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In 1647, construction workers carrying out repairs on the Church of Saint Andrew in the small city of Venzone, in the province of Udine, Italy, accidentally broke open a tomb in the churchyard. Inside was found the perfectly dried body of a man who appeared to be of average height and possibly rotund during his living days. His body had now shrunk to only 33 pounds, or about 15 kg. But curiously, it hadn’t decomposed.

For nearly half a century, Atlantic City, in New Jersey, United States, was home to an attraction almost too fantastical to believe—an apparently fearless horse with a young woman on its back would leap off a tower some 40 feet high into a pool of water below. The stunt took place at Atlantic City's popular venue Steel Pier, where trained horses took the plunge up to four times a day and seven days a week.

Between 1405 and 1433, during the Ming era, Chinese Admiral Zheng He, who was also the court eunuch, commanded seven expeditionary voyages as far away as East Africa and Middle East. These expeditions, known in Chinese history as the treasure voyages, consisted of hundreds of ships of enormous dimensions carrying a crew as large as 28,000 and great amounts of treasures. The purpose of the voyages were to project Chinese power and wealth to the outside world, as well as to establish imperial control over the maritime trade.

Every year in Japan, spring’s cherry blossoms burst into summer's colorful flames known as “hanabi taikai,” which partially translates to “flowers of fire.” The 200 fireworks shows are part of an annual tradition dating back to the 18th century. Pyrotechnics across the country compete to create the best spectacle, lighting up the nighttime skies with utter beauty.

Scattered throughout the streets of London, often overlooked, are small green sheds that have been offering shelter and hot food to the city’s cab drivers since 1875.

A majority of the occupations we humans carry out are human-centric… and almost everything designers do revolves around human interaction and emotion; and while most products we design today have evolved from physical to digital, there’s always one key binding factor. The user… and the user hasn’t physically changed much (or even at all) in the past century, and probably won’t for the foreseeable future. Because design as a practice inhibits human evolution i.e., it changes circumstances so that we, without changing the way we are, can achieve the great feats.

Inspired by the Greek mythological creature of a similar name, the Hippokamp chair is an abstract interpretation of a seahorse’ iconic shape. Intentionally intricate, this artistic take on lounge seating almost looks more instrument than furniture. Its many taut cords of the seat, back and footrest, which support the user, give it an interesting harp-like look that’s sure to garner second glances.

Qua is a nightlight for children that exude a soothing effect thanks to its textured glass and looks. It even doubles up as a natural humidifier because of the water that you need to load in for the effect.

Ever wanted to do something different? When life becomes a routine, step out of the ordinary and follow your dreams. Shift follows a white-collar worker who escapes the confines of his working environment, exploring and dancing freely through the outside world.

Although not necessary this is a perfect excuse to feature some Bulgarian folk music on Kuriositas.  I came across this wonderful, enigmatic animated short by Nina Paley today and as well as being entranced by her work I was further transported by the ethereal, other-worldly singing of the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir which I first came across in my 1980s university days.  The combination is simply… well, why don’t you watch it and put your own adjectives in place?

If you have woken up today with the desire to think up and do something that no one else has yet done then don’t bother with being the first person to film ice caves using a drone. A team from Firefight Films recently traveled to Alaska and did just that – producing these remarkable results. Directed by Lion El Aton with cinematography - by Christopher Carson, take a look while you rethink your plans for the day.

Just when you think it can’t get any worse – it does. Yet for one down and out stepping on a piece of glass turns out to be the best thing that has happened to him for quite a while. Written and directed by Philip Sansom , One Man’s Loss stars Belgian actress Hande Kodja, Tracy Feith as the vagrant and Jeremy Mitchell as the city boy. So, if you are feeling a little down and out today, watch this – and take heart!

A word of warning before you watch this – the makers of this video ( Claire&Max ) have indicated that this video may make you dizzy.  Underlapse is a visual experience and shows how our brains can be lost without its spatial cues.  

San Francisco residents have a particularly strong liking for topiary trees, as apparent from these photographs taken by three different photographers. One is Marc Alcock , a British photographer, who after moving to San Francisco in 2010, became interested in photographing the visual differences between the two places. One of the things that struck him about San Francisco, Los Angeles and the surrounding suburbs were the houses and the unique relationship they have with plants and nature.

Okuda San Miguel’s (previously) recently transformed 19th-century castle in Château, France is perhaps my favorite work by the artist to date. The intervention, titled Skull in the Mirror, covers the gigantic home’s facade in a mix of colorful polka dots, and is flanked on either side by two three-story skulls. Three dormer windows at the top of the castle are lined in bright red, blue, and orange, while the second story windows serve as openings for the prismatic skull’s four combined eyes.

Every successful product launch is usually preceded by a string of failures, but we only remember the winners and ignore the failures and pretend they never happened. A new museum is set to open in Sweden that hopes to make this right. The “Museum of Failures” is the brainchild of Dr. Samuel West, an organizational psychologist, who has spent the last seven years studying failure and success and what people say about both.

What does an island with not a speck of land to spare do to get rid of hundreds of tons of garbage generated each day by its one million yearly tourists and nearly four hundred thousand permanent residents? They dump it into another island, of course

In a remote sheltered harbor guarded by two precipitous headlands, in the North of Scotland, dozens of oil rigs are sitting idle, some for more than a decade, quietly waiting for offshore oil drilling to become profitable again.

A source of confusion among many first time visitors to the US state of Utah are the bars. Like any regular bar, there are stools lining the shiny counter, but instead of facing the bottles and the bartenders, they look straight at a wall of clouded white glass that rises from the middle of the counter, obscuring both on the other side. These barriers are nicknamed Zion curtains, a dig at the Church of Mormons that hold a large influence over the population of Utah.

There appears to be nothing remarkable about Captain Tony's Saloon housed in a yellow, two-storied building at 428 Greene Street in Key West, Florida. But the inside is steeped in history.