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What a story!

"Hwæt,” the first word of “Beowulf,” has no equivalent in modern English.

• Tolkien translated it as “Lo!”
• Mitchell avoided a single word
• Heaney went for “So”
• Others chose -- “Attend,” “Listen,” “Behold,” “Yes!”, “What ho!”

Headley went with "Bro!"

The plutonium core used in the experiment was cast initially to be the third atomic bomb dropped on Japan, but the end of the war prevented its use. 9 months later, an accident with the same core would kill Louis Slotin.

@ClintEhrlich @paulportesi Siddhartha Mukherjee talks about it

Why Europeans are getting taller and taller—and Americans aren’t.