gnostek1 / 2"Queens" of Mysore : left, Krishnaraja Wadiyar III 's first wife, Devajammani has a discoloration around the mouth, thought to be due to the blowing of variolation dust in the nose ("nasal insufflation"). Right, his second wife shows the…
01Ottoman variolation predates Jenner by at least 70 years — recorded in Istanbul by 1670.
02Smallpox killed roughly 400,000 Europeans per year in the 18th century before inoculation spread.
03Variolated children received live smallpox; about 1 in 50 died — versus 1 in 3 from natural infection.
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01The mission 'Death from Above' is unwinnable by design; the player's character dies regardless of input.
02The level was set in an unnamed Middle Eastern city destroyed by a 10-kiloton nuclear detonation.
03Call of Duty 4 sold over 14 million copies — its unwinnable death scene played by more people than any prior war film audience.
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01The level 'Effect and Cause' is widely cited as one of the greatest single game levels ever designed.
02Titanfall 2 sold modestly on release in 2016, sandwiched between Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty launches.
03The time-rewind mechanic runs both environments simultaneously in memory, swapping the player between them in real time.
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01Gnarr refused to form a coalition with any party whose members had not watched all five seasons of The Wire.
02He delivered a mayoral inaugural address in drag, dressed as a character from the film 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'
03Despite the comedy origin, Gnarr's administration balanced the city budget and improved public transit through his four-year term.
gnostek1 / 9A bile bear in a "crush cage" on Huizhou Farm, Huizhou , China
01An estimated 20,000 bears are currently held on bile farms in China and Vietnam, many in 'crush cages.'
02Bear bile contains ursodeoxycholic acid — a compound now synthesized cheaply in labs, making farming medically redundant.
03Moon bears on farms are often declawed and defanged at capture; some have been caged since cubhood.
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01The descent drops at gradients exceeding 10%; the fatal corner offers no runoff and no barrier.
02A basalt stone memorial bearing Casartelli's relief portrait stands at the exact crash point on the col.
03Dante Rezze, a Swiss amateur, died on the same descent during the 1935 Tour de France.
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01The loris activates venom by rubbing its arm gland against its mouth before biting — a two-step weapon assembly.
02Its slow movement is not timidity; it is a mimic of the venomous Asian krait snake.
03Viral 'tickling' videos show lorises raised with clipped teeth — a mutilation done to make them safe pets.
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01Cho mailed a video manifesto to NBC News between his two attacks, a 2-hour window police did not close.
0232 people were killed; the Virginia Tech massacre remains the deadliest U.S. campus shooting on record.
03The shooting exposed a gap in federal law: Cho had been ruled mentally ill but passed background checks.
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01Utahraptor was described and named in 1993, the same year Jurassic Park released — the timing was pure accident.
02Its sickle claw alone measured 9 inches; Velociraptor's equivalent claw was under 3 inches.
03A block of Utah sandstone may contain a mass grave of Utahraptors entombed together in quicksand-like mud.