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Vikings’ genetic diversity greater than present-day Scandinavia: study

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

Mention the word Vikings and one is likely to conjure images of blond-haired, blue-eyed brutes in beards sailing distinctive ships, wielding axes and shields.While the ships, axes and shields are a sure thing, and the beards are a pretty good bet—at least for the men—a new study has found that the adventurers and plunderers who settled in Newfoundland some 500 years before Columbus crossed the ocean were more genetically diverse than the myths would suggest.

In the largest genetic analysis of Viking remains ever conducted, palaeogeneticist Ricardo Rodrı́guez-Varelal and his colleagues at Stockholm University and the Stockholm-based Centre for Palaeogenetics analyzed Scandinavian burials going back 2,000 years.

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Wikipedia

The Canadian who was the real life James Bond

STORY BY SHARON ADAMS

William Samuel Clouston Stanger was born on Jan. 23, 1897, in Winnipeg.

He had a humble childhood, but was destined for greatness.

His birth parents gave him up for adoption because they couldn’t care for him. He took his adopted parents’ surname, Stephenson, and dropped out of school to become a telegrapher.

He eventually became a decorated First World War air ace, a business titan and a spymaster who set up the British espionage system in the Americas, schooled the United States in undercover operations and established a spy school in Canada.

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