The space suit has become synonymous with the astronaut, defining the occupation more than any other piece of equipment. Essentially flexible, one-person spacecraft, space suits protect astronauts from the harsh environment of outer space and have been key to countless spaceflight achievements, from walking on the moon to the building the International Space Station. But while humans first reached space […]
Read more
If you were to visit New York’s Coney Island in the early 20th Century, you would have found no shortage wonderful amusements to occupy your time. You could swim in the ocean, enjoy an ice cream or a hot dog, or brave the death-defying mechanical rides of the island’s three giant amusement parks. If you were feeling more adventurous, you […]
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 people. Three days later the […]
Read more
Ah, the science fair project: the dreaded rite of passage for many an elementary or high school student. A chance to stand for hours in front of a crudely adorned tri-fold presentation board and demonstrate to the judges one’s tenuous grasp of the scientific method. For many, these projects trend towards the basic and unambitious: building a baking soda and […]
Read more
The French Foreign Legion is among the most legendary fighting forces in the world. Created by French King Louis-Philippe in 1831, the Legion is unique in allowing volunteers from foreign nations to enlist and fight on behalf of the French state. Recruits may enlist under an assumed name and after three years’ service are eligible to receive French citizenship, meaning […]
Read more
The Pavlov’s Dog experiment is among the most famous in the history of psychology. As the story goes, in 1901 Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov observed that if a dog was presented with food, it would begin to salivate in anticipation. If, however, that food was repeatedly presented alongside a separate stimulus – like the ringing of a bell – eventually […]
Read more
It is a classic parenting nightmare: you drop your tiny tot off at the grandparents’ or a friend’s birthday party, hoping to get a few hours’ reprieve from tending to their every shrill, snot-nosed demand. But alas, your plan backfires, for when you return to pick them up you discover that their hosts have filled them up with enough sugary […]
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, and pretty much everything else […]
Read more
Ranked 66th on the Fortune 500, the Walt Disney Company is among the largest corporations in the United States, and the second largest entertainment company in the world. Valued at over $148 billion, the company owns 5 of the 10 most valuable media franchises including Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, operates 14 theme parks and resorts around the […]
Read more
If you go walking through the parks and leafy neighbourhoods of Quincy, Massachusetts, you may stumble upon an unusual set of ruins. At the end of a quiet cul-de-sac, a set of crumbling granite rails rise up a shallow hill into the woods, their end flanked by a pair of carved stone obelisks. While unimpressive at first glance, these ruins […]
Read more
“Confucius say” jokes are perhaps how many people in the Western world know of Confucius. Older individuals might also associate him with fortune cookies. At best, many think of Confucius as an aphoristic sort of philosopher, offering wise quotes, not unlike the Book of Proverbs in the Bible, but not a fully systematic thinker the likes of Plato and Aristotle. […]
Read more
Agencies like the CIA and MI6 are tasked with collecting and processing data deemed potentially vital to their respective counties’ national interests, and then, in an ideal world, making sure those who need to know this information to inform their decisions and plans know it. In order to do this, they need people on the ground, so to speak. So […]
Read more
More than a century after it struck an iceberg and sank beneath the waves, the Royal Mail Ship Titanic continues to capture the popular imagination. It is a classic fable of ambition, hubris, and the tragic social divisions of the Gilded Age, and has inspired countless books, documentaries, TV programs, and one of the highest-grossing feature films of all time. […]
Read more
South Georgia lies 54 degrees south of the equator in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,900 kilometres off the coast of Argentina. A cold and inhospitable place covered in jagged snow-capped mountains, fjords, and glaciers, until its discovery by European sailors in 1675 the island had no permanent native population. For the next three hundred years the island would remain […]
Read more
At the heart of every nuclear weapon lies the core or pit, a sphere of plutonium the size of a baseball and weighing around 6 kilograms. When a nuclear weapon is triggered, a shell of conventional high-explosive “lenses” wrapped around the core detonates, creating a spherical shock wave that squeezes the core to criticality and sets off the nuclear chain […]
Read more
In our previous video, The Surprisingly Long and Determined Effort to Create a Literal Flying Tank, we looked at how designers in the 1930s and 40s devoted a considerable amount of time and effort trying to combine two of the 20th Century’s most revolutionary weapons of war: the tank and the aeroplane. But as ill-conceived and ultimately futile as these […]
Read more
Ever wonder why the Nazi dominion over Germany was called the “Third Reich” and who the first and second were? Well, wonder no more. To begin with, the phrase “Third Reich” was first mentioned as the title of a book published by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck in 1923. As you might expect given the moniker for the regime caught […]
Read more
Depending on the country you live in, political opinion may be varied, or biased in one direction. In democratic countries, you obviously have the option to actually decide what direction your state should move towards via voting. And while a lot of political parties may opt for a safer middle ground usually more relatable for a wider demographic, there will […]
Read more