Solving the Nutritional Mystery of Historical Food at Sea
Mealtime on board the USS Olympia, 1899. (Photo: Library of Congress/LC-USZ62-128415) It's easy to take salt for granted. Cheap and plentiful, it’s not the sort of the thing you expect to find mixed...
View ArticleEvery Friday in Venezuela is Now a Non-Working Holiday
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in 2013. (Photo: Joka Madruga/CC BY 2.0)Venezuela has been suffering a punishing drought, which has been particularly harmful because hydroelectric power is a main...
View ArticleYou Can Call This Number If You Want to Talk to a Random Swede
Sweden's official Twitter handle, @Sweden, has, every week since 2012, been operated not by a social media intern, or a government press officer, but by a random Swede. After some early controversy,...
View ArticleThe Quest to Map and Archive Human Blood
(Photo: National Human Genome Research Institute/Public Domain)A version of this story was originally published in the journal Limn.The first “clearing house” for human genetic diversity data was...
View ArticleHave You Ever Felt as Good as These Sunbathing Lemurs?
Lemurs take lotus position to the next level.During their morning sunbathing rituals, ring-tailed lemurs sit back, open up their arms, and hug the universe. It's almost like they've gotten high—then...
View ArticleThe Long Quest to Get Southerners to Stop Dueling
A recreation of a duel's aftermath, by photographer Katharine Sheward Stanbery and circa 1900. (Image: Katharine Sheward Stanbery/Library of Congress LC-USZC2-5986)Those who take up political office in...
View ArticleGlorious Vintage-Inspired Posters of America's National Parks
Vermilion Cliffs, Justin Beaulieu. (All Images: Courtesy Chronicle Books/ Creative Action Network) America's national parks have been enthralling visitors for over a century. The very first park to be...
View ArticleWhat Are Bollards, and Why Are They So Beautiful?
A gathering of bollards in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo: Andrew Choate/Saint Bollard)How does one become a bollard photographer? For Andrew Choate it all started inadvertently, when he was living in...
View ArticleThe 110-Foot Pegasus Living It Up In South Florida
The Pegasus sculpture. (Photo: Ines Hegedus-Garcia/CC BY 2.0)It would be hard to mistake Gulfstream Racetrack’s Pegasus Park for your standard-issue giant animal roadside attraction, like the Jersey...
View ArticleFound: Isaac Newton's Recipe for the Philosopher's Stone
Gotta get that philosopher's stone. (Photo: Chemical Heritage Foundation)Isaac Newton didn’t believe in magic, but he did believe in the philosopher’s stone, a legendary concoction that could turn lead...
View ArticleProtesters are Rebuilding Thoreau’s Cabin to Block a Gas Pipeline
Looking out on Ashfield from the inside of Will Elwell's Thoreau cabin replica. (Photo: Will Elwell)Standing by his new hand-hewn cabin frame at its dedication last month, Massachusetts resident Will...
View ArticleMass Robot Firings in China Because of Incompetence
Guangzhou restaurant fires its robot staff for their incompetence https://t.co/bcWc104JdIpic.twitter.com/fkXNqfhghj— Lifeboat Foundation (@lifeboathq) April 7, 2016After piloting early AI server...
View ArticleAustralian Uses Phone to Download Nearly a Terabyte of Free Data in One Day
Telstra free data guy clocks up almost a terabyte of downloadshttps://t.co/MXxCvoIrl1pic.twitter.com/WGsIe0ylBq— Canberra Times (@canberratimes) April 4, 2016Customers of Telstra, Australian's largest...
View ArticleWatch This Video of a Dog Flying a Plane
You might be thinking at this very moment that you've reached a certain age and that you've, you know, seen things. Maybe you're also thinking, perhaps a bit smugly, that you've seen everything. The...
View ArticleShipwrecked Mariners Saved On Deserted Island After Writing 'Help' on Beach
(Photo: robmcm/CC BY-SA 2.0)Three mariners set out early Monday in a 19-foot boat planning to skip from one Micronesian island to another. But they never got there, and a U.S. Navy plane Thursday found...
View ArticleWill A Newly-Proposed Bridge Finally Connect the Red Sea?
An Egyptian ship taking tourists on recreational cruises of the Red Sea. Soon, the boat may be entirely optional. (Photo: V Manninen/CC BY-2.0)Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has announced that his country...
View ArticleTexas Town Unveils the World's Largest Bowie Knife
A regular-sized Bowie knife. (Photo: Mika Järvinen/CC BY-2.0)Everything is bigger in Texas,” the saying goes, and the saying is definitely now true for Bowie knives, as Bowie, Texas unveils what may be...
View ArticleThe Terrible Problem of Hitler's Earliest Home
Hitler's birthplace: Salzburger Vorstadt 15 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. (Photo: Thomas Ledl/CC BY-SA-4.0)It's a modest building, on a quiet street. It is also the house where Adolf Hitler was born....
View ArticleThe One Castaway Trick That You Need to Know to Be Rescued
Two men wave life jackets and look on as a U.S. Navy P-8A maritime surveillance aircraft discovers them on the uninhabited island of Fanadik. (Photo: U.S. Navy/Public Domain)If you think the...
View ArticleThis 17th Century Map of the Skies is Bursting With Mythological Creatures
This stunning map of the skies is the work of Frederik de Wit, a Dutch cartographer from the 17th century. (Photo: Frederik de Wit/Public Domain)For time immemorial, humans have turned their gaze...
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