Author: Ms. R.

Yarra Bend Asylum first opened in 1848 as the first permanent institution in Victoria designed for the treatment of the mentally ill. Prior to the construction of Yarra Bend, the mentally ill were often imprisoned in jails across the region.  These institutions were often referred to during those times as asylums, emphasizing their function as a place to simply house patients as opposed to an acting hospital. From the start, the facility suffered from overcrowding. Despite constant additions over……

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Pons Fabricius is a bridge located along the Tiber river in Rome. It connects the eastern shore of the Tiber Island to the mainland. This makes it one of only two bridges in the city not connecting the two banks of the river, the other being Pons Cestius west of the small island. The bridge was constructed in 62 BC by Lucius Fabricius, a curator of roads in Rome, hence its namesake. The bridge is made of a tuff……

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For the past two months in Colonial Williamsburg, the living history museum in Virginia, Gowan Pamphlet has stood outside an archaeological excavation, jovially saying hello to passersby. He’s not the original Pamphlet: That one died in 1809, and was the first ordained African American in the United States. This Pamphlet—one of two “actor interpreters” who portray the enslaved Black man who helped found Williamsburg’s First Baptist Church—has reason to be happy. Behind him, archaeologists are slowly revealing the foundation……

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Consider Hawaiian pizza: The divisive pineapple-and-ham topped pie is viewed as an abomination by many pizza lovers, including the president of Iceland, who once threatened to ban it. Consider, too, boxed mac and cheese. In a world of wonderful noodle dishes, from silky cacio e pepe to ramen served in a rich broth, Americans dump milk and neon-orange cheese powder on a bowl of macaroni and call it dinner. Even sushi, far from its native Japan, can find itself……

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It was a cold January morning in 2019 when an unfamiliar car rolled into Allendale, a small village nestled within the North Pennines in Northumberland County, England. This wasn’t unusual; in the prior three months the village had seen a fresh influx of visitors, ever since the grand opening of “Neil Cole’s Adventures in Science Fiction: Museum of Sci-fi.” The family-run business, with a menagerie of pop-culture intergalactic friends and foes in an impressive array of classic movie and……

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Constructed during the early 18th-century during the reign of Sultan Ismail bin Sharif, the Kara Prison (or Habs Qara) is a vast subterranean prison in the city of Meknes, Morocco. Its most unusual feature is that it lacked doors and bars, but it’s believed that no one ever escaped. Its inescapability despite lacking bars and doors was due to its complex labyrinth-like design. It was named after a Portuguese prisoner who was granted freedom on the condition that he……

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The island of Cyprus is known for its various offerings of exotic foods and cuisines.  Now, tourists and locals alike can marvel at more than 20,000 ways to flavor their food at the Salt & Pepper Museum. Inside is one of the world’s largest collections of seasoning shakers.  Every item in the museum comes from the private collection of Eitan Bar-On, whose oldest shaker dates back to 1703, and the most expensive is reportedly worth around $17,000. Other items on……

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Yerevan can surprise the occasional visitor with its abundance of public art. One contemporary example is the spider statue in the city’s Charles Aznavour Square. Dedicated to the French Armenian singer Charles Aznavour, this square boasts a number of landmarks, including the Moscow Cinema, the Stanislavski Russian Theatre, and the giant spider. Upscale and austere, the surrounding buildings contribute to the charm of this work of art. The spider is made of recycled gears, pipes, springs, bolts, and other……

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