The Longest Straight Line Land And Sea Route

May 7, 2018

The red line on this world map looks all curvy, but in reality is a perfectly straight line. Remember, the earth is spherical, so any strai...

The Lost City of Cahokia

May 5, 2018

A thousand years before Columbus's men would land on the shores of America, a new city was sprouting on the floodplains of modern-day St...

China’s Bicycle Graveyards

May 4, 2018

Over the last few years, the bicycle-sharing phenomenon has taken the world by storm, especially in China, where—according to one report —th...

Pop Culture Dystopia

May 4, 2018

Dystopian future is a favorite trope among movie directors, writers and artists alike. Decaying landscape, overgrown bushes, and crumbling r...

Toxic Art: The Almaden Mercury Fountain

May 3, 2018

At the Joan Miró Foundation, a contemporary museum on Montjuïc hill in Barcelona, is a fascinatingly deadly piece of art—a fountain of mercu...

Strings And Knots: Inca’s Cryptic Writing System

May 2, 2018

While Geoffrey Chaucer was writing The Canterbury Tales in late 14th century, the Inca scholars high up in the Andes were struggling to put...

The Soccer Stadium Lying On Two Hemispheres

Apr 30, 2018

This Friday, two local Brazilian football clubs—Santos FC and Macapá—will face each other at the Estádio Milton Corrêa, a multi-purpose sta...

River of Blood: The Memorial to a Civil War Battle That Never Took Place

Apr 30, 2018

In the greens overlooking the Potomac river, between the 14th hole and the 15th tee at the Trump National Golf Club in Lowes Island, Norther...

Nightingale Floor: An Ancient Japanese Intruder Detection System

Apr 27, 2018

Squeaky floors are annoying, which is why when you search for “squeaky floors” in Google, you get hundreds of articles offering you tips and...

The Ice Caves That Never Melt, Even In Summer

Apr 26, 2018

In the mountains of the Shanxi province in China, is the country’s biggest ice cave—an 85-meter deep bowling pin shaped subterranean structu...