On August 9, 1989, a solemn ceremony was held on a hill outside the town of Onagawa in Japan. The townsfolk and a handful of foreign guests gathered to dedicate a monument to a fallen airman, who in the final days of the Second World War sacrificed his life pressing home a suicidal attack on… Read More »
On April 9, 1959, the newly-formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, introduced the world to a new breed of heroes: the Mercury Seven, America’s first astronauts. Selected from a pool of over 500 military test pilots, these men represented the best the nation had to offer, and its best hope in the intensifying… Read More »
It is one of the best-selling drugs in history. Since its introduction in 1998, it has swiftly become the flagship product for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, ringing in sales of up to $2 billion every year. The United States, Mexico, and Canada spend more than $1.4 billion on it every year, while the U.S. military alone… Read More »
It is a scene which has played out in countless medical dramas. A patient flatlines, the long, piercing tone of the heart monitor announcing to the audience that they have shuffled off this mortal coil. But our team of intrepid medical heroes isn’t ready to give up just yet. As one doctor pounds on the… Read More »
If you’ve ever spent any amount of time discussing snowflakes with almost literally anyone, you’ve probably at one point or other heard that snowflakes are all unique. But… are they? Like many widely-believed notions such as the “fact” that sugar makes children hyper (it doesn’t at all, though in controlled studies where parents are told… Read More »
On November 11, 1918, representatives from Imperial Germany and the Entente Powers gathered in a railway carriage near the French forest of Compiègne [“Kom-pee-enne”] to sign a historic document. This document, signed at 5AM, declared an armistice or cease-fire between the two powers, to take effect at 11AM that morning. And so at the eleventh… Read More »
It’s a scenario we’ve all seen a hundred times: our hero discovers a bomb planted by the villains, the countdown flashing in bright red numbers on the timer. Armed with only a pair of wire cutters, he opens the bomb and roots through the tangle of multi-coloured wires within, frantically searching for the right one… Read More »
It is a scene which has played out in countless spy thrillers: an assassin slinks stealthily through the shadows, silently stalking his target. At the perfect moment he pulls out his pistol, a long, cylindrical silencer fitted to his muzzle. The target completely unaware of his presence, the assassin raises the weapon, takes aim, and… Read More »
“Here’s to my sweet Satan. I sing because I live with Satan. He will give those with him 666. There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.” These are the disturbing words which appear when the 1971 Led Zeppelin masterpiece “Stairway to Heaven” is played in reverse – or so it… Read More »
Generals, it is said, are always ready to fight the last war. Never has this adage been more true than in the years 1939-1941, when the Nazi blitzkrieg swept its way across Europe. German divisions, spearheaded by tanks and supported by ground-attack aircraft, either steamrollered over or bypassed entirely the French Maginot Line and other… Read More »
By nearly every measure, the Office of President of the United States is the most powerful position in the world, its holder presiding over not only the world’s largest economy but also its third-largest military and largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. The United States Nuclear Stockpile currently stands at 3,800 warheads, distributed among the three… Read More »