Strange World

Notice – This Blog is Moving

2011-05-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

I've moved my blog to a new address,

http://www.strange-world.us.

I hope you will visit it and subscribe to receive all future posts. I expect to be posting more frequently and hope you like the updated look! This Blogger blog will be inactive from this point on.

Thanks very much.

p.s.1 : All the content from this blog is now found on the new blog as well.

I hope you will switch over and join me there, can't wait to continue to share our journey with you!!

Please change your bookmarks and feeds.

INTERNATIONAL HAIR ART SHOW

2011-04-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Girls With X Rays Eyes

2011-04-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

A pretty teenager has stunned experts with her bizarre white eyes – which let her see through solid stone and metal!

Laura Castro, 14, was born normal but developed pure white eyes at the age of 10. The Miami, Fla., child has been studied by eye doctors and other experts, but none can explain what causes her rare condition.

“The doctors say they’re never seen anything like this,” said the child’s mother, divorcee Anabel Castro. “My daughter can see anywhere in daylight or in darkness, and she can easily see through solid objects. The doctors say she may have been hit on the head or exposed to chemicals or something.

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“All I know is that this came on gradually and that as her brown eyes got lighter and lighter her vision got stronger and stronger.”

Scientists who have studied the X-ray girl anonymously confessed that she can see clearly through 4-inch thick concrete, a steel safe, solid rock walls and thick layers of wood, plastic and paper, including a telephone book!

How does getting rewarded through sharing sounds like to you? Join #ChurpChurp today and bring more friends to the community!

2011-04-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

How does getting rewarded through sharing sounds like to you? Join #ChurpChurp today and bring more friends to the community!

Amazing The R/P FLIP

2011-03-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

The R/P FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) is an open ocean research vessel. The ship is a 355 feet (108 meters) long vessel designed to partially flood and pitch backward 90 degrees, resulting in
. only the front 55 feet (17 meters) of the vessel pointing up out of the water, with bulkheads becoming floors. When flipped, most of the buoyancy for the platform is provided by water at depths below the influence of surface waves, hence FLIP is a stable platform mostly immune to wave action. At the end of a mission, compressed air is pumped into the ballast tanks in the flooded section and the vessel returns to its horizontal position so it can be towed to a new location.[1] The ship is frequently mistaken for a capsized ocean transport ship.

History

The Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography created FLIP with funding from the Office of Naval Research (TRF). The Gunderson Brothers Engineering Company in Portland, Oregon launched FLIP in June 1962. (In 1995, FLIP received a $2,000,000 modernization.)

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Japanese Dog Refuses to Leave Injured Friend Behind

2011-03-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Here is an English translation of the voiceover exchange between the two reporters in the clip (translation courtesy of Toshiyuki Kitamura):

We are in Arahama area. Looks like there is a dog. There is a dog. He looks tired and dirty. He must have been caught in the tsunami. He looks very dirty.

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He has a collar. He must be someone's pet. He has a silver collar. He is shaking. He seems very afraid.

Oh, there is another dog. I wonder if he is dead.

Where?

Right there. There is another dog right next to the one sitting down. He is not moving. I wonder. I wonder if he is alright.

The dog is protecting him.

Yes. He is protecting the dog. That is why he did not want us to approach them. He was trying to keep us at bay.

I can't watch this. This is a very difficult to watch.

Oh. Look. He is moving. He is alive. I am so happy to see that he is alive.

Yes! Yes! He is alive.

He looks to be weakened. We need to them to be rescued soon. We really want them rescued soon.

Oh good. He's getting up.

It is amazing how they survived the tremendous earthquake and tsunami. It's just amazing that they survived through this all.

Japan tsunami and earthquake 2011 pictures

2011-03-13T06:11:00.000-07:00

Photos Of National Geographic In February 2011

2011-03-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

Stranges Japanese Sushi

2011-02-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

Unbelievable Pictures

2011-02-27T06:21:00.000-08:00

The Tallest Tower

2011-02-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

Guangzhou TV Tower - the tallest tower in mire.Vysota tower is 610 meters. To a height of 450 meters of the tower was built as a combination of hyperboloid carrier retina and the central nucleus.

Retina of the tower made of steel pipes of large diameter. The tower is crowned by a steel spire height of 160 meters. The tower is designed to broadcast TV and radio signals as well as to review a panorama of Guangzhou and is designed to receive 10,000 tourists a day.

Worlds Largest Passenger Cruise Ship

2011-02-07T09:20:00.000-08:00

Worlds Largest Passenger Cruise Ship - Royal Caribbean

"Freedom of the Seas"

M/S Freedom of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship. The world's largest passenger vessel, she can accommodate over 4,300 passengers on her fifteen passenger decks, served by over 1300 crew.

She is about 229 ft. longer, about 108,000 gross tons larger, and can accommodate 2,147 more passengers than RMS Titanic. Her operating costs are $1 million per day. Rooms for the maiden voyage were priced from $1,900 to $22,000 for the week. As routine service continues, starting room rates are expected to descend as low as $700 for cruises scheduled in the autumn of 2007. The ship consumes approximately 28,000 gallons of fuel per hour.

Facilities -

The ship features three swimming areas; an interactive water park, a dedicated adult pool and the main pool. There are 2 whirlpools cantilevered out from the ship's sides. The Royal Promenade sports a coffee shop, Sorrento's Pizzeria, a Ben and Jerry's ice-cream shop, Vintage's winery, the Bull and Bear Irish pub, and many Duty-free shops. The 13th deck features a sports area with amenities such as a rock climbing wall, the FlowRider (an onboard wave generator for surfing), a miniature golf course and a full size basketball court. Other items include an ice skating rink, a casino, a Johnny Rockets, Wi-Fi capabilities throughout the ship, flat panel televisions in all staterooms, and cell phone connectivity.

Biggest Motorcycle in the World

2011-01-24T06:56:00.000-08:00

A group of enthusiasts headed by Tilo Niebel of the East German village of Zillah has shown his motorbike monster assembled by hand. Monster weighing nearly five tons and a length of five and a half meters, is equipped with an engine from the Soviet tanks T55 power of 800 hp!Officials from the Guinness World Book of Records recorded the weight of the motorcycle-4740 kilogram. Tilo Niebel made this bike, using shell Soviet car and the engine from a Russian tank T55

To control the giant biker need to learn to use the two-meter drive. The vehicle engine installed by Soviet tanks T-55 with capacity of 800 horsepower. The frame, springs, suspension – all the details collected from military scrap. Where did they get the engine from a Soviet tank, the makers say have refused, but said that it was new, 1986 model year.

Amazing Cakes

2011-01-19T10:16:00.000-08:00

The Coolest Coffee Tables

2011-01-18T07:47:00.000-08:00

One Legged Soccer

2011-01-16T08:32:00.000-08:00

Football is not just for normal people only. People with disabilities can play the most popular sport. As performed one-legged people in Haiti.

Reuters / Eduardo Munoz.

This friendly match was held to commemorate the one year earthquake Haiti, 12 January 2010.

Reuters /Eduardo Munoz

Most unusual mirrors

2011-01-01T09:03:00.000-08:00

Cave City

2010-12-29T09:41:00.000-08:00

Cave City Vardzia amazing. Located in Georgia, on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, it has a 800-year history.

Horrible and disgusting alien creature

2010-12-21T03:49:00.000-08:00

Some people will always tastes increasingly rare. You buy pets very rare, exotic and, in some cases, horrendous.
What you see in the pictures below are of a creature "alien" quite horrible and disgusting.

Looks like a sea urchin or a giant caterpillar species.

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Japanese Highways, Bridges & Interchanges

2010-12-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

Rarely Seen Cloud Formations

2010-12-11T10:59:00.000-08:00

There seems to be no end to strange cloud formations! From Punch hole clouds to cloud vortices, enjoy these rarely seen cloud formations!

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Punch Hole Clouds may appear as a circular or oval holes in a layer of supercooled clouds; sometimes they assume a form of a perfect circle and persist for quite a long time, drifting together with the cloud layer. One explanation seems to blame the air traffic (the jet contrail intersections) combined with a thermal inversion (a circular motion of a rising warm air). Here is one, observed over the Gunnison Valley in Colorado:

(image credit: Cuerling)

Another strange hole in the cloud, reported from Mobile, Alabama USA, Dec. 2003 (and covered by BBC News):

(images credit: Joel Knain and Weatherlings)

Photo taken in Melbourne, Australia in 2003:

(images via)

It seems both rising and sinking air currents can create the same effect. Sometimes a very stable, uniform layer of high-altitude clouds can get "punched though" by a pocket of cold air, which sinks toward the ground - creating the circular hole formation.

(image credit: Neil Johnson(The Tampa Tribune) and Gwen Swinburne)

These "cloud holes" can look like the footprints of some celestial being (UFO enthusiasts rejoice!) or can be amazingly round, like this pair observed in Gallatin, Tennessee by Wayne Carter:

(image credit: Wayne Carter)

NASA takes satellite images of this phenomenon

NASA Terra satellite equipped with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) has captured these images over Acadiana area in southern Louisiana - a splattering of round holes actually stretched over several states: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Some were elongated, some appeared to have smaller clouds inside them.

Cloud Vortices: another "holey" sky phenomena

Theodore von Karman's "Cloud Vortices" are something else, again: they form when the wind encounters a barrier - such as the Aleutian islands, in this case - and the flowing eddies of cloud create a weird pattern. The image you see below was photographed from the International Space Station, and the animation shows the double row of vortices, which rotate opposite from each other.

(image credit: NASA)

More Incredible and Fascinating Clouds

...that make our sky worthy to look at from time to time (those who only look at the computer monitor, take note). Here is an extremely strong thunderstorm cloud that brewed over northwest Calgary:

(images credit: D'Arcy Norman)

Another supercell cloud in Alberta skies, this time over Edmonton:

(image credit: Greg)
'shrooms:

(image credit: Cloud Appreciation Society)

Another cloud "wave", similar to the one over South Dakota Badlands (see here):

(image credit: Barry Slade)

Roll clouds... get into a small plane and start "surfing" them! -

(image credit: Russell White)

Creative advertising on buildings

2010-11-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

Egg House

2010-11-29T04:49:00.000-08:00

This house looking like a hard boiled egg is made by the Belgian architectural firm "dmvA". It was actually meant to be a an extension for the "Xfactoragencies" office, but was rejected several times by local building regulations, so instead "dmvA" made a mobile office that didn't look anything like the old "Xfactoragencies" offices.

Weird Hair styles

2010-11-23T10:02:00.000-08:00

Master of Origami

2010-11-19T10:37:00.000-08:00

Awesome Jeeps

2010-11-14T09:31:00.000-08:00

The most expensive homes

2010-11-13T08:16:00.000-08:00

Villa La Leopolda costing about $50m is the second name we are going to consider. It was formerly the home of Bill Gates but now belongs to really rather rich Roman Abramovich. It is more likely to set up a price of about L250, 000,000, close to half a billion. The property is about 10 acres of verdant green garden filled area that requires around 50 gardeners to look after it with the best home insurance to satisfy the safety needs.

Villa Leopolda is a $750 million estate that is located in the south France. The area is generally known as Côte d’Azur. This place was pulled by Russia’s richest man Mikhail Prokhorov to a great extent. However, after the recession of the last decade, he amassed great misfortune and the home had to be put on sale which is still a disputed matter.

Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s richest man had to pull out on the much reported deal to purchase Villa Leopolda, a $750 million estate in Côte d’Azur, the South of France after seeing a good portion of his amassed fortune lost in the current global recession.

The much reported sale was widely speculated over around August last year and now it seems that all the excitement has been for nothing. But the saga continues as the current owners of the villa simply refuse to hand Prokhorov back his initial deposit of €44 million.
Even though his lawyers are seeking a refund, they might be out of luck since the French law states that purchasers lose their deposits if they pull out after the sales agreement has been signed.

The Southampton, Village Oceanfront Sanctuary New York tops the list with $80m. These homes are built on an area of about 13,500 square feet having an inner space up to four stories. The outline of the houses ranges from nine bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, and four powder rooms to a home theatre. Amazing, isn’t it? Not just those, these homes are located between a pond and the ocean giving it an exceptional look. There is a 1,000 feet of shore front and 1,000 feet of pond front.

Ira Rennert House, New York - $170m
The billionaire found of the Renco Group, Ira Rennert, owns a place in Sagaponack, New York, and at 63 acres of grounds, is considered by many to be the largest residential compound in the whole of America.

The house itself has 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, as well as the usual gigantic dining room, sport courts and bowling alley and contents insurance to cover it all. The property is valued at roughly $170,000,000-180,000,000.

Updown Court, Surrey, England - $140m
With neighbors like Elton John and the Queen of England, Updown Court in Surrey is going to be a rather decadent household. Launched with a price of £70,000,000 (roughly $140,000,000).
Containing 24 bedrooms, each with a marble en-suite bathroom, and an underground garage, the property is estimated to cost around £250,000 ($500,000) a month to run, not to mention the cost of the house insurance!
This property even has it’s own website: www.updowncourt.com
And check out the video of this amazing home:
Donald Trump House, Florida - $250m
Donald Trump owns this 18-bedroom waterfront palace, which is listed as costing £125,000,000.
Situated in Florida, Trump says it’s location in Palm Beach is “the richest community in the world” and it doesn’t seem like he’s joking! We also doubt that he’s one to settle for cheap building insurance, either!
Check his house out…

Tree Ponds, New York - $75m
In Bridgehampton, New York, there sits a $75,000,000 estate that has its own golf course!
Called “Three Ponds” due to the fact that it has, er, three ponds (each stocks with an ample supply of fish, which are hopefully included in the home insurance), and the expansive grounds also house 14 different gardens, each with their own theme!
Fleur de Lys in Beverly Hills, California - $125m
This $125 million estate was modelled after Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles, France. It encompasses 45,000 square feet and took five years to build in all. It all came to fruition when Suzanne Saperstein accumulated five acres in the 1990s.
What was once a dream became a reality and today Fleur de Lys features a 50-seat screening room, an nine care auto garage with a treasured collection of automobiles and a library filled with first-edition books.

Jacobean Manor, Greenwich, Connecticut - $90m
The manor sits proudly on 40 acres of rolling green hills, broken only by lawns and meadows to provide ample privacy for the owners.

The 14 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms are spread over 21,897 square feet. Features such as marble floors, vaulted ceilings, limestone walls, bay windows and wood panelling impress the ficklest of visitor.
There is also a 52-foot long indoor swimming pool. Ah yes, the manor is priced at a hefty $90 million.
Tranquility” Lake Tahoe, Nevada - $100m
Situated on the tax-free side of Nevada’s Lake Tahoe, this 210-acre property is owned by Joel Horowitz, the co-founder of fashion label Tommy Hilfiger. He built the property from scratch.

The house is made up of 20,000 square feet of living space and modelled after a northern European mountain home. It also has a 3,500-bottle wine cellar, an indoor swimming pool and atrium, as well as a 19-seat movie theatre, ensuring constant entertainment, even if snowed in. It is worth $100 million.

Eurasia Estate, Moscow, Russia - $100m
No list is complete without a bit of Russian flavour.
This property consists of an 11,700-square-foot manor house, as well as two 4,000-square-foot guest houses and a massive 91,000-square-foot recreation centre that features a pool, Turkish and Russian baths, a gym, sauna and lounges. Eurasia is worth $100 million.
Hillandale, Stamford, Connecticut - $95m
You will be forgiven to think you are looking at an English country manor when you see Hillandale. With a stone construction, hedged and manicured gardens, a grassy tennis court and distinctive chimneys, this 20,000-square-foot residence has eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.
Hillandale is so big that the property straddles the New York-Connecticut border. The grounds also include four guest and staff residences and two barns, all connected by five miles of private roads. The price tag is $95 million.

BootJack Ranch, Pagosa Springs, Colorado - $88m
The ranch includes a massive 3,100 acres of land. This luxury property is much more than a working ranch. The main house alone is 13,800 square feet and has four bedrooms and four bathrooms.
Further, outlying guest cabins and lodges can host up to 50 people and bring the total interior space up to 77,000 square feet.
In addition, there’s a 12,000-square-foot spa and aquatic centre. Just the right thing to soak your weary feet at the end of a long working day. That is if you can part with $88 million.
All the above homes must have absolutely massive bills just to keep them in running order. Just imagine the quotes on home insurance for these homes yet alone the energy bills, electricity and water!

Monkey Theatre

2010-11-11T10:10:00.000-08:00

Hand Cut Map Art ...

2010-11-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

Karen O Leary is famous for creating hand cut paper maps of popular cities

Vancouver

The World's Most Unique Currency

2010-11-08T09:56:00.000-08:00

Sao Tome & Principe (Dobras)

Switzerland (Francs)

Comoros (Comorian Franc)

New Zealand (New Zealand Dollars)

Cook Islands (Cook Island Dollars)

Hong Kong (Hong Kong Dollars)

Iceland (Kronurs)

Faroe Islands (Kronurs)

The French Pacific Territories (Franc)

The Maldives (Rufiyaa)

Are handfish walking towards extinction?

2010-11-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

Handfish are a type of small, often strikingly patterned or colourful fish that tend to ‘walk’ on the seabed on hand-like fins, rather than swim.
Fifty million-years ago, they ‘walked’ the world’s oceans, but now only exist off eastern and southern Australia.
There are only 14 known species of handfish, nine of which were described recently.

Image: CSIRO

Amazing Barber

2010-11-03T07:36:00.000-07:00

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The girl born in the wild

2010-10-30T09:22:00.001-07:00

This French girl, Tippi, was born in Nairobi, Africa in 1990. Grew up in the jungles with her parents who are wild life photographers. They documented her life with the animals. She went back to France @ age 10.

Here are some pics, WOW. Isn't it heaven on earth Or not!? I'm impressed. Author unknown.

World’s Largest Omelette

2010-10-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to promote eggs as a healthy and cheap food source, and celebrate World Egg Day, Turkish chefs managed to set a new world record for the World’s Largest Omelette.

50 Turkish cooks, along with 10 chefs whisked 110,010 eggs on a giant fryer, 10 meters in diameter. The omelette took 2.5 hours to cook, but I bet the people involved could think of no better way to celebrate World Egg Day. 432 liters of oil were needed to make this larger-than-life-dish nice and fluffy. The event was staged by the Turkish Egg Producers Association as a way of promoting eggs as a tasty and healthy meal.

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The giant omelette weighed 4.4 tons, beating the old record of 3.625 tons, by almost a ton. After the offcial weighing, the omlette was served to the thousands of by-standers attracted by the smell.

Unbelievable Story of True Friendship

2010-10-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

his is an unbelievable story of true friendship. A young girl and a monkey became close friends. Emily Bland taught the orang-utan named Rishi how to pour tea and take strolls together. This all happened at the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGERS) in Florida when both friends were still at the crawling stage. Still the story isn't over.

Modern Home Utensils

2010-10-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

Roller Coaster Roads

2010-10-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

Awesome Architecture made of Toothpicks

2010-10-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

Cool Vehicles

2010-10-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Coolest Bedroom Designs

2010-10-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

Worlds lowest car

2010-10-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

Here’s a car mod that is sure to turn some heads. Called the Flat Out, it is a cut-down 1989 Fiat 126 that stands at under 22-inchs (56cm) tall. The car claims the title of the world’s lowest vehicle and amazingly, was created in just three days.

The Flat Out is the work of car designer Andy Saunders who created the ultra-low vehicle genre back in 1985 with his awesome Mini Claustrophobia. He had since lost the “world’s lowest” title to competitors, but has finally claimed it back with his latest creation.

Saunders, with the help of two hard-working sidekicks, built the Flat Out as part of the 40th Annual Autojumble celebrations at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, Hampshire. Looks like a fun ride…til you hit a speed hump.

Chocolate Boat

2010-10-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

George Larnicol, a 55-year-old French chocolatier, managed to create and sail a 3.5-meter-long boat made of chocolate.
On Saturday, September 25, the walled city of Concarneau, in north-western France, hosted an event unique in the world – the launch of a full size chocolate boat. George Larnicol, the mastermind behind this crazy creation, first attempted to sail a chocolate boat on August 15, but the boat crumbled to pieces when turned over from where it was mounted. But one small failure wasn’t enough to make Larnicol quit, and on Saturday, he returned to Concarneau port, with a new chocolate boat named “Bateau Chocolat II” (French for Chocolate Boat II)

The 1.2-ton-heavy boat had a sugar framework, while the rest of it was made entirely of pure chocolate. It took Larnicol and his team one and a half months to complete, working eight hours a day, which adds up to a total of about 400 hours.
George Larnicol and a friend got in the chocolate boat and sailed in it for a bout an hour, waving proudly to the audience, and smiling the whole time. The attached electrical motor allowed the Bateau Chocolat II to reach a top speed of 15km/h.
Chocolatier George Larnicol, who owns a chain of chocolate shops in western France, promised to build a giant 12 meter-long yacht, with two masts, made of 6 to 8 tons of chocolate, sometime in 2012. That’s going to be a sight to be hold, and you can bet you’ll read about it on Oddity Central.

Worlds largest vehicle

2010-10-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

Awesome Facts About Owls

2010-09-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

Owls are awesome. It’s an undeniable fact. They are expressive, they are diverse, they are stealthy and their heads are on a swivel. Below you will find 10 interesting facts and a collection of photographs that capture these beautiful creatures. Enjoy!

Owls belong to the Order Strigiformes.

The Order Strigiformes is further divided into two families, the barn owls (Family Tytonidae) and the typical owls (Family Strigidae). Owls are a diverse group of birds, with over 220 species of owls belonging to the Order Strigiformes.

Owls are birds of prey.

Owls feed on a wide variety of prey including mammals, other birds, insects, and reptiles. There are even some species of owls that live in Africa and Asia that feed on birds. Owls cannot chew their prey since, like all birds, they do not have teeth. Instead, they swallow small prey whole and must tear larger prey into smaller pieces before swallowing. They later regurgitate pellets of indigestible material such as bone, fur, and feathers.

The structure of an owl’s foot is referred to as zygodactyl.

This means that two of the toes face forward while two face backward. This arrangement enables the owls to capture and grasp prey with greater ease. Sometimes, the third toe can be rotated forward into a position occasionally used for perching.

Most owls are nocturnal.

Most owls are active at night. A few species (such as the pygmy owls) are active in the early morning or at dusk while some (such as the burrowing owl and the short-eared owl) are active during the day.

Owls’ eyes are fixed in their sockets.

Owls are unable to move their eyes within their sockets to a great extent, which means they must turn their entire head to see in a different direction. Because owls have forward-facing eyes, they have well-developed binocular vision. Contrary to popular myth, an owl cannot turn its head completely backwards. It can turn its head 135 degrees in either direction; it can thus look behind its own shoulders, with a total 270-degree field of view

Many species of owls have special flight feathers adapted for silent flight.

Owls have developed special feather adaptations that enable them to minimize the sound made when flapping their wings. For instance, the leading edges of their primary feathers have a stiff fringes that reduces noise while the trailing edge of their primaries have soft fringes that helps to reduce turbulence. Downy feathers cover the surfaces of the wing to further reduce sound.

Owls create a variety of vocalizations.

Owls create a wide variety of sounds or vocalizations. The familiar hoot is usually a territorial declaration, though not all species are able to hoot. Other sounds owls might make include screeches, hisses, and screams.

Owls are found in all regions of the Earth except Antarctica, most of Greenland and some remote islands.

Though owls are typically solitary, the literary collective noun for a group of owls is a parliament.
Owls are farsighted and are unable to see anything clearly within a few centimeters of their eyes.

Caught prey can be felt by owls with the use of filoplumes, which are small hair-like feathers on the beak and feet that act as “feelers”. Their far vision, particularly in low light, is exceptionally good.

SOURCES

- http://twistedsifter.com/2010/08/10-facts-about-owls/

World's biggest mango fruit

2010-09-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

Sky Farms

2010-09-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

15 Living Walls, Vertical Gardens & Sky Farms ecology

A living wall, also referred to as a green wall, vertical garden, or sky farm, is usually part of a building and consists of some sort of vegetation. These types of gardens are sometimes referred to as urban gardening, because they are well-suited for an urban environment where space on the ground is very limited but vertical space is plentiful. These vertical gardens can be quite spectacular in appearance, and in some cases, they even work to filter clean air into the building in which they are growing upon.

Vertical gardens can be grown on just about any type of wall, with or without the use of soil, and they can be placed both on outdoor and indoor walls. As long as there is not shortage of water for the living wall, no soil is required. These amazing sky farms are able to literally bring life to an old rundown building in the middle of the city and they are becoming increasingly popular inside office buildings, homes, and retail stores because of their outstanding beauty and their natural air purification properties.

Living walls have fast become an art form for many people, and one of the pioneering vertical garden artists is Patrick Blanc. He observed how plants were able to grow vertically without the need for soil in the wild, and soon developed a way to create artistic looking vegetation walls that were both lightweight and needed little maintenance. Since these living walls only weighed approximately 30 kg or less per square-meter, he noticed that just about any type of wall would be able to support the weight of a vertical garden. There are many amazing examples of vertical gardens around the world. Here’s our list of some of the most creative and beautiful living walls in the world. We may have missed some of course, but please feel free to drop any we’ve missed in the comments.

Musee du quai Branly, Paris, France

This popular French museum near the Eiffel Tower in Paris is home to one of the best examples of vertical garden work by artist Patrick Blanc. The living wall here is about 200 meters long and 12 meters tall. The museum’s living exterior was at one time healthy and vibrant, but today you can see signs of the inadequate support for irrigation and drainage of the garden – although it still remains breathtakingly beautiful.

Sky Farm, Las Vegas

A proposed $200 million sky farm in the city of Las Vegas would be the world’s first 30-story vertical farm. This building would have 30 floors of indoor farm land, and it is estimated that a vertical farm such as this one could produce enough food to feed 72,000 people per year. This proposed vertical sky farm would grow approximately 100 different crops, and would bring in an estimated $40 million in annual revenue via produce sales and tourism to the one-of-a-kind structure. This sky farm is only in the preliminary stages of design, and it could quite a while before this awesome vertical farm is actually built (if ever).

SkyFarm, Toronto, Canada

A new vertical farm in the downtown area of Toronto, called SkyFarm, could help to feed 35,000 area residents each year. The advantage of the SkyFarm is that the proposed building would only require about 1.32 hectares of land for the 58 story building to sit on. However, it will have about 8 million square-feet of growing space for crops, bringing in the same amount of produce as a 420 hectar farm. The 714 feet structure would bring in an estimated $23 million of revenue each year.

Residence Antilia, Mumbai, India

This new eco-building is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008, and upon its completion will hold the world record for the largest and tallest living wall, not just in India, but on the planet. This 200 meter tall building, called Residence Antilia, will feature vertical gardens all the way up its exterior walls. Costing, $1 billion, the revolutionary design will make it not only the world’s greenest skyscraper, but also one of the most unique and beautiful structures in the world.

NEXT: See the amazing living wall system in Japan and the spectacular vertical farms of paris

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15 Living Walls, Vertical Gardens & Sky Farms ecology” />

NEXT: living walls and sculptures of Madrid, Bangkok and Bilbao and the future of vertical gardens.

Parabienta Living Wall System, Japan

This living wall is manufactured and marketed by two Japanese companies that have created a product that is lightweight, cheap, and very functional. The living wall is called ‘Parabienta‘, and it costs approximately $60 per square foot. This eco-friendly wall will significantly cool down a building through a naturally occurring cooling process that takes place within the plants – otherwise known as shade.

Paris, France – A Vertical Garden Mecca

The ‘city of love’ is a sort of vertical garden hotspot, and it’s becoming increasingly popular and mainstream to ‘decorate’ a bland wall with a plethora of beautiful plants, whether it be for artistic purposes or for more functional eco-friendly intentions. Much of the reason that Paris is such a vertical garden mecca is the fact that one of the founding fathers of the art form, Patrick Blanc, lives there. He, and other living wall artists have created some amazing vertical gardens in France’s capital city.

Foundation Cartier

The plant wall at the entrance of the Foundation Cartier has not been trimmed since it was planted back in 1998. The only maintenance of this beautiful garden involves a gardener coming in about every 2-3 months to remove dead leaves, or whole plants, and replace them with new ones.

BHV Homme

The vertical garden at this popular Parisian department store literally adds life to the back of BHV Homme in Paris. This artistic living wall almost resembles an abstract painting from afar.
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Pershing Hall Hotel

Nestled in the courtyard of the Pershing Hall Hotel is a 30 meter high vertical garden that features over 250 different plant species. It’s quite a site, to say the least!
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Club Med Champs-Elysees

The small vertical garden at this Club Med in Paris is designed to represent plants from 5 different continents. The addition of the vertical garden at this Club Med location is all part of a plan to create a more upscale feel for the already first-class resort. The garden is visible from outside and is beautifully lit at night.
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NEXT: living walls and sculptures of Madrid, Bangkok and Bilbao and the future of vertical gardens.

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15 Living Walls, Vertical Gardens & Sky Farms ecology” />

CaixaForum, Madrid, Spain

As the newest museum in Madrid, CaixaForum certainly takes innovation to the next level before you even walk into the place. One of the exterior walls features a huge 24 meter high vertical garden with over 15,000 plants from more than 250 different species. This artistic display is one of the finest examples of living walls anywhere in Spain.
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Vertical Gardens, Bangkok, Thailand

The vertical gardening phenomenon is spreading like wild fire across the globe, and it’s no different in Bangkok, Thailand. Check out these photos of two great examples of vertical gardening. The first two photos are at the Siam Paragon Shopping Center, and the second is a cool example of how strategically placing plants vertically alongside an elevator shaft at the Emporium Bangkok can add a nice decorative touch.
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Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

In front of the Guggenheim Art Museum you’ll find an awesome example of vertical gardening in the depiction of a puppy made entirely out of plants. The artist, Jeff Koons, created this 43-foot tall “plant puppy” in the mid-1990s using a steel substructure and a variety of plants. The detail of this piece is amazing.

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ACROS Fukuoka Prefectural International Hall, Japan

The 100,000 square foot rooftop at the ACROS Fukuoka building is definitely one-of-a-kind. The 18 story building features 15 stepped terraces that can actually be climbed to the top. The terraces are meant to promote a serene and peaceful environment in the middle of the city with lots green plants and even waterfalls and small pools to add to the calming effect of the building’s extraordinary exterior.

Living Walls, Netherlands

This building is a great example of how you can spice up a boring exterior and turn it into a living and breathing wall. The plants are growing in a thin layer of felt and rock wool material instead of soil. Recycled rain water is pumped through this material to provide nutrients to the root systems of the plants.
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Future Vertical Sky Farm Designs

The idea of being able to save valuable space on the ground and to farm vertically has intrigued many designers, architects, and government officials. Sky farming saves space on the ground, can provide a year-round crop, and can be placed in the middle of the busiest cities in the world. With overpopulation, rocketing food prices and the migration to cities, traditional farming could soon become obsolete. This poses an interesting question: could these futuristic and green utopic visions become the standard, the new way to farm in the future?

Source : amazingdata.com

Strange Buildings Around The World

2010-09-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

This impressive collection of unusual houses and buildings was picked from all over the world. Just an architects fantasy from incredibly cool to totally weird.

The largest and most expensive water fountain

2010-09-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

This is the largest and most expensive water fountain in the world. It is built and set in Burj Dubai Lake. It is over 900 feet long and can spray jets up to 500 feet high. The fountain can spray as much as 22,000 gallons of water in the air. Over 6,000 super lights and 25 color projectors help to create amazing dancing water sculptures. Watch the video to see the real beauty of this water fountain.

Source: burjdubaiskyscraper

Huge Wooden White Cyclone coaster

2010-09-15T07:36:00.000-07:00

Huge Wooden White Cyclone coaster - Japan

The Largest Cave Chamber

2010-09-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

These incredible images show British scientists on an expedition to map a 'never-ending' cave network in a project that dates back more than 30 years.

The twisting network of caverns underneath Gunung Mulu National Park, in Sarawak, Borneo, contains the largest cave chamber in the world, the largest cave by volume and what is believed to be the largest cave passage.Scientists carry out bi-annual visits into several caves and have so far mapped out an incredible 186 miles of the underground network.

Making a splash: Expedition leader Tim Allen inspects the 'Shower Head' - a calcium-formed funnel which transports rain water from the surface into caves underneath Gunung Mulu National Park, in Sarawak, Borneo.

Using lasers and other equipment they measured the dimensions of different sections of the numerous caverns stretching throughout the UNESCO World Heritage site and feed them into a computer to build up the map.

Working with Borneo's National Parks authority, the team of Brits also began mapping the area above the caves to help tourists trekking between the cave mouths know where they are.

Leaving a mark: Andy Eavis compares his hand size to ancient prints left in Black Hands Cave

Cavernous: Deer Cave is home to more than three million bats and is believed to be the largest cave passage in the world

Vast: The north entrance of Deer Cave - which measures nearly 390ft wide and more than 900 ft high - is just one of a network of 180miles of caverns

Only 2 People in the World Can Do This...

2010-09-06T23:56:00.000-07:00

A 2 Finger Summersault... Only 2 people in the whole world can do this... You are about to witness something really unique and overwhelming... Please wait a few second for the image to load properly

A traffic jam 100 km long and 10 days old!

2010-09-05T23:45:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not: A traffic jam that's entered 10th day! Stretches 100km; may take as long as mid-Sept to clear

Beijing: China has just been declared the world's second biggest economy, and now it has a monster traffic jam to match.

Triggered by road construction, the snarl-up began 10 days ago and was 100 kilometers (60 miles) long at one point. Reaching almost to the outskirts of Beijing, traffic still creeps along in fits and starts, and the crisis could last for another three weeks, authorities say.

It's a metaphor for a nation that sometimes chokes on its own breakneck growth.

In the worst-hit stretches of the road in northern China, drivers pass the time sitting in the shade of their immobilized trucks, playing cards, sleeping on the asphalt or bargaining with price-gouging food vendors. Many of the trucks that carry fruit and vegetables are unrefrigerated, and the cargoes are assumed to be rotting.

On Sunday, the eighth day of the near-standstill, trucks moved just over a kilometer (less than a mile) on the worst section, said Zhang Minghai, a traffic director in Zhangjiakou, a city about 150 kilometers (90 miles) northwest of Beijing. China Central Television reported Tuesday that some vehicles had been stuck for five days.

No portable toilets were set up along the highway, leaving only two apparent options -- hike to a service area or into the fields.

But there were no reports of violent road rage, and the main complaint heard from drivers was about villagers on bicycles making a killing selling boxed lunches, bottled water to drink and heated water for noodles.

A bottle of water was selling for 10 yuan ($1.50), 10 times the normal price, Chinese media reports said.

The traffic jam built up on the Beijing-Tibet highway, on a section that links the capital to the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia. The main reason traffic has increased on this partially four-lane highway is the opening of coal mines in the northwest, vital for the booming economy that this month surpassed Japan's in size and is now second only to America's.

Although wages remain generally low, auto ownership and gridlock have grown so commonplace that Inner Mongolia authorities restrict cars' movement to alternate days, based on odd or even numbers in their license plates.

The car invasion is widely felt; Guo Jifu, head of the Beijing Transportation Research Center, told a symposium Monday that vehicles on Beijing's roads multiplied by 1,900 per day on average in the first half of this year, Xinhua, the official news agency, reported.

The immediate cause of the traffic jam that began Aug. 14 is construction on one of three southbound highways feeding into Beijing.

Authorities are trying to ease the snarl-up by letting more trucks into the capital, especially at night, said Zhang, the traffic director. They also asked trucking companies to suspend operations and advised drivers to take the few alternate routes available.

"Things are getting better and better," he said, but he added that the construction would go on until Sept. 17.

Alan Pisarski, author of "Commuting in America," said the worst traffic jams in U.S. history tend to be associated with natural disasters, such as people fleeing Hurricane Katrina or the collapse of the upper deck of a freeway in Oakland, Calif., in the 1989 earthquak

"It took some people days to get home after that one," Pisarski said.

Traffic arrangements built up over generations in the U.S. are lacking in much of China, said Bob Honea, director of the University of Kansas Transportation Research Institute, who has visited China.

We'll see this problem more and more often. It's true of every developing country," he said..Honea said the U.S. has never experienced a traffic jam as big as the one now bedeviling northern China, but he noted that traffic in Los Angeles "is pretty bad. It's not a highway, it's a parking lot."

Creative street art

2010-09-03T10:54:00.000-07:00

Creative art print street art seen in Berlin

3529208.txt

2010-08-31T09:14:00.001-07:00

Weird Women's High Heeled Shoes

2010-08-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

HIGH SPEED PHOTOGRAPH

2010-08-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

Cool iPhone cases

2010-08-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

10 incredible hotel swimming pool

2010-08-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

1. Intercontinental Hotel, Hong Kong

2. Burj Al Arab, Dubai

3. Golden Nugget, Las Vegas

4. Crown Towers Hotel, Taipa Island Macau

5. Hugh Hefner Sky Villa, Palms Hotel Las Vegas

6. San Alfonso Del Mar, Chile

7. La Casa Que Canta, Mexico

8. Le Meridien Hurghada Makadi Bay, Egypt

9. The Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, FL

10. Blue Lagoon, Iceland

World's Smallest Car

2010-08-23T10:41:00.000-07:00

Peel P50 is the perfect car on a crowded street. Only 50 cars were prodused and sold between 1963 and 1964, but only 20 are still around today. The original price was 200 pounds, but today you can’t buy one of these micro-cars with less than 35,000 to 50,000 pounds. The three-wheeled car has only one door on the left side, one windscreen wiper and one headlight. At 134 cm in length and 99 cm in width, the Peel P50 mini-car was designed to accomodate one adult and a shopping bag.

Unique Postage Stamps

2010-08-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

This stamp was printed on silver foil by the government of Tonga:

GLow in the dark. This stamp issued in Malaysia

Wooden stamp, issued in Switzerland in 2004

The stamp was issued in honour of the Austrian embroidery industry, which dates back to the eighteenth century. The stamp has a self-adhesive backing, but can even be worn if so desired

The stamp contains 0.03 grams of dust from a meteorite found in Morocco two years earlier, which was fixed to the stamp with a special adhesive

The cloth stamps from Grenada

Cool Inventions

2010-08-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

Greatest Palaces Around the World

2010-08-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

1. Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

2. Buckingham Palace, London

3. Chateau de Versailles, Versailles, France

4. Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul, Turkey

5. Taj Mahal Palace, Agra, India

6. Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan

7. Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

8. Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

9. Summer Palace, Beijing, China

10. Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia

Leaf mimics

2010-08-17T08:15:00.000-07:00

Fishing Festival In Nigeria

2010-08-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

The World's Largest Clock

2010-08-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, the largest clock in the world began operating. It is mounted 400 meters into the sky on a skyscraper dominating the skyline of the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca.

Misspelled Tattoos

2010-08-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable Car Fountain

2010-08-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

This unusual fountain set up in Rome, Italy and is the work ofSpanish artist Juan Galdeano who wanted to make a statement that wouldhopefully draw attention to the issue of global warming.

The fountain was built to look like it’ssustaining a hatchback Seat Ibiza, when in reality the car is beingsupported by an intricate installation. Let’s face it, that would haveto be quite a powerful jet of water to sustain the car.

WORLD'S FIRST SOLAR POWERED STADIUM

2010-08-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

WORLD'S FIRST SOLAR POWERED STADIUM IN TAIWAN
Taiwan recently finished construction on a solar-powered stadium that will generate 100% of its electricity from photovoltaic technology Designed by Toyo Ito, the 50,000-seat arena will officially open later this year
to welcome the 2009 World G ames which features many sports not included in the Olympics Such as parachuting, tenpin bowling and rugby sevens

Strangest and Rarest Animals

2010-08-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

Cool laptop cases

2010-08-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

1. OpenAire laptop case

2. Rocketfish laptop case

3. CoolMan laptop case

4. My Place Cozy

5. Sustainable laptop case cum workstation

6. Laptop Felt Sleeve

7. Playing By Heart laptop briefcase

8. Choiix laptop case

9. Napbook laptop case

10. OMbre.US laptop case

The shortest man in the world

2010-08-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

Khagendra Thapa Magar (born October 1991), son of Rup Bahadur and Dhana Maya Thapa Magar, is the shortest man in the world, measuring 0.56 m (1 ft 10 in)

Magar is from the Baglung District of Nepal , just 600 grams (21 oz) at birth, Khagendra now is only about 5.5 kilograms (12 lb; 0.87 st).