A prototype battery-powered plane, called Greased Lightning or GL-10 is pictured flying at NASA's Langley Research Center in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters May 1, 2015. The plane, which has 10 engines and can take off like a helicopter and fly efficiently like an aircraft, is currently in the design and testing phase. (Photo by Reuters/NASA)

In this November 17, 2014 photo, Pancho, a domesticated huitia, confronts a camera, in Bainoa, Cuba. With their rope-like, dark tails, long front teeth, and whiskers that appear to be vibrating, huitias look like giant rats. They measure nearly a foot long (about 30 centimeters), with the largest ones weighing in bigger than a small dog. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

Women wearing flower and sprout-like hairpins walk past an advertisement board in Beijing, China, September 25, 2015. Wearing antenna styled hairpins in the shape of various flowers and plants at scenic spots has become a new trend in Beijing. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A participant of the “Zombie Takeover of Coney Island” acts like a zombie as he walks along Surf Avenue in Coney Island in the Brooklyn borough of New York, July 2, 2014. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

I would like to tell you why many artists, who like me, have painted portraits and landscapes in oils on canvas, worked with acrylics, watercolors, and pen and ink drawings, have turned to the art of gourd carving.

People inspect hookahs shaped like rifles on display for sale in a souk at the port city of Sidon, southern Lebanon, December 23, 2015. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Reuters)

“Nicholas II (Russian: Николай II, Николай Александрович Романов, tr. Nikolay II, Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov) (18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church. Nicholas II, his wife, his son, his four daughters, the family's medical doctor, the Tsar's valet, the Empress' lady-in-waiting and the family's cook were murdered in the same room by the Bolsheviks on the night of 16/17 July 1918”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Tsar Nicholas II (1868–1918) with his wife. (Photo by W. & D. Downey/Getty Images). Circa 1900