Posts

Claiming over 300,000 lives and turning half of the population into refugees, these photos of the Syrian Civil War reveal the cost of 5 years of conflict. In 2011, nationwide protests calling for expanded political freedoms and the subsequent military response to these protests sparked the Syrian Civil War, which has dragged on for four and a half years. The conflict, which initially pitted anti-government forces against those loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, has since escalated into a region-wide battlefield ensnaring combatants from across the globe....

While the quagmire may have technically ended some time ago, in many veterans’ and war photographer’s hearts, the Vietnam War rages on. 1967: Operation “Oregon,” a search and destroy mission conducted by infantry platoon of Troop B. Here an infantryman is lowered into a tunnel by members of the reconnaissance platoon.National Archives 1965: In the jungle area of Ben Cat, U.S. paratroopers carry their weapons above water in the rain while they search for Viet Cong troops....

Lost Mayan city uncovered, first Britons’ dark skin brought to light, terrifying ancient spider ancestor found. Lost Mayan “Megalopolis” Uncovered In The Jungles Of Guatemala National GeographicThe megalopolis discovered using LiDAR technology. In what they’re calling a “major breakthrough,” researchers have uncovered more than 60,000 houses, causeways, elevated highways and man-made structures, belonging to the ancient Maya Empire. The remains of the civilization, which have been hidden under the canopy and plant life of the Guatemalan jungle for thousands of years, were finally unearthed due to a groundbreaking light-based imaging technology....

The new bridge is part of a $2 billion investment that’s helping Vietnam to become one of the fastest-growing tourist destinations on Earth. Bored Panda A new bridge that’s opened outside of Da Nang, Vietnam — aptly named the “Golden Bridge” — has quickly staked its claim to being one of the most stunning bridges on Earth. The Golden Bridge, which sits about 4,600 feet above sea level in the Bà Nà hills, is designed to look like it’s being held up by two massive stone hands....

The story of how Witold Pilecki volunteered to enter Auschwitz, exposed its horrors to the world, and then actually managed to escape. Wikimedia CommonsWitold Pilecki in Polish military uniform sometime before 1939. Upon entering the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp, Witold Pilecki said that he “bade farewell to everything I had hitherto known on this earth and entered something seemingly no longer of it.” There are people who volunteer to serve soup at homeless shelters or answer phones....

From the true size of Africa to the countries that refuse to use the metric system, these maps will make you see our world in a whole new light. World Population Map There are nearly 8 billion people living in the world, but the Earth’s population is far from evenly distributed. Countries like China and India house a lot more people than others, each boasting a population of more than 1 billion each....

Featuring everything from murderous frogs to dead birds, Victorian Christmas cards were often more disturbing than they were jolly. The Victorian age is often thought of as a time of high collars, corsets, and unsmiling photos. But Victorians had a wry sense of humor beneath their stony exterior, and many used the holidays to enjoy the new tradition of sending Christmas cards — the weirder the better. Like this gallery?Share it:...

Nicole Wilson was still in school when she learned about the Ice Age mummy. Stunned by the mysterious ink on his body, the now-adult artist took drastic measures to explore our history. Nicole WilsonNicole Wilson at Three Kings Tattoo in Brooklyn, New York. When Ötzi the Iceman was unearthed in 1991, his frozen 5,300-year-old body became the oldest preserved human ever found. Nicole Wilson was still a schoolgirl when she learned about the 61 tattoos discovered on his body....

He earned every honor from the United States military plus five from abroad at 19. But that’s not all — Audie Murphy also became a Hollywood sensation. On a cold January afternoon in 1945, Second Lieutenant Audie Murphy watched with mounting alarm as over 200 German troops emerged from the woods. But instead of succumbing to panic, the 19-year-old Murphy jumped on a burning tank — and began spraying bullets at his enemies....

A professional beekeeper took apart the shower wall, extracted the queen bee, and used a special vacuum to remove “stragglers.” Elisha BixlerIt cost $800 to fully remove the bees from the wall. Stefanie and Dan Graham knew they had a bee problem. The insects buzzed around the shower and sometimes even stung them. But they didn’t know the extent of the problem until they called in a professional beekeeper. Then, Elisha Bixler — who owns a bee farm called How’s Your Day Honey — found a veritable bee city sprawled behind their shower wall in St....

On July 13, 1793, Charlotte Corday stabbed French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat to death in his bathtub. She later claimed, “I killed one man to save 100,000.” Wikimedia CommonsA depiction of Charlotte Corday being led to the guillotine on July 17, 1793. Marie-Anne-Charlotte de Corday d’Armont, better known as Charlotte Corday, was born on July 27, 1768 into an impoverished aristocratic family in Normandy, France. When Corday was a child, her father sent her to a convent in nearby Caen....

Forty-four-year-old Jared Vaughn is charged with raping a Tampa Bay student in 2007, after police found his DNA on FamilyTree. Tampa Police DepartmentJared Vaughn was arrested on a 14-year-old sexual battery charge. Fourteen years ago, someone assaulted a young woman in Tampa Bay, Florida. Police were stumped. With no suspects, the case went cold. That is, until 44-year-old Jared Vaughn entered his own DNA into a genealogy website — and led officers straight to his door....

Tourists are beginning to trickle into the volcanic peninsula of Kamchatka in Russia. If you don’t have the budget to visit just yet, let us be your guide. Unless you spent long nights in your college dorm room hovering over plastic armies in the board game Risk, you have probably never heard of Kamchatka. About the size of Italy in terms of land area, this peninsula in far eastern Russia has fewer people living in it than Florence — but it is attracting more and more tourists every year....

Doris Payne has spent more than two-thirds of her life stealing jewelry, and if she had it her way, she’d still be doing it at 86. Irfan Kahn/Getty ImagesDoris Payne has made a career of stealing expensive jewels and getting away with it. In 1952, a well-to-do woman named Doris Payne walked into a jewelry store in Pittsburgh. She carried with her a designer handbag and a disarming charm, which flustered the young sales clerk so much that he lost track of how many baubles she was slipping on and off of her hands....

New discoveries add clarity to how the legendary submarine functioned. Wikimedia Commons1864 painting of the H. L. Hunley by Conrad Wise Chapman. The details behind the sinking of a historic vessel have eluded archaeologists and historians alike for years, but new findings may help hack away at some of the boat’s mystery. This week, archaeologists have uncovered more human remains from the H.L. Hunley, a submarine used by the Confederate Army during the U....

Prosecutors allege that Lucy Letby poisoned 17 babies either with insulin or by injecting them with air starting in June 2015. FacebookLucy Letby has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Starting in 2015, babies at Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester, England, were dying at alarming rates — and no one knew why. Now, prosecutors allege that it was all because of 32-year-old neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, who deliberately killed seven infants under her care....

According to researchers, the earliest version of Stonehenge was built in southwest Wales over 5,000 years ago. A. Stanford/M. P. Pearson et. al./AntiquityThe prehistoric stone circle of Waun Mawn in Wales, which researchers believe is the “original” Stonehenge. According to legend, the wizard Merlin helped move Stonehenge from Ireland to Salisbury Plain in England thousands of years ago. While this story has long been dismissed as a fantasy, at least one part might be true....

Although the Peshtigo Fire was the deadliest in American history, there’s one astounding reason why few remember it today. Wikimedia CommonsMemorial marking the cemetery of Peshtigo Fire victims, including 350 unidentified bodies. Peshtigo, Wis. “The only light available in the dark of the night was that given off by the fire itself,” reads The Deadly Night Of October 8, 1871, “creating an eerie glow that seemed to taunt the dying and surviving alike like the open mouth of hell....

From murdering children to drinking blood, Peter Kürten was “the king of the sexual perverts” and perhaps the worst serial killer ever. Wikimedia CommonsPeter Kürten’s mug shot upon his first arrest. The early morning sun was rising over the grounds of Klingelputz Prison in Cologne, Germany, as a man named Peter Kürten entered the execution courtyard on July 2, 1931. Just shy of 50 years old, he was of average height with neatly combed dark hair and one of those faces that could resemble anyone....

Filled with religious shrines and one of the world’s tallest Hindu statues, the Batu Caves are an important — and astonishingly beautiful — religious site in Malaysia. Tiptoe up 272 well-marked steps and you’ll reach the Batu Caves of Malaysia. Located north of Kuala in the Gombak district, the Batu Caves attract thousands of Hindu worshipers and visitors each year. While each of the three main caves is astonishing in terms of sheer size and age (the limestone is estimated to be 400 million years old), the religious shrines and statues sprinkled throughout the caves have rendered Batu Caves an important religious site for Hindu followers....