• • • google suggested • • •
• • • some of the things I read while eating breakfast • • •
Lady Buxton-Battersleigh-Croydon, a famous court socialite who was never seen outside her carriage, was actually a hand puppet
— Fake Atlas Obscura (@notatlasobscura) January 24, 2018
For One Photographer, Reptiles Rule the Galápagos
Lucas Bustamante wants you to fall in love.
A marine iguana basking on Floreana Island.
IT TOOK A LOT OF EFFORT FOR Ecuadorian photographer Lucas Bustamante to reach one of his models. First he had to get to Wolf Island, a remote and tiny rock in the Galápagos archipelago where tourists aren’t allowed. Then he had to climb a lava-rock cliff to reach the summit of the island, where his subject—the small, delicately speckled, and vunerable wolf leaf-toed gecko—lives. They can only be found on Wolf Island and the even more distant Darwin Island. “I just had a few hours to reach the target,” Bustamante says. “It was a lot of pressure and the climbing was tough but I got it.”
The result of this encounter and many others are featured in Reptiles of the Galápagos, a book co-authored by Bustamante, who has been focused on photographing reptiles for years. The book is the first fully comprehensive field guide of reptiles of the islands. The unique setting there—extremely isolated, at the confluence of three ocean currents, impacted by seismic and volcanic activity—has created an unusual menagerie of plant and animal life, and the reptiles are no exception. Though the islands have been studied for centuries—including Darwin’s famed work there—they still hold secrets. In the last 10 years, five new species of reptiles have been described there, and there are many more just waiting to be named.
Though the beloved giant tortoises are well known, Bustamante believes that the islands’ scaly and slithery creatures deserve even more attention. As cofounder, with Alejandro Areteaga, of Tropical Herping, a research and tourism institution based in Ecuador, Bustamante has traveled around the world with his camera to promote the conservation of hundreds of species of reptiles and amphibians in danger of extinction (even braving countless snakebites in the process). One of his greatest challenges in photographing reptiles, he says, is finding ways to get people to “fall in love with them and raise their willingness to protect them.”
Atlas Obscura spoke with Bustamante about his reptilian obsession, the challenges of the Galápagos, and the joy of sharing his photos.
The endangered Andy Sabin’s leaf-toed gecko lives in a habitat fragmented by lava flows.
Why reptiles?
My inspiration started in paying attention to reptiles, even before photographing them. I remember that since I was a kid, when I fell in love with dinosaurs, there was something in snakes that called to me. When I started traveling and encountering more and more iguanas, caimans, snakes, etc., these became my real-life dinosaurs. Also, this group of vertebrates is not as well studied as others, so you can always find something new, such as any unreported behaviors. …
The deeply unsettling tale of Thomas Edison’s “little devilfishes”, and how they came to redefine corporate espionage
— Fake Atlas Obscura (@notatlasobscura) January 24, 2018
My boyfriend’s wedding dress unveiled my own shortcomings over masculinity
I’m quick to blame men for their toxic behavior, but in this case, I, the woman, was part of the problem.
Emily Halnon’s boyfriend in his dress: ‘I’ve found the one!’ he proclaimed when he bought it.
My gaze scanned the colorful racks of clothing and stopped abruptly on something I’d never expected to see: my boyfriend was clutching a wedding dress – that he wanted to buy for himself.
“Emily!” he cried with victorious glee. “I’ve found the one!”
Ian thrust the white garment into the air like a Nascar trophy. Its lace sleeves sashayed from the tapered bodice and fluffy tulle grazed the dirty tiles of the thrift store floor. A smile stretched across Ian’s scruffy face and his blue eyes danced with the giddy excitement of a bride saying, “I do!”
“Oh, wow,” I managed to spit out.
We were at Goodwill searching for dresses to wear during the annual Mother’s Day Climb up Mount St Helens, a decades-long tradition in which everyone scaling the volcano that day sports flowing garments in honor of female mountaineers and mothers everywhere.
I knew Ian would be among the most outrageous on the mountain. My boyfriend is aggressively fun and a flair fanatic, which I find wildly attractive on most occasions – like when he’s scaling technical slopes in jorts and a cat shirt or skiing the steepest lines in the Pacific north-west in space tights.
But I found myself unexpectedly uneasy with his new fondness for feminine frocks – a reaction that challenged the progressive ideals I’d prided myself on for decades. I’d long thought I was contributing to a progressive shift in how we define masculinity, finally allowing men to be emotional and vulnerable, or to ask for help, or to hug their male friends … or to wear dresses. …
‘I want to be brave like you’: A 9-year-old boy asked Pete Buttigieg how to tell people he is gay
Democratic presidential candidate former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg greets Zachary Ro, who asked Buttigieg to help him tell others he is gay.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg had an emotional moment on Saturday night with a nine-year old boy who asked him for help to come out as gay.
During a Q&A session where questions were drawn from a fishbowl, the boy, later identified as, Zachary Ro, thanked the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana for his bravery and sought help from Buttigieg on coming out.
“Would you help me tell the world I’m gay, too?” Ro asked the first openly gay presidential candidate, adding, “I want to be brave like you.”
Powerful moment (better audio): 9 year old Zachary Ro of Lone Tree asks @PeteButtigieg how he can be brave and tell people he is gay too pic.twitter.com/1aUbYM8cDM
— Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) February 23, 2020
The Democratic hopeful lauded Ro’s emotional strength and cited his own turbulent journey to share the truth with loved ones about his identity.
“I don’t think you need a lot of advice from me on bravery, you seem pretty strong,” Buttigieg responded. “It took me a long time to figure out how to tell even my best friend that I was gay, let alone go out there and tell the world. And to see you willing to come to terms with you who you are in a room full of thousands of people you never met, that’s really something.” …
10 Regular Things We Should All Stop Mistaking For Aliens
We may find evidence of alien life someday. That would be amazing right? It’d be great and exciting and maybe terrifying. But here’s the thing about that: you won’t properly appreciate that evidence if your head is full of Area 51 junk and Roswell nonsense and a ludicrous belief that octopuses come from outer space. So on this week’s episode of The Cracked Podcast, Alex Schmidt is joined by comedians & alien comedy experts David Christopher Bell (Gamefully Unemployed, “Fox Mulder Is A Maniac”) and Moujan Zolfaghari (Mission To Zyxx, ‘At Home With Amy Sedaris’). They’re digging into the most common lazy media tropes, frustrating hoaxes, and generally confusing myths about aliens. So throw on some headphones, increase your media literacy, and be ready to spot the REAL signs of extraterrestrials, if and when we ever get them. …
Can Mike Bloomberg buy his way to the White House?
Part two of a Guardian investigation looks at what Bloomberg’s campaign is using millions from his fortune for – and if his spending blitz could guarantee a win.
Mike Bloomberg prepares to speak in Washington DC.
• $45m, 1.6bn views and ‘Crazy Donald’: How Bloomberg bought your Facebook feed
The road to the White House is paved with dollars and coins. But in 2020, Mike Bloomberg is hoping to seal off that road from the competition with the steepest wall of cash ever spent by one person on an election in US history.
One of the richest people in the world, the media mogul and former New York mayor entered the race late, and with heaps of money, in an attempt to upend the normal campaign model and unseat Donald Trump. He has vowed to spend up to $1bn of his own wealth, though some reports have suggested he could double that.
His fortune has launched a campaign dripping in cash: showering hundreds of millions on adverts, hiring thousands of staffers with astonishing perks and creating a web of political patronage that has won him key endorsements. His money has now propelled him into the top tier of the Democratic race, leapfrogging rivals who have been trudging along on the traditional campaign trail for more than a year.
Bloomberg was assailed by Democratic challengers on the debate stage Wednesday night, but the question remains: can the richest campaign ever launched in the US really buy the White House?
Sarah Bryner, research director at the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, said while wealth has always been a tool in elections, money is doing an outsized amount of work for Bloomberg. “He’s sort of changing the boundaries for what is possible,” she said. …
Woman upset after Boulder Circle K rejects Puerto Rican driver’s license
BOULDER, Colo. — Back on Thursday, Ruth Caraballo went to a Circle K in Boulder to get gas and cigarettes. But the clerk told her she couldn’t purchase the cigarettes because there was a problem with her ID.
“I gave her my ID, and she told me she could not accept a Puerto Rican driver’s license, just US IDs. I explained to her that Puerto Rico is part of the United States. A Puerto Rico driver’s license is a US ID. She told me she could not accept it,” Caraballo said.
Caraballo, who is American, said she is visiting Colorado and currently lives in Puerto Rico.
She said she called police to help facilitate in hopes of clearing it up, and an officer, wearing a body camera, showed up to try to talk to the manager.
“Nobody can dictate what we can and cannot take. No, we don’t take Puerto Rico. We take US ID, US state ID, US passport, US military ID — those are the four things Circle K takes,” a store clerk is heard telling the officer on body camera video. …
Video Goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
and not-so-goodnesses
A bionic revolution is brewing, as recent advancements in bioengineering have brought about scientific breakthroughs in rehabilitation for people with disabilities. The most cutting edge research is happening inside the human brain, where implanted technology allows people to communicate directly with computers, using their thoughts.
VICE’s Wilbert L. Cooper travels to Zurich to see the first-ever bionic Olympics and discovers a host of technologies that are expanding what it means to be human.
THANKS to HBO and VICE News for making this program available on YouTube.
John Oliver talks about India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, why he’s popular, why he’s controversial, and where things are headed for the largest democracy in the world.
THANKS to HBO and Last Week Tonight for making this program available on YouTube.
In this episode, three 9-year-old co-hosts – Jonny, Tommy, and Isabelle – lead the resistance against their authoritarian principal. Features Daily Show correspondent Dulcé Sloan.
Introducing The Daily Show Podcast Universe, a five-episode miniseries, each episode a parody of a popular podcast or podcast genre. Subscribe here or search for “The Daily Show Podcast Universe” to hear them all: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…
THANKS to Comedy Central and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah for making this program available on YouTube.
Daniel Rozin, Artist and Professor, Interactive Telecommunications Program, NYU, makes mechanical “mirrors” out of uncommon objects that mimic the viewer’s movements and form.
CAUTION: Some language may not be appropriate for work or children.
Me commentary on a daring and cheeky gibbon vs a couple of tigers.
The phenomenon that convinced Arther C Clarke he was being contacted by a higher power was actually caused by warring raccoon tribes
— Fake Atlas Obscura (@notatlasobscura) January 16, 2018
FINALLY . . .
Freeway Park
The first park built over a freeway is a brutalist masterwork.
Freeway Park, Seattle.
CONSTRUCTED DURING AMERICA’S BICENTENNIAL celebration, Seattle’s Freeway Park was the first freeway lid—a structure built on top of a sunken freeway—in the nation. The 5.2-acre urban space is a renowned brutalist masterwork, though it’s seen better days.
The park was opened on July 4, 1976 in celebration of the U.S. bicentennial. Its distinct areas, known as the Central Plaza, East Plaza, and West Plaza, are woven together via a cohesive medley of concrete, greenery, and furnishings. Water features, such as an impressive 30-foot concrete canyon built directly over the median strip of Interstate 5, help enhance the landscape and differentiate the moods of each space. A fourth feature, Naramore Fountain by renowned sculptor George Tsutakawa, predates Freeway Park and was incorporated within the park’s design.
Originally intended to help “heal the scar” the interstate highway created through downtown Seattle, Freeway Park eventually wound up causing its own wounds within the city. The brutalist architecture, which uses mainly concrete, gives the park’s features a raw, somewhat unwelcoming feel. Many of the softwood trees planted within it eventually grew dark and died, their soil stuffed with too many roots, their urban air too polluted. …
Sedgwick Morris, 19th-century social reformer, wrote two volumes on the biology of leprechauns, and—towards the end of her life—claimed to actually be one
— Fake Atlas Obscura (@notatlasobscura) January 16, 2018
Ed. More tomorrow? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Not? Might happen, perhaps.
Ahem…
POINT OF INFORMATION: Once you’ve dispensed with Karen, there’s always another Karen waiting to pounch on the opportunity to recreate the chaos.
Fresh AskReddit Stories: What is the most Karen thing a Karen has even done to you, personally?
Sedgwick Morris, 19th-century social reformer, wrote two volumes on the biology of leprechauns, and—towards the end of her life—claimed to actually be one
— Fake Atlas Obscura (@notatlasobscura) January 16, 2018