If there is one thing you can say about plants, it’s that they look interesting. They are beautiful, colorful, and intricate—from the tiniest bit of moss to the grandest tree in the jungle. They look even more interesting when they do what plants tend to eventually do and take over the land.

We humans think we are so smart. We sculpt and tame and add to the Earth and even the seabed. But the malls, streets, and skyscrapers that we build are just future plant holders. Here are ten places and times that the plants have taken over what we have made.

The world’s fair is an international exhibition meant to allow nations to showcase their achievements to a massive audience. All world expositions are built around a theme which can be general (industry, aviation) or more specialized like the inauguration of the Panama Canal at the 1915 San Francisco Expo.

These fairs are also known for building landmarks which became iconic symbols of their host cities. Most famous, of course, is the Eiffel Tower, but other examples include the Seattle Space Needle, the first Ferris wheel, and the Atomium in Brussels.

The first world’s fair took place over 150 years ago in London. The next one will happen in 2020 in Dubai. Between those two, the world’s fair has amassed a wealth of experiences, both good and bad. These are some of the most notable and bizarre.

Keeping up with the news is hard. So hard, in fact, that we’ve decided to save you the hassle by rounding up the most significant, unusual, or just plain old mind-blowing stories each week.

As we slogged through the cold winter month of February, the news bubbled away once again with stories of disaster, catastrophe, chaos, killing, and death. There were lies, counter lies, claims of fake news, and a general sense that things were failing to get better.

But there was some good news, too, if you knew where to look. Maybe not much, but perhaps enough rays of sunshine to keep us all going until winter is finally over.

Keeping up with the news is hard. So hard, in fact, that we’ve decided to save you the hassle by rounding up the most mind-blowing stories each week. The week that took us out of May and into June was a decidedly mixed bag.

For every horrific natural disaster, there was a great scientific discovery. For every violent attack, there was a bizarre story waiting in the wings about hidden treasure. From the bad to the good, here are the highlights of humanity’s topsy-turvy world last week.

Some of us love that time of year when the leaves have all fallen off the trees, the air starts to turn colder, and the snow falls for the first time of the season. For everyone else, those white snowflakes bring back memories of slipping on ice, shoveling our cars out of our driveways, and that gray slush that covers the roads for months. (Of course, if you’ve never seen snow, you’ll just have to imagine.)

No matter how you feel about it, though, cool uses for snow and ice are limited only by our imaginations. Here are 10 of the most mind-blowing and entertaining uses we have today.

Remember when you were a kid and you loved running all over playgroundsand jumping down the slide? Those were the days . . . 

Monkey bars, a 3-meter (10 ft) slide, and one of those wobbly rope bridges usually wore you out and made your parents happy, knowing you would pass out on the ride home. But since then, playgrounds have only gotten bigger and better than ever. Here are 10 of the most mind-blowingly awesome playgrounds found across the globe.

Before humans, the world was a very different place. Our planet didn’t always look the way it does now. It’s gone through some incredible changes over the past 4.5 billion years—and they’re even wilder than you’ve imagined.

If you could step back in time and stand on the Earth millions of years ago, you wouldn’t just see a few different animals. You’d see an alien planet pulled straight out of a science fiction story.

Natural disasters have changed the course of human history. Although not everyone agrees on their effects, the links between these events and the social and economic changes afterward are intriguing.

Natural disasters have led to some of our greatest innovations, to periods of civil war and political unrest, to the destruction and creation of empires, to massive human migrations and clashes of cultures, and ultimately, to the world we know today.

Keeping up with the news is hard. So hard, in fact, that we’ve decided to save you the hassle by rounding up the most mind-blowing stories each week. And this was a big week for big stories.

There were so many over the last seven days that we’ve had to let a couple go by the wayside—such as the UK election, which we’ll cover next week when the dust has settled and the final results are in. In the meantime, here are the 10 stories that rocked the world since our last roundup.

Mount Everest? Surely, you’ve heard of it. The Grand Canyon? Obviously. Uluru? Probably. These are all magnificent features, but they’re far too mainstream for us.

This list is an ode to the many landforms whose beauty, scale, and significance are often underappreciated at best and unknown at worst. The world is vast and full of natural wonders, and its jaw-dropping topographies go far beyond the Matterhorns and McKinleys that grab the limelight.

Keeping up with the news is hard. So hard, in fact, that we’ve decided to save you the hassle by rounding up the most significant, unusual, or just plain old mind-blowing stories each week.

And what a way to start a week. For a few, brief, terrifying minutes last weekend, it looked like the state of Hawaii was about to vanish in a cloud of radioactive dust and nuclear fire. Thankfully, it turned out to be a false alarm. But elsewhere, nearly as crazy stories were unfolding. This time, they were the real thing.

Keeping up with the news is hard. So hard, in fact, that we’ve decided to save you the hassle by rounding up the most mind-blowing stories each week. The seven days that took us to the midpoint of June were tumultuous ones, starting with a political earthquake and ending with a horrific assassination attempt on a congressman. But there were other stories happening around the margins, too: stories ranging from the tragic to the historic to the simply bizarre . . . 

Many deserted towns around the world are dangerous to visitors. Several of these places were abandoned after severe environmental damage had occurred, and the residents became extremely ill. Much of the damage and toxic aftermath lingers for years, and these ghost towns can still harm tourists today.

When the bombs fall, the face of the planet will be forever changed. For 50 years, that terror lingered behind every moment. The world lived with the knowledge that one person just had to hit a button and the nuclear holocaust would come.

We don’t worry about it as much anymore. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the idea of mass nuclear devastation has been turned into little more than a fantasy backdrop for movies and videos games. But the threat hasn’t really gone away. The bombs are still there, just waiting for someone to press the button. And there are always new enemies to destroy.

Scientists have run tests and simulations to understand what life will be like after the bomb. Some people will survive. But life in the smoldering remains of a devastated world will be completely changed.

This week like every other has news made by humans. Because humans are stupid creatures, the news is, as always, also stupid. Here are just 10 of the stupid things humans have gotten up to this week. Morris M is away this week, so the tone is different. Get over it quickly.