Digested History of the World

Parody in the Guardian this morning of Radio 4's History of the World in 100 Objects by John Crace which will have you choking on your cornflakes:

27 Parthenon sculpture The Elgin marbles are inevitably contentious. But close study of these reliefs reveal a man in woad next to the centaur and proves the Ancient Greeks looted them from Stonehenge. Therefore Lord Elgin was quite within his rights to bring them back to blighty and the Greeks can moan all they like but the marbles are not leaving the museum while I'm in charge.

33 The Rosetta stone This seemingly ordinary stone tablet (196BC) was the key that unlocked Egyptian hieroglyphs. The text itself may appear a rather boring tax record, yet it reveals how Egyptian customs became the basis of international tax law. As George Osborne says: "It clearly shows that pharaohs are entitled to keep a £4m trust fund offshore while the rest of the country gets screwed."

I particularly like the Digested read digested: "The British Museum catalogue expensively repackaged as 100 objects." Full story here.