Author: Brent Lambert

In an part of the world as old as Jerusalem one could be forgiven for placing added meaning onto a mysterious gold object found in a cemetery. That’s exactly what happened 6 months ago when a maintenance worker at a Jerusalem cemetery discovered a small pipe buried in one of the cemetery’s oldest mausoleums. Worried it might be a pipe bomb, police were called in and a controlled explosion was conducted. That’s when the strange contents of the pipe were discovered.

When you’re standing on the edge of a major river it’s difficult to imagine it was or ever would be any other shape than it is at that very moment. But over time a river can transform its path in extreme ways. Take, for instance, the Ucayali River in Peru. Watch below as satellite imagery from over 30 years is compiled into the following GIF (via Kottke):

In a fascinating new book entitled The Three Hares: A Curiosity Worth Regarding, authors Tom Greeves, Sue Andrew, and Chris Chapman embark on a journey to unlock the mysterious meaning of one of history’s most baffling motifs. The circular symbol known as The Three Hares — which shows three hares chasing each other in a circle, with each ear shared by two hares, so that only three ears are shown — has been found in Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Hindu contexts in the medieval world. The symbol can be seen in numerous sacred sites from the Middle East, to…

Gulmarg is a popular skiing destination in India in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmi (Google Map). Recently while leading a group of skiers, an American guide by the name of David Marchi documented this terrifying encounter with an exceptionally rare snow leopard. You can watch it in full above. (Google Map) The snow leopard is a moderately large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia. The classification of this species has been subject to change, and as of 2000, it is still classified as Uncia uncia by MSW3 and CITES Appendix I.

Patrick Hughes lives and works in London. Widely recognised as one of the major painters of contemporary British art, he is also a designer, teacher and writer. His works are part of many public collections including: the British Library and the Tate Gallery, London; the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; The Deutsche Bibliotheek, Frankfurt and the Denver Art Museum. Hughes has exhibited in London and throughout Europe, South East Asia, America and Canada. He is perhaps best known for his remarkable “reverse perspective” paintings, some of which I’ve attached video of here. You can read more about Patrick at PatrickHughes.co.uk.

The great cellist Yo-Yo Ma is a citizen artist and a forensic musicologist, decoding the work of musical creators across time and space. In his art, Yo-Yo Ma resists fixed boundaries, and would like to rename classical music just “music” — born in improvisation, and traversing territory as vast and fluid as the world we inhabit. In this generous and intimate conversation, he shares his philosophy of curiosity about life, and of performance as hospitality. You can listen to On Being host Krista Tippett’s conversation with Yo-Yo Ma above, learn more about their conversation at OnBeing.org, and visit Yo-YoMa.com.

In his short film, Why Wine?, director James Casey gathers a few of his favorite wine lovers (experts and non-experts alike) to discuss what’s behind the world’s love affair with wine. In the film we also get some terrific tips on various wine and food pairings which should definitely be on everyone’s wine-food bucket list. But if shee-shee-foo-foo gourmet meals are not up your alley, Esquire put together a terrific list of 8 surprising junk foods that pair brilliantly with various wines. For example, did you know that Cheetos pair amazingly well with a bright white like Rueda Verdejo or…