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There’s something majestic about the very oldest of trees and how they witnessed the rise and fall of numerous civilizations. Who hasn’t heard about General Sherman – the largest known living single stem tree in the world – or Old Tjikko – the Earth’s oldest (9,550 years) living individual clonal tree? I find Julian Hight’s [...]

Hide your wife and hide your kids because the gold bug has bitten—and it’s a worldwide pandemic. People in the preliminary stage are known to ice their necks, wrists, and teeth with the shimmery metal. An insatiable hunger for all things made of gold marks a person in the most advanced stage of the bug. [...]

While literally millions of ships of all shapes and sizes have been built over the centuries, only a handful have achieved anything approaching fame. Most of those that have done so, however, were warships or vessels that displayed such a degree of innovation that they were considered prototypes in the evolution of ships. Other ships, [...]

Crime does not pay, so the old saying goes, but take a look at the top ten crimes in the world today and the amounts involved and you have to admit why some decide it is far too lucrative to be bad. There are some illegal activities you will not find surprising, such as the [...]

In war, there are winners and losers. Sometimes an army is defeated because they simply faced a larger and more powerful foe. Other times they lose because of some bizarre set of circumstances no one could have foreseen, or because they were simply outwitted by a cunning adversary. Sometimes an army is even dealt a [...]

No matter where you go in the world, vehicles play a major role in almost every aspect of our lives. Vehicle ownership is seen by most as an essential part of existence in the modern world. Whether for pleasure or economic necessity, just about all of us will want or need to own a vehicle [...]

The first sword appeared during the Bronze Age.  It was made of copper and was uncovered at the Harappan sites in present-day Pakistan.  By the Middle Ages iron and steel swords were being mass produced and used in battle.  Soldiers were trained in swordsmanship and prepared for combat.  It was before the era of guns [...]

There’s no doubt that the Second World War was the greatest conflict in modern history and the one event that continues to impact our world to this day. Consider how the world would look today had it not been fought, or had Japan and Germany won? And, even more intriguing, what if B had happened [...]