While perusing recent offerings on the World Wide Web, it occurs to me that this week has a latent theme: disappearing/reappearing acts. Below you’l find the most captivating examples yours truly encountered, hand-picked for your reading pleasure.

Disappearing Acts - Vanishing Acts - Media Round-up - Atlas Obscura Blog

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The Battle of Towton: Nasty, Brutish, and Not That Short – From the print edition of The Economist comes a story of deciphering what Medieval battle really consisted of, through the shattered skulls of the Battle of Towton’s particpants. It’s been a long time since I became so quickly engaged by an article I stumbled on in the interwebz. 

Vanishing Act – Lapham’s Quarterly’s story of Barbara Follett, a literary prodigy whose first published work appeared at the age of 12 to great critical praise. The story’s trajectory follows her rise, confrontation with the Great Depression, and ultimate disappearance into the mists of New England. 

Art of the Steal: On the Trail of the World’s Most Ingenious Thief – Parachutes. Butter knives. Gift shop trinkets.  These are the tools of a modern-day international jewel (and other precious items) thief. The Ocean’s Eleven crew ain’t got nothin’ on this guy.  

 

…And of course, ABRACADABRA! The moon disappears and reappears before your very eyes!  In case you missed it, check out the gorgeous time-lapse video of Monday’s lunar eclipse. 

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

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And now, for an added bonus having little to do with disappearing or reappearing – except, now that I think about it, that’s precisely the nature of acquired knowledge! – I give you a geography quiz for grown-ups (totally SFW). I’ve always fancied myself somewhat of a maps/geography/culture buff, but the San Francisco Gate’s 2010 Travel Geography Quiz kind of showed me who’s boss… and it’s not me.