"My Kingdom will be a land of literacy", Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III), 1813

If you didn't know that Hawaii at one point had it's own currency, that's ok, neither did I. It was called the "Dala", and the exchange rate was pegged to the US dollar from which it took its name.

Did you know that for a six-month period of its history Hawaii was officially and illegally occupied by the British? Overthrown in February, 1843, the eventual nullification of the takeover by the British Crown would prompt King Kamehameha III to utter the phrase which now stands as the Hawaii state motto: Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono. The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.

Looking for more Hawaiian history? At Maui's Lahainaluna High School--itself the oldest public school in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains--the restored stone museum known as Hale Pa'i (The Printing House) offers visitors a fascinating window into the history of 19th century Hawaii.

When Western explorers arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in the late 1700's they found a native populace with no system of reading or writing. Instead, through the use of chant, song, and dance such as hula, native Hawaiian stories were passed orally down through the generations.

All of this changed, however, when American missionaries in 1821 decided to formulate an alphabet for the Hawaiian language. Using the naturally occurring sounds of the language, an original alphabet of 17 letters was penned down on paper before ultimately being shaved down to the current alphabet of only five vowels and seven consonants.

Gallery: Lahaina, Maui's Hale Pa'i Musem

Ah, the Good Old Days, when everyone lived in a perpetual Renaissance Festival quaffing ale and shouting "Huzzah!" It must have been wonderful.

Not!

People died young, the cities were filled with rats and open sewers, and God help you if you ever got arrested. You'd be taken to a torture chamber in order to "confess" while being subjected to various imaginative torture devices, like the rack shown here in a photo courtesy Jan Mehlich. It's from the torture exhibit in the Lubuska Land Museum in Zielona Góra, Poland. A victim would be tied to it and stretched until his limbs popped out of their sockets. The spikes on the cylinder would add an extra level of agony. This museum stands out among torture museums in that many of its objects were used in the local area.

Germany was a pretty rough place back in the Bad Old Days, and this has spawned several good torture museums in the country. The biggest is the Medieval Crime Museum in Rothenburg, with 2,000 square meters of displays on torture, execution and medieval law. Nuremberg has a preserved torture chamber underneath city hall.

Italy was a rough place too, and you can find out more at the Criminal Museum in Rome, the Museo della Tortura housed in the Devil's Tower in San Gimignano and the Museum of Criminal Anthropology in Turin. The latter museum is interesting because it reflects the 19th century belief that a person's physical features, especially the shape of the skull, could show criminal proclivities. Hundreds of skulls, brains and death masks from executed criminals are on display, as well as the weapons they used in their crimes and the instruments of their demise.

Gallery: Torture Museums of the World

Looking to add a little excitement to your summer? Then look no further than the Inca Rally, a new road race that is set to get underway in August and promises to offer plenty of adventure to those crazy enough to enter.

The three-week long event begins in Lima, Peru where racers will first barter for a car that is utterly ill suited for the roads they'll be driving on. Once they've acquired their sacrificial vehicle, they'll hit the road on August 1, driving across Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana. What route they take along the way is completely up to the drivers, they simply have to reach the finish line in time for the blowout party at the end of the three weeks.

This is pure adventure at its finest. There will be no support crews, few directives and plenty of freedom on the open road. Teams can choose to make their way through the Andes, visit the Amazon Rainforest, follow the scenic coasts or get completely off the beaten path. They can visit large, bustling cities or remote villages; they just have to get to the finish line in Georgetown, Guyana.

While the Inca Rally is meant to be a spirited adventure it will also help shine the spotlight on local charities and help raise funds for those organizations. You can find out more about the event and those charities on the Rally's official website, where you can sign up for the race as well.

We definitely need a Team Gadling in this event!

This Photo of the Day comes from Gadling Flickr pool member James Wheeler who captured the image using a Nikon D5000. The image is titled "Neighbouring Mountains."

James captions the image, "it had been a while since visiting Victoria but I was there over the Christmas holidays. I had forgotten how close it is to the states. This photo of the American mountains was taken from the shore of Victoria."

Upload your best shots to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. Several times a week we choose our favorite images from the pool as Photos of the Day.

Tips for getting featured: in your Flickr account check "Privacy and Permissions," and check "yes" on "Allow others to share your stuff." Adding information about your image does not hurt your chances either.

Consider for a moment the events of 1625.

Dutch settlers in North America established the city of New Amsterdam, which would become, of course, New York City. Theaters throughout London closed for eight months due to an epidemic of bubonic plague. And somewhere in a studio or garden in Japan, a bonsai artist began training a Japanese White Pine, the very tree that would become the centerpiece of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington, DC.

In 1976, thanks to Japan and its Bicentennial gift to the United States, the Department of Agriculture created the first museum in the world dedicated to the display of Japanese (bonsai) and Chinese (penjing) horticultural art. The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum now contains three pavilions - Chinese, Japanese and North American - with approximately 150 living sculptures interspersed with viewing stones (naturally shaped rocks that are the typical companions of bonsai) and strolling paths.

All manner of trees, from trident maples to California junipers are on view in miniature form in the museum. Highlights include a tree trained into the shape of a dragon; "Goshin," an artistic tree arrangement in the "forest style;" a shrunken, flat-topped Bald Cypress from the swamps of the American South; and the almost 400-year-old bonsai pine that is approximately the size of a front yard shrub. But what makes this museum a treat is its tranquility, a quality that is increasingly hard to find inside the Beltway. If you're looking for a moment of Zen, here's where to find it.

Gallery: The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum

Love to fly? Sure. What if you could have the experience of traveling first class without the hassle of security lines? We'd like that even better. But when the question comes to "do you love airplane food?" or "do you fly because of the food?" the answer is almost always "no," unless, of course, you make a regular habit of first or business-class international travel.

But a new restaurant in China is making waves for marrying the luxury of first-class travel with a fine dining concept. The A380 restaurant is actually the second of its kind – the first is in Taipei – and is drawing regular crowds who come to be served by waitresses dressed like flight attendants in a fully recreated upper class cabin interior.

What do you think? Would this fly in the United States?

Thanks to BornRich for the tip.

Unlike last year when late season snows hampered travel, visitors to Yellowstone this spring will find plenty of campsites open and available. The park has 12 campgrounds sprinkled across its 2.2 million acres of wilderness and each of them offers a unique and affordable way to visit one of the most spectacular wildernesses in all of North America.

Spring is the perfect time to visit Yellowstone for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the lack of crowds. By summer the park begins to fill up and during the peak months of July and August it can get quite crowded at times. But book your visit before June 15 and you'll avoid the high season altogether, giving you peaceful solitude across most of the park.

The return of spring also means that Yellowstone's trees and flowers are in bloom and its plentiful wildlife is on the move once again. Not only have the bears left their winter dens, cubs in tow, but the elk and bison are also birthing their calves throughout the region. Sharp-eyed visitors might even catch a glimpse of a moose or an elusive wolf as they explore the park's landscapes.

If you would like to experience spring in Yellowstone for yourself then book a campsite online by clicking here. Reservations can be made at five of the 12 sites online and at a cost of just $20.50 per night it is a real bargain.

It's no secret amongst my friends (and I suspect, most of my readers) that I'm obsessed with the more sordid aspects of humanity. Why? Hell if I know. As with most things, I blame my dad, the veterinarian. I'm pretty sure a childhood spent playing necropsy assistant has something to do with it.

My love of forensics is only the tip of the iceberg: psychiatry, taxidermy, eating weird shit and serial killers also make my list of fun things to read about or watch documentaries on when it's time to relax. I know – I'm a total freak.

Obviously, I'm not alone (do a quick Google search of "forensic television shows" and you'll see what I mean). There are also scads of museums and the like devoted to the seamier side of life, all across the U.S. My picks, after the jump.

P.S. If you find this reprehensible yet you've read this far, well, that makes you a bit of a voyeur, as well. Embrace it, and click away.

Oh the San Francisco Supermoon. It is so big in this image that it almost looks Photoshopped into this otherwise delicate depiction of the City by the Bay. Flickr user jrodmanjr documents San Francisco's recent encounter with the rare supermoon – the coincidence of the moon's closest approach to the earth with a full moon.

How bright or big is the moon where you are? Take a photo of it tonight and upload it to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. We choose our favorites among the pool to be Photos of the Day.

There comes a time in every man's life when they realize that (1) all of their friends are getting married and (2) all of their vacation days are spent hopping from ceremony to ceremony.

Welcome to wedding season, a period of time that can last anywhere from one summer to one decade... or indefinitely, depending on how popular you are. It involves lots of travel, lots of champagne toasts and lots of cover bands performing "At Last."

Packing for wedding season travel can be particularly tricky, but it improves with practice. Here, a handy list of essentials you may not normally think to bring along, from a wedding season vet.

FOR THE LADIES

An extra pair of flats or fancy sandals. Those heels might match your dress perfectly but they probably won't hold up to an all-night dance party. An extra set of flats or sandals, packed away in your purse, will be invaluable at 1 a.m.

A wrap. A nice, neutral shawl can get a ton of mileage, whether as a cover-up at the ceremony or as a scarf on the plane.

Waterproof mascara. Because love is a beautiful thing.