Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Naked in Japan
When I visited Tokyo last summer, my very kind and generous host was good enough to go with me to a rural onsen, or Japanese hot spring. We had a great time -- I got to sleep on a real futon, soak in incredibly hot water with naked old Japanese men, and see some incredible scenery in a part of the country so unlike Tokyo it might as well have been on a whole different island rather than a three-hour bus and train ride outside the city. I'm the first to acknowledge that the language barrier would never have let me experience this by myself.
I wrote about the trip for the March issue of Smithsonian. The article is accompanied by some really good photography. It's funny -- since I went in June and the photographer went in December, our experiences of the place were completely different. Like, he had to hike in through the snow.
I am excited to do some more travel writing as time goes on, and perhaps make it back to Japan some time soon.
I wrote about the trip for the March issue of Smithsonian. The article is accompanied by some really good photography. It's funny -- since I went in June and the photographer went in December, our experiences of the place were completely different. Like, he had to hike in through the snow.
I am excited to do some more travel writing as time goes on, and perhaps make it back to Japan some time soon.
Labels: hot springs, japan, onsen, tokyo
Saturday, February 16, 2008
This Way Up
Kia ora!
Radio New Zealand's This Way Up show -- a name I appreciate more and more each time I think about it -- interviewed me about my recent Wired article for today's broadcast. You can find the audio here. (I had a cold, so my voice sounds a little rough.)
Radio New Zealand's This Way Up show -- a name I appreciate more and more each time I think about it -- interviewed me about my recent Wired article for today's broadcast. You can find the audio here. (I had a cold, so my voice sounds a little rough.)
Labels: new zealand, radio, stasi, wired
Friday, February 15, 2008
Counterfeit Warriors
Of all the museum stories to come out of Germany last year, The Hamburg Ethnographic Museum's pre-Christmas humiliation may have been the worst. Hoodwinked by an outside exhibit organizer, museum officials had to give refunds to thousands of people who paid to see what turned out to be fake Chinese terra cotta warriors. Read my brief article about the debacle in the March/April issue of Archaeology.
The same issue features a photo essay on America's unsung contract archaeologists, or "shovel bums," by my friend Lauren Lancaster. Only a few of the photos are online, so go pick up the issue to see them all.
The same issue features a photo essay on America's unsung contract archaeologists, or "shovel bums," by my friend Lauren Lancaster. Only a few of the photos are online, so go pick up the issue to see them all.
Labels: Archaeology, china, terracotta
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Headline of the Month
"All Blue Eyed People Related to Brad Pitt"
(Thanks to Charlie at Spiegel for this one.)
(Thanks to Charlie at Spiegel for this one.)
Labels: blue eyes, Brad Pitt, genetics, headline
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Turkish Temples
Last October, I visited Turkey on assignment for Science magazine. I was there to take a look at the oldest man-made holy structures in the world. German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt (above, a portrait I took of Schmidt) is excavating them at a site called Gobekli Tepe on the outskirts of Urfa, just a few miles north of the Syrian border. The Jan. 18 issue of Science has my report. From the article:
The most spectacular ritual space, which encompasses features seen at the others, is nestled in the dig's western corner. Two 5-meter-tall, T-shaped pillars stand in the center of a circle of slightly smaller slabs, each weighing an estimated 5 to 7 tons. Parallel lines carved into the slabs' sides slant back in a V and meet at the narrow front edge like clasped hands, suggesting a stylized person. The two central stones face the valley, and the surrounding pillars face inward toward the center of the circle. In sharp contrast to the stylized human shapes, the sides of the slabs are carved with images of animals: complex arrangements of spiders and snakes, foxes and wild boars, vultures and cranes.
"There's no way to know for sure what these figures meant, but there are some clues. Schmidt says the lack of female symbology largely rules out fertility rituals. ... the pillar carvings are dominated not by prey but by more dangerous creatures: leopards, lions, foxes, and vultures, plus spiders, snakes, and scorpions. "The symbology is dominated by nasty animals," says Stanford's [Ian] Hodder. "It's a scary, fantastic world of nasty-looking beasts."Stay tuned for more coverage in the months to come.
Labels: Gobekli, science, Turkey
Tough Talk
A quick follow-up to the post below: Public Radio International's "The World" broadcast interviewed me last week about the Wired piece on the Stasi archives. Sitting alone in the BBC studio in Berlin, I was a bit overwhelmed -- radio ain't easy -- but they managed to make me come off pretty well.
Labels: privacy, radio, stasi, wired
Wired Debut
In all the excitement, it's taken me a while to get around to posting this. I wrote a feature for the February issue of Wired about the work of a group of German scientists. They're developing technology that they hope will be able to digitally scan and reconstruct paper shredded by the East German secret police -- the Staatssicherheit, or Stasi -- in the closing months of the East German regime.
What's so amazing about the project is the sheer numbers involved. There are almost 16,000 bags of torn-up paper in a storage depot in Magdeburg. That's about 600 million scraps of paper to scan. To give a sense -- the guy pictured above is one of a team working to reconstruct documents by hand. It takes people a year to reconstruct one bag, on average. That's patience.
But what I enjoyed most about working on the story was talking to people who lived through the fall of the Berlin Wall, and who took part in bringing it down. Ulrike Poppe, the woman I interviewed for the story's lede, was particularly inspiring.
The bleak photography (above, a borrowed image) was done by the very talented Daniel Stier.
I've gotten a lot of positive feedback since the article came out. To all the people who have written, thanks for reading.
