No Drinking! No Fighting! The Laws of Early Edo Japan to Keep the Peace

An early Edo period document stipulating the Hosokawa clan code of conduct for vassals dispatched on a national project to rebuild Sunpu Castle has been discovered by Kumamoto University researchers. The 13 articles from the head of the Hosokawa clan in the Kokura domain (area), Tadaoki Hosokawa at the time, delegate full authority to the vassals to ...

Troy Oakes

A letter from the lord of the Hosokawa clan.

The 8 Graces of Life

Having a grateful heart, we have to be aware of the eight tremendous graces in life and return the blessings when the time comes. 8 graces to be grateful for 1. The grace of nature Nature bears us. We live, we take, and we grow in it. That is why ancient people respected nature. They ...

Nspirement Staff

A forest path.

Sea Salt Can Help You Deal With the Common Cold

There is no treatment for the common cold. However, there are natural ways to remedy its symptoms. A study of sea salt water solution found that it could cut down the length of a cold by around two days while also reducing the need for medicines by almost a third. Dealing with the common cold ...

Armin Auctor

Boy sneezing into a tissue.

Team Discovers Ancestral Puebloans Survived Ice Melt in Lava Tube

For more than 10,000 years, the people who lived on the arid landscape of modern-day western New Mexico were renowned for their complex societies, unique architecture, and early economic and political systems. But surviving in what Spanish explorers would later name El Malpais, or the “badlands,” required ingenuity now being explained for the first time ...

Troy Oakes

A large lave tube.

6 Chinese Business Traditions You Should Be Aware Of

Different cultures have their own characteristics and propriety of conducting business. China is no different. Whether it is dealing with customers, partners, superiors, juniors, and so on, Chinese business traditions mandate the observation of certain standards. 6 Chinese business traditions you need to know about 1. Generosity According to ancient Chinese traditions, a businessman is ...

Nspirement Staff

Hong Kong on the waterfront..

New Fossil Seal Species Rewrites History

An international team of biologists, led by Monash University, has discovered a new species of extinct monk seal from the Southern Hemisphere — describing it as the biggest breakthrough in seal evolution in 70 years. The discovery, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, radically changes scientists’ understanding of how seal species evolved around the world. ...

Troy Oakes

An artist’s impression of Eomonachus belegaerensis.

Rice Porridge Is the Best Tonic

Ancient people of the East frequently praised rice porridge, also known as congee, as the best food for humans to eat. Whether for convalescence after illness or everyday health care, the simple and inexpensive dish is an easy food therapy that anyone can afford to prepare and eat in order to maintain or develop good health.  White rice can ...

Nspirement Staff

A bowl of congee.

Population Dynamics and the Formation of the Central Asian Empires

In a new study published in the journal Cell, an international research team has investigated the genetic, sociopolitical, and cultural changes that accompanied the emergence of the Central Asian empires. The team analyzed genome-wide data from 214 East Eurasian individuals spanning six millennia and discussed the changes in population and material culture that preceded the ...

Troy Oakes

A leaning Deer Stone placed in front of dozens of small stone mounds containing ritually-sacrificed horse burials at the Bronze Age monument site of Ikh Tsagaanii Am, Bayankhongor Province, central Mongolia. (Credit: William Taylor)

The Many Medicinal Uses of Ginger

Ginger is the root of the perennial plant Zingiber officinale. People have known about the medicinal uses of ginger as a herbal remedy for centuries to treat many conditions, from arthritis to abdominal pain. People often still use ginger today when they have a cough or cold. Scientific research shows the medicinal uses of ginger can ...

Emma Lu

Fresh ginger.

Mars Plays Shepherd to Our Moon’s Long-Lost Twin

An international team of planetary scientists, led by astronomers at AOP, have found an asteroid trailing behind Mars with a composition very similar to the Moon’s. The asteroid could be an ancient piece of debris, dating back to the gigantic impacts that formed the Moon and the other rocky planets in our solar system like ...

Troy Oakes

The Moon and Mars at night over a field.