M.J. Rose

Or perhaps these houses are very much alive as secret histories, waiting to be read?

(The following is one of the most intriguing introductions to a new novel that we have seen…)

Man Explores Abandoned Untouched Homes In Europe

“Author Ransom Riggs wanted to make sure the setting for his upcoming novel was true to life, so he travelled to Europe to find the kind of houses that were described in the pages of his book. When he stepped into these abandoned homes, he discovered something he never expected to see. Some of these homes, empty for decades, were completely undisturbed. If not for the thick dust coating everything, it’d be as if they were still lived in. Trinkets from a time long past littered the inside.

Riggs teamed up with urban explorer/photographer Martino Zegwaard to photograph and document the inside of these homes. His intention was to show that these homes aren’t rotting wastes of space, they’re visual histories of the people who lived there…”

For the rest of the article, click here. For the video, see below.

A version of Dante’s hellish vision, captured on camera in all its morbid beauty…

(Images: Nick Brandt)

Deadly lake turns animals into statues

by Rowan Hooper

“ACCORDING to Dante, the Styx is not just a river but a vast, deathly swamp filling the entire fifth circle of hell. Perhaps the staff of New Scientist will see it when our time comes but, until then, Lake Natron in northern Tanzania does a pretty good job of illustrating Dante’s vision.

Unless you are an alkaline tilapia (Alcolapia alcalica) – an extremophile fish adapted to the harsh conditions – it is not the best place to live. Temperatures in the lake can reach 60 °C, and its alkalinity is between pH 9 and pH 10.5.

The lake takes its name from natron, a naturally occurring compound made mainly of sodium carbonate, with a bit of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) thrown in. Here, this has come from volcanic ash, accumulated from the Great Rift valley. Animals that become immersed in the water die and are calcified…”

For the rest click here.