Pick An Ocean The Continental Divide of North America separates the major watersheds that flow to the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico, and it runs from Alaska through the Rockies and into Mexico. Rainfall that drops on the west side of the divide will make its way…

What Were the Canary Islands Named After? The Canary Islands are off the northwest African mainland and are an autonomous community of Spain. It would seem that the Canary Islands were named after the bird of the same name, but this isn’t the case. The name of the islands came from the Latin Insula Canaria, meaning “islands…

The FIFA World Cup Trophy is one of the most coveted and expensive trophies in sports. It is made of 18-karat gold and valued at $250,000. But the winning team of the World Cup doesn’t get to keep the trophy, and players get medals instead for first, second, and third…

An Amazing Palace of Stone Ferdinand Cheval was a rural postman in south France who spent 33 years assembling stones into an impressive structure called Palais Ideal or Ideal Palace. Cheval’s postal route was 25 km long, which he completed entirely on foot. During one of his rounds in April 1879, he came across a…

As we have probably often experienced, memories are not always as exact as we remember them. They can be highly suggestible and influenced by others’ recollections, pictures, the passage of time, or how we might have perceived something to happen when it didn’t. …

A Unique Bedtime Ritual Parrotfish are tropical fish known for their bright colors and beak-like teeth they use to scrape algae off coral and the sea bottom. These fish also use a unique technique to protect themselves while they sleep. There are about 80 different species of parrotfish, and they contribute to the sand…

George R. Lawrence was an innovative photographer in the late 1800s who designed the world’s largest camera to take the largest panoramic photograph possible of a new and exquisite train called the Alton Limited. The huge camera was known as the Mammoth Camera. Lawrence had already become known for his…

Traveling around the world in the late 1800s was a challenging task, especially when trying to recreate the travels in the famous Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days. But one American journalist and a rival she didn’t know about took on the feat during the time period…

The Island That Appeared and Disappeared There was only water in a spot off the southwestern coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea before 1831, but something strange happened in July of that year. Sicilian fishermen began to notice that dead fish were rising to the surface in that area that reeked of sulfur. It was…