Category: Modern

Bernays Bacon Breakfast
Business, History, Modern

Bernays’ Breakfast Bamboozle: The PR campaign that made Americans eat more bacon

While you were growing up, you were told at some point that “breakfast was the most important meal of the day”. But for a new generation of millennials for whom intermittent fasting has become ubiquitous, the “hearty breakfast” now seems like a thing of myth and legend. If skipping breakfast is healthy, then why did people believe for so long that a large morning meal … Continue reading Bernays’ Breakfast Bamboozle: The PR campaign that made Americans eat more bacon

Vinton D'SouzaLeave a comment
Uffizi - The Birth of Venus - Stendhal Syndrome
Culture, History, Medieval, Modern, Psychology

Overwhelmed by Beauty? Blame Stendhal Syndrome

Imagine witnessing an object of art so beautiful that it leaves you in a trance, completely spellbound and in a state of ecstasy. If you have ever felt this, chances are you experiencing Stendhal syndrome, a psychosomatic condition that afflicts some people when in the presence of remarkably beautiful works of art. Named after Stendhal, a 19th-century French author who first experienced it during a … Continue reading Overwhelmed by Beauty? Blame Stendhal Syndrome

Vinton D'SouzaLeave a comment
Dulce et Decorum est
History, Modern

Wilfred Owen’s Greatest Anti-War Poem

Of all the poems of this English soldier and poet, the greatest is Dulce et Decorum est. Those who recognize this Latin phrase will immediately be struck by the intended irony when they read the poem itself, for the contrast between title and verse is inescapably wide. Taken from the ancient works of Horace, the complete phrase reads “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.”, meaning “It is sweet and honourable to die for your country.” Continue reading Wilfred Owen’s Greatest Anti-War Poem

Vinton D'SouzaLeave a comment