US Vice President Kamala Harris was formally certified as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee for the November election on August 6, 2024. The 59-year-old emerged as the top contender on July 21, 2024, after President Joe Biden decided not to seek a second term. Notably, Harris is the first Black and South Asian woman to be nominated for president by a major political party....
Read news articleOn July 31, 2022, Jessin Fisher (10), his brother Liam (7), and cousin Kaiden Madsen (9) went fossil-hunting in the Hell Creek Formation in the North Dakota Badlands. The area is rich in dinosaur bones, and the trio hoped to find a few. Little did they know that they were about to stumble upon one of only a handful of juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) skeletons ever found!...
Read news articleJuneteenth is observed annually on June 19. The federal holiday commemorates the end of slavery in the United States (US). On this day in 1865, the last enslaved people in America learned they were free....
Read news articleAcquiring an old postage stamp for millions of dollars might seem extravagant. But the 1868 Benjamin Franklin Z Grill is no ordinary stamp. It is one of only two of its kind known to exist. One is part of the collection at the New York Public Library. The second Z Grill, held by private collector Bill Gross, will be auctioned on June 14, 2024....
Read news articleAs the fashion industry confronts sustainability and environmental challenges, designers are exploring innovative ways to reduce waste and minimize their ecological footprint. Zsofia Kollar, the founder of Human Material Loop, is turning to an unexpected resource to reduce her impact — human hair. The Dutch entrepreneur collects hair cuttings from hairdressers and transforms them into fabric for clothes, curtains, carpets, and furniture....
Read news articleFossils found by a father-daughter team has led to the discovery of a new, massive species of ichthyosaur. The marine reptiles dominated the seas during the Triassic and Jurassic periods (251 to 145 million years ago). Often referred to as "fish-lizards," they shared physical similarities with dolphins and whales but were, in fact, members of the reptile family....
Read news articleAt around 1:30 a.m. ET on March 26, 2024, a massive container ship struck a crucial support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. The impact of the 95,000-ton ship, called Dali, caused a large section of the bridge to collapse into the Patapsco River, plunging several cars into the water. The collision also shut down one of the busiest ports in the United States....
Read news articleAfter being removed from the curriculum for over 14 years, cursive writing is making a comeback in some US public schools. For those unfamiliar with the term, it is the elegant form of penmanship where letters or characters are joined together in a flowing manner, generally to make writing faster....
Read news articleResearchers have always suspected that the Amazonian rainforests were once home to ancient cities. However, looking for remains of urban structures in the thick, remote forests was a difficult endeavor. But the use of Light Detection and Ranging, or Lidar, has been a game changer. The remote sensing technology uses laser light to help identify human-made features on the ground, such as walls, roads, or buildings. It has led to several exciting discoveries. The latest to be revealed is a network of 15 ancient settlements in the Upano Valley of eastern Ecuador in South America....
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