Say WOW

Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces...
Built in 18 months—a record for such a colossal project—this military-themed mega-church covers almost three acres of Patriot Park, and was consecrated on May 9, 2020, the 75th anniversary of the Victory Day, which celebrates the end of the Great Patriotic War (as Russia calls World War II). The gigantic church is designed in Russian Revival (also called pseudo-Russian) style, a trendy form in modern, eclectic Russian architecture, usually consisting of monumental “historical” details combined with gaudy modern elements....

Read More

Biatec Monument in Bratislava, Slovakia
It’s unclear who Biatec was. The name appears on the coins that circulated among the Celtic tribe of the Boii, minted in what is present-day Bratislava around 60-40 B.C. These rare ancient coins are also referred to as Biatec (or Biatex) by modern scholars. Although this has not been confirmed, it was likely the name of the leader of the tribe. Generally sizing 25 millimeters (just under an inch) in diameter and weighing about 17 grams, the silver coins were...

Read More

Contactless Payments Are Becoming More Important Within...
Contactless payment methods are becoming increasingly popular throughout the hospitality sector, and for good reason. They embrace some of the most cutting-edge technology while providing your guests with a more user-friendly experience. It is important to take a look at this concept in greater detail. What is a Contactless Payment? As the name suggests, this type of transaction enables users to avoid using cash or the physical implementation of credit cards. It instead relies upon wireless methods such as...

Read More

 
Contactless Payments Are Becoming More Important Within...
Contactless payment methods are becoming increasingly popular throughout the hospitality sector, and for good reason. They embrace some of the most cutting-edge technology while providing your guests with a more user-friendly experience. It is important to take a look at this concept in greater detail. What is a Contactless Payment? As the name suggests, this type of transaction enables users to avoid using cash or the physical implementation of credit cards. It instead relies upon wireless methods such as...

Read More

How the Black Death Gave Rise to...
“I’ll buy you a beer when this is all over,” declares Christo Tofalli, the landlord of Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, which lays claim to the contentious title of Britain’s oldest pub and is no stranger to pandemics. While closed, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, in the historic city of Saint Albans, has become a Community Supply Point, providing much-needed groceries and offering free delivery to the elderly. They are even delivering Sunday Roast dinners to residents in lockdown. The threat...

Read More

Rocchetta a Volturno in Rocchetta Alta, Italy
The ruins of Rocchetta Alta dominate the remote valley of the Volturno River in the Appennine region of Molise, in central Italy. The original medieval settlement gathered around the impressively positioned Battiloro Castle, which was built to protect the nearby Benedictine Abbey of San Vincenzo al Volturno and initially owned by the Pandone family. Its misfortunes began as a result of intensive deforestation, which caused a number of landslides from the 1800s onwards. The landslides forced the inhabitants to migrate...

Read More

 
Spillings Hoard in Innerstaden, Sweden
In 1999, a film crew accompanied archaeologist Jonas Ström and numismatist Kenneth Jonsson to an unassuming farm on Gotland, Sweden’s largest island. After a farmer had discovered a Viking coin, roughly 150 coins and artifacts had been unearthed. The crew got the footage they wanted and left the site, but Ström and Jonsson stayed behind, continuing their unofficial search with a metal detector. In less than half an hour, the men discovered two massive caches of Viking treasure. They...

Read More

Church of the Holy Emperor Uroš and...
The Balkans have seen their share of conflict and turmoil. There, for centuries, Orthodox Christians have been at odds with Muslims, and these religious identities have turned into national identities, as Serbians are predominantly Christian while Albanians, which are the majority of Kosovars, are Muslim. Yet in the small southern Kosovo municipality of Ferizaj (Albanian) or Urosevac (Serbian), one plot of land holds temples to both religions. A mosque, known as Madhe Mosque, was originally built in the 1890s, during...

Read More

Café Lafitte in Exile in New Orleans,...
It seems only fitting that a few short blocks away from the oldest Roman Catholic convent in the United States, what now claims to be the country’s oldest continuously-operated gay bar opened in 1933. It’s a comforting balance in a city where you’re likely to lose your footing once or twice.  Before its exile, the original Café Lafitte occupied Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop, the former headquarters of a pirate whose life of crime was pardoned for assisting the Americans in the...

Read More

 
Michigan Archaeologists Want Your Help Scouting for...
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, on the northeast shore of Lake Michigan, has become a haven for families that want to stretch their legs and get some fresh air as a break from hunkering down. Though the place isn’t as busy as it would be in a typical spring, “We’re seeing lots of traffic and people out and about in the park,” says Merrith Baughman, a park ranger and the chief of interpretation and visitor services. Park staff and...

Read More

11 Cocktails From Around the World That...
Maybe you were supposed to go to New Orleans this summer to see what Nicolas Cage’s pyramid tomb was all about. Perhaps it was Kenya to visit a mansion for giraffes. Or else it was Myanmar to see the island that inspired Neverland. We may not get to travel the world this summer as planned, but that doesn’t mean we can’t drink like it. Dust off the cocktail shaker, push aside the regulars at the front of your liquor...

Read More

Art Challenge: Readers Show Us How They...
As many of us find ways to explore the world from inside our homes, maps can be a source of comfort and inspiration. Recently, we asked you to be the cartographers by creating maps of your own. The results were a fascinating mix of real and imagined worlds, and a few that charted the ground between those spaces. Some submissions were filled with dizzying details and abundant alliteration, while others were beautifully simple, leaving room for the reader to...

Read More

 
The Secret Language of Cairo’s Goldsmiths
Gabriel Rosenbaum was walking through the streets of Cairo one day when he heard a familiar word, zahub, coming from a nearby shop. The word sounded awfully close to the Hebrew word for gold, zahav, and as an Israeli, he was intrigued: The Arabic word for gold (dhahab) is similar, but zahub’s presence here seemed unusual. Rosenbaum, a professor of Arabic language and literature at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, decided to turn into the shop. Rosenbaum found himself...

Read More

Son Bhandar Caves in Rajgir, India
Located in the ancient city of Rajgir, the Son Bhandar Caves are two artificial caves about which little is known. They are noted for their polished surfaces, a common trait in ancient Mauryan artifacts, but rather unusual in cave temples. One of the caves is believed to be from the time of the Mauryan Empire, which ruled South Asia from the late fourth to early second centuries B.C. The second cave, adjacent to it, has been largely destroyed, but...

Read More

Basshenge in Baudette, Minnesota
As stones create Stonehenge, basses create Basshenge. In 2001, Chicago Symphony double bassist Joseph Guastafeste collaborated with artists to create this monument to the double bass off of Highway 11 in Minnesota. The spiral of sculptures forms a bass clef when viewed from above. The metal bass sculptures are made from thin steel plating. There are 21 basses in total, and the ones in the center are taller than the ones that make up the outer ring. Pairs of...

Read More