Author: Ms. R.

Across the world, beachcombers survey sand for little hunks of glass turned smooth and cloudy by a tumble in the waves. People wandering the shore of Dead Horse Bay, along the southern edge of Brooklyn, encounter the motherlode. No need to squint to find slivers of glass beneath tangles of seaweed—the shore often glints brown and green with entire, unbroken bottles. It’s also not uncommon to find intact light bulbs, bits of ceramics or rusted metal, or the soggy……

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If you were traveling to outer space, what would you take with you? Photographer Steve Pyke got to find out what items some American astronauts felt were significant enough for that. Starting in 1998, Pyke began a series of portraits of his childhood heroes who had traveled to space or walked on the Moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but he also photographed objects that had made the journeys with them. There were the wonderfully geeky working……

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During the carnival of 1501, Cesare Borgia was ruling Imola. One of his knights, Guidarello Guidarelli, lent a beautiful shirt with gold embroidery to a warrior named Virgilio Romano. He intended to wear it at a masquerade carnival party. But when Romano decided not to return the shirt, a duel ensued. It was in Palazzo Sassatelli, now Palazzo Monsignani, where the fight began and where it’s said Romano mortally wounded the beautiful knight. An impressive tombstone dedicated to the……

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In 1991, Viktor Stříbrný, the self-taught painter, sculptor, and blacksmith whose surname means “silver” in Czech, created a stainless-steel, spherical sculpture with a fibrous-looking sliver of metal gently dropping from its core. While the sculpture is officially known as “Plastika s kosmologickou a kosmogonickou tématikou – Vesmír II,” or “sculpture with cosmological and cosmogonical themes – Universe II” in Czech, locals more often refer to it by one of its many nicknames, including “ocelová koule” (steel ball), “kladenská koule”……

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Inside Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis cemetery, you might notice one grave with tea bags beside it. These tributes are in honor of Sir Thomas Lipton, one of the tea industry’s most important figures. Lipton was born in Glasgow on May 10, 1850. At age 16, he emigrated to the United States and worked in various jobs, but soon returned to Scotland to help run his parents’ grocery store. Lipton proved a skilled businessman and built a chain of successful stores. To help supply……

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Count Frederic II of Ferette constructed the Engelbourg Castle to guard the entrance to the Thur Valley. Completed in 1224, the castle stood for centuries. Its towers were crucial in defending the valley and protecting the people of Thann.  In 1618, a massive religious war erupted between the Protestant and Catholic states of Europe. It became known historical as the Thirty Years’ War (1618 – 1648). Over the three decades of conflict, chaos, destruction, and famine, 8 million people……

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Guarding the entrance to this lovely little park is a curious statue of eight people making their way through gate-like squares. No explanation is given, as the creator of the park believed that the meaning of the installation was completely self-evident. This has led some observers to believe that it’s a monument to dying well, with the gates representing death. However, it’s true meaning is a tribute to those who survived their battle with one of the world’s most……

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Although the name of a city can seem innocuous, there’s always a story behind their origins. For example, Köpenhamn means “buying port,” Amsterdam is named after the dam on the Amstel, and Antwerp is a version of Hand werpen which means “throwing hand.” So what about Malmö? There are several stories behind the name, however, the most accepted is that the name comes from Malmögahe, a composition of Malm, which means “gravel or sand” and the plural of hog, meaning……

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