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9 Surprising Places that Inspired Famous Books and Music

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Puzzlewood, in England, said to have inspired Tolkien. (Photo: GuyBerresfordPhotography/shutterstock.com)

It's often said that inspiration can be found anywhere—and sometimes these creative triggers can be incredibly unique. Take, for example, a spinning sign for a foot clinic in Los Angeles. It's been featured in a song by the Eels, and appeared in a book by David Foster Wallace. Not bad for an advertisement for a podiatrist. Fingal's Cave in Scotland inspired both an overture and a painting— in the same year. Here are nine places of artistic inspiration. 

1. Puzzlewood

Forest of Dean, United Kingdom

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(Photo: Trubble/CC BY-SA 2.0)

"He led the way in under the huge branches of the trees. Old beyond guessing, they seemed. Great trailing beards of lichen hung from them, blowing and swaying in the breeze." J.R.R Tolkien's descriptions of Middle Earth in Lord of the Rings evoke a place of mystery and suspense, but the inspiration is said to have been at least partly based on Puzzlewood, a woodland located in Gloucestershire's Forest of Dean. Tolkien was a regular visitor to Puzzlewood and reputedly found inspiration among the 14 acres of mossy woodland, winding paths, tree tunnels and low-hanging branches.  

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(Photo: Trubble/CC BY-SA 2.0)

2. Fingal's Cave

Inner Hebrides, Scotland

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(Photo: Katarina Tauber/shutterstock.com

"In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there" wrote composer Felix Mendelssohn to his sister after visiting Fingal's Cave. The vast natural structure, situated on Scotland's west coast,  has had considerable artistic influence. After his visit, Mendelssohn premiered a symphony called The Hebrides, also known as Fingal's Cave, in 1832. This was a boon year for Fingal's Cave: by co-incidence, artist JM Turner completed his painting Staffa, Fingal's Cave in 1832. It received a more enthusiastic response than Mendelssohn's concerto. Turner had also painted a dramatic scene, drawing on the circumstances in which he had viewed it: from the deck of a steamer in a storm.

The inspiration doesn't end there; in 1969, Pink Floyd recorded a number of songs as part of the Zabriskie Point sessions, including one instrumental track that was unreleased.  Its title? "Fingal's Cave".  

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(Photo: Katarina Tauber/shutterstock.com

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(Photo: Katarina Tauber/shutterstock.com)

3. Rock'n'Roll McDonalds

Chicago, Illinois

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(Photo: TonyTheTiger/CC BY-SA 3.0)

"McDonald's is a place to rock/It is a restaurant where they buy food to eat/It is a good place to listen to the music/People flock here to get down to the rock music". So sang cult artist and songwriter Wesley Willis in his 1995 song "Rock'n'Roll McDonald's", inspired by what is now a flagship McDonalds and Museum in Chicago. Willis, who had schizophrenia, also wrote songs about his favorite rock and roll artists. "Rock'n'Roll McDonald's" was also featured in one of the most well-known documentaries of the 2000s, Super Size Me.  

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(Photo: TonyTheTiger/CC BY-SA 3.0)

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(Photo: -Maik-/CC BY-ND 2.0)

4. Castle Frankenstein

Mühltal, Germany

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(Photo: Boris Stroujko/shutterstock.com

"I beheld the wretch—the miserable monster whom I had created." Mary Shelley's Frankenstein famously came into being thanks to a challenge from Lord Byron, who suggested that she, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Polidori all try to write a horror story. Frankenstein was first published anonymously in 1818, when Shelley was 20; it has continually been in print ever since. Yet the circumstances of the novel's creation may go back further than Byron's challenge.

In 1814, Shelley had travelled to the River Rhine, close to the location of Castle Frankenstein and the birthplace of scientist Johann Konrad Dippel. Dippel, born in 1673, was an alchemist with a rumored taste for some horror himself: it's believed that Dippel had also experimented on human body parts. The connection to Shelley's Frankenstein has not been proven, but there has long been speculation that Shelley was in some way inspired by this gloomy, gothic castle.

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(Photo: Jackie/CC BY-ND 2.0)

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(Photo: Jackie/CC BY-ND 2.0)

5. Strawberry Field

Liverpool, UK

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(Photo: chrisdorney/shutterstock.com)

"Let me take you down/ Cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields/ Nothing is real/ And nothing to get hung about/Strawberry Fields forever." In creating these lyrics, John Lennon immortalized a place he had known in Liverpool as a child—Strawberry Field, the name of the Salvation Army Children's Home. Lennon played in the woods behind the home as a child and years later, returned to it in his lyrics. Today, Strawberry Field exists for Beatles fans to visit, although the building itself was torn down in the 1970s. 

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(Photo: chrisdorney/shutterstock.com)

 

6. Snæfellsjökull Volcano

Iceland 

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(Photo: Axel Kristinsson/CC BY 2.0)

"...one of the most remarkable in the whole island, and certainly doomed to be the most celebrated in the world, for through its crater we shall reach the center of the earth." A 700,000 year old volcano seems the perfect place to start on an adventure—certainly for Jules Verne. In his 1864 book, Journey to the Center of the Earth, his protagonists make their way into earth through Snæfellsjökull volcano in Iceland. The volcano is so impressive that, on a clear day, it can be seen from Reykjavik, some 75miles away. 

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(Photo: dalish/shutterstock.com

7. Renishaw Hall

Derbyshire, UK

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(Photo: giborn_134/CC BY-ND 2.0)

"Wragby was a long, low old house in brown stone, begun about the middle of the eighteenth century, and added on to, till it was a warren of a place without much distinction." The novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was controversial for decades. Firstly published in 1928 in Italy, and only released in full in Britain in 1960, it's the story of an affair between Lady Chatterley and Oliver Mellors, the gamekeeper, set in her and husband's home, Wragby Hall. 

This fictional estate is said to be based on Derbyshire's Renishaw Hall, a 17th century country house set over 300 acres. Since it was built, Renishaw Hall has been home to the Sitwell family, many of whom were artists or art patrons. However that doesn't mean they approved of Lawrence's book; writing in 1933, Edith Sitwell declaredLady Chatterley's Lover was "dirty and completely worthless book".

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(Photo: Esther Westerveld/CC BY 2.0)

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(Photo: Esther Westerveld/CC BY 2.0  

8. Whitby Abbey

Whitby, UK

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(Photo: Arka Mukherjee/shutterstock.com

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you." In 1897, Bram Stoker published Dracula, one of the most enduring vampire stories of all time. In the book, Dracula travels from Transylvania to England, and his ship runs ground in the seaside town of Whitby. Above the harbor looms the ruins of Whitby Abbey, a monastery that was abandoned in the 16th century. It seems that even the local library in Whitby helped inspire Stoker—it's believed that he first heard about Vlad Dracul through a book he borrowed in 1890.  

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(Photo: Jennifer Boyer/CC BY 2.0)

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(Photo: Yorkman/shutterstock.com)

9. Happy Foot/ Sad Foot Sign

Los Angeles, California

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 (Photo: Rachel Kramer Bussel/cropped from original/CC BY 2.0)

"Sad foot sign/Why you gotta taunt me this way?/The happy side is broken now/It's gonna be an awful day". A sign for a podiatrist's office in Los Angeles is one of the more unexpected sources of artistic inspiration, but then again, this is no ordinary sign— it  features two expressive feet, one happy, one sad, and it rotates between the two emotions under the LA sunshine. For the Eels' song "Sad Foot Sign" the focus was certainly on the red-eyed sad face.  In addition to music, the Happy/Sad Foot Sign was also included in The Pale King, the David Foster Wallace book published in 2011 after his death.

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(Photo: Miguel/CC BY-SA 2.0


Extremely Rare Giant Panda Cub Born in 'True Miracle'

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There aren't many giant pandas left: only 1,684 to be exact, around 300 of which are kept in captivity. But their numbers continue to dwindle in part because it's difficult for pandas to reproduce in captivity. Why? No one really knows; the pandas just seem to lose their sexual appetite. 

So it was surprising when, earlier this week, a panda named Hao Hao in captivity in Belgium did give birth, according to the BBC. Hao Hao's son was born hairless and blind, and his mother could often be seen picking it up in her jaws, to both clean and protect the cub. 

Hao Hao lives at a zoo outside Brussels with her panda partner, a male named Xing Hui. Handlers had artificially inseminated Hao Hao months ago with Xing Hui's semen, but it was only in recent weeks that they realized that Hao Hao may actually be pregnant. 

The mortality rate for newborn pandas is extremely high in their first year, so zoo officials say the hard work is far from over. Still, the unnamed cub's birth, called a "true miracle," was something to celebrate; he's only the third panda cub ever born in Europe. 

Make that 1,685 pandas. 

The Long Quest to Find Ashkenaz, the Birthplace of Yiddish

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(Photo: Public Domain)

This article was written by Eran Elhaik, Lecturer, University of Sheffield

At 1,000 years, the search for the location of Ashkenaz– thought to be the birthplace of Ashkenazic Jews and the Yiddish language – is one of the longest quests in human history. It is perhaps second only in length to the search for Noah’s Ark which began in the 3rd century AD.

The place name Ashkenaz occurs three times in the Bible, but by the Middle Ages the exact origin of Ashkenaz was forgotten. Because of the migration of the Ashkenazic Jews it later became associated with Germany. This led to all German Jews being considered “Ashkenazic”, a term which was then applied to central and eastern European Jews who follow Ashkenazic religious customs and who speak Yiddish.

The Yiddish language – which consists of Hebrew, German, Slavic elements and is written in Aramaic – has been spoken at least since the 9th century AD, but its origins have been debated by linguists for several centuries. While some have suggested a German origin, others believe a more complex beginning for the language, starting in Slavic lands in Khazaria – the Middle Age Khazar Empire that covered present-day southern Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and parts of the Caucasus – and followed by Ukraine, and finally Germany. Although the language adopted a German vocabulary it retained its Slavic grammar – which is why Yiddish is often referred to as “bad German”.

The inability of linguists to reach a consensus have led some to decry that the mystery of where Yiddish came from will never be solved. But now for the first time a pioneering tool that converts genome data into ancestral coordinates, is helping to pinpoint the DNA of Yiddish speakers.

In the largest genomic study of Ashkenazic Jews, and the first one to study Yiddish speakers, we applied our Geographic Population Structure (GPS) tool – which operates in a similar way to the sat nav in your car – to the genomes of more than 360 Yiddish and non-Yiddish speaking Ashkenazic Jews.

DNA of Yiddish speakers could have originated from four ancient villages in north-west Turkey.Author provided,

Surprisingly, our GPS honed in on north-east Turkey, where we found four primeval villages, one of which was abandoned in the mid-7th century AD.

These ancient villages identified by the GPS tool are clustered close to the Silk Road– the ancient network of trade routes – and are named Iskenaz, Eskenaz, Ashanaz, and Ashkuz. And it is likely that these are the villages that mark the location of the lost lands of Ashkenaz.

The history of a people

Located on the cross roads of ancient trade routes, this region suggests that the Yiddish language was developed by Iranian and Ashkenazic Jews as they traded on the Silk Road from the first centuries AD to around the 9th century when they arrived in Slavic lands.

Putting together evidence from linguistic, history, and genetics, we concluded that the ancient Ashkenazic Jews were merchants who developed Yiddish as a secret language– with 251 words for “buy” and “sell” – to maintain their monopoly. They were known to trade in everything from fur to slaves.

By the 8th century the words “Jew” and “merchant” were practically synonymous, and it was around this time that Ashkenazic Jews began relocating from ancient Ashkenaz to the Khazar Empire to expand their mercantile operations.

This Jewish migration led to some of the Turkic Khazar rulers and numerous eastern Slavs living within the Khazar Empire to convert to Judaism so they didn’t miss out on the lucrative Silk Road trade between Germany and China.

But the demise of Khazaria due to continued invasions and finally the Black Death devastated this last Jewish Empire of Khazaria. This led to the Ashkenazic Jews splitting into two groups – some remaining in the Caucasus and others migrating into eastern Europe and Germany.

The two groups still called themselves Ashkenazic Jews, however the name Ashkenaz became more strongly associated with Germany and the the European group – for whom Yiddish became their primary language.

A secret language

Since north-east Turkey is the only place in the world where the place names of Iskenaz, Eskenaz, Ashanaz, and Ashkuz exist this strongly implies that Yiddish was established around the first millennium at a time when Jewish traders moved goods from Asia to Europe. This was done by developing the language of Yiddish, which very few can speak or understand other than Jews.

Further evidence to the origin of Ashkenazic Jews can be found in many customs – such as the breaking of a glass at a wedding ceremony and placing stones over tombstones, which were probably introduced by Slavic converts to Judaism.

By studying the origin of Yiddish using our GPS technology, combined with a citizen science approach, we were able to shed light on one of the most forgotten chapters of history and demonstrate the use of bio-geographical genetic tools to study the origin of languages. For Ashkanazic Jews these are the ties that bind their history, culture, behaviour, and identity.The Conversation

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This article was originally published in The Conversation. Read the original here.

The World's Only Tiananmen Square Museum May Be Closing

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The current entrance to the June 4th Museum. (Photo: Dltl2010/CC BY-SA-3.0)

Nearly 30 years after the Tiananmen Square Massacre—generally referred to in Chinese as the June 4th Incident (六四事件)—public discussion of the event continues to be effectively banned in China, with government censorship of internet search results and ongoing monitoring and intimidation of those who survived the demonstrations. The taboo surrounding the event may be why half of the visitors to Hong Kong’s June 4th Museum, the world’s only museum dedicated to remembering the incident, come from mainland China.

Unfortunately, it may also be the reason the world’s only Tiananmen Square museum may be forced to close.

The June 4th Museum was established in 2014 by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. As Laya Maheshwari notes in Al Jazeera, Hong Kong is uniquely suited to be home to the museum, as Hong Kong’s degree of autonomy as a Special Administrative Region in China allows greater freedom than on the mainland. The museum operates out of the Foo Hoo Centre in the busy Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district, and is designed to encourage visitors to identify with the frustrations that motivated the 1989 protesters. Al Jazeera describes the entrance to the museum:

Anyone entering the June 4th Museum in Hong Kong must pass through a narrow corridor, one that gets increasingly narrower the further they walk. The passages are an intentional manipulation of space meant to recreate the sense of oppression that students and activists in mainland China felt and protested against during the Tiananmen Square protests in the summer of 1989.

Similarly, artifacts from the incident emphasize the individuals who sacrificed their health or even their lives to agitate for democratic reforms. In the Los Angeles Times, Violet Law highlights the “cracked metal helmet of a teenager who promised his parents he’d come home soon after checking on his classmates,” a bullet extracted from the hip of a demonstrator who fled China for political asylum in the United States, and “a handwritten death note” from a college student who knew that facing the government forces could require the ultimate sacrifice.

Exhibits such as these present evidence of what occurred in the Square that day, and the maintenance of this historical record is at core of the museum’s mission. “Its most important mission is to preserve the memories and the facts of Tiananmen,” Alliance vice chairman Richard Tsoi told the Times.

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Exhibits from the June 4th Museum. This photo was taken when the museum occupied a temporary space in June 2013. (Photo: tcy3282/CC BY-SA-2.0)

While Hong Kong does not experience the heavy-handed state censorship found in mainland China, the museum has faced an ongoing battle since the day it opened. For two years, the museum has been engaged in a protracted legal battle with the owners’ corporation of the Foo Hoo Centre, which claims in court filings that the usage prescription in the Alliance’s lease does not allow the space to be used for public exhibitions, and that in operating a museum the Alliance is creating safety concerns by allowing too many visitors onto the floor.

However, the Alliance believes there is more behind the lawsuit than the uses authorized by the building’s deed. Alliance chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan claims that a policy requiring museum visitors to provide identification and explain the purpose of their visit has driven away visitors from the mainland, noting that while 50 percent of visitors in 2014 were from the mainland, the number dropped to around 30 percent when the identification policy was implemented in 2015. “I tend to believe they are politically motivated….the other side seem to have unlimited resources,” Ho told Agence France-Presse.

The ownership corporation has rebuffed multiple journalists’ attempts to confirm the motivations behind the lawsuit, but there’s some evidence for Ho’s allegations. Al Jazeera reports that “one corporation member, Yeung Cho-ming, had told the South China Morning Post that ‘the [Tiananmen Square incident] is sensitive and contentious’, and that the corporation fears the museum will bring it ‘trouble’.” Similarly, scholar Louisa Lim told Al Jazeera that “the campaign against the museum began by complaining about the number of visitors before it had even opened,” and while AFP spoke to one building tenant who complained about visitors crowding the building, others weren’t aware the museum was there at all.

While the legal battle may pose the most direct threat to the museum’s existence, an ideological rift among activists simultaneously threatens to undermine the museum’s relevance. For the first time, according to the Los Angeles Times, some pro-democracy Hong Kong activists have chosen to sit out the Alliance-organized annual memorial vigil for the victims of Tiananmen Square, questioning whether democracy in mainland China is achievable—or even relevant.

“We no longer aspire to build a democratic China,” student activist Althea Suen told the Times, “Instead of chasing a pipe dream, we’ll be better served shouldering the responsibilities relevant to my generation.”

According to The Guardian, young Hong Kong activists like Suen view the new “localist” movement—which focuses on preserving and expanding Hong Kong’s autonomy and democracy—as vastly more important than fighting for democratization on the mainland.

Despite these challenges, the Alliance continues to work towards ensuring the June 4th Museum can remain open. In April, the Alliance began an effort to raise HK$3 million (about $400,000) to relocate the museum to a larger venue. Aside from extracting the museum from its legal fight, a new home would provide opportunities to hold educational talks, Ho told the South China Morning Post. Whether or not the fundraiser is successful, the museum will close its current doors by the end of the year.

Hopefully, the museum will be able to continue to provide a way for mainlanders to learn about the incident that’s so deliberately, thoroughly concealed from them. As mainland museum visitor Eric Li told the Times, “I just want to learn the truth. When more people learn the truth, then perhaps we can change the country.”

Spanish Town Creates Graphic Sculpture for Dog Owners

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The New York City Parks Department's blunt approach to encouraging responsible dog ownership. (Photo: Josh Madison/CC BY-2.0)

As any urbanite will tell you, basic rules of civility are the only thing keeping the world’s cities from collapsing into The Purge-style chaos. But as long as human settlements have existed, towns and cities have had to punish and plead with their residents to uphold our fragile social contract, and the Spanish town of Torrelodones is no different.

The solution they’ve settled on for their civility problem, however, is certainly unique.

You see, Torrelodones has a problem. A smelly problem. As town council spokesman Àngel Guirao explained to The Local:

Torrelodones has around 6,000 dogs and let’s say they do an average of three dumps a day, that is around 15,000 separate poos producing some 500kg of excrement a day. Many owners just don’t pick up.

That’s right — Torrelodones has a poop problem. And they’ve decided to fight fire with fire — or in this case, poop with poop sculpture.

The town square is now home to a three-meters-wide, two-meters-high, inflatable poop sculpture, intended to represent the amount of excrement left on Torrelodones’ sidewalks by irresponsible dog owners. Alongside the sculpture, a sign reads “This is one of the greatest obstacles to community spirit in our town. If you own a dog, please help us.” The campaign is intended to remind dog owners to clean up after their pets “in a fun non-aggressive way,” according to Guirao.

To help promote the civility campaign, the town is asking residents to take photos of themselves posing in front of the sculpture for social media using the hashtag #nomascacas. So far, the townspeople have obliged.

 

#nomascacas

A photo posted by Sandra 🐍 (@sandrusky_) on

Along with the inflatable sculpture, the town has also installed smaller concrete sculptures in areas particularly afflicted by uncivil dog owners. The Local reports that the concrete sculptures will be permanent, so the townspeople will be reminded about responsible dog-ownership — and be able to take very unusual selfies — for the foreseeable future.

It remains to be seen whether the sculptures will produce the desired results. If the light-hearted campaign doesn’t work out, Torrelodones may need to emulate the more draconian measures seen elsewhere in Spain; in February, Guadalajara began using DNA testing to determine which dogs are befouling their streets (and costing their owners up to €250 in fines). Similarly, Madrid began cracking down on incivility in April, and now fines owners who don’t clean up after their dogs €750—or a weekend spent cleaning the streets.

New FAA Flight Plans Making Life Very Loud for Some Americans

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Low-flying aircraft are tormenting formerly quiet communities around the country. (Photo: Bob Adams/CC BY-SA-2.0)

More Americans are flying than ever; this summer, industry groups are predicting over 230 million people will fly in the U.S., setting a new record.

This is causing trouble, though, for a group of people who find themselves under new flight plans.

The big invisible map above our heads, it seems, have been changing over the past few years.

In response to the increased demand for air travel, the Federal Aviation Administration has undertaken a major modernization effort, known as NextGen. But as NextGen is rolled out to airports around the country, the system might just be spreading air travel misery to those on the ground.

The Next Generation Air Transportation System is an elaborate, multi-year program to modernize America’s air traffic control and navigation systems. According to the FAA’s extremely enthusiastic website, NextGen will get more planes in the air, cut down on fuel costs, reduce carbon emissions, and save passengers time once it’s fully implemented. NextGen encompasses a number of programs, but the current controversy mainly involves the transition from radar-based navigation to GPS systems. In an interview with SIGNAL magazine, NextGen deputy assistant administrator Pamela Whitley explained the benefits of the switch:

Prior to having a GPS network….we relied on radar technology. With radar sweeps, you get an update about every eight to 10 seconds, depending on the specific radar. For those eight or 10 seconds, you don’t know exactly where the airplane is.

To handle the lack of real-time position data, the FAA required aircraft to be spaced farther apart; now that the GPS network is being implemented, planes can be positioned more closely together, creating new flight path opportunities.

Additionally, flights can take more direct routes to their destinations. “Prior to this infrastructure, the aircraft moved over ground equipment. That’s how the aircraft secured its location information. With the GPS infrastructure, you no longer have to do that because you’re not limited by the ground infrastructure,” Whitley said.

So, with NextGen, we’ll be seeing more flights that get us where we’re going more quickly. Exactly what we need, right?

It turns out there may be a serious downside to the improved efficiency. As NextGen is implemented, increased air traffic on new flight paths is creating a corresponding increase in noise pollution — and the people living with it are making noise themselves.

In January 2015, CBS News reported on skyrocketing noise complaints in Phoenix, Arizona — complaints went from 221 in 2013 to more than 3,300 from October 2014 to January 2015 — resulting from the new flight paths. Residents described hours of noise from a barrage of overhead flights, with some resorting to reinforcing their windows with Plexiglass. Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton complained about the lack of public hearings about the NextGen rollout and its impact on noise pollution, and in June 2015 the city filed a lawsuit against the FAA over the new flight paths.

Later that year, new flight paths became the bane of Bay Area residents as well. In November 2015, the Los Angeles Times reported that noise complaints from those in the flight path had spiked over 2,500%. The sudden presence of 200 to 250 overhead flights a day has turned the quiet community of Pacifica into a veritable landing strip. According to Mike Moffitt in SF Gate, “Pacifica used to be known for two things: fog and quiet. It's still known for fog.”

Spurred by the skyrocketing noise complaints in communities affected by the NextGen changes — not just Phoenix and Northern California, but Washington, DC, Chicago, and Brooklyn, among others — both FAA officials and Congressional legislators are beginning to take action. According to the LA Times, California Congresswoman Jackie Speier has co-sponsored the Quiet Communities Act, which would “re-establish the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Noise Abatement and Control and task it with reviewing the effects of airplane noise.” Unsurprisingly, the bill’s list of sponsors maps precisely to a list of areas currently affected by NextGen.

The FAA has also begun making efforts to consult with affected communities. “We are very concerned about doing everything we can do to be as responsible as we can about noise,” FAA administrator Michael P. Huerta told the Washington Post. This includes re-assessing how the FAA conducts noise studies and working with communities like Pacifica to identify feasible adjustments to the flight paths to lessen their impact.

For now, the NextGen implementation continues, although the FAA has increased its efforts to work with communities impacted by the project. But with some predicting that demand for air travel will double in the next 20 years, we may all have to learn to live with a constant rumbling overhead.

Climate Scientist Claims the Arctic Could Be Ice-Free This Summer

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A view of broken Arctic sea ice captured by the digital camera instrument aboard NASA’s C-130 research aircraft during an ARISE survey flight on Sept. 19, 2014. (Photo: NASA)

Cambridge University Professor Peter Wadhams has made headlines this weekend, telling The Independentthat the Arctic could become ice-free “this year or next.” While the extreme prediction has drawn skepticism from other climate scientists, Wadhams’ warning does draw attention to a situation that many monitoring Arctic sea ice find alarming.

In an interview, Wadhams explained that he predicts Arctic sea ice will “have an area of less than one million square kilometers for September of this year,” when sea ice typically shrinks to its lowest size. With that little ice, the Arctic would effectively be considered “ice-free”—a scenario that last occurred between 100,000 and 120,000 years ago. Currently, the record low for Arctic sea ice is 3.4 million square kilometers.

Wadhams has something of a reputation for making alarming climate predictions; he first predicted a 2015 or 2016 summer sea ice collapse back in 2012, advocating for drastic efforts to reduce carbon emissions. In 2014, he told the Arctic Circle Assembly that the Arctic would be ice-free by 2020, claiming that while his prediction flew in the face of climate models, his assertions were backed by data he has collected since 1979.

Other climate scientists were hesitant to back-up Wadhams’ claims to The Independent. Professor Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University called Wadhams’ prediction “highly unlikely,” citing 2030-2050 as a more likely timeframe for the event. Similarly, climatologist Dr. Peter Gleick said he had “no idea” if Wadhams’ prediction was accurate, and expressed concern that an overly alarmist prediction could be used against the community by climate change deniers.

However, both Francis and Gleick were quick to point out that the current sea ice situation in the Arctic is extremely alarming, even if an ice-free Arctic isn’t quite imminent. In September 2015, Arctic sea ice reached its lowest point for the year; at 4.4 million square kilometers, it was the fourth-lowest minimum ever recorded, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

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The measured sea ice extent over 2016, compared to the 1981-2010 average and 2012, when the record low for sea ice minimum extent was set. (Graph: National Snow and Ice Data Center)

This year, Arctic sea ice reached its maximum extent in March, setting a new record for the lowest maximum extent (the previous record had been set in February 2015). While a low sea ice maximum doesn’t guarantee a similarly low minimum, according to NASA’s Walt Meier, Francis stated that a new record minimum was certainly possible.

“The ice is very low and there have been record-breaking low amounts of ice in January, February, March, April and now May, so this is very worrisome.

“I think we are going to see perhaps a new record [in September], that’s very possible,” she told The Independent.

Aside from the disastrous impact the loss of sea ice would have on the Arctic itself, an ice-free Arctic would affect the entire global climate. According to Scientific American, ocean temperatures would rise, raising sea levels globally and impacting weather patterns in unpredictable ways.

As Gleick told The Independent, “An ice-free—and even an ice-reduced—Arctic is leading to global impacts on weather and ecosystems, and most importantly, that the changes in the Arctic presage dramatic fundamental changes in climate throughout the globe.” Regardless of whether Wadhams’ claims come true, drawing attention to the rising temperatures in the region is critical.

A 19th-Century Cartographer Crammed All of Human History into this Map

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Detail from J.H. Colton's Stream of Time. (All photos courtesy of David Rumsey Map Collection.)

In 1842, mapmaker J.H. Colton tried to chart the history of the universe in just under nine square feet.

His diagram, called Stream of Time, or Chart of Universal History, takes the form of a 45-by-28-inch map with winding rivers and tributaries feeding into one another.

article-imageColton's full map from 1842.

Their source, shown at the top, is the heavens, the epicenter of all creation. Well, at least according to Colton.

article-imageThe starting year of all of history, according to Colton's flowchart.

Going by the Stream of Time depiction, history began in the year 4004 BC. His meticulous attention to detail presents us with a beautiful portrait of the goings-on of civilizations, empires and characters that flow throughout time. 

Three thick streams on either side of the map take us through what Colton considers history’s most important eras—the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, for example—great characters like Charlemagne and Shakespeare, and events and inventions, which range from “Creation of the World” at the beginning of time to “clocks with wheels” around 1100 AD, to name a couple.

The other streams of water, nestled within, represent states that flourish, merge together, or cease to exist altogether. By 1842, the waterway of Prussia has swollen to become larger than most, expanding widely from its inception as a tiny brook around the end of the first millennium. Around the turn of the 19th century, a branch splits off sharply from the river that is Spain, becoming the independent states of South America after a series of revolutions. These countries join the ranks of France, Persia, and China.

article-imageThe bottom of the map reflects the Latin American Wars of Independence.

American independence is reduced to a barely legible line in the context of millennia of historical developments incorporating the birth of Jesus Christ, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire—that great behemoth that “swallowed up” most of the streams feeding into it—the union of Castile and Aragon and the French Revolution.

article-imageThe massive body of water on Colton's map that is the Roman Empire.

Some of what are arguably the most important historical developments of Colton's era—such as the 1814 Congress of Vienna and the Greek War of Independence that began in 1821—make an appearance on the map, and rightfully so. Others, like the classification of William Henry Harrison as the most recent of the "Great Characters" hold less weight today.

This flowchart-style map wasn’t the only one of its kind. Colton’s diagram bears a striking resemblance to Friedrich Strass’ 1803 Der Strom der Zeiten; in fact, he based his work off of it.

article-imageFriedrich Strass' 1803 map, which inspired Colton.

An important alteration for Colton, however, besides the German-to-English translation, was the addition of the budding history of the young United States, his mother country and the home of his mapmaking company. 

A more serpentine timeline predating Colton’s, created by Emma Willard in 1836 and called "Picture of Nations," has the same general structure, this time focusing more on the creation and dissolution of states and empires. A bursting ray of light at the year 0 indicating the birth of Christ is much more salient than words “Jesus Christ” Colton put in capital letters and boldface.

article-imageEmma Willard's 1836 historical flowchart, highlighting the rises and falls of empires.

But it didn't stop there. In 1858 a Frenchman named Eugene Pick created his own version, titled Tableau De L’Histoire Universelle (Eastern Hemisphere) reflecting Colton’s design, this time with an abundance of color and vignettes of famous landmarks, buildings, and scenes.

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The 1858 map by Eugene Pick.
article-imageA vignette from Pick's map showing the Egyptian sphinx.

All of these maps and more can be found at the David Rumsey Map Collection database and blog.

Map Monday highlights interesting and unusual cartographic pursuits from around the world and through time. Read more Map Monday posts.


Ohio's Famed 7-Story Basket Building Might Be Doomed

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(Photo: Derek Jensen/Public Domain)

A lot of people used to buy Longaberger baskets, a maple wood staple of American picnics. At its peak in the late 1990s, the company did hundreds of millions of dollars worth of business. But then the aughts came, and then current decade, and those baskets aren't selling.

That has meant, for a company that once had annual revenue of $1 billion and now gets by with a small fraction of that, hundreds of layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. 

Through it all, Longaberger has held on to its most famous asset: the Longaberger Basket Home Office, a seven-story giant that was designed to look exactly like one of the company's medium-sized baskets. Finished in 1997 near the height of the company's power, the building instantly became a Newark, Ohio icon. 

It also became a Midwest destination of sorts, for a time. My grandparents (I'm a fifth-generation Ohioian) took me there on a brief trip shortly after it opened. I can attest to its wonder.  

But the monument is likely doomed.

The struggling company has long owed thousands in back taxes on the building, and JRJR, Longaberger's parent company, admitted the inevitable in February: the remaining employees at the Home Office were going to be moved to the company's production facility in Frazeysburg, Ohio. The Longaberger basket building, then, would be sold; when and to whom remained the only issues. 

Russell Mack, a spokesman for JRJR, tried to put a positive spin on the news, telling Atlas Obscura that even after the sale the building would remain an "icon" in central Ohio. 

But any new owner—who presumably would not be the producer of unique baskets formed in the building's image—would also have to contend with the building itself. Upkeep and maintenance, for one thing, in addition to the fact that office space in rural Ohio is not exactly in high demand.

Also: Does anyone want to actually own a 180,000-square-foot basket? Brokers have said that it will be tough. The Longaberger Home Office might be too unique for its own good, too good for this world, even, much less Newark, Ohio. 

“We did a Google search one day of ‘unique buildings in the U.S.’ because there’s a market out there for just about anything,” Jim Garrett, an executive vice president at Colliers International, a commercial real estate firm, told the (Columbus, Ohio) Dispatch. “Our thought was, someone who owns two or three different-shaped buildings might be interested. But that didn’t bear a lot of fruit.”

Any conversion of the building—to a hotel, say—would be expensive and likely cost more than what the building is worth, which said to be less than $1 million.

The basket itself is not that old. It had its genesis in the mid-1990s, when company founder Dave Longaberger, struggling with some architects over how to design the company's new headquarters, abruptly left the conversation, only to return with one of the company's woven baskets. 

"Make it look exactly like that," he told them, according to the Dispatch

Longaberger realized his dream and inaugurated the building in 1997, but he died just two years later, which marked in many ways the beginning of Longaberger's fall. 

Inspired by his father, a former basket weaver, Longaberger had opened the first iteration of the company in 1976, calling it J.W.'s Handwoven Baskets, according to a company history. Sales were slow at first, until later Longaberger hit upon a more winning formula: direct sales, which pushed the company's fortunes to new levels throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The company employed up to 500 workers at its peak. 

But those glory days are long past, and Mack said that JRJR was now focused on pivoting the company toward a more stable future. 

"We have been engaged in strengthening Longaberger in a variety of ways, including eliminating its bank debt, improving operations and restoring strong, charismatic leadership," Mack said. 

And whereas in the past Longaberger fans might have made a pilgrimage to the basket building, today they go to a different facility, the Longaberger Homestead, about 60 miles away. There, you can buy baskets, of course, while also getting a first-hand look at how the baskets are made, and even make one yourself.

The basket building, meanwhile, remains in a strange limbo, though visitors can still visit, taking in, among other things, the building's massive skylight. (The basket building's handles, which collectively weight 150 tons, are heated during the winter to prevent ice from smashing the skylight's glass.)

On Friday, a Longaberger guest relations employee told Atlas Obscura that employees' slow migration to the Homestead site was continuing, though that meant continued uncertainty over when the basket building would officially be closed to the public. For the next two weeks, at least, she said visitors could still go inside the interior of the basket building. After that, she said, "It's up in the air."

How One Man Has Explained Almost Every Internet UFO Theory

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The Space Shuttle Endeavor, silhouetted on the mesosphere. (Photo: NASA/Public Domain)

If you happen to frequent the more UFO-happy corners of the internet, you'll see a lot of weird things: exploding blue lights high above the horizon, eerie white specks floating around the Space Shuttle, and something called "space dandruff".

If you don't believe your eyes, try scrolling down to the comments. You might find, sprinkled among them, the strangest sight of all: former NASA employee James Oberg, calmly explaining what is really going on. 

Oberg worked at Mission Control in the late '90s, and then became a space journalist and historian. A few years ago, he picked up a new hobby: taking UFOs seriously. Unlike other debunkers, Oberg is less into dismissing theories offhand (an activity he calls "stomping on dormice") and more interested in figuring out exactly why people react so strongly to outer space images and footage.

To do this, he has combed through decades of supposed UFO sightings, reading eyewitness testimony and cross-referencing it with mission logs. In the process, he's come to an interesting conclusion: human senses, evolved in and trained on (relatively) slow-moving objects, certain light conditions, and an atmosphere, get thrown into a tizzy when those conditions change. "Our sensory system is functioning absolutely perfectly for Earth conditions," says Oberg. "But we're still a local civilization. Moving beyond our neighborhood has been visually confusing."

Here are three outer space phenomena that Oberg says tend to bamboozle the human eye, and the truth behind them.

1. Super-High Plumes

Last November 7th, Californians who happened to be out stargazing got a little more than they bargained for. Around 6 p.m., a strange object began shooting across the sky, drawing mass attention. Then, before their eyes of a freaked-out populace, it erupted, growing what looked like a huge, bright tail of blue flame. The sight sent the whole state into a frenzy. Even Julien Solomita and Jenna Marbles, rapid-talking YouTube stars whose footage of the event has been viewed nearly 10 million times, stayed quiet for several minutes as the weird thing passed overhead.

The New York Timeswas also on it, taking the opportunity to ask experts why people are so eager to pin such sightings on aliens. "Extraterrestrials are like deities for atheists," author Michael Shermer explained at the time. "It's almost a replacement for mainstream religion."

But you don't really need a spiritual void in order to jump to conclusions about an expanding cone of blue light high-tailing it across the sky. You just need eyes that grew up on Earth. As Oberg explains, that giant blue blast was actually a plume—a swarm of particles emitted by a rocket thruster as it shoots through space.

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A more familiar contrail plume, emitted by an Air Force jet. (Photo: David Shankbone/CC BY-SA 3.0)

We're used to seeing bulbous smoke plumes, or the skinny vapor trails left by planes. Rocket plumes, though, look and act much differently. Because they're unencumbered by air, they spread out into wide-angled cones. Some of the particles even ricochet off the rocket itself, and end up in front of or alongside it, expanding the plume further. Most importantly, if the rocket is high enough above us, it might be in full sunlight, even if we, its observers, are still in the dark. This effect is most pronounced at twilight. From Earth, and to our untrained eyes, the object looks like it's shooting fire—but it's really just a plume, enjoying some solar backlight.

This particular plume was from a Navy test missile. Others have shown up in Russia, Australia, and the Canary Islands, garnering similar responses. "There were thousands of people who were absolutely processing their visual stimuli correctly if [the plume] was a mile away or ten miles away," says Oberg of the California event. "But it was 300 miles away, up in space and sunlit, which never occurred to them, because this is not something within the normal range of human experience."

2. Space Dandruff

Many NASA space shuttles went up with backward-facing cameras, which researchers used to study lightning pulses and other phenomena. Footage from these cameras, much of which can be found on YouTube, largely shows grainy views of the Earth from above. Sometimes, though, mysterious white spots will pop up and "dance" in front of the camera. (In the video above, which shows the so-called "Zig-Zag UFO" from STS-48, these spots are best visible starting around 3 minutes in.) Viewers have speculated that these lights are anything from "Star Wars testing" to rogue satellites to alien crafts.

But as Oberg points out, such theories require an Earthly frame of mind, in which the viewer is standing still. In reality, the space shuttle is hurtling at around 17,500 miles per hour. A Soviet rocket or alien craft at cross-orbits with the shuttle would only be visible on camera for a split second as it zipped by, like a car going the other direction on the highway. Because of this, anything that stays alongside a shuttle long enough to remain in a camera's field of view almost definitely comes from that shuttle. The particular dots can't be precisely identified—after all, they're just dots—but they are almost certainly ice flakes, fragments of insulation, or other bits and pieces that have peeled off the shuttle itself and are now floating alongside it. Oberg calls this stuff "space dandruff."

If there's enough dandruff out there, watching it can even be a beautiful experience. When Oberg worked at NASA, he and his coworkers would sometimes take breaks to watch these videos for fun. "The earth's still dark, the sky is full of stars, and these little snowflakes are playing out there, tumbling," he remembers.

3. Twilight Shadowing

While poring over similar videos recorded by various space shuttles, Oberg noticed that all the most convincing ones had something in common. "They tend to occur at a very special time every orbit, when the shuttle has just come up out of the Earth's shadow and is now bathed in sunlight," he says. "The camera is pointed back toward the receding horizon, and stuff suddenly appears, like it's coming up from behind the horizon, or behind a cloud." You can see this in the above video, from the Space Shuttle Columbia's November 1996 mission

Extraterrestrial buffs are particularly into the part around five minutes in, when small specks of light blip in and out of sight, eventually forming a roughly circular shape.

Even if you happen to know that most shuttle-adjacent objects are just dandruff, their sudden appearance and disappearance might be cause for confusion. But as Oberg explains, the objects aren't actually jumping through a wormhole, or rising suddenly over the horizon—they're just moving in and out of the shuttle's shadow.

On Earth, when an object blocks sunlight from reaching something, like the ground, a wall, another object, it casts a shadow on its surface. Since space lacks such a surface, the Shuttle's shadow is invisible—until, suddenly, it swallows up some dandruff, and then spits it back out. Oberg calls this "twilight shadowing." "You can see things floating out of it and floating into sunlight," says Oberg. "They look like stuff that's coming up from beneath the clouds, or from beyond the edge of the Earth." Really, though, they're just coming back into our line of vision.

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The Space Shuttle Discovery, casting no shadow. (Photo: NASA/Public Domain)

These various types of visibility, and how we interpret them, are endlessly fascinating to Oberg. Their very weirdness helps us remember that we're dealing with an environment that's very strange to us—even stranger, maybe, than the ideas that propagate in an Internet rabbit hole. "Everyone on YouTube just calls each other morons or sheeple," says Oberg. "But really it's just that out there, your visual assumptions are no longer valid." Once you remember that, he says, "there's often an epiphany, where you realize, wait a second—this is outer fucking space."

Turn Extreme Camping into a Career as a Wilderness Guide

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I hope she knows where she's going. (Photo: attilio pregnolato/Shutterstock.com)

Welcome back to AO Jobs, the weekly column where we spotlight jobs and career opportunities that you can apply for right now, to bring some wonder and adventure into your working life. See any listings? Get in touch!

If you’ve ever wanted to get away from it all, and strike out into the wilderness, it’s a good idea to get a guide. Or even better, you could become one.

Around the world, wilderness experts are needed to take adventurous laypeople and daring researchers out into the untamed parts and make sure they come back relatively unscathed. No matter whether you are more interested in being an expert on the types of life found in the wild, or you want to identify which plants could keep you alive and which ones might kill you, there is probably a wilderness guide job out there for you.

Being a wilderness guide encompasses a wide variety of disciplines and specializations from survival techniques to natural identification to conservation. “There are wilderness guides that go out for one weekend and show people wildlife. There are other guides that lead month-long expeditions across the Greenland ice cap,” says Gerard van den Berg, Vice President of the Wilderness Guides Association and a Catalonia-based wilderness guide. “It depends on the personal situation, [a person’s] training and philosophy. But what we all combine is an attraction to places that don’t any, or have very little human influence.”

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Believe it or not, this is a popular destination. (Photo: attilio pregnolato/Shutterstock.com)

Guiding tends to fall generally into the disciplines of leading technical activities such as climbing trips, and broader wilderness expeditions where the journey and destination are the goal. “You can be a specialist in bush travel and survival, or you can be a specialist in wildlife, or you can be a mountain guide, or you can specialize in kayaking or canoeing,” says van den Berg, just naming a few of the possible paths a guide might follow.  

The type of specialization you decide to go into will depend greatly on the type of wilderness you decide to focus on. Obviously the planet is covered in a wide variety of different types of terrain, and each requires its own set of knowledge and skills. “We use the bio-eco regions for reference of specialization. Some people are more specialized in arid continental eco-regions, others are more specialized in arctic, others in more tropical,” says van den Berg.

According to van den Berg, arctic and boreal (your standard coniferous forest) regions tend to be the most popular places for wilderness guides to be asked to explore, while desert wilderness isn’t a very hot destination. Regions like the arctic offer skiing and other ways to travel, but more arid climates don’t provide as many commercially appealing activities—at least very few that aren’t environmentally questionable, such as safaris and motorized activities. Van den Berg also points out that the desert is often a hard environment to conquer. “[In the desert, if it gets hot] you can’t take any more clothes off than your skin,” he says.

Jungle regions tend to be the most difficult to guide people through because of how hard it is to move around, the difficulty of extracting yourself once you are deep in the wild, and frankly, the bugs. “Like the Finnish people say, there’s a lot of little creatures you can’t kill with a gun.”

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Learn to share this sort of moment to others. (Photo: attilio pregnolato/Shutterstock.com)

But how to get started in the business? As van den Berg tells it, one should start practicing by sleeping in the wilderness. The best experience you can get is living out in the wild. When you move on to training courses to get any kind of official wilderness guide certification, living out in the wild will be a big part of it. “It can be hard outside, and you should have your mind in the right place," says van den Berg. "More than your body, you should have your mind in the right place." Tents aren’t cheating. They're actually pretty essential. “Trying to cross the Greenland ice cap, you could try to do it without a tent, but you might die on the way.”  

Becoming any kind of professional wilderness guide will require training that is generally determined by the type of biome you want to master, and which specialization you choose. There are a number of training programs, and with a little research you should be able to find the right one for your interests, that will teach you both to keep safe and to appreciate the area you’re exploring.

Even though being a wilderness guide can be a somewhat solitary profession in some aspects, and that is part of the appeal, there is also the added bonus of bringing unique experiences to peoples’ lives that they would otherwise never have. “It’s about being safe, but it’s also about feeling good," says van den Berg. "As I always say, people won’t remember what you did, but they will remember what they felt."

The First Public Course for Drone Racing Is Opening Soon

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Drones aren’t just the future of warfare, it looks like they might be the future of recreational sports as well. According to Marketwatch, the Aerial Sports League recently tested out their upcoming Drone Sports World space, which is set to permanently open at the San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts Innovation Hangar within a few months.

The drone racing league hosted a large party to show off some of the upcoming attractions that the park will offer. There was drone racing, for one, where small remote-controlled aircraft careened through a track of nets and hoops illuminated under black lights. They were controlled by racers who wore full headsets that saw through the drone’s camera, and guests had the opportunity to sit for “ride-alongs,” where they got to see through the drone’s eye as racers took them through the arena.

Also taking place during the event were drone dogfights, where drones competed to knock each other out of the sky. While it was a bit more violent, the netting cage kept spectators safe.

The Drone Sports World concept had previously been tested at the 2016 Makerfaire, where it was a big hit. Once the permanent location opens this summer, it will also offer the racing, aerial combat, and drone training featured at the event, and the organizers hope that their San Francisco location will just be the first of what could become a national chain.

Found: A Black Box, Missing for 31 Years, High on a Mountain

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Mount Illimani, where the recorder sat for 31 years. (Photo: Hernan Payrumani/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Last year, Dan Futrell fell down an internet hole that started with search for MH370 and landed him on the Wikipedia page listing unrecovered flight recorders. On that list, one stood out to him: the records for Eastern Air Lines Flight 980, which was traveling from Paraguay to Miami when it crashed into a mountain in Bolivia in 1985.

The flight itself interested Futrell less than the reason the recorders had never been recovered—the location of the crash was too inaccessible. Futrell took that as a challenge, and now, he and his friend Isaac Stone think they have found parts of one of the flight’s “black boxes” on Mount Illimani, the Boston Globe reports.

Futrell and Stoner aren’t saying much about their find, yet; Outside is working on a story covering the trip, and they’re keeping relatively quiet until that comes out. But on their trip blog, Futrell wrote that “we found what we believe to be the flight recorders.”

Up on the mountain, when they reached the debris field, they spent their time examining pieces of plane metal, trying to locate any trace of the flight recorders. “Mostly what we found are just scraps of metal, pieces of nonfunctional orange casing,” Futrell wrote. But on their third day of debris hunting, they found a piece with wires sticking out of it and the letters “CKPT VO RCDR”—indicating “cockpit voice recorder”—on those wires.

It’s not clear that the debris that they found, including the potential voice recorder piece, will reveal anything new about the crash. They did find one roll of magnetic tape, which may have some tidbits on it. But they did accomplish their main goals: “survive the trip…meet some people, overcome the difficulty of the task, and find that black box.”

Bonus finds: Giant pool of magma

Every day, we highlight one newly found object, curiosity or wonder. Discover something amazing? Tell us about it! Send your finds to sarah.laskow@atlasobscura.com. 

You Can Soon Buy a Melon With Hello Kitty's Face Grown Onto The Surface

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What's better than a cantaloupe? A cantaloupe with Hello Kitty's face branded into the side, of course. Three hundred of these rare cat fruits are slowly ripening in Hokkaido, Japan, in advance of their July harvest date, Rocket News 24reported this morning.

As the outlet explains, "the Hello Kitty melons are created by carving the image on the surface of the fruit approximately one month before harvest. During the final weeks of growth, the hollow grooves take on the same color and appearance as the fruit’s natural netting, creating a seamless, organic-looking image."

Hello Kitty melons have joined us before. According to the reluctant experts at Hello Kitty Hell, they first appeared in 2010, in a package that looked a bit like an iPhone speaker. They came back for an encore in 2013. By 2014, the public needed, and got, something new—a special 40th anniversary edition, in a fancy red box. 2015's crop was back to normal.

This year's melon comes in a relatively demure green and white package, weighs about four pounds, and costs 5,500 yen, or around $51. If that seems a little steep, remember that other melons from Hokkaido go for tens of thousand of dollars, and those generally don't even have cats on them.

Only 300 will be sold, so if you're in the market, make sure you're ready to pounce when they go on sale in early July. Reminds me of a joke: Why didn't the Hello Kitty Melons run away and get married? Because you bought them and sliced them up and ate them with yogurt, you monster.

Every day, we track down a fleeting wonder—something amazing that's only happening right now. Have a tip for us? Tell us about it! Send your temporary miracles to cara@atlasobscura.com.

Koalas are Australia's Most Effective Diplomats

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President Obama holds a koala at the 2014 G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo: Pete Souza/Public Domain)

In 1943 a young Australian politician by the name of Winston set out to visit the United Kingdom. World War II was raging, but Winston was deemed politically important enough that a law banning his exit was suspended and he embarked on a two-week sea voyage to Liverpool.

A few days before arrival, the ship had a brief clash with a German submarine. Depth charges were set off, creating some noise and disturbance on board. Winston, weakened by the journey, sadly passed away.

“(His) loss is a great disappointment to me,” British Prime Minister Winston Churchill telegrammed the Prime Minister of Australia. He did however, feel that his namesake’s death wouldn’t be totally wasted if Winston could be stuffed. An unusual proposition for most deceased politicians, but not for Winston who was, after all, a platypus.

Australian animals have long been dispatched internationally as a form of diplomacy. In the past two years however, it has been koalas, rather than the platypi, who have shot to international notice as key Australian contenders in political power plays. In March this year, the Australian Labour Party's ‘Liberal Waste Watch’ site made international news after it reported that the incumbent Liberal Party's koala diplomacy costs came in at over $400,000. "This Government is obsessed with hugging koalas," said Waste Watch spokesperson Pat Conroy.

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Australian politicians Julie Bishop and Ken Wyatt with a koala in 2014. (Photo: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/dfat.gov.au/CC BY 3.0 AU)

The numbers should perhaps not have come as a surprise. Politicians visiting Australia are regularly enticed to wrap their arms around a koala. In 2014, at the G20 international government summit in Brisbane, a koala named Jimbelung stole the limelight, scoring hugs from everyone from Vladimir Putin to Barack Obama. The animals are also loaned out to international zoos. In early 2015, four koalas were sent to Singapore Zoo for a year, during which they received twice-weekly deliveries of eucalyptus leaves.

From Winston the platypus to Jimbelung the koala, animals have come to form an important part of the deployment of ‘soft power.’ The term, coined by American political scientist Joseph Nye, refers to countries’ abilities to co-opt or attract agreement, rather than force it using shows of power.

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A snacking koala. (Photo: Łukasz Lech/C BY-SA 2.0)

In 2015 Australia was ranked sixth globally for soft power diplomacy by Portland Communications. In a January 2016 address to the US Studies & Centre for New American Security, Australia's Current Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop ranked koala cuddling first among other soft power strategies that help “build a stronger, connected and more prosperous region.” And it wasn’t simply a passing comment or a cute addition to a dry speech on international relations. Recently reports have emerged that Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has created a 600-page manual on animal diplomacy strategy.

So how exactly did the sleepy, chlamydia-bearing koala usurp the platypus as a diplomat? The koala is not the most manageable of animals—in 1983 John Brown, former Australian minister for sport, recreation and tourism, declared “it’s flea-ridden, it piddles on you, it stinks and it scratches." And, like Winston, the first koalas to be transported internationally didn’t fare particularly well. Governor Philip Gidley King wrote in 1803, “ I much fear that their living on leaves alone will make it difficult to send them to England.” It wasn’t until 1880 that a koala finally made it alive to London. Unfortunately its happy home didn’t last long. It was suffocated after a washstand lid fell on its head.

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Not always cuddly: koalas sleep for around 20 hours a day. (Photo: Pixabay/Public Domain)

Though not many live koalas were making their way overseas, they were getting some cutesy attention in children’s books. Many attribute the koala’s rise to power to the anthropomorphism employed by Australian authors such as Norman Lindsay and Dorothy Wall. Wall’s Blinky Bill, for example, created in the 1930s, was an anthropomorphic koala who wore overalls and walked upright with a bindle slung over one shoulder. The character was portrayed as both mischievous and patriotic, joining the army during WWII.

As koalas began to be successfully exported to international zoos after WWII, tourism also increased and zoos were often a popular destination. A hugely successful Qantas ad that began in 1967 starred a live koala who complained about the tourism industry. Since then, the advertising value of news coverage of koalas has been estimated in the millions of dollars.

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Koala souvenirs. (Photo: Bahudhara/CC BY-SA 3.0

But putting koalas in zoos isn’t as easy as just flying them off to Australia’s hoped-for allies. Koalas are notoriously tricky to keep. According to some however, that’s part of the charm. After all, pandas—China’s ancient answer to soft power—are also difficult to please. In 2013 a trio of environmental historians wrote that“panda loans are not simply part of a larger deal; rather, they represent a 'seal' of approval or 'panda of approval' and intent for a long, prosperous working relationship.”

Because these animals are hard to look after, taking them on means signaling you’re interested in the long run. And for Australia, nothing says "burgeoning international relations" like a sleepy, smelly koala.


Stonehenge Was Probably Built in Wales and Moved 160 Miles

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(Photo: Diego Delso/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, England, has long posed a problem for archaeologists. Namely: what is it? A place of worship? A burial ground? An ancient site of healing? Or all of the above? 

The 5,000-year-old monument was built piecemeal over a period of more than 1,000 years, archaeologists have said, suggesting, in part, that its use might have also changed over time. 

Now, a British archaeologist, Mike Parker Pearson, who has long studied the rocks, has proposed a new theory: the monument began life in Wales, before being dismantled and shipped to its current resting place in Wiltshire, England, according to the Telegraph

Some of Stonehenge's stones came from Welsh quarries, after all, a fact well understood by archaeologists, who nevertheless could not explain why Stonehenge's builders did not use stone from sources closer to Wiltshire. But at a conference recently in England, Pearson offered a simple explanation: Stonehenge started in Wales as a tomb, and when its builders moved east, they couldn't leave their monument to the dead behind.

“Their idea of packing their luggage was rather more deep and meaningful than our own," Pearson said, according to the Telegraph. "They are actually moving their heritage and these stones represent the ancestors."

If you want to pay your respects to the prehistoric dead, you can visit, of course. Officially owned by the British government, the site is operated by English Heritage, a non-profit charity. 

The Incredible Coincidence of a Poisonous Tree Growing Next to Its Antidote

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Chechem and Chaka trees connected at the roots. (Photo: Leonora (Ellie) Enking/cropped from original/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Explorers take heed: The jungles of Southern Mexico and Central America are ruled by a tangled gang of trees and vines. The vegetation of this region grows thick and quickly, making it almost impossible to navigate without a machete and a compass. Even more surprising, perhaps, is that the greenery itself is a hazard: There are at least 11 species of plants and trees in Central America which are considered poisonous to the touch and can cause severe contact dermatitis, i.e., a horrible burning rash.

There is only one, though, where the poison and the antidote grow side by side.

The offending tree’s official name is metopium brownei, known locally as chechém or black-sap poisonwood and it’s highly unpleasant. The bark and leaves of metopium brownei contain a high dose of an oily substance called urushiol, the active chemical agent in poison ivy and many other similarly gifted plants.

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Toxic sap from metopium brownei, or chechem. (Photo: Francisco J. Chan Caamal/C BY-SA 3.0)

When this chemical invades your skin it sets off an elaborate, internal alarm system. Langerhan cells, your body’s guard dogs, alert the immune system to the presence of intruders and summon T-cells to deal with the infection. They do this by calling for back-up, releasing signal proteins called cytokines and chemokines which order white blood cells called lymphocytes to assassinate the infected cells. Here’s the problem: The T-cells and lymphocytes also call for back-up creating a chain-reaction which leads to a vicious cycle of attack and alert. It would be like every soldier in the army calling in their very own airstrike, then the pilots calling in more troops who call in more airstrikes, and so on. The blistering rash that follows is a physical symptom of the human body’s natural reaction to this chemical assault. (For those who prefer cartoons to text-books, there is a lovely animated explanation of the body’s reaction here. )

Typical treatment of urushiol-based skin infection in North America is limited to a thorough scrubbing and topical application of calamine lotion. This doesn’t actually treat the painful chemical process taking place below the surface, though, so much as calm the redness and help stop its spread.

Fortunately, the remedy is close. A tree called Bursera simaruba, known by locals as chaka and sometimes called the Gumbo-Limbo tree is a bioactive species which, when processed correctly, acts as an antidote to chechém. The chemistry behind this relationship is complex, with several bioactive chemical compounds in the bark and leaves of bursera working together. Several studies identified chemical constituents including picropolygamain, amyrin and elemicine that are both individually beneficial to the human body and also combine to produce a powerful antioxidant. This is the key to shutting down your body’s reaction to the toxins in chechém. The antioxidants break that painful cycle of alert and attack raging below the skin, essentially calling a cease-fire and allowing the body’s reaction to stop. Active chemical agents also work to alleviate inflammation of the affected area, reducing swelling and itching. 

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Leaves of bursera simaruba, or chaka. (Photo: Kurt Stueber/CC BY-SA 3.0)

The combination of a tree poison, and antidote, sitting right next to each other is astounding. The trees even look alike! But although the jungle is ripe with bio-diversity, the close proximity of these two trees might not be total coincidence. One theory explaining why chechém and chaka grow close to one another comes from an oral tradition handed down through history by the Yucatec Maya. I first heard it years ago from an old man sitting at a bar in Tulum, Mexico.

He told me the story of two ancient brothers, Kinch and Tizic, young Mayan Lords who fell tragically in love with the same beautiful woman, Nicté-Ha. The brothers were polar opposites; one calm and thoughtful, the other reckless and evil. They fought a furious battle driven by passionate jealousy and in the end the brothers died in each other’s arms, neither attaining the love they so endlessly sought. Their final request of the Gods was to see their beloved Nicté-Ha again so the brothers were reincarnated as chechém and chaka—two trees that share one flower. 

The legend is actually an obscure clue to the puzzle of the trees. The answer has to do with the flowers and fruit these trees both produce. It turns out that by “sharing the same flower” (and fruit) these trees end up also sharing various birds that typically eat from both trees. The seeds are then deposited in the same place and often take root less than a meter apart.

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A rash from the chechem tree. (Photo: John Michael Peck)

Although the proximity of these bioactive trees remains unique, “sting and relief” relationships are actually quite common in nature. Indigenous people of the world have long stood as pioneers in the trial and error science of jungle-pharmacology. North America has its own remedy for urushiol infections usually caused by poison ivy, an herb called impatiens capensis or jewelweed. The infamous death-cap mushroom has a recently discovered natural antidote derived from silybum marianum, a flower common in the Mediterranean. 

Some of the most interesting chemical relationships on Earth can be found on the African continent. For example, the Bassa tribe from central Cameroon uses a flowering tree called strophantus gratus to tip their poison arrows and alstonia boonei—another tree—as the antidote. 

As for the jungles of Central America, they continue to be a source of rare biological discoveries. The old man from that bar in Tulum actually told me something else about chechém which I found quite interesting: He said that if I didn’t believe it could hurt me, it would not.

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Blossoms on the bursera simaruba. (Photo: Bob Peterson/CC BY 2.0)

The idea certainly inspired confidence but unfortunately I proved him wrong a few days later, after slashing my way through a thicket of the stuff while running away from some drunken soldiers. .

If you ever have to learn this lesson the hard way, make sure that you can tell the difference between bursera simaruba (the antidote) and metopium brownei (the poison)—the leaves themselves look quite similar. The most reliable way to tell the difference is the bark as chechém has a grey trunk with black sap-streaks while chaka bark is reddish brown and flaky. To achieve the desired effect, boil a large handful of chaka leaves or crushed bark until the water is thick and crimson colored. Apply often until the rash begins to fade and whatever you do, don’t scratch.

Watch Muhammad Ali Doing Magic Tricks in an Airport

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The late Muhammad Ali will always be remembered as one of the world's most extraordinary boxers, as one of the most iconic sporting figures of the 20th century, and as a champion in the fight for black and Muslim rights.

Thanks to candid footage like this, we'll also be able to remember his greatness in another form: as a gentle soul with a penchant for amateur magic.

The video above was shot in 1995 at a Korean airport around the time of the World Championship Wrestling "Collision in Korea" event. The footage shows a 53-year-old Ali, by then deep in the throes of Parkinson's syndrome, entertaining fellow wrestlers with a magic trick and a sly smile. 

Every day we track down a Video Wonder: an audiovisual offering that delights, inspires, and entertains. Have you encountered a video we should feature? Email ella@atlasobscura.com.

Scientists Are Trying to Grow Human Organs Inside of Pigs

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(Photo: National Rural Knowledge Exchange/CC BY 2.0)

California scientists have lately been working on something that has both alarmed the scientific community and provided others with great hope: chimeras, or pig embryos injected with human genes, in an attempt to grow human organs in an otherwise normal pig body. 

The goal? A future where human organ donation is a thing of the past. Having the ability to make new, young, healthy organs on demand would mean no more waiting for a new liver or heart. 

But we're not quite there yet, and some have questioned whether we'll ever be. The current research is in a very early stage, and the scientists involved told the BBC that they are, for now, just trying to find reliable ways of getting the first embryos to grow normally. 

"Our hope is that this pig embryo will develop normally but the pancreas will be made almost exclusively out of human cells and could be compatible with a patient for transplantation," Pablo Ross, a scientist leading the research, told the BBC

The pig embryos are designed precisely, with, in the latest experiments, the genes for creating the animal's pancreas edited out, with human genes capable of creating any organ in the body added in. The embryos were allowed to develop for 28 days inside a healthy sow, at which point scientists terminated the pregnancy. They are now analyzing the tissue. 

The work has been controversial, not only because scientists just aren't sure what could happen. Could the human genes affect other parts of the pig's body, like the brain? We don't know, because this kind of experiment hasn't been successfully tried before. (The National Institutes of Health has put a moratorium on funding such research.)

Whatever the outcome of the research, human organs will remain in heavy demand. Some 128,000 people are currently on waiting lists in the U.S. for transplants, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, compared to over 90,000 just 10 years ago. 

Burlesque, Boneyards, and Bombs: The Other Wonders of Las Vegas

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All photos by Dylan Thuras / Michelle Enemark

Western outsiders first traveled through what is now Las Vegas in 1829, when Mexican scout Rafael Rivera wandered away from the rest of his traveling party and stumbled upon a lush valley. Though today we think of the city’s surrounding landscape as dry, barren and prickling with cacti, Las Vegas, or “the meadows,” was first known and named for its abundant grasses. A lot has changed since then. The arrival of a railroad in 1905 quickly transformed Vegas into the place our minds conjure today—a mecca of lavish casinos, sky-high resorts, strip clubs, and shotgun weddings. Over 42 million tourists descend upon the city each year for a taste of gambling and glitz—but there’s a lot more to the former frontier town than what glints the brightest.

Caught up in the flashing lights of Las Vegas' main drag, many visitors to the city never venture off The Strip. That's their loss. Hiding around the corner is another version of Sin City—the old, weird Las Vegas. It's still full of games, neon, and celebrities, but the games are pinball machines, the neon lights have been decommissioned, and the celebrities are 1920s gangsters and 1950s burlesque performers. Here's a beginners guide to these lesser-known Las Vegas landmarks, an itinerary perfect for the curious traveler looking to dig into the city's rich history and many selves. 

THE NEON BONEYARD

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The signs lean one on top of each other forming a collage of Las Vegas history. (Photo by Dylan Thuras)

The Neon Boneyard has rightfully become a Las Vegas institution. Its two-acre lot is stacked high with decommissioned signs of Las Vegas' yesteryear, a physical embodiment of Las Vegas history. 

Over the years the Young Electric Sign Company or YESCO, created many of of Las Vegas most recognizable neon displays. Once retired, they were cast off to the so-called "boneyard." These signs donated to the Neon Museum formed the core of the Neon Boneyard's collection.

Over 150 decommissioned neon signs are found here. Some are from famous locations like the Sahara, Caesar's Palace, the Stardust, and the Golden Nugget. Some are classics; both Binion's Horseshoe and the original Aladdin's lamp that once adorned the long-gone Aladdin Casino now sit unlit in the dust. Sunlight glints off of broken glass and rusted metal beckoning passersby into motel rooms with color TVs, wedding chapels, and smaller casinos now lost to time. The final collection is a loud mix of midcentury modern design, brash showmanship, and moments frozen in thousand-watt bulbs and graceful glass tubing. 

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A vast variety of typography is found in the Neon Boneyard.

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View the Neon Boneyard with Google Maps, and you will find a huge skull smiling up at you. Once part of Treasure Island, his massive bony head now lives in the Neon Boneyard greeting incoming flights and passing satellites. 

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Though most are defunct, a few of the signs still work and can be turned on for evening tours. 

Visitors looking to lose themselves among the decades of Las Vegas iconography on display should aim for the earlier tours of the day to avoid the midday sun (shade is scarce during the hour-long exploration). Tours tend to sell out, so we recommend buying tickets in advance. 

THE BURLESQUE HALL OF FAME

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A popular act in the 1950s and 1960s Jennie Lee longed to start a burlesque museum.

Many of the formerly-flashing signs in the Neon Boneyard advertise a particular Las Vegas institution: the showgirl. Visitors looking to learn more about the history of burlesque in Las Vegas and beyond should drop into the Burlesque Hall of Fame to take a look at a collection that started with the remarkable Jennie Lee. 

Known as "The Burlesque Version of Jayne Mansfield," "Miss 44 and Plenty More," and "The Bazoom Girl," Jennie Lee was a popular stage act in the 1950s and 1960s. A fierce advocate for dancers sticking together, she helped to start The Exotic Dancers' League of North America, the first union for dancers. She served as the organization's first president and often spoke of her dream to start a burlesque museum. 

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The staff are friendly and helpful and can help answer questions about the history of burlesque.

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Portrait of a burlesque dancer, complete with her kiss.

In order to get the museum started, Lee gathered memorabilia from her fellow dancers. Unfortunately, she didn't live to see her dream realized. After Lee's death in 1990, the endeavor was taken up by her friends and colleagues. Today, the Burlesque Hall of Fame can be found on Fremont Street, although it is slated for a move to the Art District in the fall of 2016.

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The collection includes gloves, fans, posters, and pasties of such iconic Burlesque stars as Lili St. Cyr, Chesty Morgan and Gypsy Rose Lee. 

 THE MOB MUSEUM

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The bulletholes in the St. Valentine's Day massacre wall wall have been circled and painted red. 

Organized crime and its shadowy connection to the gaming industry is a defining part of Las Vegas lore. However, one of the most infamous pieces in the Mob Museum's collection is actually an import. 

In 1929 in Chicago, seven members of Bugs Moran's gang were apprehended by police officers and ordered to line up facing a brick wall, so that they could be cuffed. Unbeknownst to them, the cops were actually members of Al Capone's gang in disguise. Rather than cuffing the rival gang members, they simply shot them dead. 

The wall's bricks were bought and shipped to Canada by a businessman, George Patey, who exhibited them until 1968 (some report that he did so in a wax museum, others say he toured them around American shopping malls). In 1971, he opened a nightclub with the brick wall assembled behind a sheet of plexiglas in the men's bathroom, so that patrons could attempt to aim their pee at the bullet holes. (Though Jimmy Stewart and Robert Mitchum were both patrons, their success in hitting the target is a detail lost to history.)

After the nightclub closed, the bricks lived in storage until 1997, when Patey tried to auction them off. Failing to do so, he instead decided to sell the wall brick-by-brick to gangster enthusiasts, until he passed away in 2004. The remaining bricks were left to his niece, who finally sold them to the Mob Museum in 2012. Somewhere along the line, the 85-year-old bloodstains were enhanced with bright red paint (for subtlety's sake).

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Chips from the S.S. Tango.

The Mob Museum is also home to numerous interesting exhibits on illegal gambling operations and bootlegging. One of the most intriguing of these enterprises is the S.S. Tango, a luxury casino on a ship that was anchored three miles from the California coast, floating in international waters. The State of California eventually managed to circumvent the three mile limit, and sailed out to arrest the casino's owner. Allegedly, he refused to let them board his ship and instead turned the ship's fire hoses on the assembled law enforcement, resulting in an eight-day standoff. 

LOTUS OF SIAM

Walking amongst neon boneyards, showgirls, and mobsters works up a serious appetite. While most Las Vegas tourists are standing in a buffet line, the hungry Atlas Obscura adventurer should head just past the end of The Strip to the easily overlooked (but unreasonably delicious) Lotus of Siam.

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The strip mall is home to a wide variety of cuisines from Indian to sushi and one suspects they may all be delicious. 

Hidden in a strip mall past the last of The Strip's mega casinos, the Lotus of Siam would be easy to drive right past. However, this unassuming little spot has deservedly been called the best Thai restaurant in North America. Although it can take weeks to get a dinner reservation, the Atlas team managed to slip in for a Tuesday lunch without a wait. 

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The Tom Kha Kai (Bangkok Style) soup is profoundly good.

The huge menu of over 150 choices makes it difficult to know where to start, but it is hard to go wrong. Ranging from the sticky rice dishes of the country's northern regions to classic noodle dishes, the food is spectacular. Our test crew went for a papaya salad, golden tofu, and a coconut-heavy Bangkok-style soup.

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The Golden Tofu should not be thought of as a second choice to the meat dishes. Every bit as good, the tofu is lightly crisp on the outside and almost magically soft and fluffy on the inside. 

Even just a small sampling of the dishes on the menu will leave you well-sated for the next off-Strip location (we know, because we probably overdid it). Appropriately feeling like we were about to explode, we went out towards the desert to experience Las Vegas' atomic past.

THE NATIONAL ATOMIC TESTING MUSEUM

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A selection of Geiger counters at the Atomic Testing Museum, a not-for-profit dedicated to the history of atomic testing, much of which happened within sight of Las Vegas.

The National Atomic Testing Museum tells the story of the nearly 100 nuclear bombs detonated in this area between 1951 and 1963. Although it's been some time since mushroom clouds billowed against the desert sunset, the National Atomic Testing Museum is dedicated to keeping that history alive.

Starting in 1951, the Nevada Test Site, or NTS, located about 65 miles northwest of the museum, was a very busy place, and most of the iconic images and photos from what we think of as the nuclear era come from the Nevada Test Site. 

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The museum does a nice job of creating an atmosphere of being in an underground testing facility.

Housing over 12,000 artifacts, the sobering museum showcases not only the history of the Nevada Test Site, but tells the story of the nation's nuclear program, and its impact on Las Vegas and the surrounding communities. During the 50s and 60s, the population in Las Vegas doubled and later tripled with people looking for jobs on the cutting edge of technology. 

The museum, affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute, is not just Geiger counters (shown above) and old black and white photos — it also highlights the pop culture and the sociological trends surrounding atomic testing. 

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The museum also has a charming collection of machinery models hand-carved by a man with the excellent name of Rocky Hardcastle.

THE PINBALL HALL OF FAME 

While the outside of the Pinball Hall of Fame doesn't look like much the inside is a riot of colors, lights and sound. Turns out that some of the most exciting machines in Las Vegas aren't even close to slot machines.

Located not far off The Strip in an unassuming building, the Pinball Hall of Fame is beloved by locals and traveling aficionados alike. Home to over 200 machines it is one of the best collections in the country and all of the vintage pinball machines can be played at just 25 cents a pop.

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The Pinball Hall of Fame has over 200 vintage pinball machines, all playable.

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$10 of quarters gets you a long way. 

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The incredible vintage art is almost as delightful as playing the games themselves.

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There are a few non-pinball machines, like this supremely difficult to play basketball game.

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The hockey game with an adorable goalie graphic is also remarkably difficult.

The Pinball Hall of Fame's owner Tim Arnold was just 16 when he purchased his first pinball game in 1972. He charged neighborhood kids to play it and the seed for the Pinball Hall of Fame was sown.

Arnold went on to operate multiple arcades throughout Michigan and retired to Las Vegas in the 1990s. Having collected over 1000 pinball machines by that time, he opened the Pinball Hall of Fame in 2009. After operational costs, Arnold donates all of the money earned at the Pinball Hall of Fame to charity. Every 25¢ does a tiny bit of good.

FRANKIE'S TIKI ROOM

No trip to Las Vegas would be complete without a drink at a local watering hole, and the curious traveler seeks out a spot with personality. Enter Frankie's Tiki Room!

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The interior is just as one would hope, complete with pufferfish lighting fixtures. 

A kitschy tiki aesthetic has a long history on the Las Vegas scene but with the closing of Tiki classics like Don the Beachcomber and Aku Aku at the Stardust in the 1980's, Tiki establishments were becoming an endangered species. A short lived bar called Taboo Cove opened in The Venetian in 2001 but closed in 2005. Las Vegas was temporarily Tiki-less.

That changed when in 2008 owner P. Moss bought the 50s-era Frankie’s Bar & Cocktail Lounge and brought tiki back to Las Vegas in a big way. Working with Bamboo Ben, the grandson of tiki pioneer Eli Hedley, Moss created custom Frankie's Tiki mugs and lined the interior with thatch and bamboo decorations and lit it with appropriately dim lights inside pufferfish lighting fixtures. 

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The names of the drinks in the bar are a object lesson in dad jokes from the Frankiestein to the Thurston Howl.

The drinks are terrific blends of classic tiki and creative tiki riffs. The number of skulls on the drink indicates how much booze is in them (after a few "five skullers" you may wake up wondering how many skulls you have). That a day among bombs and boneyards could end on a tacky tropical island is just one more example of Las Vegas' unending capacity to provide the unexpected—off The Strip, it's remarkably easy to hit the jackpot.  Advertisement

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