Author: Ms. R.

Every time a major fair or exhibition ends, its pavilions are usually dismantled and become nostalgia, imprinted in memories and photos only. There are, however, some notable exceptions—in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Queens, New York, for example. The Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris, should have been demolished, but instead became a symbol of the city known the world over.  The 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, also in Paris, was dedicated to the……

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Isle of Farquhar, not to be confused with the Farquhar Group, which is a group of islands, is a three-mast schooner moored at Les Mamelles on Mahé, the largest of the islands in Seychelles. Built in 1909 in the Netherlands and originally named Zeemeeuw, this schooner changed owners, routes, and purpose several times before Captain Robertson Durup brought it to Seychelles, where it was used to carry labor, supplies, and produce from island to island. From its base there, Isle……

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Being the inspiration behind many of the Group of Seven’s famous paintings, the Agawa Canyon Wilderness Park is a remote wonder in one of Ontario‘s most rugged landscapes. The park is only accessible by a train that departs from Sault Ste. Marie every morning.  During the train ride to the canyon, the train commentary details various points of interest across the vast landscape and shares some of the interesting history of the region. Once the train stops at the……

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Soil from Mount Vesuvius was used to turn a piece of Italy into Mars. This powdery reddish dirt, called pozzolana, has been known since antiquity for its unique properties. Romans used it to build their temples and monuments, and today scientists and engineers used it to simulate the surface of the Red Planet. Around 150 tons of pozzolana were brought from near Naples to fill the main arena of a new test facility commissioned by the European Space Agency……

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This story was originally published by Grist and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Nature has been showing up in places you never expected. Dinosaurs roaming Times Square? A bunch of Lime scooters abandoned in a lake? According to the internet, the appropriate response to these situations is “Nature is healing.” The memes started in earnestness. As the coronavirus pandemic tightened its grip on our lives earlier this year, people were suddenly stuck in their homes…….

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During the Middle Ages, a ricetto was a common structure found in Italian villages. It’s deemed a fortified area used to store agricultural products, livestock, and working tools but was also often utilized as a fort for protection. The ricetto of Candelo, in Piedmont, is the best-preserved example of such a structure. Dating to the late Medieval period, the area is crossed by narrow roads that run between tightly packed buildings. It’s almost completely surrounded by its original walls,……

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In municipalities across Japan sit an increasing number of forgotten, dilapidated homes known as “ghost houses.” Despite the name and oft-eerie appearance, however, these are not haunted houses in need of an exorcism. Rather, ghost houses, or akiya as they are known in Japanese, are abandoned homes that towns cannot get rid of through demolition or resale. Impacting rural towns the hardest as young residents flock to the country’s major cities, the glut of ghost homes has prompted some……

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