The Stilt Walking Shepherds of Landes

A 1938 postcard showing shepherds from the marshy region of Landes, France, getting around on stilts.

The Landes region of southwestern France, bordering the Bay of Biscay, is covered by a large pine forest.

The Phenomenon of “Crown Shyness” Where Trees Avoid Touching

Crown shyness is a naturally occurring phenomenon in some tree species where the upper most branches in a forest canopy avoid touching one another.

The Japanese Soldiers Who Wouldn’t Surrender

Emperor Hirohito’s announcement of Japan’s surrender at the end of the Second Word War came as a blessed relief to millions of Japanese who had suffered during the long hostilities, but not everybody was prepared to lay down their arms.

Thilafushi: Maldives’s Garbage Island

What does an island with not a speck of land to spare do to get rid of hundreds of tons of garbage generated each day by its one million yearly tourists and nearly four hundred thousand permanent residents?

Bridegroom’s Oak: The Tree With Its Own Postal Address

Bräutigamseiche,
Dodauer Forst,
23701 Eutin, Germany

Isa lake: The Two-Ocean Lake

The Isa Lake Viewpoint, located about 8 miles east of the Old Faithful Area along the Grand Loop Road in Yellowstone National Park

Elgin Marbles: A Piece of The Parthenon in London

Should a museum keep artistic treasures it acquired under dubious circumstances a long time ago, or should it return them to their country of origin?

Point Nemo: The Spacecraft Cemetery

Far off the east coast of New Zealand, about 3,300 kilometers out in the Pacific Ocean, lies one of the geekiest junkyard in the world. It’s located in the middle of nowhere

Alert: The Most Northern Settlement in The World

Located just over eight hundred kilometers away from the North Pole, the community of Alert, on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island, in Nunavut, Canada, is the most northerly permanent settlement in the world.

The Checkerboard Forest

If you pull up Google Maps and look at the forested areas of Western United States, you’ll notice strange checkerboard patterns, like the one below.A digitally enhanced screengrab from Google Maps. Coordinates: 48.4170389,-116.8918616