The Velvet Revolution: 20 years onOn the 20th anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Revolution”, Timothy Garton Ash looks at the other nonviolent uprisings it helped inspire over the proceeding two decades.
History
How the Nazis stole Christmas
A new exhibition of Nazi paraphernalia in Cologne shows how the Nazi Party tried to take Christ out of Christmas with swastika cookies and hand grenade tree decorations. Many of their “paganised” Christmas carols are still unwittingly sung today.
Meet the man who killed the letter
In 1971, engineer Ray Tomlinson was asked to find something interesting to do with the newly created ARPANET computer network. So he invented email, inadvertently changing human communication forever.
Just a ripple in the global refugee crisis
Australia does not have refugee “crisis”: 78 asylum seekers is just a drop in the ocean of the world’s displaced people, explains Peter Mares in this excellent overview of global refugee movements and our (relatively minor) within it.
In defense of Hamid Karzai
Afghan President Hamid Karzai may not be a saint or a statesman, but take a look at some of his predecessors, who were responsible for torture, slaughter, dictatorships and harbouring terrorists, says Bret Stephens. No wonder Afghans are “a collective sigh of relief”.
Why the fall of the Berlin Wall didn’t really matter
Forget the fall of the Wall in 1989, says Niall Ferguson, the truly revolutionary, world-changing events took place a decade earlier: the USSR invaded Afghanistan, the UK elected Thatcher, China began opening up to the West, and Iran became an Islamic Republic.
Why newspapers act like political parties
British PM Gordon Brown has hit out at The Sun newspaper for trying to “become a political party”. Where has Gordon Brown been living all his life? asks Roy Greenslade: newspapers have been acting like political parties for more than a century.
Video of the Day: The 1896 Melbourne Cup
Footage from the 1896 Melbourne Cup: slightly fewer drunken women throwing up champagne all over their frocks, but pretty much the same as it is over 100 years later.
The 100 defining moments of the decade
As the noughties (and hopefully the use of that awful term) winds to a close, the Telegraph names its 100 defining cultural moments of the era, from Kylie’s hotpants to the invention of the iPod to 9/11.
50 years of TIME in Australia (and a few less-important islands, too)
TIME magazine is celebrating 50 years of publication in Australia (well, the “South Pacific”, but it pretty much ignores everyone else), including a tribute to its pick of most influential Aussies of the last five decades: Robert Menzies, Germaine Greer, Victor Chang, Eddie Mabo, and Tim Flannery.
Keating, a rusted-on luvvie, leaves a legacy
Guy Rundle’s recent assault on Paul Keating’s cultural cred was irritating and thrilling by turns, writes arts reporter Stephen Feneley — it shouldn’t be so surprising arts folk have such fond memories of Keating given what came after him.
Video of the Day: The history of Afghanistan in three minutes
Struggling to follow the ongoing dramas in Afghanistan? Brush up on a few thousand years of Afghan history with the ever-informative and laconic Ze Frank.
The hastily scribbled note that changed TV forever
In February 2001, veteran UK TV executive Alan Boyd met with Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller to discuss an idea that would change the face of television forever. Read the notepage of ideas from that meeting that became the blueprint for the Idol phenomenon
Hooray for cliché!
Leave clichés alone! says James Parker (especially that little viral YouTube classic): adages, catchphrases and idioms go viral for a reason, and writers should use them with pride.
The death of Tozer and Keating’s romancing of genius
The death of pianist Geoffrey Tozer raises questions about Paul Keating and the attitudes about art and civilisation that he projected — and continues to project — onto this country.
Mark Scott’s fall of Rome fallacy
ABC chief Mark Scott’s comparison of the ongoing media revolution and the fall of the Roman Empire hardly fills one with confidence, says Trevor Cook: after the “fall” came the Dark Ages.
That dirty colonial war: the Boer conflict
The messy conflict that was the Boer War provided grist to the mill of anti-war opponents, just as it excited pro-war enthusiasts of the day, writes Binoy Kampmark.
VIDEO: The Wizard of Oz munchkins: where are they now?
It’s been 70 years since the release of classic (and let’s face it, still slightly creepy) film The Wizard of Oz. Newsweek has tracked down the film’s five surviving “munchkins” to share some on-set memories.
Video of the Day: Oooh, swish! 1930s futuristic fashion predictions
Fashion designers in the 1930s predict what the fashion-forward lady and gent would be wearing in “AD2000”, with a few hits and a lot of misses.
VIDEO: The vlog of Anne Frank
The only known footage of famous teenage Holocaust victim Anne Frank has been posted on YouTube, depicting eerily happier times only a year before she went into hiding.
Keith Murdoch speaks from beyond the grave
Every man (and his dog) may be weighing in on the future of the news, but this is something else: Sir Keith Murdoch speak in 1937 on the convergence of media, with words that foreshadow the current debate over newspapers and the internet.
VIDEO: Highlights from China’s 60th anniversary parade
Watch as President Hu Jintao passes rows and rows of Chinese troops of equal height. The pan-in across Tiananmen Square at the start is particularly spectacular:
What you’re not seeing is protest. And with good reason. Chinese authorities moved petitioners back to their home towns ahead of the celebrations:
Still, who couldn’t warm to the unbeatable thrill of […]
Video of the Day: Getting tanked at The New York Times
Former NYT journo Gay Talese recalls the alcohol-fuelled newsrooms of yore, which he claims made the characters on Mad Men look like amateurs. But did a diet of booze and smokes really make for more creative writers?
Death of the Polaroid
The last roll of Polaroid film will pass its use-by date next month, marking the end of a photographic era. The Telegraph looks back at 60 years of romance and alchemy.
Lessons in aviation history: propellers
Ben Sandilands reflects on a time before jet engines, when DC-6Bs, Vickers Viscounts and Lockheed Electras ruled the major routes — and a Melbourne-Sydney flight was 20 minutes faster than it is today.
