Clik here to view.
Found: A Ferrari Stolen Over 28 Years Ago
The stolen car. (Photo: Customs and Border Protection)On July 19, 1987, a Ferrari owner in Orange County, Calif., discovered their car had gone missing. This was a nice car—1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi, in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Turtle-Centric Burial Practices of Ancient Turkey
A Euphrates soft-shelled turtle, possibly taking a break from ferrying souls. (Photo: Dûrzan cîrano/CC BY-SA-3.0)Across history, various mythologies have incorporated the idea of a being or spirit...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pastafarianism is Not a Legally Recognized Religion in the U.S.
Touched By His Noodly Appendage, Niklas Jansson, 2008. (Image: Niklas Jansson/Public Domain)Generally, American law protects prisoners’ rights to exercise their religious beliefs. However, that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This Iowa Town's Dirt Might Be More Valuable than Gold
Conrad, Iowa, was first settled in 1853. (Photo: Courtesy Bob Coulter/City of Conrad)Every positive has a negative, every yin has a yang. On the one hand there is El Dorado, the mythical Andean city...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Found: A Magnificent Roman Villa, Hiding Under a British Backyard
The mosaic floor. (Photo: Wiltshire Archaeology Service)Sometimes there really is a secret world hiding in the backyard, just underneath the ground. In Wiltshire, in the south of England, one family...
View ArticleClik here to view.
History's Most Over-the-Top Sunset Descriptions
"Sunset Over the Golden Horn," by Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky, from 1866. (Image: Public Domain)Sunsets: they're great. Nowadays, we can show off our sunset-spotting prowess across a variety of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can You Spot all the Sea Monsters in this 16th-Century Map?
(Photo: Olaus Magnus/Public Domain)The creatures depicted on land in the 16th-century Carta Marina are not particularly unusual: the map's lands contain knights on horseback, wild boars and bears...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Smuggler Caught With 11 Songbirds In His Pants
Man caught at Vietnam airport caught smuggling 11 endangered birds in his pants https://t.co/9imsbC19ENpic.twitter.com/vgZrfUKS99— Rachael Bale (@Rachael_Bale) April 13, 2016For modern wildlife...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Over 1,300 Pounds of Illegal Shark Meat Seized at Chinese Fish Market
Does he look worried? (Photo: Barry Peters/CC BY 2.0) Fish markets are full of fascinating sights, but as one unlucky (and rightfully outraged) observer discovered in south China’s Hainan Province,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why It's Still a Struggle to Put Women in Space in 2016
Jerrie Cobb, in the Altitude Wind Tunnel in April 1960. (Photo: NASA/Public Domain)Claudia Kessler is currently sifting through applications for Germany’s first female astronaut. That's right—first. In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
China Is Releasing Dam Waters to Ease Pain of El Niño Drought
(Photo: Marufish/CC BY-SA 2.0)China is releasing waters from dams in an attempt to ease the pain from a long-lasting drought that has affected areas up and down the Mekong River, which stretches from...
View ArticleChevrolet’s Misguided 1940 Attempt to Appeal to 'Fair and Weak' Women
"The homemaker walks miles every day, from sink to icebox, from cupboard to stove," explains the male narrator of the short film above, entitled Easy Does It.The 1940 video, produced by Chevrolet,...
View ArticleA U.K. Official Probably Just Killed Any Hopes for 'Boaty McBoatface'
Submit your suggestions for a name https://t.co/6feXAM3qXV@BAS_News#NameOurShippic.twitter.com/GNLVgck7Yi— NERC (@NERCscience) March 17, 2016The public has spoken, but even after weeks of polling and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Controversial History of Letterboxing for Movies on Your TV
Letterboxing. (Photo: Todd Baker/CC BY2.0)A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. Taking an experience like going to the...
View ArticleHow a Tribe is Battling Loggers With a Drone They Built Watching YouTube
In Guyana, where forests cover over 80 percent of the country, the threat of illegal logging is ever present. A lot of the time, it's hard to even know if it's happening. That's in part because the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Last Flight of Germany's Glider King, Who Inspired the Wright Brothers
Go, Glider King, Go! (Photo: Library of Congress/ppmsca.02546/Public Domain)When we talk about human flight the first names to come up are inevitably Orville and Wilbur Wright, who piloted the first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How One Cougar Can Plant 94,000 Seeds a Year
A cougar. (Photo: enciktat/shutterstock.com)Cougars are great gardeners. You won’t see them carefully pruning bonsai trees with their claws or paging through a Burpee seed catalog, but scientists say...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Did a Coded Message Lead an American to a Lost Civilization in China?
(Illustration: Michael Tunk)When Sheldon Gosline was living in China in 2013 to study the country’s lesser-used languages, a colleague at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences showed him a mysterious...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Found: An Unusually Pristine, 400-Year-Old Shipwrecked Dress
A detail of the dress. (Photo: Kaap Skil Museum)Telex Island is part of an archipelago that starts just north of Amsterdam and curves along the coast of the North Sea. Since the 17th century, a parcel...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why Modern Meteorologists Use a 19th-Century Crystal Ball
Crystal balls at the South Pole. (Photo: Eli Duke/CC BY-SA 2.0)It sounds like the premise for a riddle: At the South Pole are two crystal balls that provides unfailingly accurate information—not about...
View Article
