Marathon Rejoice, we conquer! — Pheidippides, Robert Browning One of the most ubiquitous automobile decals is a simple outlined oval with the number 26.2 emblazoned within it. It means, depending on one’s viewpoint, that the driver is crazy, impressive, smug, masochistic, or some mixture of all four. The sticker signals the car’s owner ran 26.2 miles, otherwise known […]
Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks Machu Picchu. The Great Wall of China. The Taj Mahal. The Pyramids of Giza. The Colosseum. Petra. Stonehenge. These emblematic wonders are recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as World Heritage Sites; they are landmarks and areas so culturally significant that they warrant international legal protection. Nearly any universally
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American Stonehenge: The Newark Octagon In entering the ancient avenue for the first time, the visitor does not fail to experience a sensation of awe, such as he might feel in passing the portals of an Egyptian temple, or in gazing upon the silent ruins of Petra of the desert. –Ephraim George Squier and Edwin
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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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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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Sin City You pulled off something unthinkable. You robbed a casino in Las Vegas and made it out the door. The heat hits you in the face. It’s a dry heat, sure, but it’s still 110 degrees Fahrenheit. As you ponder the getaway plan, which involves walking nonchalantly down the Strip, trying to blend in like a
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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The Bone Wars Many progenitors of scientific fields garner reverent reputations as time passes, perhaps titans of inquiry, research, and genius who placed pure scholarship above all else. We tend to view Newton and Einstein as ascetic paragons, infallibly probing the fabric of the universe for nothing more than the good of humanity. Of course,
The Ship of Theseus Now this body of mine consists completely of the flesh of another person. Do I truly have a body now? Or do I have no body? If I think I have a body, what I have is completely a body of another; if I think I have no body, now I actually do
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