Brick-carving featuring Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) maids performing musical instruments is seen at the Chinese Music History Museum in Xian University of Architecture and Technology on September 27, 2008 in Xian of Shaanxi Province, China. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Somalis remove the body of a man killed in a blast in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia Saturday, October 14, 2017. A huge explosion from a truck bomb has killed at least 20 people in Somalia's capital, police said Saturday, as shaken residents called it the most powerful blast they'd heard in years. (Photo by Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP Photo)

Photographer David Emitt Adams creates tintypes on discarded cans he collects from the Sonoran Desert. In his artist statement, Adams says that some are more than four decades old, which have earned a deep reddish-brown, rusty coloration. (Photo by David Emitt Adams)

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.

Yoandri Hernandez Garrido, 37, proudly displays his 12 fingers in Baracoa, Guantanamo province, Cuba. His condition, known as polydactyly, is relatively common, but it's rare for extra digits to be so perfect.

Polydactyly or polydactylism (from Ancient Greek πολύς (polus) "many" + δάκτυλος (daktulos) "finger"), also known as hyperdactyly, is a congenital physical anomaly in humans, dogs, and cats having supernumerary fingers or toes. Polydactyly is the opposite of oligodactyly (fewer fingers or toes).

The #8 DP Starworks Motorsports Ford Rley driven by Enzo Potolicchio, Ryan Dalziel, Alex Popow, Lucas Luhr and Allan McNish runs off the track during the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway on January 28, 2012 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by John Harrelson/Getty Images)

This thing has 24 cylinders, 1,704 cubic inches, 12 GMC superchargers (blowers), 8 nitrous bottles and it runs! Why build such a beast? “Because I can,” Harrah says. There’s no other reason to take a 24V71 and build an intake manifold that weighs 1,000 pounds and mount eight 6-71 superchargers on top of four others. This is a V24 Detroit Diesel (normally used to power ships) which is two V12 Detroits joined together nose to nose with splined cranks.

A Muslim Shi'ite boy carries a toy gun while standing next to a picture of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as he takes part in a march organised by Hezbollah during a re-enactment of the battle of Kerbala during a mourning process, ahead of the day of Ashura, in Saksakieh village, southern Lebanon, October 18, 2015. Ashoura, the most important day in the Shi'ite calendar, commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, in the 7th century battle of Kerbala. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Reuters)