Amsterdam is one of the most bike-friendly major cities in the world. That also means the city is a happy hunting ground for thieves, who steal tens of thousands of bikes per year — a substantial chunk of the estimated 850,000 or so that Amsterdam residents own. Which raises some questions. Where do all the stolen bikes go? Are they shipped elsewhere and sold? Tossed in canals? Or just reused in the city by other people? Now an MIT……
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jrue Holiday scored a season-high 40 points and made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 25.2 seconds left in overtime as the Milwaukee Bucks edged the short-handed Boston Celtics 131-125 on Tuesday for their 11th consecutive victory. Giannis Antetokounmpo added 36 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists as the Bucks (40-17) moved within a half-game of the Celtics (41-17) in the Eastern Conference standings. Boston was playing without both its All-Stars – Jayson Tatum (non-COVID illness) and Jaylen…
THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE FEBRUARY 11, 2023, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURA’S FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. I’m a big fan of chocolate. But you’ll never see me with a Russell Stover’s box or Whitman’s Sampler. No shade to anyone who loves that kind of thing, but give me a single morsel of pure, dark chocolate over a box of cream-filled confections any day. And when it comes to Valentine’s Day candy, I find the……
Kyoto is known for its abundance of centuries-old establishments, from traditional teahouses to confectioneries creating intricate wagashi. Kameya Kiyonaga in the geisha district of Gion stands out as the only shop in Japan that continues to produce its oldest sweet. Originally established in 1617, Kameya Kiyonaga quickly came to be known as one of Kyoto’s best confectioneries. In 1857, it was decreed one of only 28 shops that were allowed to present sweets to the Emperor. While the shop……
MIT senior Sylas Horowitz kneeled at the edge of a marsh, tinkering with a blue-and-black robot about the size and shape of a shoe box and studded with lights and mini propellers. The robot was a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) — an underwater drone slated to collect water samples from beneath a sheet of Arctic ice. But its pump wasn’t working, and its intake line was clogged with sand and seaweed. “Of course, something must always go wrong,” Horowitz,……
The catastrophic earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6 has left more than 41,000 people dead, and many more still not counted under the rubble. More than a million people have been left homeless in Turkey alone. Bilge Yildiz, MIT professor of nuclear science and of materials science and engineering, was born and educated in Turkey. She offers a stark comparison: The number of people without housing is nearly 10 times the entire population of Cambridge, Massachusetts…….
Also known as the Herndon Historical Society Museum, this compendium of local memorabilia includes information on U.S. Navy Commander William Lewis Herndon (for whom the town was named), as well as artifacts from the World War II ship the USS Herndon, noteworthy items shared by local residents, and a healthy dose of railroad-related relics. The last category of remnants is fitting since the museum is housed in a train depot that dates back to 1857, when it first served……
In 1927, an unlikely friendship arose between educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune and future First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, based on a shared belief in the power of education. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933, Bethune served as an advisor on minority issues, and eventually was named Director of Negro Affairs in 1939. Her work with the administration led to the creation of the Black Cabinet, an informal group of advisors who worked on issues……
BRUSSELS (AP) — The chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs said Tuesday that the first U.S. missile fired at an unidentified object over Lake Huron missed the second target and “landed harmlessly” in the water, but that the second one successfully hit. The acknowledgment by Gen. Mark Milley of the errant strike comes amid questions about whether the shootdown of aerial objects that military officials say didn’t pose a threat is creating unnecessary risk. The object taken down…
The Pann’s Bank mural is a piece of artwork commissioned by the Sunderland City Council and painted by Frank Styles to pay tribute to the shipbuilding history of the city. Although the shipyards are long gone, at the height of shipbuilding in Sunderland, the River Wear had over 400 shipyards. Sunderland was one of the largest shipbuilding cities in the world. During World War II over a quarter of all merchant ships produced in the United Kingdom were made on……
If you find yourself at Arashiyama Station, popular for its proximity to the famed Sagano Bamboo Forest, it’s quite impossible to miss the gorgeous art installation aptly called the Kimono Forest. Composed of 600 poles clad in acrylic-wrapped kimono fabric, the Kimono Forest starts along the station platforms and extends outside, forming a photogenic trail that leads to Tenryū-ji Temple. The fabrics were traditionally dyed in the Kyo-Yūzen method unique to Kyoto, in the workshop of the Kameda-Tomi company, a……
It was February 1888 and Vassar College freshman May Copeland could hardly wait for Valentine’s Day to arrive. Ever since matriculating at the single-sex institution in New York the previous autumn, May had been infatuated with a senior named Genie. Now, she finally had just the right opportunity to express her admiration for the older student. “The girls have a custom of sending Valentines to the Seniors every year,” she explained in a letter to her mother, “and instead……
Seven MIT researchers are among the 106 new members and 18 international members elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) this week. Fourteen additional MIT alumni, including one member of the MIT Corporation, were also elected as new members. One of the highest professional distinctions for engineers, membership to the NAE is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature” and to “the……
NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors began hearing testimony Monday to help them decide whether an Islamic extremist who killed eight people on a New York City bike path should get a death sentence, an extraordinarily rare penalty in a state that hasn’t had an execution in 60 years. Sayfullo Saipov, 35, was convicted last month in the 2017 attack, in which he intentionally drove a truck at high speed down a path along the Hudson River, running over bicyclists…
The first strikes were made in 1863 by Spanish-speaking prospectors. Extensive activity didn’t begin until 1873 at Pickhandle Gulch (later Metallic City), a half-mile south of the later site of Candelaria. Candelaria itself was platted in 1876 and reached what, in hindsight, was the peak of its boom in the early 1880s. The area is dry even by Nevada standards, and dry milling of the ore led to extensive cases of silicosis among the mill workers, although conditions were……
