Best World Articles & Videos on the internet • Discoverology

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Read the best world and travel articles from around the internet, or watch the most insightful world videos from platforms like Youtube, Vimeo or leading world publishers like BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, Atlas Obscura, Washington Post and many more.

Things Are Changing At The World's Oldest Hotel

Things Are Changing At The World's Oldest Hotel

Videos World

Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan is not just the world’s oldest hotel, but the world’s oldest still-operating business. Or at least, that’s one way of looking at it. But things are changing here, just like they always have.

New York vs. Tokyo’s Subway: How Japan Got So Far Ahead

New York vs. Tokyo’s Subway: How Japan Got So Far Ahead

Explainers Videos World

Japan’s train system is ranked the most efficient in the world, according to Statista. The United States is tied with Azerbaijan for 11th best. Part of this is because Japan’s railway system has more points of connection allowing for easier commutes. Why does the MTA operate at a loss while Tokyo Metro is profitable?

Rewilding The Planet

Rewilding The Planet

Long Reads Nature World

This is some of the newest land on the planet: Marker Wadden. Taking sand and mud from the lake floor, ecological engineers created seven islands enveloped by dunes and beaches. Now, a rich variety of plants, fish and insects have settled into that protected environment, along with vast numbers of breeding birds.

How Drought-Struck Spain Is Becoming a "Desert"

How Drought-Struck Spain Is Becoming a "Desert"

Nature Videos World

Spain is running out of water. It suffered a long ‘mega drought’, lack of rainfall and record temperatures. Now their water reservoirs are depleting. Over-exploitation and climate change are causing it to turn into a desert. 75% of their land is under the process of desertification. Can Spain come out of this?

When Digital Nomads Come To Town

When Digital Nomads Come To Town

Cities World

Cities from Canggu to Medellín are welcoming tech workers, but locals complain they’re being priced out. Nomads cluster in safe and prosperous neighborhoods. The income differential between the nomads and the local professional class is immense. The result is runaway price inflation.

The One Route Ghost Airline Between Egypt & Israel

The One Route Ghost Airline Between Egypt & Israel

Videos World

Air Sinai appeared on the Internet in February 2020 and for the scarce few who were in the know about Air Sinai, it was a real shock. What’s so special about this ghost airline and how come up until now it was impossible to book a flight without being transferred endlessly between travel agents?

Virginia Mori

Inspiration
Virginia Mori
Is This A Chinese City In Malaysia?

Is This A Chinese City In Malaysia?

Architecture Cities Videos World

Forest City is being built in the Malaysian state of Johor in the southern part of the country. Here, the Johore Strait acts as a natural border between Malaysia and the independent city-state Singapore. It is one of the most ambitious urban development projects currently underway. An entire new city built from scratch.

The First State-Approved North Korean Novel In English

The First State-Approved North Korean Novel In English

Media World

“Friend” by Paek Namnyong was first published in 1988 in North Korea where it became a bestseller and a television series. Thirty years later, Friend has become the first state-sanctioned North Korean novel to be published in English. It is, most surprisingly, a novel about love, marriage, and divorce.

Behind The Chinese Internet Wall

Behind The Chinese Internet Wall

Tech World

What is happening on the other side of the barrier? There we find people who respond to state controls with creativity and spunk. While some spend their days trawling cat videos, others create oases of subversion within the reality that they’ve been dealt.

How ‘Taco Friday’ Became A Swedish Tradition

How ‘Taco Friday’ Became A Swedish Tradition

Food World

Fredagsmys, or Cozy Friday, is a beloved Swedish tradition. Across the Scandinavian country, families stay home on Friday night, watch TV, and eat Tex-Mex-style tacos. This dinner choice is so common that, for most Swedes, Cozy Friday is also Taco Fredag, or Taco Friday.

Days of Night/Nights of Day

Days of Night/Nights of Day

Photos World

Daily life, work and play, in the northernmost city in the world, Norilsk, Russia (also the 7th most polluted city in the world) — a fascinating, detailed photo report with 45 exquisite images by Elena Chernyshova.

What Happened When A Tiny Nation Got Filthy Rich Overnight

What Happened When A Tiny Nation Got Filthy Rich Overnight

Videos World

Nauru, an island in the South Pacific, is known for its high rate of poverty and unemployment. Only a few decades ago, the island was listed among world’s richest countries while it was a major phosphate exporter but as the resources exhausted, the national systems started to fail.

Medieval Spanish Ghost Town Becomes Self-Sufficient Ecovillage

Medieval Spanish Ghost Town Becomes Self-Sufficient Ecovillage

Nature Videos World

It’s a utopian fantasy, discover a ghost town and rebuild it in line with your ideals, but in Spain where there are nearly 3000 abandoned villages, some big dreamers have spent the past 3 decades doing just that. One of the first towns to be rediscovered was a tiny hamlet in the mountains of northern Navarra.

Thirty-Six Thousand Feet Under The Sea

Thirty-Six Thousand Feet Under The Sea

Long Reads World

For more than a year, the team trying to reach the deepest point in every ocean faced challenges as timeless as bad weather and as novel as the equipment they invented. This is the story of the explorers who set one of the last meaningful records on earth.

Matt Rota

Inspiration
Matt Rota
The Brazilian Town Where The American Confederacy Lives On

The Brazilian Town Where The American Confederacy Lives On

Long Reads World

Confederates who had rejected Reconstruction fled the United States in the wake of the Civil War—a voluntary exile that American history has more or less erased. The Confederados in Americana, Brazil, are one of the last remaining enclaves of the children of the unreconstructed South.

The Man Feeding A Remote Alaska Town With A Costco Card And A Ship

The Man Feeding A Remote Alaska Town With A Costco Card And A Ship

Life World

Gustavus is remote in a way that only Alaskans can truly grasp. When the town’s usual transport methods were disrupted, its 446 residents found themselves in the midst of a pandemic with diminished access to affordable food. And one man — the town grocer — decided to take matters into his own hands.

The Imaginary American Town That Became A Tourist Attraction

The Imaginary American Town That Became A Tourist Attraction

World

Map-makers insert fake towns or trap-streets to catch out plagiarists. The most notable cartographic curiosity is Agloe, immortalized in John Green’s 2008 novel, Paper Towns. When its protagonist Margo disappears, she leaves oblique clues as to her whereabouts. The trail leads to somewhere and nowhere – Agloe.

Living Off The Grid In Paradise

Living Off The Grid In Paradise

Videos World

Warrick Mitchell lives deep in one of the world’s most remote locations: Fiordland, New Zealand. His home in the country’s oldest national park is nestled in a vast wildness accessible only by boat or airplane, a four day’s walk from the nearest road.

"I Live Alone In An Island Paradise"

"I Live Alone In An Island Paradise"

Videos World

In 1989, Mauro Morandi’s boat docked on Budelli Island off the northern coast of Sardinia, Italy. Discovering that the island’s caretaker was retiring within the next two days, Mauro decided to extend his stay indefinitely and step into the role himself.

26 Hours On A Saharan Freight Train

26 Hours On A Saharan Freight Train

Photos World

Mauritania’s Train du Desert is one of the longest and heaviest trains in the world. Completed in 1963, the train operates daily between Nouadhibou on the Atlantic coast and the iron ore mines in Zouerat, in the middle of the country—a journey of around 450 miles that takes about 13 hours each way.

The Man Who Walked Backward

The Man Who Walked Backward

History Long Reads World

When the Great Depression put Plennie Wingo’s bustling Abilene, Texas, cafe out of business, he tried to find fame, fortune, and a sense of meaning the only way he knew how: by embarking on an audacious trip around the world on foot. In reverse.

Joseph Ford

Inspiration
Joseph Ford
A Trip To The Cirque Of The Unclimbables

A Trip To The Cirque Of The Unclimbables

Long Reads World

It’s among the most beautiful eyefuls of landscape I’ve ever seen — its rock walls more overpowering than Zion’s, in Utah, its evening light more perfect than Hawaii’s, its peaks more menacing than Denali, and its stillness more complete than the deep rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula.

The True Story Of The White Island Eruption

The True Story Of The White Island Eruption

Long Reads World

In December 2019, around 100 tourists set out for New Zealand’s Whakaari/White Island, where an active volcano has attracted hundreds of thousands of vacationers since the early 1990s. Then the volcano exploded. What happened next reveals troubling questions about the risks we’re willing to take when lives hang in the balance.

What It’s Like To Grow Up In An Israeli Settlement

What It’s Like To Grow Up In An Israeli Settlement

Videos World

A self-described liberal from cosmopolitan Tel Aviv, Iris Zaki wanted to get behind the politics of Israel’s controversial settlements in the occupied territories — so she moved there, temporarily, setting up an improvised cafe where she could chat with settlers from her own generation.

Murder And Manifest Destiny On The Mosquito Coast

Murder And Manifest Destiny On The Mosquito Coast

Long Reads World

In 1999, a mysterious Greek entrepreneur bought and resold a series of tiny islands off the coast of Nicaragua, setting off a bizarre and tragic chain of events that included a reality-TV sensation and allegations of an insidious murder plot. The ensuing chaos brought to light a centuries-old question: Who does land really belong to?

The Soccer Club As Sovereign State

The Soccer Club As Sovereign State

Crime World

Benfica often boasts that it can count more than half of Portugal’s population as supporters, and judges, prosecutors, top police officials and even the prime minister are regular guests in the directors’ box. But what happens when those fans are allowed to preside over cases that affect the club’s interests?

The Story Of World's First Floating Hotel Abandoned In North Korea

The Story Of World's First Floating Hotel Abandoned In North Korea

Videos World

In October 2019 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the demolition of the world’s first floating hotel. Docked in North Korea, the hotel is currently owned by a South Korean company that bought it from a Japanese one. It was a major hit in Vietnam but it was originally made for Australia, designed in Sweden and built in Singapore.

Building Egypt's $58BN New City In The Sand

Building Egypt's $58BN New City In The Sand

Architecture Crime Videos World

Following a period of political instability that affected the progression of infrastructure projects, the country’s government took the decision to construct an entirely new capital in 2015. Located 45 kilometers east of the original Cairo, the as-yet-unnamed city has been under construction ever since.

Inside Belarus, Europe's Last Dictatorship

Inside Belarus, Europe's Last Dictatorship

Politics Videos World

In October 2016, Alexander Lukashenko swept to his fifth term as the Belarusian president, marking 22 years in power. The autocratic regime still employs the use of internet surveillance, censorship, and intimidation to exert control over its people and press.

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