Most Americans have encountered some bacteria at some point in their lives, whether it was acquired from restaurant food or a grocery store, which caused them to claim they later had food poisoning. There are multiple nasty bacteria that can cause this, and there are many misconceptions about how they end up in our food, and what the best ways to avoid them are. To be forewarned is to be forearmed, so here are several misconceptions about food safety and the practices involved that can leave us satisfied, or ruin our day with stomach churning nastiness.

Apples are pretty much the most popular fruit in the world. People eat them plain, bake them into pies and even make alcohol with them. And it should really be no surprise. With literally thousands of varieties there is something for every taste out there. Of course, the apple also figures heavily into mythology, folklore and is well known for its health benefits. As the old saying goes, “an apple before bed, keeps the doctor from earning his bread.”

Most of us have heard of famous Greek Gods such as Zeus and Apollo a well as demi-gods  such as Heracles and Perseus and many others from myths and legends. Their stories move the imagination and have captivated people for thousands of years. However, there are many lesser-known Greek Gods that are just as interesting, sometimes even more so, than the popular kids.

Just because a symbol is used by one culture or group, doesn’t mean it’s off-limits to other groups. Countless symbols have been used over and over again by various groups throughout history, oftentimes with drastically different meanings. Such as …

Every year when summer rolls around, people do their best to beat the heat. For some this means turning on the AC and going to the pool occasionally, but for others heat is more than just an inconvenience and summer is not a fun time to romp around and play. In some parts of the world dealing with the heat can be an extremely dangerous proposition, and even in parts of the world with air conditioning and modern infrastructure, deaths from heat stroke are a bigger concern than many people realize. While most people think they know how best to deal with the heat, there are many misconceptions about how staying cool works, and oftentimes the true dangers of the summer are not properly accounted for.

Many people consider the study of ancient languages to be boring. However, every now and again, the guy reading Latin in the library will burst out laughing. The reason for this, is that there are modern interpretations of ancient words that can honestly just strike you as funny.

From July 1 to July 3, 1863, Gettysburg was the site of one of the largest battles of the American Civil War, the deadliest by a wide margin, and one that is widely considered the closest the South came to winning.  On top of that, on November 19, 1863, it was the location where Abraham Lincoln delivered the most celebrated speech in American history, referenced by such great people as Martin Luther King.  But such an historic battle has more to it than our history books often care to mention, so clearly Gettysburg is worth getting to know better.

The ancient pyramids at Giza have long been one of the wonders of the ancient world, and have captured imaginations for thousands of years. Even today, they would have been quite difficult to construct, and the incredible treasures found within, as well as the strange traditions of those who built them, has only added fuel to all of the speculation about them. While most Egyptologists believe that the Pyramids were originally meant as burial chambers and built using clever but primitive methods, many theorists disagree and have come up with their own ideas on what they were actually used for, and how they were actually built.

You’d see a lot of changes when looking at a map of present day Europe and comparing it to a 30 year old one. Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and the Baltic States were all part of the USSR. Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were still states. Go back even further and the map looks even stranger. Putting all those different people under the same banner and keeping them that way was and still is next to impossible. Many have tried and most have failed, but the first to even come close were the Romans. Their inheritors, the Byzantines, managed to keep it together for over 1100 years, thus creating the longest-living Empire on the continent. Here’s how they did it.

While it is almost impossible to say a single nation’s schools are the best in the world, one country that consistently performs extremely well on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) exams for math, reading and science, may come as a surprise to many. Finland, a tiny nation of 5.5 million people, consistently makes the top 5 performers across those categories, making it the top educational performer in Europe and one of the strongest in the world. (Singapore, Japan, and South Korea are also strong performers, and China did not submit consolidated results for the most recent test.) Finland?! What?!