Because of its high skill ceiling, the sword has been sparingly used in battle in history, and true mastery of it shows up in only a handful of cultures. Because of that, legendary swordsmen are few and far between, even if the ones we do know of have been some of the most badass melee fighters of all time. 10 Minamoto Yoshitsune Minamoto Yoshitsune is one of the more well-known samurai in Japanese history....
10 The Murder Of Gaston Calmette Paris is “The City of Love,” but wherever you find amour, you’re bound to find murder. Take the story of Henriette Raynouard for example. In 1911, the French socialite married Joseph Caillaux, a career politician and notorious Casanova who’d dumped his first wife for the lovely Henriette after he became prime minister. As a member of the center-left Radical Party, Joseph made quite a few enemies thanks to his pro-German policies, but even after he left office in 1912, he remained an influential figure....
SEE ALSO: 8 Natural Disasters of Ancient Times 10 Wildfires US, 2015–2050 Environmental scientists from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) predict that by 2050, wildfire seasons in the US will be three weeks longer, twice as smoky, and will burn a larger portion of the West every year. Concurrently, the US Geological Survey and the Forest Service have recorded that since 1999, the acreage burned by wildfires in the US has tripled from 2....
10The Aztec Dogs A rare display of skeletons was unearthed by archaeologists while excavating in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. It was a mass grave containing the well-preserved remains of 12 dogs. While ancient graves everywhere in the world have turned up dogs, they have always been connected with a human burial and never just a group of canines. The Aztec dogs were a unique find, the first of its kind....
Original: Tears for Fears Cover: Disturbed Their 2000 album The Sickness was Disturbed’s debut album, and contained their first hit ‘Down With the Sickness’. The popularity of the single overshadowed the album’s solitary cover, Shout. Originally released in 1984 by British pop rock duo, Tears for Fears, Disturbed’s rendition manages to stay true to the format and feel, while making the song their own by adding an edgy grit to it....
10The “Join, Or Die” SnakeAmerican Revolution The Misconception: The iconic “Join, or Die” cartoon depicts the American coastline in the form of a snake cut into segments representing the colonies’ disunity. It’s a clear-cut message, warning “pull together or we’ll never get rid of our British overlords.” But Really: The political cartoon was created to unite the fractious colonies—against the French. In 1754, 20 years before the colonies formed a union to defeat the British, Benjamin Franklin called for a similar union to curb French expansion in the American interior....
The Mongol Temjin, known to history as Genghis Khan (born 1162) was a warrior and ruler who, starting from obscure and insignificant beginnings, brought all the nomadic tribes of Mongolia under the rule of himself and his family, in a rigidly disciplined military state. Massacres of defeated populations, with the resultant terror, were weapons he regularly used. His Mongol hordes killed off countless people in Asia and Europe in the early 1200s....
General Douglas MacArthur, General of the Army, and a man who fought in three wars, knew something about duty, honor and country. In 1962, MacArthur was in the twilight of his life and came to West Point to accept the Sylvanus Thayer Award, and participate in his final cadet roll call. Notable Excerpts: “Duty, honor, country: those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be....
Prostitute: Melina played by Rachel Ticotin Melina is one of the girls that works at a place called The Last Resort in the Venusville section of the Mars colony in Total Recall. When Quaid first sees her on Mars, he recognizes her as the girl from his dreams. This tough, no-nonsense woman had a relationship with Hauser, and is quite surprised to see him back at The Last Resort. As this “initial” meeting takes place approximately half-way through the film, Quaid tries to explain to Melina that he may have been Hauser in the past, but that he is now Quaid due to a series of memory erasures and memory implants....
For those in the West, Chinese history is either completely unknown or only vaguely identified. However, in many mandatory Western civilization courses, professors like to joke that Western history is a string of endless wars and genocides. When you get those same professors in private, they will readily admit that Eastern civilization is no different, especially when it comes to China. In those thousands of years of civilization, China has been the scene of several genocidal bloodbaths....
10 Cave Church Of The ‘Garbage People’ The Zabbaleen are a Coptic Christian minority within Egypt. Their name means “garbage people.” Once Upper Egyptian farmers, the Zabbaleen realized that scavenging through waste was more profitable after they migrated to Cairo. In 1969, the capital’s governor decided to move all the Zabbaleen to “Garbage City,” at the base of Mokattam Cliff. They built a church to satisfy the community’s spiritual needs, but it burned down in 1976....
In January 2011, hundreds of dead snapper fish washed up on the beaches of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. Fishermen that were out at sea described the water as carpeted with dead fish. What makes this example especially strange is that all of the fish were missing their eyes. While the Department of Conservation said the fish had starved, one witness said “That’s just completely untrue. This was something deliberate”....
The Leshy is a male woodland spirit in Slavic mythology believed to protect wild animals and the forests. They usually appear as tall men but have the ability to change size and shapeshift into any form, animal, or plant. Leshies have beards made of living grass and vines and are often depicted with a tail, hooves, and horns. The Leshy has pale white skin and dark green eyes. They are the lords of the forest and hold close bonds with gray wolves, bears, and all animal life....
It makes sense, really. Christmas is one of the few times when criminals can get away with having their entire face covered, and no one will think anything of it. Here, we offer an eclectic range of naughty crimes committed by indisputably bad Santas. 10 Santa Hands Out Free Cannabis At Buffalo Wild Wings On January 5, 2015, Randy Lange entered a Monterey County, California, branch of Buffalo Wild Wings, determined to distribute some last remnants of holiday cheer....
So formidable did Hitler’s scientific might seem that many American business interests desired to ally with Nazi Germany rather than resist this growing global superpower. Chagrined with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s socialist New Deal, prominent American businessmen even attempted to enlist the aid of decorated war hero Major General Smedley Butler in their plot to replace Roosevelt’s administration with a fascist American government. As Nazi Germany grew in territory and influence, Hitler became increasingly envious of American manufacturing power....
From the hectic dawn of the dinosaurs to the numerous disasters that darkened skies, acidified the seas, and turned our blue planet into a hellscape, these awe-inspiring scenes of destruction and rebirth shaped the Earth. 10 Dinosaurs Take Advantage Of Extinctions Dinosaurs entered evolutionary history the same way they exited—with an extinction. This one occurred about 232 million years ago during the Carnian Pluvial Episode when deep-sea volcanoes (the Wrangellia basalts in British Columbia today) forced climate change and a turnover of ancient life....
Astronauts who make the trip will have numerous obstacles to face, from financial challenges before they get off the ground to successfully sticking the landing on Mars. In between, they will be exposed to more space radiation than anyone in history, face intense psychological pressures, and have significant difficulty communicating with Earth. Here are 10 obstacles that astronauts must overcome on a voyage to Mars. 10 Money Before astronauts ever leave Earth’s orbit, they face the possibility of being held back by a lack of financial resources....
But this article isn’t about what the Unabomber is or was. This article is about what might have been. Was Ted Kaczynski part of a brainwashing experiment for the CIA? Were the bombings all part of a government long con? Was he responsible for even more killings than we know? Was he responsible for any murders at all? As we look back through a lens colored by global warming and the encroachment of technology into our daily lives, we have to ask: Was he right?...
10Planisphaerium Arateum Sive Compages Orbium Mundanorum Ex Hypothesi Aratea In Plano Expressa The planisphere of Aratus, or the composition of the heavenly orbits following the hypothesis of Aratus expressed in a planar view, was designed by Andreas Cellarius and published in 1660 as part of his Harmonia Macrocosmica (harmony of the macrocosm). It shows a model of the universe according to the Greek astronomer and poet Aratus. It shows the Earth at the center of the universe, with the Sun, Moon, and other planets orbiting around it, and the signs of the zodiac orbiting around those....
Many cultures throughout history have used drugs and alcohol symbolically and spiritually, reveling in the loss of the self that comes with the use of psychoactive substances. Over the course of the last century and a half, however, the cultural zeitgeist in many nations has been to outlaw a lot of these substances in favor of a much more sober, stoic approach to life—one guided more by following rules than bending them....
