Around the World

Stories from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. 16 stories, a few minutes each.

1. Australia's Great Emu WarIn 1932, the Australian government deployed soldiers with machine guns against a population of emus. The emus won.
2. Tsutomu YamaguchiTsutomu Yamaguchi is the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as having survived both atomic bombings. He was three…
3. How the Caesar Salad Was Invented in TijuanaThe Caesar salad is not named after the Roman emperor. It's named after Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who ran a restaurant in Tijuana, and…
4. The Door to HellIn the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan, about 160 miles north of the capital, there's a crater that has been on fire for over fifty years. It…
5. The Zone of SilenceIn the Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico, where the states of Durango, Chihuahua, and Coahuila meet, there's a patch of scrubland about thirty…
6. The Great Maple Syrup HeistQuebec produces about 77 percent of the world's maple syrup, and the industry is tightly controlled by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers.
7. Why Wombat Poop Is Cube-ShapedOf all the animals on Earth, only the wombat produces cube-shaped feces. Each day, a bare-nosed wombat deposits roughly a hundred six-sided…
8. The Marree ManOn June 26, 1998, a charter pilot named Trec Smith was flying between Marree and Coober Pedy in the South Australian outback when he noticed…
9. The Lake That Turns Animals to StoneIn northern Tanzania, near the Kenyan border, there's a shallow salt lake that preserves dead animals like fossils.
10. The Corpse FlowerThe titan arum blooms so rarely and smells so terrible that botanic gardens issue public alerts when one is about to open. Visitors line up,…
11. The Great Stork DerbyWhen Charles Vance Millar died in Toronto on October 31, 1929, his will contained a clause that would consume the city's attention for a decade.…
12. The Tanganyika Laughter EpidemicOn January 30, 1962, three girls at a boarding school in Kashasha, a village near the western shore of Lake Victoria in what was then Tanganyika,…
13. FordlandiaIn 1928, Henry Ford purchased 2.5 million acres of land along the Tapajós River in the Brazilian Amazon and built a town called Fordlandia. His…
14. The Cobra EffectDuring British colonial rule in India, the government in Delhi grew concerned about the number of venomous cobras in the city. The administration…
15. The Shortest War in HistoryOn August 27, 1896, the British Empire went to war with the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The conflict lasted between 38 and 45 minutes, depending on the…
16. The Woman Who Paid Kenya to Plant TreesIn 1977, Wangari Maathai planted seven trees in her backyard in Nairobi. It was World Environment Day, and the seedlings were the start of…