The USSR or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also called the Soviet union, emerged from the Russian Empire in 1922 after the revolution of 1917 and Russian civil war of 1918-1921. The USSR was a union of several Soviet republics that from 1945 to 1991 were involved in what has been called The Cold War with the United States, another super-power during these years.
In 1991, despite several years of Perestroika (restructuring) and a policy of Glastnost (transparency) by Mikhail Gorbachev the USSR disolved, bringing an end to the cold war at the same time. The following 45 historical pictures and photographs were mostly taken during the 1970’s and are available under a creative commons license from Pixdaus. With the collapse came abolishment of censorship, total freedom of expression and freedom to criticise the government...

Johan Huibers is the 50-year-old builder of the Dutch ark. A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine. Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and with occasional help from his son Roy. On the uncovered top deck is a petting zoo, with baby lambs and chickens, and goats, and one camel. The ark is one-fifth the size of the Biblical original. Visitors on the first day were stunned. Huibers said he hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands , where church going has fallen dramatically in the past 50 years...

This is a collection of most barbaric medieval instruments of torture that we found in St. Petersburg museum. The idea of mechanized torture was born in Germany and its seams that the Nuremberg maiden was the first. It got its name because of the external similarities with the Bavarian woman, but also because first prototype was created and used in a secret dungeon at Nuremberg. The accused was placed in the sarcophagus where the body suffers injury from sharp spines that where located inside but located so that no vital organs to bee hurt, for a long time agony. Iron maiden was the punishment in special for fraud and they have to stay inside for three days...

Luigi Colani has designed many amazing things. Here you can see some of the trucks he has come up with and how interesting they look. These trucks are actually in use today and were actually originally designed in the 1980’s. Changes have been made to them through the years to what you see today...

Rip-offs, errors and just plain stupidity, these Photoshop fails have it all. What’s worse is that they didn’t even try!
The paparazzi aside, the popular press has gone down hill. So has the quality of work being faked by the PhotoShop moron. Anyone with a computer and a card reader or scanner can make whatever they like. The only problem is, they are making whatever they like and avoiding the use of common sense. Here are some examples of so strange PhotoShop fails...