Author: Ms. R.

Photosynthesis and Antarctica. It may not be the most intuitive combination, but the icy continent—famous for sculptural icebergs and marching penguins—is also home to communities of blooming algae, mosses, lichens, and even one species of grass. They’re rare, of course: Less than one percent of the entire continent is permanently ice-free to begin with. And what terrestrial vegetation does exist must rely largely on melting snow and ice for its water supply. It’s all part of a fragile ecosystem……

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Cumulonimbus clouds often portend gnarly weather—but when spotted from satellites as they swell, the white, puffy, towering clouds look incredibly soothing. NASA’s Earth Observatory recently shared this image and time-lapse gif of the clouds building above China’s Hainan Island in May 2020. Consider it a few seconds of solace for world-weary eyes. Hainan Island sits off China’s southeast coast. Its waters appear tropical and turquoise, and its ground is thick with rainforest and stippled with mountains that rise above……

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On a normal afternoon in an apartment in the Del Valle neighborhood of Mexico City, open windows let in a cacophony: taco vendors calling out to passersby, low-flying aircraft, loudspeaker advertisements from fruit trucks and junk trucks and gas trucks. But since coronavirus made its way to this prosperous community, vendors have been replaced by quiet grocery delivery men, button-downed professionals are now working from their condos, and kids ride bikes in the driveways of gated privadas instead of……

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Despite its official name, this museum’s focus is almost exclusively on its namesake. Born in Bernal in 1914, Rosalío Solano (aka “Chalío”) is one of the most notable natives of this town. It should be no surprise then that the museum that honors his legacy is located in a privileged colonial building right in the town’s center. Solano’s career started under the tutelage of the legendary Gabriel Figueroa. He started shooting professionally with short films in the late 1940s,……

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Singapore‘s Sultan Mosque, designed in a Indo-Saracenic revival style, features two golden domes that impress from afar. Just below the domes are black rings of a slightly reflective material. A close look would reveal that the rings consist of the bases of black soy sauce bottles, sourced from poor Muslim families when the mosque was built.  The current Sultan Mosque is the second on the same site. As part of the initial negotiations between Sultan Hussein and Stamford Raffles for the……

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In the city of Bamberg in southern Germany, there is a mysterious statue. A young man sits atop a horse, a crown on his head and a cloak around his shoulders. This is the Bamberg Horseman, a statue that stands in Bamberg Cathedral. The statue was created by an unknown sculptor in the first half of the 13th century, and the figure it is meant to depict has been the source of debate for nearly 200 years. The Horseman is……

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During the Middle Ages, the cities of Northern Italy were in a state of constant competition to control as much territory as they could. This was especially true during the wars of the communes of the 13th century, and city walls were erected to protect numerous towns during this period. Though many of those walls have crumbled, the walls around historic Cittadella still stand. The town of Cittadella was founded in a strategic position halfway between the rival cities……

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Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, spent his last years in Guildford, Surrey. Carroll, whose real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, is even buried in Guildford. So it’s no wonder that there are several Alice-related spots throughout the town. One monument to the town’s literary associations can be found on the lawn by the River Wey. Titled “Alice and the White Rabbit,” it was created by local sculptor Edwin Russell in 1984. It depicts the book’s famous beginning, in……

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This work first appeared on SAPIENS under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license. Read the original here. Just north of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, Greenwood once had one of the most successful African-American commercial districts in the country. By 1921, it was home to numerous black-owned businesses—beauty shops, grocery stores, restaurants, and the offices of lawyers, realtors, and doctors. Residents caught silent films and musical performances at the Dreamland Theater. They could choose between two neighborhood newspapers. Greenwood offered a place……

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