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T. Rex might not have had such prominent chompers.
Anyone who’s seen The Land Before Time remembers, Tyrannosaurus rex are known for their sharp teeth. But those fatal pearly whites may not have been as prominently displayed as we thought. New research has suggested T. rex’s teeth were concealed by a fleshy, lip-like tissue. People tend to depict T. rex in a crocodile-like way; it’s why we popularly imagine them with a mouthful of protruding teeth. A 2023 study, however, showed that T. rex choppers don’t have the kind of outer-tooth erosion crocodile teeth do, suggesting they were likely protected by lips.
The Iconic Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway, one of the world’s most famous train routes, spans approximately 9,289 kilometers across Siberia. It connects Moscow in the west to Vladivostok in the east, taking passengers through mesmerizing landscapes and providing an unforgettable travel experience.
Lake Baikal: The Pearl of Siberia
Located in southern Siberia, Lake Baikal is the deepest freshwater lake in the world. It holds approximately 20% of the world’s unfrozen freshwater, making it a vital resource. Its crystal-clear waters, stunning vistas, and unique ecosystem, featuring the Baikal seal, make it a UNESCO World Heritage site.
WELCOME TO PAGE 344 - IT IS A NICE NUMBER !!!
Siberian Climate Extremes
Siberia experiences some of the most extreme temperature variations on Earth. Winters can be frigid, with temperatures dropping below -50 degrees Celsius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit), while summers can be surprisingly warm, with temperatures reaching over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Majestic Mountain Ranges
Siberia is home to several majestic mountain ranges, including the Altai Mountains and the Sayan Mountains. These awe-inspiring peaks not only offer breathtaking scenery but also attract outdoor enthusiasts who engage in activities such as hiking, mountaineering, and skiing.
Props got nabbed from the set of the new Beetlejuice movie.
It seems only fitting for mysterious hijinks to ensue during production of the Beetlejuice sequel. Two props disappeared from set: a lamppost with a pumpkin-shaped top, and a 150-ish-pound abstract sculpture designed by Catherine O’Hara’s character, Delia Deetz, in the original film.
In 2023, fans of Beyoncé and Jay-Z were given the opportunity to live like hip hop royalty.
An architectural salvager auctioned off many items from the superstar couple’s rented home, including their lights, sconces, and French doors. The reseller also offered Jay and Bey’s bidet for an asking price of $2400. Fans didn’t need to travel to a fancy auction house to bid on the pop culture artifacts—they were listed on eBay and sold to the highest bidders.
Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers were discontinued.
Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers were all set to celebrate their 100th birthday in 2024: They hit the market way back in 1924. Sadly, the company decided to discontinue them instead. The crispy, slightly bittersweet wafers were the choice cookie for icebox cakes, where they softened to perfection between layers of whipped cream. Bakers have suggested using Oreo Thins, Goya Maria Chocolate Cookies, or Dewey’s Hot Cocoa Cookies as replacements. Or you could skip the cookies altogether and just mainline whipped cream straight into your mouth.
The site where Caesar was stabbed opened to the public.
Rome is packed with ancient historical sites—but due to funding issues, not all of them have been open to the public. Take, for example, the square where Julius Caesar was stabbed. Caesar’s heir, Augustus, declared the square a cursed place after the dictator’s murder. Thousands of years later, the square was discovered after 20th-century Italian dictator Benito Mussolini had parts of Rome razed to search for ancient archaeological sites. The space wasn’t opened to the public until June 2023.
Quotes from an interview with Martin Luther King, Jr., seem to have been altered.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcom X didn’t always see eye to eye. MLK had even famously criticized Malcom X to the journalist Alex Haley—or so we thought. But it turns out Haley reportedly fabricated some of the quotes from that famous 1965 Playboy article. A journalist named Jonathan Eig made the discovery after finding what appears to be an unedited transcript during his archival research. Based on what the unedited transcript shows, Haley took some of MLK’s words out of context, and also made up some of the quotes.
In 2023, we found out that it’s possible to live in the home of a former Queen of England.
At least it is if you have $2.9 million. In June, the former home of Anne of Cleves—Henry VIII’s fourth wife—went up for sale. Theirs wasn’t exactly a love story for the ages: Henry, having split with one wife, beheaded another, and lost yet another after childbirth, agreed to wed the German-born Anne supposedly after seeing her portrait. When he got a look at her in person, though, he apparently yelled “I see nothing in this woman as men report of her!” Was it because of the portrait? Probably not—the better guess is that it was Henry’s ministers who played up her beauty. He married her anyway, but their union lasted just six months before it was annulled. Anne might not have done it for Henry in the looks department, but they did get along and remained close. He also gifted her a lot of property, including a house called Wings Palace. After she died in 1557, its ownership reverted back to the crown before it became a private residence. The five-bedroom, three-bathroom house’s history dates all the way back to 1095, but it has the most modern amenities, including heated floors and an updated kitchen.
Henri Matisse’s home was also for sale in 2023.
Henri Matisse’s former apartment—a two-bedroom, four-bathroom abode spanning 1700 square feet that sits atop the iconic Régina building on the French Riviera in Nice—hit the market for $2.7 million in May. Matisse, who lived there for about 10 years, also used the apartment as a studio, where he created cutouts after suffering some health issues.
We got some insight into minstrel comedy.
We know minstrels had some jokes, but because a lot of their material was passed down via oral tradition, we didn’t really know what their jokes were. That’s changed thanks to a comedy routine found within a 15th-century manuscript in 2023. The minstrel’s comedy routine includes a bunch of acts, including a preacher’s satirical sermon about the virtues of drinking a lot.
A plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II was revealed.
In 1983, Queen Elizabeth II visited the U.S. amidst the Troubles, a 30-year-long conflict between Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland over whether or not the country would become part of Ireland proper or remain part of the U.K.—and papers released in May 2023 revealed that the FBI and Secret Service uncovered a plot to assassinate the queen while she traveled the country. Apparently, around a month before Liz was due to be in San Francisco, police learned about a man who claimed his daughter had been killed by a rubber bullet in Northern Ireland and that “he was going to attempt to harm Queen Elizabeth and would do this either by dropping some object off the Golden Gate Bridge onto the Royal Yacht Britannia when it sails underneath, or would attempt to kill Queen Elizabeth when she visited Yosemite National Park.” The Secret Service apparently walked the Golden Gate Bridge, but it’s unclear if any other steps were taken to protect the monarch, or if an arrest was made.
The official history of Queen Elizabeth I was called into question.
William Camden wrote the official history of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign in the years after she died. His work was a foundational text for historians of the period, but Camden didn’t quite record an unbiased history. New transmitting light technology has revealed the contents of pages full of crossed-out or covered-up text, showing how Camden self-edited his version of history to curry favor with James VI and I—the king who reigned after Elizabeth I. He even included a fabricated bit about how the late queen had declared James her heir before dying.
In 2023, we found out what an original Bob Ross painting will cost you.
And it’s not cheap. Most of Ross’s paintings are owned by Bob Ross, Inc., but this one was donated by the artist, who hosted The Joy of Painting on PBS from 1983 to 1994, to the Virginia-based PBS studio where that particular episode had been filmed. A studio volunteer picked up the painting for $100 max at auction and held on to it before selling it to a gallery that sells a lot of Ross paintings. They were asking $9.8 million for it.
Beethoven’s hair provided insights into his health.
No one is totally sure what killed composer Ludwig Van Beethoven at age 56 in 1827, but a new analysis of his hair has provided some answers. A total of around 10 feet of his hair was examined using DNA testing. Researchers found that Beethoven had a genetic predisposition to liver disease and also suffered from hepatitis B. Scientists were also able to determine that he didn’t suffer from lactose intolerance or a gluten allergy despite having stomach ailments. While the cause of death remains ambiguous, it’s pretty amazing what we can learn from his locks nearly 200 years later.
A new national monument was designated.
In 2023, President Joe Biden created the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona, which consists of 917,618 acres spread out over three locations around the Grand Canyon that contain sites important to Indigenous tribes in the area, including the Havasupai and the Hopi. The phrase Baaj Nwaavjo translates to “where Indigenous peoples roam” and i’tah kukveni means “our ancestral footprints” in Havasupai and Hopi, respectively. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said that the new monument “makes clear that Native American history is American history. This land is sacred to the many Tribal Nations who have long advocated for its protection, and establishing a national monument demonstrates the importance of recognizing the original stewards of our public lands.”
A proclamation was signed assuring Emmett Till will be receiving national recognition.
The horrific 1955 murder of the 14-year-old shocked communities across the country, and was a major event in the Civil Rights Movement. Now, he and his mother will be recognized at three sites across Mississippi and Illinois as the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument.
Part-human kidneys were grown in pigs.
In 2023, scientists in China grew part-human kidneys in pig embryos. To do it, the scientists switched off the cells that would have made the pig embryos develop their own kidneys, then added modified human stem cells to nearly 200 embryos, which were then implanted into pigs. When they checked in 28 days later, five of the embryos had grown kidneys composed of up to 65 percent human cells. Getting to this point took five years, and there’s still a long way to go—it’s believed that any kidney that would potentially be implanted into a human could not contain any pig cells at all because the organ would then be rejected by the body. And there are plenty of ethical issues, too.
That’s not the only research that took place on the pig/kidney front in 2023.
On July 14, 2023, surgeons at NYU Langone Health performed a xenotransplant, taking a genetically modified kidney from a pig and transplanting it into a man on a ventilator who had been declared braindead. On August 16—32 days later—the kidney was still working, and the study continued until mid-September 2023. This could have huge implications: According to a press release, there are more than 100,000 people in the U.S. on the transplant list. Dr. Robert Montgomery, chair of the Department of Surgery and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, who performed the surgery, said that “There are simply not enough organs available for everyone who needs one …. Too many people are dying because of the lack of available organs, and I strongly believe xenotransplantation is a viable way to change that.”
Scientists were able to successfully build new technology that allowed a paralyzed man to walk again.
The team built a “digital bridge” between the brain and the spinal cord that reestablished the broken communication between the two. The man is now able to walk, climb stairs, and even “traverse complex terrains,” in the words of the researchers.
The world’s tallest poison ivy plant was found in Canada.
Paris, Ontario, resident Robert Fedrock was out for a walk on his property when he spotted a towering poison ivy plant that ultimately measured a whopping 68 feet—as tall as two school buses stacked end to end. In June 2023, Guinness World Records named it the world’s tallest poison ivy plant. Fedrock got a case of poison ivy during his investigation, but presumably, it was worth it.
Sesame Street debuted the first Filipino American muppet in 2023.
TJ is a spirited 4-year-old boy who loves basketball, dancing, and making his baby sister laugh. He’s also learning Tagalog with his grandmother’s help. His family moved to Sesame Street from California.