New York City is a world capital in every sense of the word — it’s a cultural and economic powerhouse, and arguably the most influential city on the planet. But it wasn’t always this way, as the following cities once dominated the world around them.

Throughout history, different civilizations have also thought about what happens when someone dies. As varying cultures, they developed complex systems about what happens after we take our last breaths. While some of them are very different from each other, there are also a shocking amount of similarities between the afterlives of these cultures that were spread out all over the world.

Can you imagine serving under a general who until recently was commanding soldiers who wanted to capture or kill you? Would you ever trust that person to be at all concerned for your safety or loyal to the cause at all? Well, thousands and thousands of soldiers have had to put up with that situation. It has worked out for all parties involved in many interesting ways, sometimes in very surprising ones.

On August 30, 1792, Napoleon Bonaparte was appointed a captain in the French Army, a major stepping stone on the path that eventually resulted in his becoming Emperor of the French.  Over two centuries later, on August 30, 2017, we honor that most august of monarchs, Napoleon I the Great.  Not at all the little blustering egoist of myth, and certainly not the Anti-Christ, Napoleon is much more than that, and we will share 10 amazing reasons why you should agree.

Ever since Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations, we’ve understood that sovereign states are where it’s at, both economically and politically. Or have we? The 21st Century has seen the world’s most economically-active cities overtake countries so fast that nations are eating their dust. New York alone has an economy bigger than Canada. Osaka ranks higher than Switzerland. Paris could comfortably buy out South Africa and still have some spare change. After falling out of fashion, will city states once again be our future?

Lying gets a bad rap but, oftentimes, it can help keep life interesting. Lies can inspire people to greater heights of achievement, even as they often sink the liar to lower depths. Lies save more lives and livelihoods than you’d ever believe (trust us; we’d never lie about that.) So here’s to ten of those who most successfully raised dishonesty to an art form.

Planet Earth is an amazing place, to say the least. And even though we’ve been living on its surface our entire life, there are still a lot of things we don’t know about it. Many things that we do know are awe-inspiring. What’s even more interesting about some of these is the fact that they have wide-scale implications on everything around them. But why try to be so mysterious, if we can give you 10 such examples, right?

There’s something that seems to continue to please audiences and critics about the thought that, at some point in a film, TV show, or other production, something that normally would be faked to make it easier and safer for the actors was not simulated. Real danger because the actors got too into performing the scene. Stunts gone wrong. Or, just extremely unsafe working conditions in general. Maybe it’s because it makes the fantasy of movies more real in some way, or because it gives the performers more of a freak show appeal. Whatever the case, no matter how much publicity it’s good for, this sort of thing should not be celebrated.

The Butterfly Effect principle simply states that, given enough time, whatever event, no matter how small, can and will have tremendous reverberations into the future. And when talking about past disasters, natural or otherwise, we always have to keep in mind that, even though devastating, they are part of what brought us here in the first place. Without them the world and everything in it would have taken a totally different turn, ending up completely different than it is today. The further back in time any particular event takes place, the more indirect influence it has on the present and future, altering them beyond recognition.

Despite living a life that was in many ways more modest than most of ours, Van Gogh the painter has become a larger than life figure. His paintings have sold for such high prices, and stories like the removal of one of his ears have completely overshadowed the real person and the true nature of his body of work. Obviously no list can completely convey the entirety of a human being, but it will address a few of the common misconceptions and expand our knowledge of the man and work.