republished

  • Barbed Wire’s Dark, Deadly History

    Barbed Wire’s Dark, Deadly History

    In the mid 1800s, not many (non-native) Americans had ever been west of the Mississippi. When Frederick Law Olmstead visited the west in the 1850s, he remarked that the plains looked like a sea of grasses that moved “in swells after a great storm.” Massive herds of buffalo wandered the plains. Cowboys shepherded cattle across…


  • Can You Shoot A Gun In Space? 

    Can You Shoot A Gun In Space? 

    Space is full of potential dangers — rogue comets, Martians, bags full of astronaut poop, you name it. But if it really came down to it, and you did have to defend yourself against an interstellar attacker, would a traditional gun actually be able to do the trick?