5 October 2025

Planet of the Lemurs: 10 Beautiful Little-Known Species

Most people have heard of the Ring-tailed Lemur and might suppose that it is the only species. However, there are many varieties of Lemur, a lot of which are beautiful and incredibly rare. The Ark in Space takes a look in to the planet of the lemurs and discovers the wonderful diversity of this lesser known family of animals.

11 September 2022

Incredible Crepuscular Rays - Sunbeams Caught on Camera


Sunbeams are everywhere – yet when they are caught on camera they are often unwanted additions to a photograph. They cut swathes through the picture, chopping off heads and obscuring detail in a burst of light. However, when they are deliberately captured the results can be nothing short of magical.

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11 July 2022

30 Photos that will Make you Look Twice

We hope that you find Kuriositas visually stimulating. However, without the host of great photographers out there who make their work available under Creative Commons licenses, we would not be able to show you a fraction of the wonderful places the site has featured over the years. While sourcing these photographs we often come across ones accidentally – and these are real moments of serendipity. They may not be what we are looking for but they make us look twice. Here are thirty of those double-take moments for you to enjoy.

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11 May 2022

Time is Nothing: Around The World Time Lapse


Ten years ago Kien Lam (left) from San Francisco quit his job, packed his bag and grabbed his camera and then jumped on a plane to London with a one way ticket.  Over the next 343 days he would visit 17 countries and take 6237 photographs.  On his return to his home and family he put together this remarkable souvenir of his travels.

You will see many places here that we have featured on Kuriositas – and we are so very jealous of Kien that he saw them all one after the other. Anyway – sit back and enjoy – and if you want to see more of Kien’s amazing journey then visit his website where he elaborates in a more stately fashion about his global sojourn. The music is provided by William Lam (who is a very talented composer and who just happens to be Kien’s younger brother).

11 April 2022

Shipwreck!

We normally associate shipwrecks with the bottom of the sea but with the tragedy of the Costa Concordia our perceptions changed. Many ships end up on or near beaches. Here are just a few of the ships around the world which did not sink but were shipwrecked nonetheless.

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14 February 2022

Fight!

Over at the Ark in Space there is a terrific set of photographs of animals caught in the act of fighting. Some of these conflicts are simply play - but in others you can see a real tooth and claw (or beak and wing for that matter) struggle going on. Wild!

He that fights and runs away
May turn and fight another day
But he that is in battle slain
Will never rise to fight again.
Tacitus


Image Credit Flickr User fPat

6 February 2022

Jaçana – The Big Foot of the Bird World

This is the Jaçana. A fairly unprepossessing wading bird, but take a look at those feet and claws! This really is the big foot of the bird world! Above is the African Jaçana, one of eight species which inhabits the world's tropical zone from Asia to the Americas. Our sibling site, the Ark in Space has the story of this unusual bird as well as some incredible photographs. Go take a look!

Image Credit Flickr User Lip Kee

4 June 2021

Houses of the Hobbit Diaspora

If you think that Hobbits are fictional, do not be fooled a second longer.  Middle-earth once existed, as did all of its various species.  Yet the hobbits found themselves obliged to leave their original home of The Shire. Rescued by the ancestors of a mild-mannered English writer, they have spread across the world.  A spell cast by the Gandalf the White means that the sons of men cannot see them but if you look close enough, there is evidence to be found.  A hobbit has to live somewhere, after all.  Here are just some of the houses of the Hobbit diaspora.

The first evidence of hobbits goes back hundreds of years.  Sites in Scotland and Finland, to name but two, have shown that hobbits have been living among us for longer than anyone imagined.  In exchange for our hospitality, the Hobbits have sworn to help us thrive.  While you might argue that, globally, they cannot be doing too good a job of that, there are few hobbits to many millions of humans - so the scale of their assistance is not huge.
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20 September 2020

Lost, Missing and Found Posters - The Funny Side

You have all seen them – you may have even appeared on one yourself – posters proclaiming the loss of a dear pet or relative.  Although some disapprove of them for their intrusion on public space most would not dream of removing them in the hope that whatever was lost will be found. And then there are those who embrace them as a form of alternative art.  Their alternative lost posters amuse and irritate with, quite possible, equal measure. We prefer to see the funny side – and so here are some of the best on the net.

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21 April 2018

Rainbow Lightning: Nature’s Astonishing Bow and Arrow

Most people have experienced lightning. Likewise, ask people if they have ever seen a rainbow and most will answer in the positive.  Yet something which few have seen is the moment that a rainbow and lightning occur at the same time. 

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30 May 2013

Hadoken: Japanese Schoolgirl Trend Goes Global

A month or two ago a trend started in Japan. Photos of schoolgirls doing what looked like extremely impressive manga style martial arts moves on their friends started to appear on social networking sites, notably Twitter. Most popular of all was 波動拳 or hadoken (sometimes spelled hadouken) made famous in the Street Fighter series of fighting games. Now, it's going global.

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21 May 2013

Skywhale Rises Over Australia

The Australian state of Canberra is 100 years old this year.  As part of the on-going celebrations the Skywhale – a 34 meter long hot balloon was commissioned to symbolize… well, a lot of Canberrans aren’t exactly sure what.  Skywhale has hardly gotten off the ground before she is the center of very divided opinion.

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21 June 2012

Mantra-Hatton – Times Square Taken Over by Yoga Fans

It may only be in a place like New York that over a thousand people can get together and calmly start to follow a yoga class. Yet there they are, pictured yesterday (June 20). 1600 mats were given out for the occasion, which marked the Summer Solstice and fairly soon you could not move for yogis keen to practice their moves. The skills on display were varied – from beginners to veteran but one thing was for sure – tourists and yogis alike seemed to be enjoying it!

Attendees were instructed to try and find stillness, harmony and transcendence in the middle of the world's most commercial and chaotic place, Times Square. The yoga enthusiasts commemorated the longest day of the year (June 20th) by taking part in hour long sessions which took place all day.

First Image Credit Flickr User The Rachel Maddow Show

27 April 2012

The Dalek Invasion of MIT

It seems the Daleks are in need of our scientific minds because this week saw their first assault on an American university.  The Stata Center of Massachusetts Institute of Technology became what is to become just the first of their many outposts at earthly institutions of higher education.  Or perhaps they are just fans of the architecture of Frank Gehry and are simply looking for a little home decor inspiration for a new pad back on planet Skaro?

Hmm! We suspect the presence of this particular genetically engineered Kaled mutant, replete with mechanical shell is more to do with student high jinks than any immediate threat of invasion from the fictional frighteners! The Stata Center – which has divided opinion since it opened in 2004 as to whether it is brilliant, a mess or a brilliant mess – has been the victim of a number of pranks (or hacks in modern parlance) in its short life.

The building, which houses MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, as well as the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy seems to be a magnet to pranksters.  Harry Potter broomsticks, Where’s Waldo’s facial features and a crashed UFO are just some of the hacks that have taken place in and around the center. That’s before you mention the changing of the MIT sign in front of the building – amazing what the addition of two letters (in this case  V and O) in front can do to a name.

This dalek, however, does not seem to be as home made as some of the previous hacks.  It is certainly not an example of the new paradigm but someone has taken a huge amount of time and care to create this classic era replica. One can only hope this dalek reigns supreme at MIT for at least a few days before he is removed to a secure location...

Footnote: If you do not know what a dalek is, read the Wikipedia entry and wonder what you have been missing since 1963!


First Image Credit Chris Devers

11 March 2012

A New Life


The art of restoration is quite often something which goes on behind closed doors.  The art of the luthier (someone who repairs lutes and other stringed instruments) is something that few have an opportunity to see.

So when Toni Valls Pou, an audiovisual producer and editor, was approached by luthier Antonio Manjón a certain proposition was hard to resist.

Manjón had already restored the 19th century Spanish guitar you can see in this remarkable video. He came to Valls with three boxes of slides and some plans. The great challenge was to explain the process based only on those elements. We think you will agree that he made a fine job of it!

28 November 2011

Close Encounters of the Swedish Kind

There doesn’t seem to be any sign of Klaatu, the ET or even a solitary Vulcan looking to make first contact. Yet this wood near the town of Harads in Sweden is home to something strange and out of this world. Have aliens finally landed? Perhaps it’s a reconnaissance party from the planet we humans have just discovered - Gliese 581g?

Nope. On closer inspection, the more down to earth nature of this mysterious saucer shaped object is revealed. Are those wires? Is that a stepladder? Both are needed, in fact, as this is not a visitor from another world but a hotel - or part of one.

The saucer is a new addition to Treehotel, the award winning alternative to four walls and a window. Unlike those who have (at least in fiction) managed to hitch a ride on a space ship, this one will be a little heavy on your wallet – you and a friend can stay there for about $US650 a night.

At least you get a hearty Swedish breakfast thrown in for good measure. If this was the real thing the most you could probably expect would be a probe in every orifice and an uncomfortable implant!

3 June 2011

Summer!

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. ~Russel Baker

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.  ~Gertrude Jekyll

If a June night could talk, it would probably boast it invented romance.  ~Bern Williams

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie -
True Poems flee.
~Emily Dickinson

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.  ~Wallace Stevens

In summer, the song sings itself.  ~William Carlos Williams

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.  ~Sam Keen

Summer has set in with its usual severity.  ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.  ~John Lubbock

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.  ~Henry James

Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit.  A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.  ~Ada Louise Huxtable

Summer's filled with breaking the rules, standing apart, ignoring your head, and following your heart. ~Anonymous

Breathless, we flung us on a windy hill, laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass. ~Rupert Brooke

I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June? ~L. M. Montgomery

The dandelions and buttercups gild all the lawn: the drowsy bee stumbles among the clover tops, and summer sweetens all to me. ~ James Russell Lowell

What is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days. ~James Russell Lowell

Who has not dreamed a world of bliss on a bright, sunny noon like this? ~William Howitt

Summer time an' the livin' is easy, Fish are jumpin' an' the cotton is high. Oh, yo' daddy's rich, and yo' ma' is good-lookin', So hush, little baby, don' yo' cry. ~Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward

The summer dawn's reflected hue
To purple changed Lock Katrine blue,
Mildly and soft the western breeze
Just kiss'd the lake, just stirr'd the trees,
And the pleased lake, like maiden coy,
Trembled but dimpled not for joy.
~Sir Walter Scott

No price is set on the lavish summer;
June may be had by the poorest comer.
~James Russell Lowell

Beauty sat with me all the summer day,
Awaiting the sure triumph of her eye:
Nor mark'd I till we parted, how, hard by,
Love in her train stood ready for his prey
~Robert Seymour Bridges

Warm summer sun, shine kindly here:
Warm summer wind, blow softly here:
Green sod above lie light, lie light:
Good night, Dear Heart: good night, good night.
~anonymous

Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains... ~Diane Ackerman

The summer morn is bright and fresh, the birds are darting by
As if they loved to breast the breeze that sweeps the cool clear sky.
~William C. Bryant

People take pictures of the Summer, just in case someone thought they had missed it, and to prove that it really existed. ~Ray Davies

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? ~William Shakespeare

How sweet I roamed from field to field, and tasted all the summer's pride. ~ William Blake

But thy eternal summer shall not fade ~William Shakespeare