Author: Ms. R.

Scotland is renowned the world over as a land of dramatic scenery steeped in history, with many ancient castles to explore. However, on a windswept headland in the middle of nowhere is perhaps one of the most interesting and unusual castles of them all. Despite its rather garish, Brutalist style of angular geometric shapes, the “castle” fits well into its surroundings with a tapestry of pebbles and shells etched into the concrete. The interior is equally bizarre. As visitors……

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In the misty predawn or dead of winter, or in the blackest heart of the witching hour—especially then—forests can be spooky places. It can seem like trees are crowding in, making us feel claustrophobic, and the myriad sounds, from caws and howls to twigs snapping as something moves closer, can remind us that we’re just one species in big, hungry world, a species that’s not always at the top of the food chain. Italian photographer Silvano Paiola shows how……

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In many ways, the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia is, proudly, stuck in amber. “It’s the 19th century in there,” exhibition manager Michael Keys says of the “museum of a museum” where human remains are displayed in glass cases surrounded by gleaming polished wood, much the way they were when the gallery opened after in 1859, after the death of surgeon and medical artifact collector Thomas Dent Mütter. For visitors, it is a window into the education of medical professionals……

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On May 30, 2019, the Free Republic of Verdis, a new, self-proclaimed sovereign state in Europe was formed on a piece of disputed unclaimed land between Croatia and Serbia locally known as Pocket 3 of the Croatia-Serbia border dispute near Liberland, another self-proclaimed sovereign state. Since Verdis’ founding, the unrecognized state has received a large amount of following on social media along with a large number of applications towards citizenship and has representatives managing the claim. The Free Republic……

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Aided by the status of the “world’s richest girl” during the twilight of the Gilded Age, Doris Duke lived a life of many passions and pursuits, including her love of animals. Over the years, her undertakings ranged wildly from competitive surfing to covering foreign news during the 1940s, to being a horticulturist and supporting wildlife refuges. Her main residence was a sprawling 2,700-acre New Jersey estate called Duke Farms, which contained Duke Gardens, once among the largest public indoor botanical displays in America. She……

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Sitting above the beautiful Prospect Mountain in Lancaster, New Hampshire, sits the humble, yet historic retreat of John W. Weeks, a politician whose advocacy for environmental preservation saved much of the land in the surrounding White Mountains region. Weeks, a Lancaster native, became an important figure in both local and national politics in the early 20th-century. Serving as the mayor of Newton, Massachusetts, as well as a representative and senator for the Bay State, Weeks became somewhat of a……

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Located at what’s billed as “the only drive-in volcano in the world,” Sulphur Springs is a magical, muddy geothermal spring located near the small Caribbean town of Soufriere. The town’s name means “sulphur mine,” a product of French colonists who extracted the mineral at a site near Soufriere in the early 1800s. The Sulphur Springs are located within a volcanic valley. They formed approximately 300,000 years ago when a section of crust from an enormous crater collapsed, disturbing the……

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On the promenade in R.A. Apffel Park/East Beach on Galveston Island, Texas stands the Pink Dolphin Monument—a statue dedicated to gender and sexual minorities in the southern United States. It’s the first monument of its kind, not only in Texas but also in the south. A poem quietly celebrates diversity along the base of the monument.  It takes the form of an Amazon river dolphin, an animal that is not native to the area but can be seen in the……

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