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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.

 
Bamberg Horseman in Bamberg, Germany
In the city of Bamberg in southern Germany, there is a mysterious statue. A young man sits atop a horse, a crown on his head and a cloak around his shoulders. This is the Bamberg Horseman, a statue that stands in Bamberg Cathedral. The statue was created by an unknown sculptor in the first half of the 13th century, and the figure it is meant to depict has been the source of debate for nearly 200 years. The Horseman is...

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Cittadella City Walls in Cittadella, Italy
During the Middle Ages, the cities of Northern Italy were in a state of constant competition to control as much territory as they could. This was especially true during the wars of the communes of the 13th century, and city walls were erected to protect numerous towns during this period. Though many of those walls have crumbled, the walls around historic Cittadella still stand. The town of Cittadella was founded in a strategic position halfway between the rival cities...

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‘Alice and the White Rabbit’ in Surrey,...
Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, spent his last years in Guildford, Surrey. Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, is even buried in Guildford. So it’s no wonder that there are several Alice-related spots throughout the town. One monument to the town’s literary associations can be found on the lawn by the River Wey. Titled “Alice and the White Rabbit,” it was created by local sculptor Edwin Russell in 1984. It depicts the book’s famous beginning, in...

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Unearthing the True Toll of the Tulsa...
This work first appeared on SAPIENS under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Read the original here. Just north of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, Greenwood once had one of the most successful African-American commercial districts in the country. By 1921, it was home to numerous black-owned businesses—beauty shops, grocery stores, restaurants, and the offices of lawyers, realtors, and doctors. Residents caught silent films and musical performances at the Dreamland Theater. They could choose between two neighborhood newspapers. Greenwood offered a place...

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Pinula Aqueduct in Guatemala City, Guatemala
Following an earthquake in 1773, Guatemala decided to move its capital city from Antigua to a new location, one ostensibly safer from natural disaster. But the new chosen location needed a consistent water source. The nearest viable source of water was to be found from the Pinula River, some five miles from the city center. To transport the water, the architect José Bernardo Ramírez, who planned much of what would become Guatemala City, designed an aqueduct constructed of bricks and...

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Scientists Need Your Sourdough to Solve a...
There’s something a little magical about sourdough. You mix flour and water, and in just a week or two, you have a starter that’s bubbling with invisible life. Humans have taken advantage of naturally occurring yeasts and bacteria to bake bread for thousands of years, yet we still know relatively little about these organisms. Do they come from the flour we use, or do they come from the water or the air or the bakers’ hands? How do different...

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Cuernavaca Cathedral Murals in Cuernavaca, Mexico
At the insistence of architect Ricardo Robina, during the remodeling of the old Cuernavaca Cathedral, south of Mexico City, in 1957, layers of the walls were peeled back to the original stucco. The process revealed the remains of impressive frescoes.  The paintings illustrate the history of the first Mexican Catholic saint, Philip of Jesus. According to history, he was traveling from Manila to Mexico to be ordained when his ship ended in up Japan. On suspicion of a plot...

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Lipsanothecae of the Chapel of Saint Francesco...
The church of Gesù Nuovo (New Jesus) is a monumental religious building in Naples. It was built by the Jesuit order between 1584 and 1725, replacing a previous building, and it takes its name from the fact that a church of Jesus already existed in the city. Gesù Nuovo is considered one of the finest examples of the Neapolitan Baroque style, adorned by numerous beautiful pieces by various famous artists. But among the magnificence and opulence it is easy...

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Yoshinogari Historical Park in Yoshinogari, Japan
The Yayoi period, which spanned from around 300 B.C. to 250 A.D., ushered in a new chapter in Japanese history. With the advent of metal-edged tools, hunter-gatherer culture gave way to a more settled, agricultural society, often under the rule of local leaders. One of the largest archaeological sites from this period is the Yoshinogari ruins, the remains of an ancient settlement that covered nearly 40 hectares. It was constructed within a 2.5-kilometer-long (1.5-miles) moat, bolstered by earthwork fortifications...

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Gamla Riksbanken (The Old National Bank) in...
The history of banking is very long, dating back thousands of years. Many cultures independently came up with ways to facilitate barter and store riches over the ages, but it took very long for the first dedicated “banks” to start popping up. It was only in the mid-to-late-17th century that it happened, and one of the first such buildings was built in 1675 in Stockholm.  The bank was built in three stages from 1675 to 1737, and served as...

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Castello Carrarese di Este in Este, Italy
The area where the town of Este in northern Italy is located was originally occupied by the important Roman town of Ateste, and also inhabited before Roman times. Barbarian invasions and floods destroyed the ancient town during the late sixth century. Then nothing is said of the town in historical sources until the 10th century. The origins of this castle—not to be confused with the moated Este Castle in Ferrara—are also unclear. One hypothesis is that the castle was...

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Xu Zhimo Memorial in Cambridge, England
Quietly now I leave the CamAs mute as I arrived;Waving sleeve so slight, lest skyof cloudspeck be deprived. Written on the occasion of his second and last trip to Cambridge, Xu Zhimo’s “Second Farewell to Cambridge” has become emblematic of modernist Chinese poetry. Xu (1897–1931) was one of the most prominent literary figures of China‘s New Culture Movement, which sought to free Chinese thought through an emancipation of literature from classical strictures. Xu first entered King’s College, Cambridge, in...

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Why a 16th-Century Artist Imagined Comets as...
Humans have long regarded comets with a swirling mix of wonder and fear: The cosmic characters figure on Babylonian tablets and a sprawling, 11th-century European tapestry. Before scientists knew exactly what caused these bright smears across the sky, comets were often interpreted as portents of doom or destruction. (Occasionally, they were blamed for less-dramatic shenanigans, such as inspiring chickens to lay oddly shaped eggs.) Given their rich history, it makes sense that an unknown artist in 16th-century Flanders compiled...

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7 Spectacular Breads to Make Once You’ve...
Though many quarantine baking trends have dominated Twitter and TikTok recently, one of the most unusual has to be frog bread. Using instructions from a 2005 online tutorial, thousands have crafted their own golden, crusty amphibians, proudly posting the results despite distended eyes and spiky limbs. The floury frog armies marching across social media have joined lavishly decorated focaccia, banana bread, and ubiquitous sourdough in bringing people pleasure in isolation. But quarantine trends fade quickly, and perhaps you are...

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Church of Blessed Maria Restituta Kafka in...
Maria Restituta Kafka, who was born Helena Kafka in 1894, was a nun and a nurse from Brno, Czechia. Known for her devotion to God and her love of beer, she was beheaded by the Nazis who controlled what was then Austria-Hungary. Now, a new church that features unique architecture is named after her. The result of a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign and designs that evolved over many years, the Kostel Blahoslavené Marie Restituty, or Church of Blessed Mary Restituta, has a...

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