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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.

 
Robert D. Ray Asian Garden in Des...
Constructed as a monument to former Iowa Governor Robert D Ray’s humanitarian work, leading the charge to bring many Laotian Tai Dam refugees to Iowa and sending aid to Cambodia. The garden forms part of the Des Moines River walkway. The site contains many statues, memorials, and a large pavilion surrounded by gardens.

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Boréalis in Trois-Rivières, Québec
Sure, you can head to a used bookstore to take in a little pulp fiction. But if you’re looking for pulp facts, your best bet is to head to Boréalis, a riverfront museum in Trois-Rivières, Québec dedicated to the history of Canada’s pulp and paper industry. Boréalis is located at the mouth of the Saint-Maurice River on the grounds of what was once the largest paper mill in the world. During the early 20th century, sawmills began to pop...

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The Year in Weird and Wonderful Sports
From female stunt bikers in India to competitive stone skimming competitions in London, surfers braving the frigid Great Lakes to a rugby-playing astronaut, these athletes are anything but average. This year, Atlas Obscura covered celebrity sport obsessions, extreme athletes, downright weird sports, and obscure competitions from around the world. Here are some of our favorite sporty stories of 2023. You probably won’t want to try these at home. Passing on the Olympics to Go to Space by Jessica Watkins...

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Asteroid Collisions, Wandering Spacecraft, and Eggnog
On a clear, bright morning in September 2023, a spacecraft landed at a military site in Utah—and humanity’s representatives burst into laughter, tears, and applause. It may not have seemed like it to most of us, but at that very moment, our species got a little closer at that moment to finding out the provenance of eggnog. And mulled wine. And, well, pretty much everything. Minutes after the spacecraft gently rendezvoused with the planet, helicopters flew out to greet...

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Podcast: Sniffing out What’s Special with Saskia...
Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we explore how specific smells have been linked to specific geographies, cultures, and mythologies for thousands of years. Today, we hear from Saskia Wilson-Brown about fragrance, power, and the power of scent. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along...

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Scientists Finally Find Mysterious Mesospheric Ghosts
On a spring night in 2019, in the bowels of Tornado Alley, nature documentarian Hank Schyma was out photographing a storm when he captured something mysterious. A “ghost,” but not of the paranormal sort. In the distance, this specter appeared as a faint green blob over a red flash of light. The red flash was familiar to Schyma, a savvy citizen scientist. The technical name for it is a sprite, an electrical discharge that occurs in the upper atmosphere...

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STR Trend Report: How the Industry Adapts...
STR Trend Report The STR Trend Report provides critical data on hotel industry performance, offering insights into occupancy, average daily rates, and revenue per available room. This report is vital for industry stakeholders to understand market dynamics, make informed decisions, and strategize effectively in a competitive landscape. Key Takeaways Occupancy & Revenue Metrics: Covers crucial The post STR Trend Report: How the Industry Adapts to Changing Market Dynamics appeared first on Revfine.com.

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What Is Gingerbread? The Answer Is Complicated
THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE DECEMBER 16, 2023, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURA’S FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. On the back of my left hand, I have a silvery, 20-year-old scar. The size and shape of a long grain of rice, it’s the result of the time that my mother and I attempted to make a gingerbread house far above our skill level. Along with blueprints for gingerbread castles and football stadiums, the elegant cookbook we...

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Into The Deep/En lo Profundo Exhibit at...
We know more about the surface of Mars than we know about the deep sea, you may have heard people say. That’s not just NASA bragging. While the deep sea is the largest ecosystem on the planet, we know very little about it. It was once thought to be completely devoid of life, which couldn’t be further from the truth. But because the deep sea is frigidly cold, totally dark, and, well, deep, it’s extremely difficult to access. The...

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Into The Deep: The Journey to Bring...
Far, far below the surface of the ocean, stretching deeper than sunlight can penetrate, deeper at points than Mount Everest is tall, is the largest and most mysterious ecosystem on the planet: the deep sea. The water there is nearly freezing, the pressure enormous. Light is either scarce or completely absent. For much of human history, this punishing environment was thought to be completely devoid of life. It’s only in the last century and a half that scientists have...

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Orto Botanico di Roma in Rome, Italy
Rome is antiquity, divinity and Buon appetito. And Rome is crowds, graffiti, and exhaust fumes. But a trek through the Orto Botanico di Roma is a respite, where an unhurried stroll through the quiet greenery instills calm. With its visual and olfactory pleasures, Orto Botanico more than holds its own with Rome’s more popular park destinations like the elegant Villa Borghese, itself a worthy (and free) destination, and the pricey Vatican gardens tours.  Covering just under 30 acres, the Orto...

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Bunk’Art 2 in Tirana, Albania
Bunk’Art 2 is the second phase of a project aiming at preserving the memory of the communist era. While Bunk’Art (aka Bunk’Art 1) focuses on the history of the communist army, Bunk’Art 2 presents the history of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and its secret police, Sigurimi. Hence, conceptually, Bunk’Art 2 sits between Bunk’Art (1) and the House of Leaves, complementing both. Bunk’Art 2 is set in the very heart of Tirana, surrounded by several ministries, the town hall,...

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Legacy of the Lakes Museum in Alexandria,...
“We’re going up north to the lake.” It’s a common phrase heard every summer across the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and for many families, boat culture is synonymous with being a Minnesotan. At the Legacy of the Lakes Museum in Alexandria, Minnesota, this cultural heritage is preserved and explained to Minnesotans and visitors alike. The museum began in the 1990s as a shared concept among a group of locals who loved restoring classic boats. There was a desire to...

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How Ginger, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg Became Winter...
This story was originally published on The Conversation. It appears here under a Creative Commons license. Regardless of how you celebrate end-of-year holidays, food is probably central to your winter festivities. And a trio of spices—cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger—feature in many dishes and drinks and are an unmistakable part of the scent profile we associate with the holiday season. As a plant scientist, I was curious to know how these spices, grown in the tropics, became so closely associated...

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Podcast: Old City Hall Station
Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we take a detour for a glimpse of what some call New York’s worst kept secret—a train station that’s been shut down and sealed away for nearly a century. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site, and along the way you’ll...

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