Fwd: Announcing the Atlas Obscura

[Dave Monroe]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Atlas Obscura <info at atlasobscura.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 1:51 PM
Subject: Announcing the Atlas Obscura
To: against.the.dave at gmail.com


Announcing the Atlas Obscura!

We're thrilled to announce the launch of the Atlas Obscura: A
Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica, founded
by Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras, creators of the Athanasius Kircher
Society and Curious Expeditions.

The Atlas Obscura is a collaborative, wiki-like project whose purpose
is to catalog all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical,
and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional
travel guidebooks and are ignored by the average tourist.

What kind of places are we talking about? Here are a few that were
recently added to the Atlas:

A hidden spot in the Smoky Mountains where you can find fireflies that
blink in unison
An 80-year-old house in Massachusetts made entirely out of paper
A giant hole in the middle of the Turkmenistan desert that's been
burning for four decades
A Czech church built of bones
The world's largest Tesla coil
A museum filled with the genitals of every known mammal in Iceland
Enormous concrete sound mirrors once used to detect aircraft off the
English coast
The self-built cathedral of an eccentric Spanish ex-monk
A museum of Victorian hair art in Independence, Missouri
An underwater sculpture garden off the coast of Grenada
Galileo's amputated middle finger
An island in the Canaries where people communicate by whistling
The corpse of a 14th-century Japanese monk who mummified himself while
he was still alive

Anyone can contribute places to the Atlas Obscura, or edit content
that someone else has contributed.  We're counting on you to help us
fill out the map and document all of the world's wonders and
curiosities!

We're hopeful that we if can get a bunch of like-minded travelers (and
armchair travelers) to share their obscure knowledge, we can build a
truly awesome resource for everyone. So, please check the site out!
Explore! Get involved! Add a curious place! Let us know what works and
what doesn't.

Atlas Obscura in the Press

The Atlas Obscura has been live for less than a month, but we've
already received some nice notices in the newspapers:

"Atlas Obscura is really the type of site that should be labeled as
not safe for work. Not because there's anything offensive about it —
don't worry, you can click safely — but because the posts make you
really, really want to get out of the office." - Time.com (7/7/09)
"Even if you don't have time to actually visit the places in the
atlas, you can wile away that six-hour layover in Charlotte just
browsing through all the bizarre, fascinating entries. Indulge your
wanderlust. Explore!" - Economist (6/28/09)

"If you like Loverboy records and French milkshakes, then you’ll love
the newly launched AtlasObscura.com... As a co-founder, Joshua Foer,
put it, the site is a catalog of all the 'wondrous, curious, and
esoteric places' that don’t make it into your average guidebook. Like
the world’s biggest manmade hole in eastern Siberia. Or the Sonorous
Stones of Ringing Rocks Park, in Pennsylvania. Or the Pigeon Towers of
Isfahan. Or Carhenge in Nebraska... Access to the Atlas is free;
flying to Kampong Kedah, Malaysia, to witness the synchronized
flashing of fireflies is not." - New York Times Frugal Traveler
(6/17/09)

"Every city has that one weird place -- the museum of bizarre
artifacts, the out-of-place sculpture, a historical landmark for a
not-very-historical event. Enter Atlas Obscura, 'a compendium of this
age's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica' and a community-generated
clearinghouse of strange delights." - EWPicks: Today's Best in Pop
Culture (7/5/09)
"Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras are cataloging the world’s weirdest
places to foster a new age of curiosity...Obviously, they both share a
fascination with the world’s moldiest, weirdest corners. But the
sensibility, if anything, is ancient, harking back to Wunderkammern,
or Wonder Cabinets." - Good Magazine (6/12/09)

Atlas Obscura Seeking Interns

The Atlas Obscura is seeking a pair of dedicated interns with a strong
writing/editorial/research background to help us grow the site. Our
team is currently based in Brooklyn, San Francisco, and New Haven, but
we are open to having interns located in other cities. Applications
are available at www.atlasobscura.com/internship. For more
information, contact info at atlasobscura.com.

Atlas Obscura 187 Berkeley Place #3 Brooklyn, NY 11217