If you're one of the 6.6 million people who watch "Game Of Thrones" or have bought any of the 24 million copies of "A Song Of Ice and Fire" that are in print, you've spent hours inside the mind of George R.R. Martin, the wordsmith who composes the thousand-page tomes of swords, sex, and sorcery. 

The author has his own productivity magic: a vintage word processor. 

"I have a secret weapon," he told late-night host Conan O'Brien. "I use WordStar 4.0 as my word processor." 

It's part of a two-machine setup. He has a modern computer to browse the Internet, get his email, and do his taxes. Then he has a DOS machine running WordStar, which was the top of the word-processing world when it debuted back in 1983. 

On his show, O'Brien asked his guest why he still uses the 31-year-old program. 

"I actually like it," Martin replied. "It does everything I want a word-processing program to do, and it doesn't do anything else."

The studio audience, of course, howled. 

But the joke's on them. 

In a post on his LiveJournal blog from 2011, Martin unpacked why he swears by the WordStar: 

"So here's the thing. I am a dinosaur, as all my friends will tell you. A man of the 20th century, not the 21st. Yes, I have been using a computer for twenty years now, but while I cruise this interwebby thing with a PC and Windows, I still do all my writing on an old DOS machine running WordStar 4.0, the Duesenberg of word processing software (very old, but unsurpassed)."

A Duesenberg, if you don't know, is a swank luxury car that started rolling out in 1913. When your buddy says that Saturday night was a doozy, she's unknowingly referencing the best-in-class automobile. If you were to drive a Duesenberg today, you'd be wowed by how it combines the "mechanical precision of a Rolls-Royce and the amazing acceleration and blinding speed of a Bugatti," a few of the reasons a 1935 model sold for $4.5 million last year. 

The doozy isn't obsolete; it's amazing.

That's the thing about technology.

As University of Maryland media archeology scholar Matthew Kirschenbaum argues, we've been conditioned to think that any piece of tech that hasn't been released in the last six hours is defunct, passe, and obsolete. So anyone who uses WordStar in 2014 has to be a Luddite or, he says, "a curmudgeonly author of high fantasy whose success allows you to indulge your eccentricities," as you might take Martin to be.

But the WordStar might be a better word-processing product than whatever version of Microsoft Word you grapple with every day, with its templates and crashes and animated paperclips. After all, writers like Michael Chabon, Ralph Ellison, William F. Buckley, and Anne Rice all started their scribing on the WordStar. 

As Kirschenbaum wrote in a blog post, WordStar is both an oldie and a goodie: 

"WordStar is no toy or half-baked bit of code: on the contrary, it was a triumph of both software engineering and what we would nowadays call user-centered design. With features ranging from automatic word-wrap and full margin justification to mail merge and context-sensitive help, it was justifiably advertised as early as 1978 as a What You See Is What You Get word processor, a marketing claim that would be echoed by Microsoft when Word was launched in 1983.

"WordStar's real virtues, though, are not captured by its feature list alone. As Ralph Ellison scholar Adam Bradley observes in his work on Ellison’s use of the program, 'WordStar's interface is modelled on the longhand method of composition rather than on the typewriter.' ...

"The upshot is that users need never lift hands from keyboard to navigate their document, thus permitting a freedom and facility of movement that is an order of magnitude more efficient than the pointing and clicking and scrolling and dragging we associate with running a mouse around a (graphic user interface)." 

Startups have tried to recapture the writerly simplicity of an interface like WordStar. Like Slate says, lots of writers rely on minimalist word processors like WriteRoom and Byword to type without the Internet's distraction or use an app like Freedom or RescueTime to prevent from getting lost in multi-tabbed tangents. 

So while Word is a case study in bloated software, WordStar — which you can use a web version of here  — is a study in computing efficiency. 

Martin, for one, doesn't need all the "features" that crowd into Microsoft Word. "I don't want any help," the author says. "I hate some of these modern systems where you type a lower-case letter and it becomes a capital. I don't want a capital; if I wanted a capital, I would have typed a capital. I know how to work the shift key." 

SEE ALSO: 'Game Of Thrones' Creator George R.R. Martin Shares His Creative Process

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Warren G. Harding, 29th president of the United States, has been caught in a nearly century-old extramarital affair in which he code-named his penis "Jerry."

The affair came to light through a string of explicit letters published Monday by The New York Times. The correspondence, which was exchanged between Harding and his mistress, Carrie Fulton Phillips, dates from 1910 to 1920. 

Harding's affair occurred during his tenure both as lieutenant governor of Ohio and as U.S. senator for Ohio. The letters stopped just before Harding assumed the presidency in 1921.

There are over 100 letters which document Harding's love for, and, more often, his sexual fantasies toward Phillips. 

In one letter, dated to March 12, 1915, Harding refers to the stealthily coded "Jerry", writing:

'Jerry — you recall Jerry...— came in while I was pondering your notes in glad reflection, and we talked about it...He told me to say that you are the best and darlingest in the world, and if he could have but one wish, it would be to be held in your darling embrace and be thrilled by your pink lips that convey the surpassing rapture of human touch and the unspeakable joy of love’s surpassing embrace.'

Another letter from Sept. 15, 1913, described Harding's ardent longing to be reunited with his lover.

'Honestly, I hurt with the insatiate longing, until I feel that there will never be any relief until I take a long, deep, wild draught on your lips and then bury my face on your pillowing breasts. Oh, Carrie!...Wouldn’t you like to get sopping wet out on Superior — not the lake — for the joy of fevered fondling and melting kisses? Wouldn’t you like to make the suspected occupant of the next room jealous of the joys he could not know, as we did in morning communion at Richmond?'

On Aug. 20, 1918, Harding invited Phillips to a not-so-subtle gathering.

In 1964, historian Francis Russell obtained and attempted to publish the letters. However, Russell was quickly thwarted by the Harding family, who sued to keep them private.

The Times reports that "to the dismay of many historians, a settlement was reached in which the Harding family, who owned the copyright to the letters, agreed to donate them to the Library of Congress in return for a guarantee they remain sealed for 50 years."

The seal, though, is almost up. On July 29, the Library of Congress will make the letters fully accessible to the public. 

SEE ALSO: POLL: Americans Are Pretty Cool With Politicians Cheating On Their Spouses As Long As It's Not With A Prostitute

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The newly opened Grand Banks isn't your average oyster bar.

For starters, the restaurant — the latest from Diner and Marlow & Sons cofounder Mark Firth— plans to sail south during the winter, according to The New York Times.

Moored at Pier 25 in Tribeca, Grand Banks is built into the historic F/V Sherman Zwicker, a schooner that launched in 1942, fished the North Atlantic, and sailed to South America to trade goods.

Now, it serves delicious oysters, cocktails, and beer, and is already wildly popular since it opened in June. We went aboard to check it out.

Grand Banks is anchored in the Hudson River, at the end of Pier 25 in Tribeca. The ship is 142 feet long, making it the largest wooden vessel in New York City and one of the largest on the East Coast.

The ship has great views of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, as well as New Jersey (if you're into that type of thing).

You'll also get a prime view of the Freedom Tower.

Some of facts of history, science, geography, and math are so crazy that they sound bogus — but they’re actually completely true.

In a recent Quora thread, a user asked, “What are some of the most mind-blowing facts that sound like ‘BS,’ but are actually true?” 

Below are some of our (verified) favorites, complete with explanations and source materials.

1. A Banyan Tree near Kolkata, India is bigger than the average Walmart.-Submitted by Avirup Maukherjee

The 250-year-old Great Banyan tree has aerial roots that cover 3.5 square acres of land, which equals roughly 156,000 square feet, or 14,400 square meters. 

Compare that to data from the most recent unit count and square footage report from Wal-Mart, which says that the average store size (that's not a Supercenter) is just under 105,000 square feet or 9,750 square meters.

2. The city of Chicago was raised by over a foot during the 1850s and ’60s without disrupting daily life. -Submitted by Arun Shroff

Actually, it was more like 10 feet in some parts of the city. Chicago had a serious mud problem in the middle of the 19th century. Because of its proximity to a lake shore marsh, roads and sidewalks were submerged in mud, spreading illnesses like typhoid fever, dysentery, and even a deadly outbreak of cholera.

After a few failed attempts at a solution, the newly created Chicago Board of Sewerage Commissioners came up with a plan in 1855. They hired engineer E. Chesbrough of Boston, who recommended storm-sewers, but said this would require increasing the level of the city.

After deliberation, the board decided to lift the streets, sidewalks, and buildings up onto higher foundations between four to 14 feet tall to increase drainage from the city surface. 

The massive undertaking took more than two decades to complete, but did not disturb daily life and attracted tourists from all over the world.

3. Bangladesh has more people than Russia.-Submitted by Varun Kumar

Russia may span 9 time zones and cover more surface area than Pluto as the world's largest country, but tiny Bangladesh (slightly bigger than the size of New York state) has a population of 156.6 million people. Russia has 143.5 million.

4. A con man sold the Eiffel Tower (almost twice).-Submitted by Prateek Singh

“Count” Victor Lustig was famous for being one of the smoothest con men in history, but his most impressive stunt was when he convinced six scrap metal dealers to bid on the Eiffel Tower. 

The story goes that Lustig got the idea when he read an article about how the Eiffel Tower was rusting, and the high cost of its maintenance and repairs. Since the tower was only supposed to stand for 20 years, some Parisians were saying it should be taken down entirely.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Lustig devised a plan to convince the city’s biggest scrap-metal dealers that he was a government director charged with the discreet task of selling off the Eiffel Tower’s scrap metal. He rented limousines and gave tours of the landmark, and insinuated not only that this was very hush-hush government business, but that he could be bribed into accepting the winning bid. 

One dealer was convinced, and paid Lustig $20,000 in cash plus an additional $50,000 to make sure his was the winning bid. Once he had the money, Lustig raced off to Austria to lay low while the story broke — but it never did since the dealer was too embarrassed to report Lustig’s scam. 

Lustig later returned to Paris and gave it another try, but was worried one of the scrap dealers had notified the police. He fled to the U.S. where he was ultimately caught. Read more about Lustig's life here.

5. There are more synapses (nerve connections) in your brain than there are stars in our galaxy.-Submitted by Jim Preston

Astronomers estimate that there are more than 200 billion stars present in the Milky Way Galaxy. That's a lot of stars.

But neuroscientists estimate the number of synaptic connections in the average 3-year-old is close to 1 quadrillion. After that, a refining process occurs, leaving the average adult with about half that many, or roughly 500 trillion synapses.

6. There’s a nuclear bomb lost somewhere off the coast of Georgia.-Submitted by Christopher Reiss

On February 5, 1958, an Air Force jet crashed into a B-47 bomber carrying a 7,000-pound nuclear bomb. The pilot, worried the bomb might break loose from the damaged plane, dropped it into the water outside of Savannah, Ga. near Wassaw Sound. The Navy searched for the bomb for months, but were never able to recover it.

Though the Air Force and former pilot of the plane deny that the bomb contained any plutonium, congressional testimony from the assistant to the Secretary of Defense in 1966 indicated the bomb was a "complete weapon," with a nuclear capsule containing both uranium and plutonium.

The Air Force does say that if the bomb is still intact, the risk of heavy metals spreading is low, and that if left undisturbed, the bomb should pose no hazard.

7. Cleopatra lived closer in time to the building of the first Pizza Hut than to the building of the pyramids. -Submitted by Anonymous

Construction on the pyramids of Giza took place roughly from 2550 B.C. to 2490 B.C., while Cleopatra, the last active Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, was born in 69 B.C. and died in 30 B.C.

The first Pizza Hut opened in Wichita, Kansas on June 15, 1958. That means that the chain's opening is about 500 years closer to Cleopatra’s lifetime than the construction of the Giza pyramids.

8. And on that note… The woolly mammoth still roamed the earth while the pyramids were being built.-Submitted by Anubhav Das

The last woolly mammoths died as late as 1650 B.C. on Russia’s Wrangle Island (from what scientists can tell, anyway — most populations of woolly mammoths disappeared long ago during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods, but some still survived on islands in Alaska and Russia).

By this time, the Egyptian Empire was already extremely advanced and building pyramids. In fact, the Great Pyramid of Giza had existed for 1,000 years by the time the last woolly mammoth died.

9. North Korea and Finland are technically separated by only one country.-Submitted by Mira Zaslove

Russia shares a 10.5-mile border along the Tumen River with North Korea, and a 833-mile border with Finland.

10. In 1986, two people died during a charity event in Cleveland, Ohio because 1.5 million balloons were launched into the sky.-Submitted by Sarang Kawade

Balloonfest 1986 was a fundraising stunt by United Way of Cleveland that was meant to be a harmless world record for the simultaneous release of balloons.

Unfortunately, the balloons drifted back down over the city, falling on Lake Erie, Burke Lakefront Airport, and the surrounding area, causing massive city-wide problems. Most tragically, the balloons hampered the United States Coast Guard search for two boaters who were later found drowned.

The organizers and the city faced lawsuits from people seeking millions of dollars in damages, and cost overruns put the event in the red.

11. Heroin was once used to treat children’s coughs.-Submitted by Garwin Kim Sing

Bayer, the German pharmaceutical company that produces aspirin, commercialized heroin in the 1890s as a cough, cold, and pain remedy. What’s really shocking, however, is that Bayer marketed heroin for use in children as late as 1912, years after reports began to surface that it could be a dangerous drug.

In 1914, heroin was restricted to prescription-only use in the U.S. and eventually banned by the FDA altogether in 1924. See more incredible ads of Bayer marketing heroin for children here.

12. A man received the highest honor of service from both the Allies and Axis in World War II.-Submitted by Aviral Bhatnagar

His name was Joan Pujol Garcia, and he was a Spanish spy working as a double agent for both the Allies and Nazis. He originally approached the Allies to work for them but was denied, so he instead created a fake identity and began “working” for the Nazis, supplying them with false information. Soon thereafter, Garcia was accepted as a double agent for the Allies.

Throughout his time as a double agent, Garcia gave the Nazis a mixture of false reports, true but nonessential information, and high-value info that had arrived a little too late. He and his British MI5 handler even created a network of 27 fictitious subordinate agents who all received salaries from the Nazis and submitted expense reports.

Garcia was eventually given both the Iron Cross by the Germans and the Most Excellent Order by the British Empire.

13. Harvard University was founded before calculus was discovered.-Submitted by Anonymous

Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the U.S., established in 1636. Calculus wasn't discovered until roughly 50 years later, thanks to Gottfried Leibniz’s 1684 “Nova Methodus” and Isaac Newton’s 1687 “Principia” (and the countless refinements that followed from subsequent mathematicians). 

Also, Galileo Galilei — the famous European physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher — was still alive during Harvard's early years. He died in 1642.

14. Alaska is the most eastern, western, and northern state in the United States. -Submitted by Curtis C. Chan

Alaska is obviously the most northern state in the U.S., but thanks to its Aleutian Islands, Alaska stretches right up to the edge of the Western Hemisphere at the 180º line of longitude and across into the Eastern Hemisphere (all the way up the edge of the Russian Federation).

This makes it the most northern, western, and eastern state in the United States. Hawaii is the most southern state.

15. There is more time separating Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex than Tyrannosaurus Rex and us.-Submitted by Shelley Chang

Contrary to what some cartoons, movies, and books would have us believe, not all dinosaurs lived together. In fact, they were vastly separated by time and geography. 

The “age of dinosaurs,” or Mesozoic Era, had three distinct time periods (the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods). The Jurassic-period dinosaur Stegosaurus already had been extinct for approximately 80-90 million years before the appearance of the Cretaceous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus, making the Tyrannosaurus much closer in time to us (we’re separated by about 65.5 million years).

And by “us” that doesn’t mean the human race, but you, reading this article right now at your computer. Dinosaurs were around for a long time.

16. A park in Austria becomes totally submerged in 30 feet of water every spring.-Submitted by Rishav Anand

The park, in Styria, Austria, is called Grüner See (Green Lake) and during the winter, it has lovely trails, benches, and a small lake that is three to six feet deep. 

Every spring, however, the snow and ice melt from the nearby Hochschwab mountains, and the area becomes submerged in 30 feet of water. Benches, trees, and footpaths are all found beneath the surface, and scuba divers come to the area to see the amazing spectacle.

17. THE MONTY HALL PROBLEM: George is on a game show, and he has to pick one of three doors. There's a car behind one of them and goats behind the other two. He picks door number one. The host, who knows what's behind all the doors, opens door number two, revealing a goat. He then says to George, "I'll let you switch doors if you want." Should George stick with door number one or switch to door number three? 

The correct answer is to switch to door number three.-Submitted by Andrew Stein

To the average person (and many academics, originally), it seems obvious that switching should make no difference for George's odds. The car is equally likely to be behind door one or three, so whichever door George picks, he has a 50-50 chance of getting the car…right?

That's wrong, though. Switching will give him an advantage statistically because now there’s a 2/3 probability that the car is behind door number 2. Check out our explanation below:

Still not convinced? Play this online game and see how the odds stack up in your favor when you switch.

Browse the rest of the amazing facts in the Quora thread here.

SEE ALSO: 14 Historical 'Facts' That Are Completely False

WATCH: 10 Surprising Facts That Sound False But Are True

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With the world caught in a series of potential proxy wars from Ukraine to the Middle East and tensions ratcheting in East Asia and elsewhere, many have compared the present to 1914, when a trigger event in Sarajevo activated military alliances and led to a devastating global war.

Especially on the 100-year anniversary of the start of World War I, the similarities come to mind easily, but is history really repeating?

Richard Evans, the Regius Professor of History at Cambridge, identified key difference between now and then in a January article in the New Statesman. These include balancing tendencies of the multipolar world we live in now as well as the emergence of "institutions of collective security" like the United Nations, which makes a big difference even if they may seem ineffective.

Above all, he believes people have learned from history, as he said in an interview with the New Republic:

I think the major difference now is that we’ve had two World Wars, and we’ve had the nuclear age. Whereas in 1914, states, and for that matter most of the public in most nations, had what we now think of as a very irresponsible attitude toward war. They went into it in a gung-ho way. Now I think we are much more afraid of a major war, and we are much more cautious about it. I think the attitude of politicians today is very different from what it was in 1914.

As for WWI not preventing WWII, many see the latter as an extension of the former, and anyway WWII had a greater effect. Writes Evans:

The destruction caused by the Second World War, with its 50 million or more dead, its ruined cities, its genocides, its widespread negation of civilised values, had a far more powerful effect than the deaths caused by the First World War, which were (with exceptions, notably the genocide of a million or more Armenian civilians, killed by the Turks in 1915) largely confined to troops on active service. In 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki provided an additional, ter­rible warning of what would happen if the world went to war again.

Harvard Professor Joseph S. Nye, Jr. similarly commented on changing attitudes toward war in a January article:

Today's world is different from the world of 1914 in several important ways. One is that nuclear weapons give political leaders the equivalent of a crystal ball that shows what their world would look like after escalation. Perhaps if the Emperor, the Kaiser, and the Czar had had a crystal ball showing their empires destroyed and their thrones lost in 1918, they would have been more prudent in 1914. Certainly, the crystal-ball effect had a strong influence on US and Soviet leaders during the Cuban missile crisis. It would likely have a similar influence on US and Chinese leaders today.

Another difference is that the ideology of war is much weaker nowadays. In 1914, war really was thought to be inevitable, a fatalistic view reinforced by the Social Darwinist argument that war should be welcomed, because it would "clear the air" like a good summer storm.

Notably, his comments focused on China, not Russia, which has emerged as a major threat to peace. But in an April column on Russia's Ukrainian intervention, Nye noted how measured the international community's reaction has been and how slow diplomatic and economic responses appear to be the best and most likely results.

These differences don't mean the world isn't in a scary place right now, but our ceaseless asking if this is 1914 again may our best hope for why it isn't.

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Constantine Valhouli, the man who brought you a fascinating map of New York City musical references, is back with another map, albeit one with a different, older timeframe. 

His new map marks points of interest in New York City and the surrounding areas and gives the history of that area, whether it be information on the Dutch settlers or the Lenape Tribe's original name for the neighborhood.

Did you know that swanky Gramercy Park was originally named "Kromme Zee," which meant "crooked swamp" in Dutch? Or that the name the Rockaways comes from a Lenape tribe word, "Rechqua Akie," meaning "sandy land or country?"

There are a lot more interesting facts on the map below. 

SEE ALSO: Side-By-Side Photos Show The Evolution Of New York City

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When researchers attempt to chronicle the movement of ideas about the Earth's surface, there are a few ways to go about it.

One is to look at the the mass movements of large groups of people. Another is to examine the lives of influential individuals.

A new study, published July 31 in Science, combines the two, looking at geographic movements of 150,000 "notable individuals" throughout their lifetime to create a map of "aggregate intellectual mobility" over the past 2,000 years — where influential people moved to.

By gathering the birth and death places of these individuals through databases like Freebase.com, the General Artist Lexicon, and the Getty Union Art List of Names, the study creates a map of intellectual migration about and between North America and Europe.

While the researchers acknowledge the data used has inherent biases, the analysis still creates an interesting "meta-narrative," according to the authors, which not only show human movements, but in a sense, a flow of cultural history in certain parts of the world.

Visualizing Cultural Mobility

The study produced several interesting graphics. The one below is by study authors Maximilian Schich and Mauro Martino and shows notable individuals moving from their place of birth (blue), to their place of death (red), in Europe from zero to 1856 BC. While Rome is a popular hub in the beginning, you can see Paris really start to light up around the 16th century:

Below is a graphic showing which cultural centers have been the most popular European death spot (and presumably place to live before death) for the notable individuals. Below you can see 120,211 people dating back to to King David (1069 BC). The blue dots are the places these cultural influencers left.

Here is an interesting snapshot of one cultural niche: antiquarians, a person who studies or collects things from ancient times. The researchers connected the birth and death places to reveal cultural centers like Dresden, Paris, and especially Rome. Again, red is their place of death, while blue is their birth place.

The researchers also looked at North America. Below you can see the travel of notable individuals from zero, all the way up to 2012. Perhaps the most staggering thing is the mass migration to and between the coasts, especially from East to West.

They also plotted how a few cities rank on the notable deaths versus births. New York for example has a lot of both, while Hollywood had ten times as many deaths as it did births. These are culturally important cities.

But the cities on this list reveal other unfortunate realities, like where large numbers of people died in wars or genocide. Auschwitz, for example, has very few births compared to its death rate not because it attracted culturally important people, but probably because it was home to Nazi concentration camps.

While the paper paints an interesting portrait of cultural influencers, perhaps the most interesting thing is the researchers methods. "The paper relies on the fields of art history, complex networks, complexity science, computational sociology, human mobility, information design, physics and some inspiration from systems biology," lead author Maximilian Schich said in a press release for the University of Texas at Dallas.

It is important to combine both qualitative and quantitative methods, he said, because in the end, "[t]here is really no average or typical cultural center," he said.

SEE ALSO: 10 Insane Things That Happen When A Diver Descends 400 Feet On A Single Breath

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Most companies live between 40 and 50 years. 

So there must be something about the businesses that have persisted for 300, 500, or 1,300 years.

When we doveinto the data on the world's oldest companies, a few themes became clear — like that people have wanted to eat food, get drunk, learn things, and maybe kill each other once in a while for a really long time. 

Here's a list of companies with timelines that dwarf that of the U.S. itself, because startups have lots to learn from their elders.

705 — Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Yamanashi, Japan

The hot spring hotel has been in operation since 705, making it the oldest running hotel in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The inn has been run by the same family for 52 generations, according to Japan Page, the English-language expat site. The secret to its success is a sense of inter-generational pride, the report says: 

... There are even some staff whose families have held the same post for generations, passing it from parent to child to grandchild. All the same, the staff are committed and courteous, earning wages for themselves and their families. They put their all into offering a spirit of service that stems from a shared desire to protect the inn. This unflagging commitment and hospitality is drawing attention from the hotel industries worldwide.

In management-speak, we call that alignment. Generations of it. 

803 — Stiftskeller St. Peter in Salzburg, Austria

This restaurant inside St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg, Austria, may be the oldest continuously running restaurant in Europe, and perhaps the world. 

Its reputation precedes it. The classy dining spot was written about by Alcuin, a follower of the world-conquering emperor Charlemagne back in 803. According to Atlas Obscura, "the restaurant has also been host to countless dignitaries over its 1,200-year history, including cardinals, kings, and in more modern times Bill Clinton and Clint Eastwood."

900 — Sean's Bar in Athlone, Ireland

Sean's Bar is one of the oldest bars in Ireland and also in Europe. Fun fact: Excavations have revealed mugs and coins from centuries of carousing. 

The secret of its success? Location, location, location From the bar's site: 

... Sean's Bar is located in the very heart of Ireland, on the banks of the beautiful River Shannon at its intersection with the Esker Riada - the ancient route carved by glaciers that allowed travelers safe passage across the bog for thousands of years. You can find us just next to Athlone Castle, a 12th century Norman Castle whose residents may have frequented the pub!

The reliability of historical accounts of events big and small has never not been an issue for society.

But with the rise of what might be called celebrity fascination fulfillment culture, sorting out truth from someone's unsourced but heavily read account seems to have risen to a new level of absurdity.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Paul McCartney explained why he wrote an entire song, "Early Days," for his recent album "New," about this phenomenon. 

Revisionism. It's about revisionism, really. I know my memory has got chips in it that still can go exactly back to two guys sitting in a room trying to write "I Saw Her Standing There" or "One After 909." I can see that very clearly still, and I can see every minute of John and I writing together, playing together, recording together. I still have very vivid memories of all of that. It's not like it fades. Since John died so tragically, there's been a lot of revisionism, and it's very difficult to go against it, because you can't say, "Well, no, wait a minute, man. I did that." Because then people go, "Oh, yeah, well, that's really nice. That's walking on a dead man's grave." You get a bit sensitive to that, and you just think, "You know what? Forget it. I know what I did. A lot of people know what I did. John knows what I did. Maybe I should just leave it, not worry about it." It took a little while to get to that.

I know that I have every memory still intact, and they don't, as I say in the last verse, 'cause they weren't there. I think you'll find this in most bands, but in the Beatles' case, it's got to be worse than any case. For instance, I was on holiday once, and there was this little girl on the beach, little American kid. She says, "Hi, there. I've just been doing a Beatles appreciation class in school." I said, "Wow, that's great." I think, "I know, I'll be really cool here. I'll tell her a little inside story." So I go on about how something happened, and it was a fun story – and she looks at me, she says, "No, that's not true. We covered that in the Beatles appreciation class." I'm going, "Oh, f***." There's no way out, man! They're teaching this stuff now.

...these books that are written about the meaning of songs, like Revolution in the Head – I read through that. It's a kind of toilet book, a good book to just dip into. And I'll come across, "McCartney wrote that in answer to Lennon's acerbic this," and I go, "Well, that's not true." But it's going down as history. That is already known as a very highly respected tome, and I say, "Yeah, well, okay." This is a fact of my life. These facts are going down as some sort of musical history about the Beatles. There are millions of them, and I know for a fact that a lot of them are incorrect.

McCartney's comments echo recent ones by Philip Roth, who in 2012 posted an open letter to Wikipedia complaining about the entry for his work "The Human Stain." The webpage insisted that the book was based on the real-life story of a mixed-race professor who identified as being white.

“The entry contains a serious misstatement that I would like to ask to have removed. This item entered Wikipedia not from the world of truthfulness but from the babble of literary gossip–there is no truth in it at all,” Roth wrote on the New Yorker.

Wouldn't be the first time.

Click here to read the full interview with McCartney at RollingStone.com »

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Napoleon Bonaparte created an empire stretching across Europe from 1804 to 1814. Before his exile, return, and then ultimate defeat in 1815, Napoleon was a brilliant general who understood the dynamics of leading a large group to victory.

"The moral is to the physical as three is to one,"Napoleon once said.

"He meant that his troops' fighting spirit was crucial in the outcome of the battle. With motivated soldiers he could beat an army three times the size of his own," writes Robert Greene in his book "The 33 Strategies of War."

Greene highlights specific ways some of the world's greatest generals, from Napoleon to Alexander the Great, managed their troops. You can use these same tactics to boost the morale of your employees and maximize their productivity:

Unite people around a cause.

Give your team something to fight for. "The cause can be anything you wish, but you should represent it as progressive: It fits the times, it is on the side of the future, so it is destined to succeed," Greene writes. Remind your employees that they are part of a company competing with others in a marketplace, and inspire them to beat their competitors.

When Oliver Cromwell was made a Parliamentarian colonel in the English Civil War in 1643, he began recruiting soldiers who were inexperienced but shared his fervor for the Puritan religion. United around a holy cause, singing psalms as they entered battle, Cromwell's army of commoners outperformed his previous cavalry of trained soldiers by a wide margin. In 1645, they defeated the Royalist forces and brought an end to the first stage of the war.

Keep them busy.

When soldiers are on the defensive, waiting to react to the next strike, their spirits are lower and they become complacent or anxious. A similar thing happens to a company that is not moving an initiative forward.

Napoleon was named commander of the French forces fighting the Austrians in Italy in April 1776, and he wasn't welcomed by his troops. They found him too short, too young, and too inexperienced to be a leader, and they were already losing hope in fighting for the ideals of the French Revolution. After a few weeks of being unable to motivate them, Napoleon decided to propel them into action. He brought them to a bridge he knew he could easily win, and rode to the front of his men. He gave them a rousing speech and then propelled them forward to a relatively effortless victory. After that day, Greene writes, Napoleon had his men's full attention.

Keep them satisfied.

You do not need to spoil your workers, but you need to meet their basic needs. Otherwise, says Greene, they'll react to feeling exploited by behaving selfishly and drifting away. You may lose your best employees to the competition if you focus solely on your company's goals and not on their happiness.

Napoleon knew that many of his troops were homesick and weary. It's why he made it a practice to get to know individual soldiers, sharing personal stories, writes Greene. He often saved his promotions of soldiers for moments of low morale, since they communicated to his troops that he cared and was paying attention to individual sacrifices.

Lead from the front.

The enthusiasm of even the most motivated workers will wane, and so you need to let them know that you're right there beside them.

"In moments of panic, fatigue, or disorganization, or when something out of the ordinary has to be demanded from them, the personal example of the commander works wonders," wrote German field marshal Eric Rommel, whose war tactics earned him the respect of his enemies U.S. Gen. George S. Patton and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Appeal to their emotions.

The best generals have a sense of drama, Greene says. Lower your employees' defenses with a story or a joke, and then approach them more directly with their task.

The great general Hannibal of Carthage knew how to make a passionate speech that would ignite his men before a battle with the ancient Romans. But he also knew these speeches would hit that much harder if his men were relaxed in their downtime. Hannibal entertained his men with gladiator battles and his jokes could get all of his soldiers laughing, Greene writes.

Balance punishment and reward.

"Make your soldiers compete to please you. Make them struggle to see less harshness and more kindness," Greene writes. This doesn't mean that in the workplace you need to reprimand employees who don't meet your expectations, but excessive kindness regardless of performance will make your team take you for granted.

During the "Spring and Autumn" period of ancient China, the lord of Qi promoted Sima Rangju to general to defend his region from the armies of Jin and Yan. When two of the lord's men disrespected Rangju in the field, Rangju executed one and killed the attendants of the other. His men were terrified. The general, however, also proved to have a compassionate side, sharing food and supplies equally among his troops and caring for the injured and weak. His men saw that he would reward those who followed him and punish those who did not, and they went on to defeat Jin and Yan.

Build a group myth.

"Soldiers who have fought alongside one another through many campaigns forge a kind of group myth based on their past victories," Greene says. "Success alone will help bring the group together. Create symbols and slogans that fit the myth. Your soldiers will want to belong."

When General George Washington searched for a place to encamp his troops during the harsh winter of 1777-1778, he settled for Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Washington and his men endured months of extreme cold, very little to eat, and the spread of disease. By the end of February 1778, 2,500 of his troops had died. Those that survived, however, felt that they proved to themselves that nothing would stop them from winning the war against the British. In May, the troops celebrated the announcement of the crucial alliance with the French and pushed forward, more determined than ever.

SEE ALSO: 7 Timeless Lessons From 'Philosopher King' Marcus Aurelius

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It's reassuring that even one of history's biggest personalities had trouble getting out of bed in the morning.

In his philosophical writings collected in "Meditations," Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote a passage portraying an inner dialogue one can imagine him having in his royal bed at the crack of dawn.

It's a reflection of his Stoic beliefs, which were centered on the power over one's own emotions coupled with the acceptance of things beyond one's control.

Next time you're about to hit the snooze button on your morning alarm, remember what Marcus wrote to himself, which has been translated by Gregory Hays:

At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I'm going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?'

— But it's nicer in here ...

So you were born to feel 'nice'? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don't you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you're not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren't you running to do what your nature demands?

— But we have to sleep sometime ...

Agreed. But nature set a limit on that — as it did on eating and drinking. And you're over the limit. You've had more than enough of that. But not of working. There you're still below your quota.

You don't love yourself enough. Or you'd love your nature too, and what it demands of you. People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for the dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they're really possessed by what they do, they'd rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.

Is helping others less valuable to you? Not worth your effort?

Marcus ruled from 161 to 180 A.D. and wrote what became "Meditations" sometime during the last decade of his life.

New research suggests that Marcus' technique of "self-talk," and in particular that he used the second-person pronoun "you" instead of "I," can be an effective motivational strategy. Researchers speculate that "it cues memories of receiving support and encouragement from others, especially in childhood." Keep that in mind the next time you need a boost to start your day.

SEE ALSO: 7 Timeless Lessons From 'Philosopher King' Marcus Aurelius

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Capitalism's only existed for 500 years or so. 

In that time, some businesses have shaped human society more than others, whether by subjugating continents and controlling commodities or giving us microwaves and cheeseburgers.

Here are a few of the ones that have shaped our modern world.

1600: The British East India Company ruled much of the globe.

At one point in history, the British East India company accounted for half the world's trade, mostly through dominating the spice trade.

Other items on the state-sanctioned company's resume: It began the British domination of India and started the Opium Wars in China. 

The results were truly historic, Asia Times reports: 

In 1700, India and China accounted for 47% of world gross domestic product while Western Europe's share was a mere 26%. By 1870, the Asian giants slumped to a combined 29% of world GDP and Western Europe leaped to 42%. The East India Company was the primary device for this reversal of world scales.

The British East India Company also helped shape the U.S. The British Parliament signed the Tea Act in 1773 to get rid of the millions of pounds of tea that the East India Company had stored in its warehouses by selling it to the American colonies, where they had a monopoly on tea.

Vexed by the taxation without representation, the colonies promptly held a Boston Tea Party.

You know the rest.

1853: The Otis Elevator Company made the modern city possible.

In 2008, for the first time in human history, the majority of people lived in cities.

If cities are to grow denser — that is, taller — they need elevators.

The company that made elevators friendly is called Otis, founded by the American industrialist Elisha Otis.

"Before Otis' invention, buildings rarely reached seven stories (elevators were considered just too dangerous to implement),"ArchDaily writes."But it was Otis' elevator that would allow for the creation, and proliferation of, the skyscraper — an explosion that would for ever alter the 20th and 21st century skylines."

Thanks to Otis, our biggest cities are stuffed with skyscrapers:

• Hong Kong has 1,268

• New York has 595

• Tokyo has 411

• Chicago has 293

• Dubai has 249

Bonus fact: The world's tallest building, the 2,722-foot-tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai, runs Otis elevators. 

1870: Standard Oil controlled the world's most precious resource.

John D. Rockefeller cofounded Standard Oil in 1870. He'd become the richest American in history, with an estimated net worth of $440 billion. 

The money came from leading a monopoly of the most valuable commodity in the world. By the 1880s, Standard Oil controlled the refining, distributing, and the rest of the oil industry. 

On May 15, 1911, the Supreme Court broke up Standard Oil, on the grounds that the mega-corporation violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. The result was 34 separate companies, with descendants including ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips.

That breakup is a big part of the history of journalism, since it was hastened by muckraker Ida Tarbell's mammoth "The History of the Standard Oil Company."

A recent Quora post prompted the question, "What are some of the most mind-blowing facts that sound like "BS", but are actually true?"

They might be hard to believe, but these facts about geography, people and events are in fact true. 

Produced by Justin Gmoser.

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Napoleon Bonaparte created an empire stretching across Europe from 1804 to 1814. Before his exile, return, and then ultimate defeat in 1815, Napoleon was a brilliant general who understood the dynamics of leading a large group to victory.

"The moral is to the physical as three is to one,"Napoleon once said.

"He meant that his troops' fighting spirit was crucial in the outcome of the battle. With motivated soldiers he could beat an army three times the size of his own," writes Robert Greene in his book "The 33 Strategies of War."

Greene highlights specific ways some of the world's greatest generals, from Napoleon to Alexander the Great, managed their troops. You can use these same tactics to boost the morale of your employees and maximize their productivity:

Unite people around a cause.

Give your team something to fight for. "The cause can be anything you wish, but you should represent it as progressive: It fits the times, it is on the side of the future, so it is destined to succeed," Greene writes. Remind your employees that they are part of a company competing with others in a marketplace, and inspire them to beat their competitors.

When Oliver Cromwell was made a Parliamentarian colonel in the English Civil War in 1643, he began recruiting soldiers who were inexperienced but shared his fervor for the Puritan religion. United around a holy cause, singing psalms as they entered battle, Cromwell's army of commoners outperformed his previous cavalry of trained soldiers by a wide margin. In 1645, they defeated the Royalist forces and brought an end to the first stage of the war.

Keep them busy.

When soldiers are on the defensive, waiting to react to the next strike, their spirits are lower and they become complacent or anxious. A similar thing happens to a company that is not moving an initiative forward.

Napoleon was named commander of the French forces fighting the Austrians in Italy in April 1796, and he wasn't welcomed by his troops. They found him too short, too young, and too inexperienced to be a leader, and they were already losing hope in fighting for the ideals of the French Revolution. After a few weeks of being unable to motivate them, Napoleon decided to propel them into action. He brought them to a bridge he knew he could easily win, and rode to the front of his men. He gave them a rousing speech and then propelled them forward to a relatively effortless victory. After that day, Greene writes, Napoleon had his men's full attention.

Keep them satisfied.

You do not need to spoil your workers, but you need to meet their basic needs. Otherwise, says Greene, they'll react to feeling exploited by behaving selfishly and drifting away. You may lose your best employees to the competition if you focus solely on your company's goals and not on their happiness.

Napoleon knew that many of his troops were homesick and weary. It's why he made it a practice to get to know individual soldiers, sharing personal stories, writes Greene. He often saved his promotions of soldiers for moments of low morale, since they communicated to his troops that he cared and was paying attention to individual sacrifices.

Lead from the front.

The enthusiasm of even the most motivated workers will wane, and so you need to let them know that you're right there beside them.

"In moments of panic, fatigue, or disorganization, or when something out of the ordinary has to be demanded from them, the personal example of the commander works wonders," wrote German field marshal Erwin Rommel, whose war tactics earned him the respect of his enemies U.S. Gen. George S. Patton and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Appeal to their emotions.

The best generals have a sense of drama, Greene says. Lower your employees' defenses with a story or a joke, and then approach them more directly with their task.

The great general Hannibal of Carthage knew how to make a passionate speech that would ignite his men before a battle with the ancient Romans. But he also knew these speeches would hit that much harder if his men were relaxed in their downtime. Hannibal entertained his men with gladiator battles and his jokes could get all of his soldiers laughing, Greene writes.

Balance punishment and reward.

"Make your soldiers compete to please you. Make them struggle to see less harshness and more kindness," Greene writes. This doesn't mean that in the workplace you need to reprimand employees who don't meet your expectations, but excessive kindness regardless of performance will make your team take you for granted.

During the "Spring and Autumn" period of ancient China, the lord of Qi promoted Sima Rangju to general to defend his region from the armies of Jin and Yan. When two of the lord's men disrespected Rangju in the field, Rangju executed one and killed the attendants of the other. His men were terrified. The general, however, also proved to have a compassionate side, sharing food and supplies equally among his troops and caring for the injured and weak. His men saw that he would reward those who followed him and punish those who did not, and they went on to defeat Jin and Yan.

Build a group myth.

"Soldiers who have fought alongside one another through many campaigns forge a kind of group myth based on their past victories," Greene says. "Success alone will help bring the group together. Create symbols and slogans that fit the myth. Your soldiers will want to belong."

When General George Washington searched for a place to encamp his troops during the harsh winter of 1777-1778, he settled for Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Washington and his men endured months of extreme cold, very little to eat, and the spread of disease. By the end of February 1778, 2,500 of his troops had died. Those that survived, however, felt that they proved to themselves that nothing would stop them from winning the war against the British. In May, the troops celebrated the announcement of the crucial alliance with the French and pushed forward, more determined than ever.

Correction: A previous version stated the incorrect year in which Napoleon was made commander of the French forces in Italy and misspelled Rommel's name.

SEE ALSO: 7 Timeless Lessons From 'Philosopher King' Marcus Aurelius

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Approximately 40% of U.S. citizens have at least one ancestor who passed through Ellis Island for inspection on their way toward building a better life for themselves and future generations, according to The History Channel. 

Nearly 12 million immigrants were processed at Ellis Island's immigration station from its opening in 1892 to 1954, when it closed. But the number of immigrants dropped significantly by 1924, due to anti-immigration legislation.

The main purpose of the federal government's Ellis Island Immigration Station was to ensure immigrants were legally and medically fit for admittance into the U.S. The station's 500 employees included inspectors, clerks, interpreters, nurses, doctors, and social workers.

The inspections lasted an average of three to seven hours, but sometimes took much longer. In the process, some individuals were denied entry and families separated. 

The 1921 Emergency Quota Act set quotas based on nationality. The number of immigrants admitted into the country was reduced to 3% of that nationality's representation in the 1910 U.S. census.

That was followed by the Immigration Act of 1924, which further limited admissions to 2% of each nationality's representation in the 1890 census. That law sought to specifically restrict immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, where half of U.S. immigrants in the early 20th century originated from.

The New York Public Library has a collection of photographs of Ellis Island from 1902 to 1913, which came from the estate of William Williams, the Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island from 1902-1905 and 1909-1913.

Immigrants who passed the first mental inspection wait in pens in the Registry Room, also called the Great Hall. The peak day for immigration occurred April 17, 1907, when Ellis Island received 11,747 immigrants, according to The History Channel. That was also the peak year, with just over 1 million arrivals.These immigrants passed the inspections and wait to be transported off Ellis Island. Approximately 80% of immigrants who passed through during the peak period of 1900-1914 left the island within hours, but others were detained for days and weeks, according to The History Channel.Immigrants wait with their baggage at a teller's window to exchange money. A family undergoing a medical examination. Immigrants waiting to be processed by Immigration Bureau Officials.A view of the front of Ellis Island's Main Immigration Building, which opened December 17, 1900.A 1912-13 photograph of the New York City skyline from Ellis Island. The tallest building in the skyline is the Woolworth Building, then still under construction.Immigrants carry luggage past the island's pier.Dining hall staff after preparing the long tables with worn porcelain-enameled plates, and forks and knives.A lone gentleman, possibly Commissioner of Immigration William Williams, gazes at New York Harbor from the observation roof atop the Immigration Station. Immigrants eating a free meal at Ellis Island.Immigrants aboard the ferry boat named Ellis Island as it nears Battery Park. Right of center is the partially built U.S. Customs House, constructed from 1902-1906.A photo of these Hungarian Gypsies appeared in The New York Times in 1905, which reported that they were all deported.Immigrants donning turbans and fezzes shortly after their arrival.The decoration of the large vessel these immigrants are gathered around suggests they may have been Muslim Ottoman Turks. The Immigration Station's Main Hall, showing immigrants seated on crowded long benches. In the first decade of the 20th century, a federal law was passed denying admittance to children without adults, according to The History Channel.

SEE ALSO: Tour The Parts Of Ellis Island Tourists Never See [PHOTOS]

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Nearly 300 Russian trucks are headed for the Ukrainian border. Moscow says they're filled with humanitarian aid. But many others are deeply skeptical, particularly countries in the former Soviet bloc with their own bitter memories of Russian "assistance" in the form of military invasions.

Georgia, 1993

A year into the brutal 1992-93 Georgian-Abkhaz war, Russia sent a so-called humanitarian-aid column to the separatist city of Tkvarcheli, which Georgian military forces were holding under siege.

Living conditions in Tkvarcheli were desperate, and Georgian officials agreed to assistance by Russia, which had adopted an officially neutral stance during the war despite giving tacit support to the separatists.

But Moscow, angered by a Georgian attack on a Russian transport helicopter carrying more than 50 people, secretly shipped more than medicine and food to Tkvarcheli. It also provided missiles, submachine guns, and other heavy artillery to the city -- allowing the newly armed Abkhaz separatists to eventually fight down the Georgian military, take the regional capital, Sukhumi, and declare de facto independence.

The Russian official in charge of the humanitarian aid mission? Then-head of the Emergency Situations Ministry Sergei Shoigu -- now Russian defense minister. 

@MiddleEast_BRK Russia also did a "humanitarian operation" in Georgia in 1993 to arm Abkhazia & South Ossetia pic.twitter.com/IsAIZvxNt7

— Андрій (@AndrijUKR) August 11, 2014

Czechoslovakia, 1968

Like earlier incursions into Moscow's Eastern European satellites, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 was a clear-cut military operation. Some Kremlin officials, however, might have argued cynically that the mission was humanitarian in nature because it aimed to save Czechoslovakia from itself and the Prague Spring reforms of then-leader Alexander Dubcek.

On August 20, 1968, 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops simultaneously crossed the border and air landed in Prague, securing the capital and the country in just two days. Seventy-two Czechs and Slovaks were killed in the operation. 

Oxymoron of the day: Russian Humanitarian Aid 1968, Prague pic.twitter.com/7sioWwP2IA

— Paul R. Reyes (@PaulRReyes) August 11, 2014

Hungary, 1956

Under the thaw of Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev, satellite countries like Poland and Hungary felt encouraged to push the boundaries of their own Communist systems.

In Hungary, this resulted in mass anti-Soviet demonstrations in October 1956 under the leadership of reformist Prime Minister Imre Nagy.

Within days, Soviet troops had overrun the country, with 1,000 tanks entering the capital Budapest. Some 30,000 people were killed in the crackdown. 

@DeWilcz@narkeviciute And how about the 1956 hungary Humanitarian Soviet-Invasion pic.twitter.com/t9HYH6U5dB

— Peter Riebeek (@PeterRiebeek1) August 11, 2014

Lithuania, Latvia & Estonia, 1940

In 1939, Moscow pressured the Baltic states into signing mutual assistance pacts granting the Soviet government the right to establish military bases in all three countries.

The Soviet Union used the agreements to stage near-simultaneous invasions, entering Lithuania on June 16, 1940, and Latvia and Estonia a day later.

Within days, 500,000 Red Army troops were occupying the Baltic region, having seized all commercial and military vessels and grounding the region's aircraft. Mass deportations and political repressions of "anti-Soviet elements" followed. 

@DeWilcz@narkeviciute Russian Humanitarian Aid to Latvia 1940. Here you see the help in Riga pic.twitter.com/lKWlwfmcUX

— Peter Riebeek (@PeterRiebeek1) August 11, 2014

Wolf In Sheep's Clothing? 

Other observers have poked fun at the notion of Russia, which staunchly opposed the establishment of aid corridors in war-torn Syria, evoking the spirit of humanitarian assistance anywhere -- particularly in eastern Ukraine, where much of the civilian suffering can be attributed to Russia's support of separatist rebels.  

Remember this? --> Russia Opposed Humanitarian Aid Corridors in Syria Before It Favored Them in Eastern Ukraine http://t.co/EQDcVAvHt2

— Dmitriy (@dima7b) August 12, 2014

Others have simply enjoyed the notion of how a Russian convoy might sneak itself into Ukraine, whether by draping a tank in Red Cross-style emblems.... 

Russia to Ukrainian separatists: Humanitarian aid is on the way pic.twitter.com/rFzWtUM3qI

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) August 12, 2014

... smuggling guns across the border...  

Who had the brilliant idea to trust sb who invades all his neighbours to deliver "humanitarian aid"? #russia#putinpic.twitter.com/vJmne6EA2j

— East of Brussels (@EastOfBrussels) August 12, 2014

... or marching boldly in like the Trojan horses many suspect they are.  

This is how the West sees the Humanitarian aid from Russia pic.twitter.com/XAOeyuhAtV

— Russian Market (@russian_market) August 12, 2014

SEE ALSO: Ukraine: We Will Not Let Russian 'Aid' Trucks Cross The Border

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You may not realize it, but every day you enter the office you step into a minefield of personal politics at a company facing fierce competitors.

In Robert Greene's "The 33 Strategies of War," the renowned author analyzes the tactics of history's greatest military leaders and presents their strategies in a way that professionals can use. These time-tested techniques can prove useful if you're a professional looking to rise up the corporate ladder, a manager looking to get the best from your team, or an entrepreneur looking to break into an industry.

We've summarized Greene's 33 war strategies below:

Self-Directed Warfare

Before you can defeat your enemy, you need to gain control over yourself.

1. Declare war on your enemies.

On the path to success, many people will hide their true intentions and pretend to be on your side. Determine who and what you stand against or compete with and use them to motivate you.

2. Do not fight the last war.

Learn from failures, but do not let them weigh you down; cherish your victories, but do not let them make you complacent.

3. Amidst the turmoil of events, do not lose your presence of mind.

Unexpected challenges and setbacks will tempt you to respond with anger or anxiety, which will only create more difficulties for yourself. Learn to refrain from imposing your emotions onto reality and see things objectively so that you can react with a calm mind.

4. Create a sense of urgency and desperation.

Even if you are optimistic, aspirational, and self-confident, you will never become successful if you do not have something compelling you to action. Create deadlines for concrete goals to push yourself forward.

Organizational (Team) Warfare

Your best ideas will never amount to anything if you cannot lead a team to help make them a reality.

5. Avoid the snares of groupthink.

Your team will not follow you if you make your collective mission centered on yourself, but it is also dangerous to give in to chaotic collective decision making. Warrant respect by enforcing your commands, but also reward your team for their victories.

6. Segment your forces.

Avoid micromanaging, which can frustrate your team members and slow everyone down. Instead, create independent groups that can accomplish tasks on their own.

7. Transform your war into a crusade.

The way to keep people motivated is to align their personal interests with those of the group. Determine a worthy cause that everyone will want to fight for.

Defensive Warfare

It is important to know which battles are worth fighting, and which ones are worth avoiding or retreating from. Then you will be ready for any necessary counterattack once your enemy has exhausted itself.

8. Pick your battles carefully.

You will not always have the time, energy, or resources to take your competition head on. It's necessary to keep the long term in mind.

9. Turn the tables.

Sometimes it is best to let your opponents make the first move. Wait for them to make a poor decision out of impatience and then move in to bring them down.

10. Create a threatening presence.

Keep opponents from engaging you directly by avoiding as many battles as possible, but being impressive in the battles you do fight.

11. Trade space for time.

If an aggressor attacks you in a fit of rashness, it may be best to refuse to fight, even if they cause damage. This refusal will infuriate them and cause them to make mistakes.

Offensive Warfare

There are other times when, after careful planning, it is best to surprise and overwhelm your enemy.

12. Lose battles but win the war.

People will inevitably get the best of you at times. Keep a cool head and stay focused on large, long-term goals and let your opponents enjoy small victories.

13. Know your enemy.

Pay less attention to the entire team of your competition and instead study its leader. Avoid projecting your beliefs onto that person, instead observing how he or she thinks and behaves.

14. Overwhelm resistance with speed and suddenness.

Take the time to prepare a thorough offensive, and then catch your opponent off guard. Strike again before they have a chance to react.

15. Control the dynamic.

The best way to manipulate your opponents' emotions is to define the nature of your relationship. If they are especially arrogant, give them the impression that they are the one in control.

16. Hit them where it hurts.

Every successful person or entity has a source of power, whether it's money, popularity, or a winning strategy. Find a way to undermine your opponents' livelihood and strike them with all you've got.

17. Defeat them in detail.

When someone or something imposing is taken as a whole, fear and uncertainty can set in. Instead, break down your challenger or challenge into smaller, more easily defeated parts.

18. Expose and attack your opponent's soft flank.

Distract your competition's attention by attacking them from the front, and then take them on where they're weakest.

19. Envelop the enemy.

When you are ready to take down an opponent, keep pressure on them from all sides so that they are forced to focus their attention on you as they grow increasingly worried.

20. Maneuver them into weakness.

Create a dilemma for your enemy, in which the only way they can respond to your move is with a decision that will hurt them in some way.

21. Negotiate while advancing.

Never forget that in a negotiation, the other side is trying to take as much as possible from you that they could not get from direct confrontation. Before and during negotiations, keep your agenda moving forward so that your opponent plays on your terms.

22. Know how to end things.

When you engage in battle, you are putting your reputation at stake. Never put yourself in a situation that you cannot remove yourself from, and when victorious, don't belittle your opponent to the point that you create a bitter enemy that could strike back in the future.

Unconventional (Dirty) Warfare

You will need to use unorthodox strategies to take down a formidable foe. You may even resort to slippery and devious tactics to gain the upper hand.

23. Weave a seamless blend of fact and fiction.

Create a trap for your opponents by playing to their expectations, causing them to lower their guard as they fool themselves.

24. Take the line of least expectation.

Doing something extraordinary against an enemy will only have an effect if they took you to be unassuming and ordinary.

25. Occupy the moral high ground.

You can weaken your opponents' support base by making them appear sinister, even if they are not. Tie your goals to worthy causes so that the public will want to further your agenda.

26. Deny them targets.

Keep the competition from engaging you with all their might by staying innovative and unpredictable, which will keep them afraid and frustrated.

27. Seem to work for the interests of others while furthering your own.

Develop a network of alliances in which you treat your allies well, but slyly keep them in a subordinate position.

28. Give your rivals enough rope to hang themselves.

When you are dealing with someone who you know is quietly scheming to destroy you, refrain from attacking them. Rather, share with them just enough information that plants a seed of doubt and insecurity and watch them self-destruct.

29. Take small bites.

If you reveal the totality of your grand ambitions, people will come to resent you. Rise through the corporate hierarchy or business world steadily but without fanfare.

30. Penetrate their minds.

If you want to influence people, it is best to avoid being preachy or overly personal, and instead saying things in a way that gets people to reach your conclusion on their own.

31. Destroy from within.

If you are going up against an opponent that you would never be able to defeat by engaging directly, it may be worth befriending them as a first move. Then recruit their power players to your side, or find ways to sow dissent.

32. Dominate while seeming to submit.

You will not be able to get people to do their best work for you through aggression. Smile and be pleasant as you get them to do your bidding.

33. Sow uncertainty and panic through acts of terror.

The best way to approach a battle with a giant opponent is to dramatize a move in such a way that it terrifies the opposition, convincing them that you are much stronger than you actually are.

SEE ALSO: 7 Management Strategies From Some Of History's Greatest Generals

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Did you know that hamburgers, America's most beloved food, were actually invented in Hamburg, Germany, in the 1800s? Or that ice cream, another American favorite, was first created in Japan in 618 A.D.? 

Cheapflights researched the origins of popular foods from around the world, and some of the results were quite surprising.

They found that pizza, Italy's most iconic dish, was actually invented by the Greeks in 100 B.C., who created a flatbread called plakountos and topped it with meats, cheeses, and vegetables.

Europe is famous for its high-end chocolate, but the sweet treat was actually invented by the ancient Mayans and Aztecs in Central America in 2000 B.C. Both groups roasted and pounded the seeds of the cacao tree to create a chocolatey drink, which was then brought to Europe by Spanish conquistadors.

See the full infographic below for more history on your favorite foods.

SEE ALSO: 13 Simple Cooking Tips That Anyone Can Use

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Niccollò Machiavelli's "The Prince," a guide for the ideal ruler, made his name synonymous with a ruthless pragmatism based on the manipulation and total defeat of an enemy.

But the ancient book that significantly influenced Machiavelli, Xenophon's "Cyropaedia"— which translates to "The Education of Cyrus"— depicts a leader who believes quite the opposite.

Xenophon lived sometime in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BC, about a century after the death of his book's subject, Persian emperor Cyrus the Great. Xenophon was born in Athens, studied under Socrates, and trained and fought for the Spartans. "Cyropaedia" is a fictionalized biography of Cyrus, likely based on oral histories that Xenophon collected and dramatized for the sake of imparting lessons on leadership.

Xenophon depicts Cyrus as a leader who kept a cool head and knew when to be severe and when to be compassionate. The book survived antiquity and became a favorite of not just Machiavelli, but also Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Thomas Jefferson.

We looked through Larry Hedrick's modern version of the "Cyropaedia," called "Xenophon's Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War," which changes Xenophon's detached narration to a first-person narration from Cyrus' perspective, and adds new headings throughout. Hedrick liberally alters the source material, but only as a means of making the lessons clearer for the contemporary reader.

We've summarized some of the best lessons from the legendary ruler Cyrus the Great, as portrayed by Xenophon and interpreted by Hedrick:

Learn from the failures of those who came before you.

No matter what profession you are in, there have been countless people who have shared your same general goals. Study your industry's history and seek out mentors who can help you minimize the mistakes you will make as you progress in your career.

Minimize hierarchical distinctions.

Cyrus distinguished himself by making his elite soldiers camp among his lesser troops. "Living together on equal terms helps people develop deeper bonds and creates a common conscience," Cyrus says.

Lead from the front.

If you want your followers to respect you and even dramatize your importance, do not make the mistake of doing it through elusiveness and isolation. Guide your soldiers into battle, showing them how they need to do their job.

Celebrate your team's greatest assets.

Some of your followers will excel beyond their peers. Notice their accomplishments and use them as models for the rest of the team.

Immediately follow up a victory by pursuing another.

When you and your followers meet success, it is fine to celebrate. But rather than falling into a trap of complacency, quickly set your sights on another goal.

Understand your followers' motivations.

Never take your team's loyalty to you for granted. Learn what they get from following you, and do what you can to keep them happy. Do this by keeping a clear line of communication open between you and them.

When giving orders, be brief and to the point.

"Too much talking suggests desperation on the part of the leader. Speak shortly, decisively, and to the point — and couch your desires in such natural logic that no [one] can raise objections. Then move on," Cyrus says.

Reward your followers for their loyalty.

There's no need to spoil your followers by pampering them, but acknowledge when they have served you well.

Give your team a cause to fight for.

History is filled with examples of a small but passionate army taking down a large but self-assured battalion.

Keep emotion out of your decision making.

Never make a decision when your head is clouded by anger or fear. See things objectively by removing your ego from a situation.

Do not make your allies expendable.

Unlike the hero of Machiavelli's "The Prince," Cyrus believes that selfishly betraying your friends is not only dishonorable, but ruins your all-important reputation as a leader.

Negotiate even in situations of mutual distrust.

"Even within an environment of intense competition, there are opportunities to reduce human distress through reasoned cooperation," Cyrus says.

Remain innovative.

In the same way that a powerful army cannot stay powerful without the latest in weaponry, your team cannot remain successful if you do not stay ahead of the competition.

Practice courtesy and self-control.

Perhaps the biggest distinction between Cyrus and a Machiavellian ruler is the belief that people are fundamentally good, and that the selfish have made a habit of the easy way out. He says:

There is a deep — and usually frustrated — desire in the heart of everyone to act with benevolence rather than selfishness, and one fine instance of generosity can inspire dozens more. I experienced over and again how my own temperance made others more temperate. when they perceived moderation and self-control in the actions of their leader, my subjects were eager to curb their own antisocial instincts.

We first learned of Xenophon's account of Cyrus the Great from author Ryan Holiday's slideshow "24 Books You've Probably Never Heard Of But Will Change Your Life." His latest book is "The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph."

SEE ALSO: 33 War Strategies That Will Help You Win In Business

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In June of 1812, Napoleon set off to invade Russia with one of the largest armies the world had ever seen.

Six months later, a mere fraction of Napoleon’s army — perhaps as little as 5%  — hobbled home across the Niemen River.

Historians have long wondered how one of the world’s most brilliant generals could have failed so spectacularly. After all, Napoleon lost relatively few men in battle. Most blamed the army’s poor logistics, or the bitter Russian winter.

But Carl von Clausewitz, the noted Prussian military theorist, blamed another culprit: communicable disease.

As the Prussian notes in his seminal work, “On War,” Napoleon began his campaign in June with a center army nearly 300,000 men strong. Less than two months later, he had lost nearly a third of his fighting strength, without even having fought a major battle.  Indeed, Clausewitz notes, “It is not unusual that a victorious army suffers greater losses from sickness than from battle.”

Napoleon was hardly unique. Armies have traditionally succumbed more to illness than anything else.

Little mentioned in military history, however, is how preventive medicine, or a lack thereof, has had a dramatic impact on the battlefield.

During the American Revolution, Britain’s Royal Navy was unable to sustain its blockade of France for more than a few weeks at a time, following the latter’s entry into America’s war of independence after the Battle of Saratoga. French troopships, loaded with men and material, routinely landed in the New World, where they had a decisive impact on the campaign.

How could the French slip past the British blockade so easily? Simple. The Royal Navy could only remain at sea for a few weeks before British sailors became crippled with disease, most notably, scurvy.

Towards the end of the Revolutionary War, physicians within the Royal Navy ushered in remarkable improvements in preventive medicine. One doctor, having observed the rapid spread of communicable disease, instituted a thorough sanitation program, ordering living quarters scrubbed, and bedding aired out during the day.

The Royal Navy’s advancements in basic sanitation were coupled with improvements in sailors’ diets. As described by Piers Macksey in his book “The War for America: 1775-1783,” by the mid-18th century, doctors had established a link between lemon juice, which contained vitamin C, and the prevention of scurvy. In fact, Captain James Cook had circumnavigated the world in 1775 without losing a single sailor to the disease.

Still, it would take nearly 20 more years for the Royal Navy to regularly issue lemon juice to sailors. But the results were little short of miraculous: the Royal Navy had all but eradicated scurvy within the ranks after five years. By 1815, these advances in preventive medicine and nutrition had reduced sickness nearly sevenfold, giving the Royal Navy the manpower necessary to bottle Napoleon up in continental Europe.

Advances in both food production and preventive medicine allowed nations to not only field much larger armies, but to minimize casualties as well. In the early 19th century, armies often foraged for food, and were forced to halt in the afternoon to gather wood and build cooking fires.

A century later, during World War I, industrialized nations were able to sustain million-man armies with canned foods. If you were to fast forward yet another century, you’d find soldiers in Afghanistan actually gaining weight on 31 flavors of ice cream in the Kandahar dining facility.

But modern war isn’t all fun and games and Salsa Night. Indeed, though modern soldiers may be able to enjoy the latest culinary delights, they still often find themselves crammed into close living quarters, as soldiers have been for millennia perpetuating the rapid spread of communicable disease.

But steady advances in immunization and other medicines diminished the number of soldiers who died or were otherwise incapacitated by illness. Whereas deaths due to “other” means (e.g., disease) outnumbered those killed in battle by 50% during the American Civil War, they comprised only a quarter of all losses during the Second World War.

Losses due to disease continued to decline rapidly over the latter half of the 20th century, to the point where gangrene, malaria, and trench foot, are practically unheard of. In fact, some might argue that vaccinations have proven such miraculous feats that many today take them for granted (perhaps explaining why families today have recklessly neglected to have their children immunized).

Of course, tanks and airplanes win battles, that much is clear. But forget even getting to the battlefield without the medical care necessary to field, feed, and sustain a healthy fighting force. Indeed, the most powerful battlefield innovations of the last few hundred years haven’t been gunpowder and gasoline, but rather, soup cans, needles, and lemon juice.

Crispin Burke is an active-duty Army officer stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Follow him on Twitter.

SEE ALSO: The Marine Corps Stores Huge Amounts Of Armor And Weaponry In Norwegian Caves

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