If At First You Fall, Try, Try Again
Rasputin may be the most famous Russian monk, but he wasn’t the first to opine on geopolitical affairs. In the 16th century, his distant (and also lushly-bearded) predecessor Filofei proposed (in letters to a young prince named Vassilij) that Russia could be the third Rome. Consider what he meant then and what the implications of his suggestion might be today, then discuss with your team: could there be another Rome in our own era, and would it be good for the world if there were? Would Greenland be part of it? Be sure to explore the following concepts:
unipolarity vs. multipolarity
Polarity in international relations is any of the various ways in which power is distributed within the international system. It describes the nature of the international system at any given period of time. One generally distinguishes three types of systems: unipolarity, bipolarity, and multipolarity for three or more centers of power. The type of system is completely dependent on the distribution of power and influence of states in a region or across the globe. The Cold War period was widely understood as one of bipolarity with the USA and the USSR as the world's two superpowers, whereas the end of the Cold War led to unipolarity with the US as the world's sole superpower in the 1990s and 2000s. Multipolarity in contrast describes a system where multiple states hold significant power. This can include the emergence of global governance through international organization that compete with state power.
Different schools of theorist content which type of polarity creates the most stable world. In a unipolar world, the dominant state (hegemon) faces no challengers (often it can be a source of durability and peace), while in a multipolar system, power is distributed among states and leads to more complex international relations.
core vs. periphery countries
Core vs. periphery countries refers to the global division between developed and less developed nations. Core countries are wealthy, powerful, and influential, while periphery countries are economically disadvantaged and lack social stability. The core-periphery model highlights the unequal economic and political relationship in a global system. Core countries benefit more economic interactions, dictating favorable trade terms. Core areas are characterized by advanced production methods and skilled labor, while periphery areas have low tech and low wage labor. This theory also called dependency theory was developed in the 1960s, focusing on how "rich" states exploit its periphery of "poor" states.
great vs. small powers
A great power is a country that has the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power influence. this causes middle or small powers to consider the great powers' opinions before taking actions of their own.
Traditionally, great powers are formally recognized in organizations such as the Congress of Vienna of 1814-1815, or the United Nations Security Council (permanent members: China, France, Russia, UK and United States), NATO, G7, and BRICS. Interestingly, there are support for these additional countries to become part of the permanent membership for UN Security council: Brazil, Germany, Indian and Japan (G4), however, they are opposed by the Italian-led Uniting for Consensus Group.
International relations theorists believe that great power status can be characterized into:
1) power capabilities - There is no clear definition of what type of power dimensions determine a great power, and often power capabilities are the sole criterion. Some criteria include:
- population geographic position & natural resources - military muscle - high tech and education
- cultural soft power - cyber power - allies - intelligence capability
- intellectual power of research institute and government - strategic power - political power
- economic power - financial power - social power - institutional power
2) spatial aspects - Actual influence over the regional or global arenas, having influence over the scope of the prevailing international system. A great power should have the capacity to engage in extra-regional affairs and possess extra-regional interests.
3) status dimensions - This could be either formal or informal of the nation's status as a great power. This suggests that without formal act of recognition by its peers, simply being powerful is not enough. Additionally, as a great power, it must be willing to act as a great power, including retrospective examination of its own conduct. It should also be included in discussion about contemporary issues and have influence over these decisions, ranging from politics, social to environmental.
controlling vs client state
A client state in the context of international relations is a state that is economically, politically, and militarily subordinated to a more powerful controlling state. Alternative terms for a client state are satellite state and puppet state. Merriam Webster calls a client state: “a country that is economically, politically, or militarily dependent on another country.” Collins Dictionary states: “A client state is a country which is controlled or influenced by another larger and more powerful state, or which depends on this state for support and protection.”
In ancient history, controlling states such as Persia, Greek city states, China and Rome created client states by asking them to pay tribute or provide soldiers. Classic examples include the Delian league which was a client state to Athens. Similar concept in colonial expansion included Great Britain's sovereignty and influence over India and Pakistan. Manchukuo, in contrast, remained a puppet state throughout World War II. Soviet proxy, "satellite", or client states included much of the Warsaw Pact member states whose policies were heavily influenced by Soviet military power and economic aid.
Some reasons for establishing client states:
1) Hidden Influence: A Puppet Master’s Game. Puppet states allow powerful nations to exert significant influence in strategic regions without resorting to direct military intervention. This offers a subtler, and often less costly, way to expand their reach.
2) Resource Control: Pulling the Strings for Economic Gain: Imagine a country heavily reliant on oil imports. By establishing a puppet state rich in oil reserves, they can secure a steady supply of this critical resource.
3) Military Outposts: Strategic Pawns on the Global Chessboard: It helps them monitor maritime traffic in the region, potentially identify potential threats, and even project military power into nearby areas. This strategic positioning allows them to deter rivals, safeguard their interests, and potentially control vital trade routes.
4) Weakening Rivals: A Strategy for Global Dominance: By establishing a puppet state bordering its rival, a powerful nation can effectively limit the rival’s sphere of influence.
5) Ideological Battlegrounds: Spreading the Gospel According to Power: During the Cold War, the US and USSR actively supported opposing governments in various countries, using them to spread their political and economic systems. These puppet states served as ideological outposts, showcasing the supposed benefits of each system.
hard power vs soft power
Hard power and soft power are two distinct approaches to influence in international relations. Countries often use a mix of both powers in their foreign policy to achieve their goals. These concepts were popularized by Joseph Nye, who emphasized the importance of both in global politics.
Hard power: refers to the ability to coerce other nations through military or economic means, often described as a "carrot and stick“ approach.
Soft power: involves the ability to attract and persuade other nations through cultural influence, diplomacy and values.
Taking America as an example: America's soft power are its cultural exports - Hollywood, HipHop, fashion and education. Additionally, these influences have helped America establish international norms around the world. Its hard power on the other hand is its economic strength and strong military power.
Hard power examples:
1) military intervention: US-led invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
2) sanctions: economic form of hard power that punishes those who do not follow the international standard, such as sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program.
3) trade tariffs: strategy used to protect domestic industries, such as US and China's trade war of imposing heavy tariffs on imports.
4) diplomatic expulsion: expelling foreign diplomatic ties with another country to express serious disapproval.
5) coercive diplomacy: using threats and force as persuade opponents to cease their political adverse behavior, such as the US's threats of "fire and fury" against North Korea to stop nuclear missile testing.
Soft power:
1) cultural influence: Culture is probably the main aspect of soft power. Beside the US, Korea is leveraging its cultural assets such as K-Pop and K-Drama and China with its panda diplomacy. I think sports is also a critical one, such as hosting the Olympic Games or NBA.
2) diplomatic relations and negotiations: maintaining good relationships with many countries so it can be a mediate during conflicts, such as Norway's position in the Israel and Palestine conflict.
3) education exchange: US and the UK are especially strong in this aspect, influencing students to spread their ideas further to their local countries.
4) moral authority: countries that have historically acted ethically, such as Sweden being regarded for humanitarian causes.
5) humanitarian aid: enhancing the country's image of trustworthiness through aid.
foreign aid
In international relations, foreign aid is a the transfer of resources from one country to another. Aid is not just free money, it can be termed with intended purpose, terms or conditions, its source and level of urgency. There are generally two types: emergency aid and development aid.
Emergency is rapid assistance by individuals, organizations and governments to relieve suffering for events such as wars and natural disasters. Development aid is economic support and is different from humanitarian aid aimed at alleviating poverty. It functions as a signal of diplomatic support and approval, military ally, reward for certain behavior, extend cultural influence, provide infrastructure (mega projects) and commercial access.
While foreign aid could be deemed altruistic, it is also controversial as it is sometimes linked to poor governance, corruption, dependency on aid, promoting conflict and deindustrialization. Aid is not the same as direct investment into a country.
Rome isn’t the only empire that keeps popping back up. Like certain movie franchises, a great empire can only fall once, but it can be revived—usually unsuccessfully—many times. Study the history of second chances at imperial grandeur. What were they trying to emulate or continue, and how close did they come to succeeding? Did any last longer than the regimes they sought to restart?
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, North Africa and East Mediterranean throughout much of the 9th to 7th centuries BC, becoming the largest empire in history up to that point. Because of its geopolitical dominance and ideology based in world domination, the Neo-Assyrian Empire has been
described as the first world empire in history. It influenced other empires of the ancient world culturally, administratively, and militarily. At its height, the empire was the strongest military power in the world. The early Neo-Assyrian kings were chiefly concerned with restoring Assyrian control over much of northern Mesopotamia, East Anatolia and Levant, since significant portions of the preceding Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1050 BC) had been lost during the late 11th century BC.
Despite being at the peak of its power, the empire experienced a swift and violent fall in the late 7th century BC, destroyed by a Babylonian uprising and an invasion by the Medes. The causes behind how Assyria could be destroyed so quickly continue to be debated among scholars. The unprecedented success of the Neo-Assyrian Empire was not only due to its ability to expand but also, and perhaps more importantly, its ability to efficiently incorporate conquered lands into its administrative system. As the first of its scale, the empire saw various military, civic and administrative innovations. In the military, important innovations included a large-scale use of cavalry and new siege warfare techniques. To solve the issue of communicating over vast distances, the empire developed a sophisticated state communication system, using relay stations and well-maintained roads. The empire also made use of a resettlement policy, wherein some portions of the populations from conquered lands were resettled in the Assyrian heartland and in underdeveloped provinces. Neo-Assyrian kings inspired, through the concept of translatio imperii (see left chart), similar ideas of rights to world domination in later empires as late as the early modern period.
The Song dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. After retreating to southern China following attacks by the Jin dynasty, the Song was eventually conquered by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.
The dynasty's history is divided into two periods North and South: during the North Song the capital was in Kaifeng. Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished during the Song era. The Song dynasty was the first in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty saw the first surviving records of the chemical formula for gunpowder, the invention of gunpowder weapons. The Song people also excelled in astronomy with astronomical clocks and also the first true north compass. The population doubled in size between the 10th and 11th centuries due to agricultural expertise for rice cultivation. As a result of military, technological, and economy, the government also standardized education with civil service examinations, promotion of literature, entertainment and culture.
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, it endured until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. It reached its greatest extent during the reign of Justinian I (r. 527–565), who briefly reconquered much of Italy and the western Mediterranean coast. A plague began around 541, and a devastating war with Persia drained the empire's resources. The Arab conquests led to the loss of the empire's richest provinces—Egypt and Syria. Undergoing many cycles of decline and recovery, it remained the largest and wealthiest city in Europe until the 13th century. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453 brought the empire to an end.
Different from the early Roman Empire, Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305), recognised that the state was too big to be ruled by a single person. He instituted the Tetrarchy, a system which divided the empire into eastern and western halves. Although the Tetrarchy quickly failed, the division of the empire proved an enduring concept.
What worked and what didn't work? Did it every achieve the Pax Romana that it aimed for? Somewhat. Admirable attempt that left a legacy impacting almost all the modern Central European nations.
Governance: The empire went through period of centralization and di-centralization. Facing military threats, the concept of Praetorian prefectures was abandoned and broke into themes government by military leaders.
.jpg)
Religion: Christianity became the main religion of Europe and set up many standardized practices, however due to its vast regional differences and political influences, it was also split into the East- West Schism.
Military: The Byzantine empire had professional guards, provincial militia and a strong navy to defend itself from Muslim enemy. Their large dromons (galleys) were equipped with Greek fire. However, it developed a reliance on foreign armies/mercenaries and the final siege of Constantinople had less than 8,000 troops.
Population: Due to wars and plague, the population of the Empire declined dramatically, from 27 million in 540 AD to 12 million by 800 AD. Constantinople which ad 2 million in 1312, had less than 50,000 people when it was captured.
Education: It was not sponsored by the government, so only the rich were literate and often associated with the Church.
Economy: Trade and agriculture were the backbones of economic growth and the emperor encouraged resettlement to increase population density.
Academia and arts: There was a flourish of scholarship during the Byzantine Empire as it transmitted knowledge between Islamic and Renaissance Italy. Philosophy, geometry, astronomy and grammar were all respected alongside architecture, art and music.
Interestingly, the Byzantine history left such a profound legacy, with many modern countries using it as part of their political or cultural agenda. The modern Greek state nearly doubled its territory through the pursuit of Megali Idea - the colonial vision of reclaiming former lands of the eastern empire. Italian dictator, Mussolini also had dreams of a Third Rome.
The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lombards in Italy from 774. In 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III in an effort to transfer the status of Roman Empire from the Byzantine Empire to Western Europe. The Carolingian Empire is sometimes considered the first phase in the history of the Holy Roman Empire. Despite lasting less than 1 century, the Carolingian Empire was the largest western European territory since the fall of Rome. Despite the relatively short existence of the Carolingian Empire when compared to other European dynastic empires, its legacy far outlasts the state that had forged it. In historiographical terms, the Carolingian Empire is seen as the beginning of 'feudalism'; or rather, the notion of feudalism held in the modern era.
The unifying power of Charlemagne and his descendants have become a symbol for succession of European rulers to bolster their own regimes; much in the same vein as Charlemagne echoed elements of Augustus in his rising years. The rulers of the Ottonian dynasty called themselves the title of Holy Roman Emperor, magnifying their distant ties to the Carolingians. Four of the five Ottonian emperors to rule also crowned themselves in Charlemagne's palace in Aachen, likely to establish a continuity.
_svg.png)
The Ottonian dynasty was a Saxon dynasty of German monarchs (919–1024), named after three of its kings and Holy Roman emperors, especially Otto the Great. It is also known as the Saxon dynasty after the family's origin in the German stem duchy of Saxony. The prominent rulers, who are considered to be the most significant, are King Henry I, Emperor Otto I, Emperor Otto II, Emperor Otto III, and Emperor Henry II; they are those considered to have been the peak
and height of Ottonian power. Additionally, the Ottonians would come to be known for their involvement with Papal politics, Christianization efforts, and the Imperial Church System. Although the dynasty of the Ottonians would reach great heights, it would all come to a simple ending. Henry II would die without issue (without a child), which would mark an end to the dynasty’s main branch, paving the way for a new dynasty to come in, the Carolingians.
The Meiji Restoration (Japanese: 明治維新) was a political event that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ruling emperors before the Meiji Restoration, the events restored practical power to, and consolidated the political system under, the Emperor of Japan. The Restoration led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure and spanned both the late Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji era, during which time Japan rapidly industrialised and adopted Western ideas and production methods.
The origins of the Restoration lay in economic and political difficulties faced by the Tokugawa shogunate. These problems were compounded by the encroachment of foreign powers in the region which challenged the Tokugawa policy of sakoku. With the arrival of the Perry Expedition and subsequent unequal treaties, Japan was forced to open to the West, questioning the shōgun's political authority over maintaining Japanese sovereignty. The Emperor's rebuke of shogunal actions led to the emergence of an ideological divide within the samurai class concerned with their feudal obligations to both the shōgun and the Emperor. Many lower and middle ranking samurai became shishi "men of spirit") ranking samurai became shishi ("men of spirit") who were committed to the Emperor's proclamations to expel the barbarians. Factional disputes within the domains led some domains to conflict with the Tokugawa. After some initial setbacks, the domains organised into an anti-Tokugawa alliance, and, led by Satsuma and Chōshū, they overthrew the shogunal system.
Since 1633 a system of national isolation known as sakoku had been imposed by the Tokugawa shogunate wherein no person
was allowed to enter or leave the country without permission from the shōgun. One of the major events that happened was the arrival of westerns and signing of formal diplomatic treaties ending isolationism. However, Japan was now in a position where it had to sign similar treaties with Britain and Russia, effectively ending Japanese isolationism. Commodore Perry from the US arrived in Japan in 1854 was the first of these openings.
The Meiji restoration instilled a big shift towards centralization. Besides drastic changes to the social structure of Japan, in an attempt to create a strong centralised state defining its national identity, the government established a dominant national dialect, called "standard language" (標準語, hyōjungo), that replaced local and regional dialects and was based on the patterns of Tokyo's samurai classes. This dialect eventually became the norm in the realms of education, media, government, and business. The Meiji Restoration, and the resultant modernization of Japan, also influenced Japanese self-identity with respect to its Asian neighbours, as Japan became the first Asian state to modernise based on the Western model, replacing the traditional Confucian hierarchical order that had persisted previously under a dominant China with one based on modernity.
The Meiji Restoration accelerated industrialisation in Japan, which led to its rise as a military power by the year 1895, under the slogan of "Enrich the country, strengthen the military". The majority of Japanese castles were partially or completely dismantled in the late 19th century in the Meiji restoration by the national government. Since the feudal system was abolished and the fiefs (han) theoretically reverting to the emperor, the national government saw no further use for the upkeep of these now obsolete castles.
Neo-Sovietism, sometimes known as neo-Bolshevism, is the Soviet Union–style of policy decisions in some post-Soviet states, as well as a political movement of reviving the Soviet Union in the modern world or reviving specific aspects of Soviet life based on the nostalgia for the Soviet Union. Some commentators have said that current Russian President Vladimir Putin holds many neo-Soviet views, especially concerning law and order and military strategic defense.
According to Matthew Kaminski of The Wall Street Journal, it includes efforts by Putin to express the glory of the Soviet Union in order to generate support for a "revived Great Russian power in the future" by bringing back memories of various Russian accomplishments that legitimatized Soviet dominance, including the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany. Kaminski continues on by saying that neo-Sovietism "offers up Russian jingoism stripped bare of Marxist internationalist pretenses" and uses it to scare Russia's neighbours and to generate Russian patriotism and anti-Americanism.
In 2021, Jim Heintz of the Associated Press described Belarus as a neo-Soviet state due to the authoritarian nature of Alexander Lukashenko's government and its largely state-controlled economy.
Destroyed buildings can also have second leases on life. Consider the following examples, then discuss with your team: is a reconstruction of a building a continuation or something altogether new?
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a major library and cultural center on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt. It is a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria, once one of the largest libraries worldwide, which was lost in antiquity. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina contains books in classical Arabic, English, and French languages. The idea of reviving the old library dates back to 1974 when a committee set up by Alexandria University selected a plot of land near the sea for its new library. One leading supporter of the project was former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, along with a partnership with UNESCO. Construction work began in 1995, and after some US$220 million had been spent, the complex was officially inaugurated on 16 October 2002. In 2009, the library received a donation of 500,000 books from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). UNESCO organized an architectural design competition in 1988 to choose the design. The competition was won by Snøhetta, a Norwegian architectural office, among 524 other entries.
Many allege that the library is a white elephant, which serves little more than a vanity project for the Egyptian government. The building's architecture (which imitates a rising sun) upset some who believed too much money was being spent on construction rather than the library's actual collection.
The residence for the American president was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style. Hoban modeled the building on Leinster House in Dublin. Constructed between 1792 and 1800, its exterior walls are Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe added low colonnades on each wing to conceal what then were stables and storage.
In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by British forces in the burning of Washington, destroying the interior and charring much of the exterior. First Lady Dolly Madison famously rescued the Lansdowne Painting (left). Only three of the sacked objects by the British troops have been returned. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semicircular South Portico in 1824 and the North Portico in 1829.
The building was originally variously referred to as the President's Palace, Presidential Mansion, or President's House. The earliest
evidence of the public calling it the "White House" was recorded in 1811. A myth emerged that during the rebuilding of the structure after the Burning of Washington, white paint was applied to mask the burn damage it had suffered, giving the building its namesake hue. The name "Executive Mansion" was used in official contexts until President Theodore Roosevelt established "The White House" as its formal name in 1901 via Executive Order.
Decades of poor maintenance, the construction of a fourth-story attic during the Coolidge administration, and the addition of a second-floor balcony over the south portico for Harry S. Truman took a great toll on the brick and sandstone structure built around a timber frame. By 1948, the house was declared to be in imminent danger of collapse, forcing President Truman to commission a reconstruction and to live across the street at Blair House from 1949 to 1951. Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of President John F. Kennedy (1961–63), directed a very extensive and historic redecoration of the house including bringing back some of the artifacts that was once there. Each successive White House family has added new facilities and the latest high tech amenities. More than 30,000 visitors tour the White House weekly.
On 15 April 2019, at 18:18 CEST, a structural fire broke out in the roof space of Notre-Dame de Paris, a medieval Catholic cathedral in Paris, France. The fire, which investigators believe was started by a cigarette or an electrical short circuit, destroyed the cathedral's wooden spire and most of the wooden roof and severely damaged the cathedral's upper walls. The vaulted stone ceiling largely contained the burning roof as it collapsed, preventing extensive damage to the interior. Many works of art and religious relics were moved to safety, but others suffered smoke damage, and some of the exterior art was damaged or destroyed.
Two days after the blaze, French president Emmanuel Macron set a five-year deadline to restore it. Notre-Dame did not hold a Christmas Mass in 2019 for the first time since 1803. By September 2021, donors had contributed over €840 million to the rebuilding effort. The cathedral reopened on 7 December 2024 after three years of reconstruction.
French prime minister Édouard Philippe announced an architectural design competition for a new spire "adapted to the techniques and the challenges of our era." The spire replacement project gathered a variety of designs and some controversy, particularly its legal exemption from environmental and heritage rules. However, the French Senate amended the government's proposed restoration bill to require the roof to be restored to how it was before the fire. The National Assembly rejected this amendment, and on 16 July 2019, 95 days after the fire that destroyed the cathedral's roof and central spire, the law that governs the restoration of the cathedral was finally approved by the Parliament. It recognises its UNESCO World Heritage Site status and the need to respect existing international charters and practices, to "preserve the historic, artistic and architectural history of the monument", and to limit any derogations to the existing heritage, planning, environmental and construction codes to a minimum.
The Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls is one of Rome's four major papal basilicas, along with the basilicas of Saint John in the Lateran, Saint Peter's, and Saint Mary Major, as well as one of the city’s Seven Pilgrim Churches. The basilica is the conventual church of the adjacent Benedictine abbey. It lies within Italian territory, but the Holy See owns the basilica and it is part of the Vatican's extraterritoriality. The basilica was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I over the burial place of Paul of Tarsus, where it was said that, after the apostle's execution, his followers erected a memorial, called a cella memoriae. This first basilica was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324.
In regards to rebuild or a second chance at life, under Leo I, extensive repair work was carried out following the collapse of the roof on account of fire or lightning. Again, the basilica was damaged in an earthquake on 29 April 801. Its roof collapsed, but was rebuilt by Leo III. Yet, once again, on 15 July 1823, a workman repairing the copper gutters of the roof started a fire that led to the near-total destruction of this basilica, which, alone among all the churches of Rome, had preserved much of its original character for 1435 years. In 1825, Leo XII issued the encyclical Ad plurimas encouraging donations for the reconstruction. A few months later, he issued orders that the basilica be rebuilt exactly as it had been when new in the fourth century, though he also stipulated that precious elements from later periods, such as the medieval mosaics and tabernacle, also be repaired and retained. The famous landmark has be resurrected many times, and suffered numerous accidents. On 23 April 1891, an explosion at the gunpowder magazine at Forte Portuense destroyed the basilica's stained glass windows.
In 2009 Pope Benedict XVI announced that radiocarbon dating confirmed that the bones in the tomb date from the 1st or 2nd century suggesting that they are indeed Paul's. A curved line of bricks indicating the outline of the apse of the Constantinian basilica was discovered immediately to the west of the sarcophagus, showing that the original basilica had its entrance to the east, like Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
Interestingly, there is also a St. Paul's Cathedral in London that was completely destroyed in the 1666 Great Fire and rebuild and is a major landmark in London. St Paul's is the second-largest church building in area in the UK. The task of designing a replacement structure was officially assigned to Sir Christopher Wren. St Paul's was the target of two suffragette bombing attacks in 1913 and 1914 respectively. This was as part of the suffragette bombing and arson campaign from 1912 and 1914 in which suffragettes from the Women's Social and Political Union, as part of their campaign for women's suffrage, carried out a series of politically motivated bombings and arson nationwide. During World War II, the cathedral survived the Blitz although it was struck by bombs on 10 October 1940 and 17 April 1941. On 29 July 1981, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer was held at the cathedral. Extensive copper, lead, and slate renovation work was carried out on the Dome in 1996. A 15-year restoration project—one of the largest ever undertaken in the UK—was completed on 15 June 2011. It is also the site of many movies including Marry Poppins, Tomb Raiders, and Harry Potter.
.jpg)
The ancient city of Babylon was located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about 85 kilometres (53 miles) south of modern-day Baghdad. It has been estimated that Babylon was the largest city in the world c. 1770 – c. 1670 BC, and again c. 612 – c. 320 BC. It was perhaps the first city to reach a population above 200,000. The main sources of information about Babylon—excavation of the site itself, references in cuneiform texts found elsewhere in Mesopotamia, references in the Bible, descriptions in other classical writing, present an incomplete and sometimes contradictory picture of the ancient city's grandeur. The site receives thousands of visitors each year, almost all of whom are Iraqis. Construction, war, looting have caused damages to its ruins.
Famous archeological sites include Kasr – also called Palace or Castle, it was the location of the Neo-Babylonian ziggurat Etemenanki of Nebuchadnezzar II, which scholars believe to be the Tower of Babel. A lot of the artifacts from early excavations were destroyed (ship carrying them were looted by pirates). During the restoration efforts in Babylon, the Iraqi State Organization for Antiquities and Heritage conducted extensive research, excavation and clearing, but wider publication of these archaeological activities has been limited. Most of the known tablets from all modern excavations remain unpublished.
In1978, the government of Iraq under Saddam Hussein, began the "Archaeological Restoration of Babylon Project": reconstructing features of the ancient city atop its ruins. These features included the Southern Palace of Nebuchadnezzar, with 250 rooms, five courtyards, and a 30-meter entrance arch. The project reinforced the Processional Way, the Lion of Babylon, and an amphitheater. The proposed reconstruction of the Hanging Gardens and the great ziggurat never took place. However, Hussein installed a portrait of himself and Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance to the ruins and inscribed his name on many of the bricks, in imitation of Nebuchadnezzar. One frequent inscription reads: "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq". Hussein later planned to build a modern palace for himself inspired by the ziggurats with cable cars and etc, but it was never built due to the 2003 Gulf War. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, US troops entered the area, before being handed over to Polish forces in September 2003. They were criticized for building the military base "Camp Alpha", with a helipad and other facilities on ancient ruins. US forces occupied the site and caused irreparable damage to archaeological records. Destruction, looting, apologies, and restoration, finally, it was reopened in 2009 and has been a UNESCO site since 2019.
On 31 October, 2019, a massive fire tore through the UNESCO World Heritage site of Shuri Castle in Okinawa, sparking a global reaction and comparisons with the devastating fire at Notre Dame, another World Heritage site. The New York Times and other outlets reported that Japanese officials had expressed alarm and concern about the vulnerability of domestic sites like Shuri Castle after the fire in Paris in April 2019. In Japan, the destruction of Shuri Castle throws up similar
issues, but also sparks much more complex debates. Fortunately, like Notre Dame, the fire at Shuri Castle did not result in any casualties. Like Notre Dame, the immediate response was that the site would be rebuilt and the rebuild is scheduled to be completed in 2026. Furthermore, although international headlines focused on the “500-year old world heritage site” and “600-year-old Shuri Castle complex,” they also mentioned that the castle had essentially been rebuilt in 1992 before being designated a World Heritage site in 2000. The focus of coverage has generally been on the role of Shuri Castle as the symbol of the former Ryukyu Kingdom.
The Yellow Crane Tower is a traditional Chinese tower located in Wuhan. The current structure was built from 1981 to 1985, but the tower has existed in various forms from as early as AD 223. The current Yellow Crane Tower is 51.4 m high and covers an area of 3,219 square meters. It is situated on Snake Hill, one kilometer away from the original site, on the banks of the Yangtze River. The tower has been destroyed 12 times, both by warfare and by fire, in the Ming and Qing dynasties and was repaired on ten separate occasions. The Yuanhe Maps and Records of Prefectures and Counties, written almost 600 years after the construction of the tower, notes that after Sun Quan, founder of the kingdom of Eastern Wu, built the fort of Xiakou in 223, a tower was constructed at/on the Yellow Crane Jetty. The last tower at the original site was built in 1868 and destroyed in 1884.
The Sacred Stupa is a stupa of Tibetan Buddhism, and it is an example of the first type of stupa after Buddhism was brought from India to China. The tower is also a sacred site of Taoism. Lü Dongbin is said to have ascended to heaven from here. There is a small cave in the hill beneath the tower with Lü Dongbin statue. Many famous poets have written about the Yellow Crane Tower including Li Bai and Cui Hao (8th century).
Plan of Stonehenge in 2004. After Cleal et al. and Pitts. Italicised numbers in the text refer to the labels on this plan. Trilithon lintels omitted for clarity. Holes that no longer, or never, contained stones are shown as open circles. Stones visible today are shown coloured.
Stonehenge is a prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones, held in place with mortise and tenon joints, a feature unique among contemporary monuments. Stonehenge was constructed in several phases beginning about 3100 BC and continuing until about 1600 BC. The famous circle of large sarsen stones were placed between 2600 BC and 2400 BC.
Stonehenge has been a focus of study by archologists and historian since 1666 and since, the collapse of stone due to weather conditions have been recorded. The southwest trilithon, which fell in 1797 and was restored in 1958. Stone 22 fell during a fierce storm on 31 December 1900. William Gowland oversaw the first major restoration of the monument in 1901, which involved the straightening and concrete setting of sarsen stone number 56 which was in danger of falling. Restoration through the 20th century mostly involved re-erecting, and setting in concrete bases.
Over the years, visitor centers, parking lot, and roads for access have been built and tourism surged.. The site has suffered vandalism intermittently for centuries. Until the 17th century, stones disappeared from the site, to be employed at building sites. In the 19th century, tourists employed chisels to cut rock chips off the megaliths as souvenirs. Vandalism included spray painting it purple (1984). The government went so far as to close Stonehenge to protect it from vandalism, but in the face of public outcry the government opted to re-open it. On 19 June 2024, climate protesters from Just Stop Oil vandalised three of the standing stones by spraying orange cornflour powder paint onto them. English Heritage website called the defacement "extremely upsetting" and began an investigation to assess the damage caused by the paint, before removing it with blown air and reporting that there was "no visible damage" to the stones.
Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse first built in 1599 for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays. Like the original, it is located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Southwark, London. The reconstruction was completed in 1997 and while concentrating on Shakespeare's work also hosts a variety of other theatrical productions.
The original globe theatre was built in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, destroyed by a fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644. The modern Globe Theatre is an academic approximation based on available evidence of the 1599 and 1614 buildings. It is considered quite realistic, though modern safety requirements mean that it accommodates only 1,400 spectators compared to the original theatre's 3,000.
In 1970, American actor and director Sam Wanamaker founded the Shakespeare Globe Trust and the International Shakespeare Globe Centre, with the objective of building a faithful recreation of Shakespeare's Globe close to its original location. Many people maintained that a faithful Globe reconstruction was impossible to achieve due to the complications in the 16th-century design and modern fire safety requirements; however,
.jpg)
Wanamaker's team persevered in their vision for over 20 years to create the theatre. A new Globe theatre was eventually built according to a design based on the research of a historical adviser. It was Wanamaker's wish that the new building recreate the Globe as it existed during most of Shakespeare's time there; that is, the 1599 building rather than its 1614 replacement.
In Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, the great Galactic Empire is falling. Thirty thousand years of darkness and ruin await—even Palpatine couldn’t have lived that long—until a man who can predict the future using math comes up with a weird plan: a colony of librarians who, if left alone on the fringe of the known universe to write a great encyclopedia, could shorten the Dark Ages to a “mere” thousand years. Discuss with your team: would librarians be a good choice of profession for those entrusted to restart a great civilization? If not librarians, then who? And how much do you think math—and big data—can and should be used to predict the future?
Foundation and Earth is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series. It was published in 1986. The plot: Several centuries after the events of Second Foundation, two citizens of the Foundation, Councilman Golan Trevize, historian Janov Pelorat, search for Earth, the legendary planet where humans are said to have originated. Even less is known about Earth than was the case in Foundation, when scholars still seem to know the location of 'Sol'. The first Spacer planet they visit is Aurora, which was abandoned by its inhabitants and has a collapsing ecology. Trevize is nearly killed by a pack of wild dogs, presumed to be the descendants of household pets reverted to wolf-like savagery.
Foundation
Later, after visiting several other planets, they finally arrive at earth. They detect it to be highly radioactive and not capable of supporting life but, while trying to use the ship's computer to locate Solaria. They turn their attention to the moon, which is large enough to serve as a hideout for the forces that lived on Earth. There, they find R. Daneel Olivaw, who explains he has been paternalistically manipulating humanity long before the Galactic Empire or Foundation. He thus caused the settlement of Alpha Centauri, the creation of Gaia and the creation of psychohistory.
Sometime in 2025, a dead airline will return to the skies. A private company is planning to de-extinct the once-legendary airline brand Pan Am for some very expensive charter flights, with hints of bringing it back in a bigger fashion down the line. And, speaking of fashion, Pan Am has already been revived as a South Korean clothing brand. Consider the examples below of other brand names that have been brought back from the dead to sell new products and services–even if they are unconnected to the companies that spawned them. Discuss with your team: is this kind of branding dishonest, and what derelict brands or companies would you want to reintroduce–and in what forms?
A US-based travel agency is planning to revive the Pan American (Pan Am) brand for a short nostalgic transatlantic excursion in 2025 using a chartered Boeing 757. The company aims to provide an exclusive experience, recreating the defunct US airline’s classic routes but on an upmarket basis, using the narrow-bodied aircraft fitted with just 50 business class seats.
Pan Am was seen as the pinnacle of international air travel during the inter-war and post-war years, with their famous ‘Clipper’ flying boats becoming synonymous with offering a high-class of intercontinental air travel. The airline later became the pioneer of the jet age, introducing the Boeing 707 in the 1960s and the Boeing 747 ‘jumbo jet’ in the 1970s.
Pan Am later succumbed to increased competition on many of its routes. It was declared bankrupt in 1991, with two failed revival attempts. Pan Am even inspired its own TV show.
A For this revival, Centurion Travel paid to use the Pan Am brand and logo and proposes a multi-city excursion on sale that spans cities on both sides of the Atlantic, running from June 27 until July 9, 2025. Tickets for the two-week odyssey cost $65,500 for a single person traveling on their own. This includes accommodation, travel, and most meals, according to Centurion’s website.
Pan Am was featured in the movie Catch Me If You Can
South Korean fashion retailer, SJ Group, has brought the famous American airline brand Pan Am into the country as a lifestyle brand, opening its first store inside the Shinsegae Starfield Coex Mall. Featuring Pan Am’s signature blue and white, the Starfield Coex store is home to a selection of Pan Am-branded fashion apparel and accessories, ranging from bucket hats, travel bags, and phone cases to toys. If flying doesn't work, venture into clothing. It just shows that some brands really have 9 lives.
RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Company. In 1932, RCA became an independent company after the partners were required to divest their ownership as part of the settlement of a government antitrust suit.
Back in the 1920-1970s, RCA was the dominant electronics and communications firm in the United States. During the 1970s, the seemingly impregnable stature of RCA as America's leading name in technology, innovation and home entertainment began to weaken as the company attempted to expand beyond its main focus of the development and marketing of consumer electronics and communications into a diversified multinational conglomerate. Additionally, RCA began to face increasing domestic competition from international electronics firms such as Sony and Philips. In the 1980s, RCA was reacquired by General Electric in 1986 and it was sold off piece by piece. Given its patent technology was in radio which is outdated in today's Internet world, I don't think it is likely that it will be making a comeback. Also, it is way past the 30 year nostalgia rule.
.png)
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Through the early and mid-20th century, Westinghouse Electric was a powerhouse in heavy industry, electrical production and distribution, consumer electronics, home appliances and a wide variety of other products. They were a major supplier of generators and steam turbines for most of their history, and was also a major player in the field of nuclear power, starting with the Westinghouse Atom Smasher in 1937. In the 1970s and 80s, it faced financial difficulty and after some restructuring, it purchase media and broadcasting company CBS and renamed itself CBS. CBS was later purchased and also ended. Westinghouse was the major sponsor of the 1939 World Fair and back then it was a household name and electronics giant, however, that whole generation is no longer around to push for its revival.
.jpg)
Polaroid Corporation was an American company that made instant film and cameras, which survives as a brand for consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit his Polaroid polarizing polymer. Land and Polaroid created the first instant camera, the Land Camera, in 1948. Land ran the company until 1981. Its peak employment was 21,000 in 1978, and its peak revenue was $3 billion in 1991. However, as digital cameras took over, and later phones with cameras, the need for Polaroid decreased.
In 2001, Polaroid Corporation declared bankruptcy. Later Polish billionaire and likely Polaroid fan billionaire Wiaczesław Smołokowski purchased the assets and launched the Impossible Project, which had started producing instant films for older Polaroid cameras in 2008, to rebrand as Polaroid Originals in 2017-2020. These "new" Polaroid cameras began a new fad for retro looking photos that are chic and less manipulated. It is considered a semi-successful revival as it has rallied some of its original fans, but unlikely that it will ever become a global leader again. Technology makes many products obsolete.
RadioShack is an American electronics retailer that was established in 1921 as an amateur radio mail-order business. It was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, shifting its focus from radio equipment to hobbyist electronic components, sold in retail stores. It survived the retail shift from mail order to retail stores staffed by people who knew electronics and branched into computers in the 1980s. At its peak there were around 8000 shops all over the North America. In February 2015, after years of management crises, poor worker relations, diminished revenue, and 11 consecutive quarterly losses, RadioShack was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Back in the 1990s, when retail was booming, it was a popular consumer brand, but soon e-commerce emerged and many new iconic products began their own retail stores online and offline. Given a name like RadioShack (not exactly classy) and the fact it didn't make any of its products, its hard to imagine a revival of any kind.
Gateway, Inc., previously Gateway 2000, Inc., was an American computer company originally based in Iowa and South Dakota. Founded by Ted Waitt and Mike Hammond in 1985, the company developed, manufactured, supported, and marketed a wide range of personal computers. Following a seven-year-long slump, Gateway was acquired by Taiwanese hardware and electronics corporation Acer in October 2007 for US$710 million.
In September 2020, Acer revived the Gateway branding on laptops and tablets sold exclusively through Walmart. Acer commissioned Bmorn Technology, a Shenzhen-based technology company, to manufacture and sell these Gateway branded laptops. The new line of laptops is a rebadging of Walmart's existing EVOO-branded laptops. So, while the company is no longer, the brand name still has some value.
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1865. Nokia made significant contributions to the mobile telephony industry, assisting in the development of the GSM, 3G, and LTE technology. For a decade beginning in 1998, Nokia was the largest worldwide vendor of mobile phones and smartphones. In the later 2000s, however, Nokia suffered from a series of poor management decisions and soon saw its share of the mobile phone market drop sharply. Enter Apple's iPhones. In 2014, Microsoft bought
Nokia's mobile phone business, incorporating it as Microsoft Mobile. Nokia continues to be a major patent licensor for most large mobile phone vendors. As of 2018, Nokia is the world's third-largest network equipment manufacturer. It is still one of the most prominent companies from Finland. I don't see how it will come back as a phone vendor, but with a company that has gone through so many evolutions, it is possible that somewhere in the future, it is revived through new technology.
Sansui Electric Co., Ltd. (山水電気株式会社, Sansui Denki Kabushiki-gaisha) was a Japanese manufacturer of audio and video equipment. The company was founded in Tokyo in 1947 by Kosaku Kikuchi, who had worked for a radio parts distributor in Tokyo before and during World War II. Due to the poor quality of radio parts Kikuchi had to deal with, he decided to start his private radio part manufacturer facility in December 1944 in Yoyogi, Tokyo. He chose transformers as his initial product line. Kikuchi's thought was "Even with higher prices, let's make the higher quality of products." By the 1960s Sansui had developed a reputation for making serious audio components, including amplifiers and turntables. In the mid 1980s, facing competition, the brand became diluted, adding different product lines that were not high-end. Sadly, it went out of business in 2014.
Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was one of the big four airlines in the US during the 1930s to 1950s. However, it began facing challenges as airline deregulation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, labor disputes and high debt loads strained the company under the leadership of former astronaut Frank Borman. It was purchased and assets moved to other businesses. After continued labor disputes and a crippling strike in 1989, Eastern ran out of money and was liquidated in 1991. In 2011, a group purchased the intellectual property, including trademarks, of Eastern Air Lines and formed the Eastern Air Lines Group. The new airline began service through charter and wet-lease flights out of Miami International in late 2014 with Boeing 737-800 jetliners painted in the classic Eastern "hockey stick" livery. The IATA and ICAO codes of the original airline, as well as its callsign, were used by the new iteration of Eastern Air Lines. On January 12, 2020, after nearly two decades of being officially defunct, the first flight of the renewed Eastern Airlines landed at JFK airport, heralding a new era for the brand name. This is unsure as another sites says that Eastern Air Lines ceased operation in 2015.
Could 3.5 inch floppy discs be next? (They do make good coasters.) From audio cassettes to instant cameras, many vintage technologies are enjoying a resurgence today, often driven by viral online trends that celebrate their limitations. Discuss with your team: why do some products and brands become popular again after gathering dust for so long? When do you prefer something older and (technically) worse to something newer and (technically) better?
Sales of cassettes in the UK have reached their highest level since 2003, following vinyl records in a small, nostalgia-fuelled resurgence. Five readers told the Guardian why they prefer to listen to supposedly obsolete tapes. In short, people are buying retro gadgets and consuming nostalgic for different reasons: scarcity, connection with children, quality and habit, remembrance, and creative outlet.
1) Dan White 40: "Buying a cassette direct from an independent artist on platforms such as Bandcamp is such a fun way to consume music. Often produced in very small runs, it is nice to receive something through the post that is relatively scarce. In these days of Spotify funnelling payments only to the superstars, it feels good to support small artists and labels. The magic of a cassette is that you have no way to skip tracks; you press ‘play’ and listen from start to finish with only the satisfying thud of one side ending to interrupt the experience."
2) Elisabeth Stagg 38: “There seems to be a huge 90s revival in fashion and classic TV from when I was a kid. My daughter, 12, has had a
cassette player bought for her birthday, and is now listening to all the music I did growing up, including Bon Jovi and Aerosmith tapes."
3) Tim 50: "Cassettes, though – and I know this is technically wrong – sound as though they have much more depth than the CDs. I’ve tried one after the other and believe I can hear a better sound from the cassette. "
4) Carol 55: ““My big brother died a few years ago and I have some of the tapes of his that I nicked from him when we were teenagers...The machine I’m currently using was supplied by my partner and has extra big buttons designed for sight-impaired folk, or elderly folk such as myself."
5) Charles Daniels: "I like to create my own music and collaborate with others. After rediscovering the atmosphere and sound of cassettes, I abandoned recording on to my laptop or PC and began using straight-to-audio cassette. I found this focused jam sessions. No longer would me and my friends just endlessly twiddle about for hours thinking."
Whether it be because of nostalgia, a new market or just self-expression, the infamous grainy images have made a huge comeback — letting us know that maybe things don't always have to be picture perfect.
Polaroid first declared bankruptcy in 2001. By 2008, the company stopped producing instant film, the product that had once carried their massive profits throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. The age of digital photography had arrived, and Polaroid was doomed. Or is it so?
Nostalgia is powerful business The numbers of the instant film and analog media revival are staggering. Fujifilm, the new undisputed king of instant film, sold 3.5 million units of their Instax cameras in 2019, up from a measly 100,000 units in 2004. It’s no coincidence that vinyl shares this trajectory, with overall units sold going from approximately 1 million in 2005 to 27.5 million in 2020. But why?
Polaroids are grainy and but is also part of the allure. It forces photographers to step back and think about their composition. (like drawing with crayon?) Analogue photography (non-digital) is still popular and sought after because it is tangible and people enjoy nostalgia. In fact, there are dozens of apps that “Polaroid” your pictures are used to take high definition, digital photos and turn them into something reminiscent of that ever-nostalgic instant film aesthetic. It's a new way for Gen Z to express their individuality.
Digital cameras from the early 2000s are becoming must-have gadgets for many young people because of a burgeoning trend online. Search traffic for old kit on online marketplaces like eBay and Etsy is on the rise. And in the past 12 months, videos with the hashtag #digitalcamera have amassed more than 220 million views on TikTok. EBay UK told the BBC the last three months of 2022 saw increases in people seeking the devices. This included a 13% rise in search traffic for "vintage digital camera", and a 52% rise for "refurbished camera".
Katie Glasgow, 25, lives in Brooklyn, New York and calls herself "the oldest possible Gen Z". She has also been using her parents' old kit to make images and video. "It looks like memories, because it's blurry and imperfect. It looks more like how we remember things," she said. Paul Greenwood, head of research and insight at the creative agency We Are Social, said it was a "natural cycle" where when people hit their 20s "they become nostalgic for the cultural touchstones of their youth". Bottom line, people just want to feel more authentic.
disposable camera
One-time-use cameras were pioneered by Kodak and it was popular in the 1990s. It is particularly popular in situations where a regular camera was lost, or forgotten or kids could not afford a regular camera. They became popular as wedding favors to take photos and then return to the bride and groom. But since the advent of cameras in phones for sharing, they have almost completely died out. Of course some fans still enjoy the purely nostalgic feeling. Maybe criminals would use it to disguise their digital footprint?
handheld gaming devices
Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the console, screen, speakers, and controls in one unit, allowing players to carry them and play them at any time or place. Since the late 1980s to the mid 2010s, they were popular, but as games got added to phones and PC games became more popular, they have also lost their fanbase. For kids that don't have phones yet, this might be a fun gadget. Also, this product perfectly fits the 30 year rule.
vinyl
A niche resurgence of vinyl records began in the late 2000s, mainly among rock fans. The Entertainment Retailers Association in the United Kingdom found in 2011 that consumers were willing to pay on average US$25.81 for a single vinyl record, as opposed to US$12.38 for a CD and US$10.76 for a digital download. Vinyl represents nostalgic music and also has a hype of being the choice for aficionados. In 2021, Taylor Swift sold 102,000 copies of her ninth studio album Evermore on vinyl in one week. The sales of the record beat the largest sales in one week on vinyl since Nielsen started tracking vinyl sales in 1991.
film
Use of film remained the dominant form of cinematography until the early 21st century when digital formats supplanted the use of film in many applications. This has also led to the replacement of film projectors with digital projection. Despite this, some filmmakers continue to opt for film stock as a medium of choice for aesthetic reasons. However, digital formats are sometimes deliberately altered to achieve a film look, such as adding film grain or other noise for artistic effect.
Shortwave remains important in war zones, such as in the Russo-Ukrainian war, and shortwave broadcasts can be transmitted over thousands of miles from a single transmitter, making it difficult for government authorities to censor them. Shortwave radio is also often used by aircraft.
According to Andy Sennitt, former editor of the World Radio TV Handbook,
"shortwave is a legacy technology, which is expensive and environmentally unfriendly. A few countries are hanging on to it, but most have faced up to the fact that the glory days of shortwave have gone. Religious broadcasters will still use it because they are not too concerned with listening figures."
Shortwave
However, Thomas Witherspoon, editor of shortwave news site SWLingPost.com wrote that "shortwave remains the most accessible international communications medium that still provides listeners with the protection of complete anonymity." In 2018, Nigel Fry, head of Distribution for the BBC World Service Group, "I still see a place for shortwave in the 21st
century, especially for reaching areas of the world that are prone to natural disasters that destroy local broadcasting and Internet infrastructure.
Compared to FM or digital transmissions, AM transmissions are more expensive to transmit due to the necessity of having to transmit a high power carrier wave to overcome ground losses, and the large antenna radiators required at the low broadcast frequencies, but can be sent over long distances via the ionosphere at night; however, they are much more susceptible to interference, and often have lower audio fidelity. Thus, AM broadcasters tend to specialize in spoken-word formats, such as talk radio, all-news radio and sports radio, with music formats primarily for FM and digital stations.
AM radio
Pager
Even though mobile phones are so prevalent, pagers continue to be used by some emergency services and public safety personnel, because modern pager systems' coverage overlap, combined with use of satellite communications, can make paging systems more reliable than terrestrial based cellular networks in some cases, including during natural and human-made disasters. They are often seen on doctors who get paged for emergencies at hospitals. This resilience has led public safety agencies to adopt pagers over cellular and other commercial services for critical messaging.
magnetic tape storage
Magnetic-tape data storage is a system for storing digital information on magnetic tape using digital recording. Tape was an important medium for primary data storage in early computers, typically using large open reels of 7-track, later 9-track tape. Modern magnetic tape is most commonly packaged in cartridges and cassettes, such as the widely supported Linear Tape-Open (LTO). Tape data storage is now used more for system backup, data archive and data exchange. The low cost of tape has kept it viable for long-term storage and archive.
De-extinction isn’t just for passenger pigeons, bankrupt brand names, and outdated technologies. Artistic and musical can be brought back, sometimes unsuccessfully—and sometimes, perhaps, too successfully. Discuss with your team: is it true that old music is killing new music?
Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market, according to the latest numbers from MRC Data, a music-analytics firm. Those who make a living from new music—especially that endangered species known as the working musician—should look at these figures with fear and trembling. But the news gets worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. All the growth in the market is coming from old songs. The 200 most popular new tracks now regularly account for less than 5% of total streams. Not only is new music being neglected, music award shows like the Grammy has decreased in audience.
Only songs released in the past 18 months get classified as “new” in the MRC database, so people could conceivably be listening to a lot of two-year-old songs, rather than 60-year-old ones.
Why are old music gaining in popularity?
1) The leading area of investment in the music business is old songs. Investment firms are getting into bidding wars to buy publishing catalogs from aging rock and pop stars.
2) The song catalogs in most demand are by musicians who are in their 70s or 80s (Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen) or already dead (David Bowie, James Brown).
3) Even major record labels are participating in the rush to old music: Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, and others are buying up publishing catalogs and investing huge sums in old tunes.
4) Record labels— once a source of innovation in consumer products—don’t spend any money on research and development to revitalize their business
5) Radio stations are contributing to the stagnation, putting fewer new songs into their rotation.
6) When a new song overcomes these obstacles and actually becomes a hit, the risk of copyright lawsuits is greater than ever before.
7) Adding to the nightmare, dead musicians are now coming back to life in virtual form—via holograms and “deepfake” music
Perhaps the biggest issue is the "Safer Bet" mentality where music labels choose to take less risks, sticking to what they know would reap some benefits instead of nurturing and discovering new talent. Nevertheless, music is one of those things that a new wave would take everyone by surprise. So, new music is not dead, it's just waiting to be heard, unexpectedly.
