the world’s most controversial boardgames

how different would christmas day be if, after dinner, your dad gathered the family around the table and opened a game like ‘war on terror’ or ’serial killer: the board game’? amazingly, this may have happened for some as all of the board games below have been / are still available to buy and each one has caused some degree of controversy, the reasons for which will quickly become apparent. some of them are pretty horrible and their inclusion in this list does not in any way condone their creation.

the forgotten sound mirrors

from 1915 onwards these huge eerie concrete structures started popping up along the uk coast, all built with one purpose: to provide the military with an early warning system in relation to incoming aircraft. their construction was pretty much limited to the uk and arrived just before radar technology as we know it became widespread.

the old world’s tallest buildings, 1884

(click on pic for mightier version or go here for mightiest version)
this is incredible.
published in 1884, the diagram above shows the 77 tallest buildings of the old world (europe, asia and africa) at that time. strangely, the 78th and tallest structure shown is from the new world: the washington monument. it stood/stands at 555ft and [...]

incredible engineering: the maeslant storm surge barrier

the maeslant barrier (maeslantkering), a huge storm surge barrier at the mouth of the port of rotterdam in the netherlands, is the largest hydraulic engineering structure on earth and, according to hard-fact bible wikipedia, ‘the largest moving structure on earth’. it was opened in 1997 as the final part of the delta works, an enormous [...]

the hanging coffins of sagada

if you ever visit the cliffs of sagada in the philippines you’ll be confronted by dozens of coffins, either perched on cliff faces above you, resting on iron bars jutting from the rock, or piled high in the caves of the cliff. for at least 2000yrs these cliffs were the traditional resting place of locals [...]

12 stunning lighthouses

i’ve been meaning to finish this for quite some time but the huge amount of lighthouses on earth made it a slow process. the examples below have been chosen for different reasons (e.g. design, location, history) and, as always, they’re what i consider to be the best in the world. if you disagree, let me [...]

weird & wonderful tv remote controls

without tv remote controls the world would probably be less than perfect. imagine having to get up off the couch every time you wanted to rapidly skip between 2 equally decent programmes that have been broadcast at exactly the same time - watching 2 channels at once would quickly become painful and stressful.
in order to [...]

these rocks rock

the title was just too tempting. sorry.
1. meoto iwa
situated just off the coast of mie, japan, meoto iwa (wedded rocks) are meant to signify marriage, the larger being male and the smaller female. the rope connecting the rocks (the shimenawa) weighs over a ton and is replaced throughout the year during various ceremonies.

2. kjeragbolten
wedged between [...]

the return of baby hatches

it’s an unfortunate fact of life that all over the world newborn babies are abandoned on a daily basis, in bins, on doorsteps, in bushes. just searching for ‘abandoned baby’ on the google news search brought up these results and that’s just a selection of the cases that are actually reported.
centuries ago a device called [...]

berlin’s holocaust memorial

opened in 2005 after years of disagreements, the ‘monument to the murdered jews of europe’ is a stunning sea of concrete blocks situated in the heart of berlin.

the memorial was designed by american architect peter eisenman and each of the 2711 stones, all without plaques or inscriptions, is unique in size, the design intended to [...]