Despite being surrounded by poverty, wealthy inhabitants of Soroca have turned to flaunting their riches by constructing flashy residences inspired by monuments such as St. Peter's Basilica and the Bolshoi Theatre. As a result, the settlement, called Gypsy Hill, has become something of a tourist attraction, with visitors arriving to marvel at the bizarre buildings.

It is frequently debated among professionals which era is regarded as the "best" in modern game history. Chess, like modern sports, has gone through several eras in which the perspective of how the players competed changed. For example, in chess, the Romantical approach favoured quick tactical moves over long-term strategy. When players changed their playing styles, valuing one thing over another, new "ages" of chess would emerge.

It is clear in Ukraine that the majority of the population speaks both Russian and Ukrainian. However, if you truly want to be a local, Ukrainian, which is also the official language, would be preferable. And, much to your dismay, English is not generally spoken here.

Where the Wild Things Are was originally titled Where the Wild Horses Are, and Maurice Sendak intended to write about horses; however, the author and illustrator quickly realised he was terrible at drawing horses and decided it would be better to draw 'things' instead; thus, one of the most memorable children's stories of all time was born.

"The sediments underneath Earth's seas are home to roughly 2.9 x 1029 microorganisms, which survive at depths of up to 2.5 km below the seafloor." The bulk of this deep subseafloor biosphere develops incredibly slowly in comparison to life on the top, with cell division estimated to occur once every 10-1000 years or so. Scientists are discovering new microscopic life sources further and deeper beneath the ocean than ever before. In March, a team of scientists announced that they had discovered remnants of bacteria (about 10 billion bacterial cells) in rocks 400 feet below the bottom, which was the deepest ever discovered.

Algeria is the continent's biggest country, spanning more than 2 million square kilometres and borders Mali, Niger, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania. This places it above Libya, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it is about five times the size of Spain.

Alexander the Great died at the age of 32, having conquered and established the world's biggest land-based empire. It spanned the Balkans to Pakistan. Alexander became sick in 323 BC and appeared to die after 12 days of intense torment. His corpse, on the other hand, showed no indications of decay or decomposition for a whole six days. Alexander was thought to have suffered from the neurological illness Guillain-Barré Syndrome, according to modern experts. They believe he was just paralysed and intellectually aware when he "died." In other words, he was horrifyingly buried alive!

Edison was, without a doubt, one of the world's most renowned intellectual property thieves. He stole nearly all of the 1,093 things he smashed a patent on from real geniuses like Nikola Tesla, Wilhelm Rontgen, and Joseph Swan – the latter of whom invented the lightbulb!

In the year 1,000 AD, half a millennium before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, Greenlandic Viking chief Leif Eriksson arrived on the island of Newfoundland. Leif Eriksson's Vikings inhabited Newfoundland, as well as finding and populating Labrador further north in Canada.

The world we "see" is a figment of our imagination. Our minds do not generate images in the same way that a video camera does. Instead, the brain builds a model of the world using data from modules that measure light and shade, edges, curvature, and so on. This allows the brain to easily paint out the blind spot, which is the area of your retina where the optic nerve connects and has no sensors. It also compensates for our eyes' rapid, jerky movements, known as saccades, creating the illusion of steady vision.

With its enormous size and mass, you'd think Jupiter would rotate slowly around its axis. With a rotational velocity of 45,300 km/h, it is the fastest spinning planet in the solar system. As a result, a day on Jupiter lasts only 9 hours and 55 minutes. A year, on the other hand, is much longer; Jupiter orbits the sun once every 11.8 Earth years.

It goes without saying that the ancient Babylonians were excellent mathematicians. They understood the Pythagorean theorem, for example, nearly 4,000 years ago, or more than a millennium before Pythagoras himself was born. Their mathematical prowess naturally extended to astronomy, where they routinely used arithmetic to catalogue celestial body movements and improve their astronomical predictions.

The smallest kite in the world that actually flies is 5mm high; the largest kite in the world is 55 x 22 metres in size (630sq meters). The world's longest kite is 1034 metres (3394 feet). A kite's fastest recorded speed is more than 120 mph (193 km/h).

While Assassin's Creed is already a household brand, it almost became something quite different. The original crusade-era period game was inspired by a Prince of Persia game called Prince of Persia: Assassin, which had a prince's bodyguard as the protagonist. Unhappy with the thought of a Prince of Persia game not being about a prince (which, interestingly, Nintendo doesn't see as an issue with when it comes to Zelda), Ubisoft's upper brass insisted on a new brand, and Assassin's Creed was created.

The origins of this strange-sounding celebration may be traced back hundreds of years, beginning in the early 1900s. People did not have refrigerators in the 1900s, so they hung a piece of cloth in their larders. It is thought that doing so provided the home good fortune, tranquilly, and wealth. The tradition evolved to accommodate the contemporary kitchen throughout time. Every year on May 29th, families throughout the world place a pillow on top of their refrigerator.

Yes, truly. Nintendo rented a warehouse in Tukwila, Washington, in 1981 to serve as its American headquarters. According to NPR, when a guy called Mario Segale went into his Nintendo tenants' offices demanding late rent, he created an impression. Even Segale's preference for overalls and short stature appear to have influenced Mario's design over time.

Muammar Gaddafi took power in Libya in 1969 and reigned for 42 years. As a result, he became one of Africa's and the world's longest-serving leaders of state. Gaddafi was well-known for being a despotic ruler. He did, however, serve his country well by increasing health care to the point that it was among the finest in Africa. He also boosted Libya's literacy rate from 25 percent to 87 percent during his tenure. When he was removed from power in 2011, his reign came to an end. The militia hunted him down and murdered him in his hometown, where he had sought safety. Gaddafi's net worth was $200 billion at the time of his death.

The tides are caused by the tiny changes in gravitational pulls of the Moon and Sun, as well as centrifugal forces in opposing directions. The tides on Earth are at their greatest when the three bodies are aligned, which occurs near the full and new Moons. The Earth is then expanded along that line.

The lone resident of Monowi, Nebraska, is 83 years old. She is the mayor, librarian, and bartender of the city. Elsie Eiler is her name, she pays her own taxes, and she considers individuals who live 40 miles away to be her neighbours.

Sechs Kies is South Korea's most established idol group. The band was founded in 1997 with six members and currently has five active members. Some may not consider them the longest because they were on hiatus for more than ten years; however, the longest-lasting idol group could also be considered Shinhwa, who debuted in 1998 and has been promoting consistently for the past 20 years.

As if the Nazis weren't already evil enough, they got dangerously close to producing plutonium, the material that powers nuclear bombs. When the Germans invaded Norway, they seized control of a facility in the Telemark region that manufactured heavy water, which was used to generate plutonium. However, before they could create anything, a group of 11 Norwegian commandos damaged the factory, detonating explosives in the base without incurring a single death.

In the 1990s, Korean pop musicians incorporated American popular music styles. Seo Taiji and Boys were the forerunners of this style, releasing the infamous single "I know" in 1992. It was so controversial that most critics despised their music and predicted that they would never make it. Nonetheless, the group quickly became enormously popular. Yang Hyun Suk of YG Entertainment was a member of the group, which is regarded as part of K-revolutionary Pop's period.

Nobody knows for sure where the kites came from. Flying kites is said to have begun around 3000 years ago in China. The first person to fly a kite was Chinese General Han Hsin of the Han Dynasty. Han was actually calculating the distance his army would have to travel to reach the defences.

Cocoa beans contain pathogens that are potentially harmful to humans, and raw cocoa beans do not taste like chocolate. When cocoa beans are roasted, they go through a chemical process, and proper roasting is essential for producing flavorful chocolates.