After a Decade of Renovation, the National Library of France has Reopened

Last week we went to poke our heads inside the recently unveiled National Library of France, a 556 year-old collection in the heart of Paris that has been under wraps for a decade for renovation work. Take a quick tour with us below: In the early 2000s, the building had become too outdated for…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCXXIV)

1. The Gritty History of the Elk Hotel, One of Times Square’s Last Pay-By-the-Hour Hotels In February 2012, the Elk Hotel shuttered for good after nearly 90 years in business. Formerly one of the last hourly hotels in Times Square, the seedy flophouse has garnered a rather notorious reputation over the years. Of the three…

Bar Murals of New York City

After a hard day’s toil, one of New York’s greatest pleasures is to unwind with an evening cocktail. But amidst the countless bars to be found in the city, there are some where you can enjoy your favourite drink against a beautiful back drop. For dotted around the Metropolis are bars decorated with large scale…

Tokyo’s Forgotten Botanical Gardens look like Jurassic Park

This photograph above has been floating around on my To-Find-Out-What-The-Heck-This-Place-is List for a while. It’s one of those semi-viral images that doesn’t have any accurate information attached; not the photographer’s name nor the exact location it was taken (trust me, I reverse-searched this image for the owner until the end of Google– no luck). But…

A Brief History of Ridiculous Celebrity Endorsements

Cher reading the bible? Hmmm … something doesn’t quite add up. As far back as the 1760s, celebrity endorsements have been used to promote products, whether it was microwavable meals or the newest smoke on the market, someone was always there to seemingly believe in the product. In honour of National Bible Week in 1971, Sonny…

Oh, Just an Abandoned Hobbit Castle Built for Sheep

Having spent seven years surfing what I’ve come to call the “underweb”, I’ll tell ya, it takes some pretty weird stuff to surprise me these days. But this? This restores my faith in the internet’s ability to never run out of obscure things to show me. Behold “Colin’s Barn”, an eccentric hobbit-like superstructure built in the 1980s by…

Only Photographs Remained of the First Flying Man, Until Now…

“Sacrifices must be made…” were reportedly Otto Lilenthal’s last words following the fatal accident that saw him plunge to his untimely death from an altitude of 50 feet (15 meters) in his glider. Okay, so this might not sound like the most “uplifting” story so far, but for anyone who’s ever had in interest in collecting old photos, there’s…

The Vault

Welcome to the Messy World of Jerry’s Junk

Staring out at you from behind those rusty gates; thousands of tightly packed, unwanted objects from the past sit in an eerie silence, almost as if they might just come alive as soon as you turn your back. Each and every single one has been collected by Kentucky’s King of Junk, who has made a temporary home for them…

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A Penguin Love Story in Paris

If you’re in the dog house for missing Valentine’s Day, this might just crack a smile. We just had a little fun filming with our office penguin, Pete, who always looked a little lonely sitting in the corner. So we decided to clone him a girlfriend, Pauline, and capture their Parisian love story on film. Enjoy!…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCXIX)

1. A Bank in Rock River Wyoming For Sale at $80,000 This property is listed on the National Historical Register. Would make a fabulous event centre, or a 3,250 square feet home. Tons of space inside and includes an exterior lot of 13,000 sf. The original vault is still there (also, was used in the old…