Author: Ms. R.

This unusual sculpture composed of bronze was constructed to commemorate the 100th birthday of Paul Keres. Keres, a local legend in the Estonian city of Narva, was one of the top chess players in the world, a career that spanned from the mid-1930s to the 1960s. In 1950, Keres was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by the International Chess Federation, the most prestigious title that can be awarded to a chess player.  Interestingly, the chess pieces are set……

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When Salam Bunyan and his wife, Aseel, opened their Mediterranean restaurant, Tarbush Kitchen, in Boise’s Central Bench neighborhood in late 2019, the Iraqi couple already had a loyal customer base. That’s because the Bunyans, who arrived in Idaho as refugees 11 years earlier, had been in the food business before: First in 2014, as purveyors of The Goodness Land food stall at the city’s International Market. Then, after the market burned down, as the owners and operators of a……

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This museum is only advertised on a small billboard one a highway that leads to a much more famous tourist destination in Da Lat, Lang Biang Mountain. Down a dirt road and past the Institute of Scientific Research, one will eventually come across a small building where you can purchase tickets to enter Da Lat’s very own Biological Museum (Bảo tàng Sinh học Đà Lạt). The museum consists of 2,500 square meters of exhibition space in a three-storybuilding. The stone……

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Yoshiwara was an infamous red-light district of Edo (today’s Tokyo) that flourished between the 17th and 19th-centuries, extending for around 16 acres during its heyday. A place of extreme extravagance and decadence, the samurai of the Edo period frequented this area seeking romance that was, to quote a contemporaneous expression, “fleeting as a bubble.” Historically, neighborhoods like Yoshiwara were known as yūkaku, the word signifying a government-sanctioned red-light district surrounded by either a fence or moat. Whereas wealthy sex workers of a……

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Musher Tabetha Kopta could hear the cheers and shouts as she neared the finish line. After a weekend of races, she and her team of sled dogs were about to place third overall in the New York State Dryland Challenge—for the dogs, however, it was all about the thrill of the run. Pawn and Lilian, her lead dogs, galloped happily, wind flattening their black and white fur as they approached the finish. Like the other four dogs on Kopta’s……

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There are several ways to wreck a moss ball. You might not want to, at first, because they’re quite charming, as far as aquarium accessories go—vivid green and damply hairy, like a Muppet that’s been through the wash. But if you choose to be merciless, you can pick from several modes of attack. You could seal it in a plastic bag and banish it to the freezer. You could submerge it in screaming-hot water for 60 seconds. You could……

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When photographer Dawoud Bey stood with his camera, overlooking the waters of Lake Erie in northeastern Ohio, he felt something unexpected. The acclaimed artist had been working on a project to reimagine the history of the Underground Railroad through shooting the imaginary point of view of a fugitive enslaved person moving through the landscape. Due to the inherent secret nature of the Underground Railroad, most of its “stations,” or safehouses, were a mystery. Those unknowns provided Bey with a……

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According to the records, the first temple in Prambanan was built around the year 850. It is believed that Rakai Pikatan, king of the Sanjaya dynasty Medang Kingdom, had it built partly as a Hindu response to the nearby Buddhist Borobudur, and partly as a marker to commemorate the return of the Sanjaya dynasty to power in Central Java. However, it was Rakai Pikatan’s successor, King Lokapala, who is responsible for expanding the complex to the massive scale that……

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