Katy Perry is breaking records this year.

Katy Perry at the premiere of "The Smurfs" at the Ziegfeld Theater on July 24, 2011 in New York City. (WireImage)

The singer’s new film, “The Smurfs,” opened at #2 at the Box Office and she is the most nominated artist this year with nine VMA nods, although she has not won an actual Moonman yet.

Perry is now close to becoming the first female artist to have five #1 hit singles from the same album on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Michael Jackson first accomplished this record with his album Bad.

The singer’s new hit “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” is quickly moving up the charts and now sits at #2.

Perry’s previous #1 songs from Teenage Dream are “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” and “E.T.”

ROME — This is not a time-machine but it comes close. It is called "ROMA SPARITA" [Vanished Rome] and it is a group formed on Facebook dedicated to the Eternal City. The group has over 70 thousand members but the number rises by the hour. They are all fans of Rome, or rather of the city it used to be. The group was created with the intention of rediscovering Rome as it once was through photographs.

"This is an act of love for the memories of this city" states the description of this group, which has become an instant phenomenon on-line. Its objective is to "make available to everyone, free of charge, at least a preview of original photographs portraying Rome as it used to be."

This journey into the past has been organized by ordinary internet surfers with a passion for history or photography, as well as a number of professional photographers, archaeologists and art historians.

And so we have the Eternal City’s historical and urban evolution portrayed in over seven thousand photographs. The photos are organized according to the city’s neighborhoods, but there are also collections of "Scenes from daily life," "Rome and the cinema," "Books on Rome," "Means of transport," "Paintings and Drawings." All users may upload their images on condition they are not dated after 1990. The captions are now being translated into English, confirming the group’s international success.

Turning the pages of the various collections, one sees once again the customs and traditions of a past of which there remain very few witnesses.

One discovers, for example that snails used to be sold on festive days in Piazza San Giovanni. There are images of when the market was still held in Piazza Navona and not in Campo dei Fiori, or the shops that used to exist under the arcades of Teatro di Marcello.

Many are the photographs and postings that give life to a real interactive manual of the Eternal City, all created by Facebook users. A new way, perhaps, of discovering and studying the history of Rome.

First, watch this video from The Boston Globe.

Then read Andrew Ryan’s story about the station.

Do we really need to say anything else here?

Well, we will.

This is ridiculous. The City of Boston, The Hub, the birthplace of the American Revolution — a place that prides itself so much on history, should forget the need to save every nickel and dime in this economy for one second and take a bold step toward preservation within the city limits.

The East Boston immigration station should be declared a historic landmark. It should be preserved. The city (and the federal government) should restore it and re-open it as a museum.

With all this talk floating around the city about the future of East Boston, the rebirth of East Boston, the safety of East Boston, what could be better for Boston and East Boston than to create our own touristy version of Ellis Island?

It is unfathomable that this city would not do everything in its collective power to step in and work on the side of history. The social and economic benefit of having this waterfront location modernized is unmeasurable. But if we must quantify it: restaurants, stores, gift shops, tourist dollars, and safer homes all add up simply to good things for the city and for the East Boston neighborhood.

He was raised as an American aristocrat. As the eldest grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt (niece of Teddy and 5th cousin to her husband) he’s twice a Roosevelt, a name which means wealth and status. With his sister, he moved into the White House at age three and became a child celebrity.

Now at 79 and bearing a remarkable resemblance to his presidential granddad, Curtis Roosevelt was at the Boston Athenaeum recently promoting the paperback release of his childhood memoir “Too Close to the Sun: Growing Up in the Shadow of my Grandparents, Franklin and Eleanor.” During his visit he talked about his family and shared some thoughts about the differences between FDR’s presidency and the challenges facing Barack Obama.

Sistie and Buzzie

His book talks about growing up in “the goldfish bowl” of public attention. He writes that even before his grandfather was elected “we were used to the intrusions of waving newspaper reporters and the flare of flash bulbs.” Once he moved to the White House:

The press milked the phenomenon of the towheaded Roosevelt moppets, and we became a full-blown, pint-sized double act. My family called me Buzzie and our tabloid moniker became “Sistie and Buzzie” — we were as familiar as five-year old movie star Shirley Temple to a nation hungry for distraction from breadlines and boxcars.

But he also describes his boyhood as a strange and lonely one. He was raised in palatial surroundings by Black nannies in white uniforms. His dad was out of the picture. His sister, three years older, was the only child he played with. He hungered for affection from the frosty Roosevelt women, especially grandmother Eleanor who maintained an “arm’s-length relationship with her children” and with little Buzzie as well.

Advice for Mrs. O?

I asked Curtis Roosevelt if he has any advice for Mrs. Obama that might benefit her daughters’ experience in the White House. Speaking with a posh accent like one rarely hears outside of movies he told me, “I wouldn’t dare give advice. Those children are different as all children are different. They certainly are very different than my sister and I.”

He added “it was totally different era” and said that even intense attention given to him and his sister “doesn’t compare with the intrusiveness of the media today.”

The difference between our era of the Obama First Family and the days of Roosevelt are as dramatic as history itself. “You probably forget,” he told me in answer to a question about his nanny, “that when I grew up, the nation’s capitol, Washington DC, was a Jim Crowe town — that’s the way it was in Washington.”

Bay State Roosevelts

Boston Athenaeum and the Adams House at Harvard University were Curtis Roosevelt’s last stops on a tour across the United States. While the Roosevelts are generally associated with New York State, and France is now home to Curtis Roosevelt, Massachusetts has been home to a few Roosevelts as well (besides those that just passed through to attend Harvard).

Among these local Roosevelts are three of Teddy’s great-grandkids: Mark Roosevelt (1994 Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate), Tweed Roosevelt (Chairman of Roosevelt China Investments, a Boston firm), and Susan Roosevelt Weld (wife of former governor William Weld).

ROME — Excavations by a team of French archaeologists in el-Shawaf, Saqqara, Egypt have brought to light the burial chamber of the queen of the Fourth Dynasty, Behenu, wife of Pepi I (Merytawy) or Pepi II (Netjerkhau). The tomb was discovered when removing sand from the Behenu pyramid.

Saqqara is a vast necropolis in Egypt, 18 miles south of the modern city of Cairo.

Saqqara, the terraced Djoser pyramid.

The Saqqara necropolis covers an area of about 3 miles by 1 mile.

While Memphis was the capital of the Ancient Kingdom, Saqqara was its royal necropolis at least until the Third Dynasty.

Although replaced by the royal necropolis of Giza, and later by the one in the Valley of the Kings near Thebes, it remained an important place of burial and worship for over 3,000 years, until the Ptolemaic period and the Roman occupation.

The recently discovered chamber, although greatly damaged with the queen’s mummy destroyed, still contained two internal walls with hieroglyphs known as "Pyramid Texts."

These texts were widely used in royal tombs, both engraved on the walls and on the sarcophagi during the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties (2465-2150 B.C. circa).

Basically, these were special prayers for protecting the dead, bringing their bodies back to life after death and helping them ascend to heaven.

The French expedition is working at the Pepi I necropolis in Saqqara, where, since 2007, they have already discovered 75 feet of the Behenu pyramid and the Pyramid Texts.

Since the beginning of the project in 1989, Collombert’s team had already found six pyramids that belonged to queens from the reigns of Pepi I and Pepi II. These tombs have been attributed to queens Inenek, Nubunet, Meretites II, Ankhespepy III, Miha and one still to be identified.

ROME — The Alto Adige Archaeological Museum or S¼dtiroler Arch¤ologiemuseum, centrally located in Via Museo is famous for hosting "–tzi", the Iceman, and contains all the finds in the Province of Bolzano.

To obtain an exhaustive idea of the museum’s underlying theme and acquire information on guided tours as well as visits for younger members of the public, it is well worth clicking on the website (in Italian, German and English)  http://www.iceman.it which has a lot of information presented in great detail.

This museum is almost always associated to the "–tzi", one of the most famous and important mummies in the world. In fact the collections at the Alto Adige Archaeological Museum is rich in finds of every kind and is chronologically organized from Palaeolithic and Mesolithic times (15,000 B.C.) to the Carolingian era.

One section presents in detail all aspects of the Iceman, with a medical and anthropological profile as well as the characteristics and meaning of the clothes and equipment he had with him when he died, all made understandable to the public thanks to many informative texts as well as video and multimedia stations.

It was a great stroke of luck to find the Similaum mummy in its entirety, preserved only because it was covered by the ice. The conservation of organic archaeological finds such as fibers, fur or skin requires specific environmental conditions.

Walking across the Alps, the Iceman carried a container made of birch bark in which he kept cinders to be used for starting fires. To ensure the container did not burn, and to keep the cinders lit, he had wrapped them in recently picked Norwegian maple leaves which served as isolating material. The extraordinary information they give us, is that these leaves tell us the time of year of –tzi’s death. The fact they still contained chlorophyll indicates that they were freshly picked and therefore it must have been between June and September. The Similaun mummy (known also –tzi and often referred to in English as the Iceman) is an archaeological find from the Otztal Alps (the Similaun glacier, at an altitude of 3,210 meters (10,531 feet), at the feet of the mountain by the same name) on the border between Italy and the Austrian Tyrol –tztal Valley (on the Italian side in the province of Bolzano) on September 19, 1991.

Boston has two Athenaeums

Both on Beacon Hill,

One is for scholars with books by the score

The other for lads who seek life in the roar.

The Boston Athenaeum’s lights are bright

But the Howard Athenaeum’s locked up tight

Some Purist got himself a Jurist

And slapped a padlock on the door

– "Some Coward Closed the Old Howard" — song by Frank W. Hatch

The Howard Athenaeum caught fire around lunchtime, drawing crowds from around Scollay Square. It was an impromptu (or suspiciously coincidental) farewell performance for an audience kept out for nearly 10 years, ever since Boston Vice showed a clandestine film of burlesque divas Rose la Rose, Princess Domain and Irma the Body to acting Mayor Francis X Ahern. Outraged at the overly "mobile abdomens" and suggestive "sinuosity" of the dancers, the mayor ordered it closed on grounds of obscenity, declaring, "I positively will not tolerate any filthy or indecent shows in our city." For the crowd watching the roof give way to the flames, the old Howard meant much more. Its sturdy fa§ade of Quincy granite had served as a load-bearing wall for the community since before their grandfathers’ time. In an area known for its seediness and decay, the Old Howard spoke of better days, when Scollay blinged with diamonds, wore fur coats and literally shook (and shimmied) its moneymaker.

If some in the street shed tears that June afternoon in 1961, others in City Hall clinked glasses. The fortuitous destruction of the theater removed the last bulwark against B.R.A’s (Boston Redevelopment Authority) next ambitious plan, a shining new Government Center to wrest Boston from its urban decay and shed the drab, brick Dickensian image it was known for. As Scollay Square had acted as the rivet that held old Boston together, linking Beacon Hill, the port and the North and West Ends, it was also the ideal location for a new center, of a new Boston. By ‘59, the West End has been razed; the North severed and banished behind Boston’s other "Green Monster," the central artery. Now it was Scollay’s turn. A drive to restore and reopen the Howard was the last bastion of spirited defense against the gathering wrecking balls, which upon its destruction, moved in with speed and ferocity, pulverizing every other building, save one, on those 22 streets within three years. Thousands were robbed of their homes and livelihoods and the city robbed of its history.

"The story of Scollay Square is important," insists David Kruh author of Always Something Doing: Boston’s infamous Scollay Square. "Within the square is our whole history, from the puritans setting up the first settlements, to the rise of the mercantile society, the influx of the immigrants and how they changed the character of the city. It’s about urban decay and urban development. It’s how our approach to history has changed, which we used to discard it like so much garbage."

Scollay’s first permanent resident, Reverend Joseph Cotton, arrived just a few years after the city’s founding in 1630. Fleeing religious prosecution, he began gathering a new flock of followers and friends at his new estate at the base of Beacon Hill. By the end of the Revolution, most of the other Boston Brahmins had moved in as well making the neighborhood the center of genteel society. Postwar prosperity fueled business and an increasing demand for labor that brought new waves of immigrants to the city. It didn’t take long for the overflow of the North and West Ends to besot the stately Scollay’s, whose respectable classes, in an early version of white flight, either scampered up Beacon Hill or skedaddled to the newly filled Back Bay. Scollay’s new class of residents generated new kinds of business and demanded less morally conscious entertainment for their ungodly working conditions. Opera Houses like the Howard Athenaeum, raised hems, lowered necklines and told bawdy jokes.

Wanting in on the fun, the rest of Boston rode the expanding stage lines into the square, disembarking finally in front of William Scollay’s building. Scollay, a former member of the Sons of Liberty, colonel in the Boston regiment, and fire marshal had acquired the building in 1795 as part of his side job as a real estate speculator. By the end of the Civil War, the name was official and a new post war party had kicked off that soon shaped a new less than savory reputation of tassel dancers, candy butchers, baggy pants comics, artists, circus freaks, political agitators, and drunken sailors. The bash lasted well into the new century, roaring through the 20s before finally crashing with the stock market at the end. The Depression didn’t kill Scollay but certainly stripped away its glitz and precipitated the rate of decay. Likewise, the impact of the automobile began to be felt as buildings gave way to new parking lots. World War II offered a short reprieve as the square reaped the rewards of sailors on leave, but the war’s end put a quick stop to that and decay returned. The subsequent destruction of the West End and neighborhoods around the new elevated highway robbed Scollay further of its chief customers. By the time the Howard caught fire in 61, the area had indeed grown squalid and in serious need of rejuvenation, but it got an apocalypse instead.

"This was a city that was dying on the vine," Kruh reminds. "Back then, to revitalize a city, you tore down and removed that which was old."

Boston was by no means alone in its pursuit of the newly available federal money as communities around the country, flush with ’50s prosperity, and faith in scientific progress, followed a recipe of historical cleansing followed by mathematical design. It was also the philosophy of the B.R.A., led by Edward Logue, an urban planner, who claimed design skills learnt during his service as a bombardier in World War II. Word got out to the street, sending firefighters and insurance agents into overtime as landlords sought to cut their losses. Relocation officers followed, offering just $200 for moving expenses as the buildings were seized by eminent domain.

One man, George Gloss, refused to give in so easily. Owner of the Brattle Book Shop, he waged a one man media campaign that organized historians and academics in an effort to save the city’s historical book center on Cornhill, a street which ran in a parallel curve opposite the Sears Crescent building. Claiming ties to Washington, Edison, Franklin, Hawthorne, Lloyd Garrison, Beecher Stowe, among others, Gloss argued for the preservation of the neighborhood, especially the Sears Crescent. "Tearing down this building," Gloss prophesized, "will mean the end of the old type of bookstore." In the end, the building survived but Gloss did not, getting evicted with the rest.

Through some brilliant accounting, the 180-million-dollar Government Center project only cost Boston $72,500 in cash. Architect I.M Pei was hired to design it and it was built in just five years. Architects and artists acclaimed it and new money began flowing into the city. Almost 40 years later, however, the accolades are few and far between. Most folks passing through Government Center today have no memory of its predecessor. But they do have a sense that all is not as it should be. Leave it to the professionals at the Project for Public Spaces, a nonprofit urban planning and design organization to put the gnawing into words, labeling City Hall "bleak, expansive and shapeless," and further declaring the surrounding brick "the worst single public plaza worldwide." Apologists still defend the renewal as a necessary sacrifice for Boston’s late 20th Century revival and they are not without the numbers to prove it. But that depends on whether you define a city by its tax producing properties or the people who inhabit them. Certainly Scollay’s demise was the city’s financial gain, but at the cost of the Crawford House, Joe and Nemo’s, Jack’s Joke Shop, Sal’s Barber shop, Marty’s Tavern, Patten’s restaurant, Tanya’s Tattoos, Epstein’s Drug store, Young’s, Huberman’s, Walkers, Cobb’s and the Old Howard.

That there were any survivors at all was a minor miracle considering the B.R.A’s scorched earth policy. Often mere fragments, Scollay’s relics can still interest those with a sensitivity and nostalgia for the past.

1. Scollay Under: Part of America’s oldest subway system, the old mosaics of Scollay Under can still be deciphered if you inspect the edges of the platforms of the Blue Line at Government Center. Almost Pompeian, the grimy, chipped mosaics are perhaps the most honest face you’ll find. Apparently more of the old tunnels exist, one section supposedly even serving as a storage facility somewhere in the basement of City Hall. Trying to find it, however, will only earn bemusement from the pencil pushers and suspicion from the security.
2. The Tea Kettle: After departing the station, look up to your right and you’ll find a big, dented, brass teakettle steaming away above the Starbucks. Originally hung by the Oriental Tea company in 1875 somewhere over today’s City Plaza, the kettle was once the talk of the town spawning much debate over its volume. (It was before TV!). Measuring day, January 2nd, 1875, was apparently quite the affair that opened with the crowd pleasing spectacle of eight boys and one man popping out of the kettle. Its volume can still be read on the Court Street side as 227 gallons, 2 quarts, 1 pint and 3 gills. But the tea pot is a replacement, the original having disappeared into history.
3. Governor Winthrop: For some time, had you exited the station you would have passed the statue of John Winthrop, Massachusetts’s first governor, high on a pedestal overlooking the square. Dedicated on the 250th birthday of Boston, September 17th, 1888, the statue was forced out by of Scollay by subway construction, eventually finding a home outside the governor’s religious alma mater, the First Church on Marlborough Street. During a fire in 1968, falling debris decapitated the statue which might have stayed headless if not for the quick arrest of the pilferer fleeing the scene. Once gazing into Boston’s commercial and cultural heart, the governor now stands in the shadows on a protruding concrete slab, the hollow underside of which apparently serves as a toilet for the city’s transient population.
4. The Sears Crescent: The only building to survive the demolition, largely through the efforts of George Gloss. The bow of the brick fa§ade reveals the shape of old Cornhill (NOT Cornhill Street!). Designed as part of an elegant entrance into Faneuil Hall from Beacon Hill, The building went up in 1841 becoming the epicenter of Boston’s book industry. As a repository for Boston’s intelligentsia, the building’s bookshops became the constant target of the city’s moral crusaders like the Watch and Ward Society who were especially successful in the ‘20s and ‘30s in book banning.
5. The Brattle Book Shop: Thanks to his son, Kenneth, the old type of book shop that George Gloss mourned for can still be found at the Brattle Book Shop on West Street. The old philosophy of "browsing as discovery" continues in the shop, as does the sincere love of antiquarian books. If you’re trustworthy enough and your reason is sound, he may even show you the family scrap books detailing first-hand the story of Scollay’s demise, a collection more valuable perhaps than any other book in the store.
6. Watson and Bell’s memorial: Bostonian pride generally stems from either sports or the Revolution but what about the telephone? Alexander Graham Bell’s famous first transmitted words, "Watson come here, I need you," were uttered in Scollay Square. The famous room itself was actually dismantled under Watson’s personal supervision and moved to Post Office Square in today’s Verizon Building where it was displayed for the public until a few months ago. Apparently it’s been packed up and indefinitely stored in some warehouse, perhaps next to the Ark of the Covenant. You’ll find a commemorative plaque just in front of the JFK buildings next to Government Center.
7. The Red Hat: Now a staple of low-budget local TV commercials, The Red Hat remains one of only three businesses still operating from Scollay. Although forced out like everyone else, the Red Hat moved only a few blocks north to the corner of Bowdoin and Cambridge streets, taking with it the stained glass over the bar and the original neon sign. While the walls offer a panoramic painting of Scollay Square in its heyday, the bar downstairs may give you the chance to hear tall first hand tales of Scollay from the old townies during happy hour.
8. Pemberton Square: Pemberton Square, once the choicest real estate in the city, is now possibly the saddest remnant of Scollay Square. Promised by the B.R.A as a viable public space, the brick no-man’s land sandwiched between City Plaza and the New Court House is utterly devoid of life save groups of huddled, exiled smokers. Nevertheless, it’s in Pemberton that you can find all that’s left of the old Howard, a circular plague mounted on a concrete slab bench on the Cambridge Street side, marking the old stage.
9. Perhaps more than any other American city, Boston is a city of squares, whose inhabitants subscribe to them as if they were a sports team. But few, if any, offer even a place to sit much less space to stand in. Instead they act as honorary conduits for the automobiles, trains and public that passes through them on to some other part of the city. George Gloss may have said more than he knew when he predicted the consequences of his bookshop’s destruction. Perhaps Scollay’s demise also signaled the end of the old kind of square, a public space of, by, and for the people.

Happily, the people seem to be coming back into the urban development of equation. Boston’s last major redevelopment project, the Big Dig, provides the strongest evidence that things have changed. Despite all the rancor over budget and mismanagement, no building was seized by eminent domain nor was anyone forced to move. The central artery was torn down, reconnecting the North End back to the rest of the city. Throughout the city, zoning laws have tightened and brownstones grown valuable. The government incentives refurbishment and city architects adorn new buildings with past motifs.

"Look at this structure here," David Kruh points out to a nearby commuter rail station. "Look what it’s made of. It’s made of brick, old fashioned roofing material. It’s got pinnacles on it like an old style building. Why is that? It’s because we’ve recognized that not everything that’s new is good. And that all that glass and steel that we built in the 60′s and the 70s look like crap and doesn’t stand the test of time."

The station also offers evidence of this paradigm shift that gives appreciation and respect to the past, as does the T’s new mascot Charlie, who comes from an old Kingston Brother’s tune, or the bookman fonts used at the green line stops. So why the change of heart? Is it just cheaper? The tourist dollars? Hopefully it was the memory of thousands of displaced families, destroyed communities, and discarded history. If so, than Scollay’s sacrifice may have saved the rest of us from new Government Centers, so long as memory serves.

ROME — Last June, archaeological investigations planned by the Archaeological Heritage Department began in Dal Molin in the Veneto Region, with active cooperation from the United States Army Garrison Vicenza, which was responsible for the financial aspects of this operation.

These preliminary archaeological investigations were focused at providing new information to be added to the overall existing archaeological knowledge of an area neighboring on an ancient urban center.

Last February’s discovery happened by chance, observing the photographs in a book written in 2005 by a Major in the Corps of Engineers, which showed that there were Roman ruins inside the Dal Molin airport.

Specifically, the base of an ancient column and the remains of an ancient Roman aqueduct were found, the ruins of which are still visible in Lobia. A preliminary report on the discovery has been recently filed. The result was that, in addition to the ruins of the aqueduct, there are also traces of a canal, of houses and of 18th Century floors and above all the unexpected and surprising discovery of a Neolithic settlement.

Will this archaeological discovery stop work on the U.S. base at Dal Molin since, theoretically at least, there are enough laws protecting the site?

ROME — Recent news reveals that only 12.5 miles from Cairo, near the large Giza pyramids, mud and brick tombs have been discovered, said to be the burial places of those who died during construction and dating back to the Fourth Dynasty.

According to the leader of the team of Egyptian archaeologists, Zahi Hawass, the discovery of these new tombs proves that the pyramids were not built by slaves but by free workers.

In fact, had they been slaves, they would have been buried in common graves or loculi, and not real tombs like the ones discovered in Giza. According to Hawass, this is a “sensational discovery, that will throw new light on the construction of these extraordinary monuments of humankind.”

This may appear to be an umpteenth historical revision, but for some time many Egyptologists have supported this theory that rejects accounts by Herodotus in "The Histories."

Zahi Hawass has emphasized that these tombs were built next to the king’s pyramid, indicating that those buried there were not slaves. Had they been slaves their tombs would never have been built close to those of kings.

A series of clues and finds are said to prove irrefutably that expert and paid workers built the pyramids.

ROME — By clicking on Baghdad’s Virtual Museum of Iraq website one can admire a selection of Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian, and Islamic archaeological finds preserved on two floors of the building designed in 1937 by the German architect Werner March and looted in 2003.

Today’s Iraq, the Asian region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was called Mesopotamia by the ancient Greeks.

After the 5th Millennium B.C., very rich and powerful civilizations developed in this fertile and luxuriant land, leaving splendid vestiges of their glorious history.

Along the banks of the rivers and their tributaries, Sumerians, Accadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians founded cities such as Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Nippur, Babylon, Khorsabad, and Nineveh, surrounded by walls and with temples and monumental palaces inside them. The region was later conquered by the Persians, then the Seleucids, the Parthians, the Romans, and finally in the 7th Century A.D. by the Arabs.

The winged bulls of the Assyrian palatine palaces continue to narrate a part of Mesopotamia’s history, as do monumental reliefs, funerary objects in royal burial places, and the colossal statue of the god Abu, all looted, damaged and destroyed in the museum during the plundering and pillaging of April 2003. These precious marble, alabaster, ivory and golden testimonies of Assyrian-Babylonian civilization were recovered, restored, and replaced inside this museum and portrays the history, from the prehistoric to Islamic times, of the land between the two rivers, the cradle of civilization, of writing, the wheel, the first code of laws and the first to learn how to measure astronomical time.

Google recently announced that very soon, at the beginning of 2010, 14,000 photographs of ancient finds from the National Museum in Baghdad, relics of the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Sumerian civilizations, will be available online.

Using the Internet to make available to everyone part of the Fertile Crescent’s immense legacy is a commendable initiative.

All this thanks to the Italian National Research Council project. (Known as CNR: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.) It’s a “Made in Italy” initiative.

ROME — As is known, Rome never stops surprising us, and the treasures that are still covered by layers and layers of earth, streets and pavements are hardly imaginable.

The most recent and rather important discovery is the white marble flight of steps found during excavations undertaken in the course of archaeological surveys for Line C of the underground railroad in Piazza Venezia.

After the discovery of the building that perhaps supported Nero’s rotating dining room on the Palatine, excavations for Line C of Rome’s subway brought to light a building that, according to the first hypotheses made by archaeologists, is thought to be Hadrian’s Academy, built in 133 A.D. to host poets, rectors, philosophers, men of letters, scientists and magistrates.

Hadrian, or Publius Aelius Hadrianus, ruled from 117-138 AD. He was an avid philosopher who was commonly referred to as one of the “five good emperors.” Hadrian’s Wall, in Northern England was built after a great war in what was then called Britannia.

It was an unexpected find as there is no trace of this building even in the Forma Urbis Romae, the map of ancient Rome engraved on marble slabs in the days of Septimius Severus (2nd Century A.D.). One of the sources used by archaeologists is the archaeological map created in the early 20th Century by the scholar Guglielmo Gatti. On this map Gatti in fact rediscovered a late-ancient domus and a little further south a number of monumental structures, which were really therefore the beginnings of the now hypothesised Athenaeum.

At the center, where the emperor and the poets wrote verses, is a granite floor with ochre coloured listels. These are the same kinds of floors used for the libraries Hadrian had built to the sides of Trajan’s Column fifty meters further along.

Now, the hypothesis that the Athenaeum may be in that never previously excavated corner of Piazza Venezia is extremely fascinating for history, archeology and architecture buffs.

Good TV night on Sunday coming up with premieres of AMC’s “The Prisoner” at 8 p.m., “Drive-Thru” on Fuel at 8:30 p.m., “Tough Love” on VH1 at 9 p.m., and a great feature called “WWII IN HD” on History also at 9. Blast has seen “WWII in HD” and we approve, especially for military history buffs.

In news news, CNN quickly replaced Lou Dobbs with the king of the touchscreen, John King. King will host a weeknight political show at 7 p.m.

Spike has a new cars show called “Unique Autosports: Miami,” starting February 28 at 10:30 a.m. There will be eight half hour episodes combining cars, celebrities and beautiful Miami. Guests will include LeBron James, Diddy, and players from the Yankees.

A bunch of news out of SyFy today. The network formerly known as Sci-Fi has a comedy series coming out called “Outer Space Astronauts” starting December 8 at 9:30 p.m. The show is about eight quirky soldiers who travel the stars looking for adventures. It’s basically making fun of Stargate, and it shows how much the network has changed in 10 years.

SyFy got good ratings on the premiere “Ghost Hunters Academy” on Wednesday, drawing 2 million total viewers, the best ratings for a reality series on SyFy since January 2008′s “Ghost Hunters International.”

Famed author Ray Bradbury will executive produce a six-episode miniseries about six of his short stories. “The Bradbury Chronicles” hasn’t been picked up by a network yet.

ROME — It had always been thought that Nero’s famous dining room, which actually revolved day and night, simulating the earth’s movement, coincided with the octagonal room situated on the Colle Oppio. However, in the course of reinforcing work carried out on the Palatine, the real coenatio rotunda emerged.

Excavations in the Vigna Barberini area resulted in the discovery of a room imitating the earth’s movement. According to scholars this could well be the room mentioned by Svetonius in the "Life of the Caesars."

The author described that marvel of engineering as follows: "It turned on itself continuously, day and night, just like the world," situated in a villa that spread from the Palatine to the Esquiline Hill. He added that "it was lined in gold and adorned with precious stones and shells and pearls with the ceilings of the dining room made of mobile ivory blocks and with pipes that could transport flowers or perfume to launch over the guests."

Until recently many scholars had thought that this dining room was the Octagonal Hall on the Oppio Hill. In recent days a different archaeological truth has emerged on the Palatine Hill.

According to many ancient authors, Nero’s residence spread as far as the Colle Oppio, but a large part of it was on the Palatine. Preliminary digs carried out by the Archaeological Department, with Maria Antonietta Tomei as the Scientific Director, work directed by the architect Antonella Tomasello and carried out by a team lead by Francoise Villedieu, revealed a circular room with no similarity to others in Roman architecture.

The particular nature of this find is that it is a rotating room and that mechanisms filled with a yet to be analysed dark substance were also discovered. It is this last detail, as well as the building’s circular shape and the surprising power of the central column, unprecedented in Roman architecture, that allow one to envisage the presence of a floor, perhaps made of wood, resting on round mechanisms capable therefore of making it turn. This hypothesis is corroborated by the exceptional position of the building, which dates back to after the fire of 64 A.D. and confirms Nero’s taste for the spectacular. It is in fact overlooking the valley of the Coliseum, at the time covered by an artificial lake, and with a 360-degree view from the Capitol to the Aventino, from the Celio to Velia’s Hill.

The room’s rotation is linked to the figure of the sun, around which Nero’s ideology was based. One must now wait and see if conduits are also discovered which would explain how the higher level built in wood would have rotated, like a windmill or a merry-go-round.

There is a great deal of evidence indicating that this really is the coenatio. Svetonius says that the rotating room was the "main room", hence on the Palatine, precisely where the newly discovered room is situated. The column and the nearby two-level archways are unique in Roman architecture and have no apparent function. There is no sign of walls, hence the brickwork wheel must have been used as the base for the rotating level that hosted dinners, parties and performances. Finally, another piece of evidence confirming this hypothesis, is that the building is on the same axis as other rooms in the Domus Aurea and hence there is continuity.

These excavations on the Palatine Hill, which were started last June, were addressed at reinforcing the corner overlooking the valley of the Coliseum and were carried out with ordinary financing from Rome’s Special Department for Archaeological Heritage. Considered the exceptional nature of this find, new funds have been allocated to continue excavations and bring to light the entire building so as to verify the hypothesis that this is indeed the coenatio rotunda, and also ensuring that less pressure is applied to the corner of the terrace of the Vigna Barberini.

Sensational discoveries such as this dining room of Nero’s always reopen the debate about the fact that the State should invest its resources in the necessary restoration of what is known and the discovery of what remains unknown. Our cultural legacy is one of Italy’s most important economic driving forces and it would therefore be appropriate to exploit it far more.

SANTA FE, N.M. — It’s no wonder that Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of Santa Fe. He is the epitome of hippie-dom from centuries past, gentle and zen-like, and this spirit lives in Santa Fe still to this day. It is a city of art, music, dance and a variety of cultural significance from days gone by.‚  The air is clean, you are surrounded by mountains-meet-desert, and the outdoor activities are as numerous as the grains of sand. Santa Fe truly is a wonderland for any type of traveler- be it recreational, the art-seeker, or those searching for a bit of spiritual sanctity.

Variety is the name of the game in Santa Fe. For example, not only does it boast a proficient gallery scene, you don’t find just the typical Native American arts. There is a span from modern-contemporary paintings and sculpture, photography by the greats, the standards of southwestern art such as Georgia O’Keefe and an interesting sub-genre, the contemporary Native American influenced art. This art is a blend of cave paintings’ old-world lines and grace but with a surprising avant-garde twist. This “new” art is startling and familiar in the same breath, and is the love-child of Santa Fe.

Beginning Labor Day, 2009, Santa Fe will embark on a 16-month long 400 year anniversary festival. ‚ It is to be a celebration of many flavors, offering concerts, farmer’s and artist’s markets, an outdoor cinema series, opera and lectures on the arts. Most of these things are regular occurrences in Santa Fe, and if you know where to look, every day seems like a Fiesta.

Canyon Road, presently a “gallery-mile”, with over 100 galleries, restaurants and artist studios, once existed as an‚  ancient route of Native Americans between pueblos, as well as served under the foot traffic of Spanish, Confederate and Mexican soldiers and Native American warrior alike. It is a fitting‚  journey the art-seeker experiences spending an evening on Canyon Road. Fridays are the ideal time to visit, because many of the galleries have receptions, wine tastings and artist appearances.‚  A handful of the buildings still used actually pre-date the inception of New Mexico as a state in the United States of America, in 1912, some possibly by a century or more.

Santa Fe has the charm and blending of the ages that you find in many smaller European enclaves. However, the city has sophistication, enough so that the New York City art scene has made a second home in the city. Many of the galleries in the Plaza and Canyon Road are the love”"children of NYC galleries, or galleries that are now run by transplanted New Yorkers who migrated to Santa Fe in search of its generous serenity. When visiting with these reformed city-dwellers, I found a common emotion was a respect for the art buyer they see in their spaces. They seemed to sense that the viewer in Santa Fe is enabled to view the art in an environment conducive to adoration. It is how Santa Fe affects that sixth sense that is unique.

One of the best ways to experience art while in Santa Fe is to take a short trip to the origins of American art and life. The city is surrounded by the ultimate in American culture. Ruins of once populous Indian pueblo cities are numerous, and petroglyphs and ancient cave dwellings are all a short drive out. Los Alamos, for the history buffs, is also nearby.

With influence from the ancestors of the area, an outdoor life is lived to the fullest by those in Santa Fe. Hiking, camping, skiing and snowboarding are all thrilling ways to live immersed in this philosophy, and the city boasts a central location to any outdoorsman’s desire. The weather is quite temperate, a bit more severe in the winter, which attributes to a healthy combination between summer sports and winter sports. Balance is an inherent quality of this land and in turn offers a destination to satisfy any action-packed palette. After spending the days in the sun, cool off at one of the many cute-but-sexy eateries. Cowgirl’s, just south of the Plaza, offers the fare of the old west and walls covered in historical photos of true Cowgirls. It is cozy, homey and often has a bit of live music, with more of a bar atmosphere post-dinner hours. Another hot spot is El Farol in the Canyon Road district, a South American inspired tapas bar, which often receives rave reviews of its tapas and its live music and dancing.

If you’re feeling a bit lazy, and let’s admit it – after walking the Canyon Road mile, eating the mouth-filling flavorful food, and spending a few days camping, you will be – a day stroll around the Plaza, shopping and seeing the Museums is just the thing you are going to need. The Plaza is a mish-mash of boutique, art galleries, shops, museums and eclectic vendors. The local Native American craftsmen often gather outside of the Palace of the Governors to sell their handmade jewelry and wares as they have for hundreds of years. At the center of the Plaza is a wonderful garden to cool off and reflect on the energies that allow this oasis in the desert to thrive and invigorate.

Santa Fe is a surprising, energizing place. When you visit, you are imbibed with the healing energy of this grotto in the Land of Enchantment. In each step walked on ground that has served our land and its peoples for centuries, you march towards a bigger sense of the world around you, both in aesthetics and organics. ‚ Santa Fe is a retreat that broadens your horizons, and deepens the connection between yourself and the world around you.

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. “" For many in search of the perfect Fourth of July holiday weekend, they make their way to Loudoun County, Virginia. Considered a part of the Washington D.C. metroplex, but removed enough not to be “city” Loudoun County is a poignant representation of our country’s beginnings and is the perfect weekend getaway for anyone who can appreciate a historical flair or at least a great glass of wine, a home-cooked meal and some good company.

In the first few years of this century, Loudoun County grew in population by 71 percent, growing in popularity due to its proximity to D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and for its unique charm. The residents of the county fight hard for its preservation and its identity as a mark on the Civil War Tour Map. The stone walls surrounding many of the plantations and farms still exist from the time of slavery, testaments to the lasting legacy of the darker corners of our nation’s history.

The sense of immersion in the history of the area is overwhelming, and one can feel a deep-seated nostalgia creeping in; the feeling of getting away to a secret place in simpler times, where the food tastes better, and the European-rooted charm and antiquity are palpable. Take a leisurely drive along roads that curve and bend like snakes, through the valleys of the fabled Shenandoah, and one can see placards which name the infamous locations of many of the Civil War’s fiercest battles. Loudoun County became an important stop on the Confederate Army’s route way to try to cut the heart out of the Union’s plans to take control of the South.

Its history, in fact, is unmatched by most weekend getaway locales “" the journey through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area, a 175-mile corridor between Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia, places Loudoun County at the heart of it all. Because of the wealth of natural resources in the area, it was a popular spot for Union raids. Highways are still named after John Mosby, the leader of “Mosby’s Rangers” a group of cavalrymen who eventually carried the surrender orders to Appomattox Court House.

The Civil War wasn’t the only war in which Loudoun County played an integral part. The American Revolution, as well as the War of 1812, had their hand in shaping the local towns. John Mosby, Jackie Kennedy, George C. Marshall, and F. Scott Fitzgerald add to this history, as they often visited and vacationed here. Most of the old general stores are still in working order; the over-commercialization that has gripped the rest of the country has been slow to take hold here.

There is a strong agricultural presence, which allows the vistas to stretch into the horizon gracefully from the two-lane highways that stretch throughout the county. Hills that roll along lazily under big, white, puffy clouds, and the grain that waves in the wind “" it really is no doubt that when our forefathers wrote “America the Beautiful” they must have had Virginia in mind. But Loudoun County boasts far more than landscape to keep you occupied when visiting.

Loudoun County is a surprisingly sophisticated blend. Any sport related to horses is a popular pastime in the area, and you can often catch a fox hunt, polo game, or horse race and show in the right season. Many of the world’s jockeys are trained in the area, and national horse trials are held in the Morven Park International Equestrian Center. Olympic riders are trained there, the Kennedys rode there, and many Derby winners were trained and groomed there.

There is a kindness to the people, some would say typical of the South, that comes from this anchor in farming and equestrianism, as well as a commitment to protect and fight for their land. When you work hard, you get to play hard, and it’s easy to relax here after the race is over. Loudoun County boasts an amazing number of wineries for its square mileage; some host guests and provide outdoor cinema nights in the summer. There are four main clusters of boutique wineries spread throughout the county. Some have spas or bed and breakfasts, and the warmer months are filled with food, wine, and beer festivals.

Another way to experience some of the local flavor is to visit one of the many gourmet establishments peppered throughout the area. The Red Fox Inn holds the title of “America’s oldest continually operating Inn and Restaurant” having been open since the early 1700s, with an addition of 35 rooms and an expansive wine cellar in the late 1700s. Another popular stop is the French Hound, a cute eatery where passionate husband and wife duo John-Gustin and Marny Birkitt operate as chef and sommelier. Down the road is a local pub that is restaurant by day, music and pool hall by night “" The Red Horse Tavern. There is a little bit of everything to appease those mid-getaway cravings, and not only is the food amazing, it’s often grown close to home, prepared based on what is in season, and the staff well-informed and friendly, knowing most of the locals by name.

Virginia is for lovers, as the saying goes, and those that love excellent wine, great food, entertainment of yesteryear, and a historic charm will be reminded of the spirit that has carried us all forward to become the nation we are now. Visiting Loudoun County is a lesson in humility; the beauty of its land and the community of its people are awe-inspiring. Thanks to its location at the heart of many wars, the good soil, and some first-rate patriots, there are sights to see, gastronomical adventures to be had, and friends to be made.

Most of us spent this past Fourth of July with friends, booze, barbecue and fireworks. The holiday is anchored by gluttonous celebration: stuffing your face with hot dogs and drinking the extra beer (or ten) is completely customary. As young people feverishly enjoyed our day off from work, rarely do we consider the deep historical meaning behind our partying.

Historic New England owns and operates 36 historic homes and landscapes spanning five states.

Carl Nold, President and CEO of the regional heritage organization, Historic New England, thinks that although we may not have considered it in depth this past Saturday, we should think about what the celebration was truly about.

“At a time when there are so many controversies around the world it is important to recognize how important our freedom is” he said in a recent interview with Blast.‚  “Too often we take that for granted, because it’s always been there. But it was hard fought.”

Nold runs an entire organization dedicated to bringing the people of New England an understanding of our history. It was founded 99 years ago to help preserve buildings that were being destroyed by rapid development.‚  Currently, they have 36 historic site museums in the five New England states, ranging from 17^th century buildings to the Walter Gropius house of 1938.‚  They have more than 1.2 million books in their library and archive as well as the largest collection of domestic items anywhere.

Finding history undyingly fascinating, Nold is bothered that people associate history with stodgy school lessons.

“History truly is everything that has happened even up to a minute ago” he said. “If you think of it that way, it becomes more personal.‚  It is about you and your life. It isn’t just out there in the past.”‚  Seeing history from this perspective, Nold urges young people to get more involved in learning about the past, especially in New England, where the foundations of this country were built. He sees an understanding of our history as not only beneficial but completely essential, especially in this trying economic time. “It can bring us a better understanding of why things are the way they are” he siad.

One interesting site to check out is the exhibit on New England kitchens at the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord, which chronicles the importance of kitchens in American culture, by exhibiting domestic items from the colonial times to the present.

You might not have been thinking of the Revolutionary War as you prepared your burgers for the grill last Saturday, but perhaps now you should revisit the kitchen, this time to learn something.

For more information about Historic New England visit their website at http://www.historicnewengland.org/ or follow them on twitter @HistoricNE.

Blast has a story in the works next week about whether people think the history surrounding The Fourth of July still matters. For now, here’s the document that started it all…

WHEN in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the People.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States, for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester New York today opened the National Center for the History of Electronic Games, dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of video games and video game-related materials.

The museum calls itself “the only museum anywhere devoted solely to the study and interpretation of play,” and aims to expand to new heights with its new video game component.

The Center’s 15,000 piece collection includes items from the full spectrum of electronic games, namely ‚ computer games, console games, arcade games, handheld games, and toys that combine digital and traditional play.‚  In addition, the Center houses over 10,000 games and every system from the Magnavox Odyssey to the PlayStation 3.

Furthermore the Center contains advertising documents, video game packaging, historical records, personal and business papers and much more illustrating the impact of electronic games on the American lifestyle.

“Electronic games are not only changing the way we play; they are having a profound effect on the way we learn and the way we interact with each other,” said Strong National Museum of Play CEO G. Rollie Adams. “Because Strong National Museum of Play is dedicated to exploring the role of play in American life, we are especially interested in the growing impact that electronic games have on it.”

This news is truly exciting, as video games are finally receiving the respect and acknowledgment that is necessary to create such an establishment.

Gamers have a new Mecca to journey to, Rochester New York.

Head on over to the Center for the History of Electronic Games website for more details.

via PlayThings

Conspiracy theorists rejoice; National Treasure: Book of Secrets is the perfect fix for adventure-seekers as well as the whole family thanks to a PG rating. Bringing back our favorite team of historical junkies, Ben Gate, Abigail Chase and Riley Poole, this latest quest for treasure begins with a turn of events, historical events that is.

Open movie on a scene in a mid-19th century pub, 1865 to be exact, five days after the Civil War ended, and the fateful day when John Wilkes Booth murdered then President Abraham Lincoln. With excruciatingly dramatic music that is just plain irresistibly exciting, Thomas Gate and son are visited at the tavern by KGC members. We later find out that this group acronym stands for the Knights of the Golden Circle, a Southern extremist group.

The movie twists and turns as Ben Gate, played by Nicholas Cage, and father Patrick Gate, played by the lovably na¯ve Jon Voight, try to clear the name of their ancestor accused by Ed Harris’ character, Mitch Wilkinson, of being involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln.

In the first five minutes of the movie interest is piqued as the historical subplots unfold. Something interesting that affects the life of the main character is the first clue passed down from grandfather Gate, to Patrick and now Ben, "The debt that all men must pay." But to find out what that debt is one must watch the movie.

Traveling from Washington D.C to Paris and onto London, Ben and Riley are in hot pursuit of uncovering the secrets pages of a diary while Abigail is being fancied by an enemy to uncover secrets and reach the newest treasure, the City of Gold, first.

Sidekick and adorable nerd Riley Poole, played by Justin Barth, always provides great comedic relief, especially during those instances when doom looms ever close and the audience begins to feel the weighty concerns of lead historical fanatic Ben. The highlight of Cage’s acting as Ben is when he pretends to be a drunken scene-causer at Buckingham Palace. He mocks British security using an English accent bringing audiences many laughs.

One of the best surprise appearances is of Ben’s mother and Patrick’s estranged wife, now a professor at the University of Maryland, Emily Applegate, played perfectly as a frustrated and brilliant Native American language expert, Helen Mirren. Yes, the one and same "The Queen" star. She creates tension, drama and comedy all at the same time while providing an ever so convenient extensive knowledge of Cibola’s lost city of gold that everyone is in hot pursuit of.

The most intriguing aspect of the movie has to be its namesake, the elusive Book of Secrets hidden ever so cleverly in where else, but the Library of Congress. The book is important since page 47 leaves a clear set up for a third National Treasure film. While Ben makes friends with the president of the United States to get it, his failed relationship with Abigail, played by Diane Kruger, is tested as they purse the treasure.

From Chinese puzzle boxes, to the resolute desks situated respectively in Buckingham Palace and the White House, the film takes audiences on an adventure outside of the United States and behind conventional social lines. Directed by Jon Turtletaub and written by Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, the script is witty, quick and appealing. Now in theaters nationwide, National Treasure is a great film for everyone.

From Acorn Media comes Clive Cussler’s The Sea Hunters, a 3-DVD collection of the acclaimed television documentary.

The set features eight daring shipwreck expeditions to the depths of World War II’s most deadly naval battles and attacks.

“Rather than looking for treasure, the Sea Hunters seek only to complete the historical record. Besides delving deep into each site’s history,” said one writeup. “You’ll sit in on prep sessions as the team struggles with the technical challenges of their dives. Then you’ll see exactly what they see, thanks to dramatic underwater camerawork. And in each episode, you’ll hear exclusive interviews with survivors, witnesses, and other experts, bringing a human dimension to historical events.”

With the rising popularity of the Discovery Channel, History Channel and now the Science Channel in the U.S., The Sea Hunters is a great gift for dads and anyone interested in seeing sunken submarines and destroyers.