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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
How to Make Smoked Foods From Around...
Steven Raichlen doesn’t know exactly how the first humans began smoking their food, but he has an idea. “We were probably sitting around a fire with strips of meat posted on sticks downwind of it, because we’d realized flies don’t like smoke,” he says. “And when we tasted that meat, not only were there no flies on it, but it had this amazing flavor, too.” He admits it’s pure conjecture, but having written the book on smoked foods, Raichlen...

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How Students Built a 16th-Century Engineer’s Book-Reading...
Agostino Ramelli, the 16th-century Italian military engineer, designed many contraptions for the changing Renaissance landscape, including cranes, grain mills, and water pumps. But his most compelling apparatus was one meant to nurture the mind: a revolving wooden wheel with angled shelves, which allowed users to read multiple books at one time. “This is a beautiful and ingenious machine, very useful and convenient for anyone who takes pleasure in study, especially those who are indisposed and tormented by gout,” Ramelli...

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For Sale: Proof That Legendary Scientists Were...
There’s a tendency to think of scientists as emotionally distant—two left brains for the price of a right. Ironically, the more iconic the scientist, the more we ought to know about them, the more that image tends to calcify: Think of it as the Genius Industry™. A forthcoming online sale by Christie’s auction house, however, offers a slew of items that show off famous scientists’ more personal sides. Though the sale, called “Eureka! Scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century,”...

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Madama Lucrezia in Roma, Italy
This colossal statue known in Rome as “Madama Lucrezia” is located on the right side of the church in Piazza San Marco, Rome. This fragmentary statue is believed to be either an Isiac statue (the Goddess Isis herself or a priestess of the temple of Isis in Rome), or a portrait of Empress Faustina, wife of Constantius II. It’s known as “Madama Lucrezia” (Dame Lucrezia) in honor of Lucrezia D’Alagno, the lover of Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples...

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Gravesend in Brooklyn, New York
The village of Gravesend was founded by Lady Deborah Moody, the wealthy widow of an English baronet and an Anabaptist who fiercely opposed infant baptism. After initially settling in Massachusetts, Lady Deborah fled from the Puritan-led colony where her proselytizing wasn’t welcome, and headed for New Amsterdam, where the Dutch colonizer and director-general William Kieft, glad to have settlers, granted her a land patent. (Kieft had seized control of this land by carrying out numerous genocides of the indigenous...

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Cologne Central Mosque in Cologne, Germany
Designed in an Ottoman architectural style, this mosque has a concrete and glass dome with two minarets. The mosque houses a commercial area and an entrance on the ground floor. On the upper floors of the building, there is a space for prayer and a Muslim library. Gottfried Böhm and his son Paul Böhm, who specialized in building churches, were responsible for the mosque’s construction and design. The massive structure was first commissioned by German Muslims who belonged to the Turkish-Islamic Union...

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Through the Flower Art Space in Belen,...
Famous—and sometimes infamous—feminist artist Judy Chicago has spent some of her best years at this small town street corner in Belen, New Mexico. Becker Avenue and Second Street is home to Through the Flower Art Space, a museum and gallery created by Judy Chicago and her photographer husband Donald Woodman. Chicago—yes, originally from Chicago, Illinois—made a home in Belen in the 1990s in a two-story historic hotel, once in shambles and restored by the definitive artist and Woodman. The...

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L.A.’s Insects Are Hairy, Iridescent, and Crazy...
Lisa Gonzalez is the kind of photographer who knows how to make her subjects look good. It involves a bit of fussing and preening, maybe some artful arranging of limbs. When her sitters look a little shriveled, she rehydrates them; when they’re unkempt, she grooms them. Gonzalez’s task is complicated by the fact that some of her subjects are smaller than a grain of rice. Sometimes she has to use a brush with a single bristle. Gonzalez is an...

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The Lion of Chaeronea in Cheronia, Greece
The Lion of Chearonea was erected after the battle of the same name (338 B.C), between the forces of Phillip II of Macedon and the combined forces of the Athenians, Thebans, Corinthians, and their allies. The battle ended with triumph for Phillip II, and severe casualties for his enemies. It is believed that more than 1.000 people died from the Athens alone. According to Pausanias, the lion was erected by the Thebans to commemorate their fallen. Under the monument,...

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Behind a New Jersey Hardware Store, a...
Mantua Township is like a lot of South Jersey—15,000 people, the look of sleepy crossroads village combined with the chain stores and restaurants of a typical American suburb. One seemingly unremarkable spot in Mantua Township is a Lowe’s hardware store on Woodbury Glassboro Road. But it hides something extraordinary. Out back, there’s a an old quarry that’s now a giant mud pit. Descending into it, every step takes you back in time 400,000 years. All around are the lines...

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Montevergine Sanctuary in Mercogliano, Italy
The Montevergine Sanctuary is a religious complex located at a height of 4,170 feet above sea level, on the limestone massif of Montevergine, among the Appenine mountains of Campania, in southern Italy. The sanctuary was founded by the hermit Saint William of Vercelli (known also as William of Montevergine) in 1119, along with the monastic Order of Montevergine. The main area of the complex, the abbey later called Territoral Abbey of Montevergine, soon became the most important religious center in...

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Lake Thetis in Cervantes, Australia
Just outside the town of Cervantes, in Western Australia, there is a lake that doesn’t seem like much at first sight, but it happens to be home to a very precious life form, cyanobacteria. These very primitive bacteria were among the very first life forms present on Earth, more than three billion years ago. They are even thought to be responsible for producing the oxygen that later enabled more complex life forms to thrive on Earth. These colonies of...

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Tips for Hotels to Optimize Their Contactless...
Due to Covid-19, social distancing has advanced the prominence of contactless payments and with it the delivery of digital services. Consumer behavior highlights the growing acceptance and expectation of contactless services, requiring all businesses to adapt to existence. As the hotel industry prepares for the return of travelers, the industry must recognize the new consumer The post Tips for Hotels to Optimize Their Contactless Guest Journey appeared first on Revfine.com.

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Cedarcrest Hospital in Newington, Connecticut
Cedarcrest Regional Hospital was a 128-bed state hospital located in Newington. Its doors closed in 2010, and the residents were transferred to other facilities across Connecticut. Cedarcrest Hospital was founded in 1910 by the State Tuberculosis Commission and named Hartford County Home for the Care and Treatment of Persons Suffering from Tuberculosis. In 1912, it was renamed the Hartford State Sanatorium. From 1924 to 1976, Cedarcrest continued to change names and institutional purposes. In 1976, the facility finally became known...

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Forbes Mausoleum in Falkirk, Scotland
Callendar House is a sprawling, 14th-century French chateau surrounded by over 170 acres of lawn and forest. Heavily frequented by joggers and dog-walkers, the expansive grounds are home to magnificent flora, fauna, and a glistening pond.  Unbeknown to most, however, is the abandoned mausoleum that lies deeper within the forest. Dating back to 1816, Forbes Mausoleum is a circular, Classical monument memorializing the death of William Forbes I. Designed by Archibald Elliot, it boasts twelve fluted columns that emerge...

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