Category Archives: History

The price of gas in the US continues to inch toward the $5 mark, a figure that is proving incredibly costly for American families and which represents an almost $2 average increase on the cost of a gallon of gas a year ago. According to the International Energy Agency, total demand is estimated to rise by 1.3% by the end of 2022, while supply continues to dwindle largely due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on the Kremlin by the international community, many of which have targeted the vast energy resources available to Vladimir Putin.

As of Friday, 10 June, the national average cost of a gallon of gasoline in the US stood at $4.986, according to the AAA. A month ago customers were shelling out $4.373 and this time last year a gallon was being sold for $3.073. With little end in sight to the ongoing energy crisis, it seems to be only a matter of time before the historical record for a gallon in the US is beaten: in July 2008 the price of gas hit $4.14 per gallon, which when adjusted for inflation would be around $5.37 in todays dollars.

In grim news for motorists, JP Morgan has forecast the average price of gasoline could reach $6.20 per gallon by August this year, assuming that there is no swift resolution to the factors currently fueling the price rises.

Goldman Sachs have published similarly bleak predictions for the price of crude oil, the key component involved in the production of motor fuel and other products. The price per barrel is currently around $120 a barrel, but the investment bank believes that figure will hit $140 per barrel over the summer months.

The current high price of gas can be attributed to a combination of factors that have conspired to send fuel prices soaring. Firstly, as pandemic restrictions were removed in 2021, the American economy began to grow swiftly, bringing with it a spell of sustained high inflation.

Typically the cost of living increases slightly every year but after a tough 2020 the economy bounced back sharply in 2021 and prices rose accordingly.

The pandemic not only created a temporary lull in American society but also caused unimaginable disruption to the supply chains that provide for it. It became more difficult to transport the crude oil from which gasoline is made, and the price per gallon rose again.

But the biggest and most recent factor in the sky-high cost of gas is the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the economic sanctions that have been levied as a result. Russia has huge natural reserves of crude oil and was responsible for around 8% of the United States annual supply of oil.

However in response to the invasion a number of petroleum companies stopped buying Russian oil, and President Biden announced a complete ban on the importation of oil and natural gas from Russia in March. The US has opened diplomatic channels with Venezuela and has authorized Repsol to ship oil from the South American country to Europe to help those countries dependent on Russian reserves and in May, Washington permitted Chevron to negotiate its oil license with Venezuelas national producer, PDVSA, in another indication that needs may eventually force the Biden administration into an uneasy energy alliance with Nicols Maduro.

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What is the highest price gasoline has reached in US history? - AS USA

Later this month, barring a trade, the Knicks will pick 11th in the NBA Draft. Theres been much speculation over who they could or should select. Entirely too much speculation, really, given what history has already taught us concerning the Knicks history picking 11th, as well as the rest of the league the past 20 years. The first lesson we learn: the Knicks have been awful picking at #11.

To be fair, its been a while since the Knicks picked 11. The last time was 1969, a nice draft that landed them John Warren. Warren played fewer minutes his lone year in New York than Quentin Grimes did last year. Other Knicks picked 11th: Don Buddy Ackerman, Kelly King Coleman, Henry Akin and John The Reckless Russian Rudometkin. Only Rudometkin, a Knick for parts of three seasons, lasted beyond his rookie year in New York.

And yet this is not a case of LOL Knicks. The leagues come a loooong way since 50+ years ago. When Ackerman went 11th in 1953, that was a second-round pick. Coleman was selected in 1960, a draft now famous for three Hall of Famers going top-seven (Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Lenny Wilkens) while seven of the first 16 selected played one year or none in the pros.

Youd think by the 21st century and its Jetsonian advances in domestic and international scouting, teams would fare better with the 11th pick. You thunk wrong. Over the past 20 drafts, guess how many 11th picks went on the become All-Stars. You dont have to guess. Ill tell you. Its two. Just two: Klay Thompson and Damontas Sabonis. Know how many players taken after 11 became All-Stars? Ill give you a hint: its the Knicks GOATs number.

So to refresh: of the last 20 players taken 11, two became All-Stars; of the nearly 1000 taken later, 33 did (Al Jefferson was never an All-Star, but was named to an All-NBA team). The math tells us two things we probably already knew: the odds are much better to land an All-Star at 11 (1 out of 10) then all the picks after (1 out of 30), and the odds to land an All-Star at 11 stink.

But were not here to talk about what we already know. Using a rhetorically advanced analysis tool, Ive been able to deduce who the Knicks will take in this years draft. Apologies to Bennedict Mathurin, Shaedon Sharpe, Jeremy Sochan and Malaki Branham, but history says none of them make the cut. Every 11th pick the Knicks have ever drafted had one or two syllables in their first names, then two or three in their last. The quartet above fail that litmus test.

That leaves us with Jalen Duren, A.J. Griffin, Dyson Daniels, Johnny Davis. Of the Knicks prior #11 picks, none were 7-footers; the 6-foot-11 Duren, still only 18, figures to grow another inch, so lets rule him out. Daniels was born overseas, which none of the old-school 11s were, so hes gone. That leaves Griffin and Davis.

The Knicks have never had a player with the last name of Griffin. Theyve had a handful of Davises: Antonio, Baron, Ben, Hubert, Mel and Mike. Ergo, the Knicks will select Johnny Davis. Its scientific.

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History tells us who the Knicks will draft 11th - Posting and Toasting

Its a statement that just makes sense, John Denney is one of the most underrated players in Miami Dolphins history.

When you look back at the greatest players in Miami Dolphins history, the names like Dan Marino, Bob Griese, Larry Csonka, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, and Cameron Wake immediately come to mind. When you think a little further, you could come up with names like Patrick Surtain, Sam Madison, Mark Duper, Mark Clayton, and maybe even throw in a little Ricky Williams for insurance.

I believe that we are missing one name, however, on those lists. That name is John Denney.

Denney was the long snapper for the Miami Dolphins from 2005 until he was cut in September of 2019 when he was at the ripe old age of 40 years old (he still is technically considered a free agent!). During his 13-year career in Miami, he made it to two Pro-Bowls and endeared himself to fans with the energy and heart that he brought to the position.

If you look back at special teams tape over his career (like we all do on Sunday afternoons during the offseason), you will see that he is consistently one of the first people around the opposing returner, outhustling some of the faster guys on the rest of the unit. He played with heart, toughness, and exceptional focus that made him one of the more consistent and overall better special teams players in the league.

Obviously, special teams players tend to get ignored when it comes to their play on the field and their overall impact on the teams success. I believe, however, that if you were to mention John Denneys name to true Dolphins fans, it would bring back fond memories of a hard-working player who everyone generally loved.

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John Denney: One of the most unsung Dolphins players in history - Phin Phanitic

New research has identified several genetic and environmental risk factors for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), including family history and cardiovascular disease.

A team, led by Priscila H. H. Rim, Department of Ophthalmology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), identified the association between AMD and genetic and environmental risk factors in a cohort of patients from Brazil.

Some major risk factors for AMD include genetics, demography, nutrition, lifestyle, other environmental factors, and ocular factors. However, age is the strongest risk factor for AMD.

A lot of past research has also focused on family history as a major risk factor.

In the cross-sectional study, the investigators collected data from 236 patients at least 50 years of age, 141 of which were diagnosed with AMD and the remaining 95 participants as part of the control group. Of the patients with AMD, 70% (n = 99) had advanced AMD in at least 1 eye (57% neovascular AMD and 13% geographic atrophy), and 30% (n = 42) had not-advanced AMD.

The mean age of all participants was 73.67.9 years, but the mean age of the AMD group was 74.48.1 years, compared to72.247.4 years for the control group (OR, 1.51; 95% CI, 0.882.58).

The investigators obtained data on the patients using a questionnaire, which included information on demographics, ocular and medical history, family history of AMD, lifestyle, and smoking and drinking habits.

They also conducted genetic evaluations including direct sequencing for theLOC387715 (rs10490924)variant, as well as PCR and enzymatic digestion for theCFH Y402H (rs1061170)andHTRA1 (rs11200638)variants.

The investigators also performed a risk assessment of environmental risk factors and genetic variants linked to AMD and used multiple linear regression analysis to determine correlations between AMD and the data.

The investigators found family history of AMD (OR, 6.58; 95% CI, 1.9422.31), presence of cardiovascular disease (OR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.085.28), low physical activity level (OR, 1.39; 95% CI, 0.822.37), and high serum cholesterol (OR, 1.49; 95% CI, 0.842.65) were linked to an increased risk of disease.

They also observed a significant association between cardiovascular disease and the incidence of advanced AMD(OR, 2.29; 95% CI, 0.816.44).

They also found an odds ratio of 2.21 (95% CI, 1.47-3.35) for the risk allele of theLOC387715gene, while the OR for theCFHgene was 2.27 (95% CI, 1.52-3.37) and the OR for the HTRA1gene was 2.76 (95% CI, 1.89-4.03).

Using a stepwise multiple linear regression analyses, theHTRA1andCFHrisk alleles, family history of AMD, theLOC387715risk allele, and cardiovascular disease were all linked to an increased risk of AMD for a total of 25.6% contribution to the AMD phenotype.

The analysis correlating environmental and genetic risk factors such as family history of AMD, and CVD and the variants ofHTRA1,CFH, andLOC387715genes showed an expressive contribution for the development of AMD among this admixed population, the authors wrote.

The study, Correlation between genetic and environmental risk factors for age-related macular degeneration in Brazilian patients, was published online in PLOS One.

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Family History, Cardiovascular Disease Linked to Risk of Age-Related Macular Degeneration - MD Magazine

FARMVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) A new art trail in Farmville is combining creative expression with history while highlighting local artists and giving visitors a taste of this rich small town.

Created in partnership with the Farmville Public Library, the Community Arts Council, the Farmville Chamber of Commerce and The Farmville Group, the installation was created to emphasize the arts. The 1.2-mile art trail begins and ends at the Farmville Public Library, weaving throughout downtown Farmville with 20 marked locations along the way. It features murals, ghost signs, sculptures, local galleries and more scattered throughout downtown.

It started out as just a small idea that we would continue to emphasize the arts. We partnered with East Carolina University and some of the East Carolina graduate students came over and painted murals like this one [H.B. Sugg Celebration Mural] and many throughout town. And that small change really kind of kicked things off, got things going.

Drake says once they realized they had all these different pieces of art, they wanted to build on that, and figure out a way to combine these pieces with the history and tourism the town gets. Drake said in Farmville, they like to say they are located at the corner of creativity and commerce.

QR codes posted at each stop on the trail feature audio recordings from local artists and local experts further explaining the significance and the meaning behind each art piece.

Drake says it creates a great opportunity to just take a breather and explore all the town has to offer.

It kind of meanders through downtown so the nice thing is if you want you can stop and get a bite to eat or get some ice cream on the way if its a really hot day, Drake said.

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Farmville Art Trail combines history, local artists, and creativity - WNCT

In the late eighteenth century, many American Protestants saw the War for Independence and the freedoms delineated in the Declaration and Constitution as part of a global revolution that would inaugurate worldwide freedom. In the years since, many middle- and upper-class Anglo-American evangelicals have embraced triumphalist social causesor what evangelical intellectual David Bebbington has broadly termed activismin the name of moral reform and bringing about the kingdom of God. However noble this impulse might be, it has at times led evangelicals to embrace revolutionary and utopian movements with harmful effects. Evangelical support for such causes in the name of moral and social progress has often proved to be influenced less by Christian morality than by Whiggish idealism.

Whig history is an unsound historiographic method that sees history as a predestined progression toward greater democracy and egalitarianism. According to James R. Rogers, Whig idealism sees history as always progressing toward the abolition of arbitrary differences between people: between lord and commoner, free man and slave, man and woman, the propertied and the property-less, black and white, rich and poor, etc. Americans have been taught that Americas Founding is a singularly powerful unfolding of the Whig narrative, and with it the Whig narrative jumps into hyperdrive.

American evangelicals have drunk deeply from the well of Whig history. Rogers rightly notes that Whiggery and Christianity walked in tandem in the U.S. for centuries. Evangelical sermons in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary America glided all too easily between the political freedom promised in and by the revolution and the spiritual freedom promised in and by Jesus Christ. Many of these evangelicals lionized Thomas Jefferson. They shared his loathing of state churches and other aspects of the conservative social order, like primogeniture and entail. They saw limitless potential for human liberty in a society shorn of medieval and early modern religious and social commitments. Christianity and humanity alike, they believed, could finally flourish in the free American republic. By the middle of the nineteenth century, a Pittsburgh Presbyterian minister would announce boldly to his congregation that God would accomplish his purposes of redemption and make Americans freedom as citizens of the great republic the precursor to all of humanity achieving the freedom by which Christ makes his people free as citizens of the kingdom of God.

One example of the effects of Whiggish history on evangelical protestants can be seen in evangelical responses to revolutions. Many evangelicals celebrated the French Revolution without regard to whether that upheaval displaced or harmed older Christian communities. Democracy in France trumped the attacks on the Roman Catholic and Protestant hierarchy. In 1791, Presbyterian William Linn, the former chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, delivered a sermon extolling the French Revolution as a vehicle for human progress that would free all the peoples on earth from unjust governments. Linn told his listeners that because of the events in France, they could indulge the pleasing thought, that the time is not far distant, when tyranny everywhere shall be destroyed; when mankind shall be the slaves of monsters and idiots no more, but recover the true dignity of their nature! By 1791, attacks on French Catholics and Protestants were occurring regularly, but because American evangelicals believed traditional France was benighted, and that a cleansing of French society was necessary, the fate of French Christians was of secondary importance to them.

Evangelicals like Linn particularly denounced Edmund Burke, whose rebuke of Thomas Paines Rights of Man made the British statesman anathema to Americans who saw the French Revolution as a confirmation of the United States own struggle for independence. Burkes Reflections on the Revolution in France, according to Linn, was a performance containing abuse, misrepresentation, a specious rather than true eloquence, and sentiments unfavorable to liberty. Burkes book awakened and called forth the real friends of liberty, particularly the celebrated Mr. PAINE, whose writings have been of so much service to mankind.

Evangelicals dispositions regarding church, state, and liberty mirrored Paines revolutionary commitments, so it is unsurprising that Linn was a partisan of Paine rather than the famous British parliamentarian. Burke, according to Linn, sublimely raved, but in vain. Burkes cautions concerning the French Revolution, said Linn, only hastened the downfall of his wretched cause, traditional society. The revolution in France, exclaimed Linn, is greatis astonishingis glorious. It is, perhaps, not just to say, that the flame was kindled by us, but certainly we contributed to blow and increase it, as France will in other nations; until blaze joining blaze, shall illumine the darkest and remotest corners of the earth.

In the twenty-first century, some evangelicals still draw upon the same Whiggish reading of history as their eighteenth-century forebears. In the early 2000s, the cause of democracy and regime-change in Iraq trumped the historic stability of Iraqi Christiansmuch as the cause of progress and revolution in 1780s France trumped the stability of French Christians. Whiggish optimism typified the views of George W. Bushs evangelical speechwriter Michael Gerson, who proposed unambiguously that the unity of our country depends on idealism at home. Attacks on America and American values, he argued, should be countered with restless reform, idealism, and moral conviction. Evangelical Whigs confidently know history ends in their eschatological victory through cycles of constant socio-ecclesiastic re-creation.

Gerson echoed Linns image of the French Revolution as an uncontrollable blaze of liberty. Only this time, the source of the revolutionary blaze was not Revolutionary France, but George W. Bushs United States. Gerson helped write Bushs second inaugural address, which justified the Iraq War in idealistic terms. Because the United States invaded Iraq in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. The United States, according to Gerson, lit a fire as wella fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power, it burns those who fight its progress, and one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world. Revolutionary France and Bushs United States both, with evangelical support, marched the fires of liberty to Earths supposedly darkest corners at the cost of the lives of many French and Arab Christians.

Today, we need less untrammeled evangelical Whiggery and more latter-day Burkes. We can celebrate liberal freedom, but it must be decisively bounded by historic Western and Christian social precepts. This is not Christian nationalism, but simply a plea for caution and an awareness that our choices matter and have consequences. As Christians, we know that freedom is not inevitable, social change is not always good, and civilization is fragile. As Burke rightly noted, time is required to produce that union of minds which alone can produce all the good we aim at. Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Miles Smithis visiting assistant professor of history at Hillsdale College.

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Evangelicals and Whig History | Miles Smith - First Things

In honor of Pride Month, I wanted to go into the history of a famous LGBTQIA+ character in video games, and being App Triggers overzealous Nintendo fan, I wanted to go with a fascinating character with an equally fascinating journey: Birdo.

See, the year was 1988 and 8-year-old me was sitting on the floor, playing Super Mario Bros. 2 on a wood-grained CRT television on a wood-paneled container because the 80s were BROWN, my dudes. Dont let the media fool you, the 80s were brown and filled with cigarette smoke.

I had gotten to the first mini-boss, a weird pink dinosaur that was holding an orb and spitting eggs at me. What was this creature? I dug out the manual and there she was.

So first off, we learn two things right now. Birdo is trans, and calling her Birdo is actually dead naming here, so for the rest of this article, as I just realized this upon writing, were going to stick with Birdetta.

Birdetta is often considered the first trans character in gaming. Thats heavily debatable but she absolutely was one of the most well-known, especially with her appearing in a Mario game. She had a really fun attack pattern that actually changed as Super Mario Bros. 2 went on. She had really weird noises, and she had a great design that inspired the way Yoshi ended up looking.

Later in her history, Nintendo, kind of dropping the ball, decided to try and recon her. They stated that she was born female. But luckily the internet doesnt forget and neither do other game makers.

References to Birdetta being trans were nodded at all throughout several Nintendo games.

The remarkably weird and over-the-top, but sadly forgotten Nintendo game Captain Rainbow has an interesting Birdetta moment. See, this weirdly vulgar and overly sexually themed world is filled with lesser-known Nintendo characters and none have a more interesting storyline than Birdetta here. See, you find her in a cage.

She explains that she went to the island because she believed she could make her dreams come true there, but instead she was locked up because they felt she was using the wrong bathroom. Its a weird question that involves you having to track down her vibrator to use as some sort of evidence, and if you think finding a vibrator in someones bedroom is weird for a Nintendo game, youve clearly not played Super Mario RPG.

Birdetta being trans was also hinted at in more mainstream titles such as the incredible Mario & Luigis Superstar Saga game. When one of the main characters fights you, he brings out his newest assistant and says this:

Thats right, this, uhdame, got hinted at here.

Now, over the years, Nintendo changed things up and just started retconning out the trans part of her history by claiming she was born female and stayed female but we all know better.

As we called out Nintendo on this, it got to the point that despite being a fan favorite and highly recognizable character, shes been removed from many of the more recent games. The Mario Golf: Super Rush game for the Switch removed her from the roster despite other characters from Super Mario 2, like Ninji and Shyguy, being included. She was removed from Mario Strikers for the Switch despite being a mainstay in the Mario Sports titles. She was even removed from Super Mario Maker 2 and Super Mario Party for the Switch despite appearing in the earlier versions.

Nintendo could do something here. Just tell who the character is and move on. Oh, and for Lakitus sake Nintendo, patch the name to Birdetta.

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A brief history of Birdo: The once and future Queen - App Trigger

The 3M factory in Antwerp, Belgium, near the site for the proposed Oosterweel tunnel.Photo: David Pintents/Belga Mag/AFP (Getty Images)

A sobering investigative report published Friday by Bloomberg puts into the perspective the lengths 3M and local governments have gone to obscure the severity of global exposure to PFOS, or perfluorooctanesulfonic acid. And it wouldnt have come to light if not for a tunnel project in Antwerp.

At the center of the controversy is the Oosterweel Link a proposed subterranean tunnel that would connect ends of the R1, Antwerps not-quite-ring road. This tunnel would run in close proximity to a 3M plant, and directly under ground contaminated with PFOS, a forever chemical used in hydrophobic coatings that is almost impossible to eradicate from soil, water and the human body.

Much of the soil tested directly above the tunnels path was found to contain more than 3 micrograms of PFOS per kilogram of dirt, a level the regional Flemish government considers a health risk. Near the end of the tunnel closest to 3Ms facilities, the soil exceeds 300 micrograms in places.

Construction of the Oosterweel is currently on hold, after a secret arrangement between the tunnels builder, Lantis, and 3M to move truckloads of contaminated soil to the chemical producers grounds was stymied by residents and activists. Some soil had already been transported, and the plan was for the dirt to be assembled into a 21-foot-high security wall radiating toxins that experts have linked to high cholesterol, diabetes, hormone and immune disorders and testicular cancer, among many other things. From Bloomberg:

Last year details of a secret deal came out. In 2018, 3M struck a confidential agreement allowing the most toxic soil from the Oosterweel project to be dumped on its site, with a plan to create a toxic dirt wall of mind-boggling proportions: almost a mile long, 21 feet high, and at least 82 feet wide.

The whole thing is crazy, says Thomas Goorden, an activist who played a key role in revealing 3Ms contamination. Essentially the government decided to suppress the whole PFOS story here in order to build a tunnel. With Goordens help, citizens groups and nongovernmental organizations mounted legal challenges that have halted the construction of the tunnel and the toxic wall of dirt, at least for now.

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The story has all the hallmarks of an environmental health crisis in the modern era, like corporate statements that prioritize brand reputation over doing right by the people you poisoned:

Through a spokesman, 3M denied any criminal behavior. 3M acted responsibly in connection with products containing PFAS and will continue to vigorously defend its record, the spokesman said.

...the exploitation of nonsensical legal loopholes that would be hilarious if it didnt directly shorten peoples life expectancies:

Lantis argued Flemish regulations allowed it to move the soil without treating it as toxic waste as long as it served a function, in this case a security wall. Lantis estimated it would cost 63 million to move all that soil. 3Ms cost would be 75,000.

...and government officials that have perfected the art of pointing fingers at everyone but themselves:

The parliamentary committee investigating the scandal issued its report at the end of March and concluded that 3M is to blame for the historical PFAS contamination in the area. It accused the company of not communicating openly about the pollution, but it didnt hold anyone in government accountable, despite ministers approving the project.

Now 3M faces a criminal lawsuit in Belgium for illegally dumping waste. The piece is well worth a read, especially because this is a danger at everyones doorstep. 3M was named in an average of more than three PFOS-related lawsuits daily last year, per Bloomberg Law. 3M was aware of the consequences of PFOS exposure 50 years ago, but only in 2018 was it forced to settle a lawsuit from the Minnesota Attorney General for $850 million, in which it was let off the hook and permitted to admit no wrongdoing. It wont be that easy in a criminal case.

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A Tunnel Project Has Revealed 3M's History of Dumping Toxic Chemicals in Antwerp - Jalopnik

In 2013, Apples chief executive, Tim Cook, said that gadgets we wear on our wrists could be a profound area of technology.

It wasnt. Maybe you own a Fitbit or an Apple Watch, but that category of digital devices hasnt been as momentous as Cook and many other tech optimists hoped.

A half-decade ago, Pokmon Go persuaded people to roam their neighborhoods to chase animated characters that they could see by pointing a smartphone camera at their surroundings. Cook was among the corporate executives who said that the game might be the beginning of a transformative melding of digital and real life, sometimes called augmented reality or A.R.

I think A.R. can be huge, Cook told Apple investors in 2016.

It wasnt. Augmented reality, virtual reality and similar technologies remain promising and occasionally useful, but they havent been huge yet.

Today, Cook and a zillion other people are betting that a combination of those two technologies will become the next major phase of the internet. Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Snap are steering toward a future in which well wear computers on our heads for interactions that fuse physical and digital life. (You and Mark Zuckerberg can call this the metaverse. I wont.)

Given technologists spotty record of predicting digital revolutions, its worth examining why their pronouncements havent come true yet and if this time, theyre right.

There are two ways of looking at predictions of wearable computers and immersive digital worlds over the past decade. The first is that all the past inventions were necessary steps on the path to something grand.

People mocked Google Glass after the company released a test version of the computer headset in 2013, but the glasses might have been a building block. Computer chips, software, cameras and microphones have since improved so much that digital headgear might soon be less obtrusive and more useful.

Likewise, Pokmon Go, virtual reality video games and apps to check out a new lipstick through augmented reality might not have been for everyone, but they helped techies refine the ideas and made some people excited about the possibilities of more engrossing digital experiences.

My colleagues have reported that next year Apple may ship a ski-goggle-like computer headset and aims to offer virtual- and augmented-reality experiences. Apple gave only hints about that work during an event on Monday to unveil iPhone software tweaks, but the company has been laying the groundwork for such technologies to be its potential next big product category.

The second possibility is that technologists might be wrong again about the potential of the next iterations of Google Glass plus Pokmon Go. Maybe more refined features, longer battery life, less dorky eyewear and more entertaining things to do on face computers are not the most essential ingredients for the next big thing in technology.

One issue is that technologists havent yet given us good reasons for why we would want to live in the digital-plus-real world that they imagine for us.

I have written before that any new technology inevitably competes with the smartphone, which is at the center of our digital lives. Everything that comes next must answer the question: What does this thing do that my phone cant?

That challenge doesnt mean that technology is frozen where it is today. I have been excited by workouts that make it seem as if a trainer is coaching me along a virtual mountain lake, and I can imagine new ways of connecting with people far away that feel more intimate than Zoom. Apple in particular has a track record of taking existing technology concepts like smartphones and streaming music and making them appealing for the masses.

But the more rich our current digital lives have become, the more difficult it will be for us to embrace something new. Thats something that those past and current predictions of a more immersive computing future havent really reckoned with.

Just one of the cruel and formulaic hoaxes after violent tragedies: After mass shootings or other deadly events, online posts often claim that Jordie Jordan was one of the victims. My colleague Tiffany Hsu explains whats behind this repeated false campaign and others like it.

Is this an excuse to get out of a bad deal? After a recent drop in stock prices of many tech companies, it now looks as if Elon Musk is paying too much to buy Twitter. Thats useful context for the complaint from Musks lawyers on Monday that the company refused to give him data on automated Twitter accounts and for a threat (again) to back out of the deal, my colleagues Lauren Hirsch and Mike Isaac reported. (DealBook has more about this.)

Our shopping habits are shifting the U.S. work force: Employment in transportation and warehousing jobs like truckers, Amazon warehouse workers and delivery couriers reached its largest share of the work force since records have been kept, Axios reported. This is a decade-long employment change, turbocharged by our appetite to spend more on stuff rather than services during the pandemic.

Related: The jobs that are hot right now restaurants, warehousing these are things that wont last forever, Mary C. Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, told my colleague Jeanna Smialek.

David Scott creates Rube Goldberg-style creations with the help of computers, including this concert of marbles on xylophone-like bars. (My colleague Maya Salam recommended the videos from Scott, who goes by the name Enbiggen on social media.)

We want to hear from you. Tell us what you think of this newsletter and what else youd like us to explore. You can reach us at ontech@nytimes.com.

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A Short History of Tech Predictions - The New York Times

Lost Renaissance masterpiece found in England, medieval saber found in Greece, hidden cities uncovered in the Amazon.Renaissance Masterpiece Worth $320,000 Found Gathering Dust On An Elderly Womans Bedroom Wall

For decades, an elderly woman living in a small bungalow in north London kept an old oil painting of Mary and the baby Jesus above her bed. Inherited from her father upon his death 30 years ago, this keepsake gathered dust as it hung off-kilter on her bedroom wall.

But when she was forced to enter a nursing home last year, her family brought in an auction house to see if selling any of her possessions might help cover the mounting bills. Then they were shocked to learn that the dusty old painting in her bedroom was actually a lost masterpiece from the Renaissance worth $320,000.

Read the full story of this one-of-a-kind discovery here.

Hundreds of years ago, a battle broke out at a monastery along the Greek coast. There, raiders likely from Turkey clashed with Byzantine locals. One side wielded a terrifying saber, and archaeologists have found the weapon among the monasterys ruins.

The 18-inch saber was first found between 2000 and 2001 at the ruins of a coastal Christian monastery about 40 miles away from Thessaloniki, Greece, but recent excavations have revealed more details about its past.

Dig deeper in this report.

Legends of lost cities hidden deep within the Amazon captivated Europeans for centuries. The Spanish were convinced of a city of gold named El Dorado. British explorer Percy Fawcett risked his life trying to find the mythical Lost City of Z. While he vanished forever, modern archaeologists just found the ruins of a long-lost ancient network of cities in Bolivia.

Read on here.

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This Week In History News, Jun. 5 - 11 - All That's Interesting