I found a new podcast today. How to Do Everything. Listened to an episode and a half as I ran, and I really like this one. It looks like it's updated weekly, so I'll have to remember to check back. The earliest episode I could find started off by discussing vexillology. Despite the objections of my Spellcheck, it is a word, meaning the study of flags. I love that there is a word for the study of flags. Unsurprisingly, this interests me. I wonder if there are any good books on the subject? There are at least a few good websites. The podcast discussions used South Sudan's new flag as an example, going through the symbolism and design of the flag. I would be interested in doing that for every nation, though time is not exactly plentiful these days.
In The History of Food, I covered the spice trade today. Some rather surprising things! The most surprising, I suppose, is that Arabic numerals actually originated in India. The spice trade arose between Arabia, India, and China as early as 3000 BC, but didn't spread to Europe (meaning active involvement of Europeans) until about 200 BC. Even then, Europe played only a minor role in trading. Trade was dominated by Arabs, which explain the spread of Islam to geographically isolated areas. The spice trade later resulted in opening up the world (nothing compared to today, though), which could be said to have caused the Black Death. A term which I learned was coined in the sixteenth century but only became popular recently. Additionally, the Black Death may not have been the bubonic plague at all - the issue is still debated. Come to think of it, one of the podcasts I skipped over was on virology... I wonder if they covered the Black Death at all (was it from bacteria or a virus?). Later, the monopolization of the spice trade by the Arabs lead to great price increases, which helped launch European expansion. I wonder if there are any modern allegories to the Arab control of oil... seems like deja vu to me.
In The History of Food, I covered the spice trade today. Some rather surprising things! The most surprising, I suppose, is that Arabic numerals actually originated in India. The spice trade arose between Arabia, India, and China as early as 3000 BC, but didn't spread to Europe (meaning active involvement of Europeans) until about 200 BC. Even then, Europe played only a minor role in trading. Trade was dominated by Arabs, which explain the spread of Islam to geographically isolated areas. The spice trade later resulted in opening up the world (nothing compared to today, though), which could be said to have caused the Black Death. A term which I learned was coined in the sixteenth century but only became popular recently. Additionally, the Black Death may not have been the bubonic plague at all - the issue is still debated. Come to think of it, one of the podcasts I skipped over was on virology... I wonder if they covered the Black Death at all (was it from bacteria or a virus?). Later, the monopolization of the spice trade by the Arabs lead to great price increases, which helped launch European expansion. I wonder if there are any modern allegories to the Arab control of oil... seems like deja vu to me.
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