Tree Rings Reveal What Led To Angkor Wat’s Downfall

Thousand year old trees are revealing what exactly happened to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and what let to its downfall.

The Strange History of the Sunflower

Great article coupled with extremely vivid and beautiful photography about the history of the sunflower. {via presurfer}

History of the Ampersand

History of the Ampersand

Gerald has linked to a great article on the history of the ampersand. I found it fascinating. The article is actually more than that. It’s got a short history and lots of photos about ampersands in media and type. {via presurfer}

You can see the evolution of the ampersand below (1 is like the original Roman ligature, 2 and 3 are from the fourth century, and 4-6 are from the ninth century).

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By George By Maira Kalman

Incredible post over And The Pursuit of Happiness on George Washington. A book based on this blog will be published in October 2010.

Kottke on Apollo XI

Kottke has a long post on Apollo XI.

We Choose the Moon

It’s an interactive simulation of the Apollo XI mission, which led to the first man on the moon. There are 11 stages. It’s pretty cool.

Look! Scary Email: Vintage Ad Depicts Scared Managers

Email and IM have become an integral part of business, just like Skype-ing. It’s a known fact that people need to be able to communicate instantly to make more money. Even though some people think that this can be an electronic leash, it’s always fascinating to discover how email was marketed when it all started.

Mike Wallace Interviews

All of the Mike Wallace interviews from 60 minutes can now be found online here. Among others, he’s interviewed Frank Lloyd Wright, Salvator Dali & Eldon Edwards, Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. (via cpluv)