THE LARGEST RAFT OF CANOES AND KAYAKS IN THE WORLD Photograph by NANCIE BATTAGLIA for National Geographic On September 24, 2011, over 2,200 paddlers showed up on the shores of the central Adirondack town of Inlet, New York (population, 400) to set a new Guinness World Record previously held by 1,619 boats…
Photograph by NASA/Tim Jacobs NASA’s space shuttle fleet began setting records with its first launch on April 12, 1981 and continued to set high marks of achievement and endurance through 30 years of missions. Starting with Columbia and continuing with Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, the spacecraft has carried people into orbit repeatedly,…
The Historic Houses Trust in Australia has a forensic photography archive at the Justice & Police Museum which contains an estimated 130,000 images created by the New South Wales Police between 1910 and 1960. The Sifter has already featured a vintage collection of mugshots from this archive of both male and female criminals. Below…
Every now and then the Sifter likes to see what’s happening on Twitter. In the past, we’ve featured the top ‘Humble Brags‘ and admired the endless wisdom of Neil deGrasse Tyson. Last week the Huffington Post published an article about people who didn’t realize the Titanic was real. Twitter user @boring_as_heck followed it…
The Edward S. Curtis Collection offers a unique glimpse into Curtis’s work with indigenous cultures. The more than 2,400 silver-gelatin photographic prints were acquired by the Library of Congress through copyright deposit from about 1900 through 1930. About two-thirds (1,608) of these images were not published in Curtis’s multi-volume work, The North American…
CHITTORGARH, THE LARGEST FORT IN INDIA Photograph via IAmASeaLions on Reddit Chittorgarh Fort is the largest fort in India and the grandest in the state of Rajasthan. The fort, plainly known as Chittor, was the capital of Mewar and is today situated several kilometres by road south of Bhilwara. It was ruled…
HANGING OUT HIGH ABOVE THE HOOVER DAM Photograph via The American Welding Society (AWS) Nearly 80 years ago, the Hoover Dam was built in Black Canyon on the Colorado River. A striking testimony to the perseverance of the human spirit and the ingenuity of the American laborer. On December 3, 2002, The…
Photograph by Ansel Adams via The Library of Congress Manzanar (which means ‘apple orchard’ in Spanish), is the site of one of ten camps where over 110,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. Located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada in California’s Owens Valley between the towns of Lone Pine…
HARD WORK PAYS OFF Photograph by Reuters/Miyako City Office and Toru Hanai Photograph by Reuters/Miyako City Office and Toru Hanai Last March a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan causing unprecedented destruction and loss of life. As the country prepares to observe the one year anniversary, the difference is remarkable.…
SHENZHEN, CHINA, 30 YEARS LATER Top Photograph via Gaoloumi.com | Bottom Photograph by SSDPenguin on Wikimedia Commons Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China’s Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China’s first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Shenzhen’s modern cityscape…