Author: Ms. R.

Driving along Pole Road on the outskirts of Alexandria, Virginia one might easily miss this obscure suburban wetland, named for the only person ever to be awarded both first and second place in the Federal Duck Stamp contest in the same year. Jackson Miles Abbott was a lieutenant colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers, and also an avid birdwatcher and wildlife painter. His orinthological interests blossomed at the age of six, and he learned to paint from his……

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On February 15, 2013, an asteroid was hurtling toward Earth. The celestial object measured an estimated 20 meters (65 feet) wide and weighed approximately 12,000 tons. When the asteroid reached our planet’s atmosphere, it was moving at a rate of about 19 kilometers per second (12 mi / sec). As it encountered the thick layer of air around our planet the asteroid exploded—for a short time, it shone brighter than the sun. The explosion occurred above the Chelyabinsk Oblast…….

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Known as Utah’s first ghost town, the ruins of Old Irontown can be found 22 miles from Cedar City. Southern Utah saw a population boom in the 1850s as Mormon pioneers were called to populate the area by Brigham Young after iron was discovered there.  The pioneers of this ghost town needed iron as part of their daily lives, and they used it in everything from Dutch ovens to wagon wheels. The Great Western Iron Company built two charcoal……

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Calculating the center of a country is a difficult and often controversial task. There are many different methods of finding such a point, varying in complexity and popularity. The midpoint at Flataklocken is the “geometrical” center of Sweden, which accounts for the country’s islands without measuring the water in between.  Geographers Nils Friberg and Tor Andeldorf of Stockholm University calculated the point in 1947. They did so using a rigid map of the country that had the islands of……

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If the obwarzanek is the offspring of a bagel and a pretzel, then Kraków is its birthplace. You’ll see the doughy ringlets sold throughout the city from street carts, but if you’re craving a deeper dive into all things obwarzanek, then take a trip to a museum dedicated to the baked good. At the Żywe Muzeum Obwarzanka, you’ll learn the history of the centuries-old obwarzanek, but perhaps more importantly, you’ll also learn how to make it yourself. There’s no stale……

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A sign on the side of this restored gas station claims that this location, which opened in 1929, was the first Phillips 66 station in the state of Texas. (Though another Phillips 66 gas station in Turkey, Texas, is slightly older, having opened in 1928.) According to Roadside America, the Phillips 66 station in McLean operated for more than 50 years before it closed down. In 1992, the building and gas pumps were partially restored by a local Route……

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In downtown Casablanca, Morocco, next to the city’s new modern tram line and across from the white arcades of the Marche Central, a building seems to hang in midair. Without a foundation, interior, or roof, the crumbling, brown brick facade floats in space, retaining a strange elegance despite the bristling metal scaffolding that holds it up. On this Saturday morning, a local woman in her fifties, dressed in a yellow-and-purple shirt and armed with a binder, explains the mystery……

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