By  Barry Coulter O-Gauge.com Model trains have been the Christmas delight of youngsters for many generations.  From the most primitive replicas of the “iron horse” in the 1800s to the most sophisticated railroad sets of the today, trains have remained atop the Christmas lists of both the young and old.  Many boys and girls who were introduced […]

by: Michael Hobbes, Huffington Post From the 16th century to the 19th, scurvy killed around 2 million sailors, more than warfare, shipwrecks and syphilis combined. It was an ugly, smelly death, too, beginning with rattling teeth and ending with a body so rotted out from the inside that its victims could literally be startled to death by […]

by Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter The feisty writer, editor and publisher was responsible for such iconic characters as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther and the Fantastic Four — ’nuff said. Stan Lee, the legendary writer, editor and publisher of Marvel Comics whose fantabulous but flawed creations made him a real-life superhero to […]

By Melissa Brock  CreditCards.com   Keep your loved one’s credit and identity safe with these tips Credit problems and identity issues can be difficult to guard against during the best of circumstances, but for someone with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease – a form of dementia that affects thinking, memory and behavior – preventing identity […]

by Susan Tompor Just when you think the red flags relating to a scam should be pretty clear, you hear more troubling reports when it comes to sweepstakes and gift cards. All the buzz about the Mega Millions jackpot – and the one winning ticket sold in South Carolina that captured a prize worth nearly $1.6 […]

By Maggie Koerth-Baker Fivethirtyeight.com The questions that kids ask about science aren’t always easy to answer. Sometimes, their little brains can lead to big places that adults forget to explore. That is what inspired our seriesScience Question From A Toddler, which uses kids’ curiosity as a jumping-off point to investigate the scientific wonders that adults don’t even think […]

BY RUDIE OBIAS MENTAL FLOSS Although most Americans spend Halloween dressing up and trick-or-treating, other countries have their own celebratory rituals. Here are 12 Halloween (and Halloween-like) traditions from around the world. 1. SAMHAIN // IRELAND AND SCOTLAND Ireland is considered the birthplace of modern Halloween with its origins stemming from ancient Celtic and Pagan rituals and a […]

From history.com    At 2:35 on the afternoon of October 27, 1904, New York City Mayor George McClellan takes the controls on the inaugural run of the city’s innovative new rapid transit system: the subway. While London boasts the world’s oldest underground train network (opened in 1863) and Boston built the first subway in the United States in 1897, […]

By Rachel Siegel The storefronts along Washington’s bustling H Street Northeast are lit up with familiar names and logos: Petco. Whole Foods. CVS. There is also a Starbucks. Or, more specifically, S-T-A-R-B-U-C-K-S spelled out in the hand symbols of American Sign Language. That fingerspelling is one way to spot the coffee giant’s first U.S. signing store, […]

By Jessica Stillman Inc.com  Elon Musk seems to get most of his sleep under his desk. Richard Branson recommends getting up at 5 a.m. Apple’s Tim Cook takes being an early riser even further, getting up at the ungodly hour of 3:45 a.m. And once these and other titans of industry are up they’re usually busy with productivity-boosting activities like exercise, […]