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Suborbital space tourism finally arrives | FCC prepares to run public C-band auction | The big four in the U.S. launch industry — United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman — hope to be one of two providers that will receive five-year contracts later this year to launch national security payloads starting in 2022. | China’s launch rate stays high | The International Space Station is the largest ever crewed object in space.

 
Molina's Cantina in Houston, Texas
Opened in 1941, Molina’s Cantina is Houston’s oldest still-operating Tex-Mex restaurant and a venerated institution. The original location at 1919 West Gray was known as Old Monterrey. It was purchased by Raul Molina Sr., who had worked there for a decade, originally as a dishwasher and busboy, and his wife Mary. Today, the business is helmed by the family’s next generation—Raul III, Ricardo, and Roberto.  Start off your Tex-Mex feast with staples like the original “Jose’s Dip,” which blends...

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Fonte Ciane in Syracuse, Italy
According to Ancient Greek-Sicilian mythology, the Fonte Ciane was the location where Hades entered the underworld with his bride Persephone, daughter of the goddess Demeter. As the Roman author Ovid recounts, Ciane—a water nymph and companion to Persephone—attempted to prevent Hades from absconding with his unwilling bride. When her rhetoric failed to persuade the god of the underworld, the nymph Ciane was overcome with grief and dissolved into tears, creating this azure lake.   Diodorus Siculus’ The Library of History...

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Cajun Kitchen in Houston, Texas
Set in an Asiatown strip mall, Cajun Kitchen is Houston’s preeminent destination for Viet-Cajun—a hybrid cuisine that emerged when Vietnamese refugees along the Gulf Coast began applying the techniques of Southeast Asian seafood boils to local crawfish. Though it can be found nationally nowadays, Viet-Cajun is undeniably a Houston specialty.  Originally opened in 2005 as a traditional Cajun crawfish restaurant, Cajun Kitchen took on a more Viet-Cajun focus in 2015 when current owner John Nguyen assumed the reins. Nguyen,...

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Cachoeiras do Horto (Horto Waterfalls) in Rio...
Cachoeiras do Horto encompasses three waterfalls, which can be accessed by a medium-difficulty hike in the woods. They’re some of the many waterfalls found in the Tijuca Forest, a national park in the heart of Rio de Janeiro and the world’s largest urban forest. Tijuca National Park is a 40 square kilometer swath of the Atlantic forest, a vast ecosystem that contains impressive biodiversity. The Atlantic forest once covered over 350 million acres, but logging, development, and other human activity...

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How to Tell a Great Campfire Story
A flicker of firelight illuminated the campers’ faces as they leaned in to hear the lost legends of the forest. “It was a night kind of like this,” began award-winning storyteller Gary Ferguson. “The river was whispering in the distance. The smell of pine was in the air.” Just then, a whip of wind stirred the embers. Clouds enshrouded the moon and a lone howl rose up from the blackness beyond the campfire’s thin ring of light. Ferguson continued,...

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5 Cycling Races Even More Intense Than...
While everyone else is talking about the Tour de France, we here at Atlas Obscura are focused on the off-beat cycling competitions you’ve probably never heard of, from the all-uphill 30-second sprint of the George Hill Challenge in Worcester, Massachusetts, to the sleepless nights of the 1,155-mile Silk Road Mountain Bike Race through the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. The Quirky Victorian Invention That Inspired a Risky Race by Indi Bains “It’s a combination of flying a helicopter and riding a...

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Lincoln Park aka Chicano Park in El...
It’s not difficult to tell whether the official tourist organizations in El Paso consider Lincoln Park a plus or a minus. It doesn’t appear in any of their brochures or promos and only rarely does any city official venture there—usually on one of the four celebrations held there each year. But in the shade beneath the freeway far overhead, the pylons supporting I-10 and US-54 are covered in Chicano art. Some celebrate cultural connections to ancient Aztecs, others promote...

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Gojōban Yashiki Samurai Residences in Matsusaka, Japan
Matsusaka is a city that excels at hiding its treasures. Its city center is a haphazard collection of abandoned buildings from the 1980s, yet two steps away are the manicured hedges of the largest existing samurai residence complex from the Edo period. These residences were home to samurai warriors of the Kishu Domain who guarded Matsusaka Castle at the end of the Edo period (1603-1868). Unusually for such a site, the descendants of the samurai continue to live here to...

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Dunlough Castle in Lisnagrave, Ireland
Perched majestically atop the rugged cliffs at the northern edge of the Mizen Peninsula, Dunlough Castle, also known as Three Castle Head, commands a striking view over the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean in southwestern Ireland. Founded in 1207 by Donagh O’Mahony, it is one of Ireland’s oldest fortresses, showcasing the enduring legacy of Norman architecture and dry stone masonry. The history of the castle is rich. When the first Norman settlers arrived in Ireland in 1169, the...

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Bison of Trexler Nature Preserve in Schnecksville,...
The Trexler Nature Preserve is a 1,108-acre park that is owned and maintained by Leigh County. Purchased in 1901 by General Harry Trexler, it was originally Trexler’s desire to stock the preserve with big game animals such as bison, elk, and deer. General Trexler wanted to have a bison breeding program, which has continued to this day. The herd is at 15 strong, the number is kept low, due to the acreage. Each year there are one or two...

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Victoria Park's Old London Bridge Alcoves in...
On either side of Victoria Park’s Cadogan Gate entrance, you can see, and sit within, a part of Old London Bridge. Bridges have crossed the Thames in the same area of London for millennia, at least since the Romans constructed a wooden crossing in the first century. The longest-standing “London Bridge” lasted from 1209 to 1831, and over the centuries hundreds of houses and shops were built upon the bridge, to such an extent that some buildings lent into...

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Solitude Stone in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts
Located on the side of the road of a very quiet neighborhood right next to the Nunckatessett River is the Solitude Stone. There’s a bench nearby where visitors can sit down to read the engraved poem and one might assume the name is referring to the area to enjoy some peace and quiet. However, there is more to this stone than meets the eye and peeling back the layers of history reveals a mysterious and tragic backstory. Although much of...

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Parvati Nandan Ganpati Temple in Pune, India
Once upon a time, the area of Ganeshkhind near Savitribai Phule Pune University was considered the northwestern border of the city. The word khind means a gorge or a hill pass. There is a 17th-century temple of Lord Ganesh here. It is called Parvati Nandan Ganpati Temple. Parvati Nandan means Son of Parvati. Lord Ganesh is the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati. Ganpati is another name for Lord Ganesh. The temple is also known as Khinditla Ganpati (which...

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How to Dye Naturally With Onion Skins
Tie-dyeing, one of the quintessential summer camp arts and crafts activities, leaves the camper with a souvenir t-shirt or bandana that’s both unique to them and a wearable memory. We asked Atlas Obscura Course Instructor Aaron Sanders Head, a textiles artist who focuses on natural dyes, to share an easy guide to creating your own version of this summer camp tradition. One of the most vibrant sources for dyeing fabric is probably right on your kitchen counter: onion skins....

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One Photographer’s Quest to Document McDonald’s in...
Trash cans are generally not the first thing one notices about a restaurant, but after trekking to more than 50 countries on six continents to visit McDonald’s franchises, something stood out to Gary He. All of the garbage receptacles say “Thank you,” but not necessarily in English. The font and branding are identical, but in Finland they say Kiitos and in Thailand it’s Kap Kun Ka. “I think it’s a fun thing to capture that I don’t think you...

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