Hellburner: The 16th Century Weapon of Mass Destruction
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 29, 2019
In the age of sail, when ships were made of wood, fire was the number one enemy of sailors, and this fearsome tool was used in diabolic ways...
Showing posts from June, 2019
The World’s Longest Dinosaur Trackway
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 27, 2019
In the French village of Plagne, in the Jura Mountains, 200 kilometers east of Lyon, there is a set of huge footprints made 150 million yea...
The Triumphal Arch of Emperor Maximilian I
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 27, 2019
Like many rulers, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I had a fascination for large monuments, but instead of actually building them he roman...
The Longest Papal Election in History
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 26, 2019
The main attraction in the ancient city of Viterbo, in central Italy, is a 13th century palace built to serve as the country residence for t...
The World’s First Parachute Jump
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 25, 2019
On December 26, 1783, a crowd gathered outside the observatory in Montpellier, a French city near the south coast on the Mediterranean Sea. ...
Hermits As Garden Ornaments
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 24, 2019
Between the 17th and the 19th centuries, a certain reproachful and voyeuristic trend emerged among wealthy British landowners. Not content w...
Thomas Edison’s Forgotten Passion: Building Concrete Houses
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 21, 2019
Of all things Thomas Alva Edison is known for, concrete is not one of them. It was one of Edison's less successful ventures, but not one...
François Coignet’s Reinforced Concrete House
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 20, 2019
In a quiet suburb, north of Paris, by the River Seine, stands a derelict four-story building. Its windows and doors are broken, some are bar...
The Galloping Horse Problem And The World’s First Motion Picture
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 19, 2019
“The 1821 Derby at Epsom” by Théodore Géricault Horses have appeared in works of art throughout history. They have appeared in prehistoric...
Cunningham Sanitarium
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 17, 2019
On the shores of Lake Erie, in Cleveland, the United States, there once stood a giant steel sphere sixty-four feet tall. Inside the sphere ...
Mocha Dick: The Whale That Inspired Moby Dick
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 15, 2019
About thirty kilometers off the coast of Chile is a small teardrop-shaped island called Mocha, inhabited by the indigenous Mapuche people. ...
Taiwan’s Giant Wall of Propaganda Spewing Speakers
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 13, 2019
Just off the southeastern coast of mainland China, lies a group of two islands collectively called Kinmen. For over seventy years, these is...
The Avian Honeyguides of Africa
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 12, 2019
South of the great Sahara Desert in North Africa, there lives a bird called the greater honeyguide ( Indicator indicator ) that has develop...
The Great Aurora of 1859
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 11, 2019
On the evening of September 2, 1859, after the sun went down on the western hemisphere, a spectacular show of light began on the skies abov...
Churches of Peace: The Churches That Defied The Holy Roman Emperor
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 7, 2019
In the towns of Jawor and Świdnica, in the Silesia neighborhood of Wroclaw, Poland, stand two magnificent timber-framed churches. The Holy ...
Pretty in Pink: The Muralla Roja
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 7, 2019
This innovative pastel-colored postmodern apartment complex is a popular landmark in the coastal town of Calpe, Spain. It is called Muralla...
Telefon Hírmondó, The Telephone Newspaper
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 6, 2019
When cell phones were first introduced, they were unattractive, brick-like devices that could do nothing more than make voice calls and sen...
Vellir: This Icelandic Geyser is in The Middle of a River
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 6, 2019
Iceland has many geysers but none is stranger than Vellir, also known as Árhver, because it is located smack in the middle of a flowing riv...
Porto Flavia
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 4, 2019
On the west coast of Sardinia, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, there was once an unusual port. It’s a small opening on t...
Kyshtym: The Nuclear Disaster That Was Kept Secret For 30 Years
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 4, 2019
Thirty years before the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded, in what became one of the most devastating nuclear accidents in history, ther...
How Kazakhstan Became The Entire Soviet Union For 4 Days
Kaushik Patowary
Jun 1, 2019
1991 was a notable year in the geopolitical history of the world. It was the year the Gulf War started marking the beginning of America’s c...
