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Assassinations are a terrible tragedy on several different levels. There’s the sudden loss of life, always regrettable, particularly so when it happens in violent fashion. There’s a sense of injustice, at how one rogue, usually deranged individual can unfairly impose his will on millions of people. In retrospect, there’s always the sense of “What if?” If Abraham Lincoln had lived, would the nation’s Civil War wounds have healed faster? Did John F. Kennedy’s assassination set the stage for the social upheaval in the U.S. in the late 1960s?

Four sitting U.S. Presidents have been assassinated while in office: Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901) and Kennedy (1963). But there have been more than a dozen failed assassination attempts of either sitting or past United States presidents. Here are five of the strangest attempts.

History is full of some very bad characters that have made a mark on the world. Names like Adolf Hitler, Genghis Kahn and Pol Pot come to mind. These are not people most of us would want to do business with and yet, there have been cases where countries, including the United States, have had relationships with some unsavory and even evil people when it served larger national interests. Some would call this a cynical abandonment of higher values, but geopolitics and national security can be dirty, vicious exercises in choosing bad options over still worse ones.

You know the definition of “hardcore” in the endurance racing world has changed when No. 10 on the list is a comparatively “easy” marathon run, completed by some of the slower contenders, in five and a half hours — this following a 112-mile bike ride and 2.4-mile swim in choppy ocean waters. But consider the extreme competition on this list. In one race, you may find yourself hauling 32 pounds of pennies through a cold, rainy Vermont backwoods at 4 a.m. while memorizing Greek text. In another, you’ll run two marathons each day for 50 consecutive days, around the same course, over and over and over again. Given the choice, I’ll gladly pick the Ironman World Championship winding through scenic Kailua-Kona, Hawaii any day.

Even though the Apple Macintosh computer and the Windows-based PC are getting closer together in the way they work, the age-old argument remains: Which is better? The answer to that depends on which one you love, but in reality, the Mac is better in every way. If you already are shaking your head at this, then you have not yet seen the light and still trudge along in the Dark Age of the PC. The answer is obvious, though, every time you have to do five steps on a PC when one would do it on the Mac. It’s time to grow up, shed the shackles of Windows and come over to the right side of the Force. There are many, many more reasons than just five why Macs are better, but here’s a start.

The Southeastern United States covers a wide area ranging from the beautiful Appalachian Mountains to the clear-blue waters of southern Florida. There’s no shortage of tourist attractions in the region, including a number of fascinating alternatives to the more mainstream sites. Here are the five most unusual tourist attractions located in the Southeastern U.S.

When we take a multivitamin in the morning we tend to believe we are helping our body. In most cases, vitamins and supplements greatly improve our health, nutrition, energy level, immune response, and general well being. However, using supplements requires diligence. Having too little or too much of a substance in our bodies can cause serious health risks. Here are five potential problems to be aware of when using supplements.

Accidents happen — and they also kill enough people to rank as the No. 1 cause of death for those ages 1 to 42, according to the National Safety Council. Accidents are the fifth-leading cause of death across all age groups, topped only by a spate of illnesses that include heart disease and cancer. And it’s not the heavy-machinery operators, high-rise window washers or electricians who most frequently succumb to fatal accidents. The vast majority of accidental deaths happen at home or in the community — not at work — with the top five causes often stemming from routine activities.

The second decade of the 21st century brings some imposing challenges for NASA. The space shuttle program has ended, flagship programs such as the Hubble Space Telescope are aging and in their final years, and budgets have flat-lined. Manned spaceflight will continue in low Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station, but in the short term United States astronauts will have to rely on the Russians for a ride up.

Trends are toward commercial companies such as ULA and Space-X taking over low-Earth orbital missions, but a steep learning curve exists for these industries. It remains to be seen how interested these entities will be in exploration unless a tangible short-term benefit exists. That said, here are the top five challenges facing NASA today.

Slavery and human trafficking are industries that have existed for eons and continue to affect millions of people in virtually every country worldwide. It is hard to believe that the purchase and sale of human beings still thrives in the 21st century, but it remains a lucrative business, raking in billions of dollars in revenue each year.  Here are 10 facts about human trafficking and modern slavery.

Tom Hanks is a rarity. Movie stars today don't achieve, and then maintain, his level of fame for almost 30 years. There are too many movies these days, too many movie stars, and too many new ways for us to spend our leisure time. Celebrity has become a more diffuse phenomenon. So how has Hanks' profile remained so large for so long?