Why Is Vermeer’s “Girl With The Pearl Earring” Considered A Masterpiece?
Is she turning towards you or away from you? No one can agree. She’s the subject of Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring,” a painting often referred to as the ‘Mona Lisa of the North.’ But what makes this painting so captivating?
Aogashima, Tokyo’s Secret Island Paradise
Aogashima Island is famous for having a volcano inside a volcano surrounded by dense jungle. It’s also considered the smallest town in Japan and the hardest place in Japan to get to. There is no direct transportation to Aogashima.
The Last Ship To St. Helena, A Remote Island In The Atlantic
Every third week, a British Royal Mail ship begins its journey from Cape Town to Saint Helena, the remote island in the Atlantic where Napoleon was once in exile. Five days, with a northwesterly course, and only then do the sheer black cliffs appear in front of RMS St. Helena.
The Controversy Behind Nike’s Vaporfly Running Shoe, Explained
Nike’s Vaporfly shoes have become a popular choice for both elite and amateur runners. But the shoes may soon be banned in professional competitions if World Athletics, the world governing body of track and field, decides they offer an unfair advantage.
A Rare Look At The Photography Of Andy Warhol
While photography was central to Warhol’s artistic practice for 30 years, often as source material for his famous screen prints, his purely photographic works — in particular, his stitched gelatin prints of a single image printed multiple times and sewn together — only saw the light of day once while he was alive.
How We’ll Forget John Lennon
The report, “The universal decay of collective memory and attention,” concludes that people and things are kept alive through “oral communication” from about five to 30 years. They then pass into written and online records, where they experience a slower, longer decline.
The Million-Dollar Hacker
Tommy DeVoss used to break into websites illicitly. But after serving time for his crimes, he now uses his skills to earn an honest living. Through arrangements known as bug bounty programs, companies pay him to find security holes in their systems. He’s now earned more than $1 million in this emerging profession.
Why China’s First Military Base Abroad Is In Africa
For many countries, the Republic of Djibouti has become the central anchor point in the region. It hosts military bases from France, the United States, Japan, Italy and, since 2017, China. The fact that so many countries want to be present here has to do with the location, which is important for a lot of reasons.
The Lie That Helped Build Nintendo
In 1981, a young Swede called Owe Bergsten strolled through Singapore to pass the time before his flight home. Passing a camera shop, he spotted a two-button LCD game called ‘Fire RC-04’ in the window. The story of a man, a lie, a video game handheld, and a business empire.
The Time When Zambia Tried To Go To Mars
Edward Makuka Nkoloso of Zambia had dreams to land Zambians on moon and mars beating the US and USSR in the Space race. He did everything he could with his limited resources to make his dream a reality but could he fulfill his dreams?
Baker Uses Focaccia Bread As Her Canvas For Vibrant Van Gogh-Inspired Art
Teri Culletto, aka the Vineyard Baker, creates art with focaccia bread as her canvas. Using fresh herbs and vegetables, she has crafted a series of Vincent van Gogh-inspired loaves she calls Van Dough that features floral imagery as both a way to add surface decoration and flavors to her baking.
Flat 13: Facing Down Apartheid
This is the story of the apartment in downtown Johannesburg that, between the late 1940s and early 1960s, became a hub of resistance against apartheid.
How Campbell’s Soup Changed Tomatoes’ DNA For The Worse
The perfect tomato to eat is red, plump, juicy, and bursting with flavor. When mass-produced, tomatoes also have to be easy to remove from the vine. That is why the Campbell Soup Company cultivated a variety with a genetic mutation more than a half-century ago.
What Facial Recognition Steals From Us
In just the past five years, the meaning of the human face has quietly but seismically shifted. That’s because researchers at Facebook, Google, and other institutions have nearly perfected techniques for automated facial recognition.
Salvador Dalí’s Tarot Cards Will Tell Your Surreal Future
The deck was originally created for the 1970s James Bond film Live and Let Die, starring Roger Moore and Jane Seymour, but it never appeared in the picture. Now, Dalí cards are available to all in Taschen Books‘s reproduced edition of the deck.
New Light Sculpture Highlights Our Obsession With Staring At Screens
Design Bridge has launched a topical new light sculpture in the heart of Amsterdam to highlight our obsession with technology and staring at screens. ‘Absorbed by Light’ was created in collaboration with British artist Gali May Lucas.
When The Sahara Was Green
The climate of the Sahara was completely different thousands of years ago. And we’re not talking about just a few years of extra rain. We’re talking about a climate that was so wet for so long that animals and humans alike made themselves at home in the middle of the Sahara.
How To Explain Anything To Anyone
You were talking about something relatively complex and you could practically see the moment that your listener checked out. Not only is it uncomfortable but it’s also disheartening when what you’re saying is important, cool or valuable to the listener. Here are 4 steps to clearer communication.
Why Socialism Failed in Africa
Considering capitalism to be equal to colonialism, Africa’s founding fathers rejected it and adopted marxist-socialism in the 1960s. Foreign companies were nationalised, state-owned enterprises were created and all sorts of controls on rents, prices, imports and foreign exchange.
How To Teach Your Kids They Don’t Have To Be Perfect at Everything
My 6-year-old daughter was making a birthday card for a friend. She was sitting at a small table, and on the floor next to her were about ten crumpled sheets of paper. She kept writing the letter “H” for “Happy Birthday,” then deciding she didn’t like how it looked.
The Lost Neighborhood Under New York’s Central Park
A story that goes back to the 1820s, when that part of New York was largely open countryside. Among them was a predominantly black community. It became known as Seneca Village. And when Irish and German immigrants moved in, it became a rare example at the time of an integrated neighborhood.