Khalid al-Assad lost his life protecting the history and culture of his country. This 83-year-old scholar was retired, but still an active expert at the museum that he used to run in Palmyra, Syria. On July 13th, 2016, ISIS demanded he tell them where all the cultural treasures were hidden. Fearing that ISIS would destroy, steal or sell them, al-Assad refused to help them. A month later he was dead. An acquaintance, Abu Ahmad, said, “He knew they would kill him, but he said, ‘I’m not going to leave the city. I’m staying.’”
Space Junk
Humans are natural travelers. We evolved into modern humans almost 200,000 years ago. In the last 50,000 years we have traveled across the earth and now live almost everywhere except for Antarctica. If environmental problems on earth continue to increase, one day we may need to find a new home in space. Image by: NASA