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1. Lascaux Caves Lascaux (Lascaux Caves) is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 17,300 years old.[3][4] They primarily consist of images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. In 1979, Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list along with other prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley 2.  Poveglia Poveglia is a small island located between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy. A small canal divides the island into two parts. Poveglia should not be confused with Ex Poveglia, another much smaller island of the lagoon three kilometers west of Poveglia. The island is first mentioned in chronicles of 421, when people from Padua and ...

Effects on European Civilian Population The devastation caused by World War II was so great that its full extent is hard to measure. An estimated 50 million people lost their lives, nearly half of whom were civilians. Again, however, it must be stressed that amid the complete breakdown of society, many countries were unable to provide an accurate number of their losses. Economically, the war cost over a trillion dollars and severely disrupted peacetime production.  The Holocaust One major difference between World War II and most earlier wars was the extent to which it affected the civilian population. Specifically, the Nazi regime targeted and killed an estimated 11 million European civilians solely out of political or racial motives in what has come to be known as the Holocaust.  One of the underpinnings of the Nazi regime was a demented belief in the superiority of the so-called Aryan race, Hitler's ideal of a pure-blooded German people destined to become the worl...

IMAGE CREDIT:  GETTY IMAGES A longstanding urban legend goes like this: During the space race of the 1960s, NASA spent millions developing a fancy "space pen" that could be used in zero gravity ... but the Soviets just used a pencil. This story resonates with us because NASA did actually spend piles of money on writing utensils in space—in 1965 they paid $128 per mechanical pencil, according to NASA historians (for the record, the pencils had high-strength outer casings, but the writing guts were just regular mechanical pencils). It just seems logical that the thrifty Soviets would use a simpler, smarter solution. But the story about the government-funded space pen and Soviets using pencils instead is just plain wrong—both space programs used the Fisher Space Pen, and neither paid anything to develop it. Let's dig into the real history here. WHY DON'T REGULAR BALLPOINT PENS WORK IN SPACE? The traditional ballpoint pen relies partially on gravi...