The Secret Locket Ring of Queen Elizabeth I

The secrets of this beautiful locket ring were not discovered until it was removed from Elizabeth I’s finger after she died in 1603. The mother-of-pearl ring with rubies in the band and diamonds on the facade was hiding two miniature enamel portraits, one of Elizabeth herself and the other believed to be her mother, Anne…

The Bond Villain’s Lair: Skyfall’s Abandoned Island

Nearly forty years after people, the Japanese island of Hashima is lifeless, sagging and absolutely uninhabitable to man, unless of course you’re a crazed nemesis of James Bond, plotting to take down the British secret service. If you managed to get past the round-the-block queues outside of cinemas this weekend to catch a screening of…

Brunch in the Paris Puces

On a crisp sunny Sunday, there really is no better place to be in Paris than les Puces (the flea market) of St.Ouen. The epicenter of authentic Paris, le Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen is an ideal little society of its own, made up of village-like alleys and small streets, persevered by an intellectual and…

Swallowed by Nature

A friend sent me the above image this morning which recently appeared on the social media website, 9Gag. The photograph sparked a bit of a debate in the comments section of the site about where this image was actually taken. The source has not been identified and abandoned sites such as Chernobyl, Pripyat and Hashima…

The Little Barbie that grew Breasts

Skipper was launched by Mattel in 1964 as Barbie’s kid sister. Ten years later, Mattel decided that it was about time Skipper hit puberty like the rest of us. That is, if anyone else experienced puberty by rotating their left arm and voila: boobs! In 1975, ‘Growing up Skipper’ led to controversy in the media…

Brush up on your French with Les Parisiens

Remember what French class was like in school? I have to admit I don’t have the best memory of it because it was the easiest class to skip in favor of a second lunch. But what I can recall from when I did attend, is that it was never very relevant to how the French,…

The Sound of Jurassic Park

Okay so the secret is out. I’m a big dorky fan of Jurassic Park. And as I mentioned earlier, there’s a 4th installment of the movie set for release in 2014 so we all better start reacquainting ourselves in time for a major dino-comeback. I’m calling it: dinosaurs will be the zombies of 2014. Here’s…

The Abandoned Holiday Villas of the Pablo Escobar Empire

When Mr. Escobar wasn’t bombing commercial airlines carrying over a hundred innocent passengers to eliminate one of his enemies on board, spending $2,500 a month worth of rubber bands to wrap up his billions in cash, offering to pay off Colombia’s national debt or engaging in gunfights with Colombian police squads, Pablo liked to kick…

Before Google Earth: Camera Pigeons c. 1908

In 1908 Dr Julius Neubronner patented a miniature pigeon camera activated by a timing mechanism. The invention brought him international notability after he presented it at international expositions in Dresden, Frankfurt and Paris in 1909–1911. Spectators in Dresden could watch the arrival of the camera-equipped carrier pigeons, and the photos were immediately developed and turned…

How to Lose Yourself in Paris

A few weeks ago, through my endless network of Paris links, I stumbled upon a heavenly website called “Et si on se promenait à Paris“, translation: And what if we walked around Paris? Browsing through this captivating blog, it soon becomes very clear that the editor and photographer, Mademoiselle Audrey F, knows that there’s taking…