history
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From Waterloo to Cyber Shadows: The Transformation of Warfare
On 18 June 1815, the fields of Waterloo became the stage for one of history’s most iconic open battles. Two armies — Napoleon’s French and Wellington’s Anglo-Allied — stood in ordered lines across rolling farmland, waiting for the clash. Muskets, cannons, and cavalry charges decided the fate of empires. It was war in its most Continue reading
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The Last Thunder of Hooves: Izbushensky, 1942
On a summer morning in August 1942, the wide steppes of the Don lay still under a red dawn. Horses snorted and pawed the earth, their riders waiting in silence. Across the fields, a Soviet regiment had dug in — 2,500 men, rifles, mortars, and machine guns. Facing them were 700 horsemen of the Italian Continue reading
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Inflation Is Good—In the Right Dose
When we think of inflation today, we often imagine rising grocery bills, expensive fuel, and headlines warning of economic instability. But history tells us a different—and surprisingly positive—story. Take 16th-century Spain. The Spanish conquistadors, Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro, returned from the New World with staggering amounts of gold and silver. Seville became the financial Continue reading
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“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday” — The Distress Call
In recent months, there has been a disturbing number of plane crashes reported across the world. Every time such news breaks, one word echoes in our minds — Mayday. It’s the universal cry for help in aviation, a last-ditch call when something has gone terribly wrong. But how did this word become the global distress Continue reading
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When Scientists Duel: How to Roast a Rival with a Scientific Name
In the late 1800s, two American paleontologists—Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope—engaged in one of the most ferocious rivalries in scientific history. It was called the Bone Wars, and it was as dramatic as it sounds. Both men were brilliant but fiercely competitive. Their feud started over a simple mistake: Cope reconstructed the skeleton Continue reading
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When Science Got Personal: How Linnaeus Immortalized His Critic as a Weed
Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, once famously got his revenge on a critic through scientific naming. The critic was Johann Georg Siegesbeck, a Prussian botanist who harshly criticized Linnaeus’s sexual system of plant classification, calling it “loathsome harlotry” because it described plant reproduction in terms of male and female parts. In response, Linnaeus Continue reading
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Were We Wiser as Children? A Reflection on Adulthood
Growing up is often seen as a journey toward wisdom, responsibility, and understanding. But what if, in reality, adulthood is not an evolution but a degeneration? What if, instead of maturing into responsible beings, we are merely losing something far more valuable—our innocence, our purity, and our natural sense of justice? Children are often dismissed Continue reading
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Leaving a Mark Beyond Time
Many believe that life is a cycle that begins and ends at zero—that we arrive with nothing and depart the same way. This notion, often accepted without question, is deeply flawed. While it may hold a degree of truth for the majority, it is far from universal. Some individuals live lives filled with remarkable achievements, Continue reading
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(Possibly) the Oldest Recorded White-Collar Crime: A 4,000-Year-Old Financial Fraud
The ancient Mesopotamian civilization is renowned for its early advancements in writing, mathematics and governance. During the reign of King Shulgi of Ur (ca. 2094–2047 BC), major reforms were introduced to improve record-keeping, taxation and bureaucracy. However, with this structured system came increased opportunities for corruption. In fact, we may have one of the earliest Continue reading
bhaskar saikia 