Letters Q, W, And X Were Once Illegal in Turkey
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 28, 2019
An alternative spelling for taxi in Istanbul, Turkey. Photo credit: Jürgen Luger/Flickr In 1928, the Turkish government decided to change ...
Showing posts with the label Featured
Jack The Baboon Signalman
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 26, 2019
During the later part of the 19th century, travellers entering Uitenhage railway station, near Port Elizabeth, in South Africa, frequently ...
Mizuko Kuyo: The Japanese Ritual of Mourning The Unborn
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 21, 2019
Losing a child can be very painful, even if that child is yet to be born. In fact, many parents who experienced miscarriages feel the pain i...
The Clay Licks of Amazon Rainforest
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 20, 2019
Macaws and parrots of the Amazon rainforest have developed a particular taste for clay. They collect in large numbers on exposed river banks...
The Chrysler Air Raid Siren Was So Powerful it Could Induce Rain
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 19, 2019
The Chrysler Air Raid Siren was the size of a car. It measured twelve feet long and six feet high, and weighed an estimated 3 short tons. Th...
How Mediaeval Husbands Chastised Wives Who Talked Too Much
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 17, 2019
By putting a muzzle on them, of course. Known as Scold's bridle, these devices of torture and public humiliation were used mostly in En...
The Radioactive Energy Drink That Kills
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 16, 2019
Ebenezer Byers was a well known American socialite, son of industrialist Alexander Byers. In his youth Eben showed promising talent at sport...
Project Isabela: How Goats Helped Eliminate Goats From The Galapagos
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 15, 2019
The Galapagos Islands, off the west coast of Ecuador, are a treasure trove of unique ecological specimens. The islands’ extreme isolation an...
Tomb of Cyrus: The World’s Oldest Earthquake Resistant Structure
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 13, 2019
Natural calamites like floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes have always been considered “acts of god”, yet for centuries our ancestors have r...
Republic of Cospaia: The Italian Hamlet That Became an Independent State For Four Centuries Due to Surveying Error
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 9, 2019
Nuzzled next to Tuscany, in northern Umbria, lies a small Italian village called Cospaia. For nearly four centuries, this territory of just ...
The Vitrified Forts of Scotland
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 6, 2019
Throughout the Bronze and the Iron Ages, Europeans have constructed hilltop forts and enclosures made of stone. About two hundred examples o...
The 40-Foot Studebaker President
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 5, 2019
Few companies escaped the Stock Market Crash of 1929 that plunged the United States and much of the western world into an abyss of economic...
Project A119: The Secret Plan to Nuke The Moon
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 2, 2019
Long before the United States President John F. Kennedy delivered the inspiring "We choose to go to the Moon" speech in front of a...
Barge Haulers on The Volga
Kaushik Patowary
Aug 1, 2019
Before the era of steam engines, the process of moving a boat or a barge up a river was extremely difficult. The usual method was to tow the...
Tempest Prognosticator: Predicting Storms With Leeches
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 30, 2019
Some animals have the instinctive ability to predict changes in the weather. Frogs croak when a storm is approaching, birds return to their ...
Australia’s Mouse Plagues
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 29, 2019
Rats and mice are big problems in Australia, especially around the grain-growing regions in the south and in the east. Every few years, mous...
Helepolis: The Failed War Machine From Which Rose a Wonder of The Ancient World
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 26, 2019
At the entrance to the harbor of the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, there once stood a colossal statue made of iron, ...
Jap Herron: A Novel Mark Twain Wrote After His Death
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 25, 2019
Mark twain died in 1910. Seven years later he wrote his last novel, Jap Herron —so claims St. Louis journalist and author Emily Grant Hutch...
The Japanese Fishing Boat Whose Lethal Encounter With An Atomic Bomb Inspired Godzilla
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 24, 2019
Tucked away in a corner of Yumenoshima Park in Tokyo, a ten-minute-walk away from Shin Kiba Station, is a tall A-frame building. Sitting in...
Crannogs: Neolithic-Era Artificial Islands
Kaushik Patowary
Jul 23, 2019
The Neolithic people of Great Britain were prolific builders. Just look at the British Isles—they are studded with countless ancient megalit...
