These houses look like something George Lucas would have dreamed up

Looking at these white globe houses, you would be forgiven for thinking that they were something from Star Wars. Located in the Dutch city of Den Bosch, they were designed in the 1970s by Dries Kreij Camp and built in 1984.

Called bolwoningen (which translates as either "ball" or "bulb" houses/apartments), the UFO-like dwellings are low maintenance, lightweight and relatively small. Each unit measures just 5.5 meters in diameter, but all of them have two bedrooms on the ground floor, a bathroom and kitchen in the middle and a living room with a nice view on top. If you happen to be in Amsterdam and you have a car, it will only take you about an hour to reach this really cool neighborhood.

According to this site:

"The idea behind these unusual cement and fibreglass buildings sprang not from the architect's leap of madness, but in the 'optimal experience of nature in all its facets', or so Mr. Kreijkamp claims. Supposedly residents feel much closer to nature, because it can be seen from all directions within each globe. The unusual shape of the buildings is accented all the more because they are located next to 'normal' houses."

Image credits: Super Formosa

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Preserved tattoos of the dead

The idea of preserving tattoos after death came into existence long before NAPSA . London's Wellcome Collection has over 300 specimens of preserved human flesh bearing tattoos , collected in the late 19th century. There are many more examples of smaller collections in Paris, Poland, Portugal, Berlin, and Austria. But what fascinates me the most is this lesser-known museum at Tokyo University, the Medical Pathology Museum, which houses pieces of skin collected since 1926 by Dr. Masaichi Fukushi. "Fukushi would perform autopsies on donated cadavers and dissect off just the skin. He created a method of treatment to preserve the skin and kept them stretched in a glass frame, essentially like a leather. Later the ownership of the tattooed skin collection was passed on to Fukushi's son Katsunari. Katsunari added a further 20 tattooed skins himself and it's believed that the Medical Pathology Museum has 105 in its collection, many with full body suits." ...

Firefly-themed park opens in China

Observing fireflies at night can be engrossing. When I was a kid, my friends and I used to catch a few of these flickering lightning bugs and put them inside a glass jar. If you're a firefly enthusiast and you're thinking of planning a trip around Asia, you might want to consider China. According to this blog , the world's first ever firefly-themed park just opened in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province. It is divided up into five separate areas including a zero-distance contact zone, observation zone, flying zone, breeding zone and science popularization area for visitors to interact with and observe the insects. The park has already attracted thousands of visitors, and will be opened annually from the end of May to early October.

Jared Yokte's surreal paintings

I found some really strange creatures today, and they all come from Filipino artist Jared Yokte . His characters are grotesque yet intriguing that instead of looking away you want to peer closer. His renditions of human and animal figures, as described by artist critic Cid Reyes, are marked by "intricate, flowing striations of lines, like exposed musculature or twisting ropy old twine." Jared's oil paintings are mostly autobiographical in narrative and interrelated with one another. Although you might not hear the cries and howls of his dusky, ethereal characters, you can certainly feel their misery. Jared was born in Davao Oriental, but now lives and works in Tarlac. His At the Rear There Is Something Contrary is now on view at Blanc Gallery in Quezon City.

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