In Renaissance Europe, long before the concept of organ donation could have been envisioned, cadavers were given a new life as architectural ornaments, and skeletons were put to use as building materials. Why continue piling up bones in an ossuary when you could put them to practical use-or better yet, turn them into a thing of beauty? Thus began the oddest interior-decorating style in history: rooms made entirely of human bones.
The world's most fabled agent, Lazar was just over five feet tall. Humphrey Bogart (who dubbed him Swifty, after Lazar made five movie deals for him in as many hours), once said his agent was the only man alive who cheated at croquet by walking through the hoop after the ball. Bogart was one of the few actors Lazar represented; he preferred writers, who liked working in solitude, whereas actors needed constant, time-consuming reassurance. He conducted most of his business over the telephone. "Some day he'll have to have an operation to have the phone removed from his ear," his client Garson Kanin said. The dapper agent's clientele also included Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Billy Wilder, Neil Simon, Richard Rodgers, Lerner and Loewe, Lillian Hellman and Ernest Hemingway.
The phenomenon of riding on the outside of trains came with the appearance of the first railway lines. On a series of first railroads, riding on rooftops and footboards of trains was common, but over time, starting from the second half of the 19th century, with an increase in the sizes and speed of trains, passenger coaches began to be produced fully covered and insulated from streets with a placement of all passenger seats inside carriages in order to improve the safety of passengers and prevent people falling from a moving train. However, some individuals have continued riding on the outside of trains.
Based in the Russian city of Archangelsk, ex-gangster Nikolai originally intended the building to contain two floors but couldn’t help himself when he realized there was nothing to stop him adding more on top.
The Solovetsky Islands of northern Russia are probably best known for the Solovetsky Monastery, a great medieval monastery that became a notorious Soviet prison camp. But these remote islands were sacred for thousands of years before the monastery's foundation in 1429, as evidenced by an array of stone alignments, circles, and mysterious labyrinths that can still be seen there today.
David Gareji is a rock-hewn Georgian Orthodox monastery complex located in the Kakheti region of Eastern Georgia.
In 1980, with one leg having been amputated, Terry Fox embarked on an east to west cross-Canada run to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Although the spread of his cancer eventually forced him to end his quest after 143 days and 5,373 kilometres and ultimately cost him his life, his efforts resulted in a lasting, worldwide legacy.
A canopy raft is an inflatable PVC pontoon frame with high-tension netting spread between. They're pre-inflated and lifted into position via helicopter. Once in position, the rafts are set down among the tree-tops, allowing researchers unfettered access to the uppermost reaches of the forest ecosystem. Scientists can observe from the raft, rappel from it too - they can even live on its temporary floor for several days at a time.
Sarah Baartman was the most famous of at least two hoikhoi women who were exhibited as freak show attractions in 19th-century Europe.
The dandy-horse was a two-wheeled vehicle, with both wheels in-line, propelled by the rider pushing along the ground with the feet as in regular walking or running.