Visitors take photos of the fluorescent sea in the waters of Paishi Village, Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China, May 24, 2020, from the night of May 24 to the early morning of May 25, 2020. The fluorescent sea in dalian is caused by noctilucent algae in the sea water. (Photo by Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

A woman pushes a cart during a protest against racial inequality and call for defunding of Seattle police, in Seattle downtown, Washington, U.S. June 14, 2020. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Parade-goers walk in the annual West Indian Day Parade on September 02, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The annual celebration of Caribbean culture is one of the largest of its kind and features dozens of floats and costumed participants that make their way down Flatbush Avenue. (Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images)

Blaze, 8, from Swindon, is covered from head to toe as he plays in the mud at Weston-super-Mare beach on August 4, 2019, as the tide recedes and the huge expanse of mud flats cover the beach where holidaymakers enjoy splashing around. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)

A model presents a creation by Colombian brand Elena Plus Clothing at Colombiamoda during Medellin's fashion week in Itagui municipality near Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia, on July 24, 2017. Colombiamoda will take place between the 24th and 27th of July. (Photo by Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP Photo)

Do you think that history is a science? Well, not exactly. First, and foremost, history is the state's “legend of wars”, it’s official regalia. Of course, public historians are not interested in scientific truth – quite the opposite. In this respect, any attempt to present a state’s history as altruistic and benevolent as possible is welcomed and encouraged – as opposed to any revisionism attempts that may be more accurate. In this matter, Chinese have surpassed us all – they revised in highly creative manner (but rather shamelessly) the technology already invented by Europeans, a process that resulted in oldest state on the planet. Here is an interesting paradox: ask any sinologist about the Middle Kingdom during second century B.C., and he will describe it to you in such a vivid manner as if he has been living there all his life – but as soon as you will ask him to describe Chinese history in the 19-20th centuries… let's say, his eagerness will be greatly diminished. However, we will discuss China in a different article, and in the meantime we will try to understand how exactly historic “legend of wars” is formed and functions – based on a specific and well-known example. A great example is Ferdinand Magellan's first voyage around the world.

Tao Xiangli gets out of his homemade submarine after operating it in a lake on the outskirts of Beijing September 3, 2009. Amateur inventor Tao, 34, made a fully functional submarine, which has a periscope, depth control tanks, electric motors, manometer, and two propellers, from old oil barrels and tools which he bought at a second-hand market. He took 2 years to invent and test the submarine which costs 30,000 yuan ($4,385). (Photo by Christina Hu/Reuters)

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)