Showing posts from August, 2018

The Mail That Was Smuggled to The Moon

Aug 30, 2018

A lot of objects flew to the moon and back aboard NASA’s Saturn rocket. During the Apollo missions and those before that, astronauts were al...

Hungary’s Hyperinflation: The Worst Case of Inflation in History

Aug 29, 2018

The amount of Bolivars needed to buy 2.4 kg of chicken in Venezuela today. Photo credit: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters The economic situa...

Alberta’s War on Rats

Aug 28, 2018

The brown rat is an extremely invasive species—a pest, that survive on human-produced garbage, usually, but often times this nasty rodent ...

The Hunger Stones of The Elbe River

Aug 27, 2018

A record drought in Europe this year has exposed over a dozen boulders along the Elbe River, that usually stays below the water line, in an...

The Gigantic Wine Barrel of Heidelberg

Aug 27, 2018

In a cellar under the Heidelberg Castle, in the German town of Heidelberg, sits a gigantic wooden keg. It’s the world’s largest wine barrel ...

The Island Named After A Satellite

Aug 25, 2018

Satellite imagery, made available to the public through applications such as Google Earth and Google Maps, have allowed anybody with a compu...

The Clifftop Folly of Frederick Hervey

Aug 24, 2018

Perched dramatically on the edge of a 120 feet tall cliff, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the Mussenden Temple near Castlerock, in the nort...

The Skeleton of Jeremy Bentham

Aug 24, 2018

Pictured above is the council meeting of the University College London. The council meets every year, but this particular picture was taken...

The British Quarry That Hid Van Gogh, da Vinci and Rembrandt

Aug 22, 2018

For four years, a disused slate quarry in a remote mountain in North Wales became home to some of the world’s greatest artistic masterpieces...

Marshalsea Debtors' Prison

Aug 21, 2018

Back in Victorian times, being in debt and unable to pay was a serious crime, so much that there were special debtors’ prisons all around th...

The 17th Century Bond That’s Still Paying Interest

Aug 18, 2018

Sometimes a company or a government issues bonds that never mature. They are called perpetual bond, and as the name suggests, they remain in...

Photographer Uses Drone to Capture Social Inequality Across The World

Aug 17, 2018

American Photographer Johnny Miller became interested in social inequality and segregation when he moved to Cape Town, in South Africa. The ...

How Croatia Got The Coastline Away From Bosnia

Aug 17, 2018

There is a small joke going around social media circles for the past few weeks involving the strange border between Croatia and Bosnia and H...

The Scientists Who Starved to Death Surrounded By Food

Aug 15, 2018

The 900-day Siege of Leningrad during the Second World War was perhaps one of the most gruesome sieges in modern history. Hitler’s diabolic ...

The Strange Case of Kijong-dong And Daeseong-dong

Aug 13, 2018

After three years of bloody conflict that saw three million people dead, the two neighboring countries, North and South Korea, entered into ...

Bedale’s House For Leeches

Aug 10, 2018

On the banks of the Bedale Beck, in the small market town of Bedale in North Yorkshire, stands one of the most unusual historic buildings in...

Posthumous Execution

Aug 10, 2018

The execution of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw in 1661, from a contemporary engraving. Oliver Cromwell, the 1st ruler of...

China’s Ready-Made Urban Forests

Aug 8, 2018

Since the past few years, the Chinese government has been planting thousands of trees in cities across the country hoping to create an urban...

The EIRE Signs of World War 2

Aug 8, 2018

The recent heat wave in the UK has revealed more than ancient henges . Over at Bray Head, on the Irish coast, a short distance away from Du...

What Mathematics Has to Do With The Seven Bridges of Königsberg

Aug 7, 2018

Wedged between Poland and Lithuania, along the Baltic Coast, is a piece of Russia located 200 miles away from the Russian border. The Kalini...

The Grave of Florence Irene Ford

Aug 6, 2018

The Natchez City Cemetery in Adams County, Mississippi, is home to several unusual tombstones. There is one called the “Turning Angel”, whic...

The Underground Rivers of London

Aug 6, 2018

Where London is situated today was once the floodplains of the river Thames, surrounded by gently rolling hills and valleys carved by the ri...

Palace of Shaki Khans

Aug 4, 2018

The city of Shaki in northern Azerbaijan is situated more than 300 km from Baku—too far away for most tourists to make the trip, but is home...

Mount Sunflower: The Tallest Peak With The Easiest Climb

Aug 2, 2018

Situated at a formidable height of 4,039 feet above sea level, the lofty summit of Mount Sunflower is the highest point in the state of Kans...

The Bamboo Bridge of Kampong Cham That is Built And Dismantled Every Year

Aug 2, 2018

Across the turbid waters of the Mekong River, in eastern Cambodia, runs a long rickety bamboo bridge connecting the river island of Koh Pen,...

Canary Girls: The World War One Women Who Turned Yellow

Aug 1, 2018

Munition workers in a shell warehouse at National Shell Filling Factory No.6, Chilwell, Nottinghamshire in 1917. Photo credit: Imperial War...