In Summer, the non-stop sunlight fires an unrelenting thaw, transforming much of the polar regions into fertile land and open sea, while immense masses of melted sweet water pour into the oceans. Many species profit from the relatively benign conditions to mate, breed and raise their young. However for some species, such as ice-bears, the lack of ice also causes major troubles in foraging and just moving around.

The polar struggle to survive is even harder in winter, missing a single rare prey can be lethal. Well-adapted anatomy is crucial, but also tricks such as isolation with snow or preys' fur. The Antarctic is nearly deserted, except for seals and emperor penguins, even the slightly milder Artic is left by most species, failing to do so is a gamble which can exterminate entire populations.

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Evolution's main invention was sexual reproduction, to create a sophisticated, dynamic genes pool. It requires partner selection, for which species use endlessly varied methods. Most have mating criteria to indicate the fittest males, such as anatomic features, dancing and other rituals, nest building or courting gifts. Some raise the stakes by giving the top male exclusivity in a harem and/or make mating rights with several females dependent on fights between rival males. Like in human cultures, there exit form of monogamy, polygamy and even infidelity.

Once their young are born or hatched, the way species handle their offspring varies greatly. In many cases the building and position of the nest is crucial. For some parents the effort is fatal, which may lead to them being eaten. Others may join in with sibling-cannibalism among numerous offspring. The parental instinct is strong, sometimes even overcomes the hunting instinct, but just that makes vulnerable to cuckoo practices. Play is part of the learning process, which usually includes many predatory and other dangers.

The Prussian natural scientist Alfred Wegener is the author of geology's crucial continental drift theory. Determined to prove it himself, he mounted expeditions to Greenland, which also started long-term climatic data collection, crucial for modern greenhouse research. Despite elaborate, clever preparation, equipment and collaboration with the native Inuit, the adventure was to end in fatal disaster for several men, including himself, due to the unforgiving arctic winter.

Penniless, German-law-trained Swiss adventurer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt convinced the British Royal Navy's cover African Association to engage him as undercover spy to reattempt the search for the Niger, which killed officer Mungo Park three years earlier. He started his ultimate voyage in 1816 in Cairo as Indian Muslin trader sheik Ibrahim Ibn-Abdullah, after ample training in Cambridge and Aleppo. Ignorance still nearly gets him killed, but he soldiers on and rediscovers the fabulous Nabathaean capital Petra, thanks to Bedouin guides, in 1812. Finally he can join a ...

The continental drift and long isolation followed by immigration waves made Australian wildlife even more unique then its environment diverse and mainly harsh, mostly dry, resulting in though species, including a record spectrum of poisonous animals. Yet water is abundant in some places, sometimes do to huge underground storage or dependent on the season, with spectacular impact on wildlife.

Traditionally, American Indians are believed to have arrived by frozen land bridge from Siberia, but recent finds show people arrived millennia earlier, apparently by sea from Asia. Old sedentary cultures succeeded in South and Central America, based on potatoes (Inca empire) viz. corn (Aztec and Mayans), but their North American counterparts had to abandon their cities after exhausting natural resources, notably wood. The European arrival was fatal for the nomad cultures too, seizing land and killing their staple food, the buffalo, while immigrants and home countries...

Time is relative, not just in theory but also in determining how creatures' different visual experiences determine their perception of and functioning in earthly reality. In nature, fast movements are often only fully visible at delayed speed with modern camera equipment. Some animals' eyes are very different from ours. Even some human movements are too fast for normal visual observation.

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Modern mountain rescue procedures owe a lot to an Interbellum incident. A US military airplane got lost in the Alps. Thesurvivors got desperate while their mates searched the French Alps, ignoring wise advice from the Swiss, who correctly deducted it had to be on their territory.

The Titanic, built in Belfast, was its ages greatest passenger ship, a pinnacle of luxury and performance. Even in third class, conditions seemed exceptionally good. However the design lacked safety precautions in case of a serious clash. It remains unclear how and why ice warnings were ignored. An iceberg instantly doomed it to sink, the insufficient number of lifeboats was worsened by hasty leaving. Third class, being lowest and thus furthest from the boats, had virtually no survival chance. Further errors and disastrous communication kept the drama going long ...

Frederic the Great was completely different from his father, petty 'sergeant-king' William Frederic, who tried cruelly but in vain to sabotage his heir's intellectual and cosmopolitan interests. The conflict even cost Frederic's youth friend his life after a failed escape to England. As king, Frederic turned 'boorish capital' Berlin into Prussia's counterpart to Versailles, yet proved a great but pragmatic reformer and conqueror, but his incurable risk-taking came at a terrible price again.

In Summer, the non-stop sunlight fires an unrelenting thaw, transforming much of the polar regions into fertile land and open sea, while immense masses of melted sweet water pour into the oceans. Many species profit from the relatively benign conditions to mate, breed and raise their young. However for some species, such as ice-bears, the lack of ice also causes major troubles in foraging and just moving around.

A female reporter 'studied' the legend of a female "popess" Johanna. Feeble indications that one pope John's short pontificate during the poorly documented age of anti-popes was a female only found out and stoned when pregnant, are consistently overruled by church historians. Stiil, the existence of the rumors and some's eagerness to take them serious suggests things about the medieval and present concerns about the Catholic church as an exclusively male bastion.

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