Showing results by author "iMinds" in All Categories

Learn about the crimes of Jack the Ripper with iMinds insightful audio-knowledge series.

In late 1888, a series of brutal murders took place in the impoverished Whitechapel district of London. At least five women were attacked. The killer liked slitting the throats of the victims. The victims' abdomens were then sliced and several organs were removed. This serial killer became known as Jack the Ripper.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is one of the world's most famous conspiracy theories. It is a statement of prejudice and paranoia, a fake historical record and a grand hoax all rolled into one.

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous writers of all time. But little is known about the life of this playwright and poet.What we do know is that Shakespeare was born in 1564 in a town in the west of England called Stratford-Upon-Avon. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove-maker who was also on the local council.

Learn about the story of the infamous Guy Fawkes with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. "Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot." Guy Fawkes has been called the most famous terrorist in history for his involvement in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. His influence is still felt today in United Kingdom where Guy Fawkes Night is still celebrated on November 5th.

Learn about the science and history of dinosaurs with iMindsJNR audio-learning series for younger minds. Huge and sometimes ferocious, dinosaurs ruled the earth for more than 175 million years. To us, dinosaurs might be scary-looking. But humans never had to fear dinosaurs because they died out 65 million years ago, a long time before the first people were around!Dinosaurs lived in a period called the Mesozoic era, which began about 240 million years ago.

Learn about the Rosetta Stone with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. In 196 BCE, priests of all the gods of Upper and Lower Egypt assembled at Memphis to celebrate the accession to the throne of the boy king Ptolemy V. He was already in the ninth year of his reign, but this was the first time that such a momentous gathering as this had taken place.

Learn about Gold Trading with iMinds Money's insightful fast knowledge series. Gold trading is the investment in and trading of gold as a commodity. It is similar to trading in other commodities such as oil or wood, though there are factors that differentiate it. Gold has represented money and wealth for millennia in different forms. In the present day, we are able to freely own and trade gold in various forms, from gold bars to shares in gold mining companies.

According to most economics textbooks, human beings are super-rational creatures who know what is in their own best interests and always act accordingly. When making a decision to purchase, the rational consumer would not buy something on the spur of the moment, or on the recommendation of a friend. Sound realistic?

Learn about Land Trusts with iMinds Money's insightful fast knowledge series. A land trust is an agreement whereby one party, the trustee, agrees to hold ownership of a piece of real property for the benefit of another party, the beneficiary. Corporations set up land trusts as intermediaries that hold and manage property on behalf of investors in return for management fees.

Learn about UFOs with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. On 25 June 1947, Kenneth Arnold, a United States Forest Service employee and private pilot, witnessed nine Unidentified Flying Objects in the sky near Mount Rainier, Washington. This incident was to mark the beginning of a rapid increase in public interest in UFOs. Arnold, who at the time was searching for a downed transport plane, originally thought the objects he saw were jets. However, on closer inspection, he realised the objects had no tails and all but one looked like flat disks.

The House of Plantagenet was a royal house of 15 monarchs who ruled England from 1154-1485. The Plantagenets originally came from France, where they ruled a county called Anjou. They were a strange and powerful family, complex and prone to insanity. Their founder, Count Fulk III (known as "The Black"), had his wife burned at the stake in her wedding dress when he discovered she was sleeping with a goatherd.

Learn about the Seven Archangels with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. The history of Angels rests predominantly in the Middle East. Other cultures had gods, goddesses or faeries, but in the Middle East they worshiped angels as their gods. Once the idea of a single all powerful God evolved, however, it was necessary to create another space for angels. And so, they became known as mediators between the newly created all powerful God and his servants - humankind- on Earth.

Learn about the Barbary Pirates with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. For 350 years, from the late 15th century onwards, Europeans travelling by boat in the Mediterranean Sea were under constant threat of pirate attack. But these were not pirates as normally understood; rather, they were Muslim warriors officially sanctioned to plunder ships from Christian countries and kill or enslave anyone they found aboard.

Learn about the history and geography of Antarctica with iMindsJNR audio-learning series for younger minds. Antarctica is the fifth biggest continent on Earth. It is also the coldest. The sun shines for only half of the year and stays under the horizon for the other half. Early explorers of Antarctica described it as a mysterious, lonely place. But they also described it as a desert. And a desert it is!

Learn about the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. The Bermuda Triangle is a large stretch of ocean in the Caribbean. It is infamous for numerous unexplained disappearances of boats and aircraft. What goes on in the Bermuda Triangle is one of the world's greatest mysteries. Many believe supernatural phenomena or extra-terrestrial activity occurs there.

Learn the history of the Spanish Inquisition with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. The Spanish Inquisition was a governing authority started by the crown in the late-15th century. It included a network of spies who worked across the state to ensure Spaniards conformed to the accepted behaviour of traditional Catholic subjects. t was relentless in ensuring Catholic orthodoxy within Spain. But why was Spain so self-conscious in ensuring a singular religious identity?

Throughout the world, there are hundreds of lakes in which monsters are said to live. None of these lake monsters is more famous than the Loch Ness Monster, who is said to inhabit Loch Ness in Scotland.

Learn about the Tragedy of the Commons with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. The Tragedy of the Commons is a situation in which a jointly owned resource is overused or destroyed because each person takes more than they would if the resource was privately owned. With each individual acting independently, the combined pressure on the resource exceeds what is in the interests of the community as a whole.

Learn about the Stockholm Syndrome with iMinds insightful audio knowledge series. At first glance, two of the most notorious bank robberies of the 1970s would seem to have nothing in common. They occurred eight months apart, for different motives, on opposite sides of the globe. But these two incidents would prove seminal to the development and understanding of a curious and once controversial psychological condition: the Stockholm Syndrome.

Learn about the history of the Printing Press with iMindsJNR audio-learning series for younger minds.

Alongside the invention of the wheel, electric light and the internet, the invention of the printing press was one of history’s great, transformative moments.