Source: Wikipedia
There is a difference between a chronicle and a survey, and it is the difference between knowing what somebody thought was important and knowing what was there.
Chronicles record…
Source: Wikipedia
There is a particular category of historical event that is easier to document than to explain, and this is the largest example available.
For several centuries before 1200 BC,…
The number of signs a writing system requires is not a technical detail. It determines who can be literate.
A system with several thousand signs can be learned, and learning…
There is an assumption that things used routinely are understood, and it does not hold in general.
A great many effective interventions were established empirically — somebody noticed that something…
The distinction that organises the whole subject is between comparing and measuring. A balance compares; a scale measures a force. Almost every difference between weighing devices follows from which one…
The useful way to read any station is to work out which of two plans it is, then look at how the roof is held up. Those two facts explain…