Tea and technology: Memories of great tea times

There was one special haven of tea, perhaps even more central to everyday English life than Starbucks has been in the US. This was J. Lyons, whose tea houses from the 1890s through to the early 1980s offered the best and most affordable quality, service and ambience. In addition, a fact that is almost unknown to Silicon Valley, Lyons invented the business computer, in 1951. Peter Keen retells the story of the Lyons tea house and more little known facts about it.
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40,000 Canisters of Aerial Film from World War II Land Online

Aerial photography dates to the early years of the 20th century, when pioneers like George R. Lawrence launched cameras into the skies with kites.
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Ocean acidification is already harming the Great Barrier Reef's growth

By artificially going 'back in time' to more alkaline ocean conditions, researchers have shown the damage that ocean acidification is already doing to the Great Barrier Reef.
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Vintage Cover Illustrations of Shukan Shincho by Rokuro Taniuchi

Sixty years ago this month Shukan Shincho began publishing their weekly magazine. The inaugural issue’s cover illustration featured a young girl in kimono walking on a breezy shoreline, fighting to keep her paper umbrella from blowing away. Behind her a train with homes as cars puffed along the water with billowing clouds of seashells rising from the smokestack. It was illustrated by artist Rokuro Taniuchi who, for the next 25 years, illustrated numerous covers for the magazine.
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Justice Scalia spent his last hours with members of this secretive society of elite hunters

The group is called the International Order of St. Hubertus, an exclusive all-male group dating back to the 1600s. By Amy Brittain and Sari Horwitz.
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Art That Appeals to People's “Greed”

Maywa Denki’s “specialty” isn’t easy to define, but the Japanese art group has a long track record of making uncanny, whimsical products that dwell in a borderland between musical instruments and toys. From “Otamatone,” a note-shaped electronic musical instrument, to “Mr. Knocky,” a wire-operated percussion toy, the group has created and marketed a seemingly endless roster of products that look like nothing any other company would (or could) try to make.
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The Fencing Master

David Treuer on learning to fence with Maître Michel Sebastiani and learning to write with Toni Morrison.
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