of Galloping Horses

(tags:satire news history youtube )

2. The real asylum scandal is our hysterical politicians

(tags:uk asylum government incompetence )

3. Reminder that there is very old architecture in America

(tags:USA prehistory archeology )

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

#3 - yes, there are pretty nice places I loved when living on the West coast. Saw a lot of them. What's weird is the shape or the entries into those houses - they have the same T-shape as the ancient Egyptians buildings (or pyramids maybe)?

[calimac]

3) There are some mounds of ancient civilizations in the Mississippi Valley. That's about all that's left there. To find intact ancient architecture in the US (there's plenty more further south), you have to go to the southwestern desert. I've seen some in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado (far SW Colorado). There's nothing in California prior to the late 18th century. The natives here didn't build permanent structures unless you count shellmounds, which I don't class as architecture.

[andrewducker]

I agree. Interesting, but not architecture.

I'm glad that some architecture has survived though!

[andrewducker]

I wonder if there's a solid reason why that shape works well. Temperature, or humidity, or something like that.

[redbird]

There is old architecture in what's now the United States, and the oldest continuously-inhabited settlement, Oraibi, is a Hopi village that goes back to about 1150 BCE. There are also still-inhabited cliff dwellings in Arizona, but if you ask google or the tourist board, they'll tell you about cities and towns built by European settlers, including ghost towns, places that someone can say were founded at a particular date.

[bens_dad]

3. Reminds me of the quote that There is more prehistoric forest on *Manhattan Island* than the whole of the UK.

True, but "history" in Manhattan only just break 500 years (1624).
King Charles's direct ancestors ruled at least part of the UK as far back as Kenneth McAlpin in 841, much more than twice as long ago.

[andrewducker]

A useful reminder that "history" is only part of the past.