Black Cats Nothing says Halloween like a pumpkin or jack-o’-lantern. But right beneath the orange squashes in the pantheon of spooky symbols are ghosts, skeletons, bats, vampires, zombies, witches, and black cats. How did adorable, ebony felines end up signifying Halloween alongside fictional monsters? 🎃 👻 💀 🦇 🧛 🧟🧙🏼♀️ 🐈⬛ Evil denizen or gorgeous floof? – photo by Editleyici
The History of Eclipse Photography Here lie the bodies of Ho and HiWhose fate though sad was visible,Being hanged because they could not spyTh’eclipse which was invisible. Heigh ho! ’tis said, that being drunkThus brought them into trouble,But surely this is incorrect,As drunken folks see double! —Book of Documents Since the dawn of the Solar System,
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The Race That Eats Its Young In April 1968, James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis. After a two-month stint on the run across the United States, Canada, and England, authorities apprehended Ray in London as he attempted to flee to Africa. Back in the USA, Ray landed in Tennessee’s Brushy Mountain
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Marathon Rejoice, we conquer! — Pheidippides, Robert Browning One of the most ubiquitous automobile decals is a simple outlined oval with the number 26.2 emblazoned within it. It means, depending on one’s viewpoint, that the driver is crazy, impressive, smug, masochistic, or some mixture of all four. The sticker signals the car’s owner ran 26.2 miles, otherwise known
Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks Machu Picchu. The Great Wall of China. The Taj Mahal. The Pyramids of Giza. The Colosseum. Petra. Stonehenge. These emblematic wonders are recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as World Heritage Sites; they are landmarks and areas so culturally significant that they warrant international legal protection. Nearly any universally
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American Stonehenge: The Newark Octagon In entering the ancient avenue for the first time, the visitor does not fail to experience a sensation of awe, such as he might feel in passing the portals of an Egyptian temple, or in gazing upon the silent ruins of Petra of the desert. –Ephraim George Squier and Edwin
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Danish Protest Pigs It’s no revelation that the history of Europe is complex. The countries we see today are just the latest configuration of a jigsaw puzzle that has altered shapes and piece totals over thousands of years. If anything, today’s map is relatively uncomplicated compared to centuries past, before nation-states existed and tiny kingdoms,
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The Fastest Human-Made Object “Many years later, when I was in Baikonur, the subject of Russia being the first to launch something into space came up. I did not raise my hand to add to the discussion, though I thought about doing so.” — Robert Brownlee What is the fastest object ever crafted by humans? If
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Sin City You pulled off something unthinkable. You robbed a casino in Las Vegas and made it out the door. The heat hits you in the face. It’s a dry heat, sure, but it’s still 110 degrees Fahrenheit. As you ponder the getaway plan, which involves walking nonchalantly down the Strip, trying to blend in like a
