The Queen Mary Psalter, c 1310-1320

Why Were Medieval Knights Always Fighting Snails?

It’s a common scene in medieval marginalia. But what does it mean?

The Earliest Libraries-on-Wheels Looked Way Cooler Than Today’s Bookmobiles

These traveling libraries used to travel around bringing books to the people

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Astronaut Scott Carpenter, the Second American to Orbit the Planet, Dies at 88

John Glenn, who was a close friend to Carpenter, is now the last surviving astronaut from NASA’s Project Mercury, the original space program

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In Ancient Rome, Purple Dye Was Made from Snails

By boiling them in lead vats, purple dye was extracted from snails to make Tyrian purple

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Times of Famine Linked to Disproportionate Number of Female Births

Cultural factors like selective abortions de not explain the trend, rather it seems evolutionary biology does

Ancient Women Artists May Be Responsible for Most Cave Art

Previously, most researchers assumed that the people behind these mysterious artworks must have been men, but they were wrong

Want Your Mugshot Off the Internet? You’ll Have to Pay Up

Some companies are profiting off of mugshots - posting them on the internet for sale

Two women operating ENIAC

Computer Programming Used To Be Women’s Work

Computer programmers are expected to be male and antisocial - an self-fulfilling prophecy that forgets the women that the entire field was built upon

Major General Edwin Walker

Before JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald Tried to Kill an Army Major General

Seven months before he shot President Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald tried to kill Major General Edwin Walker

A recreation of an ancient English farm

Early Agriculture Nearly Tanked Ancient Europe’s Population

While the rise of agriculture allowed human populations to blossom, it also opened the door for catastrophic collapses

Proto Indo-European is thought to be one of the precursor to languages as diverse as English and Hindi.

Hear Stories Read in Proto Indo-European, a 6000-Year-Old Language

Proto Indo-European is thought to be the precursor to many Indian, Asian and European languages

Lomboc Island is now a sleepy vacation spot.

The Case of the Mysterious, Thirteenth-Century Eruption Might Finally be Solved

In A.D. 1257 a massive volcano erupted, spreading ash all over the world. The problem is that scientists have no idea where the eruption happened

Lysol’s Vintage Ads Subtly Pushed Women to Use Its Disinfectant as Birth Control

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lysol isn’t even an effective contraceptive

Funding Gaps Have Only Forced Government Shutdowns Since the 1980s

Funding gaps didn’t always bring a shut down of the federal government

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There Used to Be an Entire Museum Full of Weird, Old Robots, And You Can Still Take a Video Tour

Today, people can get their old creepy robot fix on the internet. But there was once a whole museum devoted to old bots

Archaeologists Looking for a Sultan’s Buried Heart Found a Whole Town Instead

Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent’s missing heart still has not been found, but archeologists searching for it did discover a lost, ancient Ottoman town

Soldiers at the Korean War Veterans Memorial

Be Careful When Taking Pictures of Other People’s Art

The U.S. Postal Service owes the man who sculpted the Korean War memorial nearly $685,000

China Claims to Have Bought a Huge Chunk of Ukraine

China says it’s purchased 3 million hectares of Ukrainian farming land, but Ukraine says it has no intention of selling land to China

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The U.S. Nearly Nuked North Carolina

North Carolina was saved from nuclear devastation by one little switch

“Terrorist attacks at shopping centers, 1998 – 2005”

Kenya in Context: Malls Around the World That Terrorists Have Attacked

Lots of people, lots of exits, lots of packages—a few of the reasons why shopping malls are targeted

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