Author: Ms. R.

Along the banks of Roaring Brook, in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, lie the ruins of former iron-making blast furnaces, now transformed into a park and historic site. The furnaces were built between 1848 and 1857. The furnaces were part of the Lackawanna Iron & Steel Company, which was once the largest producer of pig iron in the United States. This iron was largely used for making T-rails for the railroad industry and nails. In 1902, the plant was moved to……

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The Tama area, which consists of 30 cities and towns west of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, lies in the Musashino Plateau region overlooked by mountains, a stark contrast to the metropolitan capital despite the mere one-hour distance from Shinjuku. Historically, villages in the Musashino Plateau had a lot of trouble getting water from underground, as much of the region’s soil was loam and too fragile to dig down while the veins of groundwater were particularly deep in……

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The Irk River immediately north of Manchester traverses through a broad swath of unkempt woodlands and small industrial areas left over from when Manchester was a major manufacturing center. It therefore seems like the least likely place to find a submarine partially buried in the ground with its prow pointed upwards. The submarine is actually a sculpture called the Dreadnowt. It was created by Manchester artist Jonathan Woolfenden and was paid for and installed outside HMG Paints. The statue……

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The Museu do Seringal is located a 30-minute boat ride out of Manaus up the Rio Negro. This outdoor museum In the Amazon showcases how the rubber boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries impacted the lives of the workers as well as those who were making money off of them.    While today it is a serene “jungle camp” as a working plantation, it would have been a working hell for the rubber workers. This museum, was……

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A dog is sitting in a vintage carriage being pulled by a horse across a field in Wisconsin. The dalmatian is sitting next to its owner, Susan Keating, who maintains her hold on the brown reins. Keating is a multiple-title winner in the world of competitive carriage racing, and God willing, her dog will be too. The dalmatian has a single job: sit next to her and be well-behaved. In this competition, the pair will be judged, essentially, on……

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In November 2021, linguists from around the world met in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the seventh edition of a conference focusing specifically on the “R” sound. The conference, called ‘R-Atics, included a presentation on the intrusive R used in the Falkland Islands, a reconstruction of what R sounded like in historical Armenian, and a discussion of the R sounds in Shiwiar, an indigenous Ecuadorian language spoken by well under 10,000 people, among other events and talks. Don’t be too surprised……

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Johannes Marius Dines Petersen (1863-1935), better known as Professor Labri, was an eccentric legendary carnival barker and magician. Despite his title, he didn’t possess any formal academic credentials but proudly dubbed himself the “Professor of Modern Salon Magic.” In an era before television and radio, Labri spent years touring rural Denmark, entertaining with his unique shows. He always wore a black tailcoat suit and a silk top hat, rumored to be made from his former black cat’s skin. Labri’s impeccable……

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About a half a mile south of the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis, lies a two-mile long flood-wall, covered in the combined efforts of more than 250 of graffiti artists. Construction of the wall began in 1956 and took until 1964. During the Great Flood of 1993, the river reached to two feet below the top of the flood-wall, but the wall in its entirety held up to the raging Mississippi.   After the flood, the large concrete wall……

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