Author: Ms. R.

Approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Tunis, the town of Sidi Bou Saïd sits atop a cliff overlooking Carthage and the Gulf of Tunis. A residential suburbs with about 6,000 inhabitants, it is a fairly popular tourist spot in Tunisia. But unlike other destinations like the Antonine Baths or the Medina, Sidi Bou Saïd’s main attraction lies not in its history or the lively Middle Eastern atmosphere, but simply in its gorgeous appearance.  Many of the houses in Sidi……

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In February 2018, a storm pelted the Argentinian city of Villa Carlos Paz with hail. The icy balls were really, really big—sometimes bigger than a grown-up’s palm, bumpy as a rock, and hefty enough to imperil people and property. The largest of these might even best the biggest on record: an icy behemoth that tumbled down in Vivian, South Dakota, in June 2010, spanning eight inches and weighing more than a pound. In a new paper in the Bulletin……

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A few weeks ago, Adam Ferguson entered an enormous walk-in freezer—one-and-half times the size of his bedroom—at the Field Museum in Chicago, where he works as the collections manager for mammals. A crowd of animal carcasses never smells great—under the best conditions, it “smells like skunk and freezer-burned meat,” he says. But in an adjacent part of the lab, where the team stores big bins holding bones waiting for preparators, he got a whiff of something unusually funky. The……

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This discarded Gulfstream private jet was abandoned deep in the Georgia wilderness during the mid-2000s. It has since been picked clean by salvagers, the wings, wiring, and instrument panels are no longer present.  However, the fuselage and leather seats remain and display the effects of more than 15 years of exposure to the elements. In recent years, the airliner has become a canvas, as the site has gained popularity with area teenagers, intrepid hikers, and graffiti artists.  No one knows exactly how the plane arrived……

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Noam Shuster-Eliassi was supposed to debut her one-woman standup comedy show, “Coexistence My Ass,” in the U.S. this year. Instead, in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, she tried out the routine in Israel, performing in front of strangers who crowded into a noisy lobby. Later, she joined them for Passover at tables laden with watermelon and wine. The atrium echoed with the sound of laughter, singing, coughing, and conversations in Hebrew and Arabic. Almost no one wore a……

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A stroll along the ever-romantic Seine is quite possibly one of the most popular things to do while visiting Paris. If trekking through the area during the day, chances are you’ll spot several green boxes; all of which house treasure troves of used and antiquarian books. The Bouquinistes of Paris have a long tradition that dates back to the 16th century. In the beginning, small-scale merchants operated secondhand bookstalls along the Seine. However, this came to a halt in……

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Early morning paints yellow stripes on the garden as Plantina Mujai selects a pumpkin. Carrying it inside, she hoists the gourd onto the kitchen counter, then turns to boiling fat red grains of red rice in a large steel pot and preparing round mounds of yam to cook with meat. After Mujai sorts her vegetables, she picks her main ingredient for the day: chutney ktung tyndong bad sohkhymphor, a paste made from papaya and dried fish, smoked in bamboo……

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Tucked away in a heavily wooded area located just off Frying Pan Road in Herndon, Virginia, sits the remains of the Murphy Dairy Farm. The farm was constructed during the early 1850s according to the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites, although little information is available regarding the history of the dairy farm. Aerial photographs of the site from 1937 all the way through the late 70s/early 80s show that the farm included a house, garage, barn, a wood……

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Since 1999, a motley assortment of metal sculptures have been taking over a vacant lot in Montreal’s vibrant Mile End neighborhood. Welded together from scrap iron, the constructions loom over the lot like ghostly totems of the area’s industrial past. The Twilight Sculpture Garden (or Jardin du Crépuscule) is the creation of artist Glen LeMesurier, who keeps an eye on it from his studio just down the street. Like any garden, its renewal has been the result of patient,……

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The Basilica of Sant’Elia is adorned with some of the most beautiful frescoes in any Romanesque church in the Lazio region of Italy. It is located at the foot of the town of Castel Sant’Elia in the deep Suppentonia valley. Tradition has it that early Christian anchorites and later Benedectine monks chose the location because of its pagan history: there was once a temple to Diana (dedicated by Nero) at this site, and before that and an Etruscan temple……

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