It's a Friday Summer night, I'm in Austin TX so...

I thought I would reference some local history. This is something worth doing before you head to any major travel destination. Here is a link to an Austin, TX History page but it might be any major vacation destination that is made more interesting by inspecting it's history. This one suggests some venues worth seeing, photographing and eating at, so that you can say you've seen a classic spot in

the city. For me tonight Threadgills is across the street and I should snap an after dark picture to include here.

OK I found this good resource with a list of Free audio books to download including History Topics

The first book that struck me on the List is The Art of War.
see the History list at Loyal Books or The Art of War specifically by clicking on it's image below

American History Textbooks' Lies: Everything Your Teacher Got Wrong - My...

The common theme of many history sources I've encountered recently is how

current historical accounts are just plain wrong?  Maybe so, but it has always been the

case, history is the story told by the winner/survivor. Perhaps we can change the

outcome of the past by  detailed exploration of what remains, which is indeed

a strange outcome.

Ancient Aliens Extraterrestrial Influence in History - NEW UFO Sightings...

I am not sure how much Ancient Aliens represents history or speculation but it's a frequent show on the history channel. Indeed they are careful to word facts, separately from speculation,

yet a lot of "experts" speculate. Fun to watch!

The Lost Ancient Egyptian City of the Grand Canyon 2015

America Unearthed from the History Channel is all about unearthing evidence

of history other than that which we have been taught and accept. Much about

accepted history is woven into possible history, rumor, and discrepancy evidence.

Often the conclusions are incomplete, but the exploration is usually interesting.

Here is a cross post from my photo collection. I visited this Air Museum creating a great little history side trip last summer. See my Photo collection at http://laygphotos.blogspot.com/2015/07/LakelandAirMuseum.html and you can check out the museums own page at http://www.sun-n-fun.org/Museum/Aboutthemuseum.aspx

Smells in History :O

This article in a new RSS feed caught my eye today. The Sweet Smell of Success
or did I misread :) One does not think of smells as a historical concept. I added the entire RSS to
my History Learning Page to the left <<

This is an Old Classic for History buffs, but the Audio Version is a great way to review, or learn for the first time How and Why the west thinks as it does.

Wikipedia has this page of US historical landmarks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._National_Historic_Landmarks_by_state

It has a map and list by state. It does not include all the state declared landmarks, which are usually
greater in number. Visiting landmarks may or may not give you access to greater detail, but what it will do is give you a better feel and mental anchor to remember it by.

I found this apparently comprehensive source "World History Sources" that discusses what online resources should be taken with what amount of trust and authority.
 Of course I believe everyone's opinion has some historical standing, to the least in that it is/was at the least the author's own opinion. What more authority it has, depends on the politics in authority at the time of interpretation, and your own heart in interpreting the story it tells. Beware even when it comes to political authority and judgment, time may change opinions, and the truth always has at least 2 sides, if not more. Only scientific evidence can make axiomatic assumptions, and even these might one day be tested as technology improves.

The hoopla over confederate rewritten history has been a big topic since the recent Flag decorated blog of a mass murdering extremist. The confederate flag was of course no more the magical cause of this than the ridiculous honors attributed to the US flag at the beginning of last decade. The real problem is than we have come to attribute magical powers to symbols. This is more or less the real meaning of the 2nd commandment. This one takes on a severely different meaning in some religions,  prohibiting pictures, drawings, and even comic strips, but I tend to believe God had some social value meaning, not personal glory in mind for all the commandments. I have come to believe the 2nd was intended to keep men from using symbols rather than reality to manage, understand and explain the world. The only power a symbol or word should be attributed is that which it means and no more nor less than that.
 Flying a flag in a certain position, or orientation, officially might constitute a lie, if it indicates an untruth with malice, and thus violate the 9th commandment. But so does the rewritten history of various confederate memorials. I grant that the obtuse perspective can often be a heart felt difference of political opinion, but discuss it in realities, not magical symbols.
 The position of both sides usually has good rational reason for taking deep rooted positions. Removing the deeply invested style of labor from the south was a hard economic pill for them to swallow. I wonder if 3/4 million deaths could have been more cheaply spared by simply purchasing the entire slave workforce away from the south. Then again we may not have had the money to afford that solution, but it is intriguing to think that violent and forcible control, for whatever moral excuse need not always be the first solution we consider.