Made by humans on Earth. Since 2003.
Sunflowers

ITotD on Summer Break

My attempts at building a time machine having failed thus far, I find myself with too few hours in the day. So ITotD will be on a (hopefully brief) hiatus while I take care of business.
A Textile cone snail

Killer Snails

And you thought they were just garden pests or a French delicacy

When you think of deadly animals, you may picture lions, hippos, or even mosquitos. But watch out for the real killer: snails.
MS The World cruise ship

Cruise Ship Condos

Making your home on the high seas

If you love to travel and have a few million spare dollars, you can buy a condo on any of several luxury cruise ships and live there year-round, taking your home with you as you sail around the world.
Hard to tell where the canal ends and the pavement begins, Venice floods 2012.

The Sinking City of Venice

Atlantis redux

The water level is rising in Venice, while the buildings are sinking. An ambitious plan is underway to save the ancient city from an untimely demise.
Sirocco Winds over the Adriatic Sea

Winds with Names

More than just a bunch of hot air

It's one thing to give a storm like a hurricane or typhoon a name, but it's another to assign a proper name to wind of a certain type in a certain season and location.
ATK Space Systems' Solar Sail during testing at the Plumbrook Test Facility in Sandusky, OH

Solar Sails

The next big thing in space travel

Outfit a spacecraft with a huge but incredibly lightweight mirror, and it can travel indefinitely, without fuel, at speeds that eventually exceed those of conventional rocket-powered craft.
An open cardboard box

___-of-the-Month Clubs

Old marketing gimmicks never die

The Book-of-the-Month Club is still going strong after more than 90 years, despite the rise and fall of mega-bookstores (and the advent of Amazon.com). But that's not all: you can get a monthly subscription to just about anything.
Waste at a landfill

Oil from Garbage

Modern-day alchemy

As long as we have garbage, we'll never run out of oil, thanks to a technology called thermal depolymerization process (TDP).
Ischigualasto or Moon Valley, the mushroom formation, Province of San Juan, Argentina

Ischigualasto

Triassic Park in Argentina

A park in northwestern Argentina earned the nickname Valley of the Moon for its stark landscape and weird rock formations, but its real claim to fame is an extensive cache of rare fossils that help to show the origins of both dinosaurs and mammals.
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Engineering marvel of the Canal Age

A Welsh aqueduct completed in the early 19th century was constructed right over a river; instead of being used to transport water, it used water to transport cargo.

Book of the Week

Take Control of Your Digital Photos

Take Control of Your Digital Photos cover
Digital cameras make it easy to take way too many pictures. Need help sorting, organizing, storing, and managing them? We've got a great book for you—and Interesting Thing of the Day readers can save 30% on it.

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