The study of place names and their origins, known as toponymy, can reveal a lot about human society as a whole. Did you know that almost every country in the world can place the origin of its name in one of only four categories? These are either a directional description of the country, a feature…
Author: Adrian Chirila
Even though it’s hard to see it, our planet is in a continuous state of change. Continents constantly shift and clash with each other. Volcanoes erupt, glaciers expand and recede, and life has to keep up with all of it. Throughout its existence, Earth has at various times been covered by miles-high polar ice sheets…
The Gallic Wars, waged between the Gallic tribes living in present-day France and Belgium and the Roman Legions under Julius Caesar, took place between the years 58 BC to 50 BC. These wars are what ultimately gave Caesar the upper hand over the Senate and his former political ally Pompey the Great, leading in turn…
Global warming is real, according to basically every legitimate scientist in the world. And as a result, many parts of the world will experience more water than they are used to. Fortunately, however, there are some people out there preparing for when this scenario will happen. Now, regardless of these gloomy facts, we humans have…
In a sense, the Jedi and the Sith are different sides of the same coin. They are the extremes of what some may say is the same ideology. The Jedi believe in control over themselves, their emotions, and control in everything else in the Galaxy through peace. The Sith, on the other hand, believe in…
Looking back throughout history, we can clearly see that societies developed a wide variety of architectural styles when it came to their housing. And this makes complete sense, given the fact that they had to deal with different construction materials, environments, climates, threats, and situations, depending on where they were. Today’s houses all around the…
If you’re unfamiliar with Star Wars, The Jedi are an Order whose origins span back for more than a thousand generations. They are Force-sensitive beings of all races, shapes and sizes found throughout the entirety of the known galaxy and who have vowed to uphold peace and justice within the Galactic Republic. From a very young…
While some may think that D-Day was the moment during WWII when the tides of war had changed in favor of the Allies, in reality it was more than a year and a half before at the Battle of Stalingrad that the Nazis lost their momentum and were beginning to withdraw. Without a shadow of…
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve either seen the trailers or at least heard of the movie Thor: Ragnarok, which is about to take over your local movie theater. And unless you’re surprisingly familiar with Norse mythology, you may have found yourself wondering exactly what “Ragnarok” is. Well fear not – we’re here…
When we want to go back and look at the past, we have two ways of doing it. One is history itself, which is the study of old written documents. Secondly, there’s archaeology, which is the study of past human activity by looking at old artifacts, or any other remnants of past civilizations. But while…
A trademark usually presents itself in the form of a name, a logo, a design, or a phrase, with the purpose of distinguishing one manufacturer’s products from another. Sometimes, however, when business is really good for a particular brand, or it has a head start over the competition, then that particular brand might just become…
As the title suggests, this is our second list about various (and probably) unexpected things that are named after people. Just like with the first part, we’ve focused on things that are particularly interesting, or that simply don’t seem like they’d necessarily be named for someone in particular. So, with that being said, let’s take a look at…
Climate change is a serious problem – probably the most dangerous predicament humanity has ever been in. And every second that goes by and we’re not doing anything about it, the more dangerous things are going to become, and the harder it will be to fix them. But let’s not kick off this list on…
Born in 1913, Richard Nixon is among the best known personalities of the 20th century. As the 37th President of the United States, he is the only one in the country’s entire history to resign as Commander-in-Chief. This decision, as most of us know, came after the events surrounding the Watergate scandal from the early…
The Butterfly Effect principle simply states that, given enough time, whatever event, no matter how small, can and will have tremendous reverberations into the future. And when talking about past disasters, natural or otherwise, we always have to keep in mind that, even though devastating, they are part of what brought us here in the…
Even though we no longer live in the Dark Ages and life is more easily predictable than ever, things can still go bad at a moment’s notice. And it’s always a great idea to know what to do in those kinds of situations so that you can actually increase your chances of survival. As anyone…
Heroic last stands have happened all throughout history, with virtually every war humans have fought. There are a multitude of reasons why soldiers decide to form a last stand, rather than to retreat or surrender. Some of them may have seen it as their utmost duty to never surrender, even in the face of overwhelming…
It’s time for some good, old-fashioned speculation. What would happen if aliens visited earth? Now, the speculation and assumptions we’re about to make are based on logic, philosophy, educated guesses, probabilities, nature, and of course, our own history. After all, our frame of reference is quite limited when it comes to possible encounters with extraterrestrial life.…
Who can really say how names are formed? Well, some linguists may know the answer to that question, but not even they know the origins for each and every name in existence today. Nevertheless, we can (to a certain extent) know the origins for some things out there in the world. And the best examples…
For the many achievements made by our men and women of science in understanding the world and everything in it, there are still a lot of things we don’t know, or we’re not completely sure about. Other things, while more logical for our level of understanding, are so rare that, when they do happen, they…
Ligers are an interesting breed, to say the least. They are the hybrid offspring of a male lion and a female tiger, and only exist in captivity. Currently in the wild, lions and tigers share only one small patch of forest in western India as a common habitat, and thus, ligers haven’t been documented outside…
Life, in all its shapes and sizes, is extraordinary. The simple idea of any species’ existence in the first place is a miracle in and of itself. Nature, through its painstakingly slow process of trial and error known as evolution, has been made in such a way that almost every nook and cranny on the…
YouTube videos are great and all, but nothing beats the real thing. The advantages of YouTube is that people from all across the world, with a few exceptions, can film and upload videos, sharing their experiences with us. This makes us more connected with each other, for better or worse, and it brings us in…
By definition, islands are a place apart from the rest of the world. Even life evolves differently because of the isolation – forming their own little ‘universes’, let’s say, away from the mainland. Nobody really knows how many islands there are on the face of the Earth, but their number can be well over one…