Well, Clouds
Editor's Note: This article first appeared at Vrai Magazine "Clouds suit my mind just fine." - Marie Lu, Champion A few weeks ago, I crawled into a cave. I saw a cloud carved into the soft volcanic tuft that sheltered…
A Cosmic Conundrum of Cultural Contact
“How do you expect to communicate with the ocean, when you can’t even understand one another?” - Santisław Lem, Solaris Recently, NASA uploaded the contents of the golden disk to SoundCloud. When the American space agency launched the two Voyager…
Ancient Games of Daldøsa. How did an Islamic Game Travel to the North?
Editors note: this is an updated version of an article I published here nearly three years ago. Ancient Games Go North Here's a study I stumbled across that combines three of my favorite things: The Arctic, the Arab world and…
Parc Montjuic Barcelona – Birthplace of the Meter’s Hidden Error
Méchain took his initial measurements from the fortress in what is now Parc Montjuic Barcelona and then the Spanish arrested him. France and Spain were at war again. From the inn room where they confined him, Méchain took a second…
The Ghosts of San Francisco
I remember reading a story about a policeman who wandered the streets of the city in a daze just after the 1906 earthquake. He had been on the third or fourth floor of one of the San Francisco hotels when…
Walking the Cova de Montserrat
Hitler thought the Holy Grail was hidden somewhere inside a mountain in Catalonia. According to Wolfram von Eschenbach, Titurel safeguarded the Grail at Munsalvaesche. The Benedictine monks of Montserrat, however, always claimed the Grail was hidden in the caves and…
Famous People Dead : Five Incorrupt Saints You Have to Meet
Of course the Portuguese had gotten all out of control. Timayya had done his work well and the Bijapur kings were out of the way. Goa belonged to Portugal and everyone was rich from slaving and spices. Other than to…
Archaeology, Environment, Travel and Weirdness – Friday News Roundup
It is snowing on the mountain this morning and I'll be heading out to take pictures soon after the light. All yesterday the sky spit rain and tiny balls of ice. The wind blew. The air was chilly. I'll be…
Obscura Day 2011 at the Saltstarumen Sound
In celebration of Obscura Day 2011, famed Finnish architect Sami Rintala and your humble photographer led a group of boys to the Saltstarumen Sound in northern Norway. Located in Norland, the Saltstarumen Sound is the strongest tidal current in the…