Gladiatorial combat may seem outdated and barbaric, but it is, at its heart, a combat sport like mixed martial arts, boxing, and even professional wrestling, with very similar appeal. There were clearly defined rules, a sense of dramatic flair with costumes, and even character archetypes. It was indeed bloody, but not as nearly as fatal… Read More »
“God…France…My son…Josephine.” These were the final words of Napoleon Bonaparte, spoken on May 5, 1821. The Corsican-born leader, who in less than two decades rose from humble artillery commander to Emperor of the French and conquered much of mainland Europe, died far from his beloved France – exiled to the remote, windswept island of Saint… Read More »
The Battle of Thermopylae as seen in the movie 300 was just one of many battles in the Graeco-Persian Wars. It wasn’t one the Greeks won, but we think of it as a kind of victory. Leading the Greeks through the push back against the Persians were the Spartans, a warrior society built on the… Read More »
On February 20, 1947, a captured German V-2 rocket roared off the launch pad at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico and streaked off into the sky. Within three minutes, it reached an apogee of 109.4 kilometres – just above the 100 kilometre Karman Line that defines the boundary of outer space. Though completely forgotten… Read More »
In 2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the latest entry in the iconic adventure film series, everyone’s favourite swashbuckling archaeologist/grave robber hunts after the titular dial, a mechanism invented by Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes to predict the appearance of fissures in time, allowing the user to travel between the present and the past…because,… Read More »
If you visit Pier 13 at the Canton Marine Terminal in Baltimore, Maryland, you will find two very different historic cargo ships. One is the SS John W. Brown, one of nearly 3,000 cheap, quick-to-produce “Liberty Ships” built to haul cargo during the Second World War. The other, by contrast, is one of a kind.… Read More »
There have been no small number of rather bizarre accidents from humans humaning, everything from that time the City of Boston almost literally drowned in molasses to how humans drilling a 14 inch hole accidentally created a 1,300-foot deep saltwater lake out of a formerly 10-Foot deep freshwater one (more on this hilarious event in… Read More »
