The old adage is that no two snowflakes are alike.
In the age of digital photography – and especially in the snowiest winter in years – the Internet is awash in an avalanche of folks’ pics of their lawns covered in white powder and their dogs frolicking in the snow and their kids bundled up to their eyebrows to go enjoy another Snow Day.

Imagine a time when photography was still in its infancy and scientist were trying to figure out how to best use it.

That’s the story behind Wilson A. Bentley. He was the first person to photograph a snowflake. It took years of experimentation before he figured out the solution.

He attached a microscope to a bellows camera and finally SNAP in 1885. It’s a snowflake.

He donated hundreds of his flaky photos to The Smithsonian Institution in 1903 before publishing a book, Snow Crystals, that included more than 2000 images of snow flakes in 1931.
The book filled with so many individual flakes was the inspiration for the adage that no two flakes are twins.

You can see more of his striking photos of flakes here.

Usually, when someone talks about hot beats, it’s just because they really like the music.  However, one unnamed woman on a flight from Beijing, China, to Melbourne, Australia, got exposed to some really hot beats.  A woman’s headphone burst into flames while she was wearing them! It’s just not safe to enjoy yourself anymore, between […]

This will be the last Samsung Galaxy Note 7 to ever be on an airplane.  After all, the phone has been pulled from shelves and pockets all around the world, because the phones tend to, uh… catch fire and/or explode.  It’s not a laughing matter if you’re flying over the Rocky Mountains with one in […]

Since 2014, Craig Sager has been caught in the fight of his life.  He’s been battling leukemia since 2014, and he’s had multiple stem-cell treatments and rounds of radiation, and he continues to struggle against the disease for all he’s worth.  He’s been a very public face for most of his life, and now he’s engaged […]

The Red Cross is a wonderful organization.  When there’s trouble, the Red Cross is there setting up shelters and handing out food and water.  The Red Cross is normally very sensitive to the community needs around them, to boot.  However, sometimes, something will slip through the cracks that just looks wrong.  One of these things is […]

One of the most famous features of Matt Groening’s fictional town of Springfield is a strange one.  Springfield is home to a giant, perpetually burning tire fire.  I guess considering the town also has a nuclear plant that routinely leaks glowing green waste into the town’s water supply, the tire fire isn’t such a big […]

Gas prices don’t usually go down.  They go up.  Gas prices rose for decades, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but always up on a long enough timeline.  Not long ago, $4 a gallon for gas was a very real proposition.  Nobody thought prices would go in the other direction, and yet… gas prices are going down […]

Fashion designers look for inspiration everywhere.  Some of it is pop culture, like Friday the 13th-inspired hoodies.  Other fashions are inspired by low culture, like deluxe Snuggies.  Some people turn to the culture of their past for inspiration, like the 8-bit video games they grew up on.  Italian fashion house Moschino is partnering with Nintendo […]