By August 1834, slavery had been abolished in almost all parts of the British Empire. To replace the slaves working the plantations in the colonial Caribbean Islands, Guyana, Fiji etc, Britain introduced the system of indentured labor, recruiting people from their colonies. They would work more or less as slaves, but only for the term of their contract, after which they could decide either to go back to their home country, or stay and perhaps even get some land of their own to grow. Continue reading

Fleetwood Mac in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2018. Photo credit Raph_PH The British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac - a band with their own unique beat that has garnered millions of die-hard fans till this day - was formed in London in 1967. By guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer. And joined a few weeks later by bassist John McVie for the band’s 1968 debut album Fleetwood Mac. And as you may know, the name of the band was formed by the merging of Mick Fleetwood’s last name and the Mac from John “Mac” McVie. Continue reading

Ever heard of the term earworm? I bet you have! Or if you for some inexplicable reason haven’t, I bet you have had the experience, time and time again! I hadn’t heard of the term (in any language, go fathom!) as I googled for an explanation why is it so hard to get rid of a melody in my mind. Earworm? What a strange word for such a neat thing. Continue reading

Aaron & Shawn Ashmore This is a fascinating subject when it comes to people: having a twin! For those of us who don’t have a twin (most of us), and in this case, an identical twin (almost all of us), it is pretty hard to fathom that there could be someone who looks just like you. And with whom you would be so much closer in every sense of the word from the moment you are born. Continue reading

Take part in our very first poll - one of many - and tell us which city You would like to read about in the April edition of Streets & Squares! You have time to answer till the 1st of April. Streets & Squares is always published on the 20th, but this time you have a chance to influence which city it will be out of the three alternatives presented here. Continue reading

From left to right E.G.Marshall, John Fiedler, Henry Fonda, Ed Begley and Robert Webber The courtroom drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, 12 Angry Men, released in April 1957, is considered by many to be one of the best movies of the 20th century. This brilliant film has certainly earned a spot in the bucket list of any movie enthusiast. There have been remakes of the film, but the original seems in this case to be the best. Continue reading

Checkmate in a game of chess. Photo credit to Steve Buissine/Pixabay It is International Women’s Day today, so today’s article has appropriately a female angle to it. Have a good one, all you women out there! Chess has always been a popular game, but now more than ever after The Queen’s Gambit starting running in Netflix. After just four weeks it had become Netflix’s most-watched scripted miniseries. In many a home, the chess board has now become the center-piece on the living-room table instead of gathering dust in the attic. Continue reading

Doesn’t that’s sound a bit horrific? It is a term not necessarily known to all of us. But the phenomenon is commonplace, this erection of hairs on the skin due to cold, fear, excitement, euphoria or sexual arousal. Before that erection happens, there usually is a sudden surge of warmth throughout your body. In colloquial language, we know this phenomenon of course as goose bumps. The reason for that choice of words naturally being that our skin then looks like the skin of an unfeathered goose. Continue reading

Google Street View car in action in Helsinki, Finland Google’s Street View is a most wonderful tool for anyone who loves maps and travelling - which comprises if not most then at least millions of us! You get by fine with Google Maps alone, but the Street View really enhances the experience. The article series Streets & Squares here in Journeys of Life has so far only had links to Google Maps, but we are gradually adding also the Street View feature in all of the cities and towns that we present in the series. Continue reading

As of today, Journeys of Life contains year files for three whole centuries. That is, the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Those plus some of this 21st century we now live in span the years 1700 and 2019. The year files aim to give you a quick look at any of these years with some background information and the most notable persons born at that time. We now go on completing year files for individual years for the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, and aim to gradually publish all years between 1500 and 1699. Continue reading

Congratulations Wikipedia for your birthday on January 15th, and thank you for the 20 years of your existence! You have been part of my life for years, and these days on a daily level. And even though I personally have not collaborated much on making or improving your pages, I truly appreciate each and every one that do so. This blog Journeys of Life would not exist without you! Please go ahead and read about the making, sustaining and improving of Wikipedia thanks to the countless of people around the world who make it if not The Page but certainly one of the best pages or sites you can click online! Continue reading

Happy New Year! Let’s start this year with a massive piece! One that we hope will give you readers massive enjoyment. And which will definitely be one of the cornerstones of Journeys of Life. An admittedly entirely subjective article on people throughout history whose lives have impressed if not their contemporaries then certainly posthumously. We give here one person for each month of the year. This page is of course being updated on a continual basis as the site grows. Continue reading

Mount Rushmore in South Dakota Here’s to you, president-elect Joe Biden! And all you readers of Journeys of Life. Something that Americans are supposed to know by heart early on - the names of U.S. Presidents. And something that only a few master all their lives. Of course, there’s no need to do that either. There are things far more important to remember, and only so much space and time to contain all the information we are supposed to digest in this digital age of ours. Continue reading

Tero Pitkämäki from Finland throwing javelin Javelin throw is a separate event in light athletics, and also an event of the men’s decathlon and the women’s heptathlon. Sweden’s Eric Lemming, who threw his first world best (49.32 meters) in 1899 and ruled the event from 1902 to 1912, was the first dominant javelin thrower. Here below you see a list of the most successful javelin throwers, both male and female. Some of whom have in a similar way dominated the discipline, but perhaps not in as many years. Continue reading

Are you into athletics? As a spectator? Whether you are interested in the sprints or any other kind of running events, you may be like most of us sports fans and welcome the other events between races as well. Such as shot put. Here you have a list of the most famous shot putters - some of them Olympic gold medalists or world champions, some with lesser medals. But all with the passion to push that very heavy spherical object - men’s weighs 7. Continue reading

As popular as Star Trek: The Original Series was (and has always been), one wonders how come it only aired for three seasons. The fans protested of course, but NBC cancelled the show in February 1969 after just 79 episodes. The cancellation has been named one of the biggest TV blunders. Still, we do get to enjoy the three seasons of the Original Series, and all the other subsequent Star Trek series. Continue reading

One of the most popular current television series produced in Spain must be the heist crime drama series Money Heist created by Álex Pina. A mastermind known as “The Professor” recruits a group of eight people who are each given a code names with a city. The group is to rob the Royal Mint of Spain, and somehow escape without anyone of them getting hurt or seized. Netflix acquired global streaming rights in late 2017. Continue reading

Johnny Weismuller as Tarzan in 1932 Who of us hasn’t heard of Tarzan, the fictional character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The films and television series based on his 1914 book Tarzan of the Apes number quite a few. The most memorable actor portraying Tarzan is for many of us Johnny Weismuller, whereas the latest one is the Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård in The Legend of Tarzan from 2016. Here below we have a list of all the actors that have portrayed this character throughout the years, both in films and in television series. Continue reading

Johnny Johnsson - May 0, 2020Now that there are too many people in the woods, and many not remembering to keep their distance! Is it so in Finland? You in Finland seem to appreciate the tranquility of the forest more than Swedes! As you know, I love the forests, and unfortunately I see as few people there now as before the outbreak of the pandemic. Yes, I do believe that Finns might love forests a bit more than the Swedes. Continue reading

Rush hour at a Path station. Photo credit Dan DeLuca I started writing this article before COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 changed things for us all. Now at the time of publication, it takes of necessity another turn. Hopefully the corona pandemic too. The article concerned our healthy longing for that quiet place away from the constant crowdiness and noise in the streets, escalators, corridores, stores and wherever people need to be and go. Continue reading