Introducing the Atlas Obscura
Joshua Foer is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Joshua is a freelance science journalist and the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura: A Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica, with Dylan Thuras.
Thanks so much, Mark, for that introduction. We're thrilled that you guys have lent us the keys to Boing Boing for the next few days.
I'd like to tell Boing Boing's readers a little bit about the new web site that Dylan and I have launched, the Atlas Obscura.
The Atlas is a collaborative project whose purpose is to catalog all of the "wondrous, curious, and esoteric places" that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist.
Anyone can enter new places into the Atlas Obscura, or edit content that someone else has already contributed. We're counting on you, Boing Boing readers, to help us fill out the map and document all of the world's wonders and curiosities!
What kind of places are we talking about? Here are a few that were recently added to the Atlas:
- A hidden spot in the Smoky Mountains where you can find fireflies that blink in unison
-A 70-year-old house made entirely out of paper
- A giant hole in the middle of the Turkmenistan desert that's been burning for four decades
- A Czech church built of bones
- The world's largest Tesla coil
- A museum filled with the genitals of every known mammal in Iceland
- Enormous concrete sound mirrors once used to detect aircraft off the English coast
- The self-built cathedral of an eccentric Spanish ex-monk
- A museum of Victorian hair art in Independence, Missiouri
- An underwater sculpture garden off the coast of Grenada
- Galileo's amputated middle finger
- An island in the Canaries where people communicate by whistling
- The corpse of a 14th-cenutry Japanese monk who mummified himself while he was still alive
Dylan and I are hopeful that we if can get a bunch of like-minded travelers (and armchair travelers) to share their obscure knowledge, we can build a truly awesome resource for everyone. So, please check the site out! Explore! Get involved! Add a curious place!
First, though, a quick caveat: The site is still very much in beta. We're still adding features, making improvements, and sussing out bugs. So please let us know what works and what doesn't.
Now, before handing the mic over to Dylan, I'd like to take a moment to abuse this very big soapbox by giving a quick shout out to the Atlas Obscura's amazing developer Adam Varga of Sawhorse Media, our genius fix-it guru Boaz Sender, and our slick designer Aaron Taylor Waldman. Thanks gentlemen!
the latest
latest episodes
Your web domain is not responding.
and the Galileo finger is the middle finger! up in the a$$ to the roman inquisition
Boinged?
I've seen it - trust me - worth waiting for.
From the descriptions, I think I would be highly interested in this site, but there's bugz n ur surverz.
Page load error central!
A thousand direct links to nowhere!
Guess you didn't see that one coming.
Please tell me that some event, other then massive traffic, is causing the outage. Like maybe a fire in the server closet, or you hit this button. Otherwise, I have no pity. How could you not see this coming?
Anyway, looks cool. I will try back later.
Echoing #6. How disappointing not to find it.
The problem is being fixed even as we speak.
What works: The linode DNS server resolves your IP address.
What doesn't work: Everything else. ;-) I'll check back later.
Dammit, you stole my idea ( http://uncannyvalley.org ). But then I stole it from roadsideamerica.com. Perhaps I'll join forces, because I obviously couldn't do much on my own.
@SednaBoo,
Or, you could blog about huminoid robots!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
So without being able to see it, I'll ask the obvious question: if this is all obscure information, how is any of it verified?
Specifically, what's preventing trolls at 4chan or the jokers at Uncyclopedia from deciding that there is wonderful, fertile soil available for them at Atlas Obscura, and start posting articles about a gingerbread house in the Black Forest, a place off of Cyprus where all the dolphins wink in unison, or the Bermuda Triangle-like effect near Dick Cheney's house?
Obviously some vandalism would be easy to spot, but much of it might not be.
i'd like to add this cool place in japan (near hakkone, devil's valley?) where you can get and eat black eggs :)
"a place off of Cyprus where all the dolphins wink in unison"
LOL
good luck with the project.
#12, that possibility always exists for all media. The primary advantage is that reality often is stranger than fiction..
And the fireflies blinking in unison, it's true..
About an hour away from me. My local fireflies blink independently.
I live near that paper house, it's fascinating.
To contrast to the nay-saying and error-identifying: I think it is a wonderful idea, and look forward to browsing.
Many apologies for our downed server. Our developer is working on it. We hope to be back online pronto.
This reminds me of when the guy I met online said he had a, um, large member. I got so excited. Then he dumped me. Now I'll never know. I do hope at some point your site is accessible - can't handle any more disappointment.
I saw a program on TV recently that mentioned firefly syncronization in ad hoc networks. I'm sure that spot in the Smoky Mountains is beautiful, though.
Quick, it's back up. Everybody Coralize it!
The fireflies are even cooler than this makes it sound. Not only do they synchronize (just the males, they are trying to locate mates), but it leads to waves of flashes down the hillside. Just like fans in a stadium doing the wave. It's an unforgettable sight.
I did my Ph.D. research on _Photinus carolinus_ (small "c" for the species name, and it should be in italics) and have amazing memories of collecting data at Elkmont over three summers.
@12,20,22 Finally was able to click through!
All just so I could say that I saw synchronized fireflies when I was in Cameroon, near the town of Widikum.
And they weren't the throbbing kind of fireflies I've seen in the USA. These bugs really flashed!
While I share your love of strange attractions, my problem with this idea is that half of the appeal of these places is the exclusivity. So, although I know of a few fun unusual places to visit here and there, I won't be sharing them out of fear that if I did, the next time I went to visit one of them I'd find it mobbed by tourists.
I'm so glad to see that this site is getting off the ground! I was an avid reader of the athansius kircher society and have been looking forward to this since it was taken down. Hope you guys work out your server issues soon because I am very interested!
It's' surprising that there are no easily findable videos available online of the flashing fireflies. The only "synchronized fireflies" video I found only showed individual non-synchronized fireflies.
In my childhood, Corfu used to get fireflies flashing in unison in the olive groves. Less in unison: more in waves, ripples, cascades of light. You'd stand on a hill and see the patterns and rhythms, as if the olives themselves had turned to Christmas lights.
Not any more, apparently. They've died off, there aren't enough fireflies to make the phenomenon occur, now. You get might get a couple in your olive grove, one every few trees, but not treefuls.
The fish used to be glittering shoals of diced rainbow flashing around you as you swam: now the shoals are fewer, smaller, and grey. The locals blame effluent from the hotels, and sun tan lotion from all the tourists seeping into the calm, warm waters.
Same with the sheets of phosphorescence you'd see back then, that would cling to your body as you rose from the water if you went skinnydipping in the moonlight. Gone, now.
We're turning off the lights :(
http://www.electronics-lab.com/blog/?tag=fireflies
I love the logo...
Does anyone know if that is a released font or is it just made for the site...
Can't get to site now.. page load error.
After spending a few hours creating an entry, the site is now handing me error messages as if they were candy, and I don't believe it accepted my submission.
This site is full of potential, but still seems a little buggy at the moment.
Man! I can not believe all the naysayers posting on here. I think you guys have a great idea, and I'm excited about reading your blog.
I will say though, that I stumbled upon your site, read a few pages and now I can't get on. PAY SOMEONE to get it running, because it sounds very, very cool.