Author: Ms. R.

Like many great ideas gone awry, D.C.’s Watermelon House was something of a happy accident. The owners decided to liven up their house by painting it a bright red color. The front of the house looked great with the new eye-catching hue, but the side took on a pinkish hue that resembled a certain famously pink stomach medication. Instead of repainting, the owners of the home used the pink sidewall as the basis for a watermelon mural that became……

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Excerpted and adapted with permission from Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan by Ruby Lal, published February 27, 2024 by Yale University Press. All rights reserved. On the banks of the River Ravi in the prosperous agrarian province of Punjab, India, the city of Lahore was earning a reputation as a grand Mughal city. In late 1585, the Mughal Emperor Akbar moved his government there. For over a decade, the fort of Lahore had been getting a facelift,……

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The disaster of the RMS Titanic is forever linked to Southampton—the British port city where the Titanic launched on April 10, 1912. Graves and memorials are dotted all over the city. All told, over 500 Southhampton households lost at least one family member from the wreck. This memorial is dedicated to five people lost in the disaster, whose role onboard was tied directly to the ship’s title. The “RMS” in RMS Titanic stood for Royal Mail Ship. As well……

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A landmark on Glasgow‘s main arteries, the Great Western Road is the giant spire of the Cathedral of St. Mary the Virgin, more commonly referred to as St. Mary’s Cathedral. Founded towards the end of the 18th century, this current configuration dates to the late 1800s. It was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, the British architect behind such buildings as the St. Pancras Station and Albert Memorial in London, as well as the nearby University of Glasgow. However, it’s……

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It’s easy to rush through Paddington in the hordes of commuters and tourists. Watching over all this is a clock suspended over seven meters from the ground. Inside, there appears to be a man painting and erasing the hands of time. If you don’t see him, he’s gone for a very brief break, but he works almost constantly so that commuters can catch their trains on time. This is the Real Time Clock, one in a series of timepieces……

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Nevada’s oldest geology museum can be found inside a mining school that was endowed by one of the barons of the Comstock Lode, one of the most significant mining discoveries in American history. John Mackay (pronounced “Mackey”) was one of the handful of hopeful prospectors who made a fortune on the silver strikes of the Comstock Lode, going from penniless immigrant to wealthy mine owner. After his death in 1902, the Mackay family donated much of his fortune to……

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While central Tokyo is known for its tall buildings and cutting-edge architecture, the suburban areas generally seem more down-to-earth. Given this, it’s surprising to see the polychromatic Reversible Destiny Lofts Mitaka on a thoroughfare through the metropolis’s western suburbs. Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins, both founding members of the Reversible Destiny Foundation, designed these lofts. One of the foundation’s goals is to create architecture that teaches residents to “learn how not to die”, creating buildings that promote well-being and……

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When journeying northeast from Cairo, a traveler will eventually reach the geographical line which sharply divides the Nile Delta and the Sinai. This is where the verdant fields of grain, little irrigation ditches, and thick loamy soil give way to the arid desert of the peninsula. Outcroppings of limestone, tempered with fragments of ancient fossils, and driving sands characterize the region. This border region hosted the impressive fortress of Tell el-Retaba, fortified and expanded more than 3,000 years ago……

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There’s a picture of Ron Coleman and his son Josh in a 2018 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article. It’s a nice photo of father and son, but the pair aren’t the subject of this picture. The two take a backseat to the eight-foot-long, 2,000-pound crystal they, as part of an excavating team, found in Coleman’s eponymous mine. Though it’s rare to stumble across something as spectacular as this beauty, which was valued at $3.5 million at the time, visitors to the……

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Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit a quaint Dutch fishing village and attempt to unravel the mystery that unfolded there … one that involved strange and curious letters and a voyage to the other side of the world. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible site,……

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This story was originally published on The Conversation. It appears here under a Creative Commons license. As people in the U.S. prepare to set their clocks ahead one hour on Sunday, March 10, 2024, I find myself bracing for the annual ritual of media stories about the disruptions to daily routines caused by switching from standard time to daylight saving time. About one-third of Americans say they don’t look forward to these twice-yearly time changes. And nearly two-thirds would……

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The six suspects are, somehow, more iconic than the crime. There’s the femme fatale, the mutton-chopped military officer, the skittish housekeeper, the sinister businessman, the grande dame, and the absent-minded academic. You might know them better as Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mr. Green (or Reverend Green, a hypocritical Anglican priest, in the British version), Mrs. Peacock, and Professor Plum. They’re together one dark night in an estate called Tudor Mansion when its wealthy owner, Mr. Boddy (Dr…….

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In one of the few Protestant-majority cities in Indonesia, you can find this interesting statue of Jesus looking like he’s about to take off over the sprawling city of Manado. With a 30-meter (98-foot) statue on a 20-meter (66-foot) pedestal, it is one of the largest statues of Jesus Christ in the world. (The Christ of Vũng Tàu in Vietnam clocks in at 32 meters (105 feet).) The statue’s official name in Manado language is Yesus Kase Berkat or Kristus Kase Berkat (which……

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