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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.

From MIT to Burning Man: The Living...

Set against the vast and surreal backdrop of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, Burning Man is an annual gathering that transforms the flat, barren expanse into a vibrant playground for artistic and creative expression. Here, “Burners” come to both witness and contribute to the ephemeral Black Rock City, which participants build anew each year. With its myriad art installations and performances, Black Rock City is a temporary home for creative minds from around the world. This year among……

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The Chiefseum in Manhattan, Kansas

Curt Herrman began building the Chiefseum after the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl IV in 1970. He was just eight years old, and received a Chiefs football that year on his birthday. Every Christmas and birthday since, friends and family would send more Chiefs memorabilia. Over 50 years and more than 1,300 pieces of Kansas City Chiefs memorabilia later, Herrman has earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records and opens up his collection to anyone……

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Ted Williams Tunnel Plaque in Boston, Massachusetts

When construction for the Ted Williams Tunnel began in 1991, it was the third in the city to travel underneath Boston Harbor, following the Sumner Tunnel in 1934 and the Callahan Tunnel in 1961. It was the first major link of the larger Central Artery/Tunnel Project, which became known as the Big Dig, and was plagued with controversy. The Big Dig became the most expensive highway project in U.S. history. The project was beset with delays, cost overruns, leaks,……

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Foss Castle in Hutton Mulgrave, England

All that remains of Foss Castle is a prominent hill which was once part of a motte and bailey castle. The motte is a circular, man-made mound and the bailey would be the attached enclosures. Although now surrounded by woodland, when the castle was originally built in the 1070s, it would have been situated in a more open landscape. It is thought that the earthworks developed over several phases, the area had long-standing Anglo-Saxon links and the nearby church……

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Moravian Book Shop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Located in the historic downtown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the Moravian Book Shop is the oldest continually operating bookstore in the whole world. The store opened in 1745 by Moravian Church missionaries who came from Germany to Bethlehem, PA, in 1741, and served to import and sell devotional and liturgical materials for the Moravian community. It later grew to include other denominations besides the Moravian. Faced with financial issues, the Moravian Church Northern Province wanted to get out of this retail business and……

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Former England captain Alastair Cook announces his...

LONDON (AP) — Former England captain Alastair Cook announced his retirement from cricket on Friday after deciding against seeking a renewal of his contract at Essex, his long-time county team. The left-handed opener had already retired from the international game in 2018 after hitting 12,472 test runs, the most by any English batter and fifth on the all-time list, behind Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Rahul Dravid. Cook’s contract expired at Essex at the end of the…

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The 2020s are starting to feel like...

ATLANTA (AP) — The 2020s are starting to feel like the 1990s for the Atlanta Braves. Another dazzling regular season. Another flop in the postseason. After tying a major league record with 307 homers, the slugging Braves went down meekly to the rival Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series for the second year in a row. Other than a stunning comeback in Game 2, when the Braves overcame a four-run deficit with a pair of two-run homers and…

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Cuesta de Moyano in Madrid, Spain

Cuesta de Moyano, located near Madrid’s famous Retiro Park, holds immense significance for book lovers in the city. This charming cobblestone street is lined with a row of quaint bookstalls that have been a literary institution since the early 20th century (1925 is considered the year of its foundation). The street’s enduring appeal lies in its role as a haven for book enthusiasts, offering a diverse selection of new and secondhand books, including rare and out-of-print editions. Cuesta de……

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Historic Wendover Airfield in Wendover, Utah

What’s the value of an atomic bomb if it can’t reach its target? At the height of the Manhattan Project, military planners and engineers devised a way to deliver the world’s first superweapons via retrofitted airplanes. Wendover Army Airfield, a remote installation in the Utah salt flats, was selected to implement this design. A massive steel-clad hangar concealed work on the secretive “Silverplate” B-29 bombers as crews trained for the first mission of its kind. Above the hangar, Colonel……

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Büchmesser (Belly Measuring Column) in Strasbourg, France

Directly across Strasbourg Cathedral, on the corner of rue Mercière and place de la Cathédrale, see if you can pass the “belly test.” The Büchmesser, or mesureur de bedaine in French, was built in 1567. The pink sandstone column was used by City Council bigwigs to test their bellies after a night of feasting for Schwörtag, a day when they renewed their oaths to the constitution. This vow involved lots of wining and dining apparently. Schwörtag is still celebrated in the……

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Wonder Is Everywhere: An Accidental Mummy, a...

Wonder is everywhere. That’s why, every other week, Atlas Obscura drags you down some of the rabbit holes we encounter as we search for our unusual stories. We highlight surprising finds, great writing, and inspiring stories from some of our favorite publications. Why Does Florida Have So Many Invasive Species? by Benji Jones, Vox Florida has become a zoo, journalist Benji Jones says. So he set off on an unusual safari to find vervet monkeys, native to southern and……

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Compassionate Dharma Cloud Monastery in Morrison, Colorado

The late Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh had a profound impact on the spread of Buddhism to the West. This included the building of temples and monasteries beyond his native Vietnam and throughout the world. Together with the support of the Vietnamese-American community of Colorado, the Compassionate Dharma Cloud Monastery was built as a place of peace and meditation in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. The monastery sits on an old livestock farm and has been at this location since 2007…….

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Cleaning up one of the world’s most...

This past July, in the dusty basement of a building in Seattle, Washington, about 60 tons of concrete were poured as part of the renovation of a historic building. To an outsider, it looked like just another job site. Even to the workers pouring and shaping the concrete that day, it was more or less business as usual. In fact, the messy, decidedly unglamorous occasion marked a milestone in the race to reduce gigatons of global CO2 emissions. That’s……

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As desperation in Gaza grows, Israel pledges...

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military pulverized the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, prepared for a possible ground invasion and said Thursday its complete siege of the territory — which has left Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine — would remain in place until Hamas militants free some 150 hostages taken during a grisly weekend incursion. A visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with shipments of U.S. weapons, offered a powerful green light to Israel to drive…

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From Elvira to Svengoolie, Local Horror Hosts'...

On Friday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern, two rockabilly monsters appear on a YouTube livestream, broadcasting from their home in Cleveland, Ohio. “I’m Janet Decay, the Mummy,” says Janet Jay, wearing scraps of white cloth, fishnet stockings, and jet-black hair accented with a gold headband. “And I’m Grimm Gorri, the Monkey!” Adds James Harmon, dressed in a rubber gorilla mask with a pompadour, sunglasses, and a denim vest covered in pins and spikes. The wall and shelves behind them……

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