Insightful Map Reveals Literal Translations of U.S. City and State Names Do you know why the place you live is named what it’s named? Some have straightforward origins, while others leave even those who have been there for decades scratching their heads. In an effort to unravel the meaning behind state and city names
Jaw-Dropping Photo of Bobcat Leaping up To Snatch a Blue Heron Out of the Sky A day out exploring nature in coastal Texas with his grandfather turned into a once-in-a-lifetime moment for Jacob Hall. The wildlife photographer was visiting Canada Ranch, which is located close to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, when he spotted a
Here’s Why Medieval Medicine Was Not as Bad as We Think A 13th-century diagram of veins. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain) Think of medieval doctors and you probably picture a man dressed in robes, perhaps with a plague mask. In the popular imagination, medicine of the Middle Ages is all leeches, bloodletting, and mystical
Nearly 88,000 Art Images From The Getty Are Now Free To Download and Use How You Like “Irises” by Vincent Van Gogh. 1889. (Photo: The Getty, Public domain) As home to one of the nation's most thorough art collections, The Getty has found an innovative way for it to reach more audiences. By launching
“in Readiness.” All photos by Paul Salveson, courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, shared with permission Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Bukom neighborhood of Accra, Ghana’s capital, produced several champion boxers—including Roy Ankrah, Azumah Nelson, and Ike Quartey—and their records drew international fame, money, and prestige that helped to secure
Vegans will want to skip this video. After feasting on a shellfish dinner, Minimaus Crafts took the leftover shells, cut them up, and reassembled them into the crab’s ultimate form – a horrifyingly awesome armored character known as Crabman. We felt so wrong watching this, but also couldn’t look away. The Awesomer Leer más
Look Inside One of Japan’s “Slimmest” Apartments That is Barely Wider Than the Front Door Photo: worldwidestock/123RF With surging rents in the biggest metro areas in the world, many people have started looking for alternatives. For some, that means flocking to smaller, more affordable cities. For others, it's all about shrinking down. Japan,
A few years ago here on Open Culture, we featured a re-creation of The Great Wave off Kanazawa made entirely out of LEGO by a serious enthusiast named Jumpei Mitsui. Though the work’s depth does come across to some extent in still photos, it bears repeating that Mitsui assembled not just a two-dimensional image,
Ian Bremmer, a political scientist and president of Eurasia Group, has an intelligent, fair, and humane way of explaining crises around the world. That includes the current crisis in the Middle East. Above, he spends an hour discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its geo-political and historical context. Speaking with BigThink’s editor-in-chief, Robert Chapman-Smith, Bremmer
At this point, there’s no need to point out the dangers posed by smoking. Those who do it these days do it in full knowledge of the health risks involved, for reasons of their own. Sometimes those reasons are artistic ones: “I had this idea that you drink coffee, you smoke cigarettes, and you
