long prostheses that turned her into a more than two meters high woman. For Aimée, having been amputated is not a boundary but a challenge which makes her overcome her limits. “Pamela Anderson has more prosthetics than I do and no one says she’s handicapped”, she says. Napalm: in 1972, U.S. warplanes bombed the small town of Tran Bang, South Vietnam, with napalm (“jellied gasoline” highly flammable, invented by the Nazi military during the Spanish War of 1936-1939). As the survivors of the attack fled from their straw houses on fire, Nick Ut photographed a naked girl running toward him: “it’s too hot, it’s too hot”, she cried. Her name was Phan Thi Kim Phuc, she was nine and napalm was eating her body as seconds went by. Nick Ut took her to a hospital, where the girl spent fourteen months: she had third degree burns over 65% of her body and had seventeen surgeries performed to implant skin in 35% of his body. Nick Ut’s photo is the most famous image of the armed conflict that ravaged Vietnam between 1964-1975 due to the U.S. military occupation. The same year, 1972, he received the Pulitzer Prize. The girl who was burned was converted into a media icon by those who had given the order to toss napalm on her house made of straw. Oven: according to an ancient legend of Ghana, Iyaloda was a deity who lived on earth with her friend, animals and plants. One day, she was very bored and decided to create children: “Look”, she said to her companion, “we’ll bake cakes and we’ll get them in the oven.” “Ok, it’s a nice idea”, he said. They created some figures and put them in the oven. The first girls and boys came out as white as snow. The following came out dark as night. And the last came half cooked, toasty and golden. “Very well”, said Iyaloda, excited, “now, let’s do some more ...” “No”, said her companion feeling a little bit hot, “we have enough children for now! We should wake them up so that they can move and walk.” “You’re right”, replied Iyaloda. Then, the two spirits breathed life into the cupcakes and this is how the first human beings were born. Pyromaniac: person who goes through (or “burns”) the border between Morocco and Spain illegally. Pyrotechnics: pyrotechnics was born in China, between the VI and X centuries. The Chinese discovered that if bamboo was filled with gunpowder and ignited, an explosion occurred: boom! The “ground rat” (or “drunk rocket”) was born in 1200 and when given wings, the sky was filled with fireworks. The military use of fireworks stands officially at the battle of Kai-Keng, 1232, when the Chinese were able to intimidate the Mongol military rocket base. The expansion of pyrotechnics to the rest of the world took place then, thanks to the Mongols, who perfected it to counter the Chinese and carried with them on their journey to Europe. This is how the European military artillery was born: cannons throwing stones and pieces of iron, during the Battle of Crecy, 1346. Centuries of development have resulted in millions of firearms: muskets, carbines, pistols, shotguns, machine guns, tanks, howitzers and more. Rain: between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009, took place the Operation Cast Lead (also called Summer Rain). For three weeks, Israel besieged and attacked militarily by land, air and sea in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. It is estimated that between 1,166 and 1,417 Palestinians died, most of them unarmed civilians, and 13 Israelis. According to the official government’s spokesmen, the offensive took place as a defensive response to rising Qassam rocket attacks by Hamas on Israeli territory. During the bombing a highly flammable and explosive chemical was used, one which cannot be extinguished with water: white phosphorus. The aircrafts burnt a school that the UN had built and where civilians had taken shelter to protect themselves against air raids. Witch: children’s tales describe witches as ugly, bad and with a wart on their noses. Real witches, with or without warts, usually ended up stoned, hanging from gallows or burning in a stake. Still today, in some parts of the world, some persons die accused of being witches. If we focus on the history of witches in Europe, we will see that, contrary to what it is usually said, the moment of highest persecution was not during the Medieval Age, but after the 15th century. The word witch has been used to define a very varied spectrum of persons and it has been redefined, widened or reduced depending on the historical context of the moment. Normally, the accused was blamed of
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