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Tacoma Washington Bridge Disaster The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of mile-long (1600 meter) suspension bridges with main spans of 2800 feet (850 m). The first bridge, nicknamed Galloping Gertie, was opened to traffic on July 1, 1940, and became famous four months later for a dramatic wind-induced structural collapse that was caught on color motion picture film. Surprisingly the only fatality was a black Cocker Spaniel. The first replacement bridge opened in 1950, and a parallel bridge opened in 2007....

15 Ulysses, James Joyce Ulysses chronicles the passage through Dublin by its main character, Leopold Bloom, during an ordinary day, June 16, 1904. The title alludes to the hero of Homer’s Odyssey (Latinised into Ulysses), and there are many parallels, both implicit and explicit, between the two works (e.g., the correspondences between Leopold Bloom and Odysseus, Molly Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus). 14The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain The book is noted for its innocent young protagonist, its colorful description of people and places along the Mississippi River, and its sober and often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism, of the time....

HBO proved that a high-quality historical miniseries could still be made—and watched—in the late 2000s. Starring Paul Giamatti in the title role, and loosely based on James McCullough’s award-winning biography, John Adams tells the story of the Patriot, from the Boston massacre of 1770 to Adams’ death in 1826. John Adams won 13 Emmys and 4 Golden Globes, and earned very favorable audiences. Gulliver’s Travels, based on the Jonathon Swift novel, starred real-life husband and wife Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen as Dr....

Below is a list of ten lesser-known disasters that resulted in the deaths of many innocent people. 10 Skynliv Air Show Disaster Imagine you are a spectator on the ground, watching military planes perform intricate maneuvers above you. Now imagine those planes barreling toward you. Unfortunately, that was the reality for those in attendance at the Skynliv Air Show near Lviv, Ukraine, on July 27, 2002. In just moments, a beautiful day for the Ukrainian military to show their citizens the prowess of their air fleet turned into a fiery, blood-soaked nightmare....

It seemed like a silly notion then. But as we know now, it was the first true step in understanding the nature of planetary behavior in the universe at large. By the Middle Ages, that knowledge was firmly entrenched in the annals of science. They still had to work out that the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe, much to Galileo’s dismay, but there was no question that it was a ball....

Imagine your great granddad found an iPad on his way to a speakeasy or whatever they did back then—chances are he’d recognize it as a manmade object, even if he had no idea what it was. That, in a nutshell, is intelligent design. Except your great granddad is scientists and the iPad is us. Basically, ID holds that some things are just too complex to have evolved by chance, so instead of assuming we’re just improbable sacks of meat and leaving it at that we should start looking for the celestial equivalent of Steve Jobs....

Sometimes, animals can even beat us at our own game, becoming successful in ways many humans never could. Here are 10 impressive accomplishments achieved by the animal community. 10 Mice That Surf And Skateboard Shane Willmott lives on the Gold Coast in Australia where he and his pet mice spend the summers surfing the waves. As a teenager more than 30 years ago, Willmott began teaching his pet mice to surf....

The Vikings were also phenomenal engineers. Their inventions and innovations gave them an edge in battle, trade, and other pursuits, enabling them to sail across oceans, seas, and inland rivers. Although many of their technological marvels were related to battle, some of their inventions and innovations revolutionized sailing and navigation. Others were useful for personal and military travel through harsh environments or bivouacking in cold, rugged terrain. One of their inventions reflects their personal vanity and sense of self....

When rare burials do reveal tangible information, the stories can range from the unexpected—like the Europeans who became the biblical Philistines—to the familiar urban violence of the world’s first cities. 10 The Sohag Tomb During 2018, smugglers were caught red-handed breaking into a tomb in Egypt. Give credit where it is due—the thieves were the first to find the chamber. Located near the Egyptian town of Sohag, it was described as beautiful and colorful....

The tarsier is a small (about squirrel-sized) nocturnal primate found in the rainforests of South-Eastern Asia. It is the only fully predatory primate in the world, feeding on lizards and insects, and is even known to catch birds in mid-flight. However, its most remarkable feature is its enormous eyes, the largest of any mammal relative to body size. If your eyes were proportionally as big as those of the tarsier, they would be the size of grapefruits....

10 The Curiosity Rover Drives Backward The Curiosity Rover is a scientific marvel, as well as a mascot for our quest to conquer the stars, or at the very least, our own solar system. Considering that the Rover is around 56 million kilometers (34.8 million mi) away, getting the absolute most use out of it is paramount. Wheel damage is an unavoidable by-product of driving around on a planet covered in jagged rocks, and Curiosity’s wheels have understandably become chipped and worn as it has explored the surface of Mars....

10Lowland Streaked Tenrecs Communicate With Their Quills The lowland streaked tenrec—found only on the Eastern coast of Madagascar—resembles less a rodent and more a spiny little bumblebee. Its spines can be used with adorably lethal force, as the tenrec is known to attack enemies with a spiky headbutt. Oddly enough, these spikes can also be used to communicate through a method known as stridulation, which is a noise made via the rubbing of body parts....

10 Kanye West And AIDS No one can say rapper Kanye West lacks self-esteem or is reluctant to court controversy, but surprisingly, his views on the AIDS epidemic are not widely known. During the 2005 Live 8 concert tour to raise awareness for AIDS, Kanye shocked the crowd by announcing that AIDS was a “man-made disease . . . placed in Africa just like crack was placed in the black community to break up the Black Panthers....

10 Polish Plaits Plica polonica happens to a person’s hair when it is neither washed nor combed over a long period of time. It becomes sticky, irreversibly entangled, and infested with lice as a result of the lack of hair care. The style became known as “Polish plaits” because of how popular it was in 14th-century Poland. Widespread among the peasants of Poland, a superstitious belief was associated with the plaits....

Surprisingly, some of the most famous hypochondriacs during this period were artists, writers, and creative thinkers. Though they made many notable accomplishments over the 19th and early 20th centuries, their private lives offer a bizarrely different story. 10 Hans Christian Andersen The renowned fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1805 and spent much of his childhood in boarding schools for the Danish elite, even though his family was not rich....

While reading is always stimulating, sometimes we want to go for a pure intellectual power-up. Here are some selections we’ve found that are guaranteed to expand your mind and worldview. 10The Courage to WriteRalph Keyes While Ralph Keyes’ conversational guide is an invaluable tool for those of us who aspire to a profession in writing, it is equally eye-opening for those who simply enjoy reading the fruits of their labor....

Firstly, I apologize beforehand if any of my writing style comes off favoring either gender. I will also warn you to act as an adult concerning some of the entries on this list. Secondly, don’t let this list define you, some of these only concern either gender on average, not as an individual. The way we get around is different to each gender, but it has been demonstrated that men are developmentally ahead in spatial awareness....

The obvious dangers include those rushing rivers and waterfalls leading to drownings, those steep drop-offs leading to injury and loss of life, and those endless trails leaving people lost in remote, confusing, and sometimes dangerous terrain. In the majority of cases, people are found, but unfortunately, in some cases, only the remains are found. In other cases, the only thing found is a mystery. There are currently 24 cold cases of missing persons listed by the National Park Services Investigative Services Branch....

But even the most observant among us can forget the stuff we’re reading comes through a filter. Our papers, magazines, and news sites all love a good narrative, and that means casting world leaders as characters in an ongoing story called “try to make the news as simple as possible.” Go looking on any reputable site, and you’re liable to still find articles pedaling bunkum like this: 10 Angela Merkel Is A Liberal Hero You’ve probably heard of Angela Merkel....

In the modern West, however, influential people may be accused of converting to Islam as part of a wider conspiracy theory in which they are painted as cultural outsiders or even traitors. 10 The Dalai Lama Dorje Shugden, a Tibetan trickster spirit, has been at the center of a cult in Tibet since the 17th century. In the last several decades, Shugden followers have spread throughout the world based on the teachings of rogue monk Kelsang Gyatso....