Only one ship of the U.S. Navy is authorized to fly the Jolly Roger.There are plenty of ships in the U.S. Navy (291 of them, to be precise), but only one has the curious distinction of flying the Jolly Roger — the ominous flag typically associated with pirates. Although a skull and crossbones is the most common adornment, lawless seamen during the golden age of piracy (1650-1720) flew many grisly symbols, including skeletons but also bleeding hearts and sharp weapons. After closing in on a ship, pirates hoisted the Jolly Roger at the last minute, and though designs varied from ship to ship, the message was clear — surrender or die. 

But for the U.S. destroyer USS Kidd, flying the Jolly Roger is less about striking fear into the hearts of its enemies than it is an 80-year-long tradition. The ship honors Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who earned the nickname “Cap” while attending the U.S. Naval Academy due to his name’s similarity to the infamous 17th-century pirate Captain Kidd. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Kidd was killed aboard the USS Arizona. Within two years, a Fletcher-class destroyer bearing his name sailed the Pacific. The ship’s crew kept the nickname alive by adopting the Jolly Roger and calling themselves “the Pirates of the Pacific,” though their “booty” often involved retrieving downed Allied fighter pilots. Today’s USS Kidd, commissioned in 2007, is actually the third ship to bear the name and the third to hoist the fearful flag of a bygone era.

0.5% of Modern-Day Males Are Related to Genghis Khan

While Genghis Khan conquered land far and wide, his scope reached even further across the globe through his genetic lineage. During his lifetime, Genghis fathered children with six wives and an even larger number of concubines, beginning with his first marriage to a woman named Börte. With Börte, Genghis had five daughters and four sons — Jochi, Chagatai, Ögedei, and Tolui — and there were many more children to come. While it’s impossible to note just how many children Genghis sired, a 2003 study posited that Genghis Khan’s DNA could be found in 8% of Asian men along the Y-chromosome, a number large enough to account for 0.5% of the world’s total male population.

Elephants are massive and have pretty thick skin, about an inch deep. You’d think an insect smaller than a quarter, even one with a stinger, would be no big deal — but you’d be wrong. Elephants are so scared of bees that farmers use them as a natural, humane elephant deterrent. By hanging a beehive every 10 yards or so, researchers have been able to deter 80% of elephants. 

African honeybees are small, but aggressive, and can sting areas that aren’t protected by thick elephant skin, like eyes and mouths. When bees start swarming, African elephants will start flapping their ears, kicking up dust, and yelling. Asian elephants react less dramatically, but they still get visibly nervous; they shrink away from bees, comfort one another, and sometimes slap their trunks on the ground.

The Eastern Roman Empire fell just 39 years before Columbus sailed to America. 

WORLD HISTORY 

We tend to think of the Roman Empire as an entirely ancient time period. Yet while the Western Roman Empire fell in the fifth century CE, leaving it firmly in the ancient world, the eastern half of the empire kept going for another millennium — as late as 1453. Emperor Diocletian divided Rome at the end of the third century BCE, believing the empire had become too big to be ruled by just one monarch. The western half encompassed Europe and Northern Africa, and the eastern half covered the Middle East. As the west faltered, the east stayed strong, largely thanks to in-demand exports such as spices. In 395 CE, the Eastern Roman Empire split off entirely, and it eventually even took back some former Western Roman territory.

Historians often refer to the Eastern Roman Empire as the Byzantine Empire, but that term wasn’t used until after it fell; the citizens of the empire still thought of themselves as Romaioi, or Romans. The capital was Constantinople (now Istanbul in modern-day Turkey), named after Emperor Constantine I. As Constantine was the first Christian emperor of Rome, the Byzantines adopted Christianity as the state religion. But they also embraced their heritage from ancient Greece, and in the seventh century CE, Greek replaced Latin as the empire’s official language.

In the 11th century CE, the Byzantine Empire faced escalating threats from both sides — the Crusades caused tension with Western Europe, and the Turks destabilized Anatolia, the point where Asia meets Europe. The empire fell in 1453when Ottoman Turks breached the walls of Constantinople after a 55-day siege, toppling the last vestiges of the long-powerful Roman Empire. By then, Europe was in the early stages of the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. Christopher Columbus set sail to the Americas in 1492, just 39 years later.

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Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

News headline about 100s of missiles and drones being launched against Israel and who is having a positive experience from this event. It is not the people that are being attacked nor the ones that will suffer the counterattack. It is the weapons manufacturers and the politicians that continue to make money from others’ inability to get along with each other.
What do all these conflicts gain? They are teaching a new generation to mistrust and hate others and that is universal because no matter where you are in a conflict there are always two sides that have different opinions about what is taking place. These events are not the kinds of things that are forgotten or resolved because if we really look at most conflicts we find a history that goes back centuries and they are still not resolved.
The people that take advantage of these issues are getting rich and they really do not care who wins or loses as they know that in a very short period of time someone will start the entire insane game again. Mankind is supposed to be the intelligent being on this planet but that would have to be up for debate by anyone observing us.
Other issues are just as mind numbing as these constant conflicts. We have all the efforts being made to stop abortion and that is never going to happen. Just like so many other things that the human species continues to be involved in no matter what laws get passed. Some manage to get a pass for their crimes, think rich white men, and some do not get a pass no matter what. Prostitution is considered illegal, immoral and against religious doctrine and yet It has been around since before recorded time and will be around as long as forever.
Drinking was and is considered a sin by some and was once outlawed. Alcohol has been around since someone figured out how to make it and again will be around forever. Water kept getting contaminated by humans dumping their unwanted stuff in the rivers and lakes so booze made the water safe. Wine was a part of daily life even in the Bible and Jesus served it. Even our forefathers that were as strict a bunch of dower faced pundits as you could hope to find jumped ship at Plymouth Rock and did not proceed to Virginia because they ran out of beer.
We need guidance in our society to protect those that need protecting and assistance to fulfill needs. All of this takes conscience and understanding, not the idea that one size fits all. A good many people have tattoos and others would not have one if they were free. They have been used to honor and they have been used to identify for persecution but they are still a part of society and like them or not we tolerate them. The same needs to be the case when we talk of choices to have a relationship that is not considered the norm, or a procedure that you would not think to have performed. Personal choice if it is not harming you and may help or even save someone else should be accepted or at least tolerated because in the end it has nothing to do with you and your opinion. None of us knows what is best for everyone and we are all unique as to how we view or feel about everything we encounter so if you won’t wear red shoes don’t condemn someone that dones.

Move over, modern-day billionaires — the wealthiest person of all time lived seven centuries ago. Musa I of Mali was a 14th-century king (called a “mansa”) who came into power in 1312 CE. He greatly expanded the Mali Empire, culminating in a large swath of West Africa, from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuktu and beyond. The empire had significant reserves of salt and gold (nearly half of the world’s supply of gold at the time), and it became incredibly wealthy. Mansa Musa also controlled some of the biggest trade centers in Africa, establishing Timbuktu as a major hub. Some sources speculate that Musa’s wealth was equivalent to roughly $400 billion today — by comparison, the wealthiest modern billionaires have net worths of around $200 billion. Though an exact figure is impossible to calculate, many historians believe Musa to be the wealthiest person in history.

In 1324, the Muslim ruler decided to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. He traversed the Sahara Desert with tens of thousands of followers dressed in Persian silk (including soldiers, enslaved people, merchants, and the entire royal court). Adding to the spectacle, 100 camels carrying hundreds of pounds of gold were also in tow. The caravan reportedly spent three months in Cairo, Egypt, where Musa handed out gold as if it were candy. In fact, Musa’s trek through the Middle East caused the price of gold to plummet in Egypt due to the sheer amount of treasure he brought into the region. Although Musa died sometime in the 1330s, his legacy continued. He made Mali a well-known empire, and it was added to the Catalan Atlas (one of the most popular medieval maps) for the first time in 1375. On the map, a golden-crowned Musa is depicted holding a scepter and a gold nugget.