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The wordbædlingas in theCleopatra Glossaries

Bæddel andbædling areOld English terms referring to non-normative sexual or gender categories. Occurring in a small number of medievalglossaries andpenitentials (guides for religiouspenance), the exact meaning of the terms (and their distinction, if any) are debated by scholars. Both terms are often connected toeffeminacy andadultery.Bæddel is glossed as 'hermaphrodite' and a 'man of both sexes' in its two extant glosses, whilebædling is often glossed with terms associated with effeminacy and softness. TheOxford English Dictionary supportsbæddel as the etymological root of the English adjectivebad, although scholars propose alternative origins, including a shared root with bothbæddel andbædling. The termbædlings may have included peopleassigned female at birth who took on masculine social roles or referred tointersex people. Scholars suggest thatbædlings could represent athird gender outside thegender binary or a form ofgender nonconformity inAnglo-Saxon society. (Full article...)

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Daniel Noboa

Daniel Noboa(pictured)is re-electedpresident of Ecuador.
Peruvian writer andNobel Prize in Literature laureateMario Vargas Llosa dies at theage of 89.
A nightclub roof collapse inSanto Domingo, Dominican Republic, kills 231 people.
Inbasketball, theUConn Huskieswin the NCAA Division I women's championship and theFlorida Gatorswin the men's championship.
In theNational Hockey League,Alexander Ovechkin breaksWayne Gretzky's record formost goals scored.

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On this day

April 17:Evacuation Day in Syria (1946)

Artist's impression ofKepler-186f

1080 –Canute IV becameKing of Denmark upon the death of his brotherHarald III.
1809 –Napoleonic Wars: After a three-day chase, the French shipD'Hautpoul wascaptured off Puerto Rico by a British squadron underAlexander Cochrane.
1951 – ThePeak District was designated the firstnational park in the United Kingdom.
1975 – TheKhmer Rougecaptured Phnom Penh, the capital of theKhmer Republic, ending theCambodian Civil War and establishing the socialist state ofDemocratic Kampuchea.
2014 –NASA announced the discovery ofKepler-186f(pictured), the firstexoplanet with a radius similar to Earth's discovered in thehabitable zone of another star.

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Today's featured picture

Therambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) is a medium-sized tropical tree in the familySapindaceae, native toSoutheast Asia. The fruit is a round to oval single-seededdrupe, 3 to 6 centimetres (1+1⁄4 to2+1⁄4 inches) long and 3 to 4 centimetres (1+1⁄4 to1+1⁄2 inches) wide. The leathery skin is reddish (rarely orange or yellow) and covered with fleshy pliable spines, hence the namerambutan, which is derived from a Malay word meaning 'hair'. The spines (also known as "spinterns") contribute to thetranspiration of the fruit, which can affect the fruit's quality. The flesh, known as thearil, 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 to1⁄2 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 wasfocus-stacked from 31 separate images.

Photograph credit:Ivar Leidus

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