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Like many of Western civilization's finest achievements, the long and scrumptious history of waffles can be traced to ancient Greece, when Athenians cooked obelios - flat cakes between two metal plates - over burning embers. The word waffle is related to wafer, as in the communion wafer - one of the only victuals that early Catholics could eat during fasting periods since wafers didn't contain animal fats, eggs or dairy products. During the Middle Ages, when bakeries decided to compete with monasteries in the wafer market, the secular - and considerably tastier - waffle was born. (See the top 10 food trends...
...been 50 years since the small but cunning warrior Asterix and his podgy stonemason pal Obelix began battling the armies of Julius Caesar in their remote village on the Brittany coast - the only part of ancient Gaul never conquered by the Romans. The latest episode in the pair's comic-strip adventures was released in France last month to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first Asterix story, written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo for the magazine Pilote. The new book, Asterix and Obelix's Birthday: The Golden Book, is the 34th in a series...
...Ancient Rome is famous for its public bathhouses - the Baths of Caracalla are six times larger than St. Paul's Cathedral and could serve 1,600 people at once - and the Roman commitment to hygiene didn't stop with just bathing. At one point Rome boasted 144 communal lavatories. The city's giant toilets, with their long, benchlike seats, were not used every day; for the most part, Romans threw their waste onto the streets...
...there is some comfort in knowing that there is a set of ancient, celestial guiding principles, a galactically correct course of action. If anything, horoscopes make me think about the big picture in a way I haven’t before, especially at Harvard. It’s easy to go through the motions, to think of the little things, to feel independent, responsible, and alone...
...court-martial - essentially a military trial - is the oldest system of justice in the United States, predating even the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. The roots of military law stretch back to ancient Rome, where it was adopted to enforce discipline within the ranks, especially among mercenaries. In 1775, the Continental Congress met at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War and adopted the Articles of War based on Britain's military code. The system was not heavily used in World War I, but in World War II some 2 million people were court-martialed for varying offenses, resulting...