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Found: A 1902 Motorcycle That May Be the First to Make It Across the U.S.
The 1902 California motorbike that may be Wyman's. (Image: George A. Wyman Memorial Project)In 1903, George Wyman rode a 1902 California motorcycle all the way from San Francisco to New York and became...
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For Sale: A Massively Anti-Semitic Letter Sent By William Howard Taft
Taft's official White House portrait. (Photo: Anders Zorn/Public Domain)“Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in free America.” - William Howard Taft, 1920A noble...
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Missouri's Great Escaped Snake Scare of 1953
A police office holding one of the cobras caught in Springfield, Missouri, in 1953. (Photo: Courtesy History Museum on the Square)In 1953, Springfield, Missouri, was a city of about 65,000 people and...
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For Hours, A Glitch in Britain Sent Everyone's Outgoing Emails To Some Guy
This is not Steve Webb. (Photo: Gale Sherry/Public Domain)This Tuesday afternoon in Britain, millions of internet users emailed dinner plans, business deals, and/or life-changing secrets to their...
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The Rise of Pirate Libraries
Only a tiny fraction of the world's knowledge. (Photo: David Iliff/CC-BY-SA-3.0)All around the world, shadow libraries keep growing, filled with banned materials. But no actual papers trade hands:...
View ArticleWatch a Japanese Man Play 'Amazing Grace' on a Cabbage
You're probably heard "Amazing Grace" a bunch of times. But have you heard it played on a cabbage, by an endlessly cheery Japanese man, to the accompaniment of a synth backing track?Junji Koyama makes...
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Lehigh Millennium Folk Arch in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
There is a rambling, brambly park on the campus of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, full of scruffy, feral, enchanting sculptures.In 1999 Lehigh University offered a course called “Raw...
View ArticleThis is the Oldest Message in a Bottle Ever Found
#GuinnessWorldRecords confirms discovery of world's oldest message in a bottle https://t.co/UN7xAYthUOpic.twitter.com/hFV6MywoGl— dna (@dna) April 21, 2016Over 108 years ago, George P. Bidder III cast...
View ArticleSusan B. Anthony's Grave Covered in 'I Voted' Stickers After Primary
Susan B. Anthony gravesite, Rochester NY, photographed yesterday. (Photo credit: Greta Paige-Mann.) pic.twitter.com/X6GmmOactM— KStreetHipster (@KStreetHipster) April 20, 2016This Tuesday,...
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Kasteelruine Fluweelengrot in Valkenburg, Netherlands
On a hill in the town of Valkenburg, in the southern province of Limburg, the ruins of a Dutch castle sit on top of a sprawling network of tunnels and passageways. Known as Kasteelruine Fluweelengrot,...
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The Last Operating Synagogue in Afghanistan in Kabul, Afghanistan
Jews have been living in Afghanistan for the last 1500 years, and their population in 1948 was over 5,000. That all changed in 1951, when the government of Afghanistan allowed all Afghani Jews to...
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Why 19th-Century Naturalists Didn't Believe in the Platypus
George Shaw's depiction of a duck-billed platypus from 1809. (Photo: New York Public Library)In his laboratory study in 1799, biologist George Shaw stared down at his new specimen in disbelief. The...
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How Prince Took Over Minnesota
Prince performing in 1982. (Photo: Yves Lorson/CC BY 2.0)Today the world mourns a musical genius.Prince was a beloved singularity, whose career stretched across nearly four decades, with tours spanning...
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Sports City in Amman, Jordan
Named after Jordan's third monarch, King Hussein Sports City sits crumbling in the center of Amman. Drained swimming pools, empty gymnasiums, and miles of overgrown track lie nestled between two major...
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The DEA's Training Manuals Reveal a Hazy Stance on Marijuana
(Photo: Brett Levin/CC BY-SA 2.0)A version of this story originally appeared on Muckrock.com.Last week, MuckRock reviewed the Drug Enforcement Administration's training documents on techniques to...
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The Road through Naypyidaw in NPD, Myanmar (Burma)
Few people visit Myanmar's new capital city of Naypyidaw, despite the government's claim that it houses one million inhabitants. Fewer still can be seen driving along the often empty streets. When...
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The Golden Shopping Mall in Queens, New York
Contrary to what its name implies, the Golden Shopping Mall isn't a particularly glamorous place to search for discounts on out-of-season jackets. However for anyone with an adventurous palate and an...
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The Templeton Library in Sewanee, TN
Sir John Templeton was born a bright, vigorous lad in Winchester, TN, with no indication that he would be someday become the sort of man to stumble out of a Gothic Victorian novel. Along with an...
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You're Missing Shakespeare's Best, Most Sophisticated Boner Jokes
An early 19th-century depiction of Queen Elizabeth I at the Globe, watching The Merry Wives of Windsor. (Photo: Folger Shakespeare Library/CC BY-SA 4.0)It’s no secret to anyone who’s taken freshman...
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Found: A Giant Coral Reef at the Mouth of the Amazon River
The mouth of the Amazon River. (Photo: NASA/Public domain)In their most iconic form, coral reefs are found in crystal-clear tropical waters, not the muddy mouth of a river. In fact, Patricia Yager, a...
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