A Blast From The Past: Episode 1

A collection of interesting and noteworthy articles that you may have missed, pulled out from Amusing Planet’s nearly 8-year old archives.

Nordlingen - The town inside a meteorite crater

The town of Nordlingen in the Donau-Ries district of Bavaria, Germany, is unlike any other town in the district. In fact, it's unlike any other town on the whole planet. This pretty medieval town, with a population of 20,000, is situated entirely inside a massive meteorite crater 25 km across. This crater called the Nördlinger Ries, was formed some 14.5 million years ago when a meteor about a mile across slammed into Earth. It was only less than fifty years ago that evidence emerged which established the true origin of this town. … Read More

The living photographs of Arthur Mole and John D. Thomas

Arthur Mole and John Thomas, at a time when photography was still at it's nascent stage, produced a series of extraordinary photographic spectacles using large groups of people to form shapes of religious and national symbols. Arthur Mole initially developed this technique to create religious symbols photographing fellow church members. When the United States entered World War I, Mole and his colleague John Thomas turned to patriotic themes choreographing thousands of military troops and other groups to form American patriotic symbols, emblems, and military insignia. Arthur Mole photographed these formations from an 80-foot viewing tower using an 11 x 14-inch camera. Mole called them “living photographs.” … Read More

The Strange Money Trees of England

When you were a kid, you probably often heard your mother chiding you that “money doesn't grow on trees” in an attempt to curb your expensive demands. If only you knew, you could have told her that money, in fact, does grow on trees. At least in England they do.

There are places in England where you can find trees with coins hammered and bent into the bark. Nobody knows for sure why people pushed coins into the trees. Some believe it brings good luck. Others believe that the amount of coins pushed in by an individual may result in them producing the same amount of children. … Read More

The Musalman Daily – The Only Handwritten Newspaper in The World

“The Musalman Daily”, is one of the oldest Urdu-language daily newspaper published from Chennai in India, and is probably the only one in the world that is still being handwritten. This four-page evening paper has managed to retain the old school look despite the availability of modern printing technology. “The Musalman Daily” has been around for the past 82 years since it’s inception in 1927 by founder Syed Azmathullah. …Read More