Now in its triumphant fourth year, this week we will be focussing on all things island with Island Week 4. The name gives it away, but the idea is that we'll be posting mainly about islands, it'll last for a…

High up in the Italian Dolomite mountains, 90km north of Venice, the Vajont Dam was the scene of one of the 20th century's worst engineering disasters. The tallest dam in the world when it was completed in 1959, at 262m,…

The Alameda Trench is a 16-km train route which runs 10m below ground-level through the centre of Los Angeles. Trains descend into the trench near Greenleaf Boulevard in the south and rise back to the surface at 25th Street to…

8 years ago today, on 21 September 2001, a huge explosion occurred in the AZF (AZote Fertilisant – nitrogen fertiliser) factory in Toulouse, France. Three hundred tonnes of ammonium nitrates blew up, creating a 200 m wide crater up to…

In Indiana, the local farmers have an apparently long tradition of decorating the roofs of their barns with interesting pictures. I haven't been able to find much information on the historical reasons why they do this, but the steeply angled…

There seems to be a phenomenon occurring all around the world: Giant ships have been sneaking quietly out of the shipyard, going just out the sight of their owners, turning onto their sides and taking a little siesta. The Mediterranean…