Founded in 1533 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Heredia near the indigenous village of Calamari in the North West of South America, Cartagena de Indias became one of the major cities of the Spanish Empire in the New World. As a matter of fact it was considered the richest port of the Spanish Main…
Kept as a secret for more than 30 years by monks and slaves, the black rhinoceros of Cartagena de Indias became a sensational subject among buccaneers, filibusters, and pirates in the 18th century. First as a rumor among trans-frontiersmen, and later as seed story of printed pirate tales, the encounter of the buccaneer Alexandre Bras-de-Fer…
colossal fantastic beasts wandering prehistoric times ancient times modern times internet times from the gateway of the day crossing human global imagination from Roman amphitheaters from kings palaces to natural histories to walled cities surviving circuses and zoos sleeping in wunderkammers as figurines reproduced massively by the printing press travelled the transnational postal system bulky,…
Errors can occur when navigating with a GPS device. For instance, they happen when radio signals are delayed as they pass the ionosphere making difficult to determine the distance of the satellites. Other common errors occur when the GPS receiver is near a large object or inside a closed structure. When this happens, the radio…
The organizers of the Somerville Porchfest made a wise decision moving the festival to Sunday (5/13) due to the rainy weather that has characterized the beginning of the spring in the metropolitan Boston area this year. Rainfall can water down the melodies and lively atmosphere of music on the streets. As the cloudy sky cleared…
From the study of the spread of a hybrid corn seed among U.S. Midwestern farmers to the examination of the adoption of computer centers among the urban poor in South Africa; from the investigation of how cellphones were massively adopted in the U.S. to the study of the diffusion of family planning practices in developing…
She sipped her coffee again and the mug went blank. Null. Surprised and anxious, she stared at the mug’s electronic display surface for few seconds. Then, she tapped it with one of her fingers three times. Sitting at the other side of the table, I glanced at the reflection of the mug on her glasses…