Latest news with #historical events
Zawya
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Zawya
Contribution of Photo Exhibition at National Festival
The photo, painting, and sculpture exhibition displayed at the National Festival 2025 by the Ministry of Defense and other artists has been reported to make a significant contribution to preserving and transferring Eritrea's cultural and historical heritage. Noting that 'one photo has the power of a thousand words,' Maj. Fesehaye Teklai, Acting Head of Promotion and Information at the Ministry of Defense, said the exhibition includes 40 photographs, 23 paintings, and 8 wooden sculptures. He emphasized that these works play an important role in conveying historical events and values. Maj. Fesehaye went on to say that the general content of the exhibition reflects the unity of the public and members of the Defense Forces, the heroism of successive generations, construction of houses, water reservoirs, and social service institutions, as well as the culture and traditions of the Eritrean people, water and soil conservation, and road renovation. Artist Fesehaye Zemicael, for his part, said that the painting exhibition—presented by both veteran and emerging artists, goes beyond entertainment, serving as an important tool in preserving history and culture. Visitors to the exhibition highlighted the significance of the displays in preserving and transmitting the history, culture, and identity of the Eritrean people. They also called for such exhibitions to be held regularly, beyond confined to festivals. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Information, Eritrea.
Geek Dad
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Dad
Stack Overflow: Tripping Through History
Today's stack is another batch of time travel books: I've got a couple books for kids, and one novel for adults. One common thread in these three is historical events. Our characters find themselves in the middle of various periods of history, often with some lessons or insights for both the characters and the readers. Cousins in the Time of Magic by Emma Otheguy Jorge, Camila, and Siggy are cousins, often left in the care of their Tía Xia who—truth be told—seems a bit scattered and leaves them to their own devices. Xia loves history and regales the cousins with stories, though they've never really paid much attention. That is, until they accidentally discover a magical portal that transports them from present-day Miami to 1862 Virginia, on the front lines of the Civil War. Xia gets separated from them, and all they know is that she wanted to deliver a mysterious sword to General Ignacio Zaragoza … in Mexico! Along the way, the kids encounter a lot of different people, some real and some fictional—a Union officer who uses a hydrogen balloon and a telegraph to gather intel for the army, a Confederate general who loved to throw parties, an Indigenous girl who speaks Nahuatl. They also learn the connection between the Civil War and Cinco de Mayo, the date of the Battle of Puebla—and this was the real driving message for the author, too. I will admit that I didn't know a lot about the origins of Cinco de Mayo, but it had to do with Napoleon's support of the Confederacy and his attempt to invade Mexico and install an emperor. The Battle of Puebla was a victory for the Mexicans and held significance for Latin Americans in the US as well. (Another fact I learned from this book was the evolution of the word 'Latinos'—and the way that Napoleon used it to try to connect Catholic Europeans to Latin Americans.) The time travel itself is pure magic: there's a portal and giant paper boats that sail themselves, so there's no sciencey explanation for how it works. The book is more about the relationships the cousins have with each other, and the encounters they have with other people in the past and how it affects the way that they see themselves and the rest of the world. Although the book does wrap up the story at the end, Otheguy does drop a few teasers that there may be more in store for the cousins, so we'll see if there are more books in the future. Time Sight by Lynne Jonell The time travel in Time Sight is also magic-based, though there are a bit more rules to it and the characters do spend a lot of time trying to figure out how it works and what its limitations are. Will Menzies and his little brother Jamie have been sent to Scotland to stay with a distant cousin Nan, because their mom is in trouble overseas and dad has left to deal with that. They're living near Castle Menzies, now a tourist destination but once part of their family's lands. While Will is trying to figure out his brother's Magic Eye book, he somehow opens up a window five hundred years into the past, when people were living at the castle. What's more, the kids discover that they can pass through the portal … and Jamie runs off into the unknown. Will and Nan try to follow Jamie to bring him back, and find themselves stuck in a time period that they're totally unprepared for. The Menzies are at war with the Stewarts, and when they find Jamie he has somehow been mistaken for Sir Robert Menzies' nephew—so how will they get him back to their own time? There's a lot of jumping back and forth in time as Will begins to figure out his magical ability and fine-tune his control, because every time they think they've got things worked out, somebody throws a wrench into the works (usually Jamie or Nan's dog, Gormlaith), and they have to travel back in time again to sort things out. They end up going even farther back, meeting some Picts and Romans in the Iron Age, and then even encountering some people from the Copper Age. As with Cousins in the Time of Magic , the book does include a lot of real places and figures in the story. The Menzies family (and castle) are real, and in fact are the ancestors of the author. The story takes place in and around the castle, incorporating many of the things that you would see if you visited today, like the Crannog Centre showing the ancient man-made island from the Copper Age and Saint David's Well. A lot of the story focuses on Will's struggle to understand the violence around him. His mother was working in some medical role for needy children but had been captured and held hostage. Every place that he went in the past involved bloodshed and war. While in the past, he encounters the man who would be come Saint David, and their conversations about purpose and about God help him to see what he's able to do, and also gives him a better understanding of why his mother had gone away in the first place—something that he had resented at the time. Everwhen: The Doomsday Vault by Thomas Wheeler This one is a little less historical than the others, though it does name-drop a lot more historical figures. When Herbert George Wells (known as Bertie) gets recruited to attend Everwhen School of Time Travel and Other Odd Sciences, he jumps at the chance even though his parents have their doubts. He quickly befriends Zoe Fuentes, a math whiz from 2025 who is determined to be the best at everything, and Amelia 'Millie' da Vinci, a genius inventor who is tired of being overshadowed by her famous big brother. It turns out that the entire school is itself a time machine, and there are students from everywhere and everywhen. (Bertie is disappointed to discover his dorm room is in 1320s Serbia, while Millie and Zoe get to stay in 22nd century Paris.) The three kids band together—it turns out they're not the most popular kids in the school and Bertie in particular gets picked on a bunch. Zoe is determined to win the Ever-Ring, a schoolwide competition, so she decides to tackle the Haunted Formula, a mysterious math problem that is said to be unsolvable. But has she unleashed something dangerous? This book is definitely a lot zanier and sillier than the others on today's list. The fact that the school spans the entire timeline means that the author can throw in just about any sort of technology or weird biology and just explain it as something from the future, while also making mention of historical luminaries. It's a bit fast and loose with the time travel, but there are some mysteries for the kids to solve and lessons about friendship to be had. Splinter Effect by Andrew Ludington In the world of Splinter Effect , time travel exists, but is strictly regulated. And it's also extremely expensive, which means that it is often funded by wealthy patrons. Rabbit Ward is a time traveler, and his job is to recover valuable historical artifacts at the moment they were lost to history. He's good at what he does, but his biggest regret is from a mission two decades ago, on a trip to recover a lost menorah—and also lost his young partner in the process. He's gotten a tip about the menorah's location in Constantinople and he's determined not to fail again. The story takes place in 535 CE—Emperor Justinian is in power, and General Belisarius is on his way back from a victorious war against the Vandals, with shiploads of treasure. Rumor has it that the menorah, looted from the Second Temple, is among the treasures. But Rabbit isn't alone. A mysterious woman named Helen (as far as he knows) has been a step ahead of him on his last few missions, and when she shows up in the 6th century, Rabbit knows she's also after the menorah. And that's before people start turning up dead. The story is a bit of a heist—Rabbit has various plans for securing the menorah, though since he doesn't have a team he has to play a lot of different roles. His knowledge of ancient history is key, because he has some ideas about the political climate and can use that to manipulate people to his own advantage. The problem is, Helen is also from the future and has the same tricks up her sleeves—and she has a way of getting under Rabbit's skin, too. The one thing they both have to be careful of, though, is the 'splinter effect': if they change things too much from known history, they splinter off into a different timeline with a different future—but they'll return to their own origin future, which means any work they did in securing the artifact will be lost. The book has a lot of intrigue and a lot of action—but also (and although this is a slight spoiler it's not at all surprising) an eventual romance. But there's also a fascinating plot surrounding the menorah and the hidden figure who seems to be pulling all the strings. The time travel here has some more science mumbo-jumbo surrounding it, but I was particularly drawn to the clash between the scientific and the political. For instance, the rule that travelers could not revisit a time they'd been to was a legal restriction, not a hard scientific limit. And the fact that the scientists who wanted to use time travel for research still depended on funding from those using time travel for treasure collections felt like a sad but true reflection of how science often works in the real world. Disclosure: I received review copies of these titles. Affiliate links to help support my writing and independent booksellers! Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
