Opus – Page 124 – Encyclopædia of the sublime

Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station

Hydroelectric power stations are typically located near water sources, or on the source itself, such as dams on rivers. But Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station is located more than 80 kilometers from the nearest water source – the Mississippi river. Built on top of the mountainous St. Francois region of the Missouri Ozarks, the Taum Sauk Hydroelectric Power Station is a pure pumped-storage hydroelectric plant, designed to help meet peak power demands during the day. During periods of high electrical demand, water stored in a kidney-shaped reservoir on top of Proffit Mountain is released through turbines into a lower reservoir two kilometers away.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

A film sci-fi comedy in which the adventurer, brain surgeon, and rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his crime-fighting team, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, must stop evil alien invaders from the eighth dimension who are planning to conquer Earth.

Ring Lardner

Ring Lardner was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical takes on the sports world, marriage, and the theatre.

Zoetrope

A zoetrope is an animation device that produces the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion.

Toads in stone

Stories of animals - mostly toads - found alive when a stone or a lump of coal is broken open date back centuries.

Dag Hammarskjöld Crash Site Memorial

Dag Hammarskjöld Crash Site Memorial marks the place of the plane crash in which Dag Hammarskjöld, the second and then-incumbent United Nations Secretary General (1953-1961) was killed on the 17th September, 1961, while on a mission to the Congo Republic.

John Crowley

In John Crowley's The Solitudes we are introduced to Pierce Moffett, an unorthodox historian and an expert in ancient astrology, myths, and superstition. The land that Moffett studies is not the real, geographical Egypt but Ægypt, a country of the imagination. When Moffett discovers the historical novels of local writer Fellowes Kraft, his course is charted. Kraft's books interweave stories of Italian heretic Giordano Bruno, young Will Shakespeare, and Elizabethan occultist John Dee - stories that begin to mingle with the narrative of Moffett's real and dream life in 1970s America. As Moffett's journey in and out of his comfortable reality continues, what becomes clear is revelatory: there is more than one history of the world.

Khun Sa

Khun Sa was a Burmese warlord. He was also dubbed the "Opium King" due to his opium trading in the so-called Golden Triangle.

Skvader

The skvader is a Swedish fictional creature that was constructed in 1918 by the taxidermist Rudolf Granberg.

Racetrack Playa

Racetrack Playa is a seasonally dry lake located in the northern part of the Death Valley National Park, California. It is famous for "sailing stones", rocks that mysteriously move across its surface.