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Category / Nostalgia

Postcards from North Korea

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is probably one of the most fascinating places on Earth, mostly because we know so little about what really goes on over there. What we do know is only what they want to show us. I’ve come across these rare archives of retro postcards and what looks like tourist…

Hitler’s Waldo: The German who didn’t give a F**k

Just a photograph of your average Nazi rally in Hitler Germany. Or is it? At the launch of a German army vessel in 1936, attended by Adolf Hitler himself, the crowd was doing their best impression of brainwashed Nazi enthusiasts and saluting Der Fuhrer. But at a closer look, the photograph shows one man who…

The Ghostly Flintstones Amusement Park

The soundtrack of Flinstones cartoons broadcast continuously over the park’s tinny loudspeakers, echoing eerily between the dusty, dilapidating houses of Bedrock’s famous residents from a bygone era. Built over 40 years ago during the Route 66 roadside attraction craze, this lonely concrete replica of a cartoon town has seen better days. You can only wonder how…

Color Snapshots of Paris in another Era

I found some rare autochrome photographs of Paris at the turn of the 20th century and thought you might like them. I was curious to compare each photograph with how it looks today so I’ve provided a link to most of them on Google Street view. Although much of Paris is still “old Paris”, not…

French Pacific Island Vanishes (Oops)

When a group of Australian scientists went on a a voyage to study plate tectonics (?) in the Pacific Ocean, the world map indicated that they would be passing an uninhabited island on their way called Sandy Island. When the boat approached the island’s coordinates, the captain prepared all the safety stops to make sure…

What makes Paris look like Paris? (According to Google)

Most Parisians can recognize a picture of Paris pretty instantly. From the Haussmann facades to the way the cobblestones are patterned in the street and the look of the drain pipes. But scientifically, what makes Paris look like Paris? Five scholars from Carnegie Mellon and the École normale supérieure have tried to answer this using…

Flying Cars and Underwater Croquet: France in the 21st Century

According to some artists’ predictions of the future in the late 19th century, France is way behind. A series of futuristic drawings set in the year 2000 by Jean-Marc Côté and other French artists were published at the turn of the century in France on cigarette boxes and postcards. Two things to note. 1) The…

10 Photos of the Caribbean Pompeii

This is the caribbean island of Montseratt in the West Indies. In the 17th century, Britain colonized the island and held on to it ever since. But the British didn’t consider the consequences of building their paradise around a volcano (probably because they were too busy benefiting from the sugar and rum economy they built…

Meet North Korea’s American Film Star

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il was a known film enthusiast, or what we might call a ‘movie-buff’. He especially loved the kind of movies that portrayed America as the evil imperialist devil– but there weren’t too many of those floating around Hollywood. So to take matters into his own hands, Kim poured a whole load…

Meet the London Club Kids Who Made Punk Go Pop

Sex, drugs and lots of black eyeliner. Just a regular Tuesday night at the Blitz Club. At the turn of the 1980s, London’s teenage squatters, outcast art school kids and disillusioned punks all descended on a barren Covent Garden in search of a good night out. By simply living out their wildest and wackiest fantasies,…

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