Yes, North Korea Has A Suicide Bomber Corps With Nuclear Nackpacks!

No, You’re Probably Not Smarter Than a 1912-Era 8th Grader

In the early years of the 20th century, the students in Bullitt County, Kentucky, were asked to clear a test that many full-fledged adults would likely be hard-pressed to pass today. The Bullitt County Genealogical Society has a copy of this exam, reproduced below—a mix of math and science and reading and writing and questions on oddly specific factoids–preserved in their museum in the county courthouse.

Warning! These 1950s Movie Gimmicks Will Shock You

Welcome to summer movie hell—another blockbuster season filled with costly digital effects that disappoint more often than they surprise. During a University of Southern California film symposium in June, two directors guilty of creating this trend, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, predicted the imminent collapse of their mega-budget film industry. In its place, they suggested a future of immersive technologies, where theaters would offer thrills you couldn’t get via Netflix.

Cinema's Greatest Effects Shots Picked By Hollywood's Top VFX Specialists

From Eadweard Muybridge and George Méliès to James Cameron and Phil Tippett, the history of movie effects is basically the greatest bedtime story never told. Except it’s a yarn so full of dragons, dinosaurs and mimetic polyalloy killing machines sent back from the future that you’d never get any sleep after hearing it. As Life Of Pi and Avatar amply demonstrate, there are many chapters still to be written and innovations still to be forged, but whether in-camera, matte, prosthetic, CG, or just lovingly modeled by a man with a passion for Plasticine, effects have brought magic to the movies since the silent era. In a unique celebration of the art, Empire asked the people who make them happen to pick their favorites.

First Hole Is Complete

Checking out the form for the catch foundation.

Working on the tee box for the first hole.

We completed tee box one and afterward decided that pouring concrete would be better for the rest of the course.

We were able to get the guys who maintain the common areas to dig the holes for the catches.  Huge time saver!

First catch.  It can't take that many bag of concrete, can it?

7 - 80 pound bags of Quikrete!  Are you kidding me?

The loop in the middle is to padlock down the catch and prevent theft.

Yes, it is hot!

Why Lego Minifigures Have A Hole In Their Heads

To match the bricks? To snap on hats? Nope. In reality, minifigs have been designed to allow air to pass through if lodged in a child’s throat.

The Other Killer

HIV/AIDS may be the world's best-known virus, the subject of marches, concerts and billions of dollars of aid. With good reason: it killed 1.47m people in 2010. Less noticed, however, is viral hepatitis: it felled 1.44m globally–almost as many as HIV. And viral hepatitis killed more people in 117 of the 187 countries tracked by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington–including in India, China, Britain and Japan.

The greatest food in human history

What is “the cheapest, most nutritious and bountiful food that has ever existed in human history” Hint: It has 390 calories. It contains 23g, or half a daily serving, of protein, plus 7% of daily fiber, 20% of daily calcium and so on.

This Video Of Rush Hour At A Beijing Subway Station Will Give You Nightmares

How McDonald's Fakes Their Food

Don't Read This If You're Afraid of the Dark

A country whose capital, Paris, made history with its "City of Light" glowing streets is suddenly trying to dial them down. Starting this summer, a French decree mandates that public buildings and shops must keep lights off between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m in attempt to preserve energy and cut costs, and "reduce the print of artificial lighting on the nocturnal environment."

As France's move suggests, civilization's ever-growing imprint on the night sky has more than just stargazers concerned. In his new book, The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light, writer Paul Bogard bemoans how our last dark spaces are slowly being devoured by the "light trespass" of artificial rays. A team of astronomers recently projected that while the US population is growing at a rate of less than 1.5 percent a year, the amount of artificial light is increasing at an annual rate of 6 percent. It's more than just a nostalgia for primordial darkness that's eating at Bogard: Too much light causes animals to go haywire, derails natural cycles, and damages human health.

The Ten Scariest Aircraft Landings Caught On Video

Next time you feel like complaining about the Wi-Fi on your flight being slow, just remember it could have been worse. Much worse.

China Just Broke Ground on World's Next Tallest Skyscraper, and It Aims to Finish by February

Just as the weekend took off, so did the world's next tallest skyscraper. In China's 25th biggest city, Changsha, Hunan, ground has ambitiously been broken. In just the next seven months, Broad Sustainable Construction plans to erect its Sky City, a 220-story, 838 meter (2,749 feet) megatower.
 

Look Inside North Korea's Insane Ryugyong Hotel for the First Time

There’s no more fitting metaphor for North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel than the fact that it’s shaped like the Simpsons’ Enron ride. Construction on the hotel began in 1987, and was supposed to be completed by 1989. By 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union — and the resulting loss of cash flow from Moscow — put a major pinch on North Korea’s funds, construction on what was to be the world’s tallest structure at its inception halted, leaving a giant skeleton of building towering over the glittery squalor of Pyongyang like a wireframe spaceship.

World’s Stinkiest Fruit Is Fermented Into Wine

There is a popular expression to describe the durian’s creamy yellow flesh: it tastes like heaven but smells like hell. Known as the king of fruits, the spiky delicacy has such a pungent smell that it is often barred from public places. But it boasts a loyal legion of fans who can consume the creamy yellow flesh by itself or in candy, pancakes or chips. There will soon be another option: wine.