history pragmatic historian

Challenge – Create Your Own Alternate History

What if you could rewrite history? Well, you can, although it won’t really change anything. There is an entire genre in writing, an off-shoot of science fiction, that is dedicated to alternate history. Alternate history involves authors imagining what would have happened if some historical event, usually an important event that had nationwide or international effects, had turned out differently. This Mental Floss article shares a list of 19 alternate histories, including those related to…

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design observations thought fodder

Spelunking Online

Spelunking is the term used for exploring caves. Urban explorers in London have been spelunking in the underground structures of the city and documenting what they find because most of these areas are off-limits to the public. People love mucking about in hidden places. On a planet that seems to have had every square inch explored, what might there be left to uncover? As London’s urban explorers have found, human beings have created hidden and forgotten…

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