Stardust and Bruno Tonioli at “Britain's Got Talent” TV Show, Series 17, Semi-Final 1, Episode 9 in London, UK on May 27, 2024. (Photo by Dymond/Thames/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

The Sunda lemur uses a special membrane to “fly” between trees while on the lookout for food in Java, Indonesia in the last decade of June 2024. (Photo by Dzulfikri/Solent News)

A “Rhino Beetle” (Oryctes nasicornis) is seen in Edremit, Van, Turkiye on August 2, 2024. Named “Rhino Beetle” due to the horn on its head, this beetle is commonly found in moist areas across Europe and Turkiye. (Photo by Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Madina Zhanuzakova wears Simon Rocha, Shushi Thong, Moschino and Miu Miu to the Coach show during New York Fashion Week (NYFW) in New York, New York on September 9, 2024. (Photo by Sara Konradi for The Washington Post)

“The Greek Civil War was fought from 1945 to 1949 between the Greek governmental army, backed by the United Kingdom and United States, and the Democratic Army of Greece (ΔΣΕ) (Greek initials DSE), the military branch of the Greek Communist Party (KKE), backed by Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania. It was the result of a highly polarized struggle between leftists and rightists which started in 1943 and targeted the power vacuum that the German-Italian occupation during World War II had created. One of the first conflicts of the Cold War, according to some analysts it represents the first example of a postwar Western interference in the internal politics of a foreign country, and for others, marked the first serious test of the theory of the so-called Churchill-Stalin percentages agreement. The first signs of the civil war occurred in 1942–1944, during the Occupation”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A Greek commando soldier, wearing a fur-collared jacket supplied by the Americans, waits for a guerrilla target to emerge during the Greek Civil War. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Getty Images). 22nd May 1948

Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.

During a jungle survival program February 20, 2013 taught by Royal Thai Special Forces in Sannapit, Thailand, U.S. Marines learned to catch cobras and drink their fresh blood, not to mention eat forest insects and pull the heads off of chicken. The training was part of Operation Cobra Gold 13, the 32nd edition of international military exercises hosted by the Thai. According to a U.S. Marines press release, Cobra Gold is the largest exercise of its kind in Asia and incorporates troops from five other nations in addition to the U.S. and Thailand. The Daily Mail reports that the Marines were invited to experience the local custom of drinking cobra blood after being taught to catch and kill cobras in the wild. As CNN notes, Cobra blood is believed to be a panacea and aphrodiasic in parts of Southeast Asia. In Jakarta, vendors can earn over $100 a night selling shots of cobra blood mixed with liquor. (Photo by Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP Photo)

Women perform a pole dancing routine during the national day celebration of “Urban Pole” dance along a street in Monterrey, Mexico, on June 9, 2013. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)