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Bæddel and bædling are Old English terms referring to non-normative sexual or gender categories. Occurring in a small number of medieval glossaries and penitentials (guides for religious penance), the exact meaning of the terms (and their distinction, if any) are debated by scholars. Both terms are often connected to effeminacy and adultery. Bæddel is glossed as 'hermaphrodite' and a 'man of both sexes' in its two extant glosses, while bædling is often glossed with terms associated with effeminacy and softness. The Oxford English Dictionary supports bæddel as the etymological root of the English adjective bad, although scholars propose alternative origens, including a shared root with both bæddel and bædling. The term bædlings may have included people assigned female at birth who took on masculine social roles or referred to intersex people. Scholars suggest that bædlings could represent a third gender outside the gender binary or a form of gender nonconformity in Anglo-Saxon society. (Full article...)

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Gil Hovav

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... that the creator of Pop was part of the German techno scene?
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... that actor Xavier Molyneux worked as an event paramedic between his acting roles?
... that United States president Joe Biden began his political career by unseating an incumbent county councilman?
... that the sole athlete representing Kiribati at the 2024 Summer Paralympics impressed the International Paralympic Committee through his eye mask?
... that the founder of a Mississippi radio station compared selling advertising time to campaigning for political office?
... that Šediváčkův long is considered one of Europe's most challenging dog sled races, with teams climbing more than 7,500 metres (24,600 feet) during the event?
... that Senator James A. Reed asked "Who the hell is Webb?" when he was nominated to be Webb's vice-presidential nominee?

In the news

Daniel Noboa

Daniel Noboa (pictured) is re-elected as president of Ecuador.
Peruvian writer and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa dies at the age of 89.
A nightclub roof collapse in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, kills 231 people.
In basketball, the UConn Huskies win the NCAA Division I women's championship and the Florida Gators win the men's championship.
In the National Hockey League, Alexander Ovechkin breaks Wayne Gretzky's record for most goals scored.

On this day

April 17: Evacuation Day in Syria (1946)

Artist's impression of Kepler-186f

1080 – Canute IV became King of Denmark upon the death of his brother Harald III.
1809 – Napoleonic Wars: After a three-day chase, the French ship D'Hautpoul was captured off Puerto Rico by a British squadron under Alexander Cochrane.
1951 – The Peak District was designated the first national park in the United Kingdom.
1975 – The Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh, the capital of the Khmer Republic, ending the Cambodian Civil War and establishing the socialist state of Democratic Kampuchea.
2014 – NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-186f (pictured), the first exoplanet with a radius similar to Earth's discovered in the habitable zone of another star.

Marino Faliero (d. 1355)
Hannah Webster Foster (d. 1840)
Karen Blixen (b. 1885)
Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu (d. 1954)

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Today's featured picture

The rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) is a medium-sized tropical tree in the family Sapindaceae, native to Southeast Asia. The fruit is a round to oval single-seeded drupe, 3 to 6 centimetres (1+1⁄4 to 2+1⁄4 inches) long and 3 to 4 centimetres (1+1⁄4 to 1+1⁄2 inches) wide. The leathery skin is reddish (rarely orange or yellow) and covered with fleshy pliable spines, hence the name rambutan, which is derived from a Malay word meaning 'hair'. The spines (also known as "spinterns") contribute to the transpiration of the fruit, which can affect the fruit's quality. The flesh, known as the aril, is translucent, whitish, or very pale pink, with a sweet, mildly acidic flavor reminiscent of grapes. The single seed is glossy brown, about 1.0 to 1.3 centimetres (3⁄8 to 1⁄2 inch) long, with a white basal scar. This photograph shows two rambutans, one whole and one half-peeled to expose the aril, as well as a rambutan seed. The photograph was focus-stacked from 31 separate images.

Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus

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