Almost 23 years after reunification, differences between the east and west of Berlin remain apparent, especially when seen from Earth orbit after dark, as this photo by current ISS commander Chris Hadfield makes clear.

It looks as if the east side of the German city continues to use street lights dating from the Cold War era, which are seemingly still going strong.

Via Marginal Revolution.

Chess has been with us since the sixth century, yet the format of the game that we’re most familiar with has only been around since 1849, with the advent of the Staunton chess set.

According to the most widely told origin story, the Staunton set was designed by architect Nathan Cook, who looked at a variety of popular chess sets and distilled their common traits while also, more importantly, looking at the city around him. Victorian London’s Neoclassical architecture had been influenced by a renewed interest in the ruins of ancient Greece and Rome, which captured the popular imagination after the rediscovery of Pompeii in the 18th century. The work of architects like Christopher Wren, William Chambers, John Soane, and many others inspired the column-like, tripartite division of king, queen, and bishop. A row of Staunton pawns evokes Italianate balustrades enclosing of stairways and balconies.

Made in 1902, Fun in a bakery shop, that was, by the way, produced by Thomas Edison, is one of the earliest examples of a stop motion animation. See more of the oldest known stop motion animation clips here.

A blow by blow, radio transmission by radio transmission, reliving of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Be sure both left and right sound channels are on, at the same volume, etc, as the Apollo crew’s messages come through the left channel, mission control’s on the right.

A bank of valves used to submerge or surface the German built UB-110 submarine that saw active duty, briefly, during the first world war. Now, we all know what does what, don’t we?

Chastity belts, burning witches at the stake, and the regular consumption of rancid meat, no, these probably were not the middle-ages as we’ve come to know them.

Witch burning in Europe wasn’t a common occurrence until the Reformation period, and even then it was more of a looming threat to be feared rather than a practical means of execution. Heretics were burned in certain cases, but it was never a common practice. Even with witches the preferred method of execution was hanging.

Dental hygiene was also not half bad either it seems, despite perceptions to the contrary.

The very first version of disassociated.com went online in 1997 – whoa, that’s sixteen years ago – and thanks to this article that recalls certain of the software and hardware in use at the time, it seems just like it was yesterday.

Beer, though not possibly as strong as contemporary brews, played a significant part in bringing our long distant ancestors together to think and act collectively, and in the process had a part in forming the basis of today’s societies.

Once the effects of these early brews were discovered, the value of beer (as well as wine and other fermented potions) must have become immediately apparent. With the help of the new psychopharmacological brew, humans could quell the angst of defying those herd instincts. Conversations around the campfire, no doubt, took on a new dimension: the painfully shy, their angst suddenly quelled, could now speak their minds. But the alcohol would have had more far-ranging effects, too, reducing the strong herd instincts to maintain a rigid social structure. In time, humans became more expansive in their thinking, as well as more collaborative and creative. A night of modest tippling may have ushered in these feelings of freedom – though, the morning after, instincts to conform and submit would have kicked back in to restore the social order.

As secretary to the Beatles, Freda Kelly could doubtless write books about what she saw during her time in the job, from 1962 until shortly after the band’s split in 1971.

In the meantime her experiences with the fab four are now the subject of a documentary, Good Ol’ Freda, made by Ryan White.

Have a hankering for the taste of old school meals from McDonald’s by any chance? As they say there’s nothing like the original, so here to try for yourself, recipes used by the beloved hamburger chain from the 1950s through to the 1970s.

Via Kottke.