Maugham was an English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer who abandoned a career in medicine when his first novel had some success. He wrote several popular plays and a total of eight novels before writing his breakthrough masterpiece, the partly autobiographical Of Human Bondage (1915). An expert storyteller, Maugham based many of his stories on his own experiences, including what short story collection that influenced Ian Fleming’s James Bond series? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
The economy of Dubai is increasingly dependent on tourism to generate revenue and bring foreign dollars into the emirate, and the three Palm Islands were commissioned to do just that. Shaped like palm trees, these artificial islands are the largest in the world and house luxury hotels, exclusive residential beachside villas and apartments, shopping malls, restaurants, sports facilities, and health spas. What method is used to construct the complex artificial islands? 
Shoichi Yokoi was a Japanese soldier who went into hiding in the jungles of Guam in 1944 as Allied forces took the island; 28 years later, he was still there. He had hidden in an underground cave, fearing to come out of hiding even after finding leaflets declaring that WWII had ended. In 1972, he was found by hunters and returned to Japan. He was the third-to-last Japanese soldier to surrender after the war, before Hiroo Onoda and Teruo Nakamura. What did Yokoi allegedly say upon his return? 
Tradition calls for 
The nephew of Roman emperor Trajan, Hadrian became emperor when he was adopted and named successor just before Trajan’s death, after years of intrigue. After executing his senatorial opponents and abandoning many of Trajan’s conquests, he began to travel widely, and many of his accomplishments were related to his visits abroad, including the beginning of construction of Hadrian’s Wall. The wall is one of the largest and most significant remains of the Roman occupation of what area? 
Read, an Englishwoman who was born in the late 17th century, spent much of her life disguised as a man and working in industries generally reserved for men. She was on a ship bound for the West Indies when it was captured by pirate captain Calico Jack Rackham. Read joined his crew and became one of the most notorious female pirates of the time. When Rackham’s ship was captured and the crew sentenced to death, Read received a stay of execution after she “pled her belly,” a reference to what?