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Discover why the armadillo lizard (Ouroborus cataphractus) is one of the most unique creatures on Earth — and why that’s caused the species to become threatened. Wikimedia Commons; Tim Pierce/FlickrThe armadillo lizard (left) gets its name from the way it curls up into a ball as a defense mechanism, as armadillos do (right). With its thorny exterior and unique defenses, the armadillo lizard might be both one of nature’s cutest and one of its most eccentric reptiles....

Over several months, the Tsavo lions stalked and killed over 100 men working to build a railroad through Kenya. Wikimedia CommonsThe man-eating Tsavo lions on display at the Chicago Field Museum. Note that Tsavo male lions are maneless due to the extreme heat in the region. In 1898 an estimated 135 Indian and African workers, who were building a railway bridge over the Tsavo river in Kenya, were attacked and eaten by two man-eating lions....

Hundreds of thousands of rape kits sit untested for decades in evidence rooms across the country. In 2013, the city of Memphis, Tennessee announced an evidence backlog crisis: The police department had 12,164 rape kits in its possession that had never been tested. This was not a unique problem — hundreds of thousands of these sometimes-crucial pieces of evidence still sit untouched in filing rooms across the country — but it is an important one, and one that has likely allowed hundreds of criminals to walk free....

The researchers combined salmon sperm with vegetable oil to create a sustainable bioplastic that can be broken down and recycled just by adding water and freeze-drying. PixabayBy harnessing natural resources, scientists hope to produce a plastic alternative that’s better for the environment. Planet Earth has a problem: plastic. Made from petroleum, it’s bad for the environment, hurts animals, and takes a lot of energy to produce. But scientists in China may have come up with a possible solution — by making an eco-friendly plastic alternative using salmon sperm....

When your life is all about words, chances are you’ll produce a few good quips. Twenty-five of Capote’s most memorable quotes appear below, with ten of his best one-liners leading into fifteen longer thoughts. The quotations come from interviews, essays, short stories, and even from fictional characters, but all of them are charged with Capote’s essence. As he told the Paris Review, “your style is you.” Capote was enchanted with words from childhood, saying that he started writing around 1935 when he was eleven and living in Alabama....

Fungi that bleed, hiss, and “throw their hats” — we’ve foraged nine of the strangest mushrooms in the world. Some might only think about mushrooms as a pizza topping, but the wide world of fungi is a much more stunningly bizarre — and sometimes visually upsetting — place than that. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of certain fungi. Once mature, they produce microscopic spores, like pollen, that may number in the billions in order to spawn....

What was meant to be a 90-minute mission became a 15-hour battle as two American Black Hawk helicopters were shot out of the sky, leaving the stranded soldiers surrounded. Wikimedia CommonsMichael Durant’s crew a month before the Battle of Mogadishu. The Battle Of Mogadishu is more than an underdog story. A small contingent of America’s various elite special forces was sent to collect two henchmen of the violent Somalian warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid — and the warlord himself if they could manage....

E-books and the internet might spell the end of the Harlequin romance, but that doesn’t make its history any less interesting. Bare-chested Italian model Fabio stands on the rocks on a Hawaiian beach. Anyone remember Fabio? You know, the buff, long-haired leading man on all those tattered paperbacks your mom hid in her dresser? Even though he’s become synonymous with the genre, the meme-worthy presence of Fabio Lanzoni is a little misleading when it comes to the story of the romance novel....

In spite of its infrastructure and landmarks, a city is not immortal. These vintage Detroit photos serve as a reminder of that. In spite of its infrastructure, landmarks, and cultural significance, the city is not immortal. Detroit is no exception. While rebounding in some areas, for the most part, 21st-century Detroit remains a mere shadow of its former self. Once known for powering most of the country, Detroit lost its steam and 70% of its population in the last 60 years and had to declare bankruptcy in 2013 to stay afloat....

The Colossal Tides Of England’s Coast In his Sea Change series, photographer Michael Marten captures the dynamism of landscapes and its effects on manmade structures as well as man in general. The original series was presented in diptych form, but to truly bring these changes to life Marten opted for a GIF format online. Says Marten, “I hope these photographs will increase awareness of natural change, of landscape as a dynamic process rather than a static image”....

In 1862, Newton Knight deserted the Confederate Army and formed his own company of both free and formerly enslaved men and women to found the Free State of Jones and fight for the Union. YouTubeMatthew McConaughey as Newton Knight in the 2016 film Free State of Jones In 2016, actor Matthew McConaughey starred as a pro-Union Mississippi man named Newton Knight who stood up to the Confederacy. Though some in the South protested Knight’s depiction as a hero, the Free State of Jones true story actually hews closely to the Hollywood version....

The graves of the horse and rider were found in the German town of Knittlingen among other medieval graves. State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the Regional Council of Stuttgart/ F. DammingerThe decapitation of the horse was likely part of a burial ceremony. Amid a medieval burial site of around 100 graves in Germany, archeologists came across a surprising discovery. Buried alongside the human skeletons, they found a horse missing its head....

The logging industry has also taken its toll; much of the logging that has taken place since the late 90s has been illegal in nature. Many companies have forged logging permits, cut commercially valuable trees protected by law, cut more trees than were authorized, cut outside of the specified logging area, and stolen from protected areas. Some lumber is used to produce wood charcoal that is used to power many industries, including the US automobile manufacturing industry....

As public libraries began popping up across America in the early 1900s, these posters encouraged people to take advantage of their new resources. Like this gallery?Share it: Share Flipboard Email And if you liked this post, be sure to check out these popular posts: 1 of 39 2 of 39Who wouldn’t want to curl up with a good book after a look at this poster by Albert Dorne? philbradley/Flickr 3 of 39This poster by Charles Buckles urged Americans to send support to the troops by donating books....

From feminism to a life-saving act as simple as washing your hands, some advanced ideas were just too big for people to handle at the time. Suffragists parade down Fifth Avenue, 1917. Image Source: The New York Times Photo Archives On January 10th, 1878, California senator Aaron Sargent proposed a constitutional amendment that would grant women the right to vote. It would take 42 years to pass, finally happening in 1920....

In 14th-century England, no crime was worse than trying to betray the crown. So as a warning to those who would commit treason, being hanged, drawn, and quartered was born. Loyset Liédet/Wikimedia CommonsA prisoner being hanged, drawn, and quartered in France. In the days before there was really an official police force to catch criminals, many societies focused on trying to stop people from committing crimes in the first place. Usually, that meant making it very clear that even the pettiest crimes would be brutally punished with a public execution....

Pvt. Arthur Edward Diggens’ diary was written in pencil and spans from Feb. 13, 1916 to Oct. 11, 1916. It ends rather abruptly — but not because the soldier was killed in battle. Hansons AuctioneersThe diary was found in a barn in Leicestershire, England. A World War I diary journaling the Battle of the Somme has been found in a barn in Leicestershire, England. According to Fox News, it belonged to Pvt....

Utterly ruthless, Carmine “Lilo” Galante became best known for masterminding the heroin trade and the grisly gangland execution that ended his reign. On February 21, 1910, in an East Harlem tenement, one of the most notorious gangsters of the 20th century was born. Camillo Carmine Galante was the son of Sicilian immigrants from the seaside village of Castellammare del Golfo. He was destined to become a Mafia legend. Carmine Galante: ‘A Neuropathic, Psychopathic Personality’ Born Camillo Carmine Galante in East Harlem on February 21, 1910, he exhibited criminal tendencies that at age 10 landed him in reform school....

Giant mushrooms were peppered throughout the planet before trees. These ‘shrooms have since shrunk, but we still think they’re pretty cool. Favolaschia calocera While few of us are actually mycologists–or the super niche-y group of people that study fungi–mushrooms have long captivated the attention of humans, be it through their use in religious ceremonies (some ancient rock art shows what appears to be hallucinogenic mushroom use in the Sahara desert around 9,000 years ago!...

“Just the worst feeling in the world came over me, like, this isn’t happening.” Anthony Butler tragically lost his daughter in 2014. Mariah was just 11 days old when she died from a congenital heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Ever since her passing, Butler has worn his daughter’s cremated ashes in a pendant urn vial around his neck. But following a horrible mishap with a sheriff’s deputy on March 11, 2018, Butler has no longer been able to....