The Pearl Rush of Caddo Lake
Kaushik Patowary
May 11, 2020
Caddo Lake. Photo: Maciej Kraus/Flickr Natural pearls are a rarity today, but a hundred years ago, before British biologist William Savi...
Kruger Shalati: The Train Hotel Over Sabie Bridge
Kaushik Patowary
May 9, 2020
For several years, it was possible to hop into a train at Komatipoort, on the South Africa-Mozambique border, and ride through the wildern...
The Bayeux Tapestry
Kaushik Patowary
May 7, 2020
History is not always written. Sometimes it’s carved . Sometimes it’s embroidered. In a museum in Bayeux, in Normandy, is such a piece o...
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
Kaushik Patowary
May 6, 2020
When cotton first came to Europe from Central Asia during the Middle ages, people were fascinated by the fluffy, fibrous balls that resemb...
Black Weddings: Marrying in The Time of Cholera
Kaushik Patowary
May 5, 2020
Last month, a peculiar wedding ceremony took place at a cemetery in Bnei Brak, a city in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. With government re...
Cosmos 954: The Nuke That Fell From Space
Kaushik Patowary
May 1, 2020
What goes up must eventually come down, including satellites that are currently orbiting the earth. After their work is done, they will be...
The Allure of Gigantic Excavators
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 29, 2020
A young girl stands inside the enormous bucket of “Big Muskie”, the world’s largest dragline excavator. Photo: Charles Barilleaux/Flickr ...
The Mysterious Hum Nobody Can Explain
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 28, 2020
For the past nine years, residents of Windsor city, situated on the Canadian side of the US-Canada border just across Detroit river, have ...
The Turkish Hotel Built Above an Ancient Ruin
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 25, 2020
In 2009, a construction crew digging the foundation for a new hotel in Antakya, Turkey, made an astonishing discovery. They uncovered a va...
The Artist Who Got Carried Away: The Story of The Peacock Room
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 25, 2020
In 1876, the British shipping magnate Frederick Richards Leyland bought himself a grand house at 49 Princes Gate in the fashionable neighb...
Ama: The Freediving Fisherwomen of Japan
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 23, 2020
In ancient times, the only way to gather food and other resources, such as sponge and pearl, from the sea bed was to hold one’s breath and d...
The Shortest Rivers in The World
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 21, 2020
Most people imagine rivers to be long meandering waterways flowing down faraway mountains, through the valleys and the plains until it reach...
The Elevator Shaft That Came Before The Elevator
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 20, 2020
The Cooper Union's Foundation Building in Lower Manhattan was completed in 1859. This large six-story brownstone building of Anglo-Itali...
The Watts Tower
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 17, 2020
On a small triangular plot of land, in a suburb just south of downtown Los Angeles, stands one of the greatest pieces of outsider art—a set ...
The Secret of Coade Stone
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 16, 2020
The large lion statue that stands at the east end of Westminster Bridge, near the Houses of Parliament, holds a secret—it is made neither of...
Rettungsbojen: The Floating Rescue Buoys of The Luftwaffe
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 13, 2020
During World War 2, both the RAF and the Luftwaffe lost a large number of pilots at sea. The British used a couple of high speed boats that ...
The Historic Meeting on Elbe River
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 10, 2020
April 25, 1945, is a date few remember. But it was a significant day in the history of the world. On this day, American troops sweeping in...
The Grain Race
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 9, 2020
By the end of the 19th century, steam-powered vessels had almost completely replaced sailing ships in the commercial shipping business. But ...
The Green-Haired Mary River Turtle
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 9, 2020
The Mary River turtle lives exclusively in the waters of the Mary River in south-east Queensland, Australia. Despite being one of Australia’...
Operation Tat-Type: Why Some American Kids Got Tattooed With Blood-Type
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 7, 2020
Photo: Hole in the Clouds The paranoia during the early years of the Cold War was so great that many American school children were made ...
