10 little known facts about Laos
Today Hillary Clinton is in Laos for a one day visit. This event will mark the first time in 58 years for a high ranking US official to do so. What do we actually know about Laos? Reports often start to state that Laos is one of the poorest countries in Asia or in the [...]
Tangun: The origin of Koreans in North Korean manga
Tangun mausoleum near Pyongyang (NK) Tangun, a mythology about the father of the Korean people and founder of the first Korean kingdom, is mentioned in a number of sources and is believed to have some actual historical understructure. It gives some clues in understanding the unique traditional self-conception of Korean’s. See below a manga version from North [...]
Old maps of Siam and surrounding countries
I love maps, specially old maps since they often tell a lot about history. As I found out, it’s quite hard to get any decent old maps of Siam and neighbouring countries. Usually they are for sale only. I guess family of mr. van der Aa who made both maps in the early 18th century, [...]
Electricity
Image thanks to sustainablog I once heard a story from an old man about a Dutch village in the begin of the 20th century. In those days they did have electricity which was mainly used for light since there were not many other electrical things around the house like radio’s or TV’s. The electrician in the [...]
Legacy of "The King and I" lives on
Anna Harriette Leonowensat younger age A portrait of Anna at later age In 1862 British Anna Harriette Leonowens aged 31 was appointed first as a teacher of the 39 wives and concubines and 82 children and later as a language secretary of the Thai king Mongkut (Rama IV), aged 60.In his invitation the king explicitly mentioned he did [...]
A San Mig please!.. What you want, one or two?
In Asia San Miguel beer is advertising with the slogan “One beer. One world of friends.” Knowing the brand’s history, this is quite misleading, since nowadays the world has two San Miguel’s using exactly the same logo and lettering.Originally San Miguel was founded in the Phillipines in 1890. In 1953 they licenced their product to a Spanish [...]
The history of digitized fonts and digitizing
Seen in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.In case you thought graphical digitizing of characters en symbols started after the introduction of computers, you’re wrong. Cross stitch embroidery showing the digitized characters or fonts of the Latin alphabet and often the digits 0 till 9, along with other decorations and was once a popular pastime for teenage girls.This custom [...]
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