Author: Christopher Stephens

While we don’t think of them in the same way as cars or even commercial airplanes, trains are a staple mode of transportation and may be the very definition of the “standard routine” at times, being guided by rails. Yet rail and train construction is often anything but standard or routine, and is sometimes hatched…

Certain prominent Chinese woman are behind some incredibly significant achievements – and sometimes notorious incidents – when you look back through history, often into ancient times. Among their ranks are pirates, a female emperor, and fearsome assassins. In this account, we discover some of the most remarkable Chinese women of history, whose exploits are -…

While it is fairly familiar to us as our home, the Earth is apparently anything but your everyday planet. That is why we are habituated to Earth as our home in the universe; but in fact, this planet is the definition of exotic. In this account, we look at the most bizarre aspects of the…

Moving plants and carnivorous plants are a novel concept popularly portrayed in science fiction horror of the botanical genre. We all know Little Shop of Horrors. But in reality, motile, active plants are a real thing and go beyond the Venus Flytraps of bug-eating fame. While they certainly do not hunt humans, the reality of…

Don’t try this at home. While this may seem to be a standard disclaimer, it is perhaps especially applicable to the field of aviation, nuclear reactors and other high risk ventures. Around the world, certain unusually intrepid, some might say crazy birds have taken it upon themselves to take ingenuity and recklessness to brave new…

Underwater caves are alluring, fascinating, and also a no-go zone for most explorers. While the subterranean zones known as caves capture our imagination, those that are underwater go a step further and significantly raise the danger factor. Not just flooded tunnels or inundated sea caves, many underwater cave systems extend for hundreds of miles, emerging…

They lie, they cheat, and they get you to agree to what they are about to steal. But one thing that we can agree upon is that con artists are firmly embedded as some of popular culture and history’s most colorful characters. In this list, we explore some of the most fascinating or improbable excerpts…

It is well known that fish can bite, but the ability of certain fish species to defensively or aggressively incapacitate humans, predators and their prey through venom, electricity and sometimes random stabbings is certainly unsettling. Stonefish, lionfish, stargazers and needlefish are but a sampling of fish that may slice, stab or otherwise disable you through…

Military aviation may indeed still be a male dominated field with a history with a sharply discriminatory history when it comes to matters of gender and race. However, the female military aviators who have pursued their careers, whether historically when they had to battle to be accepted, or modern members who benefit from equality policies…

There is no doubt that art and architecture can depict the unusual. And when artistic licence meets the concrete world of construction, the results can be nothing short of mind-boggling. In this account, we take a tour in which we discover a horizontal skyscraper, a circular skyscraper, a robot building, a bizarre towering castle of…

The Earth is not always your friend, and the planet upon which we developed may not treat us gently despite the effort with which we have colonized so much of its surface. In this account, we move beyond familiar floods, tornados and earthquakes to discover the really weird ways that an active and sometimes badly…

European and North American folklore is rife with beloved horror stories of werewolves, vampires, goblins and demons. Yet China has a rich history that has spanned thousands of years of civilization. And with that legacy comes amazing monster legends. In this account, we discover the monsters, legends and lore of ghouls, beasts and devils important…

Bugs suck. There can be no doubt about the truth of that statement in the minds of many who get bitten by a small natural enemy, but from a purely scientific perspective, it is simply a fact. Bugs are actually a specific taxonomic category of insects, known properly as the true bugs, whose defining trait…

The tree of life may be a popular concept in folklore, mythology, and religious stories around the world. Yet in the world of biology, there exists a variety of veritable “trees of death” poised to cause great harm to any human that comes into contact with them. While not quite the man-eating tree of some…

When we think of France, we tend to first imagine the romantic, the gastronomically exclusive, the luxurious, or the destination for classy European travel. When we imagine the atrocious and the wicked, our minds may initially jump to Henry VIII, Nazi Germany, or North American serial killers. Yet it is France where some of the…

Sharks are rightly respected as premier oceanic predators that can, in the case of the most notorious species, kill humans. Yet a range of truly terrifying freshwater fish haunt the lakes, rivers, and inland swamps of the Earth, not only in the tropics, but even in temperate zones. In this account, we learn about the…

Das boot! Schiff verlassen! While lesser known to many than the British pirates of popular imagination, a suite of German pirates defined by ingenuity, cunning and sometimes brutal approaches to handling perceived cowardice have left their mark on the annals of the high seas. We discover the likes of Hennig Wichmann, known for throwing prisoners…

Mislabeled in history as birds or flying mice, bats are a completely unique group of mammals that form a remarkable 20 percent of mammal species worldwide as the second largest order of the class Mammalia after rodents. Bats defy the statistical norm of mammals as land-bound or ocean-going, and birds as the primary flighted warm-blooded…

In this creepy account of spineless giant animals, we will tour the planet and discover record holding monster invertebrates, including the kings and queens of major categories of molluscs, crustaceans, spiders, and centipedes – including 3-foot hermit crabs, dinner plate-sized spiders, and a crayfish bigger than a small dog. When the largest animals without backbones…

Male dominance is frequently assumed to be the norm in the animal kingdom and has been a significant matter of reform in modern human society. Yet other species, some well-known and others obscure, with extremely intricate social arrangements or perplexing life histories may astound us with their incredible characteristics of female domination within the species.…

A staple trope of popular culture, the mad scientist is epitomized by a white robe wearing, frazzle haired harbinger of technology misused and calculations gone awry. But the reality is all too true, and scientists mad or otherwise ill-informed or ill-intentioned have certainly caused chaos in the annals of research. In this account, we look…

The most populous nation on Earth, the world’s second largest country in terms of land area, and a land of incredible cultural, historical and archeological riches, China is one of the world’s leading tourism destinations. With diverse geography and the legacies of historic civilization coupled with modern innovation, China’s must-see sites should be on any…

Wedding days are supposed to mark the beginning of a new shared life for marrying couples. But sometimes, wedding days mark the end of life. In this dark and gripping list, we explore disturbing accounts of “Till death do us apart” come early in shocking cases of freak accident involvement and sometimes, shocking or even…

Restricted or enabled only by the bounds of natural selection, nature has proven that a vacuum is hard to maintain. While some types of creatures might seem fit for science fiction or simply defy our imagination, the natural world holds a place for creatures that defy common sense or human expectation in existing. Discover poisonous…