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Found: Evidence That Cat-Sized 'Rat-Kangaroos' Once Hopped the Earth
Part of the skull of an ancient rat-kangaroo. (Photo: Museum of Western Australia)In northeastern Australia, archaeologists have discovered the teeth and bones belonging to two previously unknown...
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This Century-Old Map Details the Path to Musical Success
Theodore Presser's how-to guide for musical success. (Photo: PJ Mode Collection at Cornell's Digital Library/CC BY-SA 3.0)When it comes to finding success, practice does really make perfect.That’s the...
View ArticleWatch These Death-Defying Mexican Dancers Fly
In the Mexican state of Veracruz, men climb a 100-foot pole to ask the gods to end drought in a death-defying, 450-year-old tradition known as Danza de los Voladores or Dance of the Flyers. In this...
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Underwater Establishments Where You Can Sleep and Eat With the Fishes
Sleeping with the fishes in an underwater room. (Photo: Kwanini, The Manta Resort)Sometimes you just want to get away. Like really away. Like "bottom of the ocean" away.Maybe you want to submerge for a...
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Grave of Andy Warhol in Castle Shannon
A site of pilgrimage for many art fans, Andy Warhol continues to be part of popular media as his gravesite is broadcast 24 hours a day on his museum's website.Andy Warhol once said, "I never understood...
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Parting of the Waters in Moran, Wyoming
High in the Bridger-Teton National Forest there is a creek that splits in two. If you were a trout, you could choose between swimming down one stream to the Pacific Ocean, or down the other to the...
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Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York
If you've seen the Broadway musical 'Book of Mormon,' you'll be at least somewhat familiar with the story of Joseph Smith's golden plates. It's a story so significant to the Mormon faith it's reenacted...
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Stokes Castle in Austin, Nevada
They say a man’s home is his castle. In the case of mine developer and railroad magnate Anson Phelps Stokes, the saying was quite literal.Stokes was one of several wealthy east coast investors that saw...
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Hamsey Island Plague Church in Hamsey, United Kingdom
A church has always held a position in the centre of most villages, towns and cities — it’s not long after a new settlement has been established that a place of worship is erected. However, on an...
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Schrotkugelturm (Shot Ball Tower) in Berlin, Germany
In 1908 the Juhl & Sons Lead Foundry and Machine Factory (a.k.a. "Bleigießerei und Maschinenfabrik Juhl & Söhne") built the five-story "Schrotkugelturm," or Shot Ball Tower, in Berlin. After...
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The Grave of Rope Walker in Corsicana, Texas
Rope Walker was a peg-legged Jewish tightrope walker who died in 1884, when he fell from a rope stretched across one of the town’s main streets. He had an iron stove strapped to his back.According to...
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The Libertarian Economic Theory That Might Be Secretly Driving Pokémon Go
Finding Pokémon at the observation point of Zion National Park, Utah. (Photo: Tydence Davis/CC BY 2.0)A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the...
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Dubuque Shot Tower in Dubuque, USA
This 120-foot structure that stretches to the sky is one of the country’s last remaining shot towers. However it never fully got the chance to do its job.Built in 1856 in Dubuque, Iowa as a shot tower...
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Google Just Accurately Simulated a Molecule With Quantum Computing
The Space Shuttle's main thruster burning hydrogen. (Photo: Public domain)Quantum computing is the future of computing, and, like traditional computing, can get pretty complicated. But one of its chief...
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The First Democratic Convention on Live TV Was the Last Not to be...
The 1948 presidential campaign, which would later result in one of the most famously wrong newspaper headlines in American history, was complicated. For the first time ever, three candidates—Democrat...
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The Graves of Robert E. Lee's Garden in Arlington, Virginia
Confederate general Robert E. Lee's former residence now lies in the heart of Arlington Cemetery. However, this wouldn't be true if it weren't for the dozens of soldiers buried on the perimeter of the...
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Sparks Shot Tower in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Long before ammunition factories churned out bullets using sophisticated automated technology, the weapons industry in the U.S. relied on shot towers like this one. Built in Philadelphia in 1808, the...
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Cheese Lane Shot Tower in Bristol, England
The shot tower on Cheese Lane in Bristol is unique among its ilk because of its distinctive shape, but also because it's relatively new. It was built in 1969 to replace the world's first shot tower and...
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Phoenix Shot Tower in Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore's Phoenix Shot Tower, also known as "the Old Baltimore Shot Tower," was the tallest structure in the United States when it was built in 1828. Its cornerstone was laid by Charles Carroll, the...
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How a 4-Year-Old's Letter to His Father Survived the Civil War
Precious scrawls and squiggles. (Photo: David Plotz)At first glance, it’s hard to see why New York's Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History would hold the above letter in its collection. The...
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