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Fleeting Wonders: Cop and Teen Face Off in a Dance-Off
A screenshot of the dance-off. (Video: Washington Post/Antwain Bynum)In the criminal justice system the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the police who resolve...
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Mapping Hollywood's Most Infamous Horror Houses
The exterior of the Hollywood Tower Apartments, the inspiration for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride. (Photo: Loren Javier/flickr)In Hollywood horror, things rarely are what they appear to be....
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Godafoss in Iceland
The story of the Goðafoss (Waterfall of the Gods) is that of Iceland’s remarkably democratic conversion to Christianity in the year 1000.The question before the Althing parliamentary assembly in that...
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Colgate Clock in Clarksville, Indiana
"The Colgate Clock," for many, refers to the illuminated octagonal clock in Jersey City, which sits on top of an oversized tube of toothpaste facing Manhattan. That clock by the Hudson River, though,...
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Part Spectacle, Part Controversy: the First International Indigenous Games
A participant at Brazil's Indigenous Games. (Photo: Valter Campanato/ABr/WikiCommons CC BY 3.0)Folks in vibrant headdresses and ornate body paint stand in a large sandy arena, looking up at blue...
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Blakesley Hall in Yardley, Birmingham, West Midlands
Blakesley Hall is one of the oldest buildings in Birmingham in the West Midlands, UK. It is a proto-typical “Tudor” building: it’s Shakespeare, it’s Queen Elizabeth I, it’s neck ruffs and lances and...
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After-Dark Enchantment at Atlas Obscura’s Green-Wood Cemetery Spectacular
An attendee welcomes you into the veil. (Photo: Steven Acres)On the evening of October 24, hundreds of bold and curious adventurers roamed the winding pathways of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn for...
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LeMoyne Crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania
Francis Julius LeMoyne was a doctor who wanted to make disposal of the dead more sanitary.He was already in his 70s when Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne opened the first crematory in the United States. In...
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Why Meat from Scared Animals Tastes Worse
Don't worry, little guy, you're going to be fine! You're a model! (Photo: Public domain/Pixabay)If you're ever locked in a cage in a gingerbread house, screaming in terror as you're menaced by a wicked...
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Photos of Suburban Halloween Decorations from the 1980s
© Cameron Jamie/ Courtesy Edition Patrick FreyIn 1984, Cameron Jamie began to document the elaborate Halloween decorations in his old neighborhood in Los Angeles. Every year since, he has returned to...
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The Fin-de-Siècle Paris Theater Whose Performances Were Literally Torturous
At The Grand Guignol seeing someone getting brutally stabbed was a quiet night. (Image: Bibliothèque nationale de France/Wikipedia)A knife in the eye. A splash of acid in the face. Murder. Comedy. Ah,...
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The Ancient Greeks Sacrificed Ugly People
An 1864 painting of the Acropolis in Athens, where the pharmakos ritual became an annual event. (Photo: Public domain/WikiCommons)Is the tradition of Halloween tainted by the blood of primeval human...
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The Decapitated Saints Who Still Managed to Hold Their Heads Up
Saint Justus (Photo: Rubens/Wikimedia)This is part three of a three-part series on decapitation. Previously: zombie dogs' contributions to neurosurgery and headless cockroaches that just won't dieSaint...
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Pysanka Museum in Kolomyia, Ukraine
Ukrainian easter eggs, known as "pysanka," are elaborately decorated folk art items that put American easter eggs to shame. You might even say they belong in a museum, which makes it convenient that...
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FOUND: A Patch of Arctic Garbage
The Arctic Ocean (Photo: U.S. Geological Survey)There's basically no place on Earth that humans have not spread plastic. In a new study published in Polar Biology, researchers report on the presence of...
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Fleeting Wonders: An All-Woman Cosmonaut Crew on a Simulated Moon Mission
Get ready for all-woman crew of Russian cosmonauts, moon! (Photo: Gabriel Lascu/Flickr) At this very moment, six Russian women are locked in a mock spaceship on a mission to the moon, being closely...
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The Bubble Room in Captiva, Florida
Ever notice how the decor in pretty much every American family-style restaurant chain tends towards "vintage" in its decor? Whether it's an adolescent server at TGI Fridays forced to wear retro...
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Middle Schooler Halloween Strategies for Maximizing Candy and Coolness
Cool costumes, babies. (Photo: Juhan Sonin/Flickr)Though Halloween comes every year, coolness is forever in flux. This raises the question: how do you succeed at Halloween while also maintaining your...
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Spooky Scary Skeletons, From The Bible To Tumblr
This undead CGI skeleton warrior, made with a program called DAZ studio, is not very scary. (Image: Carioca/WikiCommons)Maybe it's happened to you: you're minding your own business, clicking around the...
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Dystopia, Death, and the Growing Popularity of Dark Tourism
Auschwitz. (Photo: Ambroise Tezenas)This article originally appeared on Motherboard.In 2012, as New Orleans was still recovering from the tumult of Hurricane Katrina, residents and politicians did...
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