Category: Classics

The Number of Gifts Santa Claus and the Elves Must Build and Deliver Each Christmas Eve

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Assuming Santa Claus delivers at least 1 gift to each child worldwide, this would equate to 2,100,000,000 (2.1 billion) gifts. With an average of 2.5 children per household worldwide, Claus would have to visit 840,000,000 (840 million) homes to accomplish this task. To finish this job in 24 hours (12 for each side of the world), Claus would need to visit 35,000,000 (35 million) homes per hour which would be 580,000 per minute, or nearly 10,000 every second! Because there are so many homes and so very many children, the elves of the North Pole face an equally grueling pace. Assuming each child receives 1 toy, and the build time is spread across 364 days, these elves would need to craft approximately 5,750,000 (5.75 million) toys per day. This would mean 240,000 toys per hour, 4,000 per minute, or nearly 70 every second without a work break for any of them. If the North Pole were to employ 100 elves, each would need to make 0.7 toys per second; and with a large company of 1000 elves, this value drops to 1 toy every 14 seconds which is more manageable; however with a massive company of 10,000 elves, each would only need to craft 1 toy every 2.5 minutes which would be much more probable for a workforce to achieve; if however the North Pole were capable of managing a city sized work force of 100,000 elves, each elf would need only to craft a single toy every 24 minutes which is a pace that a human powered North Pole, theoretically could handle. With that being said, mythologically speaking elves are immortal, or at the very least ageless, and they do possess arcane magic and clandestine knowledge which must be kept in mind when calculating what is theoretically possible

The Status Symbol of Keys Within the Ancient Roman Empire

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Metal keys first appeared during the Ancient Roman Empire and were viewed and often flaunted during the period as an indicator of wealth and/or elevated social status, as Ancient Roman keys were typically comprised of bronze or iron, occasionally worn as decorative jewelry (e.g. rings, bracelets, belt attachments etc.), and used primarily to secure high value items (e.g. jewelry boxes, document cases, coin chests etc.) making them both functional tools but also visible reminders of social status and income. Because only the wealthy could afford metal keys within the Ancient Roman Empire, lower socioeconomic classes relied upon more simplistic, wooden lock mechanisms and in many cases left valuable possessions unsecured entirely. Some Ancient Roman keys featured intricate designs (e.g. animal motifs and geometric patterns etc.), personalized and designed to reflect the predilections of the owner of the key and the lock it is designed for. The Latin term for key, which is “clavis”, evolved and came to mean “code” or “solution” over time, which is notable because it demonstrates the period when physical access and security and intellectual access and security became conceptually correlated with one another. Archaeologists and historians have recovered metal keys from Ancient Roman villas, balneae (pronounced “bahl-neh-eye”) which are bathhouses, and burial sites, often discovered alongside personal items (e.g. grooming tools, coins, small religious tokens etc.). The modern day concept of personal security and having exclusive access to one’s belongings and/or information traces its origins back to these early locking mechanisms and keys as what began as a practical intervention for safeguarding valuables laid the foundation for the modern day systems of privacy, ownership, and controlled access to sensitive and/or valuable information or objects

The Anthropomorphism of Satan

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Early Christians did not personify Satan, in fact it was not until the Medieval period that Satan became anthropomorphized into the image which is commonly understood during the modern day (e.g. red skin, horned head, tail etc.). Initially, Satan was predicated upon pagan mythological figures who Christian’s then viewed as demons and/or part of a larger demonic evil outside the boundaries of Christianity. Prior to this, there was no consensus among artists and theologians as to how Satan should be depicted within religious artwork. Often throughout history, Satan has been illustrated as a blue angel, a male figure with blue skin and white hair. The color blue was chosen as it is symbolic of the night and the unknown, adding emotional and spiritual ambiguity, intended to inspire fear not through grotesquery but rather through an uncanny yet elegant emulation. In addition to this portrayal, Satan has also been represented as a figure with 3 goats, designed as a direct counter balance to Jesus Christ who is often portrayed within religious artwork in possession of 3 lambs which represent humanity. More specifically these 3 lambs represent purity, sacrifice, and redemption. In contrast to this, the 3 goats of Satan were meant to represent demonic entities, more specifically rebellion, deception, and spiritual corruption. This triadic symbolism was intentional as it created a theological and visual counter weight for Christ, casting Satan not only as the antithesis of Christ, but as a distorted reflection of him within the mirror of divine structure and purpose

The Fermentation and Manufacturing Process of Ancient Roman Garum (Fish Sauce)

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The Ancient Roman’s created a special fermented fish sauce called “garum”. Garum was highly valuable and in modern times accounting for inflation, garum would cost $1250.00 for 1 liter. Garum was made from nothing more than salt and decayed fish. The original preparation is unknown as the ancient recipes have been lost. The fishes organs and digestive fluids help in the fermentation process. The container which the garum is made in is left in the sun for a few days to allow the process to ferment as much as possible. The oily slush oozing from the fishes organs and digestive enzymes is the garum and it is loaded with nutrients and contains glutamate which triggers chemical receptors on the tongue to make the brain crave more of it. Glutamate is the primary ingredient/component in monosodium glutamate, commonly abbreviated as “MSG”, and is used by many chefs all over the world

The First Female Sculptor Within Italy During the Renaissance

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Properzia de Rossi, who was born in Bologna, Italy in 1490, aspired to become a sculptor and was the first female marble sculptor within Italy during the Renaissance of the 16th century. Although de Rossi left no diaries, fragments of her early work are still available during the modern day. Despite marble sculpting being viewed as a masculine art form during the Renaissance in that it required muscle to perform and an intelligent mind to create, both of which women were not thought to possess during this period. Because of this, de Rossi found her medium in other art forms, most notably her “Madonna of Mercy” within the Grassi Family Crest work which was a silver crest with 11 nectarine buttons which were carved intricately with small images of religious piety. By 1525, aged 35, de Rossi entered a contest for the main cathedral basilica of Bologna, San Petronio, of which she won. The piece was named “Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife” which depicts a fallen women who’s breasts are exposed, rising off of her bed to try and claim her husband as he leaves. It was believed during the period that it was unthinkable for a woman to study the male nude form through nudity. Because de Rossi’s sculptures were so accurate, it was assumed she knew too much of the male form and therefore she was dammed for her talent. In 1530, de Rossi died penniless and alone, a retched end for a great artist who was pushed out of society due to the sheer beauty and creativity of her work. Had de Rossi not been a victim of her time, she would have been celebrated with the most revered male Renaissance artists

The Annual War Campaign of the Assyrian Civilization

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The Assyrians were masters of war, as war underpinned their society, economy, and civilization. The Assyrians would collectively gather each year to attack and plunder any neighboring states unlucky enough to be within striking distance. This tradition was viewed by the Assyrians as a time of harvest, with vegetables being replaced with the plunders and spoils of war. The Assyrians are known to have impaled their enemies, amputate their enemies, burn their enemies alive, flay their enemies alive, disfigure enemies, engage in mass blinding of vision, as well as mass deportation

How Flames Were Artificially Produced for Opera Productions During the 18th Century

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During the 18th century within opera and theater productions, stage doors which would lead a character to Hell achieved simulating the flames of Hell with brandy which would be placed into a container and lit on fire due to the fact that during the period, brandy was the brightest glowing flame available because of it’s high alcohol content. Once the brandy was burning bright, a powder referred to as “lycopodium” was blown across the flames to create an intense illumination, creating a fireball of sorts. It was in truth a very dangerous special effect to achieve because of the wooden sets, the actors involved, and the enclosure of the theatre itself. Most of those who performed the pyrotechnics for operas and plays during this period were ex-military, often soldiers who understood how these chemicals worked in depth as rocket technology was at the cutting edge of warfare during the era

How Antique Books are Forged and How to Detect Replica Antique Book Forgeries

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Modern day forgers are able to replicate rare books printed using a mechanical printing press by using photopolymer plates, a process which involves taking a high resolution photograph of a page which was printed using a printing press and allowing computer software to create a three dimensional printed image of that photograph with depth for each letter present. This method produces pages which have an imprint mark as if pressed by a printing press but its fatal flaw is that it also provides depth to small lines around the margin of text which are picked up during the printing process. These lines should have no depth as they are merely extra ink which has been caught during the printing process but with photopolymer replicas, because the software used to extract three dimensional characters reads every single bit of ink as a marker to place depth, these lines appear to have depth within forgeries which is an immediate red flag in terms of authenticity as originals have no reason to possess depth. These incidental inking lines around the margin of the page are referred to as “shoulder inking”, and if they possess depth of any degree, it is a strong indication that the piece is a modern day forgery

Analogs of the Christian Bible’s Epic of Noah’s Ark

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In London, England in 2014, Dr. Irving Finkel, one of, if not the worlds most foremost authoritive upon cuneiform writing, published a book entitled “The Ark Before Noah” which states that a 3700 year old Sumerian tablet translated by Finkel depicts the Christian biblical story of Noah and the flood which drowned the world. This tablet is at the very least 1000 years older than that of the Biblical epic. In the Christina Bible, Noah is warned of a cataclysmic flood by God. A similar story exists in ancient Indian Vedic texts in which King Manu was forewarned by Lord Vishnu in the form a fish, of a great flood impending, with Manu constructing a large boat and ultimately surviving. In the Babylonian poem the Epic of Gilgamesh, the protagonist Utnapishtim (pronounced “ut-nah-pish-tim”) is advised of an impending flood by the god Enki (pronounced “en-kee”). In ancient Aztec culture, a sacred male and female couple hide within a hollow tree with corn while holding steady as the deluge of a great flood envelops the Earth. Ancient Celtic, Norse, and Chinese mythology also account similar stories in which a great flood occurs and only some survive. The common denominator between all of these stories is intervention by a force which knew ahead of time of the impending cataclysm

The Largest Academic Library in the World

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The library at Harvard University is the largest academic library in the world with 17,000,000 (17 million) books within its collection. The Harvard University library began in 1636 with a collection of 400 books donated by John Harvard, the person whom the university is named after