Once a fellow writer jokingly told me that I might get assassinated for listing the types of fish that are under the threat of extinction on my article. I fully understood what delicacies and the billion dollar industry can mean. For spilling the beans, you might get chained up and thrown into the bottom of the ocean and never to be heard from again. Just like the sharks. Mind you, do not blame only the Chinese who are the supplying and consuming the shark fins. It is a global trade and many different countries are involved as well.

Scientists have convincingly shown that we have been causing climate change throughout our history–and that climate change has, in turn, caused war and pestilence to befall us. And still we do it.

It seems that there was only ever one government in the history of mankind that effectively lowered carbon dioxide impact on the atmosphere. The Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology researched historical events involving large numbers of human deaths; their guesses on the carbon impact of these events have been published recently.

How many “discoverers” of the US have there been?

Chinese scientists have learned the secret of strength and durability of the Great Wall. Chemists have found that a part of the solution, bonding blocks of stone buildings, was part of glutinous rice porridge.

Why is the totalitarian Closet Dictatorship of China afraid of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo and other dissidents? The world watches with bated breath, this uneven battle between a scared Chinese Prime Minsiter, Wen Jiabao and a brave Liu Xiaobo.

Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644), the last dynasty of native-born Chinese rulers.

Clue: The same place that has a majestic Bell Tower.

Clue: The same place that has a majestic Bell Tower.

Still to defend against northern invaders the following dynasty, the Han, Sui, Northern and Jin dynasty all repaired, rebuilt and or expanded some sections of the wall at great cost.