quote [ Socialists should realize that their rightwing critics were onto something when they criticized dense urban areas for their latent socialistic characteristics. ]

quote [ What can visual art teach us about scent, stench, and the mysterious substance known as ambergris? Lizzie Marx follows a ?whale-trail? across history to discover the olfactory paradoxes of the Dutch Golden Age. ]

quote [ This summer marks the centennial of a bird?possibly the most famous pigeon in history?going on display at the Smithsonian. A representative of Columba livia domestica, this bird is known as simply Cher Ami. ]

quote [ But mysteries about the 3,000-year-old bones from Japan remain. ]

quote [ In the spring of 1883, gold was discovered on a branch of the river Albazikha, in northern Heilongjiang province in China near the border with Russia, leading to both Chinese and Russian prospectors flocking to the area and creating a settlement on the right bank of River Amur. ]

quote [ The evolution of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, as seen through the sharp blades of a huge pair of ceremonial scissors. Did a bridge just open nearby? ]

quote [ For the better part of a decade, the widely celebrated and esteemed Louvre Museum of Paris proudly displayed a supposedly ancient tiara made of solid gold. Experts at the Louvre identified it as belonging to the Scythian king Saitapharnes who ruled sometime in the 3rd century BCE. ]

quote [ The evolution of the billboard, an object that very much tends to keep pace with the times. Who doesn?t love outdoor advertising? ]

quote [ ?Church? is one of several hand-painted Patterson patterns glazed in a pink luster. ]

quote [ Housed in glass cases in the basement of Sansevero Chapel in Naples, Italy, are two extraordinary exhibits. Called ?anatomical machines?, they are two skeletons, one belonging to a man and the other to women. ]