Edmund Adler: Painting the Heart of Childhood

Edmund Adler (1876–1965) was a celebrated Austrian genre painter renowned for his warm and intimate portrayals of rural life and childhood.

A master of the Vienna Academy, Adler possessed a unique gift for capturing the innocence of youth, often depicting children engaged in simple, everyday activities, playing with pets, sharing meals, or wandering through sun-dappled forests. His work is characterized by a remarkable technical precision and a soft, naturalistic light that gives his canvases a timeless, nostalgic glow.

Rather than focusing on the grand dramas of his era, Adler chose to immortalize the quiet, harmonious moments of the peasantry, making him a beloved figure for those who cherish realism infused with heart and humanity.

A Little Tragedy

A Feathered Friend

A Girl with a Ball

A Posy for Mother

A Work of Art

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In 1968, the Pilot of a Japan Airlines Flight Accidentally Landed the Plane in the Ocean Just Over 2 Miles Short of the Runway

On November 22, 1968, Japan Air Lines (JAL) Flight 2, a Douglas DC-8-62 named Shiga, made an accidental water landing in the shallow waters of San Francisco Bay. The aircraft was on a scheduled flight from Tokyo to San Francisco. Often called the “Asoh Defense” incident or the “SFO Water Landing,” it remains a legendary story not just for the survival of everyone on board, but for what happened to the aircraft afterward.

In thick fog and low visibility, Captain Kohei Asoh mistakenly believed he was over the runway. Instead, the plane touched down roughly 2.5 miles (4 km) short of San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

Miraculously, all 107 occupants (96 passengers and 11 crew) survived without a single injury. The landing was assisted by an unusually high tide, which provided enough cushioning for the impact while keeping the exit doors above the waterline. Passengers and crew evacuated via lifeboats and were towed to the nearby Coyote Point Yacht Harbor by the Coast Guard and police. Captain Asoh was the last to leave the aircraft. 

The incident is most famous for Captain Asoh’s blunt accountability during the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation. When asked what went wrong, he reportedly stated: “As you Americans say, I f---ed up.”

This rare act of “radical honesty” became known in leadership and business management as the “Asoh Defense.” Because he took full responsibility without shifting blame to technical issues or weather, he was not fired, but merely demoted and sent for retraining; he eventually returned to flying for JAL until his retirement. 

Unlike most ditched jetliners, the Shiga was not a total loss. The aircraft was salvaged from the bay 55 hours after the incident. United Airlines repaired the plane at a cost of approximately $4 million. It was returned to JAL in March 1969 and continued to fly for several years under a new name, Hidaka. It was later sold to Airborne Express and was finally scrapped in 2001.

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Anjelica Huston: The High Priestess of Hollywood Elegance

Anjelica Huston is a cinematic icon known for her commanding presence, aristocratic features, and an uncanny ability to portray women of immense depth and complexity.

Born into Hollywood royalty as the daughter of director John Huston, she defied expectations by carving out a unique legacy that transitioned from high-fashion modeling to Academy Award-winning acting. She is perhaps most beloved for her transformative role as Morticia Addams in The Addams Family, where she balanced macabre elegance with dry wit, but her range spans from the gritty intensity of Prizzi’s Honor to the whimsical, deadpan charm of her frequent collaborations with Wes Anderson.

Huston remains a symbol of unconventional beauty and fierce independence, a performer who never needed to raise her voice to command the entire screen.

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The Cardiff Giant, One of the Most Famous Archaeological Hoaxes in American History

The Cardiff Giant was a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) gypsum statue that became one of the most famous archaeological hoaxes in American history. “Discovered” on October 16, 1869, on William “Stub” Newell’s farm in Cardiff, New York, it was presented as the petrified remains of an ancient giant.

The hoax was conceived by George Hull, a cigar manufacturer and atheist. He was inspired by a debate with a Methodist minister over Genesis 6:4 (“There were giants in the earth in those days”). He wanted to mock religious literalism while also turning a profit.

Hull purchased a 5-ton block of gypsum in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and had a Chicago stonecutter carve it in his own likeness. To make it look ancient, Hull treated the statue with sulphuric acid and used steel knitting needles to simulate skin pores. 

Newell hired unsuspecting workers to dig a well exactly where the giant had been buried a year earlier. Upon its “discovery,” news spread rapidly, and Newell began charging 50 cents for admission, drawing thousands of visitors who believed they were seeing a biblical giant.

When the syndicate of owners refused to sell the giant to showman P.T. Barnum for $50,000, Barnum simply created his own plaster replica. He then claimed his version was the “real” giant and the Cardiff one was a fake. This sparked a legal battle where a judge famously refused to intervene unless the original giant could “swear to his own genuineness” in court. 

Leading paleontologists like Othniel C. Marsh quickly identified the figure as a “decided humbug,” noting fresh chisel marks and the fact that gypsum would have deteriorated in the wet soil. Hull eventually confessed to the press in December 1869, though the giant remained a popular attraction for years.

The original Cardiff Giant is on permanent display at The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Barnum’s replica is reportedly at Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Corfu in the 1980s Through Fascinating Photos

Corfu in the 1980s was a decade of vibrant transformation, marking the island's transition from a sleepy Mediterranean secret to a premier destination for European sun-seekers. This era was defined by the raw, burgeoning energy of the “package holiday” boom, where the narrow streets of Corfu Town and the olive-strewn hillsides of Kavos began to buzz with the sounds of mopeds and disco music.

Despite the rapid influx of tourism, the island retained a rustic charm. It was a time of unfiltered freedom, characterized by long summer nights, the scent of wild sage and sea salt, and a local hospitality that remained authentic even as the world began to rush in. These photos, via Paul Clarke, capture life in Corfu during his parents’ trip in the 1980s.

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The Lost Photographs From Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897

In 1897, Swedish engineer S. A. Andrée led a high-stakes, patriotic attempt to reach the North Pole using a hydrogen balloon named The Eagle (Örnen). Supported by King Oscar II and Alfred Nobel, the mission sought to claim the Pole for Sweden through “futurist” aerial exploration rather than traditional sledging.

Andrée was accompanied by engineer Knut Frænkel and photographer Nils Strindberg. They took off from Svalbard on July 11, 1897. Moments after lift-off, the balloon lost its heavy steering drag-ropes, leaving it at the mercy of the wind. The balloon sailed for only 65 hours. Leaking gas and weighed down by freezing rain, it made a gentle emergency landing on the pack ice, far short of the North Pole.

The three men were unhurt but unprepared for the terrain. They attempted a grueling three-month trek south across shifting ice, eventually reaching the deserted Kvitøya (White Island) in October 1897, where they perished.

The expedition’s fate remained a mystery for 33 years until 1930, when Norwegian whalers discovered their final camp. Remarkably, the harsh Arctic cold preserved the men's diaries and photographic film. The Grenna Museum in Sweden now houses the collection of recovered equipment and photographs. Modern analysis, such as that by author Bea Uusma, continues to investigate the exact cause of death, theories range from trichinosis from polar bear meat to carbon monoxide poisoning or exhaustion.

The photographs recovered in 1930 from Nils Strindberg’s camera provide a haunting, first-hand account of the expedition’s final months. Despite spending 33 years frozen in the Arctic ice, the film remained remarkably developable. The most famous of these images document the immediate aftermath of the balloon’s crash-landing on July 14, 1897, and the men’s subsequent struggle to survive while trekking across the pack ice.

The Eagle sailing north, photographed from Danes Island.

Moments after take off the balloon loses two steering ropes weighing a half ton each.

The steering ropes drag The Eagle toward the water shortly after launching.

Crash landing.

S. A. Andrée and Knut Frænkel with the balloon on the pack ice, photographed by the third expedition member, Nils Strindberg. The exposed film for this photograph and others from the failed 1897 expedition was recovered in 1930.

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Historical Photographs Captured Moments Before, During and After RFK’s Assassination in Los Angeles, 1968

On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, and pronounced dead the following day.

Kennedy, a United States senator and candidate in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries, won the California and South Dakota primaries on June 4. He addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel’s Embassy Ballroom. After leaving the podium, and exiting through a kitchen hallway, he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired by Sirhan. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital nearly 25 hours later. His body was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sirhan, a Palestinian who held strong anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian beliefs, testified in 1969 that he killed Kennedy “with 20 years of malice aforethought;” he was convicted and sentenced to death. Due to People v. Anderson, his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 with a possibility of parole. His parole request has been denied numerous times. Kennedy’s assassination prompted the Secret Service to protect presidential candidates. Additionally, it led to several conspiracy theories. It was the final of four major assassinations in the United States that occurred during the 1960s.

The photographs that Bill Eppridge made before, during and after RFK’s assassination don’t require that we forget all we’ve learned about the dank underside of American politics in order to appreciate the fear, rage and anguish sparked by Kennedy’s death. On the contrary, the pictures in this gallery suggest that despite how ambitious and even cruel he could sometimes be, Bobby Kennedy obviously inspired, in countless people, the better angels of their nature.

Would Robert Kennedy have won the Democratic nomination if Sirhan had not gunned him down in that hotel kitchen? Would he have gone on to beat Richard Nixon in the general election if he had won the nomination? The measure of the man must be taken not by what he might have done, but by what he said and did during his lifetime.

We’ll never know how much he might have grown, how much further he might have deepened, had Sirhan’s bullets not silenced him.That’s where much of the tragedy of the tale lies: in the ruined promise of the man’s potential.

Robert Kennedy, June, 1968.

Sen. Robert Kennedy campaigned, June 1968.

Robert Kennedy, June 1968.

Supporters of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy watched him on TV.

Sen. Robert Kennedy conferred with an aide during his run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968.

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