Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesUnited Kingdom Souvenir Seekers Are Dismembering Britain’s Oldest TreeAtlas Obscura - by Sabrina Imbler After thousands of years, the Fortingall Yew may not have much longer. In the corner of a churchyard in Perthshire, Scotland, an ancient giant is …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesGlaciers How Old Spy Satellites Helped Scientists Peek in on Shrinking Himalayan GlaciersAtlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester When it comes to mapping glacial ice and charting its retreat, scientists have several options. If it’s possible to navigate the surrounding snow …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesUniversity of Utah Why a Computer History Museum Owns a Legendary TeapotAtlas Obscura - by Anne Ewbank For computer-graphics researchers, it’s both a tool and a meme. The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California is home to many artifacts …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesGoats Meet the Farm Animals That Help One of America’s Busiest Airports RunAtlas Obscura - by Claire Voon At Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, these hungry herds serve an additional purpose beyond simple gardening. A long, verdant field runs along …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesBees The Key to Bodacious Blueberries Is a Bumper Crop of BeesAtlas Obscura - by Jonathan Carey To attract them, though, it helps to have forest nearby. Across the Southeast United States, rabbiteye blueberry farming is big business. A staple of …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesApples Meet the Man on a Quest to Document Every Apple in North AmericaAtlas Obscura - by Rohini Chaki “I wrote it out of frustration!” says Dan Bussey, of his 3,500-page magnum opus. In the time it takes an apple scion to grow into a fruit-bearing …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesAfrican-American News How America Got Its First Black Radio StationAtlas Obscura - by Teresa Bitler In 1948, Memphis channel WDIA became a community voice and a rock ‘n’ roll star-maker. Although nearly 10 percent of the United States’s population …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesEthiopia Ethiopia’s Strange Volcanic Landscapes Are Irresistible to Scientists (and Tourists)Atlas Obscura - by Kelly Oakes Dallol can teach us a lot about Mars, and it needs to be protected. The area around the Dallol volcano in Ethiopia is like nowhere else on Earth. …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesBuffalo, NY How a City Planner Spends 3 Days in Resurgent BuffaloAtlas Obscura Revitalization evangelist Chris Hawley shares his “what once was old” agenda for Three Obscure Days in Buffalo. From his penchant for talking about …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesCypress The Cypress That May Have Inspired Dr. Seuss’s ‘The Lorax’ Has Toppled DownAtlas Obscura - by Evan Nicole Brown Over the years, trees have had a special place in children’s literature. Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree is a story of growth, dedication, …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to FoodsOlive Oil Siwa Oasis DatesAtlas Obscura - Reina Gattuso Dates from this desert oasis have been sweetening Egyptian tables since pharaonic times. To coax sugary dates from the sand, Siwa’s farmers must first …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesPrehistory Prehistoric People Built Little Artificial Islands in Scottish LochsAtlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester Researchers nudged the construction date of some these landmasses, known as crannogs, back to the Neolithic period. Lochs across Scotland are speckled …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesTaiwan Taiwan Is in the Clutches of a Claw Machine CrazeAtlas Obscura - by Katherine Lin In arcades across the land, at all hours of the day, people vie for both novel and practical prizes. The tropical cities of Taiwan do not know the …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesFrida Kahlo Found: The Only Recording of Frida Kahlo’s Voice, ProbablyAtlas Obscura - by Sabrina Imbler In the recording, she likens Diego Rivera to a toad. Somewhere along the winding cobblestone streets of the historic center in Coyoacán, Mexico City, …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesCulture The Elaborate Yam Houses of the Trobriand IslandsAtlas Obscura - by Abbey Perreault Across Kiriwina, dense rainforest gives way to wide, open clearings studded with ornate wooden houses. Arranged in concentric rings, the innermost …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesNew Zealand When the Māori First Settled New Zealand, They Hunted Flightless, 500-Pound BirdsAtlas Obscura - by Anne Ewbank When one thinks about iconic New Zealand birds, the one that comes to mind is invariably the fuzzy brown kiwi. But lost to time is another bird, one …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to FoodsMangroves Farim SaltAtlas Obscura - Rohini Chaki An industry run almost entirely by women is developing new sustainable methods to harvest this highly coveted riverbed salt. Between November and May, …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesEast China Sea China’s Bioluminescent Blue Tears Are Beautiful and ToxicAtlas Obscura - by Jonathan Carey And scientists are making new discoveries about them using satellite imagery. Along the Chinese coast of the East China Sea and around Taiwan’s Matsu …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesBees Minnesota Wants to Pay You to Care About BeesAtlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester Won’t you please spare a thought (and some lawn space) for the rusty patched bumblebee? The rusty patched bumblebee is in a pickle. Over the past few …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to FoodsAlternative Medicine Baleni SaltAtlas Obscura - Rohini Chaki A sacred tree, a secret language, and the labor of generations of women keep an ancient tradition of salt harvesting alive. Salt extraction from the …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesMosquitoes Inside Burkina Faso’s Mosquito Dome, Where Venomous Fungus Is Put to the TestAtlas Obscura - by Sabrina Imbler An innovative research center dedicated to blood, biting, and beating back malaria. Somewhere off the main road in the village of Soumousso in Burkina …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesKarl Marx The Struggling Vineyards That Helped Inspire Karl Marx’s CommunismAtlas Obscura - by Reina Gattuso A spectre is haunting Trier, Germany—the spectre of Karl Marx. Today, tourists to the small Rhineland city visit the house where Marx was born and …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesDawson City Someone Donated His Frostbitten Toe to a Canadian BarAtlas Obscura - by Evan Nicole Brown In Dawson City, a town on the Yukon River in northwest Canada, one hotel bar serves up a truly unique drink. It’s called the Sourtoe Cocktail, and it …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesWales The Ancient, Sunken Forest That Rises From a Welsh BeachAtlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester When it does, researchers rush in to study the age-old stumps. Long before it was a sandy patch abutting Cardigan Bay, the beach near Ynyslas, close …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesErnest Hemingway Sold: A Letter Where Hemingway Complains That He Sucks at BullfightingAtlas Obscura - by Matthew Taub Ernest Hemingway had a lot going for him when he sat down in a Paris cafe on September 3, 1924 to write a letter to his father. He was fawning over …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to FoodsHungary Beaver Dam PepperAtlas Obscura - Rohini Chaki A pepper so good, Hungarian immigrants carried it with them when they came to Wisconsin. It is no wonder that the Beaver Dam pepper was nearly lost to …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesAntarctica What’s Up With Those Deep Gashes in Antarctic Ice?Atlas Obscura - by Jessica Leigh Hester During austral winter, which stretches from June to September, Antarctica is carpeted with nearly seven million square miles of ice. For several …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to StoriesPlay buttonJapan Every Day at 5:00, Japan Tests Its Disaster Warning System With Folk TunesAtlas Obscura - by Allan Richarz The “5 pm chime” has taken on many meanings over the years. While it is a modern and safe country by most objective measures, Japan nonetheless faces …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to FoodsNamibia OmajowaAtlas Obscura - rachelrummel Massive mushrooms spring from tall termite mounds during rainy season in Namibia. Sandcastles of mud and termite saliva dot the African savannah, …
Atlas Obscuraadded this to FoodsMexican Food Horchata LojanaAtlas Obscura - Reina Gattuso Made from dozens of regional flowers and herbs, this tea reflects the unique flora of Loja, Ecuador. You may associate horchata with the creamy, …
