Meet our new guest bloggers for the next two weeks: Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras!
My name is Joshua Foer. I'm the co-creator of the Atlas Obscura, along with Dylan Thuras. More about that soon... By day, I'm a freelance science journalist with an interest in Boing Boingish kinds of subjects, like lightning strike survivors, amnesiacs, brain-computer interfaces, photographic memory, micrographic writing, insane fictitious Texans, and the Bosnian "pyramids" hoax. I'm also the secretary of the Athanasius Kircher Society, which has been on a bit of an extended hiatus recently. My main project right now is finishing up a book about the 2006 United States Memory Championship. It'll be published next year.
My name is Dylan Thuras. I'm a film maker and world traveler in search of the weird and curious across the globe. I recently spent a year living in Budapest and traveling throughout Eastern Europe seeking out the obscure and wondrous, much of which is documented on AtlasObscura.com. I also run and write the travel and curiosities site CuriousExpeditions.org along with my co-author and soon-to-be wife Michelle Enemark. I'm currently working on a short documentary about wax anatomical models and the history of dissection, a graphic
novel about the London beer flood of 1816, and many other foolish projects. I'm also thrilled as punch to be blogging on a site of which I have long been a great admirer.
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You two guys sound fascinating! I'm looking forward to reading your entries. I've already visited Atlas Obscura and Curious Expeditions and both sites are awesome and amazing.
Welcome!
Joshua, I have a question. Is Irwin Leba a "fictitious Texan" in the sense that you made him up, or in the sense that he's not really Texan? I guess you did it well enough that I couldn't tell for sure, or maybe I have an exaggerated sense of how insane these fake Texans can be (even after eight years of the wackiest of them all).
It was an April Fools hoax. Irwin Leba was made up. He's actually the brainchild of Alan Abel, professional hoaxer extraordinaire. This article explains all: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/24/AR2006032402170_pf.html.
I see that Abel Raises Cain, a terrific documentary about Abel's life, is now available in its entirety on hulu. Much recommended!
http://www.hulu.com/watch/56337/abel-raises-cain
Mr. Thuras: might I inquire as to where that photo was taken. I find the juxtaposition of geographical terrain intruiging.
Indeed you may Talia! That picture was taken in a cave church in Cappadocia, Turkey a place with an amazing and quite alien looking terrain. It is so alien looking in fact, that a scene from Star Wars was filmed there!
that picture was taken in a cave church in Cappadocia, Turkey a place with an amazing and quite alien looking terrain. It is so alien looking in fact, that a scene from Star Wars was filmed there!
Siverek