On the morning of March 23, 1976, the peace of Tokyo’s Satagawa neighbourhood was shattered as a small aircraft came screaming out of the sky and slammed into the side of a large two-story house. The plane burst into a giant fireball on impact, setting the house ablaze and injuring two of its occupants, though miraculously no-one but the pilot […]
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In the opening sequence of the 1965’s Thunderball, James Bond, having just dispatched the villainous SPECTRE agent Colonel Jacques Bouvar, flees to the rooftop of Bouvar’s French chateau, dons a futuristic-looking jetpack, and makes his dramatic escape. Given its fantastical, over-the-top nature, this scene was obviously accomplished via the magic of Hollywood special effects, right? Well, no, actually. As incredible […]
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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 the sole purpose of expanding […]
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For just over 2 decades the people of Mexico were thrilled by the antics of a dashing masked lucha libre wrestler known only as Fray Tormenta. Styling himself as a priest fighting the forces of evil, Tormenta travelled the globe elbow dropping large men from low orbit. For much of his career, few people knew that the man beneath the […]
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In the annals of gambling history, the name Titanic Thompson is one treated with reverence and awe. This almost mythical figure became a legend in his own time for his ability to perform seemingly superhuman feats to win outrageous bets, from driving golf balls 500 yards to hurling lemons clear over 5 story buildings. Along with being a well-known gambler. […]
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On July 6, 1947, foreman William Brazel was patrolling the Foster cattle ranch, 50 kilometres outside the town of Roswell, New Mexico, when he noticed some strange debris strewn across the ground. The debris was composed of a strange, silvery metallic substance, parts of which were covered in strings of mysterious symbols resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs. The following day, Brazel contacted […]
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Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. First conceived by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1735, this system for classifying life on earth, known as Linnaean Taxonomy, has been in use for nearly 300 years and is taught in every high school biology class. In recent years, however, a better understanding of genetics and evolution has resulted in Linnaean Taxonomy […]
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If you suddenly decided to travel around the world, what sort of vehicle would you choose? Likely a sailboat, or – of you’re feeling particularly ambitious – an aeroplane. Well if so, then you’re a far more reasonable person than Ben Carlin. When this former Australian mining engineer began planning his own round-the-world trip in the early 1950s, he decided […]
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The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest single campaign of the Second World War. Lasting from the very first day of the war in Europe to the very last, the battle pit German U-boats against Allied merchant shipping in a struggle for control of the Atlantic sea lanes, essential to keeping the British Isles supplied with food, fuel, and […]
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2700 years ago or so, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal was initiating a program to gather copies of all books in his empire to his library. ‘Bookworm’ would be an apt description for him, had books not been made out of clay making them slightly undesirable to worms… Anyway, back to good old Ashurbanipal, he liked to boast about having the […]
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Considering the near total market-dominance and unparalleled level of brand recognition Netflix enjoys in today’s entertainment landscape, it’s hard to believe that at one point in time the company was considered a “niche” service. In fact, it is in part for this reason that in 2000 the then CEO of Blockbuster almost literally laughed in the face of Netflix’s co-founders […]
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The world of alcoholic cocktails is dizzyingly diverse, with as many potential drink combinations as there are varieties of alcohol and mixers. Some, like the Cuba Libre – rum mixed with Coca-Cola – are very simple, while others, like the Commonwealth – a monstrous, record-braking concoction boasting an astounding 71 ingredients sourced from every nation in the British Commonwealth – […]
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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 […]
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In his Aphorisms, written around 380 B.C.E, Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates describes a truly horrifying case of disease: “The master of a large ship mashed the index finger of his right hand with the anchor. Seven days later a somewhat foul discharge appeared; then trouble with his tongue – he complained he could not speak properly. His jaws became pressed […]
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Ever watched professional wrestling on TV and asked: how did we get here? How did we get to sword wielding Scottish warriors on one channel, and a jungle boy and his dinosaur friend on the other? Love it or hate it, the scripted nature of professional wrestling is a medium unto itself, with few sports like it. Boxing may get […]
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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 excrement and muck from lack […]
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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 […]
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Escape From L.A. Goldeneye. The Matrix. Ocean’s 11. The Fate of the Furious. These are but a few of the many popular films to feature electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. As depicted in these films, EMP is the ultimate weapon of the electronic age, able to destroy every electric or electronic circuit within its blast radius and plunge entire cities or […]
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