The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is an annual automotive event held on the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. It is widely considered the most prestigious car show in the world and it is the pinnacle Concours d'Elegance competition worldwide. The event open to both prewar and postwar collector cars in which they are judged for authenticity, function, history, and style.
The boojum tree is an unusual flowering tree endemic to the deserts of Baja California and a small area of Sonora, Mexico. It is covered with spiny twigs that bear yellowish flowers in hanging clusters. As with its relative the ocotillo, the small leaves appear after rainfall and are drought-deciduous, meaning they fall off during the dry season to limit water loss.
The lluvia de peces is a phenomenon that has been occurring yearly for more than a century in Yoro, Honduras, in which fish are said to fall from the sky. It occurs up to four times in a year. The explanation generally offered for the rain of fish is meteorological, often speculated to be strong winds or waterspouts, as is commonly proposed when attempting to explain similar occurrences of raining animals.
Ida Lewis was once known as “the bravest woman in America.” Lewis served as an official lighthouse keeper for the U.S. Lighthouse Service (later absorbed into the Coast Guard) from 1879 until her death, at age 69, in 1911. As the keeper of Lime Rock Light Station off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island, Lewis performed work that was critical to national security: lighthouses, administered by the federal government, aided navigation and helped protect the nation’s coastlines. Lewis also performed personal acts of heroism by rescuing people from drowning in the turbulent, cold waters off Newport. According to Coast Guard records, Lewis saved the lives of 18 people, including several soldiers from nearby Fort Adams; unofficial accounts hold that she saved as many as 36. Until 2020, she was the only woman to receive the Coast Guard’s Gold Lifesaving Medal, the nation’s highest lifesaving decoration.
USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is a guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy. She is the lead ship of the Zumwalt class. Zumwalt has stealth capabilities, having a radar cross-section similar to a fishing boat despite her large size.
Eugene Schieffelin was an American amateur ornithologist who belonged to the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and the New York Zoological Society. In 1877, he became chairman of the American Acclimatization Society and joined their efforts to introduce non-native species to North America for economic and cultural reasons. In 1890, Schieffelin released 60 imported starlings from England into New York City's Central Park. He did the same with another 40 birds in 1891. According to an oft-repeated story, Schieffelin supposedly introduced starlings as part of a project to bring to the United States all the birds mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare. Some historians have cast doubt on this story, as no record of it exists until the 1940s. He may have also been trying to control the same pests that had been annoying him thirty years earlier, when he sponsored the introduction of the house sparrow to North America. Schieffelin's efforts were part of multiple releases of starlings in the United States, ranging from the mid-1870s through the mid-1890s. The successful spread of starlings has come at the expense of many native birds that compete with the starling for nest holes in trees.[18] The starlings have also had negative impact on the US economy and ecosystem. European starlings are now considered an invasive species in the United States.
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque was a French polymath of the early 19th century, born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He made significant contributions to the fields of botany, zoology, and the study of prehistoric earthworks in North America. Rafinesque's interests extended to ancient Mesoamerican linguistics, adding to his prior work in Europe. Considered an eccentric and unpredictable genius, Rafinesque was largely self-taught and excelled in multiple areas of knowledge, including zoology, botany, writing, and languages. However, despite his prolific output, he received little recognition in his lifetime. In fact, he faced rejection from leading scientific journals and was marginalized within the American scientific community. Notable among his theories was his proposition that ancestors of Native Americans migrated from Asia to North America via the Bering Sea, as well as his belief that black indigenous peoples inhabited the Americas at the time of European contact.
The Hungarian mangalica is a breed noted for its unique appearance, resembling a cross between a pig and a sheep. Nearly two decades ago, this woolly pig faced a precarious situation, nearing extinction globally. However, it has since experienced a resurgence, flourishing particularly in Central and Eastern Europe and garnering attention as a culinary favorite in local dining establishments. Its name, meaning "hog with a lot of lard," reflects its characteristic high fat content, making it one of the fattiest pig breeds worldwide. The meat of the mangalica is distinguished by its marbled texture, featuring creamy, white fat intertwined within. This quality makes it a preferred choice for producing cured hams and sausages. Appreciated for its distinct, bold flavor profile, mangalica pork is often likened to the esteemed "Kobe beef of pork" by enthusiasts.
François Vatel was the majordomo of Nicolas Fouquet and prince Louis, Grand Condé. He was responsible for an extravagant banquet for 2,000 people hosted in honour of Louis XIV by the Grand Condé in April 1671 at the Château de Chantilly, where he died. According to a letter by Madame de Sévigné, Vatel was so distraught about the lateness of the seafood delivery and about other mishaps that he committed suicide by running himself through with his sword, and his body was discovered when someone came to tell him of the arrival of the fish.
Varosha is a former resort town located in the city of Famagusta, Cyprus. After Turkey took control of northern Cyprus in the 1970s, the resort town Varosha was left empty. Before the division of Cyprus in 1974, Varosha was a booming resort town with sky-scraping hotels, glamorous shopping districts, and sandy beaches frequently called the best in Cyprus. At its height, the resort town of Varosha was home to 39,000 residents and thousands more visited each year as tourists. But after 1974, everyone but the Turkish military was forbidden from entering, and today, buildings in the once-booming resort town are crumbling and abandoned.