nostos-music.blogspot

April 16, 2021

California’s deadly, damaging wildfires worsen by the year. The state’s naturally dry landscapes, parched by a changing climate, have turned into tinderboxes, where a stray lightning strike could incinerate forests, fields, and neighborhoods. To avoid fiery disaster, local governments often clear away dried brush from the hillsides and fields surrounding homes and streets. But one professor has a rather bananas idea: Barath Raghavan thinks growing groves of banana trees around towns and cities could help halt these now-yearly tragedies.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

The Last Library Apartments

There used to be apartments on the top floors of New York City’s branch libraries. When these libraries were built, about a century ago, they needed people to take care of them. These buildings were heated by coal, so each had a custodian, who was tasked with keeping those fires burning and who lived in the library, often with his family. But many of these apartments have vanished; today there are just 13 library apartments left in the New York Public Library system.

MONTPELIER, VERMONT

Challenger Memorial Park

Going along Memorial Drive into Montpelier, the capital of Vermont, it may be easy to overlook a small black-and-grey stone sitting next to an intersection. But a closer look yields something unexpected: an image of the doomed space shuttle Challenger, located in a state with few connections to NASA or the space industry.

ATLAS OBSCURA EXPERIENCES

How to Design a Mini Golf Hole

It's putting time! During next week’s episode of The Secret Arts, we're going to speak with mini golf experts Tom Loftus (aka Mr. Tee) and Robin Schwartzman (aka The Pink Putter), the minds behind A Couple of Putts! We’ll talk to Tom and Robin about what makes a terrific themed hole, the art of the obstacle, and how you might incorporate mini golf design into your own creations!

GET TICKETS →

River Mysteries

Like partners doing a tango, two rivers in Nunavut, Canada, become a single unit without losing their individual appearance as they move sinuously across the tundra. The darker Back River flows north toward the Arctic Ocean. Along the way, its tributary, the Hayes River, a light, milky blue, joins it but remains visually distinct for about 10 miles beyond the confluence. Only when the merged rivers enter their final destination of Chantrey Inlet do the waters begin to blend. What’s the reasoning behind this natural phenomenon?

SOCHI, RUSSIA

Dacha Stalina

Altogether, Joseph Stalin maintained 20 different summer cottages or dachas, mostly around the Black Sea coast. He had health issues that included poor joints and lungs, so the weather of this warmer region was often comforting. He rarely used this large building complex in Sochi, but it was always staffed and running just in case Stalin made a surprise visit.

THE ATLAS OBSCURA PODCAST

President Heads

In a field in Virginia, giant busts of U.S. presidents are slowly crumbling away. But who built them, and why? Join us as host Dylan Thuras takes us on a journey with the statues’ creator, exploring the reason behind their construction and how they ended up here.