The Unbelievably Delicate Marble Sculptures at Cappella Sansevero
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 9, 2019
In the late 16th century, the Duke of Torremaggiore, Giovan Francesco di Sangro, after a miraculous recovery from a serious illness, erected...
Khuk Khi Kai, The Chicken Poop Prison
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 7, 2019
Chicken poop has a strong and suffocating smell of ammonia that’s hard to stand for more than a few minutes. The odor causes a variety of ad...
Medieval Book Curses
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 6, 2019
In the days before the printing press, book-making was a very laborious process. Each and every book had to made by hand, starting with the ...
Inuit Snow Goggles
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 5, 2019
This man, wearing a pair of strange goggles is not trying to make a fashion statement. He is just getting ready for a trek across the froze...
Abandoned Cars in Hawaii
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 5, 2019
In Hawaii, it is easier to dump your old car by the side of the road than have it legally disposed—an attitude that’s causing big headaches ...
The Mosaics of Villa Romana del Casale
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 4, 2019
Many Roman villas, private residences, as well as public buildings, were lavishly decorated with mosaic floors. Mosaics served as a symbol o...
The Pigeon Breeders of Cairo
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 3, 2019
Perched on rooftops across Cairo, like water tanks on elevated platforms, are rickety wooden cages where Cairenes keep their pigeons. Pigeo...
Vladimir Lukyanov’s Water Computer
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 2, 2019
Early computers were mechanical machines built using gears and levers. These parts or components could be moved with precision and were conn...
Repurposing Old Industrial Sites As Public Parks
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 27, 2019
The public park Landschaftspark in Duisburg-Meiderich, Germany. Image credit: mini_malist/Flickr Landschaftspark, or “landscape park”, of ...
Bomb Crater Garden
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 25, 2019
On September 20, 1940, just over a year after Hitler’s army invaded Poland triggering a six-year war, a German airplane dropped a bomb over...
Out of Place Ski Jumps
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 25, 2019
Competitive skiing as a sport developed in Norway in the later part of the 19th century. Sondre Norheim, who is recognized as the “Father of...
Star Jelly: The Mysterious Phenomenon That Inspired ‘The Blob’
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 22, 2019
For hundreds of years, people have reported blobs of strange gelatinous substances on the ground that they presumed had fallen from the skie...
Hameau de la Reine: Marie Antoinette’s Pretend Village
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 21, 2019
Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France, is often portrayed as a frivolous, selfish, and immoral woman whose decadent lifestyle emptied t...
Rod Stewart’s Model Railway
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 20, 2019
For the past 26 years British rock star Rod Stewart has been secretly building a massive model railway in the attic of his Los Angles home....
Richard Trevithick And The Steam Circus
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 20, 2019
Twenty five years before Robert Stephenson decisively proved the superiority of steam locomotives over horse drawn carriages during the Rain...
The Zeppelin Spy Basket
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 19, 2019
One of the most perilous positions in the crew of a German Zeppelin during the First World War was that of the aerial lookout, whose job was...
Caligula’s Pleasure Ships of Lake Nemi
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 18, 2019
Two thousand years ago, the debauched Roman emperor Caligula ordered the construction of two large floating pleasure barges on the relativel...
Cinder Lake Crater Field: The Simulated Moon NASA Created to Train Astronauts
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 15, 2019
Two Apollo 15 crew members, riding a Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) simulator, participate in geology training at the Cinder Lake crater field ...
The Rainhill Trials
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 13, 2019
Nearly two centuries ago, a small hamlet lying between Liverpool and Manchester became host to one of the strangest competitions ever held. ...
Communal Coffins And Burial Clubs
Kaushik Patowary
Nov 12, 2019
The St John and All Saints Church in the town of Easingwold, in North Yorkshire, England, dates to the 13th century, or perhaps even earlier...
