Hello everyone. It's the second Friday of the month instead of the first, but I did want to take a minute and give a couple of quick announcements and updates. First, I'm officially going to be teaching high school World History next year, which will doubtless impact some of the things I write about here. Specifically, there's likely to be more "modern" world history (i.e. post-1300s) and less "ancient" world history (i.e. pre-Roman Empire) just as a function of what sorts of things I'm going to be paying more attention to professionally. For context, I used to teach "global studies," which spanned everything from the early evolution of _homo sapiens_ to the current state of environmental politics in the Amazon Rainforest. My interests tend to be a function of things I get exposed to passively as much as actively, and I'm about to get a lot more passive exposure to stuff that happened after the end of the Roman Republic than I normally do. Also, in the last month or so there have been a bunch of great comments on and follow-ups to my research overviews, and I wanted to highlight some of them. - [Bhalil](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhalil) in Morocco and [Coober Pedy](https://allthatsinteresting.com/coober-pedy) in Australia provide more examples of [modern troglodytes](https://eleanorkonik.com/troglodytes/#cove) %% ( [[2022-07-11 Troglodytes (DRAFT)]] ) %%, but apparently [the Chinese government disapproves of cave-dwelling](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-last-cave-dwellers-in-china-fight-to-keep-their-underground-homes/). - The very short story _[Symbols of Waste](https://eleanorkonik.com/symbols-of-waste) %% ( [[2022-07-13 Symbols of Waste]] ) %%_ touched on the history of the relatively short list of organisms domesticated for reasons _other_ than food, and Shaun shared some pretty good circumstantial evidence that [humans may have first interacted with silkworms as food](https://eleanorkonik.com/symbols-of-waste/#cove) %% ( [[2022-07-13 Symbols of Waste]] ) %%. [Beondegi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beondegi) is a Korean street food made with silkworm pupae. - The [Last Stands edition](https://eleanorkonik.com/last-stands) %% ( [[2022-06-27 Last Stands]] ) %% led to a bunch of people reaching out to share examples of last stands I'd omitted, forgotten about, or never known about. Here's some more information about the [Warsaw Ghetto Uprising](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/warsaw-ghetto-uprising), the [Siege of Masada](https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/masada-a-heroic-last-stand-against-rome), and [the Siege of Lille](https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2020/07/the-french-resistance-in-lille-that-saved-time-for-the-british-to-be-evacuated-in-dunkirk/) (a heroic French resistance that held up German invaders long enough for nearby Brits to evacuate), and the [Battle of Samar](https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1944/samar.html), one of the largest naval battles in history. There was also this [video of MSgt. John Chapman's last stand](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oKMjTqdTYo) during the [2002 Battle of Takur Ghar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Takur_Ghar), which resulted in his posthumously receiving the Medal of Honor. It's _super_ blurry, but the comments on some of the related videos were very edifying. The Battle of Takur Ghar was evidently the inspiration for the storyline of _Medal of Honor_, a first person shooter video game from 2010. - Here's more information about [Admiral Yi, the Korean general who commanded during the Battle of Myeongnyang](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5C45ST5eQr8Sn3vWc7YgLBf), via the ever-excellent Extra Credits youtube site. - Here's a great resource if you're interested in [Chinese fortifications](https://greatmingmilitary.blogspot.com/2019/06/chinese-fortification-p1.html). - Apparently it's not just love, sex and yawning that have weird connections, [yawning is just weird in general](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2005/mar/16/improbableresearch.research). Lastly (for now), there's going to be a slight shift to the schedule of the Iceberg editions. Previously I sent out a research overview every Monday in a very particular themed format. Going forward, every other research overview will be more of a "retrospective" and a little less tightly themed — basically, you should expect more follow-ups along the lines of what's outlined above. I'm also going to start moving the early-bird gold tier announcements about my notes updates to the 4th Friday flash edition to make things a little easier on myself formatting-wise. If you have any questions about this, let me know. In the meantime, enjoy your weekend!