Quaequam Blog!

Tag: history

  • Microscope: roleplaying history fractally

    I’ve been exploring quite a lot of roleplaying games recently, but Microscope is probably the most unique I’ve come across thus far. Arguably, it isn’t even a roleplaying game, although roleplaying is part of it. The goal of the players is not to play a character but to create a fictional history, potentially spanning tens…

  • Elizabeth: The Golden Age – too much wind

    I loved Elizabeth, the original Shekhar Kapur / Cate Blanchett film. Sure it was historically inaccurate, but it was done with such aplomb. Basically the film was The Godfather Part I in a frock. So I was expecting Elizabeth: The Golden Age to be the Godfather Part II. Sadly, it was rather closer in quality…

  • Charley Junior’s School Days

    I’ve just come across this public information film from 1949 (or try here) about the post-war education reforms. With hindsight, I’m a bit ambivalent about the politics, but the sentiment is touching, and the quality of the animation is breath-taking. Remember: this is a public information film. I was looking for a different one involving…

  • What I learned today…

    William Huskisson MP, the first person to be killed by a steam locomotive (the Rocket no less), was friends with Thomas Hare, the inventor of the single transferable voting system, who only narrowly escaped death seconds before. And they told me the Electoral Reform Society reception would be a dull affair…