 The Masked Women of Iran
Head covering, veils and burqas are common sight among many Muslim communities around the world. There are a lot of different styles and each have their own name, but none of these come even remotely close to the vibrancy of the boregheh mask. These colorful masks are donned by the women of the Hormozgan Province in southern Iran. They are available in a variety of shapes and styles, but the most common ones are rectangular, pinched between the eyebrows to create a sort of vertical wall running
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The Windmills of Paris
Windmills of Montmartre, Maurice Utrillo. Paris is not exactly hilly, but there are a couple of high points in the city where one can easily catch the breeze. Back when Paris had a flourishing grain milling industry, these hills were dotted with numerous wind mills—more than three hundred, some say. Enormous quantities of grain arrived from the Americas and mills in the area ground them up into fine flour for local consumption. Bread was the staple food for the poor French peasants. Durin...
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Büsingen am Hochrhein: The Town Torn Between Two Countries
Büsingen am Hochrhein is a German town with a lot of Swiss character. That's because this small town on the Rhine is entirely surrounded by Switzerland. That makes Büsingen an enclave, and like many territorial enclaves, Büsingen has absorbed the many forms and conventions of its host nation—perhaps a little more willingly. Residents of Büsingen speak Swiss and prefer to use Swiss francs instead of Euro. In fact, until the late 1980s, Büsingen didn't even accept the Deutsche Mark. E...
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Dürkheimer Riesenfass: The Giant Cask
The historic town of Bad Dürkheim lying on the edge of Palatinate Forest on Germany's oldest wine routes, is well known for its vineyards and mineral springs. Every year, on the second and third weekend of September, corresponding to Oktoberfest celebrations around the country, Bad Dürkheim holds the world's biggest wine festival called Wurstmarkt—which actually means "sausage market". The festival takes its name from the spacious sausage market area in the middle of the town whe...
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The Jailhouse That Got Accidentally Sold
It takes quite a stretch of imagination to call Harvard a city. With an area just over half a square mile and population of about one thousand, Harvard, in Clay County, Nebraska, is little more than a town. Nobody ever goes there unless they have family, friends, or business. But if you are passing through Clay County, take a detour and make a quick stop at Harvard in order to marvel at a nondescript two-room brick building and chuckle at the historic marker that describes how this small structu
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The Rzhev Memorial to Soviet Soldiers
A towering new statue honoring Soviet soldiers who lost their lives during the Second World War is to be unveiled tomorrow, June 30, in the city of Rzhev in Tver Oblast by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Funded partially through public donations, the 25-meter tall bronze sculpture stands on top of a 10-meter mound and can be seen from miles away. The dramatic sculpture depicting a soldier of the Red Army standing solemnly with a gun in his hand was completed in April, but due to the current
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The Polar Bear Jail of Churchill
Living in Churchill in northern Manitoba, Canada, has its perils. Situated on the banks of Hudson Bay, approximately 1,000 km north of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, Churchill is one of Canada's most remote towns. Few places are inhabited so far north, with the exception of a couple of Inuit communities and research stations. But cold and isolation are not the only challenges its residents face. Their biggest threat is polar bears. A polar bear warning sign in Churchill, Manitoba. Photo:...
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The Lost Patents
The United States Patent and Trademark Office was established in 1790, and since then the federal office has issued over 10 million patents for all sorts of inventions. Virtually every patent is available to the public, either on paper or microfilm, or digitized and searchable on the Internet—except the first ten thousand patents. They went up in smoke exactly 184 years ago. At that time, the Patent Office was housed inside the Blodget Hotel Building, in Washington, along with the post office...
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The Meridian That Stood Up To Greenwich
Railways, in the late 19th century, ushered in a revolution in transport, but with that arose one unexpected problem. Back then, there was no standardized time, and every town and city kept their own clock which varied from their neighbors sometimes by several hours. This created grave inconvenience for rail travelers, because they couldn't tell at what time a train would arrive at a particular station and how long a journey would be because arrivals and departures on railway timetables were...
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Turning Night Into Day: Nuclear Explosions in Space
On August 1, 1958, a few minutes before midnight, an intense flash of white light tore across the night sky illuminating everything it touched for miles around Johnston Island, a tiny atoll located smack in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The black sky turned blue, and personnel at the air force base instinctively ducked for cover. The source of the light was a nuclear test conducted high up in the atmosphere. It was one of two conducted under Operation Hardtack to study, among other things, t
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Liverpool's Secret Tunnels Built By An Eccentric “Philanthropist”
Williamson Tunnels under Edge Hill, in Liverpool. Photo: Friend of Williamson's Tunnels Joseph Williamson was a wealthy businessman, but he was not born into wealth. His father was a poor glassmaker. Poverty forced Joseph to leave his family behind in Warrington and seek employment under the tobacco merchant Richard Tate in Liverpool. Joseph Williamson was only eleven years old at that time. Through hard work, Williamson rose thorough the ranks of the company, married the daughter of Richa...
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That Time When The US Almost Blew North Carolina
During the 1950s and 60s, the United States suffered a string of mishaps with nuclear weapons. From lost nukes to accidentally dropping bombs over their own territory, most of these accidents were not serious, posing no threat of detonation. But a couple of them were close shaves. The Goldsboro incident is one of them. On the night of 23 January 1961, a B-52 Stratofortress bomber patrolling the skies over the Atlantic Ocean developed a fuel leak. The pilots were advised to steer their craft tow
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OncoMouse: The Mouse That Disrupted Science
In 1988, the US Patent Office awarded for the first time in history a patent for an animal to the Harvard University. The U.S. Patent Number 4736866 was for a small genetically engineered mouse, white and furry, with red beady eyes. His name was OncoMouse. OncoMouse's creators scientists Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart, however, had not created a better mouse. On the contrary, it was much worse. The Harvard scientists had genetically modified the mouse to make it highly susceptible to canc...
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Bōsai Musen: Japan's 5 PM Chime
The loudspeaker of Japan's national disaster warning system in Owkudani Hakone, Japan. Photo: WAN CHEUK NANG/Shutterstock.com For those living in disaster prone areas, the wail of an outdoor warning siren routinely disrupting your peace is all too common. These loudspeakers, that make up the often county-wide network of disaster warning system, has to be regularly tested, but instead of blaring their horns and needlessly jangling the nerves of the citizens, why can't outdoor warning siren...
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Dürer's Rhinoceros: A 16th-Century Viral Fake
Five hundred years ago, Europe saw its first rhinoceros in more than a thousand years. The animal was fairly common during Roman times seen in circuses and gladiatorial events. But after the fall of the Roman Empire, rhinoceros faded away from people's memory, becoming something of a mythical beast alongside dragons and unicorns—until one living example arrived from the Far East. The rhinoceros was a gift from Afonso de Albuquerque, the governor of Portuguese India, to King Manuel I of Po...
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The Cobbled Hell of Trouée d'Arenberg
The famous cobblestone road through the forest of Saint-Amand-Wallers, in France. Photo: Radu Razvan/Shutterstock.com The forest of Saint-Amand-Wallers, just outside Valenciennes, in northern France, is bisected by a perfectly straight cobbled road. Laid during the time of Napoleon I, in the late 18th century, this crudely constructed rural road connecting the mining village of Arenberg with other villages to the north, is normally used as a short cut by the locals. But once a year, the quiet
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Monte Stella: Milan's Rubble Mountain
The city of Milan is as flat as a pancake, save for a little bump in the northwest called Monte Stella. In the vast expanse of Po valley, where Milan is situated, Monte Stella looks little more than a swelling from an insect bite. But for the city's joggers and young people looking for a little elevation in their daily exercise routine, Monte Stella provides the perfect spot.
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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The Healing Soil of Boho
In the Boho highlands of West Fermanagh Scarplands in Northern Ireland, there is a longstanding belief that the soil from the local churchyard has miraculous curative powers. It was on this churchyard, in 1815, the Reverend James McGirr, who was a faith healer, was buried. On his deathbed, Father McGirr himself had supposedly declared that "the clay that covers me will cure anything that I was able to cure when I was with you while I was alive." Since then, a local custom developed. Whenever...
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The World's Largest Brick Bridge
Before the age of steel and concrete, bricks and stones were the only two materials available to architects and bridge designers hoping to span a river or a valley with a structure that was both strong and durable. While these ancient building materials might not match some of the qualities of steel, they suited the needs of the time. Indeed, stone bridges in particular are virtually indestructible. There are thousands of stone and brick viaducts across Europe and Asia that dates back by hundred
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A 16th Century Math Book With Pop-Up Models
Euclid's Elements, first published in 300 BC, was one of the most important and influential textbooks ever written in the history of science and it laid the foundations of mathematics. It was one of the earliest mathematical works to be printed after the invention of the printing press, and by some estimates, it is second only to the Bible in the number of editions published since the first printing in 1482. By Queen Victoria's time, The Elements had became a standard textbook in schools, ...
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Alexis St. Martin: The Man With A Hole In His Stomach
By the early 19th century, physicians had a clear understanding of the human anatomy (from dissecting cadavers) but knowledge about the role of each internal organ and how they worked in a living and breathing individual was hazy. Doctors had a couple of diagnostic tools at their disposal, such as the stethoscope and the laryngoscope, to poke and prod their patients with, but the scope of these devices were limited. Nobody had ever seen the insides of a living person, save during hastily carried
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Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov's Two-Headed Dog
In 1955, at a meeting of the Moscow Surgical Society, a sensational exhibit was presented to the assembled guests. On the platform close to the audience, a large white dog was brought in. The dog looked happy, cheerfully wagging its tail, and unintimated by the large crowd of eager guests in front of him. He seemed particularly unconcerned by the unnatural appendage protruding from the side of his neck. Just a few days before the meet, the dog had undergone a major surgery during which the S
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Llívia: A Curious Spanish Enclave in France
A welcome sign on the road to Llívia, a landlock state of Spain inside France. Photo: LMspencer/Shutterstock.com Deep in the Pyrenees, surrounded by French territory, the small town of Llívia is the envy of Catalans—for, for the past 350 years, Llívia has been reasonably independent from its Spanish homeland—something which the rest of Catalonia has been struggling to achieve for the past one hundred years at least.
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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The War Rubble of Crosby Beach
Photo: pshab/Flickr Just beyond the coastguard station at the end of the promenade at Crosby Beach, in Liverpool, is a flat stretch of sand littered with broken bricks, stones, mortar, marble, tilework and more, rendered smooth and round by the action of waves over many decades. It looks like construction rubble, but there is a deep history in these pulverized, glassy bricks.
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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The Unknown Martyrs Who Became Catacomb Saints
Relics of saint and holy people have always been an integral part of Christianity. There was a time when bones, skins, fingernails, severed heads and even entire bodies of saints were preserved and cherished by the populace. But when the Protestant Revolution gripped Europe in the early 16th century, thousands of these relics were destroyed. The iconoclastic behavior was the most fervent in Northern Europe, especially in Germany, where many Catholic churches were plundered, vandalized and outr
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Clever Hans: The Horse Who Could Do Math
In a paved courtyard surrounded by high apartment houses in the northern part of Berlin, a small crowd had gathered to watch an old high school mathematics teacher demonstrate the brilliance of one of his precocious pupil. The sixty-something math instructor stood proudly with a black, slouch hat covering his thinning white hair. To his left, stood the pupil—an impressive Russian trotting horse.
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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Stanley Kubrick's Rejected Monolith
The iconic Monolith from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was originally not a mysterious black slab. The director wanted it to be transparent. To that end, Kubrick commissioned a local plastics firm, Stanley Plastics to cast the monolith out of a solid block of transparent acrylic. However, when the sparkling clear polymer block was delivered, the notoriously picky director was disappointed by the way it appeared during screen test. Kubrick eventually rejected the prop in favor of
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Waterloopbos: Where Dutch Engineers Learned to Play With The Sea
A quarter of Netherlands lie below the sea level. Most of these low-lying areas are land reclaimed from the sea. The region was originally occupied by the estuaries of three large rivers—the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt, as well as their tributaries. Starting from the late 16th centuries, the Dutch drained the low-lying areas called polder by building an elaborate drainage system consisting of dikes, canals, and pumping stations. The highlight of this incredible engineering is a series of...
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Pervitin: The Wonder Drug That Fueled Nazi Germany
When Heinrich Böll, the German writer and Nobel laureate, was a young man in his twenties, like many able-bodied youths of his time, he joined the Wehrmacht, the German Armed Forces of Nazi Germany. During World War 2, he served all over Europe as well as the Soviet Union. On November 9, 1939, while fighting in occupied Poland, Böll wrote to his parents back home in Cologne: "It's tough out here, and I hope you'll understand if I'm only able to write to you once every two to f...
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Draining of Fucine Lake
In western Abruzzo, in central Italy, about 80 kilometers east of Rome, lies one of Italy's most fertile plains. The vegetables that are grown here are highly appreciated across Italy for their distinguishing quality and taste. Particularly popular is the Fucino potato which was awarded the "Protected Geographical Indication" in 2014—a quality label awarded by the European Union to agricultural products of excellence closely tied to a particular territory. Surrounded by low hills, ...
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Tsar Tank
Before World War I, military tanks were a mere concept. Leonardo da Vinci made sketches of a human-powered armored vehicle, with canons all around it. In the 15th century, a Czech general built armored wagons fitted with cannons and used them effectively in several battles. In the short story, The Land Ironclads, first published in 1903, H.G. Wells imagined hundred-foot long armored fighting vehicles equipped with canons and rifles, and large enough to carry a platoon. Around the upper edges of
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Aerotrain: The High-Speed Train That Almost Revolutionized Transport
Some of the fastest trains in service today have a top speed in excess of 200 miles per hour. With the exception of Shanghai maglev, all of them are conventional wheel-on-tracks system, which is remarkable because rolling friction has always been the biggest obstacle to high-speed travel. But if you want to see what the future has in store for rail travelers, just look at the world speed records—out of the top ten speed record holders, eight are maglev trains. The highest speed achieved by a...
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Remembering Epidemics With Plague Columns
Military victories are much celebrated, but a victory against a common enemy, such as a disease, is as important, especially in older times when human population was routinely decimated by waves of killer epidemics. In such times, people desperately seeking for cures and respite from the sufferings offered prayers and votive offerings to the Gods. Those cities who could afford erected large churches, such as the Santa Maria della Salute in Venice, constructed after the Italian Plague of 1629-1...
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Vennbahn: The Railway That Created a Peculiar Border Problem
Germany and Belgium's border problem. Photo: gunnsteinlye/Flickr Along the German-Belgian border runs an old disused railway track, the Vennbahn. It passes through three countries, starting at the German town of Aachen, goes through Belgian territory and ends in Troisvierges in northern Luxembourg. Along the way it snakes in and out of Germany and Belgium creating a very odd border situation in the region.
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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Turnspit Dogs
Observe the scene above depicting the inside of an inn at Newcastle, Wales, in the late 19th century. Men and women are sitting around the tables gossiping over drinks and smoke, waiting for the meat to get done. A woman is sitting by the fire tending the rotisserie, but the actual work is being done by a small dog furiously running inside a small hamster wheel hanging from the ceiling. He is the turnspit dog—a short-legged, long-bodied dog breed with a heavy head and drooping ears. Famed zo...
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The Pearl Rush of Caddo Lake
Caddo Lake. Photo: Maciej Kraus/Flickr Natural pearls are a rarity today, but a hundred years ago, before British biologist William Saville-Kent first developed the technique of pearl culturing, natural pearls were found in many parts of the world and it was the only kind of pearl people wore. For thousand of years, divers retrieved natural pearls from wild oysters in the Indian Ocean in areas such as the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Mannar. The pearl fisheries of the Persian G
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Kruger Shalati: The Train Hotel Over Sabie Bridge
For several years, it was possible to hop into a train at Komatipoort, on the South Africa-Mozambique border, and ride through the wilderness of the Kruger National Park up to Tzaneen, a large town located outside the National Park. On the way, the train stopped at the railway bridge over Sabie river, where guests disembarked and were escorted by armed rangers right into the bush. After enjoying the park by day, the guests retreated to their carriages at night to sleep before moving on to thei
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The Bayeux Tapestry
History is not always written. Sometimes it's carved. Sometimes it's embroidered. In a museum in Bayeux, in Normandy, is such a piece of commemorative work—a 70 meter stretch of fabric embroidered with figures and scenes that tell one of the most famous stories in British history—the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century by William, Duke of Normand,y who became the King of England in 1066 after the Battle of Hastings. The Bayeux Tapestry was made soon after the battle, and te...
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The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
When cotton first came to Europe from Central Asia during the Middle ages, people were fascinated by the fluffy, fibrous balls that resembled wool. They knew cotton grew on trees, but they were unaware exactly how. Having never seen a flower that fluffy, people just assumed that the cotton came from lambs, but the lambs themselves grew on trees.
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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Black Weddings: Marrying in The Time of Cholera
Last month, a peculiar wedding ceremony took place at a cemetery in Bnei Brak, a city in Israel, just east of Tel Aviv. With government regulation prohibiting large gatherings in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic, the wedding was a small affair with only a few attendants huddled under a small black canopy, the chuppah. The groom was an orphan and while the identify of the bride was not disclosed, she was probably an orphan herself. The two had never met before, never known each other. These
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Cosmos 954: The Nuke That Fell From Space
What goes up must eventually come down, including satellites that are currently orbiting the earth. After their work is done, they will be deliberately tossed back into the atmosphere where they will burn up in the high altitudes. Little, if any, will actually hit the ground. But sometimes a satellite fails and falls back to earth unpredictably, posing hazard to human population, wildlife and the environment. And what if the satellite contained an active nuclear reactor?
© Amusing Plan
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The Allure of Gigantic Excavators
A young girl stands inside the enormous bucket of "Big Muskie", the world's largest dragline excavator. Photo: Charles Barilleaux/Flickr Near McConnelsville, Ohio, just off State Route 78, is the Miners' Memorial Park dedicated to the coal mining industry of southeastern Ohio that dominated the economy of this part of America until about fifty years ago. The small park is centered around a single exhibit—a colossal steel bucket that was once attached to the business end of the lar...
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The Mysterious Hum Nobody Can Explain
For the past nine years, residents of Windsor city, situated on the Canadian side of the US-Canada border just across Detroit river, have been complaining of a mysterious and persistent low-frequency humming noise. It comes and goes at random intervals, sometimes lasting hours and other times droning on for days. Those who can hear it—for not everyone can—compares the uncomfortable hum to an idling diesel engine or a pulsating subwoofer. Others say it sounds like a continuous distant thund...
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The Turkish Hotel Built Above an Ancient Ruin
In 2009, a construction crew digging the foundation for a new hotel in Antakya, Turkey, made an astonishing discovery. They uncovered a vast mosaic dating back to Roman times, along with more than 35,000 artifacts spanning some 2,300 years from at least 13 different civilizations. Construction of the hotel was immediately put on hold, while a six-month excavation took place. The find would have dashed the hopes of any hotelier, but the Asfuroğlu group decided to embrace the challenge, integ...
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The Artist Who Got Carried Away: The Story of The Peacock Room
In 1876, the British shipping magnate Frederick Richards Leyland bought himself a grand house at 49 Princes Gate in the fashionable neighbourhood of Kensington in London. Shortly after, he engaged architect Richard Norman Shaw to remodel and redecorate his home. Redesigning the dining room, however, was entrusted to the gifted architect Thomas Jeckyll, who was known for his Anglo-Japanese styles. Leyland had a large collection of Chinese blue and white porcelain, mostly from the Kangxi era o
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Ama: The Freediving Fisherwomen of Japan
In ancient times, the only way to gather food and other resources, such as sponge and pearl, from the sea bed was to hold one's breath and dive to the bottom—a technique known as skin diving or freediving. The longer the diver could hold his breath, the longer he could stay underwater and the more he could collect without having to come up for air. The modern breathing apparatus has made this hazardous profession obsolete. Today, skin-diving is performed mostly as a form of competitive sport...
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The Shortest Rivers in The World
Most people imagine rivers to be long meandering waterways flowing down faraway mountains, through the valleys and the plains until it reaches the ocean or a lake. Along its entire route, the river fertilizes the land allowing plants and crops to grow. Animals congregate around its banks, humans build towns and cities. Water from rivers are diverted for flood control, irrigation, power generation, drinking, and even waste disposal. This is true for many rivers on this planet. But there are also
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The Elevator Shaft That Came Before The Elevator
The Cooper Union's Foundation Building in Lower Manhattan was completed in 1859. This large six-story brownstone building of Anglo-Italianate style featuring heavy, ornate, round-arched windows was the first building in the world that was designed to accommodate an elevator—four years before such an invention became available for passenger use. At that time, New York was growing vertically and Peter Cooper, the founder of Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science—one of America's lea...
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The Watts Tower
On a small triangular plot of land, in a suburb just south of downtown Los Angeles, stands one of the greatest pieces of outsider art—a set of tall towers made of steel, wire mesh and concrete, inlaid with broken pieces of tiles, glass, and pottery, and other found items. Its creator was a semi-literate Italian immigrant named Simon Rodia, who spent 33 years from 1921 to 1954 building this architectural marvel known as the Watts Towers. Not much is known about Rodia's early life except that...
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The Secret of Coade Stone
The large lion statue that stands at the east end of Westminster Bridge, near the Houses of Parliament, holds a secret—it is made neither of stone nor of concrete but from a special mixture of ingredients whose recipe was lost to the world for more than a hundred years. The statue is close to two hundred years old, yet looks brand new with no visible signs of weathering on its surface. The fine details of its modelling still remain clear after centuries of exposure to the corrosive atmosphere ...
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Rettungsbojen: The Floating Rescue Buoys of The Luftwaffe
During World War 2, both the RAF and the Luftwaffe lost a large number of pilots at sea. The British used a couple of high speed boats that patrolled the English Channel and picked up downed pilots before they were overcome by the elements. The Germans used the Heinkel He 59 float planes that could land on water, in addition to boats. The German sea rescue service, or Seenotdienst, was more successful than the Allied effort. They had bases all along the coast of Denmark, Norway, Netherlands and
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The Grain Race
By the end of the 19th century, steam-powered vessels had almost completely replaced sailing ships in the commercial shipping business. But along the longer routes, such as from Australia to Europe around Cape Horn, a sailing ship was as efficient as a steam ship. This route, historically sailed by clipper ships and thus known as the "clipper route", offered captains the fastest circumnavigation of the world, and hence potentially the greatest rewards. Many grain, wool and gold clippers sail...
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The Historic Meeting on Elbe River
April 25, 1945, is a date few remember. But it was a significant day in the history of the world. On this day, American troops sweeping in from the west and the Red Army advancing from the east joined forces on the Elbe river, near Torgau, about 100 km south of Berlin. They shook hands, exchanged souvenirs and posed for photographs. The meeting was historic because it meant that they had successfully cut the Germany army in two.
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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The Green-Haired Mary River Turtle
The Mary River turtle lives exclusively in the waters of the Mary River in south-east Queensland, Australia. Despite being one of Australia's largest freshwater turtles, it gained scientific identification and classification less than thirty years ago. The Mary River turtle managed to avoid detection for so long possibly due to its extraordinary respiratory system that allows it to breath underwater, therefore seldom requiring to emerge out of the water for air. The turtle performs this unusua...
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Operation Tat-Type: Why Some American Kids Got Tattooed With Blood-Type
Photo: Hole in the Clouds The paranoia during the early years of the Cold War was so great that many American school children were made to wear dog tags, like soldiers wear around their necks, to enable identification of bodies in the aftermath of an atomic attack. Later, another bizarre initiative was promoted—tattoo children and young people with their blood-type. Blood-type tattoos was anticipated to save thousands of lives following an atomic bomb attack because this information could e...
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The Caprivi Strip
The country of Namibia has a sizeable landmass with an enviable coastline by the South Atlantic Ocean. Yet, a thin sliver of land, no more than 32 kilometers wide, protrude eastward for about 450 kilometers from the north-eastern corner of the country towards Zimbabwe, seeking something it doesn't have. This odd finger-like intrusion is called the Caprivi Strip, after German Chancellor Leo von Caprivi, who negotiated the acquisition of the land with the United Kingdom in 1890.
© Amus...
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Nyepi: Bali's Day of Silence
Every year, towards the end of March, the entire island of Bali in Indonesia, goes into standstill. Flights are grounded, shops remain closed, streets are deserted of traffic and pedestrian. All residents lock themselves up in their houses and switch off their lights. There is no talking, no music, no entertainment. Some even stop eating. This day is called Nyepi, the "day of silence", where devout Hindus meditate and reflect. Balinese Hindu devotees carry an Ogoh-ogoh effigy during a pa...
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Digitally Reconstructed Medieval Castles
Europe is known for its magnificent castles and fortresses, but only a few survive in their original form. Since reconstructing them would be financially impossible and culturally abhorrent, a London-based creative agency named NeoMam Studios have decided to digitally restore them to their prime. Using old paintings, blueprints, and textual documents that describe the strongholds, the design team from NeoMam Studios have resuscitated over a dozen castles across Europe. The Poenari Castle in R
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The Guillotine Haircut
Women traditionally wore their hair long. So when did short hair become the vogue? Some say it became fashionable only about hundred years ago, but if we are to trace the history of cropped hair, it will take us to 18th-century France, just as the nation was coming out of turmoil of the Revolution. During the later years of the French Revolution, many fashionable young men and women of the upper and middle classes began to cut their hair short. It was called the Titus haircut, or coiffure à ...
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Forgotten Jobs: Dog Whipper And Sluggard Waker
Photo: Nelson Antoine/Shutterstock.com In 16th-century England, stray dogs disrupting church service became such a big problem that many parishes employed "dog whippers", whose job was to shoo away dogs and prevent these animals from crowding around the church or attacking priests when he was handing out communion bread and wafers on church steps. The dog whipper carried a whip and a long pair of tongs using which he would grab a dog by its neck and physically remove him from the church g...
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Joseph Bell, The Real Sherlock Holmes
An illustration of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson that appeared in a stamp printed in Alderney, circa 2009. Photo: Olga Popova/Shutterstock.com The Ardlamont murder was an open and shut case. A young, wealthy aristocrat, Cecil Hambrough, was out hunting on the Ardlamont estate in Scotland with two associates—Alfred Monson, his tutor, and a mysterious third man named Edward Scott, who was identified only as a friend of Monson—when shots were heard. Estate workers saw Monson and Scott runni...
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The Quarantine Quarters of Dubrovnik
Social distancing and quarantine are not new concepts. During the Middle Ages, when Europe and Asia were devastated by deadly outbreaks of plague and small pox, physicians had no idea about viruses and bacteria, but they knew enough to isolate the infected to arrest the spread of the disease. The first official decree to introduce quarantine was by the Republic of Ragusa, now the city of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia. Located on the Adriatic coast, the Republic of Ragusa had an active port thr
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Run Out of Toilet Paper? Use a Stick
Hoarding toilet paper. Photo: DigitalMammoth/Shutterstock.com Chances are, you've run out of toilet paper, unless you are the type who bought eight boxes of it. Since the coronavirus outbreak, toilet paper has become a commodity more precious than gold, with shelves that hold them emptying faster than those that stock milk. While researchers, psychologists and even economists are collectively scratching their heads over this bizarre behavior, we, on the other hand, have a practical solution...
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Fatal Familial Insomnia: The Disease That Kills by Sleep Deprivation
Everybody suffers from a little insomnia once in a while, but what if you were unable to sleep for months? Early studies conducted on dogs showed that the absence of sleep was fatal in a few days. In one brutal experiment conducted by a couple of Italian physiologists in the late 19th century, dogs were kept awake for two weeks by forcing them to walk, after which they died. Microscopic study of the dogs' brain cells showed degenerative changes in the brain's neurons. In 1964, an Americ...
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How Coronavirus Emptied The World's Streets
As millions of people around the world lock themselves indoors in order to prevent transmission of the dreaded coronavirus, the world outside looks eerily abandoned. The absence of humans and smoke belching vehicles is having a profound effect on the environment, not seen, perhaps, since the Industrial Age began. The atmosphere has become cleaner with significant drop in nitrogen dioxide pollution. The normally polluted waters of the canals of Venice have become so clear that one can see the bot
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The Mulberry Harbours of Normandy
When the sea goes out in Arromanches-les-Bains, a small village on the coast of Normandy in northwestern France, the large concrete pontoons that lie half submerged in the salty waters expose themselves in their entirety. These concrete structures played a significant role in the history of Europe, facilitating the landing of thousands of Allied troops and their equipment on the beaches of Normandy during Operation Overlord. Mulberry harbour ruins in Arromanches-les-Bains, Normandy, France. P
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Barnacle Goose: The Bird That Was Believed to Grow on Trees
In the days before it was realized that birds migrate, ancient scholars struggled to explain why some species of birds appeared and disappeared as the seasons changed. The idea that these little feathered creatures can travel thousands of miles in search of food and warmth was unimaginable. But the notion was not entirely an alien one. Greek writer Homer believed that cranes flew south in winter to fight the pygmies of Africa, a fable that's repeated by Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder. Ac...
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The Kettle War
Photo: B toy Anucha/Shutterstock.com The Kettle War of 1784 was a quintessential David versus Goliath story. A formidable naval fleet of the Holy Roman Empire faces a lone battleship, underpowered and hopelessly outnumbered, yet comes back defeated. In the short battle, lasting less than a day, only a single shot was fired, and the only casualty was a soup kettle.
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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The Earliest Depiction of Jesus Was a Mocking Tribute to Christianity
In the Palatine museum in Rome there is a collection of ancient graffiti etched on slabs of marble and limestone that once defaced the walls of palaces and public buildings across the Roman Empire. Among these is one that historians call "Alexamenos graffito". It depicts a roughly drawn figure of a man with the head of an ass crucified on a cross. Next to the crucified figure is a smaller figure with one arm extended towards the former. Underneath the figures is a caption, written in equal...
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The Hanging Cages of St. Lambert's Church in Münster
If you crane your neck and look up while standing in front of St Lambert's Church in Münster, Germany, you can make out three iron cages hanging from the church's steeple, just above the clock face. The cages are empty, but five hundred years ago they held the mutilated, rotten corpses of three revolutionaries who led one of the most brutal Protestant revolutions in history. Photo: ptwo/Flickr
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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Cold War Era Bunkers Under Corsham
The fear of nuclear apocalypse immediately after the end of the Second World War, caused many westerns countries to invest heavily on underground bunkers where important government officials, decision makers, as well as the general populace could hide should there be a Hiroshima-like attack over ground. In the United Kingdom, the panic-stricken government built hundreds of shelters across the island. They ranged in size from small tunnels to vast underground cities equipped with hospitals, cante
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Sweating Sickness: The Forgotten Epidemic
The Sleeping Beauty, by John Collier During medieval times, diseases were a constant threat to people's health, brought about by lack of hygiene and poor understanding of the nature of the illness. The myriad diseases that plagued and perplexed medieval physicians are well understood today, but one that remains a historical and medical mystery is the English sweating sickness. In the 15th and 16th centuries, a mysterious epidemic swept across Europe. Victims of the disease first came down ...
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Celles, The Village That Didn't Drown
In the late 1950s, residents of Celles, a small village in the Salagou valley in southern France, received notices for evacuation. Their neighborhood had been chosen by the authorities to become the site for a reservoir, which was to be built supposedly for their own benefit. This region has been traditionally known for its vineyards, but lately, the wine market was crashing and prices were dropping. The local government decided that the best way to ride out the crisis was for the farmers to d
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Terrible National Pak Reviews Illustrated
The wonderful thing about online reviews is that you will find both five-star and one-star reviews for the exact same product, and this includes America's most pristine and majestic natural wonders—the National Parks. Most of the bad reviews stem from people complaining about petty stuff. Some didn't like the watery coffee at the visitor center. Others couldn't find a parking spot. For others, the day was too hot or too cloudy. When designer Amber Share read these one-star reviews, she...
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Bathysphere: The World's First Deep-Sea Exploration Vessel
On the afternoon of September 22, 1932, listeners across America and the UK tuned their radio sets to an extraordinary live broadcast that was being transmitted from inside a small steel sphere hundreds of feet below the ocean's surface. Locked inside the sphere was naturalist William Beebe and inventor Otis Barton, who designed the device. Through a telephone system supplied by Bell Laboratories, Beebe described the wonderful marine life that swam past his tiny quartz window—"a school of ...
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Scalae Gemoniae: The Stairs of Death
Not too far from Tarpeian Rock, a cliff on Capitoline Hill in the center of Rome, where convicted criminals were once flung to their deaths, there stood another gruesome execution site. It was a flight of stairs leading from the Arx of Capitoline Hill down to the Roman Forum below. Near the stairs stood Mamertine Prison, where many of the criminals who met horrific deaths at the stairs were imprisoned. A section of the Gemonian stairs in Rome. Photo: RussieseO/Shutterstock.com
© Amusin
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The Indian Perfume That Smells Like Rain
Rainwater flows down a roof. Photo: Anna Nikonorova/Shutterstock.com Love that musky, fresh smell of earth that permeates the air when the first rain of the monsoon hits the parched ground? It is known an petrichor, a pleasant cocktail of fragrant chemical compounds, some produced by plants, others produced by bacteria that live on the soil. These bacteria are the main contributors to the distinct earthly smell. When they die during periods of drought, they release a compound called geosmin w
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The Newspaper That is Published Only on 29th February
The French newspaper, La Bougie du Sapeur, has been publishing for the last 40 years. Yet, there has been only eleven issues so far. Why? Because it's published only on Leap Day, i.e., 29th of February. La Bougie du Sapeur began as a joke in 1980 between two friends, the polytechnician Jacques De Buisson and Christian Bailly, a press enthusiast and collector of old newspapers. The newspaper's name, literally "The Sapper's Candle", refers to a cartoon character created in the la...
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Cornfield Bomber: The Fighter Plane That Landed Without Its Pilot
One of the strangest aviation mishaps that ended happily happened on February 2, 1970. That morning, three F-106 Delta Darts took off from the Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls, in Montana, the United States, on a routine training mission, when one of the F-106, piloted by Captain Gary Faust, entered into a flat spin—which happens when an aircraft stalls and rapidly loses altitude while spinning from wing to wing. Once an aircraft enters into flat spin, it is usually very difficult to ...
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Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort
The Wallabi Group of islands in the Abrolhos archipelago, off the west coast of Australia, contains two distinct sets of islands. The eastern islands are made up of broken corals reefs and are barren with no fresh water. It was here on Beacon Island, where the survivors of the infamous shipwreck of the Batavia were marooned. The other set of the Wallabi Group—the western islands—are larger and are made up of large coral platforms. These islands host rich flora and fauna, such as the tammar w...
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The Soviet Census Debacle of 1937
In 1937, the Soviet Union conducted its first population census in eleven years. Soviet leaders, especially Stalin, had great expectations on its outcome. He predicted that the population growth would be over 35 million citizens from the last census. Demographic figures from the census would illustrate how productive the Soviets were compared to the west, and project an image of a healthy, happy, and growing nation. In a speech he made to Soviet Party leaders in 1935, Stalin beamed: Everyb
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The World's Oldest Dock at Lothal
The dockyard at Lothal. Photo: DARSHAN KUMAR/Shutterstock.com This large rectangular, water-filled structure may look like a reservoir, but is in fact an ancient dock, and one of the oldest in the world. It is located at the site of the ancient city of Lothal situated about 85 kilometers south of Ahmedabad, in the state of Gujarat, in India. Lothal is one of the few sites within the Indus Valley Civilization that is accessible from India. Lothal is believed to be at least 5,000 years old and
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The Doodles Hidden Inside Swiss Maps
For centuries mapmakers have been including small, deliberate flaws in their maps—a fake street, a fantasy town—imperceptible to anyone other that the creator, as a copyright trap to catch unauthorized duplication. But sometimes cartographers do it just for fun. A recently published story at Eye on Design brings to light an unspoken tradition among Swiss cartographers to hide small doodles inside Switzerland's official maps. There is a barely perceptible spider here, a fish there, a rec...
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Where is Ground Zero in Nagasaki?
On the morning of August 9, 1945, six B29 bombers took off from Mariana Islands, located more than 2,100 kilometers north of Tokyo. One of the aircrafts, Bockscar, was carrying the plutonium bomb, Fat Man. They were headed for the ancient castle town of Kokura. When the planes arrived at Kokura, they found the city obscured by clouds and smoke. By a strange stroke of luck, Kokura's neighboring city, Yahata, was firebombed the night before, which destroyed more than one-fifth of the city'...
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Hessy Levinsons Taft: The Jewish Woman Who Was Hitler's “Perfect Aryan Baby”
Hessy Levinsons Taft, a retired chemistry professor at St. John's University, New York, has an amusing story to tell. When she was only 6 months old, her photograph was selected by the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to represent the "perfect Aryan baby". Her cherubic face with chubby cheeks and wide eyes graced the cover of a popular Nazi family magazine Sonne ins Haus or "Sun in the House", and she appeared on cards and posters across Nazi Germany. Unknown to Goebbels, Hes...
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The Pomological Watercolor Collection
Before the days of photography, documenting anything accurately was a task that could only be undertaken by an artist or a model maker. So, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided, in the late 19th century, that they needed to create a sort of national register of fruits and vegetables, they turned to one of the leading botanical artists of the time William Henry Prestele. In 1887, Prestele was appointed as the first artist for the newly created Division of Pomology. His task was to re
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The Langweil Model of Prague
At Prague's City Museum there is a large, unfinished paper and carboard model of Prague depicting how the ancient city appeared in the early 19th century. It was made nearly two hundred years ago by a talented Bohemian lithographer, librarian, painter, and model maker named Antonín Langweil, who devoted the last 11 years of his life to this unusual hobby. Photo: prazsky.denik.cz
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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The Great Hedge of India
Back in the 19th century, eastern India was separated from the west by an impenetrable belt of trees made up of mostly thorny plants such as the Indian plum and prickly pear, as well as bamboos and babool trees. They formed a man-made barrier, more than a thousand kilometers long, that snaked all the way from Layyah in Punjab (now in Pakistan) to Burhanpur, on the banks of Narmada. Photo: Richard Barnes/Shutterstock.com
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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Nicholas Senn: The Doctor Who Blew Hydrogen Gas Up His Patient's Asses
Say, you get shot in the stomach. You go to a doctor. The doctor pulls down your pants and starts pumping hydrogen gas up your ass. Then he sets you on fire. Sounds familiar? No? Then you've been going to the wrong doctor. Let me introduce you to Dr. Nicholas Senn, an American surgeon and founder of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. He was the president of the American Medical Association in 1897-98 and the chief surgeon of the Sixth Army Corps during the Spanish...
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The Mysterious Sky Battle Over Nuremberg in 1561
Throughout history, many observers have reported seeing strange things in the sky. Some of these sightings were, in all probability, natural phenomenon or astronomical events, such as meteor showers and comets, or unusually shaped clouds mistaken for flying saucers. But what happened in the early morning sky over Nuremberg in Germany, in the 16th century, has baffled historians for the past four hundred years.
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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When Dead Whales Toured The Country
For almost three decades, from the 1950s though the 1970s, three gargantuan, smelly, whale carcasses toured the length and breadth of Europe. The three whales, named Goliath, Jonah and Hercules, were caught off the coast of Norway and were initially driven around Europe to promote the declining whaling industry after World War 2. Eventually, they were acquired by circus owners and showmen and exhibited as sideshow attractions. Before long, the whales had become an attraction in their own right.
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Unaweep Canyon: The Canyon With Two Mouths
Unaweep Canyon in western Colorado, the United States, is a large canyon that cuts across the Uncompahgre Plateau, a large uplift within the Colorado Plateau with an average elevation of nearly 3 kilometers. Unaweep Canyon is the only major canyon in the Colorado River drainage not occupied by a river. Instead, it is occupied by two small creeks, which flows, paradoxically, in opposite directions from a gentle divide within the canyon—the almost imperceptible Unaweep Divide. For this reason, U...
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Anatoli Bugorski: The Man Who Stuck His Head Inside a Particle Accelerator
Out of all places to stick your head into, a particle accelerator would rank among the worst. Yet, on that fateful day of 13 July 1978, thirty-six-years-old Russian scientist Anatoli Bugorski just had to. The particle accelerator he was working with at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, near Serpukhov, Russia, developed a problem. To see what's wrong, Bugorski put his head inside the channel through which an intensely powerful beam of proton shoots through. Unknown to Bugorski...
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Circus Maximus
The Colosseum was the Roman Empire's largest amphitheater, but it was not the largest stadium. That title belonged to Circus Maximus, situated just over half a kilometer southwest of the Colosseum. Circus Maximus was the first stadium the Romans built. The stadium was originally constructed in the 6th century BCE, but reached its final form only during the time of Julius Caesar in the middle of the 1st century BCE. Caesar extended the seating tiers to run all around the oval circuit, barring...
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A Treasure Trove of Antique Car Accidents
For four decades from 1917 through the late 1950s, Boston Herald-Traveler photographer Leslie Jones covered every major and minor events in and around the city of Boston, including the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 that killed twenty one people, and every storm and blizzard that made Bostonians miserable. He photographed newsmakers and celebrities, and sporting events, such as boxing, racing, sailing, and probably every Red Sox game and player for thirty years. One of his specialties was car acci
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Cynthia, The Celebrity Mannequin
The story of Pygmalion, from ancient Greek mythology, is well known. Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with his own creation, which was an ivory statue carved in the shape of a beautiful woman. Pygmalion wished for the statue to become real so that she could be his bride. His wish was granted and they lived happily ever after. Something similar happened to Lester Gaba, an American soap sculptor, who was asked by a luxury department store to design a mannequin for their window displays.
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London's Only Lighthouse
On the north bank of River Thames, just across the iconic O2 arena (formerly known as the Millennium Dome), stands London's only lighthouse. It was built in 1866 for the purpose of testing new types of lamps and lighthouse technology, as well as training prospective lighthouse keepers. The hexagonal brick tower with a traditional light at the top was part of the training school and workshop facilities that operated on this wharf. Photo: Matt Brown/Flickr
© Amusing Planet, 2020.
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The Tunnel of Eupalinos
Digging tunnels is probably among the most toughest engineering projects the ancient people undertook, because it required mastering several sophisticated fields of science including architecture, geodesy, hydraulics, and geology. This makes ancient tunnels fascinating subjects for study. The Tunnel of Eupalinos, on the Greek island of Samos, is one such example. Built in the 6th century BC, and first described by Herodotus, the Tunnel of Eupalinos was a major engineering milestone because it
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The Znamya Space Mirror
For a few hours just before dawn on the night of 4 February 1993, a giant spotlight, 5 kilometers in diameter, raced across Europe from west to east, before disappearing into the morning light of Byelorussia. Those who were on the beam's sweep reported seeing a momentary flash of pale silvery light. The spotlight came from a large reflector that was launched into orbit by the Russian Federal Space Agency, some three months earlier from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Called Znamya, which means "ban...
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Town Pounds
Scattered across the English countryside and in many former British colonies, especially northeastern United States—an area historically known as New England—one can find small, rectangular areas bounded by stone walls with no visible structure inside. These are town pounds (or village pounds) where stray animals were imprisoned until they could be claimed by their owners. Like the village church, the pound was an indispensable part of mediaeval villages, especially in farming communities, w...
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