I usually take notes and try to follow the slipbox technique for storing the new information that I find out interesting during a month. This month I didn't take notes as an experiment to see how much I will remember. Turns out slipbox note taking is important.
The Nepal Royal Massacre: The Impossible King
The 2001 massacre of the Nepalese royal family remains one of the strangest royal tragedies in modern history. In June 2001, Crown Prince Dipendra of Nepal allegedly killed nine members of his own family, including the king and queen, reportedly over a dispute about his marriage, before shooting himself. The massacre did not just devastate the royal family. It also threw the monarchy into chaos, led to the surreal 54-hour reign of a king in a coma, and gave rise to conspiracy theories that would shadow the throne until its eventual abolition.
What makes the story especially interesting is how absurd the events after became. After shooting his family and himself, Dipendra fell into a coma. Even so, he was officially declared king and remained on the throne for three days before dying, creating the bizarre spectacle of a monarch who reigned without ever regaining consciousness.
Public suspicion quickly turned toward Gyanendra, the dead king’s brother. He was conceniently absent from the dinner, while his immediate family escaped with only minor injuries. His first public explanation, that the massacre resulted from an “accidental discharge of an automatic weapon,” was so implausible that it only deepened distrust and further damaged the monarchy’s legitimacy.
Cicero’s De Oratore
People say Cicero must be read in Latin but that will be impossible for me. I have a plan to read in English or Turkish in the future. I believe it will inspire many who wants to be better in public speaking. Writing in the crumbling Roman Republic, Cicero’s work on the "Ideal Orator" argues that technical skill is secondary to character. Search for Marcus Tullius Cicero, De Oratore (Book I-III). For Cicero, rhetoric without wisdom is a weapon: persuasive power without ethics becomes a threat to the state. Cicero dismissed the idea that rhetoric could be mastered as a mere technique. A real orator, in his view, had to be a polymath, versed in law, culture, and human psychology. Without that breadth, one was not an orator, only a shouter.