Cándido López
Cándido López was an Argentine soldier and painter who worked in the Naïve style. He is best known for his historical scenes from the Paraguayan War in which he fought.
Boskoop
Boskoop is a town in the South Holland province of the Netherlands, recognized for its extensive horticultural history and its network of canals. Established in the Middle Ages, Boskoop became a center for tree and plant nurseries, a reputation it maintains today as one of the largest nursery districts in the world. The town’s geography is defined by its narrow waterways and low-lying agricultural plots, which are characteristic of the Dutch polder landscape. Boskoop is also known for its efficient transportation systems, historically using boats to move goods through its canals.
Philippe Jullian
Philippe Jullian was a French writer, illustrator, and art historian known for his wit, eccentricity, and deep engagement with the aesthetics of the Belle Époque and fin-de-siècle periods. Born in Bordeaux into an aristocratic family, Jullian developed an early fascination with decadence and symbolism, which became central themes in his work. He gained prominence through his biographies of cultural figures like Oscar Wilde, Edward VII, and Sarah Bernhardt, offering incisive and often humorous portraits of their lives and times.
MV Lyubov Orlova
The MV Lyubov Orlova was a Soviet-built cruise ship that gained notoriety not for its voyages, but for its strange and mysterious fate after being abandoned at sea. Constructed in 1976 in Yugoslavia and named after the famed Russian actress Lyubov Orlova, the ship initially served as a luxury liner for expeditions in polar regions, ferrying passengers to destinations like Antarctica. For decades, it operated as a charter vessel, but financial troubles caught up with the ship, and it was seized in 2010 in Canada due to unpaid debts. In 2013, after sitting docked for years, the Lyubov Orlova was sold for scrap in the Dominican Republic. During its tow from Canada, the ship broke free from its tug in rough seas near Newfoundland. Efforts to secure it failed, and the derelict vessel drifted into international waters. Declared a hazard to navigation, it was to be monitored, but over time, tracking ceased, and the ship effectively disappeared.
Lost City Hydrothermal Field
The Lost City Hydrothermal Field, located on the Atlantis Massif in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, is a remarkable deep-sea ecosystem that has captivated scientists since its discovery in 2000. Unlike typical hydrothermal vents fueled by volcanic activity, Lost City is powered by serpentinization, a chemical reaction between seawater and mantle rocks, producing hydrogen and methane that sustain unique microbial life. Towering carbonate chimneys, some reaching heights of 60 meters (200 feet), release warm, alkaline fluids rich in minerals, creating a stark contrast to the scalding, acidic environments of black smoker vents.
Heavy water
Heavy water is a form of water in which hydrogen atoms are all deuterium rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope that makes up most of the hydrogen in normal water. Heavy water has different physical properties from regular water, such as being 10.6% denser and having a higher melting point. Heavy water is less dissociated at a given temperature, and it does not have the slightly blue color of regular water. It can taste slightly sweeter than regular water, though not to a significant degree.
Biblioteca Vasconcelos
Located in Mexico City, the Biblioteca Vasconcelos is one of the most striking libraries in the world. Designed by architect Alberto Kalach and inaugurated in 2006, this "megalibrary" spans over 38,000 square meters, making it a centerpiece of knowledge and design.
Frankfurt kitchen
The Frankfurt kitchen is considered an important point in domestic architecture. It is also thought to be the forerunner of modern fitted kitchens because it was the first kitchen in history built after a unified concept: low-cost design that would enable efficient work. It was designed in 1926 by Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky for architect Ernst May's social housing project New Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany. Some 10,000 units were built in the late 1920s in Frankfurt.
Beryl Markham
Beryl Markham was a Kenyan aviator born in England (one of the first bush pilots), adventurer, racehorse trainer and author. She was the first person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic from Britain to North America. She wrote about her adventures in her memoir, West with the Night.
Vladimir Demikhov
Vladimir Demikhov was a Soviet Russian scientist and organ transplantation pioneer, who performed several transplants in the 1940s and 1950s, including the transplantation of a heart into an animal and a heart–lung replacement in an animal. He is also well known for his dog head transplants, which he conducted during the 1950s, resulting in two-headed dogs.