Author: Ms. R.

With its sometimes-swampy landscape stippled with soaring cypresses, Congaree National Park in central South Carolina looks like a prehistoric diorama. And occasionally it also resembles a Lisa Frank folder come to life. When conditions are right, standing water appears orangey, blue, and pinky-red—hues usually reserved for garish school supplies or swirls of melted sherbert on a hot day. The sheen comes from oil, but isn’t the product of a spill or other industrial mess-up. Rather, the “oil-slick sheen” comes……

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In the south of Mexico City, about 100 miles of murky canals wind their way through the Xochimilco neighborhood. Here, the urban sprawl of one of the world’s densest cities yields to a lake region where indigenous farmers have been cultivating a unique system of floating gardens since pre-colonial times. Called chinampas, these floating gardens were built by the Aztecs to feed a growing population. Xochimilco became one of the city’s main sources of food, but rapid urbanization in……

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Nathan’s might be synonymous with hot dogs in Brooklyn, but it was a German immigrant named Charles Feltman who introduced them to Coney Island in the first place.  Feltman came to the United States in 1856 at the age of 15 and was soon selling pies from a pushcart at the beach. Eventually, he started hawking frankfurters inserted into a long bun. This new handheld meal, known as a “red hot,” became popular enough that he was able to open……

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This story was excerpted and adapted from the author’s book, Sealand: The True Story of the World’s Most Stubborn Micronation and its Eccentric Royal Family, which was published in June 2020 by Diversion Books. At 6:00 a.m. on a cold day in March 2019, a lone figure can be seen on the pier in Harwich, on the coast of Essex, England, in the deep blue of the early morning light. The man in his late 50s wears a taxi……

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The museum known as Memorial 68 is a space that tells the story of the protests in Mexico, from LGBT marches to those led by seamstresses affected by the 1985 earthquake. However, the key point of the exhibition is the student protests of 1968 and the violent attack on these activists that occurred a few steps away from the museum itself.  The year 1968 was marked by protests around the world, from the United States to France to Japan. In Mexico,……

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On December 18, 1867, one of the country’s worst train accidents took place here. The train, traveling from Cleveland to Buffalo, was running behind schedule. Crucially, the train was designed to work on different gauge tracks, which led to instability. As a train crossed the bridge over Big Sister Creek, the last car jumped and derailed, causing it to swing and crash into the gorge below. The accident caused the stoves to overturn, throwing hot coals all over the……

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The Norwegian Petrol Museum is dedicated to exploring how “black gold” changed Norway—not just the country’s economy, but its society. There, you can learn about every aspect of the industry.  The museum has a range of exhibits, from models and films, to original objects from the extraction process and interactive exhibits where visitors can experience what life is like on an oil rig. Perhaps the most eye-catching exhibit is the “leg” of an oil rig that was destroyed. The twisted……

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