Since apparently this needs to be said, it wasn't a "Roman" salute because the Romans never had a salute like that. The concept of the straight-armed salute comes from the 1784 painting "The Oath of the Horatii," which was copied by artists down the 19th century.

Kate Moore's "The Radium Girls" has some writing issues, but is otherwise a harrowing, fascinating dive into the lunacy of the early 20th century radium industry and our country's wearisomely predictable attitudes toward industrial safety and the disposability of female labor.

Been reading Simon Sebag Montefiore's "The Romanov's" lately. It's a solid, well-researched history of the dynasty from the time of Ivan IV ("the Terrible," last tsar of the old Rurikovich dynasty) to the end in 1917. If you're looking for an introduction to Imperial Russia, it's a good one.

Forty years ago from yesterday, Stanislav Petrov saved your life. He was a Lt. Colonel in the Soviet Strategic Rockets forces, and overrode an early warning that the US had fired five Minuteman ICBMs at the USSR, correctly judging it a false alarm as a US first strike wouldn't be just five missiles.

I attended Dragon Con this weekend because I am a massive nerd, but since I'm also a massive history nerd I attended a panel on the depiction of the Holocaust in comics and graphic novels. The discussion was fun, and it brought up something germaine to this account that I'd like to share here.