Shark Week In July 1988, Discovery Channel launched a programming block based on sharks. The first iteration of the theme began with a piece called Caged in Fear, about abalone divers who developed a contraption to keep them safe during their harvests. Now in its 36th season, Shark Week is the longest-running cable television event in history. The […]
The Corpse Flower Today’s featured object is chock full of interesting and bizarre tidbits. We’ll start with a sentence you probably never thought you’d read: anthophiles worldwide flock to the smell of corpses. Fret not, it’s not human bodies attracting plant lovers, just a scent similar to the one that might emanate from dead bodies.
The Beach Primeval Members of my family have spent holidays at the New Jersey shore for at least 70 years, likely longer. My mother and her siblings traveled with their elders to the boroughs of Seaside Heights and Seaside Park, which sit on a strip that locals call “the barrier island.” The Barnegat Peninsula, also
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Porphyrios Of what precise species this sea-monster was, is not mentioned. But as he destroyed ships, as well as for other reasons, he must have been a whale; and I am strongly inclined to think a sperm whale. — Herman Melville, Moby Dick The Gladises – a family of orcas likened to the combatants of the Roman
The Magic of Hot Water We take for granted many of the comforts of modern life. If an apocalyptic event neutered our system of specialists and severed our ability to access information instantaneously, how many of us could recreate most of the mechanical wonders in our homes? We’re surrounded by wires, fiber optics, and pipes,
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Fireworks In this age of digital wizardry, where one can conjure great feats of the imagination with relative ease, sometimes the old, analog displays dazzle us the most. Few things capture human attention more than pretty exploding ordinances. In the 21st century, even fireworks displays depend on computers and intricately plotted sequencings developed by algorithms.
The Abyss of Time “The mind seemed to grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time.” — John Playfair“We find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end” — James Hutton Perhaps no physical phenomenon befuddles the human mind as much as time. Whether the result of unknown properties or the inability
The Best Time of Year Every so often, one will encounter a popular, unending debate question: what’s your favorite season? I always had a tough time answering. As I pondered the query, a response would move to the tip of my tongue, but I would hesitate to vocalize. Yeah, I love the cooler temperatures and
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We’re Going to Probe Uranus We know Uranus is a crazy place. We know Uranus is extremely tilted, featuring an obliquity of almost 100 degrees in relation to the Sun. We know Uranus is stinky, a cesspool of rotten-egg aromas. In all likelihood, Uranus even rains diamonds. For these reasons and many more, Uranus is a place like
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Children of the Jungle Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle. — Radio Transmission An example of total survival which will remain in history. — Colombian President Gustavo Petro On 1 May 2023, a Cessna 206 departed Araracuara Airport in southern Colombia with seven humans aboard. In addition to the pilot, Hernando Murcia Morales, and a local Indigenous leader, Herman Mendoza Hernández,
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