The Pythagoras Cup
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Psithurism
Psithurism psithurism/psithurisma noun [sith-yuh-riz-uhm]/[sith-yuh-riz-muh] 1. The sound of rustling leaves or wind in the trees. From the Ancient Greek ψιθυρίζω (psithurízō), meaning “to whisper,” or ψίθυρος (psíthyros), “whisper.” “Look from your window some March morning of east wind — Eurus, ab urendo — and you may tell the quarter whence it blows by the tortured movement of the trees. They struggle
Artificial Intelligence – Part IV
Artificial Intelligence – Part IV [Editor’s Note: This article is the fourth in a series chronicling the potential for artificial intelligence to craft this project. Each year, we ask ChatGPT to write an issue on mountains and provide the imagery with Midjourney. Everything that follows is unedited and not crafted by humans (other than
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Uranus Is Highbrow
Uranus Is Highbrow Over the years, we’ve learned a lot of interesting and off-color things about Uranus. Uranus is tilted. Uranus stinks. Uranus is cold. Uranus even rains diamonds. We’ve only visited Uranus once, when Voyager 2 whooshed by on its way out of the solar system. Because of all these bizarre attributes of Uranus, we decided we’re going to
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Penny
Penny In late spring 2008, my sister and I visited a pet shelter. When we came home, we’d been adopted by Amalfi. She wore a grey and white tuxedo, had radiant yellow eyes, and doled out enough love to touch the most hidden human souls. She joined Seymour, and they became the royals of the
Falling Iguana Alert
Falling Iguana Alert “I’m going to take care of someone who just got an iguana dropped on his face.” –Anamargaret Sanchez, yoga instructor America is so large that its extremities feature exceptionally different wildlife. From Alaska’s frigid climes and polar bears to the hellscape of Florida and its crocodiles, the nation contains nearly
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Ojos del Salado – Chile’s High Point
Ojos del Salado – Chile’s High Point South America’s tallest peak is Argentina’s Aconcagua, the crown of the mighty Andes. The continent’s preeminent mountain range serves as the border between Argentina and Chile. Aconcagua is just seven miles from Chile and is much closer to Santiago – just under 70 miles – than it is
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Fairy Circles
Fairy Circles At this stage, I suppose we could say that fairies are as good an explanation as any. –Professor Greta van Rooyen The Namib, a 1,000-mile desert along Africa’s southwestern coast, is a resplendent sea of sand. Its swaths of towering, classical dunes rival the grandest deserts on the planet. About a hundred
The Finger of Death
The Finger of Death The notion of freezing an enemy with a weapon is a trope often explored in literature and film, perhaps most frequently in the realm of comics. Most famous is Mr. Freeze, portrayed in 1997’s Batman & Robin by Arnold Schwarzenegger, but this character isn’t even DC’s only frosty foe. Captain Cold wields an
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Gates of Hell
Gates of Hell Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. –Dante Alighieri, Vestibule of Hell, Inferno Dante’s 14th-century The Divine Comedy famously tours three sectors of the afterlife. Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso trace the author’s visit to Hell, Limbo, and Heaven. One of literature’s great lines adorns the gate Dante encounters before entering Hell: “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.” The literal translation from Italian means