January 06, 2021

Underwater Archaeological Finds When the marine biologist Michael ßwat descended to the seabed of the Bay of Gelting on the western edge of the Baltic Sea, he noticed a contraption tangled up in the fishing line the crew had headed down to collect. The device, which at first seemed like an old typewriter sitting under at least 30 feet of water, was a Nazi Enigma machine, likely one of hundreds abandoned and thrown overboard in the dying days of the German war effort.  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Japan’s Original Aged Sushi Modern-day sushi is often synonymous with raw fish. But the type of sushi that we know and love today is actually a relatively recent invention, only emerging in the early half of the 20th century. Sushi itself, however, has been around for centuries. The word sushi is derived from the Japanese word for sour, and its earliest form—narezushi—is pickled for months or even years, with its texture and taste being completely different from the modern sushi roll. READ MORE → CAVE CITY, KENTUCKY Funtown Mountain Near Mammoth Cave is what’s left of the deserted amusement park known as Funtown Mountain, which went through a strange and tumultuous past before it was abandoned. Funtown was the brainchild of Will Russell, who had a vision for restoring and reopening the property. To achieve this goal and raise the necessary funds, he took to the road with a promotional traveling circus. What could go wrong? Plenty, it turns out. READ MORE → FROM THE ARCHIVES The Tones of Dwarves and Elves Put on any fantasy-based media property, and pay attention to how dwarves and elves speak. Why do some fantasy dwarves speak with a Scottish or generally Northern European brogue, with elves possessing a lofty English tone? While slight variations on these themes exist, fantasy races seem to have as much of a stereotypical sound as any real-world dialect. And they tell us more about the characters than you probably realize. READ MORE → YACHATS, OREGON Thor's Well Sitting on the edge of the Oregon coast near Cape Perpetua, a gaping, seemingly bottomless sinkhole swallows the unbroken stream of seawater around it. Thor’s Well, as the natural wonder is known, is not actually bottomless; it is, however, very dangerous. READ MORE → FROM THE ARCHIVES Fishy Bunkers Hidden in a bend of the Mississippi River just south of New Orleans, 29 concrete bunkers lie on a grid of dirt and grass roads. Some hold remnants from the past—40-year-old gas masks and biohazard signs still hang on a wall. Most of them have been abandoned for decades. But inside two of those bunkers, 15 million fish eyes stare at the walls through the glass of their jars. This is the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection, the largest collection of preserved fish in the world, and almost no one knows it exists. READ MORE → Olympic Ruins Sometime in the future, thousands of athletes from more than 200 countries will gather in Tokyo for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad. But once the bright lights of the stadiums fade, there comes a time when people begin asking what to do with the buildings erected by host cities. Though some Olympic buildings find second lives when the games wind down, many are either knocked down or left, rather unceremoniously, to decay. Here’s where to find relics from Olympics past. READ MORE →