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Humans existed on Earth for many thousands of years before they knew what their home planet looked like from space. Even in the early years of the space program, photographing the planet was an afterthought, as the primary mission was just to get astronauts into orbit and bring them back alive. In the half century since then, humans have made up for lost time, capturing more than 1 million images of the Earth as seen from space. Here are 10 of the most historic and/or unusual photos and videos from that vast collection.

The day the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its inaugural class for 1986, music fans started complaining — “Hey, they picked Fats Domino, why did they leave out B.B. King?” Twenty-five years later, controversy resurfaces every time the hall of fame announces its new class of inductees. The hall will announce its 2012 inductees in a few weeks, and once again, many music fans will complain that their favorite group has been overlooked. These fans look at some of the musicians who are already in the hall of fame, and think, “You can’t be serious.” Here are 10 groups that deserve a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, based on several factors, including their influence, popularity and critical acclaim. Finally, there’s the ultimate litmus test — are they more talented and deserving of a spot than artists already in the hall?

As a personal trainer, a common excuse I hear from people for not exercising is that they don’t have enough time. It sometimes seems there aren’t enough hours in the day, with schedules divided between family time, work and other activities. For those with not enough hours in the day, these five tips will help you maximize your time at the gym.

‘‘Where do you see yourself in five years?” “What are your greatest strengths?” These are some routine interview questions most job seekers can anticipate and prepare for in advance. But if an interviewer starts probing into someone’s personal life by inquiring about marital status, dependents, age, national origin or religion, they are treading dangerous ground. It is illegal for a prospective employer to make hiring decisions based on personal details that are not directly job-related. The motivation behind illegal questioning varies. Some interviewers are ill trained and simply unaware of the law, while others may want to subtly (or not so subtly) weed out candidates who could become a financial burden, such as a pregnant woman needing maternity leave. Federal, state and local laws prohibit certain interview questions and job applicants are not obligated to answer them. Here are 10 illegal job interview questions, and what to do if you encounter one (or more) on a job interview.

As the world speculates about the future of post-Gaddafi Libya, it’s hard to believe any successive regime or leader could harm the country more than the man who for four decades unleashed both bloody social experiments on his own people and sponsored notorious terrorist attacks abroad. But we need only look to history to find that ousting the “bad guy” can have the unintended result of elevating to power a far worse monster. Below are five dark chapters in modern history where regime changes, instead of fostering hope and reform, sparked chaos in their home countries and even entire regions for many years to come.

On Nov. 4, 2011, a crew of six “astronauts” emerged from 17-plus months of isolation from the outside world in the Mars 500 project in Russia, which simulated a roundtrip mission to Mars. The study was primarily a biological/psychological one, devoted to studying the effects such a long-term confinement would have on human physiology during a long space mission. If that sounds strange, it’s only one of thousands of strange research projects or experiments that have been conducted or are currently underway in the world of science. Several of these projects make us first stop and wonder, “Why?” Then they make us think.

A popular email that’s made the rounds in recent years details the coincidences between the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy (Lincoln was shot while sitting in Ford’s Theater; Kennedy was sitting in a Ford limousine, etc.). There are other famous events and individuals in U.S. history that bear strong coincidences, or are full of irony. With apologies to English professors who would surely point out the differences between coincidence and irony, sometimes the line between the two concepts can become blurred, as we can see in some of the following incidents.

One of the biggest questions in modern science is whether or not we’re alone in the universe. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) crosses scientific disciplines and gets at the heart of such philosophical questions as why we’re here and what it means to be human. A serious search for signals from other civilizations began in 1960 with Project Ozma. Researcher Frank Drake later devised the Drake equation to quantify how many technologically advanced civilizations might exist in our galaxy. As the search for extraterrestrial life continues, a nagging question remains: where is everyone? In 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi outlined this dilemma in what’s become known as the Fermi paradox. In essence, if life is theoretically so common in our galaxy, then why have we not found evidence? Here are the top themes on why we haven’t found E.T.

War movies have always been a controversial subject in Hollywood, with many asking the question: do such movies glorify violence and death? Some filmmakers have tried to answer this by making their war movies gritty and horrible, trying to accurately portray the violence and mayhem on film. But realistic war movies do not necessarily send an anti-war message, even if that is the filmmaker’s intent. The terrible spectacle that is war can be entertaining and exciting even when realistically depicted on the big screen.

Fairy-tale castles in Bolzano, Italy, and along the German Romantic Road might be what most package tourists expect, but many travelers don’t realize the Middle East can hold its own when it comes to entertaining castle fans. That’s because many of the ancient Crusader castles built during the battles for control of the Holy Land are still standing throughout the region. Many are remarkably well preserved. Add to that the fact that many of them are situated in extremely picturesque locations in a part of the world considered by many to be sacred, and it’s easy to see why they’re very popular with tourists. Here are a handful of great structures to see when touring the Middle East.