Author: Ms. R.

To say that early 20th-century American labor relations were tumultuous is an understatement. During this era, newly unionized workers united to protest low wages, child labor, and the mechanization of work. A constellation of strikes exploded across the nation from Seattle to New York City and even in small towns like Calumet, Michigan. Calumet, now seven times smaller than its population in 1910, was once the capital of the burgeoning Copper Country, a region in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that……

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For more than 50 years, Baron Confectionery in Ħaż-Żabbar, Malta, has been crafting pastries. Often, they turn out flaky ricotta-or-pea-filled pastizzi or figolli, the colorful Easter-time sweets. But by the end of October, their treats take on a more macabre look. Għadam tal-mejtin (dead men’s bones), or alternatively, għadam ta’ Novembru (November bones) are available not just here, but across the country throughout November. They are edible memento mori, part of Malta’s longstanding Month of the Dead celebrations. The……

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The rocky beach at Green Point used to be deep underneath the crust of the Earth and is one of the few places in the world you can stand on what was once the Earth’s mantle. While the Earth’s mantle is only 30 miles (45km) below your feet most everywhere else on Earth, it is over a thousand degrees and you would be smushed beyond any recognition if you tried to go there. However, here, on this beautiful beach……

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With the Romanesque Revival architecture of the Old Post Office in Almonte as a backdrop, is a larger-than-life bronze statue of Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball. Naismith was born in 1861 on a farm on the outskirts of a thriving mill town in the Canadian province of Ontario. Naismith began his formal education in a one-room schoolhouse in Bennie’s Corners. He was an average student, being far more interested in exploring the fields, meadows, creeks, and woodlands……

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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 sit down with science communication superhero Emily Graslie, who tells us how a pair of severed wolf heads helped her fall in love with science, about the road trip she took back to the beginning of time, and why she’s now looking for wonder in her own backyard. Learn more about Graslie (and watch her bug videos!)……

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This story was originally published on The Conversation and appears here under a Creative Commons license. A rich inventory of monstrous figures exists throughout Aboriginal Australia. The specific form that their wickedness takes depends to a considerable extent on their location. In the Australian Central and Western Deserts there are roaming ogres, bogeymen (and bogeywomen), cannibal babies, giant baby-guzzlers, sorcerers, spinifex, and feather-slippered spirit beings able to dispatch victims with a single fatal garrote. There are lustful old men……

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