1. A Village in Provence, Abandoned over a century ago
The Bories Village is nestled on a low mountain in the Vaucluse region near Avignon, now classed as a historic monument, giving a priceless account of the way of life in Provence. The group of 30 stone huts, called ‘Les Cabanes’ in local parlance, include former houses, stables, sheepfolds, barns, grain lofts, silkworm factories and bakehouses, vat houses and tanning mills, henhouses, pig sties and goat shelters.
The emergence of the outlying hamlet of “Les Savournins” dates back to a wide scale campaign of land clearing and cultivation that took place in 18th-century Provence.
The site was listed as a historic monument in 1977 and has been open to visitors since. More information about visiting found here.
2. Treespoting in Rocinha, Brazil
Luiz Bhering, the artist behind this image created it to confront brutal urbanisation process in Brazil.
3. Sea ice in North West Greenland this year
Photographed by Steffen M. Olsen. Rapid melt and sea ice with low permeability and few cracks leaves the melt water on top.
Found on This isn’t Happiness.
4. “Liondromes”, an extension of 1930s daredevil motordromes – but with lions in sidecars
One driver on the liondrome circuit — Marjorie Kemp — was mauled by her feline companions at least four times throughout her career
Found on io9.
5. WWII Army Surplus Protection Bags
Chemical warfare was a real threat in WWII. This pin-up girl demonstrates the US Army’s sprayed-vesicant-protection-bags!
Perhaps you wondered, “What did the Army do with all those Japanese-microplane-spray-attack-protection covers after the war?” Well, it turns out they sold the surplus to civilians as “Amazing All-Over Rain-Covers”. Here’s a 1948 ad extolling their (apparently 106) uses:
Found on Zapatopi.
6. A film about North Korea that was smuggled out of the country in the camerawoman’s trousers
North Korean authorities objected to the 2015 documentary “Under the Sun” after discovering that the film crew had smuggled unapproved footage. The camerawoma put the memory card in her trousers when she went to the toilet in order to keep the footage. The film is available to watch in most regions on Netflix.
7. The “Original Dorothy” and Deleted scenes from The Wizard of Oz
Regarded as the most viewed film in history and yet, production was a bit of a nightmare. With a total of five directors, a plethora of footage was shot that was either scrapped or cut out of the film after preview showings.
Under studio direction, Garland wore a long, blonde wig, heavy, “baby-doll” makeup, and a blue cotton pinafore with a blue polka-dot border, and was directed to play the Kansas farm girl in an exaggerated fashion.
After Thorpe was taken off the production, Cukor had her makeup and wardrobe altered, and gave her a more naturalistic look. He also told Garland to play Dorothy more down-to-earth, to remember that she was “just a little girl from Kansas.”
Buddy Ebsen (pictured) suffered an allergic reaction to the aluminum dust used in his makeup and was rushed to the hospital. He was subsequently taken off the picture, the press being told it was due to pneumonia.
In the 1970s, after the Culver City fire department asked MGM to remove its flammable nitrate negatives from the lot, the studio transferred their three-strip Technicolor nitrate trims (the bits and pieces cut from their films) to single strips of Eastman Kodak CRI color film stock. The nitrate trims were soon loaded onto a barge and dumped into the Pacific Ocean.
Sometime later, a cut dance sequence from the scarecrow scene was discovered in the MGM archive. This sequence serves as the only deleted sequence from the film to have survived in full:
More trivia about the lost footage found on Lost Media Wiki.
8. The Love Letters of America’s Gay First Lady
When Grover Cleveland took office in 1885, he was a nearly 50-year-old bachelor, a fact that almost derailed his campaign when rumors spread that he had fathered a child out of wedlock. (He had.) Protocol for unmarried or widowed presidents called for a female relative to fill the role of first lady. In stepped his sister, Rose.
Rose Cleveland served as First Lady for 14 months. Her great love was a woman called Evangeline Simpson.
“You are mine, and I am yours, and we are one, and our lives are one henceforth, please God, who can alone separate us. I am bold to say this, to pray & to live to it. Am I too bold, Eve — tell me? … I shall go to bed, Eve — with your letters under my pillow.”
Read the full article on the Washington Post.
9. Winston Churchill’s Doctor’s Note to Drink “Unlimited” Alcohol in Prohibition America
Found on Open Culture
10. One of America’s most popular furniture styles was invented by a celibate religious sect
The Shakers valued honesty, simplicity, and utility. All Shaker furniture is symbolic of the values of the utopian spiritual sect that designed it and gave the style its name—values that are overdue for a comeback today.
“Shakers are a model of sustainability—environmentally, economically, and socially,” says Sarah Margolis-Pineo, a curator at the Hancock Shaker Village, a former Shaker Village in Massachusetts that’s now a museum.
Read the full article on Curbed.
11. The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, Taiwan
From this fantastic Tokyo-based Instagram account.
12. Glowworm Tunnel: An abandoned railroad tunnel in Australia filled with bioluminescent bugs
Photographed by Josselin Cornou. “After sunset during a torrential rain.” She says that new inhabitants have found a home here, in what was once a busy train tunnel in Helensburgh, New South Wales, Australia. “A city of glow worms are populating this old train station, providing beautiful lights on rainy days.”
Found on National Geographic.
13. Meanwhile at the Venice Biennale
This is the Icelandic Pavilion, and the magical work of Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir, aka Shoplifter. She has transformed a warehouse {Spazio Punch, on the island of Giudecca} into a soft, colorful, bizarre world titled “Chromo Sapiens”.
