After Dark at the Shakespeare & Co in Paris

Paris is just one of those places in the world where talented people get together and make magical things. Filmmaker Spike Jonze and one of the few handbag designers in the world I actually think is worth raving about these day, Olympia Le-Tan, got together to collaborate on a short film set in one of…

Parisian Pin Ups

I stumbled upon a great little website dedicated to collecting old pin-ups and found they had a wonderful archive of La Vie Parisienne, a French erotic magazine that was founded in 1863. And of course with Parisian pin-ups, you know the fashion is going to be pretty fabulous… Also found these sketches by Jacques Le…

Gas Mask Paradise Island

On an archipelago south of Tokyo, there is a lush paradise-like island where residents must carry gas masks on them at all times. Miyakejima, part of the Izu Islands, is part of an unrestful volcanic chain that has seen six eruptions in the last century, the last in the year 2000 when a mass evacuation…

Ruins of a French Colonial Ghost Town

The luxury French resort of a different variety … Photo source: Flick User An Agent Like a giant tombstone at the top of a hill prevailing over the dense tropical Cambodian jungle, here lies the remains of French colonial history. Yet another testimony to Europe’s once sinister use of imperialist power, Bokor Hill Station…

Inside the Paris Brothels of the Belle Époque

Behind the number 12, rue Chabanais, a typical building on a typical back street not far from the Musée du Louvre in Paris, used to be one of the most notorious and prestigious bordellos of the golden era. Today, it’s an apartment building, but just across the road at number 11, an inconspicuous little boutique…

China’s Bizarre Marriage Market

Blind dates are bad enough but when your own parents take to the streets and advertise your eternal loneliness on public noticeboards, that’s when things probably start to get really bleak. In a sort of online dating nightmare come to life, every weekend in Shanghai at the north end of People’s Park, up to a…

Underwater Cities, Floating Islands and Space Elevators: Supercities of the Future

Straight out of a Jetson’s cartoon, let’s take a look at a few cities of the future that are actually real possibilities… 1. Floating Megacities Self-contained, self-sufficient monolithic sea-standing cities have recently been proposed that could one day be the solution for refugees of natural disasters. The most famous and most advanced proposal yet is…

The Lost Treehouse Tribes of the Rainforest

Until 1970, they were unaware of the existence of any people on Earth besides themselves. Hard to believe with such extensive views from their 140 foot high tree dwellings, but when you’re living in one of the least explored jungles in the world, these things can happen. The indigenous Korowai tribe have been building their…

Forget Santa’s Workshop! Inside an Amazon Warehouse

Last year, Amazon shifted 17 million products within 24 hours. Can Santa even compete with those kind of stats anymore? And while we’re effortlessly clicking away on Amazon.com, browsing page after page of their seamless site, did you ever stop to wonder where all those products are being kept? What does it really look like…

Steve McCurry’s Blue City

There are no cars or motorcycles in the medieval quarters of Jodphur, India, once the capital of a princely state. Contrasting the burnt orange of the Thar Desert, the old city is painted in brilliant blue. Local guides say the houses were painted blue to indicate the homes of the upper-caste Brahmins, but others say…