The Mad Hatterpillar In 1820, Washington Irving popularized the character of the Headless Horseman, a ghost who terrorizes the countryside looking for his missing head. Though the myth reaches farther into time – Irish folklore, for example, features the Dullahan (“dark man”) who carries his head by horseback – Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hallow destined this character […]
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Skeleton Lake In northern India, the world’s 23rd-highest peak – Nanda Devi – is surrounded by an eponymous national park. In Hinduism, Nanda Devi is a manifestation of the utmost goddess of the religion, Parvati. Nanda Devi means “Bliss-Giving Goddess.” Looking at this imperious mountain, one can see why the deity and this rock were paired. Nanda
Spontaneous Hay Bale Combustion Many people declare autumn their favorite season. With its colorful leaves, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkin spice, costumes, and crisp weather, what’s not to love? Lurking in the background of many Halloween landscapes are seemingly innocuous rectangular prisms or cylinders. Sitting in fields along country roads, providing seats for tractor rides at pumpkin patches, outlining mazes at fall festivals,
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Vampire Squid From Hell “a very small but very terrible octopus, black as night, with ivory white jaws and blood-red eyes.” — William Beebe We refer to space as the final frontier, but, for large stretches of human history, the oceans presented a challenge beyond our comprehension. These scary bodies perplexed us in two dimensions:
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The Fastest Human-Made Object “Many years later, when I was in Baikonur, the subject of Russia being the first to launch something into space came up. I did not raise my hand to add to the discussion, though I thought about doing so.” — Robert Brownlee What is the fastest object ever crafted by humans? If
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Rainbow Ghost Planes After the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, the human viewpoint of Earth radically shifted. No longer were we mere stargazers, now we could watch what happened at home from a lofty viewpoint. Since the first satellite hit space, we have enhanced our abilities to gaze downward to astonishing levels. Governments and militaries
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Fighter Planes Shooting Themselves Down Son, I’m sorry, they got us. — Henry Jones, Sr. If Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade can serve as a real-world guide, the perils of a dogfighter circa World War II stretched beyond incoming fire from the enemy. Gunners had to make sure they didn’t imperil their own craft, too. More modern (and
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Kelimutu One of the best aspects of Google’s Chromecast is the outstanding array of images in its ambient mode, which serves as a wallpaper slideshow. The photographs primarily feature outdoor locations or wildlife, allowing the wanderlusting individual stuck indoors to sample virtually the planet’s riches. Google has no monopoly on this sort of collection. Microsoft has
The Carrington Event It was a sight never to be forgotten, and was considered at the time to be the greatest aurora recorded […]. The rationalist and pantheist saw nature in her most exquisite robes, recognising, the divine immanence, immutable law, cause, and effect. The superstitious and the fanatical had dire forebodings, and thought it
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Doctor Orangutan We tend to view elite intelligence as a human monopoly. Sure, ravens, dolphins, and other primates display some impressive mental feats, but they didn’t devise general relativity or split the atom. Dogs, cats, and goats might be fit to run cities but we don’t usually allow them to hold positions of real consequence. You wouldn’t