The Navajo Code Talkers
A small band of warriors created a secret code during WWII that remains the only unbroken code in military history.
Let me set the stage. It’s 1942. You’re commander of the largest Allied Forces ever assembled to save the world from one of the most evil terrors the world has ever seen… the Axis, run by Mr. Adolf Hitler himself. The fate of the world lies in a delicate balance and it can tip either direction based on the success or failure of a handful of key coordinated military strikes.
Oh, one more thing, no matter how hard you try to encrypt your messages to prevent the Nazis from intercepting them, they’re already ten steps ahead, having easily cracked every complex code you’ve ever sent. With that advantage, they heavily fortify your next planned assault with a nightmarish amount of men and firepower, ready and waiting. This all makes it quite difficult to follow Sun Tzu’s quotation, “let your plans be as dark as night, and when you move, strike like lightning”. So, what do you do?
You turn to the one language so obscure that Hitler and the Germans can’t possibly translate. One they've never even heard or heard of before. A language that is only present on the rich red clay soil of the United States… the tongue of the Native Americans. It’s actually not as simple as that either (of course).
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Bookshelf Porn
Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy lusting after these libraries.
When in New York City, I always stop by The Strand. When a trip to Portland calls, so does a visit to Powell's. On lazy Sundays here in San Francisco, I feel the gravitational pull of City Lights.
That is to say: I love books. I like libraries. And while I try not to judge a book by its cover, I can't help but to judge a person by the books on his or her bookshelf. (My fourteen year-old self just winced.)
You can imagine my excitement then when I came across Bookshelf Porn, a photoblog that showcases the best bookshelf photos from around the world.
Vigilante Justice
After the Gold Rush, San Francisco was ruled by a group of vigilantes who killed the corrupt.
Today's San Francisco is tame, at least historically speaking.
Birthed in the aftermath of floods of new settlers infected with gold fever surrounding the 1849 Gold Rush, the Barbary Coast, as it was known, was the city’s center for vice and debauchery; the stomping grounds of the low and the vile. It was in this time and place when the art of shanghaiing was perfected, barkeeps used live bears as gimmicks, and an argument was settled with a duel. Gamblers, drunkards, prostitutes, and thieves roamed the streets, imposing their will with impunity.
It was also during this time that the city saw the emergence of the San Francisco Vigilance Movement. In an effort to eradicate the mayhem and lawlessness of the Barbary Coast, its proprietors, and its patrons, the Vigilance Movement recruited roughly 700 members in 1851 to do the jobs they found government and law enforcement unable to carry out. Jobs that included public executions.
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Garbage Truck Adventuremobiles
Experience luxury #vanlife in a 4×4 that looks conspicuously like a garbage truck.
#Adventuremobile. As a reader of this blog, you're likely well acquainted with the movement, and our collective fascination with #vanlife. Search out either hashtag on Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr and you'll find a cornucopia of VW Syncros, Ford Econolines, and Chevy Sportvans.
Noticeably lacking are UNICATs, 4×4 luxury RVs that look conspicuously like dump trucks. They’re built in Germany on 4×4 truck underpinnings, using chassis provided by Unimog, International or MAN, and often run in excess of $500,000. That is, UNICATs are for those who love adventure and have a lot of cash, or for people who believe in the impending apocalypse. For those accustomed to humping it in the back of a Ford Ecoline, a stay in a UNICAT will feel like an evening at a 5-star hotel.
A Transformative Space
How to pack eight rooms into 420 square feet of space.
As any metropolitan apartment-dweller knows, space isn’t easy to come by. With the exception of the über-rich, in New York (or San Francisco for that matter) you won’t find yourself with square footage to spare.
Enter the Life Edited apartment: a project created by entrepreneur and treehugger.com founder Graham Hill. Realizing he wasn’t the only person who craved a better, simpler life, Hill launched a competition to design his 420 square foot SOHO apartment with a lot of functionality and a little carbon footprint. He received 300 entries from around the world, but chose two Romanian architecture students, Catalin Sandu and Adrian Iancu. The Life Edited apartment is largely their creation.
The Accidental Sea
California’s largest body of water was never even supposed to be there. But it is, and has degenerated into a post-apocalyptic hell-hole.
Somewhere outside our mental image of Los Angeles – the beaches, the wealth, the sprawl and the celebrity – is a piece of LA’s history that has long been forgotten. This place, named the Salton Sea, once housed the potential to become the next great Southern California hotspot. Due to an engineering error in the early 1900s that drowned 525 square miles of desert with water diverted from the Colorado River, a desert lake was formed. Rather than causing controversy, the accidental lake became an opportunity to attract crowds and turn a profit.
Trespassers Beware
According to legend, Genghis Khan’s burial site has been guarded for over 700 years by men who kill the curious.
Genghis Khan is a mammoth figure in world history. In his twenty-one year reign as emperor of the Mongol Empire from 1206 to 1227, Genghis conquered most of Eurasia, linking the lands between the Pacific Ocean and the Caspian Sea – an empire larger than those of Napoleon and Alexander the Great combined. Scientists theorize that sixteen million men alive today are direct line descendents of Genghis Khan. Despite the library of historical work pertaining to the figure of Genghis Khan and his extensive military exploits, there’s one bit of information scholars have been struggling for centuries to uncover: his burial site.
Volcanoes, From Above
Bernhard Edmaier’s photographs provide a bird’s-eye view of earth’s most beautiful volcanoes.
Bernhard Edmaier, an independent photographer with a background in geology, travels the world in search of deserted and untouched places. Enamored with the variety of colors and structures found across the earth’s natural landscape, Edmaier’s photographs capture the sights and formations that have emerged through geological processes. His work presents pristine lands devoid of the vestiges of human influence, demonstrating the influence of time, and time alone.
Dracula's Driveway
Rubber meets 60 miles of racetrack-worthy road near the home of Dracula.
Meandering between and through Romania’s Transylvanian Alps, the Transfăgărăşan is neither for the weak of heart nor for vehicles weak of centripetal force. Anyone interested in maneuvering the road’s 60 miles worth of racetrack-worthy twists and hairpin turns is in for a wild ride.
Constructed in the early seventies, the road was part of a military strategy to enable easy access across the Transylvanian Alps in the case of Soviet invasion. Romania never had to put the road to its original, intended use, but the road remains as one of Europe’s highest paved roads. Exceeding one mile in altitude at its highest point, the Transfăgărăşan is quite the scenic route that attracts tourists and driving enthusiasts alike.
White Death
The story behind the most lethal sniper of all-time.
Simo Häyhä is the kind of war hero even Hollywood would have hard time coming up with. Arguably the sharpest sharp shooter of all time, Häyhä – a corporal in the Finnish army – took down 505 Soviet soldiers in the less than 100-day span of the 1939 Winter War. His performance earned him the ominous moniker, “The White Death” as well as a score of sniper and artillery attacks directed towards eliminating him and the immense threat he posed for his Soviet enemies.
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