New About

For more than a hundred years, grain silos doting the plains across the Wimmera-Mallee region of Victoria, Australia, have defined the state's rural landscape. Now these grain towers will provide a new aesthetic as they are transformed into enormous works of art paying tribute to the regions' farmers.

The Landes region of southwestern France, bordering the Bay of Biscay, is covered by a large pine forest. In fact, it’s the largest ‘maritime pine’ forest in Europe—’maritime pine’ is a species native to the Mediterranean region. But a hundred years ago, the landscape looked very different. Instead of forests, there was a great level of plain that stretched from horizon to horizon. This plain was covered with stunted bushes and dry heath that were periodically burned off by the local population to create grazing land for sheep. Around the middle of the 19th century, there were an estimated one million sheep in this area.

In the city of Elche, in Spain, there is a large grove of palm trees that’s the only one of its kind in Europe, and one of the largest palm groves in the world. Elche has more palm trees than people. According to some estimates, there are between 200,000 and 300,000 trees here distributed across hundreds of orchards. 

Did you know that your fire extinguisher has an expiration date? That’s icing on the cake for a product that so few of us actually know how to use in the first place! The Ramifire is a modern, smart extinguisher that’s designed for more than just enhanced ergonomics and intuitive use.

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.

As the internet seems, largely, to have been created to accommodate pictures and videos of cats it seems only fair that Kuriositas gets in on the act.  This video by Burger Fiction features the greatest cats to have appeared on film – both live action and animated.  Think about it, cats in movies. People love movies and people love cats. So here they are together on the internet. What a purrrrrrfect combination, don't you think?

In the Maramureș region of northern Romania are a group of almost one hundred Orthodox churches built between the 17th and the 19th centuries. These churches are considered outstanding examples of “vernacular religious wooden architecture resulting from the interchange of Orthodox religious traditions with Gothic influences”. The churches are of high timber constructions with characteristic tall, slim bell towers above the entrance and massive shingles-covered roof that dwarfs the main body of the church. The churches have a variety of designs showing a high level of artistic maturity and craftsmanship.

On top of a small hill overlooking the comune of Andria, in the Italian region Apulia, stands one of the strangest looking castle. This 13th century citadel is octagonal in shape, with each of the eight corners sporting an octagonal tower. Its geometric design was very unique at that time.

In a forest in southern Småland, in southern Sweden, there is a small earthen cabin you can rent on Airbnb. The cabin is partially buried in the ground with its sod roof almost flush with the ground level, which renders the cabin nearly invisible. This type of house is known as “backstuga” in Sweden, which is literally "hill cottage". They are not very common today, but back in the 17th and 18th centuries, some of the country’s poorest people lived in them.

Rhythmic springs are those springs that exhibit tidal characteristics. In other words, the water level of these springs rises and falls over a fairly regular time period. Sometimes the spring would stop flowing completely and start again after a couple of hours or minutes. The cause of this periodicity is not truly understood but there is a fairly sound theory.