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Phantom of the Opera fans can now spend the night inside the opulent Parisian opera house that inspired the beloved musical and novel.
Airbnb and the Opéra National de Paris have teamed up to transform one of the Palais Garnier’s chambers, the Box of Honor, into a lavish bedroom. While the box is typically reserved for visiting dignitaries, two lucky read more

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A prominent educator and patron of the arts, Henry Cole travelled in the elite, social circles of early Victorian England, and had the misfortune of having too many friends. During the holiday season of 1843, those friends were causing Cole much anxiety. The problem were their letters: An old custom in England, the Christmas and New Year’s letter had received a new impetus with the recent read more

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Every year, a wonderful event celebrating the beauty of nature and humanity’s connection with it takes place over a weekend in Scotland.
The European “Land Art” Festival and Stone Stacking Championships were held for the fifth time in Dunbar on the shores of Scotland. Organized originally as the “John Muir Stone Stacking Challenge,” taking the name read more

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The Ultimate Guide to Holland’s Tulip Season 2022
The tulip season in the Netherlands starts at the end of March and finishes around the middle of May. The tulips are at their absolute best in mid April. This is when the tulip fields are in full bloom.

Wander through Keukenhof. It’s a gorgeous park with over 7 million tulip bulbs. It’s the most popular place to see tulips in Holland. read more

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Celebrity wedding cake designer Sylvia Weinstock — who earned the nickname “Queen of Cakes” for her extraordinary edible art — has died. She was 91.
Weinstock — who made appearances on “Gossip Girl,” “Today,” “Top Chef” and “Nailed It” — was a former Long Island schoolteacher who only became a full-time baker at age 50 after surviving read more

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A glassblower at Roberto Beltrami’s workshop, which is trying to compensate for gas-bill increases by raising prices by 15% to 35%.
Murano island, Venice: glass-worker heats a glass artistic creation in a methane powered oven

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Italy’s artisan glassblowers feel heat as gas prices soar
Surging energy prices are posing problems for the artisan glassblowers of Italy’s Murano. They have seen off plagues and pandemics and changed their business model to outrun low-priced competition from Asia. But now methane prices are shattering their read more

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These amazing pictures showing the movement of a diving kingfisher are the result of a photographer’s two-year wait for the perfect photo.
47-year-old Vince Burton used a slow shutter speed to capture the trail of the bird as it plunged into a pond at up to 25mph (40kmh). The torpedo-like blue kingfisher can be seen hurtling beak-first towards the water as read more

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19-Apr-2021 – The world’s biggest kite, shaped like a dragon and stretching over 280 meters, soared in the skies over the city of Weifang.
It took 28 craftsmen 48 days to design and complete the kite. Flying it required 55 people, said Zhang Huagang, general manager of Weifang Tianshun Kite Productions read more

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John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American author and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception.” He has been called “a giant of American letters,” and many of his works are considered classics of Western literature.

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SANDTASTIC BEASTS Thailand theme park uses white sand to imitate ice in dazzling display of art
Visitors to the “Frost Magical Ice of Siam” park can walk around a -10c ice dome and learn about monsters from Asian legends.

The 30,000sqm exhibit is the largest collection of ice sculptures in South Asia and the first ice dome to be build in Pattaya.

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Photo courtesy AFP or licensors

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Stunning photograph shows an ancient tradition dating back to 960 AD
This is the spectacular moment a fisherman with a close bond to cormorants used a flock of birds to catch big fish in a centuries old ritual in southern China. Photographer Julia Wimmerlin said: ‘Seeing this whole process and the beautiful setting where it takes place just takes your breath away.

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Image courtesy Julia Wimmerlin / Solent News

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polar bear trying his paw at photography in Svalbard, Norway
a snail and a lizard share a moment in Indonesia
praying mantis, crouching butterfly
whale shark underneath fishing platform in Indonesia

Photo courtesy Roie Galitz, Andi Abdul Halil, Liang Wu, and Marco Zaffignani / Siena International Photo Awards