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See the all-powerful Ulfberht swords and discover how their makers might have been able to build a blade so strong that it still baffles experts. Dominic Zschokke/Wikimedia CommonsA digital reproduction of an Ulfberht sword. When you think of medieval warfare, we think of swords. In the age before gunpowder, the best way to kill your enemy was usually just to stab him with a big hunk of steel. But if you think that everyone was using swords, you might be a little off-base....

In Renaissance-era Venice, Veronica Franco reached unusual heights for a woman as an educated courtesan. But as luxurious as the position was, it could be easily destroyed. Jacopo Tintoretto/Museum of Fine Arts of LyonThe elegant nude figure in this painting is supposedly Veronica Franco, who was renowned for her intellect. To contemporary onlookers, it seemed that 16th-century courtesans like Veronica Franco lived a gilded life of luxury. But Renaissance women, even courtesans like Franco who had powerful patrons, were vulnerable....

Given the genetics of Iceland and the nature of the people who settled it, it’s possible that a large percentage of the first women on Iceland were taken there as slaves. Ville Miettinen/ Wikimedia Commons. Thingvellir National Park in Iceland. With its incredible landscape, friendly people, and cheap flights, Iceland has become a popular tourist destination among millennials. Although, if any found themselves in Reykjavik and took a trip to the National Museum of Iceland, they might find a display there with an interesting statistic....

Travis Gienger hauled the nearly two-and-a-half-ton gourd on a custom-made trailer from Minnesota to California for the competition. FacebookGienger had to build a custom palette for his truck in order to properly transport the gargantuan pumpkin. Every year, the supermarket chain Safeway holds a World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in California, and the winner of this year’s 47th annual contest was a 2,350-pound pumpkin named “Tiger King.” Travis Gienger of Minnesota stunned judges and onlookers alike with his prized contender, which he named after the Netflix series of the same title, Tiger King....

These interesting space facts about the Sun, Mars, and the universe at large that will make you stand in awe of the grandness of space. As residents of the Milky Way galaxy, we live in a galaxy that is over 100,000 light years in diameter with over 800 billion stars and planets. And that’s just the Milky Way — scientists have calculated that there are at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe....

A Montessori model classrom. Source: Hub Ho Design When you hear Waldorf, you probably think of the salad or Blair Waldorf from the Gossip Girl series — not education. That is, of course, unless you were a Waldorf preschooler yourself. While alternative preschools are all the rage in the U.S., all three of the major philosophies originated in Europe: Waldorf, Reggio Emilia and Montessori. These heterodox approaches to early education share some similarities, such as their endeavor to cultivate children who will become creative, compassionate and highly-functioning members of society....

These fascinating Osama Bin Laden facts lay bare the founder of Al-Qaeda and the mastermind of the September 11th terrorist attacks. At the start of the 21st century, no one left an imprint on the collective human psyche like Osama Bin Laden. The son of a billionaire construction magnate, Bin Laden turned his back on the opulent lifestyle of his family and embraced a radical interpretation of Islam that led him to organize attacks against the United States and its allies on almost every continent across the globe....

Whether it’s the anatomy of a cucumber or the skull of a sunfish, these incredible illustrations captured the natural world before the advent of modern photography. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 1 of 78Colorful bandfish drawn by Louis Renard in his 18th-century, Poissons, ecrevisses et crabes. Approximately nine percent of the fish featured in this 1754 work are completely fantastical....

The farmers claim that the stress from the activists’ raid led to the abortion and death of nearly 100 of their unborn and infant rabbits. The activists claim that this is “false information.” NacióDigitalFactory farm rabbit, pictured here, dead beside her babies. A beef between animal rights activists and Spanish farms escalated to violent proportions recently that included a car chase, shootout, and, perhaps unintentionally, the death of almost 100 animals....

New research adds some complexity to our understanding of human evolution. Let’s say you skipped that salad you’ve saved for lunch today and instead chose to munch on a human leg. But swimsuit season is coming fast, so you’d obviously want to know the calorie count of said leg before you dug in. Well, now you can. A new study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports gives a fairly detailed caloric breakdown of the human body....

Now on display in the British Museum, the Rosetta Stone is a granite tablet from 196 B.C.E. inscribed with a decree in Egyptian hieroglyphics, ancient Greek, and Demotic script. AMIR MAKAR/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Rosetta Stone is currently housed at the British Museum, as seen there in July 2022. As French troops prepared to face Ottoman forces in Rosetta, Egypt, in July 1799, they stumbled upon a chunk of carved stone....

While going over a “bad guy” scenario, 19-year veteran deputy Tim DisPennett accidentally grabbed his service weapon instead of his training gun — and discharged it at a student. TwitterTim DisPennett, a 19-year veteran with the Vermillion County Sheriff’s Office. While teaching a law enforcement class at South Vermillion County High School in Clinton, Indiana, the off-duty sheriff’s deputy in charge accidentally fired his service weapon — and shot one of the teens in attendance....

On July 3, 1969, Brian Jones drowned in his pool and died at just 27, but questions still linger about what really happened at his Cotchford Farm home that night. David Redfern/Redferns/GettyBrian Jones plays a sitar during a televised performance on May 27, 1966. The rumor mill began churning almost immediately when Rolling Stones co-founder Brian Jones was found dead in 1969. But some 53 years later, his death remains a mystery....

Elif K. reportedly began torturing her daughter when the baby was a month old — because she couldn’t “warm towards her.” AsiawireElif. K has since been arrested and sent to prison. A Turkish woman suspected of torturing her 18-month-old daughter with bleach and liquid soap injections was twice investigated and released by authorities when she managed to convince them of her innocence. It was only when her mother turned herself in that the harrowed baby received any relief....

The motorcyclist caught his own crime on a helmet camera, which allowed the police to track him down. A motorcyclist has been charged with reckless driving after he sped away from a police officer on his motorcycle at 143 mph on a highway in St. Charles, Ill. And the basis for the arrest came from a video that he himself took using a helmet camera and uploaded to the internet....

See the newly discovered rhinconichthys, a large prehistoric fish with an even larger mouth, just unearthed by researchers in Colorado. Artist’s rendering of Rhinconichthys. Image Source: Robert Nicholls / DePaul University About 92 million years ago, as dinosaurs and other terrifying prehistoric creatures roamed the Earth, a newly discovered, giant-mouthed fish swam the seas. That fish was Rhinconichthys, and its bones were just discovered in Colorado. The extremely rare fish has only been discovered in three places in the world....

After looking at this tantric sex art, you’ll see that many civilizations throughout history have openly embraced their sexual nature. Source: Wikimedia Sex art has been popular for centuries. After all, art is about self-expression, and what is more intimate than sex? For the most part, modern society seems to contradict itself when it comes to sex. On the one hand, we use it to sell just about anything under the sun and have thus wed sexuality with popular culture....

2.5 million residents were reduced to just under 800,000 from starvation, disease, and exposure during the siege of Leningrad. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: Newly-Uncovered Diaries Reveal Horrors Of Cannibalism During Nazi Siege Of Leningrad 36 Photos Of The Battle Of Stalingrad, The Biggest Clash In The History Of War The Story Of Adolf Hitler’s Death — And The Calamitous Days That Preceded It...

The harrowing images in these 1830s anti-slavery almanacs helped reveal the brutality of slavery in the U.S. – and helped end the practice. Almanacs were a popular source of information for literate Americans starting in the 1600s, with the first of these publications focused on weather, horoscopes, and other amusements. When the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) published the first Anti-Slavery Almanac in 1836 (and for years after that), they sought to educate people on the moral and ethical horrors of slavery, and included graphic images of slaves’ treatment to emphasize the un-Christian nature of the practice....

Vincent van Gogh often reused his canvases to save money, and conservators suspect he painted the self-portrait on the back of a previously-completed painting. Graeme Yule/National Galleries of ScotlandThe hidden Van Gogh self-portrait was found on the back of another painting. When conservators at the National Galleries of Scotland began a routine X-ray of a Vincent van Gogh painting entitled Head of a Peasant Woman, they didn’t expect to find much....