They're positioned as they are for a good reason.

The gem lapis lazuli is the source of luminescent blue in manuscript illustrations.

The Israeli historian has plenty to say.

The author of When God Talks Back goes deep in this conversation.

Feathery dinosaurs are the perfect case study of how scientific revolutions happen.

The ancients had a cornucopia of holidays and festivities.

Dozens of mummified cats were dug up this week. This isn't as shocking as you might think.

History may not repeat but it does rhyme.

An anthropologist and a theologian walk into a room. The punchline is wise and wonderful.

The Internet solves another mystery.

Valentine's Day has a surprisingly raunchy history, going back thousands of years.

Religion influences politics more now than it did 50 years ago. Are we going forward or backward?

This is the oldest fossil ever found belonging to the line that leads to us.

Gulp. Is that you, Santa?

KGB-era "active measures" are still being used by Russian intelligence agencies today, according to experts.

Charges of treason are often used incorrectly in today's political climate. Treason has a very specific definition in the U.S. Constitution.

Irish Travellers, a group facing much discrimination and inequality, is given formal ethnic status in Ireland.

The work of Kremlin-approved philosopher Alexander Dugin provides key insights on the longterm strategy behind Russian hacks of the American elections. 

Much news on the Internet is very similar to the dangerous "yellow journalism" of history.

The history and reasoning behind the much-maligned Electoral College.

The idea of a world government has been a hot topic in the U.S. elections and throughout history.

Way before there was Cracked or Mad magazine, there was Puck, a weekly satirical publication that came out of St. Louis, Missouri in 1871. Here are some of the incredible full-color illustrations of that era's political issues.   

Modern terrorism has roots in a mythical sect of assassins from the time of the Crusades.

There is one specific condition for fascism to take hold in the United States.

The Black Death, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, wiped out 30 to 50 percent of Europe's population between 1347 and 1351. But, this is just the most infamous of the little microbe's shenanigans. Y. pestis, which is one-millionth our size, has caused three major pandemics and continues killing people to this very day. The plague gets such a bad rap because it represents some of the greatest tragedies to ever befall the human race.