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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.

 
Signpost Park in Witnica, Poland
Located in the small town of Witnica roughly halfway between the German-Polish border crossing at Kostrzyn and the city of Gorzów Wielkopolski, this public park has gathered signposts and other objects that focus not just on local history, but on human progress more generally. Its paths are divided into four distinct areas visible on the park map. These are the “area of road culture,” the “area of civilizational milestones,” the “area of reflection,” and the “area of fantasy.” The...

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Hili Grand Tomb in Al Ain, United...
The city of Al Ain, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is famed for its palm oasis and ancient beehive tombs, but there is another archaeological monument dating back to the Bronze Age. Located next to the Omani border, the Hili Archaeological Park is a popular hangout for local families, but as the name suggests, it’s a lot more than just a children’s playground. Hili is considered the largest archaeological site in the United Arab Emirates. Its crown jewel is...

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Palazzo Parisio in Naxxar, Malta
Over generations, an 18th-century hunting lodge was passed from owner to owner, eventually becoming the Baroque palace it is today. In 1886, the building became Malta’s general post office. In 1898, Marquis Scicluna took ownership of the building, renovating it into a palace between 1900 and 1907. During World Wars I and II, Palazzo Parisio was used by the British Government to host soldiers and their families. In the 21st century, partial owner Marie Christianne Scicluna has renovated the building to...

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Remains of the Takao Foreigners' Cemetery in...
During the late Qing Dynasty at the end of the 19th century, as European powers established a commercial presence in Taiwan. In 1864, British consul Robert Swinhoe leased a plot of land at Takao (also spelled Takow, now Kaohsiung) with the intention of building a consulate there. However, the site was deemed unsuitable for the purpose, and the consulate was ultimately built elsewhere in 1879. However, the land at Takao remained in the hands of the British, and in 1871...

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Dozens of Alaska Rivers are Turning an...
Deep in northern Alaska’s Brooks Range, a network of pristine rivers snakes its way through 600 miles of tundra and glacial valleys. While the waters normally run a cool, crystal blue, scientists have noticed an alarming trend: Dozens of the range’s rivers have taken on an eerie shade of muddled orange. The reason for the change in color was as alarming as its hue: The waters are rusting. As permafrost melts, long-stored acids and metals—including iron—are released into rivers,...

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Grosvenor Estate Moon Tree in Bethesda, Maryland
Passersby could be forgiven for overlooking the tall loblolly pine a few hundred feet south of Grosvenor Lane in Bethesda, Maryland. After all, the sole indication that it’s anything more than a stately conifer is a worn wooden plaque at the base marked only with the number 12. As a matter of fact, this specimen is one of the “moon trees” grown from seeds carried on Apollo 14, deposited here among care homes and condominiums by the unexpected history...

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L'Ange de la Baie in Nice, France
Memorials for terrorist attack victims were relatively rare in France prior to 2015; with just half a dozen plaques commemorating events that occurred between 1974 and 2015. Sadly, this changed, with an increase in attacks on French soil beginning in 2015. One such attack occurred in Nice on the evening of July 14, 2016, Bastille Day.   A cargo truck was driven into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais. The attack resulted in the deaths of 86...

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Het Roze Huisje (Pink House) in...
Leiden is a historical city with buildings that go back to medieval times, most of which are still inhabited. Like in Amsterdam, these buildings are largely protected and kept in their original state. For this reason, you will rarely see one of these houses painted in a bright color—except for this one, which is a rosy shade of pink. The pink house was built in 1635. Architecturally, it isn’t all that different from the hundreds of other houses from...

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Kolache Shoppe in Houston, Texas
When it comes to essential American regional breakfast dishes, Texan kolaches could give New York bagels a run for their money. Much like bagels, kolaches arrived in the United States via European immigration. A pastry originally of Czech origin, Texan kolaches feature a pillowy dough and fillings both sweet, like apricot or cream cheese, and savory—featuring sausage and jalapeño kielbasa.  It’s worth noting that the original Czech kolaches were almost exclusively sweet, and savory varieties were actually called klobasniky....

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Burns Original BBQ in Houston, Texas
Texas is home to not one, not two, but four subtly distinct styles of barbecue: Central, Southern, Hill Country, and East. The latter is often distinguished by its low and slow cooking style; use of oak, hickory, and pecan wood; and emphasis on pork. And in Houston, the best East Texas barbecue can surely be found at the four locations of Burns Original BBQ.  A mainstay of Houston’s historic Acres Homes neighborhood, the original Burns was opened in 1973...

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Molina's Cantina in Houston, Texas
Opened in 1941, Molina’s Cantina is Houston’s oldest still-operating Tex-Mex restaurant and a venerated institution. The original location at 1919 West Gray was known as Old Monterrey. It was purchased by Raul Molina Sr., who had worked there for a decade, originally as a dishwasher and busboy, and his wife Mary. Today, the business is helmed by the family’s next generation—Raul III, Ricardo, and Roberto.  Start off your Tex-Mex feast with staples like the original “Jose’s Dip,” which blends...

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Fonte Ciane in Syracuse, Italy
According to Ancient Greek-Sicilian mythology, the Fonte Ciane was the location where Hades entered the underworld with his bride Persephone, daughter of the goddess Demeter. As the Roman author Ovid recounts, Ciane—a water nymph and companion to Persephone—attempted to prevent Hades from absconding with his unwilling bride. When her rhetoric failed to persuade the god of the underworld, the nymph Ciane was overcome with grief and dissolved into tears, creating this azure lake.   Diodorus Siculus’ The Library of History...

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Cajun Kitchen in Houston, Texas
Set in an Asiatown strip mall, Cajun Kitchen is Houston’s preeminent destination for Viet-Cajun—a hybrid cuisine that emerged when Vietnamese refugees along the Gulf Coast began applying the techniques of Southeast Asian seafood boils to local crawfish. Though it can be found nationally nowadays, Viet-Cajun is undeniably a Houston specialty.  Originally opened in 2005 as a traditional Cajun crawfish restaurant, Cajun Kitchen took on a more Viet-Cajun focus in 2015 when current owner John Nguyen assumed the reins. Nguyen,...

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Cachoeiras do Horto (Horto Waterfalls) in Rio...
Cachoeiras do Horto encompasses three waterfalls, which can be accessed by a medium-difficulty hike in the woods. They’re some of the many waterfalls found in the Tijuca Forest, a national park in the heart of Rio de Janeiro and the world’s largest urban forest. Tijuca National Park is a 40 square kilometer swath of the Atlantic forest, a vast ecosystem that contains impressive biodiversity. The Atlantic forest once covered over 350 million acres, but logging, development, and other human activity...

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How to Tell a Great Campfire Story
A flicker of firelight illuminated the campers’ faces as they leaned in to hear the lost legends of the forest. “It was a night kind of like this,” began award-winning storyteller Gary Ferguson. “The river was whispering in the distance. The smell of pine was in the air.” Just then, a whip of wind stirred the embers. Clouds enshrouded the moon and a lone howl rose up from the blackness beyond the campfire’s thin ring of light. Ferguson continued,...

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