Showing posts from April, 2019

Hanoi’s Motorcycle Deliveries

Apr 30, 2019

Two-wheelers are the most popular mode of transport in Vietnam, especially in big and dense cities such as Hanoi. Motorbikes and scooters s...

Human Decomposition in Japanese Artwork

Apr 29, 2019

In traditional Buddhist teachings, contemplating about death is an integral part of meditation. Buddha himself said that death is “the gre...

Why Victorian People Loved Posing Next to Aspidistra Plants

Apr 26, 2019

Potted plants have been a part of households for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all kept houseplants in thei...

The Crooked Trees of Hafford

Apr 25, 2019

Approximately twenty kilometers northwest of the town of Hafford, in Saskatchewan, Canada, and just over five kilometers south-west of Altic...

Las Médulas: The Largest Roman Gold Mine

Apr 25, 2019

This incredible serrated landscape of red mountains and green chestnut trees is the result of two centuries of destructive mining carried o...

The Dam Climbing Alpine Ibex

Apr 24, 2019

Alpine Ibex are big mountain goats that live among the peaks in the European Alps where predators cannot reach. They occupy the steep, rock...

The Adorable Custom of ‘Telling The Bees’

Apr 23, 2019

The bee friend, a painting by Hans Thoma (1839–1924) There was a time when almost every rural British family who kept bees followed a stra...

Luna 15: The Soviet Probe That Tried to Gatecrash America’s First Moon Landing

Apr 19, 2019

Two hours before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were scheduled to leave the surface of the moon after their historic moonwalk, an unmanned ...

Ugly Belgian Houses

Apr 18, 2019

There is a near universal appeal among Belgians to build their own house, which is reflected in the popular saying—“every Belgian is born wi...

Prinkipo Orphanage: Europe’s Largest Wooden Building

Apr 18, 2019

This rickety wooden building, practically on the verge of collapse, is the largest wooden building in Europe and the second largest in the ...

Fake Tree Observation Posts of WW1

Apr 16, 2019

Camouflaging has always been a part of warfare, but it was only during the two world wars that things got really creative. During the First...

The 387 Houses of Peter Fritz

Apr 15, 2019

In 1993, while rummaging through a junk shop in Vienna, Austria, artist Oliver Croy made an extraordinary discovery—hundreds of beautiful, ...

Why Batman’s Gotham City is Named After a Nottinghamshire Village

Apr 15, 2019

Gotham is a fictional city in the DC Universe but its namesake is not. Located across the Atlantic in South Nottinghamshire, this quiet, lit...

Somalia’s Hand Painted Storefronts

Apr 12, 2019

Many businesses and shopkeepers in Somalia—which is one of the world’s poorest nations—cannot afford luxuries such as backlit signs and viny...

The Temples of Mount Fanjing

Apr 11, 2019

Fanjingshan or Mount Fanjing, in Guizhou Province in southwest China, is a sacred Buddhist site and a place of great natural beauty with un...

Dagen H: The Day Sweden Switched Traffic Sides

Apr 11, 2019

Few traffic jams are as organized and coordinated as the ones that took place nationwide in the morning of September 3, 1967, on the streets...

Nasoni: Rome’s Ubiquitous Water Fountains

Apr 9, 2019

Drinking fountains in Rome are as quintessential as the city’s many Roman monuments. Standing about three feet high, these 200-pound cylind...

How War Drove to Extinction The Wake Island Rail

Apr 9, 2019

The day Japan bombed Pear Harbor, many American outposts in the Pacific, such as Philippines, Guam, Midway, Wake Island, Malaya, Thailand,...

People Once Downloaded Games From The Radio

Apr 6, 2019

The year 1977 was an important year in the history of home computing. That year, the world’s first microprocessor-driven personal computer ...

Wrigley Field’s Rooftop Seats

Apr 5, 2019

One of the best spots to watch the Chicago Cubs play at their home ground, Wrigley Field, is not inside but outside the stadium, from the r...

Voder: The World’s First Talking Machine

Apr 3, 2019

That voice in your GPS navigator, the virtual assistant in your smartphone, and the automated responses you get when you dial a company hel...

Cragside: The World’s First House To Have Electric Lights

Apr 2, 2019

Nearly a decade before Thomas Edison began working on incandescent lamps and a more affordable way to bring the bright world of electricity...