Author: Ms. R.

High on La Puna de Atacama, the arid plateau Argentina shares with Chile, there is a lonely portal to the cosmos. The Transient Optical Robotic Observatory of the South (TOROS) sits at 4,660 meters, or more than 15,000 feet above sea level, where the combination of clear desert skies and low light pollution provides researchers the chance to observe some of the universe’s most enigmatic phenomena, including the space-time ripples known as gravitational waves. TOROS is just the first……

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Masayoshi Ohira was Prime Minister of Japan between 1978 and his death in 1980. Much like Tomáš Masaryk, the founder of former Czechoslovakia, it might not make much sense why these non-Mexican political figures have features named after them in the country’s capital. While Avenida Presidente Masaryk is “Mexico City‘s most expensive street,” the Masayoshi Ohira Park on the other hand is a small space of greenery in the south of the city. While Masaryk might have never set……

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Mary Randolph, the first recorded person buried in Arlington Cemetery was born in 1762 in Chesterfield County, Virginia, just south of Richmond. Randolph’s family tree is quite extraordinary. Her ancestors include the famed Native American princess Pocahontas and her husband Jamestown settler John Rolfe. She was a cousin of George Washington Parke Custis and his wife, and godmother to their daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis who married Robert E. Lee. Randolph married her first cousin, David Meade Randolph, who……

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In 1986, artist Mark di Suvero found an abandoned landfill alongside the East River that was being used as an illegal dumpsite. Seeing the potential in this five-acre patch of land for something much more, he formed a coalition of community activists and artists and transformed the site into an outdoor gallery and artist studio. From the beginning, di Suvero sought to promote a cultural connection between the park and the greater community. The park was named after the……

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Barrenta is a small village in the municipality of Porto de Mós with about 40 inhabitants that is an open-air gallery of urban art. Pieces are spread all over the village and range from stickers and graffiti to tiles and crochet art. There is a large mural by the Portuguese artist Costah. There are more 50 pieces representing more than 15 different countries and dozens of artists spread around the village inside houses, on street signs, walls, and more. These……

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The Gympie Bone Museum is equal parts scientific, quirky, and macabre. In 2016, after the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads announced a $1 billion upgrade to the Bruce Highway that included a 16-mile bypass around Gympie, local science technicians and educational cadaver suppliers Jaimie and Debra Cook came up with the idea for the museum in order to “bypass-proof” their town and create a much-needed tourism industry for the area. Operating out of their backyard shed, the……

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While maps are unquestionably one of the most important elements in traveling and tourism, the actual science and artistry behind their creation are often ignored. Mexico City‘s National Museum of Cartography aims to remedy this and has the location to do so. The former Convent of San José was built in 1686 to serve what was then the town of Tacubaya in the city’s periphery. It would serve that function until the 19th-century. Due to a history of conflict……

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