The place to learn about the past and present,
Here are four instances of interspecies friendships without human involvement, including pictures and footage of them hanging out Fox and Otter First up on November 2025, security cameras in Lincoln, England, recorded a most unusual sight. A Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) was seen with a Eurasian Otter (Lutra lutra) roaming around Brayford Pool and the... Continue Reading →
Actually a rather nasty incident, when a landfill being used to build the Nice Airport collapsed, triggering two large waves which delivered death and destruction to the French Riviera The area around Nice in the South of France is the Mediterranean playground of celebrities, billionaires, and European royalty which boasts miles of white-sand beaches, sparkling... Continue Reading →
Click for part 2 Battle of Togbao, 1899 In Central Africa, a punative field force was destroyed in circumstances the French would nonetheless take full advantage of. The long-standing Kanem–Bornu Empire, centred around Lake Chad, was well past its zenith by the turn of the century. It had never been conquored before the ruthless warlord... Continue Reading →
Click for Part 1 Battle of Maeva, 1846 Although little is documented of the fighting itself, the French lost a shore party of marines in what has been described as a massacre by some, on the island of Huahine, modern-day French Polynesia. The Leeward Islands were divided between four kingdoms: Tahiti, Huahine, Raiatea and Bora... Continue Reading →
The fraudster and swindler who almost talked his way into becoming king of a tiny mountain realm, armed with a catalogue of lies and a manifesto for modernisation To be a vocational swindler, fraudster, conman, trickster, scam artist, is to be someone typically unconscionable; someone who is successful in one’s lies by telling them with... Continue Reading →
The greatest football teams based on consecutive championships, unbeaten runs, and international titles to prove their claims to have been the best of their times 19th Century The 'Team of All Talents' takes on Aston Villa, 1894-95 The world’s first official national-level competitive football began in England and Scotland in 1872 and 1873, respectively. As... Continue Reading →
The guide to enjoying the entire Mad Max franchise across six movie nights and eight live-action films Mad Max I “Look. Any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, you know? A terminal crazy... only I got a bronze badge to say I'm one of the good guys.” - Max Mad Max... Continue Reading →
Click for part 2 Apia Cyclone, 1889 It was during the peak years of Western-state nationalism when countries like the USA, Britain, Germany and Italy strutted around the world with their chests puffed out that a small US Naval squadron was wrecked in rueful circumstances. A storm had been brewing in the Samoan Islands since... Continue Reading →
“History is written by the winners,” quipped Napoleon. Despite France's vast compilation of conquests at home and abroad, historians found space to record the occasions this superpower was mauled also. This four-part article includes the worst military calamity of every decade, from the founding of the First Republic in 1792 until Algeria's independence in the... Continue Reading →
My two-day hike along the whole Worcestershire Way, from Great Malvern to Bewdley Out of the hundreds of long-distance hiking trails that criss-cross Britain, the Worcestershire Way (WW) starts pretty much right outside my front door, so it seemed only right that I cross this one off my list sooner rather than later. At 31... Continue Reading →
History and Things 