The line between serial killer and, say, a prolific executioner such as 17th century German executioner, Frantz Schmidt, who killed 394 people and disfigured and otherwise tortured about the same number elsewise (more on him in the Bonus Facts at the end of this video), is that one murdered and mutilated people deemed by local… Read More »
On the first of September, 1939, nearly 1.5 million troops, 2,750 tanks, and 2,300 aircraft of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich stormed over the border into Poland. That same day, Britain and France, bound by treaty to defend Polish sovereignty, issued an ultimatum calling for the immediate withdrawal of German forces. The ultimatum was ignored, and… Read More »
Paul A. asks: Is there really such a thing as human pheromones? Insects, such as the male silk worm using the pheromone Bombykol have long been known to attract mates through pheromones. Moving over to the one humped camel, also known as the Arabian camel and dromedary, of all their adaptations, the grossest is probably… Read More »
On January 23, 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a non-profit research and education organization based in Chicago, moved the hands on its Doomsday Clock forward to 100 seconds to midnight – the closest in its 74-year history. According the Bulletin, this change reflects the growing threat posed by climate change, nuclear proliferation, and… Read More »
While many a historic leader can be credited with sometimes even millions of deaths via their orders, with perhaps the poster children of this in modern times being the likes of Hitler and Stalin, these individuals themselves only killed in a somewhat abstract way- not by their own hand directly. Which brings us to the… Read More »
It was a rainy afternoon in July 1974 when the Royal Canadian Army Cadets of D Company filed into a classroom at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier [“Val-cart-yay”], Quebec. The Cadets, all boys aged 13 to 18, were glad for the chance to sit down and relax, having just undergone a rigorous inspection of their barracks… Read More »
Among a truly mind boggling number of atrocities the Nazis and their cohorts committed, that even closing in on a century later still have us all collectively occasionally surprised by their extent, is a little talked about program that saw hundreds of thousands of children kidnapped and many thousands more bred by the Nazis for… Read More »
The Medieval Period (which began at the fall of Rome in the 5th century and is generally agreed to have ended in the 15th century, dovetailing into the early renaissance) is often portrayed by pop culture as being a time when peasants walked around with mouths filled with blackened, rotted teeth, and bodies covered in… Read More »
On August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay flew over the Japanese city of Hiroshima and dropped a single, 4,000 kilogram uranium bomb called Little Boy. Seconds later the bomb detonated with the equivalent power of 15 thousand tons of TNT, destroying 8 square kilometres of the city and killing an estimated 90-140,000… Read More »
In 1983, First Lady Nancy Reagan visited Longfellow Elementary School in Oakland, California, when a schoolgirl asked her about what to do if she was offered drugs. The First Lady responded, “just say ‘no.’” This trip was not the first foray by Mrs. Reagan to raise awareness regarding the dangers of drug use. However, this… Read More »
When it comes to agonizing ordeals, few experiences can compare to that of being shipwrecked. If you are lucky – or unlucky – enough to escape a quick death by drowning, then you face the bleak prospect of drifting on the open sea, exposed to the blistering sun, caustic saltwater, violent storms, hungry sea creatures,… Read More »