Exploring Baltimore's Abandoned I-70 Extension Interstate 70 runs more than 2,000 miles across the United States — from Utah all the way to Maryland. But just outside Baltimore, the highway suddenly ends. In this video, we explore the strange…

Interstate 70 runs 2,000+ miles across the U.S., but stops just outside Baltimore. Plans once called for it to slice through the city, leaving behind ghost ramps, highway stubs, and a “road to nowhere.” #Baltimore #Interstate70 #urbanplanning youtu.be/5a2ZHxfszSI

My headcanon is that the cop from "I Would Do Anything for Love" is the same cop from "Janie's Got a Gun."

Does the Trump Administration plan to subsidize #Greenland’s welfare state, providing free education and healthcare, the way #Denmark does now, at a cost of billions every year? And if so, can the rest of us have that, too?

The Arundell–Howard Legend: Exploring a Genealogical Mystery from Wardour to Maryland Ever since I wrote about Thomas Arundell of Wardour and followed it with a look at Matthew Howard of Virginia and Maryland, it has been impossible to avoid the story...

430 years ago today, Emperor Rudolph II ennobled an Englishman, and this morning, I picked up my coffee under the name of "The Count." You can learn about the connection here. jameshoward.us/2025/12/05/t...

So You Want a Coat of Arms? An Introduction to Heraldry This presentation offers a clear and practical introduction to heraldry for true beginners. It explains what a coat of arms is, how shields are constructed, the basic rules that guide heraldic design, and how blazon describes arms in a consistent way. The session then walks through the real steps a newcomer can take when creating personal arms and provides an overview of current heraldic authorities around the world. Invite family, friends, and colleagues to this free talk that makes heraldry approachable, understandable, and immediately useful for anyone interested in developing their own arms.

So You Want a Coat of Arms? An Introduction to Heraldry
With James Howard II, PhD
Saturday, 13 December | 8 AM PST/11 AM EST

This presentation offers a clear and practical introduction to heraldry for true beginners.

us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

The <i>Edmund Fitzgerald</i> and Fifty Years of Memory On November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald disappeared from radar during a violent Lake Superior storm. At 7:10 p.m., the ship’s captain, Ernest McSorley, radioed another vessel with what...

Fifty years ago today, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior with all 29 aboard. Its loss still echoes across the Great Lakes, where memory runs as deep as the water. #GreatLakes #EdmundFitzgerald #maritimehistory jameshoward.us/2025/11/10/t...

Today, I gave you all an unsolicited Dick pic.

McDonald's Monopoly game has become an exasperating mess In search of free food and rare Monopoly game pieces, McDonalds customers are dumpster diving and visiting multiple stores

No, this is not a love song. www.polygon.com/mcdonalds-mo...

Matthew Howard of Virginia and Maryland The early Chesapeake was shaped by a wide cast of settlers, from landed gentry and indentured servants to Puritan merchants and opportunists. Among the names that recur in seventeenth-century…

Matthew Howard helped bridge the Chesapeake’s early frontier, moving from Virginia to Maryland with the Puritan migration and founding one of Anne Arundel’s enduring families. #genealogy #MarylandHistory #colonialAmerica jameshoward.us/2025/10/25/m...

Understanding Quaker Polity When most people think about how churches organize themselves, they tend to imagine one of three familiar patterns. There is congregational polity, where each congregation governs itself. There is…

Quaker governance has no bishops, no creeds; there are just communities listening together for truth. Learn how their layered system of meetings has endured for centuries. #Quakers #History #Faith jameshoward.us/2025/10/20/u...

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By the Arms, Know the Man I am pleased to say that I have recently been accepted into the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry (OAAA). For those unfamiliar, this is a lineage society devoted to...

A reflection on heraldic entitlement in an American context, documenting descent not merely from a surname, but from those who bore arms under European law. Featuring John Hoar, Henry Adams, and others whose stories endure. #genealogy #heraldry #lineagesocieties jameshoward.us/2025/10/16/b...

Democrats cannot support any move that ensures the military gets paid during the shutdown as long as troops are operating on American soil or against Americans.

When Zebra Mussels Made the Great Lakes When people talk about the Great Lakes in the late twentieth century, they often do so with an air of despair. By the 1960s, the lakes were badly polluted. Industrial...

Zebra mussels were an ecological disaster, but they also made the Great Lakes clearer than ever before. A paradox of purity and collapse. #GreatLakes #ecology #invasivespecies jameshoward.us/2025/10/08/w...

The Charge That Shattered a Siege When Sabaton sings “when the winged hussars arrived,” they are not exaggerating the drama. The image of armored riders, wings rattling in the wind, thundering downhill to save Vienna, is...

On September 12, 1683, the Winged Hussars thundered down the hillside and broke the siege of Vienna. Chase asked how much energy the charge carried, and the answer is both physics and legend. #MilitaryHistory #WingedHussars #September12 jameshoward.us/2025/09/12/t...

Thomas Arundell of Wardour, Hero of the Empire Few English nobles of the early seventeenth century lived lives as perilous or as fascinating as Thomas Arundell (c. 1560–1639). Born into the ancient family of Arundell of Wardour, he...

Thomas Arundell of Wardour won the title "Count of the Holy Roman Empire” for his valor at Gran in 1595. #history #nobility #Habsburg jameshoward.us/2025/09/07/t...

Hypothesis Testing for Inter-Rater Reliability Hypothesis testing for inter-rater agreement sounds like something you might find buried in the appendix of a methods textbook, but it shows up in more of our lives than we...

Inter-rater reliability matters when judgments differ. Here’s how hypothesis testing helps us measure agreement beyond chance. #statistics #researchmethods #interraterreliability jameshoward.us/2025/09/03/h...

The same babies who made us listen to "Let it Go" on repeat are now teenagers making us listen to "Golden" on repeat. #frozen #kpopdemonhunters

Ohio requires buses for private school kids. Public school students have to find their own ride School districts are responsible for transporting private and charter school kids, leaving thousands of public school students behind

Ohio gives private & charter kids guaranteed bus rides—while some public school students get nothing. Driver shortage or not, that’s the law. #Ohio #SchoolChoice #education

The Ancient Dignity of Education In 1595, Emperor Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire granted a title of nobility to Thomas Arundell of Wardour. The document, composed in Latin, begins not with a list...

For centuries, education was the mark of nobility, not birth. Learning conferred dignity, duty, and the capacity for greatness, and education's purpose was to make you a better person. #education #civics #nobility jameshoward.us/2025/08/07/t...

The Gini Mean Difference Everyone learns the mean. Some make it to the variance. A few even get standard deviation tattooed on their soul. But almost no one meets the Gini mean difference. And...

The Gini mean difference measures inequality without assuming symmetry or shape—just pure difference. A better lens for messy, real-world data. #statistics #inequality #Gini jameshoward.us/2025/08/04/t...

A 17th-century lead cloth seal found in Orkney reveals ties between local merchants and Baltic trade. Small artifact, big global context. #archaeology #Orkney #ScottishHistory journals.socantscot.org/index.php/ps...

Heraldist: Good coats of arms can convey pastoral messages Antonio Pompili calls for the establishment of a heraldic office in the Vatican

A good coat of arms is more than tradition, it can carry a pastoral message. German heraldists argue that church heraldry should inspire and communicate faith. #heraldry #CatholicChurch #design english.katholisch.de/artikel/5862...

Defending Norfolk An Early Battle with the British in 1813 Saves a Thriving American Port Spring 2013, Vol. 45, No. 1 By Stuart L. Butler PDF verison “Virginia . . . hangs on the fate of Norfolk” Gen. Robert Barraud…

In 1813, British forces threatened Norfolk, Virginia—but a ragtag U.S. force held the line. This forgotten battle shaped coastal defense strategy in the War of 1812. #WarOf1812 #Norfolk #AmericanHistory www.archives.gov/publications...

Economy Updates: After a Weak Jobs Report, Trump Fires That Agency’s Commissioner Hours after data showed cracks in the U.S. economy, President Trump said without evidence that Erika McEntarfer “rigged” the data “to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”

If I were this bad at my job, I'd want to fire numbers person, too. I guess. I don't know, I've never been this bad at something. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...

Who won the war of 1812? There's still no definitive answer Authors and historians Ron Dale, Donald Graves and Donald Hickey entertain audience at the NOTL Museum with a deep discussion of America's, Britain's, Canada's and the Six Nations' roles in the…

In 1812 America was deeply divided: Federalists in New England opposed the war while Republican administrations pushed ahead. Battles raged, press was attacked, and the Treaty of Ghent restored pre-war status—but both sides claimed victory. #WarOf1812 www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/w...

Scottish researchers find centuries-old shipwreck associated with the Revolutionary War The ship, later identified as the HMS Hind, was found in 2024 on the Scottish coastline. Archival research shows the vessel was used by the British Royal Navy.

Scottish researchers discovered a Revolutionary War-era shipwreck off the coast of Wemyss—once a prisoner transport, now a time capsule of transatlantic conflict. #RevolutionaryWar #shipwreck #Scotland www.wqad.com/video/news/h...

US lightning flash was longest on record at 515 miles, scientists say The 2017 flash, which stretched from east Texas to near Kansas City, beat the previous record by almost 50 miles

I had no idea lightning could go for hundreds of miles. #climate #physics #weather www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Switzerland, the promised land of coats of arms Most Swiss families have a coat of arms. This may come as a surprise abroad, where heraldry is often the preserve of nobility.

Switzerland has over 4,000 municipal coats of arms—many older than the towns themselves. It is a heraldic goldmine where tradition meets bureaucracy in Alpine style. #heraldry #Switzerland #coatsofarms www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-od...

How Local Zoning Appeals Influence Development Development doesn’t happen in a vacuum. At every step, local planning commissions, zoning boards and courts regulate what can be built, where, and how quickly. These systems are designed to...

Zoning boards may seem mundane, but their appeals decisions quietly shape the future of our neighborhoods. Here’s how local process influences regional growth. #urbanplanning #zoning #localgovernment jameshoward.us/2025/07/30/h...