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By Setareh Janda – Who was Mata Hari? Exotic dancer, courtesan, seductress, spy, and femme fatale: Mata Hari was many things to many different people. But she is perhaps best remembered for the fact that she was executed during World War I …
Depending on where you’re from, you say words like ‘basil’ a specific way. Leonie Broekstra/Shutterstock.com. By Christine Mallinson, Professor of Language, Literacy and Culture and Director of the Center for Social Science Scholarship, University of Maryland, Baltimore County Curious Kids is a …
By Michael Irving – The discovery of a novel protein in a meteorite strengthens the argument that life’s building blocks arrived from space. paulfleet/Depositphotos. – Scientists have discovered a full, previously-unknown protein inside a meteorite for the first time. Named hemolithin, the new protein …
By Setareh Janda – Anyone who grew up reading Scott O’Dell’s classic Island of the Blue Dolphins was probably captivated by the main character. She is a young woman who lives on an island in the Pacific Ocean totally alone. Her entire tribe has …
By Loz Blain – Designed for symmetry to keep the parts list down, the Citroen Ami’s right and left doors are the same part. Thus, they open in opposite directions. Copyright maison-vignaux @ Continental Productions. – A truly unique little car is coming to …
By Amanda Sedlak-Hevener – Who was Victoria Woodhull? You might not know her name, but once you hear her story, you’ll never forget her. She was the first woman to run for President of the United States, and as a third-party candidate, no …
After a month of record-breaking temperatures, a kind of snow algae that turns ruby-hued in warm temperatures thrives. So-called ‘watermelon snow’ sounds better than it looks and tastes; do not eat the pink snow. (Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine) By Lily …
An 1801 poll list from Somerset County, New Jersey, held by the New Jersey State Archives in Trenton. At least 46 of the 343 voters on the list appear to be women. Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times. By Jennifer Schuessler …
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Map showing the source languages of state names – The fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, the five inhabited U.S. territories, and the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands have taken their names from a wide variety of …
It’s changing the definition of what an animal can be. By Scottie Andrew, CNN – These are the spores of a game-changing parasite called Henneguya salminicola. It’s the first animal found that doesn’t breathe oxygen. – You’d think all animals would need oxygen …