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The Hushed Interiors of 19th Century Libraries
Main reading room, the New York Public Library, c. 1910. (Photo: Library of Congress/LC-DIG-det-4a24347)Public libraries as we know them – government-funded, free to access – have existed since the...
View ArticleFound: A Mesmerizing Jellyfish With Bright Yellow Gonads
Starting April 20, a team of scientists set out on NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer ship to explore the Marianas trench, the deepest part of the ocean. They’ve been searching through some of the deepest and...
View ArticleSurgery's Open Secret: It Smells
Masks will be very important later on in this post! (Photo: Phalinn Ooi/CC BY 2.0)Here's something most people don't know about surgery—at a certain point in an operation, it can smell. Really bad.My...
View ArticleFor Sale: Over $1 Million in Costumes and Props from The Hunger Games
(Photo: Kendra Miller/CC BY-ND 2.0)Offer yourself up as tribute, because The Hunger Games are going on sale. On May 20th, The World of The Hunger Games auction is going to be selling off a whole...
View ArticleThere's Only One State Where You Can Become a Master Cheesemaker
Wisconsin cheesemakers don't mess around. (Photo: Boston Public Library/Public Domain)There is only one state in America in which cheesemaking is elevated to an almost otherworldly realm. That state...
View ArticleTwo Baby Eagles Ate A Kitten While Pittsburgh Watched
(Photo: Coffee/CC0)Spring is baby animal season, and humans really don't want to miss out. We've got cams trained on Alaskan bear cubs and Maryland turkey chicks. We're hitting refresh on sharks and...
View ArticleThe First Woman To Put Her Face On Packaging Got Trolled Like Crazy
A Vegetable Compound label, featuring the portrait that confused the world. (Image: Public Domain)As every single person on the Internet knows, women who dare to enter the public eye are regularly...
View ArticleOver Half a Ton of Ancient Roman Coins Unearthed by Construction Workers
1,300 pounds of ancient Roman coins discovered by construction workers in Spain https://t.co/cZqIZXAAk0pic.twitter.com/SByjbPmNdJ— CNN (@CNN) April 29, 2016Over 1,300 pounds of ancient Roman coins were...
View ArticleWatch Hopes and Dreams Get Crushed in Seconds
Tune into minute two of this video, and you'll see that watching the crushing of hopes and dreams has never been more fun! Hydraulic presses are normally used for forging, molding, and metal forming...
View ArticleThe U.S. Has Mountains of Cheese in Storage
(Photo: Taryn/CC BY-SA 2.0)Maybe this is a dream you have. To be in a room with a mountain of cheese. Well, around 1.2 million pounds of it is stored at this very minute in industrial refrigerators...
View ArticleNewly Found Walt Whitman Series Reveals He Advocated for Paleo Diet
Walt Whitman in 1887 in New York. (Photo: George C. Cox/Public Domain)It turns out that Walt Whitman, known as the bard of democracy, also had some pretty strong views when it comes to diet, exercise,...
View ArticleThe World's Most Powerful Particle Collider Was Thwarted by a Weasel
Inside part of the Large Hadron Collider. (Photo: Image Editor/CC BY 2.0)Located in the countryside near Geneva, Switzerland, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful and expensive...
View ArticleWolverines Are Now Being Trained to Find Avalanche Survivors
A wolverine, a native species notorious for its relentless hunting and scavenging instincts. (Photo: Per Harald Olsen/NTNU/CC BY 2.0)People have recruited animals for all kinds of tasks throughout...
View ArticleThe Legacy of May Day Violence isn't a Maypole—It's the 8-Hour Workday
Workers in a fuse factory in the 1800s. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)May Day is a confusing holiday in America. For most who think of it, it celebrates the ancient Celtic day of flowers and...
View ArticleArmy General Inadvertently Creates Stir with Mention of 'Little Green Men'
UFO theorists believe alien life has already made contact with planet earth. (Photo: Flickr Media Commons/Davide.Santoni)For anyone who believes in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and alien-human...
View ArticleSingaporean English is Almost Impossible to Pick Up
The Merlion is a famous statue and symbol of Singapore. "To merlion" in Singlish means to puke everywhere. (Photo: WolfgangSladkowski/CC BY 3.0)"Two dollar onny, dis one," a street vendor might say to...
View ArticleThe Fascist Building in Upper Manhattan
Casa Italiana at Columbia University. (Photo: Another Believer/CC BY-SA 3.0)Columbia University's Casa Italiana is most recognizable today for a star turn in FX's spy thriller The Americans. While a...
View ArticleHow to Raise an Army by Debasing Your Currency and Screwing Your Neighbor
Coin debasers hard at work. (Photo: Public domain)In the early 17th century, Germany's numerous lords, princes, and sundry other rulers had a problem. This area of the world was on the verge of a war....
View ArticleFor Sale: Rare Picasso Tableware that Could Fetch Millions
Not great for eating on, but still worth millions. (Photo: coffee shop soulja/CC BY 2.0)For the first time in history, a complete set of Pablo Picasso’s embossed silver plates is going up for auction....
View ArticleFound: Captain Cook’s Ship
The HMS Endeavor. (Image: Samuel Atkins/Public domain)In 1768, James Cook sailed from England in a ship named the Endeavour. He was aiming for the Pacific Ocean and the lands there that Britain had yet...
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