🌊 SURF 'N TURF 🏝️
-THE BORACAY ISLAND LIFE-
The Stadio dei Marmi, Rome
One of the most astonishing sculpture ensembles of the modern era is the marble army that surrounds the Stadio dei Marmi.
Created between 1928 and 1932 as part of the Foro Mussolini (today the Foro Italico), the stadium was conceived during Italy's Fascist period as a celebration of athletic excellence, physical strength, and the ideals of classical antiquity.
Encircling the stadium are sixty monumental Carrara marble athletes, each donated by a different Italian province.
Though carved in the twentieth century, they deliberately evoke the heroic nude figures of ancient Greece and Rome. Discus throwers, wrestlers, runners, and warriors stand in disciplined ranks, transforming the stadium into a vast open-air sculpture gallery.
For lovers of Grand Tour sculpture, the Stadio dei Marmi offers a fascinating paradox. It is unmistakably modern in date, yet deeply rooted in the classical tradition.
The sculptors looked back to Polykleitos, Lysippos, and the Roman ideal of the perfected human form, creating figures whose powerful anatomy, calm expressions, and monumental scale recall the masterpieces that inspired generations of travelers on the Grand Tour.
Whatever one's view of the political regime that commissioned them, the sculptures themselves remain an extraordinary achievement.
Standing beneath these towering marble athletes, with their luminous white surfaces set against the Roman sky, one experiences the same sense of awe that travelers once felt when encountering the great statuary of antiquity.
Few places in the world present such an impressive display of monumental nude athletic sculpture gathered in a single setting—a reminder that the enduring language of classical beauty continued to inspire artists well into the twentieth century.
Maison Palm Beach / Mark Lukas Fine Art
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The Stadio dei Marmi, Rome
One of the most astonishing sculpture ensembles of the modern era is the marble army that surrounds the Stadio dei Marmi.
Created between 1928 and 1932 as part of the Foro Mussolini (today the Foro Italico), the stadium was conceived during Italy's Fascist period as a celebration of athletic excellence, physical strength, and the ideals of classical antiquity.
Encircling the stadium are sixty monumental Carrara marble athletes, each donated by a different Italian province.
The sculptors looked back to Polykleitos, Lysippos, and the Roman ideal of the perfected human form, creating figures whose powerful anatomy, calm expressions, and monumental scale recall the masterpieces that inspired generations of travelers on the Grand Tour.
Whatever one's view of the political regime that commissioned them, the sculptures themselves remain an extraordinary achievement.
Maison Palm Beach / Mark Lukas Fine Art
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This isn’t your ordinary dive guide.
It’s a passage into the heart of the ocean, a chance to glide alongside shadows of the past on the Florida Shipwreck Trail
📖 🤿 👉 
Brand new arrival, only 5940P!
• Rugged & Durable: Features anti-slip reinforcement on the seat, quick drainage, and high elasticity. Built to withstand high-intensity diving environments.
"It's a good day to dive". 🤿
🌍 Yugoslavia - A country that disappeared from the map but remains in history
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📍 What was Yugoslavia? Yugoslavia was a country located in the Balkans region of southeastern Europe. It existed after World War I and later disintegrated in the 1990s and early 2000s.
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🗺️ The countries that emerged from Yugoslavia after its dissolution are now independent states:
Slovenia 🇸🇮
Croatia 🇭🇷
Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦
Serbia 🇷🇸
Montenegro 🇲🇪
North Macedonia 🇲🇰
Kosovo 🇽🇰 (partially recognized)
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⭐ Important facts about Yugoslavia
Founded after World War I in 1918
It comprised multiple peoples and ethnicities (Slavs, Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, etc.)
It was a socialist state during the Cold War.
It collapsed due to nationalist conflicts and wars in the 1990s.
Its disintegration led to the emergence of the current Balkan states.
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🕊️ Historical Overview: The breakup of Yugoslavia was one of the most impactful events in modern Europe and caused major wars in the Balkans during the 1990s.
#Yugoslavia #Balkans #Europe #History #CountriesOfTheWorld #Yugoslavia
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It's a bird! It's a plane! It's one of these!
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The legend says he collected 999 swords from men he defeated in single combat. The 1,000th man he could not beat.
That man was Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
Saitō Musashibō Benkei was a warrior monk, a "sōhei," in 12th-century Japan. Later accounts describe him as a giant of a man, towering over those around him. He carried a naginata the way other men carry walking sticks.
The story goes that he stationed himself on a bridge in Kyoto, stripping the swords of men who crossed it. Night after night, fight after fight. The count grew.
Then a slight young man crossed the bridge and defeated him.
Yoshitsune was a young commander of the Minamoto clan, small in frame and seemingly easy prey. What he lacked in size he made up for in footwork that Benkei could not match. After losing, Benkei knelt and pledged everything.
That pledge carried through the Genpei War, one of the bloodiest civil conflicts in Japanese history. Benkei fought at Yoshitsune's side as the Minamoto clan fought for supremacy. He was less a bodyguard than a wall made of muscle and conviction.
But alliances shift. After the war ended, Yoshitsune fell out of favor with his own brother, the warlord Minamoto no Yoritomo. He fled north with a small band, including Benkei.
In 1189, troops caught up with them at a fortified stronghold in northern Japan.
What happened at the bridge that day passed into legend almost immediately. Benkei, accounts say, held it alone while Yoshitsune retreated inside to die with honor. He fought off wave after wave.
According to the accounts that survived, his body remained standing after the fighting ended. The soldiers approaching him hesitated. They thought he was still alive.
He was not. He had died standing, held upright by the arrows in him.
The historical record on Benkei is incomplete. Scholars debate how much of his story is biography and how much is myth, the kind a culture reaches for when it needs to say something about loyalty. The accounts of his final stand come from later literary sources, not contemporaneous records.
And yet the story has persisted for more than 800 years.
He collected 999 swords and lost the 1,000th fight.
Then he gave the man who beat him the rest of his life.
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"We are Dying from Overthinking.
We are slowly killing Ourselves by thinking about Everything. Think. Think. Think. You can Never Trust the human Mind anyway.
It's a Death Trap."
~ Anthony Hopkins 1937
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✨ The Cathedral of Cefalù has been watching over the sea from its rocky promontory since 1131, when Roger II of Sicily ordered its construction as a votive offering after surviving a violent storm in the waters below.
The king attributed his survival to divine intervention, and the cathedral he built in gratitude became one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in the entire Mediterranean.
What makes Cefalù's cathedral so extraordinary is the tension in its design — the twin towers and thick stone walls give it an almost military severity on the outside, the look of a fortress as much as a church, while the interior conceals one of the most magnificent Byzantine mosaic cycles in existence.
The apse mosaic depicting Christ Pantocrator, completed in the 12th century, is considered one of the greatest examples of Byzantine art anywhere in the world outside of Constantinople itself, its gold background and penetrating gaze still stopping visitors completely in their tracks nine centuries after it was created.
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On this day in 1973, the Led Zeppelin single “Over the Hills and Far Away” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #87 (June 23)
This is one of my favourite Led Zeppelin tracks.
The song from the LP “Houses of the Holy” was released in North America as a single, peaking at #51 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and #63 in Canada.
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote the song in 1970 at Bron-Yr-Aur, a small cottage in Wales where they stayed after completing a gruelling North American concert tour.
Plant’s lyrics were inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”, and Page drew inspiration from his Celtic roots for the music.
Initially it was titled "Many, Many Times".
Click on the link below to watch:
#ledzeppelin, #overthehillsandfaraway, #robertplant, #jimmypage, #johnbonham
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Sleep and Death Cista Handle
400-375 BCE, Etruscan
Bronze
Cleveland Museum of Art
18.5 × 18.3 cm (7 5/16 x 7 3/16 in.)
Designed for attachment to the lid of a large bronze cista, a cylindrical lidded box, these three figures probably represent Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos) holding the body of Sarpedon.
A son of Zeus who helped to defend Troy from invading Greek forces, "godlike Sarpedon of the brazen helmet" fell at the hands of Patroclus, as told by Homer in Book XVI of the Iliad.
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❄️Hard to believe that you could built a chapel on a 82m high volcanic chimney right?! ⛪️
After climbing 268 steps you will reach the top of Chapel of Rocher Saint-Michel d’Aiguilhe that was first built the 10th Century already.
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Why do Corsica and Sardinia belong to France and Italy, respectively, despite their close proximity?
The islands of Corsica and Sardinia are separated by the narrow strait of Bonifacio, barely 11 kilometers wide, yet they belong to different countries due to historical events that altered their destinies.
Corsica covers an area of approximately 8,680 km² and was under the control of the Italian Republic of Genoa for centuries. After a revolution by its inhabitants and the declaration of independence in 1755, Genoa was unable to regain control and transferred its rights to France in 1768. In 1769, France established full control over the island, making it part of its territory—the same year Napoleon Bonaparte was born.
Sardinia, with an area of approximately 24,100 km², is the second largest island in the Mediterranean. It came under the rule of the House of Savoy in 1720 and became the center of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Piedmont, which spearheaded the efforts to unify Italy during the 19th century. With the proclamation of the unified Kingdom of Italy in 1861, Sardinia became an integral part of the modern Italian state.
Thus, despite the great geographical proximity between the two islands, it was wars, revolutions, and diplomatic treaties that made Corsica French and Sardinia Italian, a status they maintain to this day.
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A liveaboard can be the diving trip of a lifetime - or a disappointing experience if you choose the wrong one.
From the Red Sea and Maldives to Raja Ampat, Socorro, and the Galápagos, not every liveaboard is suited to every diver. Experience levels, itineraries, vessel types, cabin options, dive operations, and hidden costs all play a role in finding the right trip.
Before you place a deposit, read our complete guide to choosing the perfect liveaboard adventure.
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🌍 250 Million Years Ago, Earth Looked Very Different
Around 250 million years ago, nearly all of Earth’s landmasses were joined together in a single supercontinent known as Pangaea.
Instead of the continents we recognize today, there was one vast landmass surrounded by a global ocean called Panthalassa. Over millions of years, powerful tectonic forces slowly split Pangaea apart, creating the continents and oceans we know today.
This ancient world was home to early reptiles, amphibians, and some of the ancestors of dinosaurs. The breakup of Pangaea dramatically changed Earth’s climate, ocean currents, and the evolution of life itself.
Every continent on Earth today was once connected as part of this incredible supercontinent.
🌎 Imagine standing on a world where you could travel from what is now North America to Africa without crossing an ocean.
Once, all land was one — watch how Earth split itself apart in the full video:
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This 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing Coupé was purchased new by actor Clark Gable at Mercedes-Benz of Hollywood. 
List price was $7,295 FOB NYC.
Gable ditched the standard steel wheels for the racing Rudge knock-offs the car wears now.
The wood and chrome Nardi steering wheel replaces the standard white wheel.
Early photos show the Nardi wheel in Gable's lifetime.
Gable signed service orders from Mercedes-Benz of Hollywood for a lube/oil change for $4.00 and parts for $10.83 total.
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Tres Piedras is a picturesque natural spot located in the Famatina Mountains, ....
Argentina…🇦🇷
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🌊 The future of diving is about more than what happens underwater.
A new event in Aqaba, Jordan is bringing together diving, marine conservation, tourism, technology and the wider blue economy in a way few dive events have attempted before.
As the Red Sea continues to grow as a global diving destination, ABOFA 2026 could become one of the industry's most influential new gatherings.
Why should divers, operators and industry professionals pay attention?
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GOMAD (Marcus Gomad Debi)...... 
... is a Dutch artist, a pioneer of a signature subgenre he calls "post-neo-graffiti".
His name is an acronym that comes from his roots: Graphic, Ontwerp (Dutch for design), MARcus and Debie.
Based in Sittard, the Netherlands, he runs the GOMAD Urban Art Studio with his wife and assistant Nancy Montfords.
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🌍 #Horn_of_Africa | The Strategic Gateway and Heart of Diversity in Africa
📍 What is the Horn of Africa?
The Horn of Africa is a region located in the far east of the African continent. It overlooks the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean. It is considered one of the most geopolitically important regions in the world due to its strategic position on major global trade routes.
🗺️ Main Countries of the Horn of Africa
🇪🇹 Ethiopia
👥 Population: ~130 million
🏔️ Landlocked mountainous country
🏛️ Ancient civilizations (Aksum Empire)
💡 Growing agricultural and industrial economy
🇸🇴 Somalia
🌊 Longest coastline in Africa along the Indian Ocean
⚓ Strategic location on the Gulf of Aden
🐪 Deep Afro-Arab cultural ties
⚠️ Faces political and security challenges
🇪🇷 Eritrea
🌊 Coastline on the Red Sea
🏔️ Mountainous and desert terrain
🏛️ Recent independence history
🚢 Located near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait
🇩🇯 Djibouti
📍 Smallest country in the region
🚢 One of the world’s most strategic ports
🌐 Hosts foreign military bases (France, USA, China)
💡 Economy heavily based on ports and services
🌍 Geographical Importance
📍 Controls access to the Red Sea via the Bab el-Mandeb Strait
🚢 Key route for global trade between Asia and Europe
⛽ Strategic hub for energy and shipping routes
🌐 Presence of multiple international military bases
🌄 Nature & Climate
🌋 Volcanic and desert landscapes
🏔️ Highlands in Ethiopia
🌊 Long, hot, and humid coastlines
☀️ Generally hot and dry climate
💡 Interesting Facts
⭐ One of the most strategically important regions in the world
⭐ A blend of African and Arab cultures
⭐ Extremely diverse in languages and religions
⭐ Directly influences global trade flows
#HornOfAfrica #Ethiopia #Somalia #Djibouti #Eritrea #Africa #Geography #WorldInfo
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🎉 BIG NEWS FROM DIVE MAESTRO SCUBA CENTER! 🎉
We are proud and excited to announce that Dive Maestro Scuba Center is now officially recognized as a NAUI Dive Center! 🤿🌊
This milestone marks an important step in our mission to provide the highest standards of dive education, safety, professionalism, and exceptional customer experience.
This achievement would not have been possible without the dedication and leadership of Aldwin Ambrosio, our Dive Maestro Instructor. His passion for diving, commitment to diver education, and unwavering focus on safety and skill development continue to inspire divers and strengthen our growing diving community.
As an official NAUI Dive Center, we are committed to:
✅ Providing better service
✅ Delivering higher-quality training
✅ Offering world-class dive education
✅ Building safer, more confident divers
This accomplishment is not only a milestone for our team but also for every student, certified diver, fun diver, friend, and supporter who has been part of our journey. Thank you for your trust and for being part of the Dive Maestro family.
This is just the beginning. We look forward to training more divers, creating more underwater adventures, and delivering unforgettable experiences while upholding NAUI's world-renowned standards of dive education.
Here's to safer diving, better training, and a stronger diving community! 💙
🤿 Dive Smart. Dive Safe. Dive Maestro.
#divemaestro #divewithdivemaestro #divemaestroscubacenter #nauidivecenter #nauiworldwide #divesafetythrougheducation #scubadivingphilippines #learntodive #divetraining #divesmartdivesafedivemaestro #UnderwaterAdventure #philippinesdiving
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