Maybe you have a friend or know someone who has a dislike for spiciness. Sometimes the searing heat isn’t for everyone. Or maybe you yourself enjoy in indulging the spicy taste. Regardless, if you dislike or like spicy foods, there is one that no one would want to try.

It is well know that peppers are one of the biggest sources of spiciness. Usually measured in Scoville, a unit to see how spicy something is, they range from the tamer bell peppers to the extreme Carolina Reaper. But there is one pepper that could possibly kill you.

Years and years of selective breeding is usually the cost for making a piping hot pepper. Breeders try to cross the spiciest peppers to make a spiceier mix before, and people are always trying to push the limits. However, funnily enough, our mystery killer pepper was not bred to be a taser to the tongue, but rather to be an anesthetic for the skin. This mystery pepper is the Dragon’s Breath chili.

Though Guiness World Records still recognizes the Carolina Reaper as king, many people have claimed to have bred hotter peppers, (though Guinees has not gone about testing this), and the Dragon’s Breath pepper had a mesured Scoville of 2.48 million units, making it the second hottest pepper behind the purportedly 3 million Scoville Pepper X. The thing about the Dragon’s Breath is that it is so hot that it could kill you, having a chance of causing a type of shock, an anaphylactic shock, that would actually end up burning your airways and causing them to seize and close up.

Though the Dragon’s Breath Chili has is own uses, it is still one example of selective breeding taking a worse turn. The act of selective breeding is taking plants or animals that have desirable traits, like taking a type of wheat that tastes better and cross breeding it to make a unique taste. And when we talk about selective breeding there is one area where the effects hae been noticeable-but not for the best.

If you took a look at the modern bull terrier, what you would see would be much more different from the bull terriers of the past. The modern bull terrier has an irregular egg-shaped head and a thick abdomen, suffering from a large variety of complexions, mostly muscular ones, and compulsive behavior. In contrast to the bull terriers of old, they had a muscular body, but sleek near the waist, and with the gentle sloping skull and normal snout much like those of other breeds such as labrador retrievers, they were one of the easiest breeds to train, and looked much more noble than their current versions. Likewise, the once noble chow chow, which used to be popular Chinese hunting dogs, had a nearly wolflike appearance of the face in that their snout was not abnormal, and the facial skin did not make the chow chow’s face look like a lump of play-dough. The modern chow chow has such deep eyes that the skin actually blocks a lot of their vision, and they suffer from a large amount of health problems and have genetic eye problems.

Though sometimes selective breeding may be helpful, sometimes it ends up hurting the humans. Humanity must always be careful meddling with nature.

Ever since the bombings of the Twin Towers, sparking an American counterterrorism effort on a widespread front, there was one person bieng held most responsible, Osama Bin Laden. The leader of al-Qaeda, as since he was behind the incident, was number one on the US kill list.

Eventually, though Bin Laden had evaded the watchful eye, he had been found. As his compound had been scoped out, the go ahead was given for the Navy Seals to go in and take out the al-Qaeda leader. In one of the most critical raids to happen, the Navy Seals managed to rush in and kill Osama Bin Laden.

In yet another critical counterterrorist operation, Israeli forces began a raid to liberate and rescue the passengers of an Air France A300 airbus which had 248 passengers. The jet had been hijacked by members of the PFLP-EO who intended to bargain for the release of militants imprisoned in Israel. The plane had been diverted from its designated course to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. However, the Ugandan government supported the operation, with Idi Amin greeting and welcoming the hijackers. 

The hijackers had weeded out the non-Israelites among the hostages and sent them back to Paris, excluding the crew of the airbus, to keep them as their bargaining power. Knowing that the Israel Government was likely balking at the idea of bowing to the hijacker’s wishes, they threatened the hostages with death if their various demands had not been satisfied.

The nightime raid was commenced in through Isreali transport planes which quickly injected the commandos into the scene. During the rushed flurry 4 hostages were killed but the 102 remaining were saved, while 5 commandos were injured and the unit commander Yonatan Netanyahu was killed. However, the commandos had their revenge, as all the hijackers were killed and 45 Ugandan soldiers to boot, as the plans for the raid took into account the Ugandan Army’s resistance. Consequently, to allow for a safe escape, several Ugandan planes were destroyed. 

Sometimes brute force is not what is the best. These two examples show how effective covert operations are, and how they have shaped the world

The world is always changing. Much like the story of death and rebirth, like the Pheonix, so are ideas reincarnated and killed only to be replaced. Technology is always changing.

War has always been something humanity has been focused on. From innovations like the atlatl which allowed spears to be thrown further to the Gatling gun, the tools that humanity uses to fight are always changing and becoming obsolete. However, there has never been more so a dramatic example of this than the dreadnought.

Sea warfare is very important. Control the sea and you control most of the Earth. This is why there are always more improvements to the art of naval fighting. And one of the improvements was the introduction of the HMS Dreadnought to the world.

The HMS Dreadnought was a battleship. But not just any battleship. She was the first battleship to have a uniform and designated main battery, opposed to the previous battleships which had only some large guns mixed haphazardly with smaller guns. Additionally, the steam engines powering the HMS Dreadnought- the first to power a battleship- made the HMS Dreadnought the fastest battleship at the time. The problem with the previous ships was that the large guns typically could engage from very far ranges; however, the time it took to get there meant that they often had to first wait for the shell to land, then adjust the guns. The problem was that previous ships had a large among of smaller guns, so much that the splashes of the smaller shells obscured the larger shells making corrections difficult, and forced smaller guns to slow their firing so that the larger guns could readjust. The HMS Dreadnought solved this.

With the arrival of the HMS Dreadnought, all the previous battleships became quickly outclassed, as governments scrambled to be on par with the British Navy and the HMS Dreadnought, causing various armed races and making previous ships nearly useless in many engagements as they were liabilities. 

Ironically, the reign of the battleship was ended very quickly. HMS Dreadnought missed out on the Battle of Jutland, the biggest naval action between battleships, and when WWII rolled around the aircraft carrier soon outcompeted the battleship.

People believe heavily in spending money on things that directly benefit themselves and rationing taxpayer money. So how is it that the government and some private companies keep pouring tons of money into the exploration of space?

Earth isn’t an infinite item dispenser. Eventually, we will run out of coal, silver, and other materials. However, the infinity of space keeps spitting out tons of stuff. Other planets have tons of resources, such as ice for water. As for asteroids, they can contain all sorts of materials. For instance, asteroid Psyche 16 contains an estimated 10,000 quadrillion in metals. 

Another reason is the hope for discovering alien life. Humans have always been fascinated with aliens and while further planets out of the solar system are mostly out of reach, scientists are still trying to make it a mission to discover any traces of life, even with the most simple life forms.

The apocalypse always feels closer and closer the more things happen; as countries get more belligerent and friendships crumble, the possibility of a global event of a massive catastrophe seems more likely. In the case of an extinction-level event, humanity could look to the skies for help. Some planets or moons, like Titan, Mars, or Europa may contain the necessary conditions for humans to inhabit, albeit with the assistance of technology.

Though many people are looking forward to the close future sometimes it is better to look towards the far future to try and prevent the worse in the case of a contingency.

Before the world of airplanes or helicopters and the perfection of that craft, there were the zeppelins.

The zeppelin is now regarded mainly with fear but with great mystery. How were these massive football-shaped monsters supposed to lumber through the air? And a greater aura of mystery surrounds the downfall of these airships, and how the fire exactly started on the Hindenburg.

The word zeppelin is easily confused with a blimp; both are dirigibles and subsequently airships. However, they begin to differ. A blimp is much more like that of a fancy balloon: take out the inner contents, were it hydrogen or helium and it deflates. Meanwhile, the zeppelin would maintain its rigidity and shape due to the skeletal frame of metal underneath the canvas. However, both types of airships shared many similarities. They both are and were inflated with gases that are lighter than air, some examples being hydrogen or helium, making the airship lighter and less dense than air, allowing it to float. To descend or ascend several compartments, similar to the ballast tanks of a submersible, which allows it to descend, so did the zeppelin and blimp control the density of the aircraft by pumping or decreasing the air.

The Hindenburg was the largest of its kind, the flagship of the Hindenburg Line, and revolutionary in the changes it had compared to the first zeppelins. In some ways, it was like the Titanic. Though zeppelins had a spotty history, mainly due to the weather they encountered messing with the mechanisms and various deadly incidents that killed many people, no one was expecting what would happen with the Hindenburg.

The problem with using hydrogen is that it is a volatile substance. In contrast to helium, a noble gas that cannot burn, hydrogen can and will erupt when too close to a flame. So was the tragedy of the Hindenburg. Bystanders on the ground did notice perhaps some flickering flames or a flap open as if hydrogen was leaking. Then a fire began, and people onboard felt an explosion. And at 7:25 pm, the Hindenburg became enflamed. The fires began eating the fuel cells, spreading, decreasing buoyancy, and causing a list downwards. The fabric began to burn away and the diesel fuel ignited.

The Hindenburg became a disaster. Many people were killed in the fires and explosions. The media was there expecting to film the first transatlantic flight of the year and instead found death. Zeppelin, the company’s proud words that no passenger had been harmed abroad their airships were prominently scrapped.

In the aftermath of the disaster, the zeppelin and its cousins suffered. They no longer received very many funds from organizations and the attention was shifting off of them, for more sustainable and safer methods of flying. In many ways the crash of the Hindenburg was the final nail in the coffin of the zeppelin.

The universal idea of balance, the yin, and the yang is one that presents itself most curiously. In fact, many times things are balanced out when it seems they can’t. 

Take for instance the absolutely dominant Golden State Warriors, who seemed to steamroll over everyone, until they were wrecked by injuries and key players left. Another example of this effect is how many games seem to be on the rise, like Fall Guys or Among Us, but fall flat soon.

Movies are no exception. They often have immense expectations, but many times fail to live up to that. Under the intense pressure, it is no doubt that one of them will crack. For instance, the Shrek movies are some of the greatest, and Shrek is very iconic. However after a couple of great movies, Shrek the Third came in and was just bad. It was a disaster. Another typical example is the Matrix Trilogy. The first one is one of the most iconic ones, but however the next few turned out abysmal. Star Wars started out great, but in recent years has been nothing but horribly rushed storylines with no logic in them.

This year there is one movie that has all the crushing expectations. Years of hype of this battle between two titans has led us up to this, and there will definitely be crushed expectations. This movie is Godzilla vs. Kong. GvK is getting almost unhealthy amounts of hype, and everywhere fans argue over which one will come out on top. It will be interesting to see if the movie will meet its expectations or fall flat.

Today I will bring to you 10 interesting things I have found.

* Thomas Jefferson brought with him 40 sheep when he went into the white house, showcasing his deep roots within his farming past. One of these sheep was a magnificent Shetland sheep with four horns, and though it had a minimal size it was very aggressive, injuring nearby people who trespassed on its territory. Still, this didn’t deter Jefferson, until eventually, the aggressiveness boiled over after the sheep killed a small boy and some of its fellow sheep, so it was put down for good.* One hallmark of The Matrix is the stream of green code flowing at the beginning of each one of those movies. But you may not know that in fact, the seemingly indecipherable characters are actually recipes for sushi* George Dantzig arrived late at a class and hurriedly wrote the two problems on the board down. Little did he know, these were actually statistical theorems previously unproven. He managed to solve these, furthering his career.* Despite the dryness in the deserts, more people drown in the deserts than thirst because of the lack of water making the occasional downpour violent, thus causing more deaths than dying of thirst.* The human body replaces its skin fully after 35 days and your replaced cells are made of the foods you have consumed during this period.* One of the oldest sharks in the world, the Greenland shark’s longevity allows it to live for up to 400 years. These sharks make polar bears look like a joke, as they have been known to eat polar bears swimming through the water.* A typical goal some physically conscious people strive for is for their teeth to become white. However, this is a case where appearances can be deceiving, since having very white teeth is actually bad for you. It can weaken your teeth permanently, as the default color is a light yellow mix.* The Japanese Spider Crab is a species of crab with long, thin, spider-like legs and a small body perched on top. Length-wise, they can grow bigger than a human.* The importance of bees is immense. They are a chief pollinating force that many companies rely on and the agricultural industry. That being said, Albert Einstein said that if honey bees disappeared, humans would die within 4 years.* Famous actor Jackie Chan came from humble roots. And in fact, his family was so poor that he was nearly sold to a British couple.

On this day in history,

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, bought away Pixar from the fledgling Lucasfilm.

Pixar, under Jobs, began to explore the untapped market of animation, and eventually came out with such wonders as Toy Story, and others. This was Job’s third company that he became the head of, after a previous failure at NeXT and becoming ousted from Apple, though he eventually rejoined. Pixar developed various equipment for the industry, such as computers and software, some of which were used by Disney in their works.

Though this day in history also marks a groundbreaking purchase, berthing Pixar as it is, this day is (February 3rd) a day for honoring the deceased. This day is the Four Chaplains Day, a day commemorating and remembering the heroic actions of four WWII chaplains who gave their lives to save the lives of military personnel and civilians who were aboard the civilian liner-turned troop transport SS Dorchester which sank after they were en route to Greenland, torpedoed in the company of a three-boat convoy. The chaplains stayed behind and helped the soldiers disembark to safety in lifeboats. When the supply of life jackets were short, they gave up theirs, so that others could live. As the ship went down, they did not weep or cry, instead, they began to hold arms and sang various hymns and prayed.

It’s common knowledge that player combat is one of the most important parts of many video games. Combat has many different types, but all of them contain parts of two variations.

The first type is one that almost all games incorporate, and this is the skill-based type. 

This game type means that first place is determined mostly off the skill of the player. Games such as Fortnite, Pubg, League of Legends, Super Smash Bros, Brawlhalla, and more are skill-based. Though all of these include some elements of luck, they do depend a lot on skill.

The second type is luck-based, where it incorporates skill but luck is a lot more important. Games like Crash Arena Turbo Stars, Art of War: Legions, base defense games such as Clash of Clans, and board games like Monopoly. These all have some skill but all of them involve amounts of luck, because during a fight or during a round these many times you can’t control your troops or where you want to go or what type of defense you fight.

The best type of games combine both types to great success. Minecraft involves luck when fighting depending on the terrain and what type of equipment you have, while Clash Royale has different decks that have different weaknesses and strengths. Tetris has different pieces that appear at times dictated by luck but a skilled player can arrange them to compensate for the luck.

Hassan the Second was a ruler of Morocco. Over his course of rule, he made several enemies as his rule included several actions that did not endear him to his people, chief of which was his actions where he diverted power from the government, ruling as an autocrat while ignoring the domestic problems within his country.

His enemies were many, and they were not happy about his actions. Instead of waiting for Hassan to keel over from old age, they planned many assassination attempts. 

Attempt #1

Hassan was chilling in his summer palace where he was busy celebrating a 42 birthday. The coup was supposedly backed by the Libyan government and organized by Mohamed Medbouh, a Moroccan general, and M’hamed Ababou. The plan was to send in cadets to assassinate Hassan, and they rushed in, killing over 100 people, but not Hassan himself. One story states that Hassan approached the ringleader of the group and began repeating various verses of the Quran while staring down the leader. Allegedly, the person lost their nerve and ran away. Many of the guests, who were high-profile, such as Marcel Dupert, the Belgian ambassador, were placed under house arrest. The rebels, not imagining that the 2000 or so assassins could have failed, overran Rabat’s main radio station and declared that Hassan was dead and that the era of a new republic had begun. Soon, however, royalist troops took control of the situation.

Attempt #2

The second attempt happened as Hassan was coming back from a trip to France on his Boeing 727. His enemies were in a high place, so it was no surprise that an aerial attack from the Moroccan Air Force was what headed towards them. A sortie of four F-5 Tigers was on their way to murder the King. Bullets tore through the body of the plane, riddling the fuselage. The jets would have shot down the plane, but, using his wits, Hassan quickly ran to the cockpit. He shouted through the radio, “Stops firing you fools, the Tyrant is dead!”. Using this deception, the jets ceased their strafing upon the plane, and Hassan survived using his wits. As he tricked the jets to stop their firing, he eventually lived to the surprising age of 70, given the enemies he had, dying of pneumonia after a long and controversial rule.