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World Culture

World Culture

You think you’re tired?

We would imagine that most of our lovely readers have traveled, and maybe traveled a lot.  And you're looking forward to your next trip, wherever that may be. But, now let's admire (and maybe have sympathy) for young Lexie Alford who, at the tender age of 19 "had this crazy daydream I had about completing a…

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Go your own way

You often hear stories of the "tin foil hat" wackos who hide in caves and have three years worth of tins of beans, just to protect themselves from their goverments.  Given today's state of affairs, maybe they're right. In an abandoned Marine Corps base in the Southern California desert lies Slab City, home to a makeshift…

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We come in peace

Here is hoping that you never have experienced wartime.  The wounds take a long time to heal, if ever. But, a new exhibit reveals the wondrous sights service members found away from the trenches.  The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, USA have opened  a new exhibit featuring 300 images captured by…

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Here’s looking at Loo, kid

Loo =  toilet (UK) Public works are often joyless, utilitarian, just-get-it-done affairs.  Whether it's a road, or a bridge or even public restrooms, it makes you wonder why a little je ne sais quoi can't be in the building specifications. Happily, though, that's not always the case.  And here are some fine examples of where good taste…

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Fun is universal

Politics aside, we're all human, right?  And, as humans, for the most part we all seem to innately know that we must get along just to survive.  We've seen the history to know what happens when we don't. Here, we feature a video from the National Geographic of a few young athletes who are invited…

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Echo Bay, far away in time

It is sometime a surprise (and sometimes a disapointment) when legendary places seem to blow away in the wind overnight, even after years of shining in the sun. In this case, we're featuring Lake Mead's Lodge, in Nevada, USA. The lake itself is famous for its shining blue presence in the dry, dry desert, and, also, a…

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Even the building is McChic

Who doesn't love Paris?  The home of art, style, fashion, history and style. Especially the latter.  Paris is SO chic that even its McDonalds is skinny. Close to Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris, it is located in a timberframe building and extremely narrow. The interior of this restaurant is very special too. Decorations in the same…

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Stave awake

Talk about accuracy.  Have you heard of Stave churches?  When the Viking finally converted to Christianity (11th to 12th century) they certainly did it in style. The churches themselves are made entirely of wood, often without even nails or screws. Their name comes from the unique post-and-lintel system used in construction—thick wooden posts known as…

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Prosaic mosaic

As we humans (supposedly) get smarter, we should also do smart things.  That's not always the case, but here it is.  In 2010, workers encountered an especially impressive mosaic while digging the foundation for a new hotel in Antakya, Turkey. They found an ancient mosaic measuring 9,000 square feet, making it the largest intact mosaic ever…

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Dive light in

Deep blue waters that glow in the dark come night-time sound like something out of a fairytale. However, that's exactly what the world's bioluminescent bays offer, and they make for a pretty spectacular sight. The eye-catching effect is actually the result of a high concentration of plankton which, when they move, causes the waters to light up…

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Miles of tiles

Many specialist skills, those creating and molding incredible pieces over the decades, have long since disappeared into our overall void of mass-manufactured sameness.  But, fortunately, there are those who still carry the torch of the artisan.  Saied Hussain has been hand making tiles out of cement for over 50 years. He says he’s one of the…

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Distinctive and immediately recognizable

The architecture of Japan is one of the things that sets the country apart from others. It's very distinctive and immediately recognizable, and something whose charm beckons out to many tourists. While in cities like Tokyo, where landscapes change continuously as older buildings give way to new and modern ones, there are areas where you can take a look…

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Uh . . . coffee-flavoured coffee?

Nearly every expat or regular visitor can remember their first words in Spanish. They may not be the first you were taught, or learned from a self-teaching course pack, but the ones that most stuck in your head, or the first sentence you were able to pronounce without hesitating. But did you know that there's more…

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A penny for your plots, my dear

Buying a home is pricey, unless you plan on moving to the small town of Legrad in Croatia, in which case, it’s unbelievably cheap - as low as 1¢ US. Legrad once had the second-biggest population in Croatia, but when the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed, new borders were formed. And the town — which is on the…

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Wonders worth searching for

Many of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World collapsed into rubble a long time ago. The Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria, both of which were destroyed by earthquakes. Some of these wonders perhaps never existed at all, like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. We are going to take a look at…

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Liechtenswhere?

One of the only two doubly landlocked nations in the world, the ‘Principality of Liechtenstein’ is unquestionably a European country worth exploring. As of July 2010, the nation accommodates a meagre population of 35,002. It is widely acknowledged as a tax haven and was accused of assisting wealthy Germans in tax evasions involving millions of Euros. Liechtenstein…

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