Author: Ms. R.

Hidden along the edge of a farmer’s field near the quiet northern town of Cramlington is a piece of artwork that looks out of place.  An oversized single, silver-colored dessert spoon made out of stainless steel stands at 15 feet (4.5 meters) tall and is embedded upright into the ground.  The quirky art installation was commissioned in 2006 as part of the “Eat for England” campaign, a national lottery-funded art trail designed to encourage people to get out and……

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In the spring of 1943, during the Sino-Japanese War, photographer James Lo and his wife Lucy Lo ventured to a set of remote, nearly abandoned caves near where the ancient northern and southern Silk Road trade routes converged, at the nexus of China and Central Asia. There were 700 carved spaces in the face of a cliff, known as the Mogao Caves. Among them, some 500 were profusely decorated with sculptures and murals, remarkable examples of Buddhist art that……

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The “Caution Tree Crossing” sign at Dolliver Park kept getting stolen, so now a 15 mph speed limit sign warns you that you’re about to wind your way along Madrone Avenue, a narrow street lined with 40 redwood trees. Growing high into the sky, the impressive redwoods and a walk in the nearby Baltimore Canyon Preserve make Dolliver Park feel like a fairy tale forest during the day. But when the sun goes down. the towering trees block almost……

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Sitting on the banks of Ou River, Muang Ngoi Neua is an idyllic village. Only reachable via boat until 2013, this village has witnessed some rapid development due to the influx of tourism, but it has retained its rural quaintness. With the majestic karst limestone mountains as the backdrop, the feel is as rustic and remote as ever. Muang Ngoi Neua has a documented history that goes back to the 15th century, but it was events in the 2oth century……

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When Youk Chhang started writing letters to Zaha Hadid, it seemed like a quixotic mission. Chhang was beseeching the world’s most celebrated architect to help him build a genocide museum and research center in a small, wounded country. Eleven years later, books full of Dame Hadid’s designs for the center rest in his Phnom Pehn office, like precious secrets. Chhang has made significant strides in his quest, though the most important step remains. The fact that Chhang made it……

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This story is excerpted and adapted from Egill Bjarnason’s How Iceland Changed the World: The Big History of a Small Island, published in May 2021 by Penguin Books. Two years before making history with one small step onto the Moon, Neil Armstrong went salmon fishing in northern Iceland. A picture of him, standing by a river, is exhibited in a regional museum, but the image is so small that at first you might assume it’s just a regular snapshot……

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