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  • LARPers Have Created a Real Hogwarts School in Poland

    ​A video shot last month near Czocha, Poland, shows about 190 pointy-hatted Potterites commandeering a castle for the world's largest J. K. Rowling–themed live-action role-playing adventure.

  • Why Are Historians So Afraid of Fucking?

    Last month, archaeologists on the Greek island of Ithaca found a couple of dicks etched into a cliff face at the Bay of Vathy. Aside from their age, what made the finding unique was the archeologists' willingness to openly discuss the sexual aspect of...

  • The British Soldier Who Killed Nazis with a Sword and a Longbow

    Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, a.k.a. "Mad Jack," was finally honored this year by the Royal Norwegian Explorers Club for being a crazy bastard who ran screaming into battle armed with a longbow and a sword.

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  • Somaliland's Circus Performers Are Acrobats with a Social Mission

    The performers draw people in with the novelty of the circus and then hit them with didactic plays on the major social ails of the country, like khat abuse, human trafficking, unemployment, and female genital mutilation.

  • Hyenas in Ethiopia Will Eat Out of Your Mouth

    Anywhere else in the world, feeding a hyena by mouth would be a terrible idea. In Harar, Ethiopia, however, the residents have developed a unique symbiosis with the hyena population, transforming a regional villain first into a carrier of prophecy and...

  • My Time with One of Somaliland’s Khat Kingpins

    Khat is a longstanding part of Somali culture, and people familiar with the plant in Yemen and Ethiopia jump to defend it as a recreational social lubricant. But it’s not so benign in Somaliland anymore. Ethiopian growers flood the market, realizing...

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