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Here's What Happens When You Bring $30,000 of Video Gear to an Abandoned Asylum

Inside the psychiatric center (Photo: Courtesy of Project Senium)It was Thursday afternoon, on the second to last day they had planned for the shoot, and most of the crew was out sick. But Joe Trimble...

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Extra Mile: The Accidental Tribe of Highpointers

The peak of Mauna Kea, Hawaii (Photo: apasciuto/Flickr) Britton Hill is a blip on the side of Florida’s County Road 285, a small highway near the state’s border with Alabama. The site is modestly...

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Islands of The Undesirables: Roosevelt Island

Aerial view of Roosevelt Island (Photo: Philip Capper/WikiCommons CC BY 2.0)In 1883, Emma Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus,” a poem that would eventually be engraved on a plaque on the Statue of...

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FOUND: Ritual Gold Bongs from 2,400 Years Ago

The Scythians were really into gold, both for jewelry and ritual opium consumption (Photo: Д.Колосов/Wikimedia)In southern Russia, archaeologists have dug up a small pile of gold objects used by the...

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Why Thousands of New Animal Species Are Still Discovered Each Year

The spider 'Cebrennus rechenbergi' cartwheeling down a sand dune in Morocco (Photo: Ingo Rechenberg/ WikiCommons CC BY-SA 3.0)Every spring, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry...

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Not-So-Loved Locks: 6 Love Lock Sites That Caused Both Controversy and Cuddling

Dustin+Andi 4EVA (Photo: Dustin Gaffke on Flickr) The idea of a "love lock" is that you and your beloved clamp a padlock on a permanent structure (usually a bridge), and throw away the key so that your...

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Why Are These Cars Wearing Tutus? Ask The Male Ballerinas

The Volvo Ballet, 2015 (Photo: Courtesy of Kendra Lin)It's summer in America, and in towns small and large, parades of firetrucks, baton-tossing marching bands, and distinguished old automobiles move...

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Technology You Didn't Know Still Existed: The Telegram

The envelope for a Western Union Telegraph, c. 1861 (Photo: Library of Congress)Today, where disposable instant messaging, emails, texts and tweets are all around us, it is a pleasant surprise to find...

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FOUND: More Marsupials That Sex Themselves to Death

A Tasman Peninsula Dusky Antechinus (Photo: University of Queensland)The antechinus, the tiny Australian marsupial that looks like a cute-enough cross of a rat and a mole (if moles could hop), has a...

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Islands of the Undesirables: Randall's Island and Wards Island

An aerial view of Randall's and Wards Islands seen towards the bottom right. (Photo: Doc Searls/Flickr)Follow my blog with BloglovinScattered around the five boroughs are a set of islands—Roosevelt...

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Mermaids Are Real: 7 Places Where You Can See Real Life Versions of Fish People

Mermaids? (Photo: Walter on Flickr)For centuries, mermaids have captured the imagination of both sailors and landlubbers, fascinated by the idea of hidden fish people beneath the waves. Yet the exact...

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A 45-Year-Old Mom and a Manson Girl Both Tried to Kill Gerald Ford

After Fromme's Sept 5, 1975, attempted assassination (Photo: Public Domain/WikiCommons)In September of 1975, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was on the front page of the New York Times: earlier that month,...

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Islands of The Undesirables: North Brother Island

The view from North Brother Island at dusk. (Photo: Christopher Payne)This is the third installment of a five-part series about NYC"s Islands of the Undesirables, the hidden-in-plain-sight places that...

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FOUND: An Ancient Whale Fossil With a Smaller Whale Inside

The Valley of Whales (Photo: Egypt's Ministry of Environment Official Facebook page) In Egypt's Valley of Whales—Wadi al-Hitan—the fossils of giant, ancient whales have sat for millions of years; they...

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Why Do Presidents Get Their Own Libraries?

The entrance to the George Bush Presidential Library at College Station in Texas. (Photo: Jujutacular on Flickr)In May, the Obama Foundation announced that Chicago will be the future location of the...

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Places You Can No Longer Go: Nelson's Pillar

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Boom Times: 7 Real-Life Explosion Sites

(Photo: CTBTO on Flickr)Summer: the time of year when megaplexes all across the country are filled with images of fiery catastrophe and the sound of deafening thunder, as the movie industry delivers...

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Meet the 81 Year-Old Greek-Canadian Inventor of the Hawaiian Pizza

Close-up of a pineapple (Photo: BW Folsom/shutterstock.com)Pizza has been a core food for North Americans for so long that we forget that it is, relatively speaking, a new dish on our shores. Most...

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FOUND: Tiny, Tiny Frogs That Live on 'Sky Islands'

 Brachycephalus auroguttatus (Photo: PeerJ, Ribeiro, et al., CC BY 4.0)Tiny and bright Brachycephalus frogs live on the tops of Amazon mountains: they have very particular needs—so particular that they...

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Islands of the Undesirables: Hart Island

An aerial view of Hart Island (lower right), next to City Island (Photo: Doc Searls/Flickr) This is the fourth installment of five-part series on New York City's tendency to put its undesirables on...

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