Holding your breath underwater for as long as possible is a discipline in freediving known as static apnea. In a standard static-apnea attempt, the diver remains still with their face submerged, trying to stay relaxed while holding their breath. Some widely publicized records, however, have been set after breathing pure oxygen beforehand. Those performances are […]
Mount Kailash, also known as Kangrinboqê or Gang Rinpoche, is one of the most sacred mountains in Asia. Revered in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and the Tibetan Bon tradition, it has inspired centuries of pilgrimage, stories, and speculation. Its summit has no confirmed recorded ascent, and climbing...
Sailing ship — a vessel that uses sails and wind power as a significant means of propulsion. Sailing vessels have existed for thousands of years, from the ships of ancient civilizations to the enormous windjammers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, the tradition continues with modern...
The English Channel separates Great Britain from continental Europe — and for centuries it has been much more than a stretch of water on a map. It has been a playground, a challenge and an irresistible invitation to inventors, adventurers and people who apparently looked at a perfectly good boat and...
The Concorde was more than an airliner. It was a technological statement: a passenger aircraft that could cross the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound, fly at around 60,000 feet and turn a seven- to eight-hour London–New York journey into roughly three and a half hours. For 27 years, Concorde was...
Mushrooms are a fascinating group of organisms with characteristics that distinguish them from both plants and animals. There are thousands of mushroom species, but the following ten are particularly interesting for their appearance, growth, culinary value, toxicity, or unusual biology. 1Porcini The...
What makes a drug dangerous? Is it the chance of overdose, the risk of addiction, the damage it causes to the body, or the harm it can cause to families and society? There is no single answer. In fact, one of the most famous scientific attempts to answer this question produced some surprisingly cont...
If small cars exist, why shouldn’t there be small 4x4s? They deserve just as much love as large SUVs and off-roaders, while their compact dimensions can make them surprisingly capable on narrow, muddy or snowy roads. And there is another obvious advantage: smaller vehicles can be more economic...
The use of alternative energy sources is an important part of the global effort to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Wind power has become one of the world’s major renewable energy technologies, with countries across every continent investing in new wind farms. This ranking is based on **tota...
Throughout history, people have collected almost everything imaginable. Some collections have eventually grown into museums devoted to subjects that are anything but ordinary. Here is our selection of ten of the world’s most unusual museums. 1 Museum of Medieval Torture Instruments Located in...
The basketball hoop is 3.05 meters (10 feet) above the floor. For some players, reaching it requires a tremendous jump. For others, simply raising their arms is enough to put the ball within easy reach. Throughout basketball history, the sport has produced some truly extraordinary giants. Here are t...
The press is often called the “fourth estate.” Newspapers report the news, announce events and campaigns, and keep the public informed. They can be just a single sheet of paper or run to hundreds of pages. Some are virtually unknown, while others are recognized around the world. This article looks a...
You can’t surprise anyone with citrus anymore — we add lemon to our tea almost every day, and mandarins are now a year-round fruit rather than something we buy only for New Year’s celebrations. Yet the citrus family includes far more than these familiar fruits. I previously wrote about c...
Some giant dogs can weigh as much as an adult human and, when standing on their hind legs, can even tower over one. The breeds featured in our top 10 are among the largest dogs in the world, with some reaching dimensions that can seem closer to those of a small horse than an ordinary […]
“Bread and circuses!” — two timeless things that people have sought throughout the ages. Although this expression belonged to the ancient Roman satirical poet Juvenal, who lived in the 1st century AD, it has not lost its relevance even in the 21st century. Among the main attractions for...
Private military and security companies are commercial organizations that provide specialized services related to military operations, security, intelligence, military training, logistics, and defense. Some of the organizations on this list are traditional private military or security companies, whi...
Strongmen have always, and quite rightly, inspired admiration. After all, everyone would like to have a strong friend, while many women dream of having a strong man by their side. But these people are not simply strong – they have achieved extraordinary feats of strength. They have amazed mill...
Let us remember that a marathon is a long-distance running competition (by the standard, 26 miles, or about 42 km). This already challenging discipline can become incredibly difficult due to demanding sections of the course and unusual locations where the races are held. I previously published 10 Be...
Top 10 cases of the longest periods of fasting. Hunger is a condition of the body caused by an insufficient intake of substances necessary to maintain homeostasis. 1 In 1973, seemingly incredible periods of fasting by two women were documented at a medical facility in the city of Glasgow. Both women...
An airplane is a fairly fast means of transportation, but among airplanes there are also some of the fastest machines ever built. 1 MiG-25 3.2M — the fastest aircraft. A fighter pilot friend of mine once said over a cigarette: “This aircraft has no speed limit; it’s only on paper.”...