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@luana@wetdry.world
2026-09-01 14:20:28
Content warning: 600 years so a lot of things must've happened while it was a thing. Damn, I had no idea Brazil was "discovered" while it was a thing and we became a republic not long after it ended. Plus Napoleon made Inquisition illegal in France)

I only figured this out today bc I'm playing A Plague Tale and was curious about what was happening during those years irl and did some quick Wikipedia searches
I'm glad teachers didn't make us remember "random" years, it wouldn't actually help, but it's crazy how little we relate different subjects in History with each other when teaching
I think one of my History teachers, who gave me classes in High School and some Middle School years, understood this was a problem bc in his first class every year he always drew a timeline of world events
I always loved this and wished he did it more often
My memory might not be doing great either, bc I generally remember learning about things but don't really remember details. E.g. I remember learning about the 100 years war and that it was a 116-year-long war in Europe but I remembered nothing else about it
But while this part might be my memorys fault, the general lack of intuition about simultaneity and order of events is not and was always a problem for me. I remember being confused about this and impressed at historical events timelines way back in school. One of our books had a timeline like that too (tho it was cluttered, which is understandable but made it harder to read) which I often spent a while looking at

@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems
2026-08-24 04:41:33

I've read Douglas Preston's "The Blasphemy" and it was pretty good.
The synopsis is that the US government has built the largest particle accelerator ever, in the remote area of Arizona, and a small team of scientists are about to get it running. However, as it is about to reach full power, they suddenly start losing output and a mysterious "greetings" appears on the main screen. Suspecting prank malware, they decide not to report it upstairs but to resolve it themselves. However, with no progress and suspiciously piling up problems, an ex-CIA operative is sent to investigate, under the cover of liaison tasked with improving the relations with the local Navajo people. On top of that, a lobbyist wanting to see their contract renewed engages with a televangelist to put some pressure on the project.
The book sets a mystery quite really, and keeps you caught in it to the very end. It's also packed with action. You get annoyed by politics, corruption and fundamentalism. You get mystified by the philosophical and theological problems. At some point, you just keep reading to see how the events unfold.
Apparently it's a part of Wyman Ford series, but the story is self-contained.
#books #bookstodon #thriller #SciFi