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Showing posts from October, 2017

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The Unfinished Obelisk of Aswan

The granite quarries located along the Nile, in the city of Aswan, supplied some of the finest quality stones for the construction of temples, sculptures and monuments in ancient Egypt. The famous Cleopatra's Needle, now located in London, as well as several structures in the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and at Giza were constructed from stones quarried in Aswan.

The Sacred Grove of Bomarzo

Once upon a time there was a young nobleman who, after the death of his beloved wife, became so distraught with grief and anguish that he decided to build a garden in her memory to give vent to his aching heart. That young nobleman was the Duke of Bomarzo, an Italian named Pier Francesco Orsini, better known as Vicino, and his wife was Giulia Farnese, who died in 1560. The strange and melancholy garden he constructed is called Sacro Bosco, or the "Sacred Grove", and it still stands in a wooded valley in Bomarzo, a small town about 90 km north of Rome.

The Floating Fish Farms of China

In the sheltered coastal waters of the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea, there are large fish farms where marine crustaceans such as shrimps, and molluscs such as oysters, are raised in artificial enclosures. These farms are created by floating netted enclosures from a sprawling network of interconnected wooden pathways and platforms. Over these, fishermen have built wooden houses and huts where entire families live.

The Mysterious Sajama Lines of Bolivia

Crisscrossing the highland plains in western Bolivia is a network of thousands of near perfectly straight lines etched into the ground. These lines do not make any figures or shapes, but they go on remarkably straight for tens of kilometers. Whoever created them worked extremely precisely, which was not easy task in this hilly terrain with rocks, shrubs and other natural obstacles.

Dance For Your Life, Puny Human

At least we now know what has happened to all of those people abducted by aliens over the years. They are taken to participate in a particularly lethal competition against a dancebot which just seems to win, whoever is put up against him.  For this particularly unballetic human specimen, things are not looking good in this animated short directed by Justin Connolly who should be snapped up by Aardman (or the likes) immediately.