Most viewed - Ola88

Central Vietnam's beaches after high season: quieter, but what should you watch for?

05/10/2026
4,769

Travel & Backpacking - Tips & sharing - After high season the beaches can be quiet, rooms are easier to choose and the pace of the town is slower. In return, the weather is changeable, services cut their hours and the sea is not suitable ..

Mi Quang and the kitchens of Quang Nam: a bowl with little broth and a great deal of memory

22/10/2026
4,768

Culture & Cuisine - Regional culture - Mi Quang is easy to recognise by its wide noodles, its rich topping, the raw herbs, the peanuts and the rice cracker, but its most important characteristic is that only just enough broth is used. Th ..

Is megalodon still alive in the deep sea? What the fossil tooth record answers

21/08/2026
4,768

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - Megalodon really was a colossal predatory shark, with serrated teeth up to about 18 cm long and a history spanning millions of years. It is precisely that reality which makes the idea of it hiding i ..

Yonaguni: Underwater “Pyramid” or Geological Masterpiece?

28/08/2026
4,766

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - Off the coast of Yonaguni Island at the westernmost tip of Japan lies an underwater rock formation featuring remarkably flat planes, steps, and sharp angles. Such geometry has led many to call it a ..

West African jollof: a pot of red rice, memories of home and a proud argument

26/09/2026
4,766

World - World food culture - Jollof is a pot of orange-red rice fragrant with tomato, onion, chilli and spices, and at the same time the subject of lively arguments between West African countries. Behind the question of whose v ..

Swiss raclette: melted cheese and a shared table in the cold season

06/10/2026
4,766

World - World food culture - Raclette is both the name of a cheese and the name of a method: heating it, then scraping the melted layer onto potatoes and whatever is served alongside. What makes a raclette meal so well loved is ..

The Min Min lights: the glow that follows travellers across the Australian outback

08/08/2026
4,765

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - People crossing the outback describe a white, yellow or green orb that quietly follows a vehicle, retreats when chased and disappears without a trace. Min Min stories carry their own meanings in man ..

Southern Vietnamese sour fish soup: no fishy smell, vegetables still crisp

10/09/2026
4,764

Culture & Cuisine - Cooking guides - A good canh chua ca loc has a clean sourness from tamarind, a gentle sweetness that is nothing like sugar water, fish that is tender but still in whole steaks, and vegetables that are fresh and cris ..

SCP-914 - The Clockworks: the gear-driven machine that "refines" anything you dare feed it

20/06/2026
4,763

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - Among the thousands of classified SCP Foundation files, few objects carry a "safe" classification and still make the skin crawl the way SCP-914 does. It is an enormous machine of gears that can "ref ..

How to cook bun bo Hue: deep flavour, lemongrass aroma and a broth that stays clear

14/09/2026
4,759

Culture & Cuisine - Cooking guides - A good bun bo Hue has a broth that is reasonably clear but deep in flavour, fragrant with lemongrass, with the shrimp paste melting into the base rather than standing out on its own, and an orange-r ..

Mary Celeste: the ship was intact but the crew vanished

24/08/2026
4,757

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - On December 4, 1872, the crew of the Dei Gratia spotted the Mary Celeste sailing erratically near the Azores. Upon boarding, they found no sign of Captain Benjamin Briggs, his family, or the seven c ..

The Nazca Lines: who created them and what were they used for?

14/08/2026
4,755

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - On the arid land between Nazca and Palpa in Peru, ancient people created hundreds of giant animal figures, plants, lines, and trapezoids. They were not first "discovered" from an airplane: local res ..

Backing up important documents so you can find them in a hurry

14/09/2026
4,753

Miscellany - Handy tips - Combining a controlled paper copy with a protected digital one gets you back on your feet faster. This article focuses on steps you can apply straight away, while pointing out what to check so you d ..

The Flatwoods Monster: a meteor, a barn owl and the terrifying night of 1952

19/08/2026
4,749

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - On the evening of 12 September 1952, a streak of fire crossed the sky over the eastern United States. At Flatwoods in West Virginia, a group climbed a hill to find where the object seemed to have fa ..

How to cook thit kho tau: tender rich pork, a clear sauce and eggs that stay soft

13/09/2026
4,745

Culture & Cuisine - Cooking guides - A good thit kho tau has square pieces of pork that keep their shape, tender lean meat and fat that has turned translucent without being cloying; the eggs take on colour outside while the yolks stay ..

The Chupacabra: blood-sucking monster, or a coyote with mange?

01/09/2026
4,745

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - The Chupacabra is an unusually young legend. It flared up in Puerto Rico in the mid-1990s, described at first as a two-legged creature with spines along its back; by the time it reached Texas the im ..

SCP-087 The Endless Staircase: the bottomless stairwell and the faceless face

20/06/2026
4,737

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - Imagine stepping through a door and standing at the head of a pitch-dark staircase. You go down, and down again, and on forever without ever reaching the bottom. In the darkness below, a child's voi ..

The Yeti: footprints on the Himalaya and the answer from bear DNA

02/09/2026
4,731

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - The Yeti usually appears at the edge of a snow slope: a few large footprints, a dark shape, and then a storm that wipes the trail away. The image of the "abominable snowman" was popularised in the W ..

Persian rice and tahdig: saffron, a crisp bottom layer and the sofreh

21/10/2026
4,730

World - World food culture - In Iranian cooking, long separate grains, the scent of saffron and the crisp bottom layer called tahdig can make a pot of rice the centre of the table. Set on the sofreh beside herbs, bread, stew an ..

SCP-1471 – MalO ver1.0.0: the haunted phone app and the skull-headed figure that shadows its victims

20/06/2026
4,725

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - Some fears do not come from the dark of a deep forest or an abandoned house; they fit neatly inside the phone you hold in your hand every day. SCP-1471 is one of the most unsettling files in SCP Fou ..

SCP-4999 The One Who Watches: the unseen old man who comforts those dying alone

20/06/2026
4,721

World - Mysteries & the bizarre - Imagine that in the last moment of your life, lying alone in a cold room with no one in sight, a warm hand takes yours and a gentle voice whispers that everything is going to be all right. You have ..