The strange tale of the great 1911 trans-Saharan ostrich heist

26 unlikely animals, Notre Dame bees, and translating astrophysics. Email not displaying correctly? View in your browser. April 23, 2019 26 Unlikely Creatures A deer with long vampire fangs? Sure. A shrimp that punches so hard and fast that the water boils around it? Oh yes, that’s real too. Atlas Obscura readers tell us about the most shocking and unbelievable animals they’ve ever heard of. Read More → Ostrich Heist In 1911, the Union of South Africa sent Russell Thornton to clandestinely secure a flock of North African ostriches, hoping South Africa would truly corner the global big hat industry. But one man—Thornton's own brother—threatened the mission by selling secrets to American capitalists. Read more → Notre Dame Bees More than 180,000 honeybees were said to live atop Notre Dame. So when a blaze recently torched the cathedral’s wood roof and demolished the spire, beekeepers were eager to know how the colonies had fared. Read more → Translating Astrophysics Sharon Yellowfly has been working with her astrophysicist son to translate the nature of his work into Blackfoot, an indigenous language that traditionally has no words for the science he practices. Sometimes her act of translation is as simple as mashing two words together. Other times, it’s poetry. Read more → Cape Town, South Africa Peak Drive Winding through the steep coastal cliffside of Cape Town, this road offers spectacular views for those who brave the drive. Read more → Johnstone, Scotland Kenmure Hill Temple Little is known about “The Temple.” Local folklore states it was a place of worship for the landowner’s servants or his foreign wife, while other tales claim it was a nursery for a sick child, or a watch tower for ladies to attend to their embroidery while the men hunted below on horseback. Read more → From our friends at Curiosity Big Bang Neutrinos Last month, scientists detected neutrinos from one second after the Big Bang. Read more → Visit AtlasObscura.com · View in Browser · Unsubscribe · See All Newsletters 61 Greenpoint Ave #622, Brooklyn, NY 11222