Top 10: Intrepid Explorers

 

#10 – Leif Ericsson

The first European to venture to North America was most likely Icelandic explorer Leif Ericsson. In the 11th century, the Norseman sailed off-course, arriving at a place he called "Vinland." Although no one knows quite where he landed, archaeologists have uncovered Viking ruins in Newfoundland, Canada.

 

 

# 9 – Sacagawea

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark relied heavily on Sacagawea's navigation skills during their westward exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. While carrying her newborn son more than 4,000 miles, she taught the Corps of Discovery how to prepare edible plants and how to make leather clothes and moccasins. Along the way she met her long lost brother, chief of the Shoshone tribe in 1805.

 

#8  –  Christopher Columbus

This son of an Italian wool weaver first set sail at the age of 13. Spanish royalty funded his later adventures in exchange for promises of new lands, spices, money and people to convert to Christianity. His fleet-The Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Maria-set sail in search of a direct route to the East from the West. But the navigator's underestimation of the Earth's circumference landed the ships in the Bahamas and Cuba in 1492.

 

#7  –  Amerigo Vespucci

Columbus may have spotted the New World, but the continent's namesake, Amerigo Vespucci, was the first to know what he was looking at. After tracing the coast of South America in 1502, he realized the continent was uncharted territory, and not India, as previously thought.

 

 

#6  – James Cook

Captain James Cook sailed farther south than any other explorer before him, and proved the Northwest Passage to be a trade route fantasy. On board, Cook ran a clean ship to fend off diseases like scurvy. With his healthy crew, he mapped the coastline of Australia, as well as much of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaiians killed Cook in 1779 after he took their chief hostage.

 

#5  – William Beebe

Beebe's fascination with the natural world led him to dive deep into the ocean in a steel sphere called a bathysphere in 1934. A rubber hose lined with telephone and electricity wires connected the bathysphere with people on the surface. Submerged 3,028 feet below, Beebe said the world looked as strange as Mars.

 

 

#4 – Chuck Yeager

In 1947, General Charles "Chuck" Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier. He topped his own record in 1952 when he flew at more than twice the speed of sound. Yeager paved the way, as it were, to space, sharing his aerial expertise by training almost half the pilots for the Gemini, Mercury and Apollo space programs.

 

 

#3 – Louise Arner Boyd

Louise Arner Boyd earned the nickname "Ice Woman" for her adventurous research in Greenland. Along with studying fjords and glaciers, she discovered an underwater mountain range in the Arctic Ocean. In 1955 she became the first woman to fly in a plane over the North Pole.

 

 

#2 – Yuri Gagarin

At 5-feet-tall, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the perfect size to fit into the cramped quarters of the Vostok 1 on man's maiden voyage into space. The spacecraft rocketed into space, orbited the Earth and, 108 minutes later, and arrived back on land on April 12, 1961.

 

 

#1 – Anousheh Ansari

In September 2006, X Prize sponsor Anousheh Ansari was the world's first Iranian to blast into space, as well as the first female space tourist. For $20 million she was trained for six months and learned the inner workings of the systems on the rocket and space station. Millions of people read Ansari's blog as she orbited Earth and dozens of Iranian women caught a glimpse of the space station from an observatory near Tehran.

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10 best books of all time: The perfect library

 

#1 - The Iliad and The Odyssey

Homer

Set during the Trojan War, The Iliad combines battle scenes with a debate about heroism; Odysseus' thwarted attempts to return to Ithaca when the war ends form The Odyssey. Its symbolic evocation of human life as an epic journey homewards has inspired everything from James Joyce's Ulysses to the Coen brothers' film, O Brother Where Art Thou?.

 

#2 - The Barchester Chronicles

Anthony Trollope

A story set in a fictional cathedral town about the squabbles and power struggles of the clergy? It doesn’t sound promising, but Trollope's sparklingly satirical novels are among the best-loved books of all time.

 

#3 - Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

 

Heroine meets hero and hates him. Is charmed by a cad. A family crisis – caused by the cad – is resolved by the hero. The heroine sees him for what he really is and realises (after visiting his enormous house) that she loves him. The plot has been endlessly borrowed, but few authors have written anything as witty or profound as Pride and Prejudice.

 

#4 - Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift

 

Swift's scathing satire shows humans at their worst: whether diminished (in Lilliput) or grossly magnified (in Brobdingnag). Our capacity for self-delusion – personified by the absurdly pompous Gulliver – makes this darkest of novels very funny.

 

#5 - Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

Cruelty, hypocrisy, dashed hopes: Jane Eyre faces them all, yet her individuality triumphs. Her relationship with Rochester has such emotional power that it's hard to believe these characters never lived.

 

#6 - War and Peace

Tolstoy

 

Tolstoy's masterpiece is so enormous even the author said it couldn't be described as a novel. But the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha – and the tragic and unexpected way their lives intersect – grip you for all 1,400 pages.

 

#7 - David Copperfield

Charles Dickens

David's journey to adulthood is filled with difficult choices – and a huge cast of characters, from the treacherous Steerforth to the comical Mr Micawber.

 

#8 - Vanity Fair

William Makepeace Thackeray

'"I'm no Angel," answered Miss Rebecca. And to tell the truth, she was not.' Whether we should judge the cunning, amoral Becky Sharp – or the hypocritical society she inhabits – is the question.

 

#9 - Madame Bovary

Gustave Flaubert

Flaubert's finely crafted novel tells the story of Emma, a bored provincial wife who comforts herself with shopping and affairs. It doesn't end well.

 

#10 - Middlemarch

George Eliot

Dorothea wastes her youth on a creepy, elderly scholar. Lydgate marries the beautiful but self-absorbed Rosamund. George Eliot's characters make terrible mistakes, but we never lose empathy with them.

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Top 10: most famous sculptures and statues

If you want to impress people at cocktail parties, it’s nice to have the worldly appearance of someone who knows a lot about the famous sculptures and statues of the world. It is with this in mind that we present our picks for the TOP 10 Sculptures of all time.

 

#10 - Savannah Bird Girl Statue

The Savannah Bird Girl statue was sculpted in 1936 by Sylvia Shaw Judson commissioned for a garden in Massachusetts. However, 4 bronze statues were cast from the mold and one ended up in Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah Georgia. For 48 years it remained relatively unknown piece of art. Then in 1994 the photo of The Bird Girl Statue appeared on the best selling novel, “Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil” by John Berendt. Taken by Jack Leigh, a respected Savannah photographer, the photo showed the statue placed against a background of trees covered in spanish moss and created the perfect mood for the story. In fact, one can speculate that the way that the girl is holding the bowls conveys a weighing of good and evil although it is doubtful that this was intended in the original sculpture.

Due to the popularity of the novel, the Bird Girl Statue had to be removed from the Bonaventure Cemetery. It can now be viewed at the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah.

Sylvia Shaw Judson, the artist who created Bird Girl was born in 1897 and grew up in Lake Forest, Ill. While her notoriety was primarily limited to the Chicago area, her work was exhibited in The Whitney Museum of Modern Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art before her death in 1978.

 

#9 – Hermes

While the sculpture Hermes with Dionysius may not be as well known as other famous statues, it is truly one of the greatest works of art that exists today. It is one of the only remaining masterpieces of the Ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles dating back to 343 BC. Found at Olympia, intact and on its base, it still resides at the Archaeological Museum at Olympia.

 

#8 - The Discus Thrower

 

 

#7  - Lady Justice Statue

#6 - The Kiss

#5 - Caesar Augustus

#4 - The Pieta

#3 - The Thinker Statue

#2 - The Venus de Milo

#1 - The Statue of David

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Top:10 Most Expensive Paintings Of All Time

 

#1 - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt ($135,000,000)

 

 

This record breaking sale was enabled by a court order by the Austrian government to return the painting to the Artist's rightful heir. The entire dispute lasted over a year and was necessary to return the painting that was looted by the Nazis during World War II.

Skillfully painted in 1907 by the art nouveau master Gustav Klimt, the painting was purchased by Ronald S. Lauder, the cosmetics heir, in 2006.

 

#2 - Garçon à la Pipe by Pablo Picasso ($104,100,000)

Created during the Rose Period, Garcon a la Pipe showcases Picasso's exceptional use of cheerful orange and pink palatte.
The oil on canvas painting, measuring 100 × 81.3 cm (slightly over 39 × 32 inches), displays a Parisian boy holding a pipe in his left hand.

The record price auction at the time on May 4, 2004 in Sotheby's was a bit of a surprise to the core art buyers, because it was painted in the style not usually associated with the pioneering Cubist artist.

 

#3 - Dora Maar with Cat by Pablo Picasso ($95,200,000)

 

Another enormous surprise followed in 2006, when this painting near doubled its inaccurate presale estimate and brought in new record $95,200,000 at auction at Sotheby's on May 3, 2006.

Painted in 1941, Picasso's controversial portrait (one of his last) is sometimes described as an unflattering depiction of his mistress, Dora Maar, who was an artist/photographer and mistress of Picasso whose relationship lasted ten years during the 1930s and 40s.

 

#4 - Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh ($82,500,000)

This painting by the Dutch Impressionist master Vincent van Gogh suddenly became world-famous when Japanese businessman Ryoei Saito paid $82.5 million for it at auction in Christie's, New York. Saito was so attached to the painting that he wanted it to be cremated with him when he died. Saito died in 1996 ... but the painting was saved.

Vincent van Gogh actually painted two versions of Dr Gachet's portrait. You can view the other version, with a slightly different color scheme, at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

 

#5 - Bal Au Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir ($78,000,000)

Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre was painted by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1876. On May 17, 1990, it was sold for $ 78,000,000 at Sotheby's in New York City to Ryoei Saito, who bought it together with the Portrait of Dr Gachet (see above).

 

#6 - Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens ($76,700,000)

This painting by Peter Paul Rubens, painted in 1611, is the only painting in this list which was not painted in the 19th or 20th century. It was sold to Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet for $ 76,700,000 at a 2002 Sotheby's auction.

 

#7 - Portrait de l'Artiste sans Barbe by Vincent van Gogh ($71,500,000)

Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe ("Self-portrait without beard") is one of many self-portraits by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. He painted this one in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France in September 1889. The painting is a oil painting on canvas and is 40 cm x 31 cm (16" x 13").

This is an uncommon painting since his other self-portraits show him with a beard. The self-portrait became one of the most expensive paintings of all time when it was sold for $71.5 million in 1998 in New York.

 

#8 - Rideau, Cruchon et Compotier by Paul Cézanne ($60,500,000)

This painting by Paul Cézanne, painted in ca. 1893-1894, sold for $60,500,000 at Sotheby's New York on May 10, 1999 to "The Whitneys". Whitney, born into one of America's wealthiest families, was a venture capitalist, publisher, Broadway show and Hollywood film producer, and philanthropist.

 

#9 - Femme aux Bras Croisés by Pablo Picasso ($55,000,000)

This work, painted in 1901, was a part of Picasso's famous Blue Period, a dark, sad time in the artist's life. The beautiful & various tones of blue are typical. The painting depicts a woman with her arms crossed staring at the endless nothing.

Femme aux Bras Croisés was sold for $55,000,000 November 8, 2000, at Christie's Rockefeller in New York City.

 

#10 - Irises by Vincent Van Gogh ($53,900,000)

Vincent van Gogh painted this at Saint Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France in 1889, only one year before his death. In 1987, it became the most expensive painting to date. It was sold for $ 54,000,000 to Alan Bond and later resold to the Getty Museum.

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Top 10: Underrated Predators

#10 – Dolphin

Using sonar location to find their prey, a dolphin pod will work cooperatively to herd fish into a tight ball before taking turns swooping through the mass to eat as many fish as possible. Some dolphin subspecies even drive fish into shallow water where they are unable to escape, and some will use their tails to stun their prey. These underrated predators should be acknowledged for their ability to work as a team and their devastatingly effective hunting methods.

 

#9 - Short-tailed shrew

Like many rodents, this shrew has to eat at least the equivalent of its own body weight every day due to its rapid metabolism. What makes this worthy of our list of underrated predators is the fact that, unlike most mammals, the short-tailed shrew is poisonous. Only four or five inches long, and weighing around half to one ounce, the neurotoxin they produce is powerful enough to subdue prey much larger than itself, such as frogs and mice. They’re armed with 32 razor-sharp teeth, noses that are filled with olfactory receptors that allow them to smell prey, and dense whiskers to aid in tactile detection. Rodents are usually seen as prey rather than predators, but this tiny animal works to redress that balance.

#8 - Harpy eagle

Amazingly, despite being the strongest eagle in the world, this is a bird far less famous than many of its cousins. This underrated predator grows to about three-and-a-half-feet tall, with a wingspan that's twice as long. The harpy eagle has talons that are up to five inches long, longer than the claws of a full-grown grizzly bear. It can lift prey up to three-quarters its own body weight, including monkeys, sloths and other tree-dwelling mammals, as well as other birds such as macaws. The harpy eagle benefits from excellent eyesight, being able to spot an inch-long object from distances greater than 200 yards.

#7 - Army ants

Most of us will have heard of these insects, but we probably don’t appreciate just how formidable they really are. There are several different species of army ant, but the ones from the Amazon are the most powerful. The soldier ants can grow to half an inch long, with powerful jaws half their length. They move as a single predatory force across the jungle floor, one million blind ants attacking anything unable to get out of their way, including insects, frogs, lizards and other animals vastly bigger than themselves, making tens of thousand of kills a day.  

#6 - Honey badger

With a name like this, you would be forgiven for thinking this is a fairly cute little animal. In reality, the honey badger is one of the most ferocious animals on the planet, and pound for pound it's probably the most fearless. Standing around a foot tall, the honey badger’s diet includes almost anything it can catch, including cobra, black mamba, and even jackals and small crocodiles. It has extremely sharp teeth, and fore claws that are up to two inches long, helping make it an adept climber and allowing it to raid beehives for the nutritious larvae inside. This underrated predator is so fearless that it will continue eating while being attacked by a swarm of angry African bees.

#5 – Chameleon

When people think of predatory reptiles, thoughts inevitably turn to crocodiles, Komodo dragons and monitor lizards, but few would credit the chameleon for its deadly hunting prowess. A highly specialized group of lizards, these underrated predators benefit from stereoscopic eyes that enable them to see a full 360 degrees and to focus on two different points at once. They can even see ultraviolet light. Once they’ve located their prey, their tongue (three times their own body length) extends to hit its prey in about 30 thousandths of a second, stunning the insect and pulling it back to be crushed by the chameleon’s jaws.   

#4 - White-mustached Portia

No list of predators would be complete without an arachnid, and this little spider gets our vote. This spider is small, about the size of a thumbnail, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in intelligence. Believed by scientists to be the most intelligent spider in the world, this underrated predator hunts other spiders and actually works out a strategy for attacking its prey. By arachnid standards it has exceptional eyesight, and it will use trial-and-error tactics to see how to attack a spider it has never encountered before.

 

#3 - African hunting dog

Much less famous than wolves and other canine predators, the African hunting dog is a remarkable animal, being successful in as much as 94% of its hunts. They hunt in large packs of up to 40 animals, relentlessly pursuing and ultimately exhausting their prey before they all move in for the kill. Their numbers allow them to work as a relay team, taking turns chasing their prey before dropping back and allowing another dog to do the work. Perhaps even more remarkable is that  these underrated predators will return to feed injured or sick pack members, displaying a tender social side as well as a relentless hunting instinct.

#2 - Fossa

Of all the animals on this list, we know the least about the fossa. A predatory mammal unique to Madagascar, an adult is about two-and-a-half-feet long with a tail of similar length. This helps them move with agility through the trees, allowing them to catch lemurs and other animals. Extremely strong for its size, the fossa is also an aggressive hunter, drawing comparisons with mongoose for its bravery. They seem to hunt at all times of the day, which suggests they are also opportunistic predators, although their actual diet remains shrouded in mystery. Given that it weighs less than a cocker spaniel, its role as top predator on Madagascar coupled with its low profile means it ranks as one of the most underrated predators in the world.      

#1 - Domestic cat

We are all aware of the incredible diversity and hunting abilities of wild cat species, from the formidable tiger to the streamlined cheetah. But no wild cat is on record as being responsible for wiping out at least six entire species. The domestic cat is seen as a docile and gentle creature, but in the right environment it's more lethal than its wild counterparts, with great eyesight, hearing, agility, and razor-sharp claws.  No other animal has had such a devastating impact on the natural world as this top underrated predator.

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