Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in FYI.
Greece in Neolithic times
The Neolithic (New Stone Age) era in ancient Greece must be reckoned to date from around 6800 BCE to 3200 BCE. Climatic changes made it possible for groups of people to settle in fixed locations and for the hunter-gatherer economy of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras to give way to more settled ways of life, including farming, stock-rearing, and the creation of pottery. Around 1,000 sites have been identified that show signs of occupation in the Neolithic period.
By John Welford5 years ago in FYI
"God Save the Queen": the UK national anthem
The British national anthem was the first in the world to be adopted as such, with every other country subsequently following suit with its own anthem, sometimes even using the same tune as the British one. Like many British institutions it was a matter of evolution rather than deliberate creation, coming about almost by accident.
By John Welford5 years ago in FYI
Napoleon Bonaparte: a short dictator?
There is a general belief that Napoleon Bonaparte was unusually short, and that he is therefore part of the common perception that dictators tend to be short people who make up for it by being particularly unpleasant to everybody else and conquering as many countries as they can. But, in Napoleon’s case, is this true?
By John Welford5 years ago in FYI
Way down yonder in the Pawpaw patch
When I was a little girl, my maternal great grandmother used to sing various songs throughout the day. One of the lines she often sang was to the tune of Ten Little Indians and was the chorus from a folk song called The Pawpaw Patch. The chorus was:
By Cheryl E Preston5 years ago in FYI
Some Cool Facts About AI - It's Advancements, Discoveries In Major Fields
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are now considered some of the most significant innovations. AI and ML used to be a fictional concept from science fiction, but now it's becoming a daily reality.
By M V Ramarao5 years ago in FYI
How wheellock weapons worked
Early firearms worked by the direct application of heat to gunpowder, an operation that was clearly fraught with danger, especially as this took place a few inches in front of the gunman’s face. The earliest such weapons used the “matchlock” system, in which the heat was supplied by a naked flame in the form of a smouldering piece of cord brought into direct contact with gunpowder in an open pan, a process that was not only dangerous but unreliable. The way forward was to use friction as the heat source, and the first method to do so was the wheellock, which was used on weapons from around 1550 to 1650, although weapons from both before and after these dates can be found.
By John Welford5 years ago in FYI
The moons of Uranus
The planet Uranus, which is the seventh furthest from the Sun, is surrounded by moons, with 27 having been discovered to date. These range in size from 1578 km diameter (Titania) to around 20 km or even less. The sizes of some of the smallest moons, such as Ferdinand, Margaret, Mab, Cupid and Trinculo, are not known for certain and so the claim for which is the smallest moon of Uranus is still under debate.
By John Welford5 years ago in FYI
