Sarah Laskow's User Profile - Atlas Obscura
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flowers

Found: A Lost Painting Collection of Florida Wildflowers

An amateur artist captured now-rare flowers in great detail.
November 5, 2018
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fraud

Voting Booths Were a Radical 19th-Century Reform to Stop Election Fraud

An idea imported from Australia, they helped enable the "secret" part of secret ballots.
November 5, 2018
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ice

Exploring the Tragic Beauty of Greenland's Melting Ice Sheets

From above, the textured landscape can be almost abstract.
November 5, 2018
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birds

How Did the World's Smallest Flightless Bird Get to Inaccessible Island?

The first scientists to describe the animal thought it might have walked.
November 2, 2018
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physics

For Sale: An Invitation to Stephen Hawking’s Cocktail Party for Time Travelers

Please retain for the next thousand years or so.
November 2, 2018
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propaganda

The Soviet Children's Books That Broke the Rules of Propaganda

How folk tales and traditional life snuck into avant-garde kids' books in the 1930s.
November 1, 2018
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grave week

4 Grave Secrets From New York's Past

In the spirit of Halloween, consider a tour of graveyards, memorials, and other places in touch with the afterlife.
October 30, 2018
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loneliest graves

An Underwater Grave Site Was Untouched for 7,000 Years

Once far above sea level, this gravesite is now deep under the ocean.
October 29, 2018
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pregnancy

A Fetus Can Turn to Stone in Its Mother's Body and Go Undiscovered for Decades

"Stone babies"—or lithopedions—are incredibly rare.
October 29, 2018
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loneliest graves

A Mormon Pioneer's Grave, Marked Only With a Wagon Wheel Rim

Rebecca Winters's grave is one of the few that were marked at all.
October 24, 2018
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loneliest graves

The Most Isolated War Grave of the British Commonwealth Is in the Namibian Desert

In 1915, South African forces fought Germans for control of territory in southern Africa.
October 23, 2018
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grave week

Here Lies E. Coli

There's a bunch of gross stuff, besides human bodies, hiding under graveyards.
October 22, 2018
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writing

How Writers Map Their Imaginary Worlds

A new book collects fantastic literary geographies.
October 22, 2018
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music

L.A.'s Most Derided Piece of Public Art Is About to Light Up Again

Reviving the Triforium.
October 18, 2018
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anarchy

What It Takes to Build an Anarchist Desert Town

Slab City might be the "last free place," but that freedom requires work.
October 17, 2018
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vikings

Found: A Rare Viking Boat Buried in a Flat Field

The whole place was once a monumental graveyard.
October 16, 2018
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american revolution

Maps Have the Power to Shape History

A groundbreaking female cartographer charted the evolution of the United States—and the dispossession of Native Americans.
October 15, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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whales

Margarine Once Contained a Whole Lot More Whale

And helped launch a corporation now worth more than $40 billion.
October 11, 2018
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recursive places

What Do You Call a Moon's Moon?

The inexplicable delight of moon-moons, sub-islands, and other recursive places.
October 10, 2018
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map monday

In Spanish America, Cartographers Hand-Drew Maps Inspired by Printed Ones

These hybrid productions are unique in mapmaking.
October 9, 2018
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physics

Watch Astronauts From the 1970s Geek Out With Gyroscopes

Why are these devices so important to spacecraft?
October 9, 2018
Gastro Obscura
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poison

All the Very Bad Ways That Castor Seeds Have Been Used

Not only does it taste gross, but castor oil was used as an instrument of political control for years.
October 4, 2018
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greenhouses

The Century-Long Scientific Journey of the Affordable Grocery Store Orchid

Orchids were once considered the world’s most difficult and exotic flowers. So why can you buy one for $12.99 at Trader Joe’s?
October 2, 2018
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physics

The Last Woman to Win a Nobel Prize in Physics Did the Work Without Being Paid

Maria Goeppert Mayer was relegated to unpaid and "volunteer" positions for most of her academic career.
October 2, 2018