In a message announcing his retirement to the readers of art magazine FMR, the Italian publisher Franco Maria Ricci wrote: “To whoever asks me why, I shall answer in the same way as Voltaire: ‘Laissez-moi cultiver mon jardin.’ ”
The full import of those words has only now become apparent six years later with the news that the man who published some of the world’s most fantastical works ‑ and luxurious volumes ‑ has created its biggest maze. His labyrinth of bamboo hedges at Fontanellato near Parma reportedly covers some seven hectares (17.5 acres), which would make it more than five times larger than the Pineapple Garden Maze on Hawaii, the largest permanent hedge maze in the Guinness Book of Records. [THE GUARDIAN]
Ken Russell’s biopic (one of many he directed in the 70s), set in Bohemian Paris of 1910-15, was about eccentric Vorticist French sculptor Henri Gaudier (Scott Antony) and his relationship with older author Sophie Brzeska (Dorothy Tutin); Helen Mirren was featured as gloriously-nude model/suffragette Gosh Boyle posing and descending or ascending various staircases
Breezy is a teen-aged hippy with a big heart. After taking a a ride with a man who only wants her for sex, Breezy manages to escape. She runs to hide on a secluded property where stands the home of a middle-aged divorced man, Frank Harmon. Frank reluctantly takes Breezy in only to fall unexpectedly in love with her. Directed by Clint Eastwood.
Anita is a girl of only 16 years, and while she has developed early physically, to a mature woman, she is psychologically completly ruthless.
It is entirely possible to make excitation a way of life! This classic Swedish erotic gem stars Essy Persson (Therese and Isabelle) as Siv, a young, sexy nurse who tries to bed every man who crosses her path. Siv uses her raw sexuality to entice, seduce and eventually desert every man who loves or desires her.
On a private isle in Italy’s Lago Maggiore that has been in the family for half a millennium, Principe and Principessa Borromeo are living the ultimate dolce vita.
Gellért Thermal Baths and Swimming Pool are a bath complex in Budapest, Hungary, built between 1912 and 1918 in the (Secession) Art Nouveau style. They were damaged during World War II, but then rebuilt. References to healing waters in this location are found from as early as the 13th century. A hospital was located on this site during the Middle Ages. During the reign of the Ottoman Empire, baths were also built on this particular site.
Nemo 33 is the deepest swimming pool in the world. Its maximum depth is 35 meters. It contains 2,500,000 liters of non-chlorinated, highly filtered spring water maintained at 30 °C (86 °F) and holds several simulated underwater caves at the 10 m depth level. There are numerous underwater windows that allow outside visitors to look into the pools at various depths. The complex was designed by Belgian diving expert John Beernaerts as a multi-purpose diving instruction, recreational, and film production facility, 2004.
San Juan Parangaricutiro was destroyed during the formation of the Parícutin volcano in 1943. Along with the village of Parícutin, San Juan Parangaricutiro was buried beneath ash and lava. The tops of cathedrals in old San Juan Parangaricutiro still protrude from the volcanic deposits.
The lighthouse tower is 23 metres high, and, when the lighthouse was built, it was 200 metres inland; and there were no large dunes around it. With time the sea moved in closer, and, simultaneously, the wind blew large amounts of sand up from the cliff. The sand piled up in front of and around the lighthouse. It filled the well and ruined the kitchen gardens. To suppress the sand pine grates were set in and lyme grass and helmet was planted in the dune. The only result was that the dune just grew larger. The more that was planted, the more the dune grew. At last the sand was so high that at times it was impossible to see the light from the sea. On August 1. 1968 the struggle was given up and the lighthouse was lit for the last time.
Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt flat at 10,582 square kilometers (4,086 sq mi). It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, and is elevated 3,656 meters (11,995 ft) above the mean sea level. It is covered by a few meters of salt crust, which has an extraordinary flatness with the average altitude variations within one meter over the entire area of the Salar. The crust serves as a source of salt and covers a pool of brine, which is exceptionally rich in lithium. It contains 50 to 70% of the world’s lithium reserves, which has yet to be extracted.
A tessellated pavement is a rare erosional feature formed in flat sedimentary rock formations lying on some ocean shores. The pavement bears this name because the rock has fractured into polygonal blocks that resemble tiles, or tessellations. The cracks (or joints) were formed when the rock fractured through the action of stress on the Earth’s crust and subsequently were modified by sand and wave action.
The Granite Mountain Records Vault is a large archive and vault owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints excavated 600 feet into the north side of Little Cottonwood Canyon. The Granite Mountain facilities feature a dry, environment-controlled facility used for long-term record storage, as well as administrative offices, shipping and receiving docks, a processing facility and restoration laboratory for microfilm. Records stored include genealogical information contained in over 2.4 million rolls of microfilm and 1 million microfiche. This equals about 3 billion pages of family history records. The vault’s library of microfilm increases by up to 40,000 rolls per year. Since 1999, the church has been digitizing the genealogical microfilms stored in the vault. The church makes the records publicly available through its Family History Centers, as well as online at its FamilySearch website.
Salt water bubbles from the Qoripujio spring and is channelled to shallow men-made pools. Exposed to the sun, the water evaporates and the salt remains on the surface and is then collected and to be sold in the market. There are over 3,000 pools crammed into this hanging valley.
An explosion of natural color known as “the river that ran away from paradise”
