The Colossus of Rhodes was a gigantic 33-metre-high statue of the sun god Helios which stood by the harbour of that city from c. 280 BCE, one of the most important trading ports in the ancient Mediterranean. Made by the local sculptor Chares using bronze, the statue soon appeared on contemporary travel writer’s lists of must-see sights and was thus known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient... 

As every Olympic athlete knows, size matters. The London 2012 medals are the largest ever in terms of both weight and diameter – almost double the medals from Beijing. However, just as equally well-known is that quality beats quantity and that is where the current global austerity, coin-clipping, devaluation-fest begins. The 2012 gold is 92.5 percent silver, 6.16 copper and… 1.34 percent gold,...