
In case you haven't noticed, we live in a very strange world. And if you happen to be in Sonkajärvi, Finland, on the 4th of July, you'll know it for sure. Brace yourself for the World Wife Carrying Championships.



In case you haven't noticed, we live in a very strange world. And if you happen to be in Sonkajärvi, Finland, on the 4th of July, you'll know it for sure. Brace yourself for the World Wife Carrying Championships.

It looks more like a boutique hotel you'd find in New York, but Lush is actually in Istanbul, Turkey. A self-proclaimed 'highly individual place' in the Beyoglu district (near Taksim Square), Lush is a stylish city hotel with a difference.

You don't have to travel to see exhibitions any more. You should, but you don't have to. This month, you can not only catch a great exhibition from the comfort of your sofa, but you can also gain a fascinating insight into Europe - through the eyes of designers.

Michael Jackson passed away June 25th, 2009 in Los Angeles, CA. He was also known as the “King of Pop” by millions of people around the world. He sold more then 750 million records in his career and his album thriller is the best selling record of all time.

Here's a chilling thought. Scientists predict that if humans continue fishing the way that we do, we'll see the end of most seafood by 2048. That's bye-bye fish. Sayonara sushi. The End of the Line, a new feature documentary film, outlines the devastating effects of the human appetite for seafood.

Seems like a no-brainer to me. We burn fossil fuels and pollute the atmosphere that sustains us. We split atoms and - oops - irradiate the land we live off. However, we're surrounded in natural energy that we can draw upon without, it seems, hurting anyone. Wind power - great idea. But if you're not so sure about those giant windmill farms, here are some alternative ideas for turbines.
Close your eyes, and take a trip with me to a small group of five islands and 75 rocks in the northern Atlantic Ocean. At the age of 15, I closed my eyes, and took my first trip to these islands, having seen a picture of them in art class at school. What looked like a tropical paradise was in fact the Scilly Isles. Yes, the islands with a funny name, and big palm trees growing outside.

Eighteen months ago, I wrote an article on Been-Seen about the Glencomeragh House Retreat Centre in Ireland, which features poustinia, small cabins used for meditation, around its grounds. It's beautiful in its simplicity - a 19th-century house surrounded by striking modern cubes. So it's great to hear about Consolación, a similar hotel in the relatively undiscovered Matarraña region of Spain.

Panoramic photography has always been a wonderful way to get good look at landscapes and locations around the world. GigaPan images take panoramic pictures to a whole new scale by allowing people to create and share super high-resolution pictures that you can zoom into. This allows you to not only see the scale of a location but also all the small details one would get from close up photography.
This short montage shows the hike along The Continental Divide Trail, which is 3100 miles long and goes from Mexico to Canada across New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. This version of the video compressed the five and a half month trip into 3min but be sure to check out the 15min and 2hour versions here if you have time.

The open road, the choice to travel down any path one chooses: this has long been one of the great ways of traveling for any adventurer. Motorhomes, camper vans and trailers let you do this while still keeping some of your comforts from your home.

Here's a fascinating issue to contemplate. When does a ruin become a tourist attraction? The Colosseum in Rome is just about 2,000 years old. The Acropolis in Athens even older. Ruined castles, archeological remains, we flock to them. So, how about Chernobyl? It's 23 years since the reactor at the Soviet nuclear plant exploded, it's encased in a temporary sarcophagus, and the land around it is deserted, uninhabitable by humans. It's ruined all right, but would anyone want to go there?