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09/06/2026

A Day in New York, 1870

09/05/2026

A Morning in America, 1890

In 2011, at low tide in the Tongass National Forest, a fossil poking out of the rocks in southeast Alaska turned out to ...
09/05/2026

In 2011, at low tide in the Tongass National Forest, a fossil poking out of the rocks in southeast Alaska turned out to be something extraordinary — scientists have now confirmed it as Gunakadeit joseeae, a needle-nosed thalattosaur that hunted squid in tropical reefs 200 million years ago, back when tectonic drift had parked Alaska near the equator instead of the Arctic. Only about a meter long with a sharp, pointed snout built for snapping up small prey, this tiny marine reptile fills a critical 20-million-year gap in the thalattosaur family tree, making it the youngest and most complete specimen ever found in North America. Named after Gunakadeit, a sea monster from Tlingit culture, it honors the Indigenous people of the land where it was discovered and reminds us that continents move, climates flip, and life adapts in ways we can barely imagine today. The find proves that a warm, reef-filled Alaska once existed and shows why low-tide fossil hunting still matters — one walk, one exposed rock, and you can rewrite prehistory, because Gunakadeit isn't just a fossil, it's proof that Earth's past was wilder, warmer, and far more connected than the frozen landscape we see now.

NOAA's Okeanos Explorer is live-mapping American Samoa's deep seafloor right now from August 20 to September 17, 2026, a...
09/05/2026

NOAA's Okeanos Explorer is live-mapping American Samoa's deep seafloor right now from August 20 to September 17, 2026, and this isn't stock footage — ROV dives are dropping to 6,000 meters (almost 20,000 feet) to film places no human has ever seen, documenting deep-sea coral gardens, ancient seamounts, and fields of polymetallic nodules that sit at the center of the deep-sea mining debate, with Dive 04 already spotting nodule fields at 5,140 meters plus weird circular bioturbations and tripod fish standing on the abyssal plain, and the best part is it's all streaming free with NOAA's daily livestreams featuring real scientist commentary from 2,000–6,000 meters down through September 17 as part of EX2606, the first comprehensive mapping of these US waters — this is American exploration happening now, not in space but in our own Pacific backyard, perfect for anyone who loves weird geography and real-time discovery.

The Trump administration announced on September 4, 2026, plans to begin excavation for a 250-foot Triumphal Arch in Wash...
09/05/2026

The Trump administration announced on September 4, 2026, plans to begin excavation for a 250-foot Triumphal Arch in Washington, D.C., sited between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said work would start within the next two weeks, even as the project lacks final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission and faces active lawsuits.

Reuters reported the administration submitted detailed renderings on September 5, describing a white stone arch topped by a gilded winged figure and eagles, with the phrase "one nation under God" in gold lettering. The National Park Service acknowledged in a 133-page review that the arch would alter historic sightlines and design continuity around the Mall, but backed the location as fitting for the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026.

Opponents, including three veterans and an architectural historian, asked a federal judge on September 5 to block groundbreaking, citing procedural violations. USA Today noted Burgum framed the arch as part of a broader capital beautification push that also includes a White House ballroom and Lincoln Memorial promenade.

NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on August 30, 2026, at 7:26 a.m. from Launch Complex 39A in Florida ...
09/04/2026

NASA launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on August 30, 2026, at 7:26 a.m. from Launch Complex 39A in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, marking the start of NASA's next flagship observatory mission.

Officials said Roman has the same sensitivity and sharpness as Hubble but surveys the sky much faster, with a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's. NASA science chief Nicola Fox told reporters the telescope will "kick the door down" after Hubble and Webb "peered through a keyhole".

The five-year mission will investigate dark energy, dark matter, and test gravity at vast scales while hunting exoplanets beyond our solar system. The observatory entered a three-month commissioning period after launch, with NASA stating it does not expect to release first images until early 2027, though some officials suggested high-resolution previews could appear as early as December 2026.

Roman's wide-field infrared vision is designed to map the cosmos 1,000 times faster than Hubble for large surveys, a capability US outlets including Reuters, USA Today, and NPR highlighted as a major step for American space science.

08/30/2026

Riding to Work in 1920s Chicago Felt Like This”

08/30/2026

Before Work Began: An Ordinary Chicago Morning in the 1920s

Oklahoma City became the testing ground for a device that would soon become familiar on American streets. In July 1935, ...
08/28/2026

Oklahoma City became the testing ground for a device that would soon become familiar on American streets. In July 1935, the city installed the first coin-operated parking meters, following efforts by traffic officials and inventor Carl Magee to address downtown parking problems. The spring-driven meters were placed along curbside spaces to encourage turnover, reduce congestion caused by haphazard parking, enforce time limits, and generate municipal revenue. The new system was controversial. Some motorists and merchants argued that meters were unfair and inconvenient, while city officials viewed them as a practical response to the growing number of automobiles. Other cities soon began installing similar devices.

Movies often show explosions, spacecraft engines, and collisions making loud sounds in outer space. In reality, space is...
08/26/2026

Movies often show explosions, spacecraft engines, and collisions making loud sounds in outer space. In reality, space is mostly a vacuum, which means there are not enough particles for ordinary sound waves to travel through. Sound needs a medium such as air, water, or another material to carry its vibrations. Without that medium, there is nothing to transmit the sound from one place to another. That means an astronaut standing outside a spacecraft would not hear a nearby explosion the way someone on Earth would. Radio communication works differently. Astronauts use radio waves to communicate because electromagnetic waves can travel through the vacuum of space without needing air. Inside a spacecraft or space station, however, there is air, so astronauts can speak and hear one another normally. There is an interesting exception in astronomy: some regions of space contain enough gas for pressure waves to travel. Scientists have detected such waves in enormous galaxy clusters, but they are far too low in frequency for human ears to hear directly. NASA can process those measurements and convert the data into sounds that humans can hear. So space is not completely silent everywhere, but the dramatic sounds you hear in space movies are mostly Hollywood fiction.

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