Author: Ms. R.

Edinburgh is a very photogenic city that offers visitors several prime locales to snap a picture. One such visage is located along the Royal Mile, in an area known to locales as the Canongate. The Tolbooth Tavern is situated in an impressive stone building with an ornate clock tower. But what many tourists may be unaware of is that this building hides a dark and mysterious past. Originally constructed in 1591, the building that contains The Tolbooth Tavern was……

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Maximo Cardoso had never used a crossbow before, but he was intuitively able to assemble the Barnett Raptor FX, a model typically marketed for deer hunting. The field guide also displayed natural marksmanship. So it was agreed: He would be the one to launch the poison. At the base of a sheer rock face amid dry scrub in Bahia, Brazil, decked out in a beekeeping suit, Cardoso took aim at a 45-degree angle, the crossbow loaded with bolts modified……

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In 1895, Washington Pie was such a popular recipe that it was also a metaphor. Leading up to Independence Day festivities in Grand Rapids, Michigan, an article in The Michigan Tradesman used the dessert to explain a way to keep the town’s raucous paraders in line, suggesting that they make, “a sort of Washington Pie with that part of the procession—a layer, say, of traveling men and then a filling of Salvation Army jam, and so on, with the……

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This story was originally published in The Guardian and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It is dusk beside a creek and we are instructed to look for a trail of bubbles, under which could be one of the world’s weirdest mammals. When you’re desperate to see a platypus in the fading light, everything looks like one. Floating logs from bank-side paperbark trees, gyrating leaves caught in a dance with the wind, and what was probably……

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One of the greatest chapters in the history of United States westward expansion is the Transcontinental Railroad. The train allowed passengers and cargo to cross the country in a fraction of the time of wagons and stagecoaches. It also gave rise to the railroad tycoons and robber barons who had a virtual monopoly on transportation. In 1903, the Western Pacific Railroad was created to compete with the Southern Pacific Railroad, which held the original transcontinental route over Donner Pass……

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On August 6th, 1903 two train cars carrying members of the Great Wallace Shows Circus collided in the Durand railroad yards. The incident killed 23 people along with several animals. Nine of those killed were never identified and lie buried in Lovejoy Cemetery. The animals, including an elephant named “Maude,” were buried at the scene of the accident. An impressive obelisk memorial stands near the entrance of the cemetery and reads: “In memory of the Unknown Dead. Who lost……

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In 1911, Berlin got its first crematorium: a dramatic, domed building that stands amidst a graveyard in the multicultural district of Wedding. After it closed in 2002, holding its final cremations, a group of Berliners reinvented the space as a hub for art, events, and learning.  The former crematorium is owned and run by Silent Green, an organization whose investors include filmmaker and director Jörg Heitmann and developer Frank Duske, who has been involved in urban development projects. Their transformation of the historic……

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The Old Hill Street Police Station is a former station used by the Singapore Police Force. It now stands as a historic building with an amazing facade.  The building has a total of 927 windows, each with a wooden shutter painted in one of the colors of a rainbow.  The colored windows on the first four stories all contain the same vibrant intensity. As visitors look upward, they’ll notice the upper windows gradually intensify to accentuate the cantilevered balconies. With……

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A mesmerizing sight to behold, the intricacies of this temple are what make it so amazing. The Sun Temple is a Hindu temple constructed after 1026 CE, during the Chaulukya dynasty. The complex was designed in the Māru-Gurjara style. Unlike other tourist destinations around the country, this temple isn’t usually overrun with tourists, which adds to its appeal.  The temple was constructed during every equinox, the first sunrays would fall on a diamond placed on the Sun God’s head. The……

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This little bridge near the heart of Darlington has a wondrous and under-appreciated history. The Skerne Bridge is officially the world’s oldest railway bridge in continuous operation. The bridge was constructed as part of the Darlington to Stockton railway in 1825, the world’s first public railway to use steam trains. The line connected collieries in Shildon with Stockton-on-Tees, via Darlington, the home town of the family that funded the world’s first railways. In that same year, George Stephenson’s Locomotion……

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