Swobodin v Brně

Many people think that the continent name ‘Africa’ comes from Ifriqia, the old name of Tunisia which also means ‘The separator’, because it separates the orient from the Magreb. However, Romans used to call Tunisia ‘Africa’ too; so what’s wrong?
Something is sure, is that the name is “Tunisian”, but it’s not Arabic. Here’s the […]

I have released a 0.1 version of a pseudo WordPress plugin which displays events that occured in the same day / month along the history.
Pseudo, becuase it’s doesn’t have plugins features; I can even say it’s independent from WordPress. It consists of 2 MySQL tables: the main (wp_todayevents) and the backup one (wp_todayevents_archive) and […]

لما قتل جعفر بن يحكي بكى عليه أبو نواس فقيل له أتبكي على جعفر وأنت هجوته فقال كان ذلك لركوب الهوى وقد بلغه واالله إني قلت فيه
ولست وإن أطنبت في وصف جعفر            بأول إنسان خرى في ثيابه
فكتب يدفع إليه عشرة آلاف درهم ليغسل بها ثيابه
 
قال الجاحظ قلت لبعض المعلمين مالي لا أرى لك […]

In 1918, because he was a legal advisor to bankers, the famous chess player Ossip Bernstein was arrested in Odessa by the Cheka and scheduled for execution. As the firing squad lined up, a superior officer asked to see the list of prisoners’ names and, seeing Bernstein’s name, demanded whether he was the International […]

History is not honest at all! When powerful people write History, it becomes subjective and non-sense!
We all know that Vladimir Lenin was with Trotsky against Stalin and has criticized Stalin many times especially after the conflict between Lenin’s wife Nadia Krupskaja and Josip Stalin in 1922~1924. However, in Lenin’s works published in the 70’s […]

¿Quién no conoce el famoso poema escrito por José Martí en 1891, y interpretado por los mejores cantores cubanos? Así, Guantanamera es una de las canciones más populares del mundo, un canto a la libertad, a la solidaridad, al orgullo.
 
Guantanamera
Guajira Guantanamera
Guantanamera
Guajira Guantanamera
 
Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crecen las palmas
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar […]

Hic tibi ne qua morae fuerint dispendia tanti,
quamuis increpitent socii et ui cursus in altum
uela uocet, possisque sinus implere secundos,
quin adeas uatem precibusque oracula poscas
ipsa canat uocemque uolens atque ora resoluat.
illa tibi Italiae populos uenturaque bella
et quo quemque modo fugiasque ferasque laborem
expediet, cursusque dabit uenerata secundos.
haec sunt quae nostra liceat te uoce moneri.
 
Translation
Think it […]

Central Misperception
Leon Trotsky, who spent much of his time during World War I playing chess in Vienna’s Cafe Central, was regarded by his acquiantances as simple, harmless, even slightly pathetic.
In March 1917, the Austrian foreign minister was notified by an excited subordinate that a revolution had broken out in Russia. “Russia is not a land […]

In 1946, Winston Churchill traveled to Fulton, Missouri, to deliver a speech and to be present at the dedication of a bust in his honor. After his speech, Churchill was approached by a rather attractive and well-endowed woman. “Mr. Churchill,” she declared, “I traveled over a hundred miles this morning for the unveiling of […]

Tous les mardis, je regarde la version arabe de “Qui veut gagner des millions”, la seule différence avec la version européenne, c’est que les Arabes se sont entendus pour ne pas s’entendre : en effet, si le candidat décide de faire appel à l’avis du public, son doute s’agrandit : rarement on trouve une […]

Abba Eban, one of Israel’s founding fathers (…) described the exchange he had with the Soviet ambassador to Israel just after the Six-Day War. The ambassador said that because of the serious policy differences between them, the USSR had decided to break ties with Israel. Eban replied that, on the contrary, those differences should […]

If you are going through hell, keep going.
 
A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
 
The further back I look, the further forward I can see.
 
The price of greatness is responsibility.
 
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
 
In time of war, when […]

Until 1862, there was no word in the Italian language called “mafia”.
Some people say it’s the acronym of “Morte Alla Francia, Italia Anela” (Death To the French Is Italy’s Cry). Another theory affirms that it’s an apocope of MiA FamilIA (my family) du to the “family’s system” of the mafia.
Former U.S. mob don […]

Ivan IV (August 25, 1530 – March 18, 1584) was the first ruler of Russia to assume the title of tsar. His long reign saw the conquest of Tartary and Siberia and subsequent transformation of Russia into a multiethnic and multiconfessional state.
Du to his exploits, Ivan was called Groznyj(Гро́зный) which was been wrongly […]

Ever wondered where did the word “assassin” come from?
A persian missionary who converted a community in the late XIth century in the heart of the Elburz Mountains of northern Iran called Hassan-i-Sabbah had a secret sect that used to commit “religious” crimes under the influence of the hashish; this sect was called al-hashashin (الحشاشين) […]