The Photographers Who Braved Mount St. Helens
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 3, 2019
When Mount St. Helens erupted in the morning of May 18, 1980, a freelance photographer named Robert Landsberg was within four miles of the s...
Showing posts with the label Featured
Meat-Shaped Stone And Jadeite Cabbage
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 2, 2019
This mouth-watering chunk of stewed pork belly with a gratuitous layer of fat and glistening sheen is actually a piece of rock—jasper to be ...
Kola Superdeep Borehole
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 24, 2018
It’s hard to imagine that under this small metal cap lies the world’s deepest borehole. Now surrounded by ruins, the Kola Superdeep Borehol...
Atmospheric Railways: The 19th Century Trains That Ran On Air
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 22, 2018
The 19th century ushered in a new form of transport—railways. Journeys that previously took weeks were now completed in days. Distances that...
The Sydney Hospital Built By Rum
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 17, 2018
Two hundred years ago, Sydney was little more than a convict camp in desperate need of infrastructure, supplies and a hospital. The long jou...
William Clark’s Expensive Folly
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 14, 2018
In late 19th century New York, on an avenue dubbed the “Millionaire’s Colony”, there stood an insanely ornate house belonging to the wealthy...
Demon Core: How The Third Nuclear Bomb Destined For Japan Killed a Bunch of American Scientists
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 14, 2018
President Harry S. Truman knew that one bomb would not be enough to force Japan to surrender, so he ordered two. What many don’t know is tha...
John Lethbridge’s Diving Machine
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 12, 2018
This strange apparatus hanging at the Cité de la Mer museum in Cherbourg, France, looks like some kind of a medieval torture device, but is...
The Tale of The Exploding Whale
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 11, 2018
Beached whales sometimes spontaneously explode due to build up of gases, mostly methane, as the carcass decomposes. Occasionally, whale carc...
The True Story Behind ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 11, 2018
The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is well known. This dark European folktale with unsettling themes of ingratitude and terrible vengean...
James Nasmyth’s Fake Lunar Photographs From 1874
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 8, 2018
In 1874, an astronomer and an inventor together published one of the most influential books of the time on lunar geology, titled The Moon: C...
The World’s Largest Vacuum Chamber
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 6, 2018
At the 6,400-acre Plum Brook Field Station complex near Sandusky, Ohio, stands five large test facilities operated by NASA to test various a...
San Petronio Basilica: The Church That Ticked The Pope Off
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 4, 2018
Dominating the central square in the city of Bologna is one of the world’s largest church with a unique mismatched façade that has been intr...
Hotel Belvédère: The Iconic Swiss Hotel on The Edge of The Rhone Glacier
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 29, 2018
Located in one of the snowiest regions in Switzerland, the Furka Pass, connecting the cantons of Uri and Valais in the country’s south-centr...
Halifax Gibbet: The Infamous Forerunner to The Guillotine
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 27, 2018
Standing inconspicuously in the middle of an empty plot behind some trees, in the small English town of Halifax, in West Yorkshire, is a fea...
The Collapse of Marib Dam And The Fall of an Empire
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 26, 2018
Near the ancient city of Marib, in Yemen, lies the ruins of a great dam. Considered to be one of the biggest engineering wonders of the anci...
A Barrel Post Office, Mysterious Disappearances and Moby Dick: The Strange History of Floreana Island
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 21, 2018
The Galapagos islands in the Pacific Ocean were once natural stopovers for 18-century whalers, who were drawn to the remote islands by fresh...
Schwerer Gustav: The World’s Biggest Gun Ever Built
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 19, 2018
Hitler sure had some grand ideas—from mass murdering Jews and conquering Europe, to rebuilding Berlin and draining the Mediterranean sea . ...
Why Iceland Imports Ice From Other Countries
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 17, 2018
The name Iceland is a misnomer. In reality, the country is stunningly green, especially during summer, and only about ten percent of Iceland...
The Tay Bridge Disaster And The World’s Worst Poem
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 14, 2018
On the night of 28 December 1879, a violent storm lashed across Scotland collapsing an iron bridge that straddled the Firth of Tay and plung...
