World Affairs Council 2012 Student Diplomat Junior Model UN


Image by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Our annual Student Diplomat Program Junior Model United Nations was held at Temple University on May 14 and 15, 2012. Hundreds of middle students from across the Philadelphia region simulated the roles of countries, rapporteurs and committee chairs, covering complex issues such as water scarcity, crisis and recovery in Somalia and maternal and child health.

Special thanks to the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

World Affairs Council 2012 Student Diplomat Junior Model UN


Image by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Our annual Student Diplomat Program Junior Model United Nations was held at Temple University on May 14 and 15, 2012. Hundreds of middle students from across the Philadelphia region simulated the roles of countries, rapporteurs and committee chairs, covering complex issues such as water scarcity, crisis and recovery in Somalia and maternal and child health.

Special thanks to the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

World Affairs Council 2012 Student Diplomat Junior Model UN


Image by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Our annual Student Diplomat Program Junior Model United Nations was held at Temple University on May 14 and 15, 2012. Hundreds of middle students from across the Philadelphia region simulated the roles of countries, rapporteurs and committee chairs, covering complex issues such as water scarcity, crisis and recovery in Somalia and maternal and child health.

Special thanks to the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

Scholars of ancient history and IT experts at Stanford University have collaborated to create a novel way to study Ancient Rome. ORBIS, a geospatial network model, allows visitors to experience the strategy behind travel in antiquity. (Find a handy tutorial for using the system on the Web and YouTube). The ORBIS map includes about 750 mostly urban settlements of the Roman period. Users of the model can select a point of origin and destination for a trip and then choose from a number of options to determine either the cheapest, fastest or shortest route. Select river or  open sea transport for the cheapest route. Pick road travel by pack animal or wagon for the shortest, but most expensive, trip. In creating ORBIS, historians used ancient maps and records along with modern-day weather information and results from experiments sailing in ancient-style ships to calculate the travel conditions of 2,000 years ago.

Aside from the site’s interactivity, there’s enough discussion in ORBIS about ancient Roman transport to satisfy the biggest history buff but the real fun is in exploring how people and goods were moved across the empire. Cities on the edge of the empire, for example, were more expensive to transport to, even if they weren’t that far away. All trips vary in time and cost, however, depending upon the time of year and mode of travel. The fastest route to deliver wheat from Carthago (modern-day Tunisia) to Londinium (London) would take more than 27 days under the best travel conditions (during July). Cargo would move across the Mediterranean by open sea, across southwestern France by riverboat and along the coast to southeastern England. The cost? A little less than 8 dinarii per kilogram of wheat using a donkey for land transport. Compare that to other routes that eliminate the open sea during winter months, or road travel to save money, and you’re close to understanding why it was no picnic ruling the Roman Empire.

Play Caesar: Travel Ancient Rome with Stanford’s Interactive Map is a post from: Open Culture. You can follow Open Culture on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and by Email.

Open Culture

World Affairs Council 2012 Student Diplomat Junior Model UN


Image by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Our annual Student Diplomat Program Junior Model United Nations was held at Temple University on May 14 and 15, 2012. Hundreds of middle students from across the Philadelphia region simulated the roles of countries, rapporteurs and committee chairs, covering complex issues such as water scarcity, crisis and recovery in Somalia and maternal and child health.

Special thanks to the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

World Affairs Council 2012 Student Diplomat Junior Model UN


Image by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Our annual Student Diplomat Program Junior Model United Nations was held at Temple University on May 14 and 15, 2012. Hundreds of middle students from across the Philadelphia region simulated the roles of countries, rapporteurs and committee chairs, covering complex issues such as water scarcity, crisis and recovery in Somalia and maternal and child health.

Special thanks to the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

World Affairs Council 2012 Student Diplomat Junior Model UN


Image by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Our annual Student Diplomat Program Junior Model United Nations was held at Temple University on May 14 and 15, 2012. Hundreds of middle students from across the Philadelphia region simulated the roles of countries, rapporteurs and committee chairs, covering complex issues such as water scarcity, crisis and recovery in Somalia and maternal and child health.

Special thanks to the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

Last week we played for you the only known recording of Sigmund Freud’s voice (1938). Now it’s time to revive the voice of another intellectual giant, Albert Einstein. In this recording, the physicist offers the briefest explanation of the world’s most famous equation, E=mc2. When was this recorded? We’re unfortunately not sure. Let’s just say somewhere between the time Einstein worked out the equation in 1905 and his death in 1955. Somewhere in those 50 years, give or take a few. Don’t miss the recently-opened Einstein archive and many free Physics courses in our collection of Free Online Courses from top universities.

Now it’s time for more good culture links, all previously featured on our Twitter stream.

BBC Radio 4 Profile of William S. Burroughs Narrated by Laurie Anderson (2008)

The New Yorker Wants You to Write a Facebook Status Update for any Literary Character

The Inequality Speech That TED Won’t Show You and Why

New Yorker Covers That Were Too Provocative to Print

Oxford University’s Lectures on Great Writers and Why They Inspire (on iTunes)

Ancient Language Discovered on Clay Tablets Found in 2800 Year Old Middle Eastern Palace

Graphing Jane Austen: Using Science to Extrapolate the Human Condition from Victorian Literature

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Live in Sanremo, Italy 1963. 54 Minutes of Vintage Jazz

Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Prize Winning Chemist, Recounts His Moving Story of Hiding from the Nazis

Janis Joplin’s Last Interview on The Dick Cavett Show

Picasso’s Light Drawings: Still Shining from 1949

Albanian Refugee Works as Janitor by Day, Student by Night, Earns Columbia Degree with Honors at 52

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or Email, and we’ll bring the best intelligent media right to you. 

Einstein Explains His Famous Formula, E=mc², in Original Audio (Plus More Cultural Curiosities) is a post from: Open Culture. You can follow Open Culture on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and by Email.

Open Culture

World Affairs Council 2012 Student Diplomat Junior Model UN


Image by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Our annual Student Diplomat Program Junior Model United Nations was held at Temple University on May 14 and 15, 2012. Hundreds of middle students from across the Philadelphia region simulated the roles of countries, rapporteurs and committee chairs, covering complex issues such as water scarcity, crisis and recovery in Somalia and maternal and child health.

Special thanks to the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

World Affairs Council 2012 Student Diplomat Junior Model UN


Image by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Our annual Student Diplomat Program Junior Model United Nations was held at Temple University on May 14 and 15, 2012. Hundreds of middle students from across the Philadelphia region simulated the roles of countries, rapporteurs and committee chairs, covering complex issues such as water scarcity, crisis and recovery in Somalia and maternal and child health.

Special thanks to the Fox School of Business at Temple University.

World Affairs Council 2012 Student Diplomat Junior Model UN


Image by World Affairs Council of Philadelphia
Our annual Student Diplomat Program Junior Model United Nations was held at Temple University on May 14 and 15, 2012. Hundreds of middle students from across the Philadelphia region simulated the roles of countries, rapporteurs and committee chairs, covering complex issues such as water scarcity, crisis and recovery in Somalia and maternal and child health.

Special thanks to the Fox School of Business at Temple University.