It Belongs in a Museum In January 2010, two journalists knocked on the door of 84-year-old Frenchman Jacques Bellanger to ask him about the mummified human head he kept in his. The Trouble with Triples What do the American bison, western gorilla, and Eurasian eagle-owl have in common? One answer is that they are all species whose scientific names are ta. Pugilism on the Plains How a booming oil town aimed to become a western metropolis through one of the most ill-conceived boxing matches of all time.Ī Day on Venus Compared to Earth, our astronomical next-door neighbor Venus is 95 percent as large, 28 percent closer to the sun, and almost identical in planetary comp. He and his traveling companions were passing ne.īuzzing on the Green Popeye the Sailor is well known for his penchant for spinach, and the popularity of the character led to generations of children being force-fed often-ov. It Makes One's Head Swim On 17 December 1967, Harold Holt-at that time the Prime Minister of Australia-decided to go for a swim. Haydn and Seek It can be tough to give the boss a hint, but it was even more difficult back in the days of domestic servitude when the boss was a nobleman. During the interve.Ī Grubby Niche It is down to geological and evolutionary happenstance that there are no monkeys on the island of Madagascar: a fact that has allowed some 100 species of. The Anticipated Future of the Moon When the Earth was young, shortly after the moon formed, our planet was spinning so fast that a day was approximately five hours long. The Comforts of the Throne In the days when hunting was a more common pursuit than it is today, those involved in the job cultivated a taxonomy for the various droppings they might.Ī Blight on Soviet Science Nikolai Vavilov dedicated his life to improving Soviet agriculture and eradicating famine, but his allegiance to science would ultimately lead to his downfall. Pushing the Envelope As is often the case with people in dangerous professions, the Apollo astronauts found that life insurance policies were prohibitively expensive. But the escape network was not what it seemed.Ī Taste of Italy In the mid-1800s, Italy was consumed by two parallel fights: one to rid itself of Austrian domination (a holdover from the Holy Roman Empire) and the oth.įifteen Years Forsaken A true story of castaways on a lost and hostile scrap of land, all thanks to some meddlesome Frenchmen and terrible luck. Eugène” offered Jews an alternative to deportation, slavery, and death camps. The Traveler and His Baggage In Nazi-occupied Paris, “Dr. To Hell With Facebook The earliest known version of the idiom "the straw that broke the camel's back" was written by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury in 167.Ĭapital, Punished Located 350 km (217 miles) southeast of Puerto Rico, the British island of Montserrat is sometimes called 'The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean' for its ver. Hard to Swallow When it came to protests, America’s lower classes at the turn of the century had a bevy of galling circumstances to choose from. The Kingpin of Shanghai From the depths of poverty, Du Yuesheng rose through Shanghai’s underworld to become one of the most influential, and overlooked, figures in modern China. The Unceasing Cessna Hacienda In 1958, one heavily modified airplane flew out of Las Vegas with a single objective: Don’t land. Hunting For Kobyla The true story of a runaway Nazi, a determined sleuth, and a chase around the world.
Helens Trespasser Robert Rogers, a man obsessed with trespassing, sets his sights on Mount St.
Devouring the Heart of Portugal In 1924 a bankrupt businessman in Portugal launched an audacious international scheme to become one of the wealthiest men in the world.