Morning Coffee

will return on Monday.

Self-promotion watch #2: if you live in the bay area DWIF DWEST begins tonight. Important news: Manchester’s sewers are neat looking. Great news long-eared bat fans! So many baby galaxies. I had no idea that moonquakes were a thing. No…

Also there’s a World Worm Charming Championship I guess. It’s time to redesign the most isolated town in the world. Some 1920s Japanese children’s textbook covers for you. Fire ants are literally the worst. Everyone loves pictures of Scott’s doomed…

Nothing stays the same: let’s watch the constellations change over millennia! Randomized Dystopia. Oh hey there possible lost nazi compound. Here’s that 19th Century New York stench map you were asking about. Behold the highest building in France.

Self-promotion watch: if you live in the Bay Area (or you’ll be here in April) you should probably come to this. There is probably an 1836 steam train buried under Brooklyn (there certainly is in my heart). Color isn’t ALWAYS…

So many midcentury UFO books. Life! You know? Some bacteria live off of magnet electrons. The gruesome tale of the Tyburn Tree. On Munich’s landlocked surfing culture. And now some medieval cosmology for your weekend.

Today in jeez we’re just the worst: we killed so many whales in the 20th Century. But at least we have a whole lot of museums. The Moon has given us so much, don’t you think it’s time we give…

Everything you think you know is a lie; on the urban legend of Hemingway’s six word story. Annie Edson Taylor is your historical badass for the day. The lost map that changed everything. (Hyperbole much?) When life gives you a…

Good morning, let’s talk about viking navigation. All the vintage bartending books you could possibly want. Maybe the solar system used to be jam packed with mega-earths? Maybe a lot of things. Art Nouveau insects. Seems to me that we…

You missed your once every two decades chance to see the island of Mont Saint-Michel. What the hell is a drumlin? Just stumbled on this in the archives: old pamphlets and tracts from 50 Watts. So, how did Michelin become…

Don’t worry, we can all go live in lava tubes on the moon. The secret lives of the tiny people in architectural renderings. Perhaps you have wondered: why are so many weirdo deep sea creatures red? Take your pick: start…

Put down your screen right now (after you finish reading this). Here’s that slaughterhouse meat locker installation art you were asking about. Here are those beeswax maps of the world you were asking about. Atlas Obscura on the very first…