Whether you make it all the way across the country, or just a short distance, a trip on the trans-Siberian train is one of the most exciting things to do in Russia and a wonderful way to reach the least explored places

Most travelers go in the summer to see the flowering nature and easily explore the towns along the way.

However, winter offers its own adventure, with . . . magnificent views of endless white.

In winter, the trains are warm

At the turn of the twentieth century, short stories were a preferred form of entertainment in the United States.

This was a boom time for magazine publishing, owing in part to developments in offset printing technology as well as to the Postal Act of 1879, which had granted magazines discounted mailing rates.

Publications such as Ladies' Home Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, and The Delineator, all of which published short stories, sold more than a half million copies per issue.

The authors of these stories were well known at the time and often well paid.

Antarctica is considered a desert because it receives very little rain or snowfall

The desert conditions in Antarctica are like the conditions on Mars; NASA tested robots in Antarctica that later landed on Mars.

The small amount of snow that does fall does not melt but builds up over hundreds and thousands of years to form large, thick ice sheets.

The maps help researchers when planning trips to Antarctica.

If you doubled the size of a great white, it would look like its ancestor, the megalodon, which lived from 50 to 4 1⁄2 million years ago

While some shark lovers secretly hope megalodons still roam the unexplored depths of the ocean, most people are content to believe that the megalodon is extinct.

The only evidence we have that a megalodon once swam the seas is its teeth. From teeth the size of a man's hand, scientists have been able to build a model of what its jaws and the rest of its body probably looked like.

Scientists have concluded that the megalodon was about 45 to 50 feet (15 meters) long and weighed more than 20 tons.

When a whale surfaces, it spouts a "blow" of water vapor.

When they come to the surface, they breathe air through an opening on top of their heads called a blowhole.

Dolphins and porpoises are smaller, toothed whales.

Larger whales such as the blue whale have a comblike strainer made of baleen, or whalebone, in their mouths instead of teeth..

All whales are mammals.

The doctors met again on Monday, though this time only eleven of them were in attendance.

Many of the recommendations were intelligent and reasonable: Clean up the streets, set up a hospital for fever victims, avoid fatigue, limit the intake of beer and wine, put patients in airy rooms, and remove fouled clothes and bed linens frequently

At this meeting they issued a list of measures for citizens to follow; the list was sent to Mayor Clarkson, who sent it on to Governor Mifflin and the newspapers.

One suggestion alarmed many citizens: Stay away from anyone with the fever.

As many as 12,000 babies are born with a hearing loss each year in the United States.

The cause of hearing loss for many babies is not known.

Hearing loss can go unnoticed for years.

Fortunately, almost all states, communities, and hospitals now offer hearing screening for all babies.

"It is important to identify hearing loss early," said Alison Johnson, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.

The early modern Neapolitan pizzas of the 1700s were indeed for people on the street who were hungry and either had a little money or bought their pizza on credit using a Neapolitan pay-it-forward system that is still in use today.

Toppings included inexpensive local ingredients like olive oil, garlic, oregano, grated cheese, lard, and salt.

When tomatoes started appearing on pizzas in the 1800s, they would have only been used during their fresh season from late spring through summer and autumn (or, possibly, as a conserva during the winter and spring).

By the early 1900s they were being commercially canned in southern Italy and thus were available year-round.

Captain Childs took Matthew aside for two hours every day to teach him reading, writing, geography, history, carpentry, and how to navigate by the stars.

During his years aboard ship, Matthew visited China, Japan, and Manila in the Philippines, as well as North Africa, Spain, France, and southern Russia.. . .

In 1883, Captain Childs died, and Henson was forced to look for work on other sailing ships.

Two years later, sick of fellow sailors calling him racial names and taunting him with insults, Henson left sailing.

It is also used to make warm winter underwear, gloves, hats, and scarves.

Wool can be made into all kinds of clothing—socks, sweaters, skirts, pants, and suits.

People sleep on wool mattresses, under wool blankets, or in wool sleeping bags.

They sit on wool car seat covers and walk on wool rugs and carpets.

Wool doesn't easily catch fire. When it does, it doesn't melt, drip, or give off poisonous smoke. As the fabric burns, it creates a kind of ash that puts the fire out.

Turtles and other reptiles often carry a germ called Salmonella, but appear perfectly healthy and clean.

People think Salmonella infections are caused only by contaminated food, but these germs can also be caught by touching animals, including reptiles or amphibians, such as frogs..

Since 1975, it has been illegal in the United States to sell or distribute small turtles with shells that measure less than 4 inches in length.

This size was chosen because young children are more likely to treat smaller turtles as toys and put them in their mouths.

Older people often have more problems with their eyes, but children in preschool may not see as well as they should.

Among people aged 65 and older, over 40 percent of those who have vision problems say their overall health is only fair or poor, compared to just over 20 percent of those without vision problems.

Other health problems may include poor hearing, heart problems, and lower back pain.

ust one out of seven preschoolers receives an eye screening, and fewer than one out of four receives some type of vision screening.

The most famous invention from the Renaissance is the one people still use today.

The printing press was invented in China between 500 CE and 700 CE. In the 1440s, a German metalworker named Johannes Gutenberg built the first printing press in Europe. He also invented a new way of printing using metal moveable type.

The printing press is a machine that speedily makes multiple copies of the same book, newspaper, or picture.

Before the printing press, books had to be copied by hand, which took a lot of time and was very expensive.

Dead trees are vital for the forest and take many different forms.

The trees that fall to the forest floor are important because they help keep the soil moist by soaking up rainwater.

One of the most important roles for these fallen trees is serving as a nursery for young seedlings

Insects feed on these trees, which in turn give the pileated woodpeckers plenty of food to prey on.

In 1870, only 25 percent of the American population lived in urban areas. By 1900, that number had increased to 40 percent

Lethal microbes had plenty of opportunity to spread as the population of the United States exploded.

By the time George Soper turned thirty, he had seen the nation's size double to 76 million as immigrants flooded in.

Many of the newcomers settled in the fast-growing cities.

A white male born in a major American city was likely to die ten years sooner than one born in a rural area.