Around 25 times a minute, 24 hours a day, this Russian shortwave radio station emits a short, monotonous buzz tone1 on the AM frequency at 4625 kHz. The station's callsign is "UVB-76", but is known amongst enthusiasts as "The Buzzer",…

Unless you've been living on the, er, Moon, you can hardly have failed to notice that today1 marks the 40th anniversary of the historic landing of the Apollo 11 mission – during which, Neil Armstrong became the first human being…

We've looked at many of the world's largest things in the past, so for something different, let's look at the longest. Karl-Marx-Hof in Vienna is the world's longest residential building, stretching more than a kilometre through the 19th district better…

The world of gargantuan statuary has changed considerably since we published the original Very Large Buddhas post just over 3 years ago. The title of world's largest statue is now held by the Spring Temple Buddha in Henan, China. The…

This rather innocuous-looking bridge over the River Thames is the latest in a long line of bridges to stand on this spot and lay claim to the name London Bridge. This current bridge opened in 1973, but a bridge has…

Today, the fourteenth of July, is the French national holiday that is known in English as Bastille day. The Bastille, a Parisian prison, was stormed on this day in 1789. Along with the Tennis Court Oath, it was the successful…