August 22, 2022

HISTORY, TECH, AND YOU  Medieval Symbols to Smartphone Emojis  Our love of puzzles is not a particularly new one. Even in the medieval days, people were finding creative ways to express themselves, especially through a puzzle known as a rebus, where a word, or part of a word, is represented by a picture. The roots of personal rebuses denoting names go back to the medieval battlefield, with the Tudor Period in England being something of a heyday for them. And even though we aren’t all carrying heralds with rebuses on them, the rebus still carries on—albeit smaller, and in our smartphones.  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Deaf-Owned Restaurants Over the last decade, Deaf-owned restaurants have sprung up around the world, serving everything from pizza and crêpes to vegan fast-food and Moroccan couscous. While most of these restaurants are independent endeavors, all are examples of a growing desire within the community to own and patronize Deaf-owned businesses. READ MORE → ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING Point of Rocks Stagecoach Station Over the years, the sandstone-brick building has been used as a freight station, store, school, ranch building, and as a home. Today it is preserved as a historic site, one of the few remaining stagecoach stations from the Overland Trail. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA COURSES Make Botanicals Out of Paper Learn to give shape to gilled mushrooms, sprawling moss, and clusters of lichen using crepe paper and wire. Join master paper florist Kate Alarcón for a step-by-step overview of building a small woodland scene, learning techniques used for paper botanicals as we go. ENROLL TODAY → MUSEUM SECRETS Deep-Sea Fish Displays It’s actually very difficult to keep deep-sea fish looking great. They often don’t surface in great shape; their gelatinous bodies and thin bones are easily mangled in nets, and they are often accustomed to very specific living conditions. So when the staff at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County decided to display this specimen for a few months in the museum gallery, they knew they’d need some creative interventions to keep it looking its best. READ MORE → WAYNE, ALBERTA The 11 Bridges of Wayne In order to get to the ghost town of Wayne, you need to cross 11 bridges. All of those bridges are located in a short stretch between Wayne and the main highway—about six kilometers (3.7 miles). They span the Rosebud River, which winds back and forth through the landscape. Each is marked with a painted number that identifies which of the 11 bridges it is. READ MORE → FREE MEMBERS-ONLY EVENT The Secret Arts: Listening to the Cosmos For this episode of The Secret Arts, our guest is Dr. Wanda Díaz-Merced, an astronomer and the leading proponent of the sonification of astrophysical data. Join us to learn how she listens to the information gathered from the sky to make new discoveries about our universe, what drew her to astronomy in the first place, and the exciting projects she's working on now! If you aren't a member yet, you can sign up during the RSVP process for this event. SIGN UP TODAY → LOCAL LEGENDS ‘Root Beer Lady’ Dorothy Molter lived on the Isle of Pines in Knife Lake, 15 miles by canoe from the nearest road and 30 miles from the town of Ely. In summer, she operated a fishing camp; in winter, she lived in icy Northwoods solitude. But while Molter became legendary for her rugged and independent life, it was the root beer she brewed with lake water and served to thirsty paddlers that cemented her fame as “the root beer lady.” READ MORE → CHINO HILLS, CALIFORNIA Egyptian Building If you explore the unassuming city of Chino Hills, you might run across the “Egyptian Building,” which features highly detailed facades that include scale replicas of the Temple of Abu Simbel. It’s Egypt right at your fingertips, and all you have to do is visit… a shopping center. READ MORE → SPONSORED BY THE MAINE OFFICE OF TOURISM Double Eagle II Balloon Site History was made on August 11, 1978, in a potato field in Maine’s Aroostook County. Over several hours, a pile of rubberized plastic was inflated with helium until the giant silver balloon took shape. Into it went supplies and foodstuffs—allegedly hot dogs and sardines—and then the balloon lifted off into the late-summer sky, along with three men, and when they arrived just outside Paris, they completed the first ever successful transatlantic balloon voyage. Today, a small roadside park featuring a steel replica of the famed balloon now sits at the site of its departure in Presque Isle, Maine. LEARN MORE →