This story was originally published on The Conversation. It appears here under a Creative Commons license. Some people fear that breaking a mirror can lead to seven years of misfortune. The history of this superstition may go back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who ascribed mysterious powers to reflected images. As a scholar of the Indigenous...

This themed crossword comes from Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel, who grew up in Xi’an, China, before moving to the United States in 2001. She's the author of Sip & Solve Easy Mini Crosswords. You can solve the puzzle below, or download it in .pdf or .puz. Note that the links in the clues will take you to Atlas Obscura pages that may contain the answer....

“The twin gods of Smooth Traffic and Ample Parking have turned our downtowns into places that are easy to get to, but not worth arriving at.” The quote is from urban designer Jeff Speck. It’s hard to think of a pithier one to describe the parking pandemic blighting America’s city centers—except perhaps the title of a Bloomberg article on the same topic:...

The story of Dirce's punishment goes something like this: Dirce was a powerful demigoddess, who married Lycus, king of Thebes. Her niece Antiope was impregnated by Zeus, and she gave birth to twin sons Zethus and Amphion. Dirce was not fond of Antiope, so despite fleeing due to her shame at her pregnancy, Dirce had Lycus force her back to Thebes. Her...

Construction of the New York & Erie Railroad had been underway, off and on, for 14 years when it faced a compound problem in 1846. The railroad's charter from New York State required the road to be built as far as Binghamton by December 31, 1848. To get there, the track needed to traverse a deep valley a couple of miles south of the New York-Pennsylvania...

These sand dunes are a spectacular site across the coast of St. Anne's in northwest England. A lush wildlife habitat, it is an important natural sea defense along the Fylde Coast and because the stretch of St. Anne's beach is so vast when the tide is out, it makes the landscape look like you're in the Sahara desert. Blackpudlians are nicknamed "Sandgrownians,"...