The history of London is so full of incredible personalities and political and social controversy and intrigue that it is as fascinating an aspect of the city for tourists as is the contemporary culture. The Showtime television series The Tudors has gained wide audiences and the majority of these are not English history buffs. Of course the show does not provide a literal history of the royal family and a lot of the plot is fictional, but the main point is that it is based on real life people and the circumstances of the show are not that far removed from the reality of daily life during the Tudor dynasty. Just look at the ongoing controversy that follows the royal family through the decades. This is due largely to their position in the spotlight and the fact they have the world’s eye. Every perceived misstep, which most people would never even acknowledge in their own lives, becomes front page world news. And information on royal weddings and official unions continues to gain major attention and world interest, even though the fate of a particular country may no longer be dependent on a specific marriage.

So, what is it about the English royal family that continues to captivate, particularly Americans, so completely? There are many contributing factors. Americans are in love with the idea of princes and princesses as well as queens and kings. That’s a romantic fantasy notion for many Americans. Meanwhile historically, they have dominated so much of the world politics that it was essential to know what was going on at court and in the royal family. Landmarks and buildings in London continue to demonstrate the historic importance of England and the impact of the royal family. Tourists who visit the city and stay in a London hotel are eager to explore places like the Tower of London and other intriguing historic buildings. Parliament and Westminster Abbey are other popular landmarks and tourists love to see first hand where British royalty like King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth the First spent their days and conducted their business. The fate of the world may no longer depend on the whims of the royal family, but the imagination and interest of it certainly does.

Historic Interest in London Royal Family is a post from: Kiss Java

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John Paul Stevens is at that age where he has decided to retire. It makes sense considering his age and the fact that he finally has a Democrat in office to pick his replacement. This does put Obama in a precarious position, as John Paul Stevens has been for a while set apart from the rest as a balancing point on the Supreme Court. From the speeches given by his colleagues it is clear that there is no one who can really replace him, but the country will have to pick a new person to fill his spot all the same.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens Retiring is a post from: Kiss Java

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In movie theaters, you’ll find James Cameron’s Avatar literally raking in billions of dollars world-wide, presently the top money-making film of all time. The record-holder before that was also directed and written by James Cameron, 1997′s Titanic . This film also took in over a billion dollars, and showed that interest in the 1912 maritime disaster has never quite subsided. The ill-fated maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic has created a number of movies — Saved from the Titanic, 1912; Titanic, 1943; Titanic, 1953; A Night to Remember, 1958; S.O.S. Titanic, 1979; Raise the Titanic, 1980; Titanic, 1996, ending with Cameron’s version. There’s one thing each of these films have in common, aside from icebergs, and that’s the character of Titanic survivor Molly Brown, who once lived in Denver, Colorado.

Molly Brown lived 65 years, from 1867 to 1932, and was better known as Maggie Brown. After her death, she became known as the Unsinkable Molly Brown. An American philanthropist and socialite, Molly Brown found fame when she persuaded lifeboat 6 to return to look for survivors in the icy waters after the ship went under.

If you have a passion for all things Titanic, then you might already know about the Molly Brown House Museum . The home stands at 1340 Pennsylvania Avenue, and was built in 1889, for a couple who made a fortune mining silver. It’s designed by William Lang and is a combination of various architectural styles, from Queen Anne, to Neoclassical, to Romanesque. The home is composed in part of stained glass windows, wood panels, rhyolite stone and red sandstone.

Stay overnight in Denver at your choice of a number of fine places , and explore not only the museum but the Capitol Hill neighborhood, the site where many in the 1880s settled after making their millions by way of the woods, the railroads, or mountains.

Once you’ve settled in for the night, you may wish to ask the concierge if they have any DVDs of the Titanic movies and compare what you’ve learned about Molly Brown at the house with the way Hollywood has portrayed her over the last 98 years.

Home of Molly Brown in Colorado is a post from: Kiss Java

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While you may have seen alligators in a zoo, it’s an altogether different experience to see them in their native environment, such as the Everglades outside Miami, Florida.  In fact, Miami is one of the few places you can go and see any number of amazing things — from dolphins to sea lions, even parrots on bicycles.  In Miami, you can explore the world above the Earth and the world beneath the ocean.  It can be an ideal place for travelers with an interest in history, marine life, or nature in general.  All you need do is check into one of the many hotels that Miami offers and start planning in which direction you want to go next.  For alligators, for instance, you may like to check out the Everglades Alligator Farm.  This farm began in 1982 simply as an attraction offering airboat rides in the Everglades; however, from 1985, it’s developed into an actual operating alligator farm.

Fifteen years ago, the State of Florida allowed the farming of alligators, and this site was the first in Dade County.  When the American alligator faced extinction in the 1960s, and was on the list of endangered species, commercial farming was seen as one method to help preserve this creature and its ancient ancestry.  The alligator is one of the few animals on Earth that have been around for two hundred million years.  When you see one, you’re looking into the ancient past, well before humans appeared on the planet, and into the time of dinosaurs.  An adult alligator weighs in at around eight hundred pounds and may be thirteen feet long, although they have been known to be much larger, although nowhere near the thirty-eight foot size that some monster movies from the 1980s, such as John Sayles’ Alligator would suggest.  The largest alligator on record is an inch under seventeen and a half feet long; although if you check with the Florida Fish and Wildlife conservation Commission, the state record length is established as just under fifteen feet long.

If you go to the Everglades Alligator Farm, you’ll find nearly two thousand alligators, of various sizes, and other wildlife from the Everglades, including crocodiles and caimans, the latter of which may be defined as a crocodilian type of reptile.  If you want to stay closer to town, you may still see a great deal of wildlife, just by going to the beach, where you may find sea lions and manatees and dolphins; although, if they don’t appear, check out the Miami Seaquarium.

Everglade Alligators in Miami is a post from: Kiss Java

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It’s always been a hot ticket to get a seat at Late Night with David Letterman, because many people just like the idea of it.  It seems interesting, there have to be some celebrities there, and there will certainly be some unexpected things, all of which can give a solid New York experience.  There are great hotels here to begin this interesting journey, and even if there’s no seats at Late Night, there’s a lot that awaits a guest here.  One of the truly interesting things about New York is that, considering the amount of people and the small space, it’s so well run.  Another interesting thing is to watch for breaks in the patterns of everyday reality.

They are actually very frequent, which is another testament to the city’s resilience, because there are plenty of creative minds here that are looking to change reality as we know it in some significant way, something that people will remember.  One of the greats in this regard, in terms of numbers of people influenced, is Andy Kaufman.  In his absence, the only other person who comes close, and may ultimately top him for weirdness, is Crispin Glover.  Most people think of this star of Back to the Future, and god-daddy of grunge, as a West coast kid, but he’s a New Yorker through and through, born here in 1964.

It’s true that he has lived in L.A. since he was five, but it’s hard to get the concrete out of the cells if that’s where you were born.   His life has been a rather spectacular series of performances, which sometimes seem to be a cover for a private life that’s twice as interesting as the public one appears to be.  It’s difficult for some of us, of a certain generation, to forget his appearance on Letterman, because it suggested that everything was about to get much much weirder than we had imagined.

NY Crispin is a post from: Kiss Java

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Geography.  It is common knowledge for the most part.  People live in a world that they know.  The know the layout of their hometown, and they know the layout of the hometowns of their friends and loved ones. The world globe is printed on t-shirts and postcards.  We know where we are are in the universe now.  Or do we?  History has shown, that there is always so much more to learn.   Take it back a couple of hundred years ago.  Philosophers, scientists, astronomers…they were looking for our place in this universe, and while they did find relevant and meaningful discoveries, they were always off, just a bit.  So perhaps too, we may be off just a bit.

Consider sailing out into the ocean, when the maps of the time showed that once you reach a certain point, you would fall off the edge of the earth.  But you went anyway.  A road map of sorts, that basically illustrated the end of your journey, but…the journey did not end.  Ptolemy wrote, a lot…and he created maps of geography, which depicted that of the world that was known.  At that time.  This really makes me wish that he was alive today.  To witness the intuitive thoughts and theories he had, in this new world.  So far from his own.  It wasn’t long after his death that his works were translated, and even in that short amount of time, the world became a much larger place than he could have ever imagined.

But as the Renaissance cartographers knew then, and what we know now, he was right on given what he had to go with.  It is the history of wonder.  It was a time when people were questioning the world map of their lives, and wondering where they fit on that map.  Not just physically, but spiritually and existentially as well.  I don’t think that times have changed much.  Sure, we have easier ways to find out where we need to be, but now hundreds of years later, people are still just trying to figure out where they are going.  But if we take a look at Michelangelo’s work, we can see that our fingers can almost touch…through time and history, and through today and yesterday.  And we can in fact, get to where we are going, get to where we want to be.

The Definition of Geography: Ptolemy, World Maps, and History is a post from: Kiss Java

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