The Gorgonizing Lake “They thought I was absolutely insane—some crazy white guy, coming along offering money for people to basically go on a treasure hunt around the lake for dead birds.” –Nick Brandt In Greek mythology, the primeval sea-god Phorcys and the sea-monster Ceto had six daughters, three of whom were named Euryale, Stheno, and […]
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Devil Horn Sunrise After many North Americans were treated to a stunning total solar eclipse in 2024, the partial solar eclipse slated to transpire in spring 2025 might have seemed trivial in comparison. While nothing can approximate the experience of totality, this partial eclipse promised something more than the run-of-the-mill crescent. The 29 March event was visible
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Talking to Aliens With Wheat In 1784, a seven-year-old German child began elementary school. During a mathematics lesson, the child’s teacher asked the class to sum all the integers from 1 to 100. As the other students slogged through the calculations, the young Johann announced the answer to his instructor: 5,050. The teacher was astonished. How
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Library Bats In 2013, UNESCO designated the University of Coimbra a World Heritage Site, citing its architecture, culture, tradition, and historical value. This institution lies within the city of the same name, the sixth largest in Portugal. Founded in 1290 in Lisbon and moved to Coimbra in 1537, the university is one of the oldest
Ice Spikes If You love dessert, specifically ice cream You want to control your caloric or macro-nutrient intake You like saving money in the long-run You want to revolutionize your life do yourself a favor and consider purchasing a Ninja Creami. This device can turn nearly any ingredient into ice cream, frozen yogurt, slushies, Italian ice,
Danish Protest Pigs It’s no revelation that the history of Europe is complex. The countries we see today are just the latest configuration of a jigsaw puzzle that has altered shapes and piece totals over thousands of years. If anything, today’s map is relatively uncomplicated compared to centuries past, before nation-states existed and tiny kingdoms,
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Lava-Fired Pizza Objectively, a top-five human creation is the pizza. It helps when one of the constituent parts is also an all-timer, the wheel of the culinary world, a miraculous building block: bread. Whoever figured out, accidental or not, how to create bread is one of the greatest humans to have ever lived. Paired with
Mistletoe “the Yule clog and Christmas candle were regularly burnt, and the mistletoe, with its white berries, hung up, to the imminent peril of all the pretty housemaids.” — Washington Irving, Christmas Eve One of the strangest Christmas traditions I recall learning as I grew up was both ubiquitous and absent. The notion of kissing under
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