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The Confession of Love The Rococo movement was an artistic period that emerged in France and spread thrartisticoughout the world in the late 17th and early 18th century. The word is a derivative of the French term rocaille, which means “rock and shell garden ornamentation”. It began in 1699 after the French King, Louis XIV, demanded more youthful art to be produced under his reign. It is also referred to as Late Baroque because it developed as Baroque artists moved away from symmetry to more fluid designs....

Joan of Leeds created a makeshift dummy to throw Archbishop Melton off track. She then fled to a town 30 miles away and was never seen again. Pexels Committing to the lifelong pursuit of being a nun and living in a convent is one that requires extreme commitment — particularly in the 14th century. For Joan of Leeds, a rather rebellious English nun at St. Clement’s Nunnery in Yorke, a change in pursuits required extreme measures — namely, escape....

Artist John Bramblitt paints gorgeous portraits and colorful landscapes — despite the fact that he was rendered blind from epilepsy in 2001. For more than a decade, John Bramblitt has painted gorgeous portraits and colorful landscapes, despite the fact that he was rendered blind from epilepsy in 2001. Before you assume that he was always a successful painter, know that while art was always an important part of Bramblitt’s life, he never picked up a paintbrush until after he lost his sight....

Urbanization may hold the key to alleviating poverty, but at what cost can this come? Nick Brandt wants his woolly rhinoceros back. At least that’s how the English photographer begins his essay on Inherit the Dust, his latest photo project. Unfortunately for Brandt, centuries of industrialization and urban development in the chilly isle mean that the rhino — along with a host of other animals who once called England home — will never return....

Because the remote island had no wetlands or ponds, Trevor was forced to call a roadside puddle his home. “Trevor the Duck – Niue”/FacebookTrevor the Duck next to his favorite puddle. A mallard reportedly blown to the remote Pacific island nation of Niue by a storm last year has been found dead in a bush after an unfortunate attack by dogs, The Guardian reported. Lovingly nicknamed Trevor, after New Zealand’s parliamentary speaker Trevor Mallard, the duck became a local celebrity after The New Zealand Herald documented his despondent existence in a roadside puddle....

After Pearl Harbor, Americans took trophy skulls as they viewed the Japanese as inherently evil and less than human. Wikimedia CommonsClockwise from top left: U.S. soldier with the Japanese skull adopted as the “mascot” of Navy Motor Torpedo Boat 341 circa April 1944, U.S. soldiers boiling a Japanese skull for preservation purposes circa 1944, a Japanese soldier’s severed head hangs from a tree in Burma circa 1945, a skull adorns a sign at Peleliu in October 1944....

The Sundance Kid was already a legend of the Wild West during his lifetime. But the most intriguing part of his story may be that no one really knows how it ended. Wikimedia CommonsThe Sundance kid (seated, far left) and the infamous Wild Bunch. Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, also known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and infamous criminal in the wild west. He was a member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, the gang that performed the longest string of successful train and bank robberies in the Wild West....

Images and info that help explain the status of the world’s fight against ISIS. If nothing else, you know that ISIS is bad. The thing is, even after years of scary headlines and even scarier videos, most of us know little to nothing else about the intricate and downright brutal realities that inform the war against ISIS (or even what many claim to be the group’s rightful name). Share Flipboard Email Now, you know that ISIS is a radical jihadist group seeking to gain more and more territory in the Middle East so that they can further propagate their fundamentalist brand of Islam....

Source: Hype Science The World’s Largest And Smelliest Flowers: The Corpse Flower Source: University of Wisconsin Flowers are said to symbolize innocence, life and beauty. How ironic, then, that the largest of them all is evocative of death. Titan arum, or the corpse flower, exists naturally in the rain forests of Western Sumatra and in the gardens of botany big-leaguers throughout the world. With dark purple coloring not unlike bruises and pooled blood, the corpse flower’s imposing size is as commanding as its carrion stench: at its heaviest, the imposing plant weighs in at around 165 pounds with a height of over 10 feet....

Cambodian genocide perpetrators brought to justice, ancient Trojan city uncovered in Greece, erotic Roman fresco found in Pompeii. Cambodian Genocide Officially Recognized As Two Perpetrators Receive Life Imprisonment Radio Free Asia/Wikimedia CommonsPol Pot’s head of state Khieu Samphan (left) and his deputy Nuon Chea have been sentenced to life imprisonment for their crimes against humanity during the Khmer Rouge genocide. Four decades after Cambodian dictator Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime orchestrated the deaths of at least 1....

The first human footprints in North America, Saudi Arabian rock art older than the Pyramids, and the real-life inspiration for the Biblical Sodom. 23,000-Year-Old Footprints Prove That Humans Were In North America Far Earlier Than We Thought Dan OdessThough researchers long believed that humans only came to North America some 13,000 years ago, these 23,000-year-old footprints suggest that the experts had been way off. For decades, experts have claimed that humans were only able to arrive in North America after the end of the Ice Age, some 13,000 years ago....

Nathaniel Holmes and Cynthia Day were scheduled to check out, but never did. Hotel staff found them dead in their room five days after Miranda Schaup-Werner collapsed after drinking from her hotel room minibar. FacebookMiranda Schaup-Werner, found dead at the D.R. hotel, had a heart condition in 2004, but a family spokesman said that she’d been healthy ever since. When Pennsylvania couple Dan and Miranda Schaup-Werner arrived at a resort in the Dominican Republic, they were ecstatic....

In spite or perhaps because of the value placed on chastity, the Victorians took flirting to a new level of crazy. The Victorians weren’t exactly known for bringing sexual liberation to the masses — but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have carnal desires. In fact, the buttoned-up repression we often associate with the Victorian era misses the fact that Victorians were pretty creative when it came to inventing ways to get around sexual restraint, especially in the sphere of dating....

Sure, those who ate mellified man were cannibals, but at least they covered their human-food in sugar first. Wikimedia CommonsArtist depiction of a mellified man. Of all the instances of cannibalism found in human history, no one quite practiced it like some in China used to. In these cases, cannibalism came in the form of eating mellified flesh for medicinal purposes. In 16th century China, mellification was a way for elderly people nearing the end of their lives to donate their body to science....

The lunar space elevator would dangle in orbit above Earth and be held taut by our planet’s gravity. You’d reach the moon after a short spaceflight and transfer to vehicles that scale the cable. Wikimedia CommonsThe study claims a lunar space elevator would free scientists up to a whole new range of experimentation and research from a base camp on the moon. When John F. Kennedy said the U.S. would land on the moon not because it was easy, but because it was hard, the country united in solidarity to do so....

Legend has it that the Chicago gangster spent his final years searching for treasure he’d buried but then lost in Florida. He couldn’t find it and we may never truly know how much Al Capone was worth. Ullstein Bild/Getty ImagesNear the end of his life, Al Capone couldn’t remember where he buried his money. At the height of his power, Al Capone employed more than 600 gangsters all over Chicago. It’s still disputed how much money the infamous mobster actually made, though most estimates claim he was worth about $100 million....

“We have been warning for several years that illegal trade in tiger products is [a] really serious problem in Europe, not only in Asia.” CEIA slain tiger found at one of the illegal slaughterhouse properties. After a five-year investigation, authorities in the Czech Republic have zeroed-in on an illegal slaughterhouse in Prague that carried out the illegal trafficking of big cats. According to Science Alert, inspectors with the Czech Environmental Inspectorate (CEI) led police and customs officers in a raid of 10 properties in and around the capital city of Prague in July....

The Dark Hedges received a spike in popularity thanks to ‘Game of Thrones,’ but it may have been too much of a good thing. Wikimedia CommonsThe Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland. Planted back in the 18th century, the Dark Hedges are now one of the most photographed wonders of Ireland. In fact, they are so spellbinding, HBO’s Game of Thrones has even filmed there, representing the King’s Road. How The Dark Hedges Came To Be The beech trees lining the avenue encompass Bregagh Road near the village of Armoy in Northern Ireland were planted over two hundred years ago....

It sounds a little intense, but if it cures jet lag, it just might be worth it. Doug Griswold/NPR Anyone who has ever experienced severe jet lag knows that it can really put a damper on any trip and even throw you off your schedule after returning home. But now, a study published in the journal Neuron on July 12 just may have found a way to bring jet lag down....

Also known as the “Mountain of Seven Colors,” Vinicunca is a 17,000-foot tall mountain that attracts thousands of visitors a day — and it’s easy to see why. In 2013, the world was introduced to a newly-uncovered geological wonder in Peru known as the Rainbow Mountain. The mountain is aptly named. Deep in the heart of the Peruvian Andes, the vibrant ridge arises out of the Earth, lined with layers of red, orange, yellow, and turquoise....