This statue of a guardian type robot near Odessa in Ukraine is made from old, junked cars, among other things. Apparently it was constructed by a logistics company called TIS (Transinvestservice) in order to serve as a signpost of sorts. Now, instead of telling visitors to take a left at the 161km post, they can just say “Turn when you come upon awesomeness.”
Link [EnglishRussia] I can’t find any source for the photo; if anyone knows who it belongs to, please let us know in the comments.
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This is a true color movie, not a “colorized” one.
This wonderful film was made in 1927 by Claude Friese-Greene. Colour film from the 1920s is exceptionally rare, and this is a very powerful example… The Cenotaph sequence from around 3:37 to 3:54 is very poignant. This was filmed only nine years after the end of the Great War. The women and looking at the wreaths would very likely be wives and mothers of the men killed, and the Second World War was, at that time, inconceivable.
Claude Friese-Greene was the son of pioneering cinematographer William Friese-Greene, and devoted himself to developing commercially his father’s colour process – Biocolour – but without great success. It was soon overtaken by Technicolor and Claude abandoned the process. His role as a pioneer of colour film has now been recognised.
Some aspects of London have changed a lot in 80+ years; others have changed very little.
Link.
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Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will test your familiarity with city nicknames. If you’re lucky, your city will be one of the ten! If you’re unlucky, you’ll score 30% like I did. Link
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During the Cold War, Stalin and his successors built dozens of secret cities in the Soviet Union where thousands of people lived and worked, but did not exist on any map or gazetteer. One such town was Skrunda-1 in Latvia, which had originally been built to support radar installations. After Latvia became independent, the Russian government insisted on maintaining control of the town until 1998, when its last residents left, leaving it vacant. Now it’s been sold to a Russian investor for $3.1 million:
The town formerly known as Skrunda-1 housed about 5,000 people during the Cold War. It was abandoned over a decade ago after the Russian military withdrew from Latvia following the Soviet collapse.[...]
It was not immediately clear what plans the buyer had for the 110-acre property, which is located in western Latvia about 95 miles from Riga. The town contains about 70 dilapidated buildings, including apartment blocks, a school, barracks, and an officers’ club.
Built in the 1980s, Skrunda-1 was a secret settlement not marked on Soviet maps because of the two enormous radar installations that listened to objects in space and monitored the skies for a US nuclear missile attack.
Like all clandestine towns in the Soviet Union, it was kept off maps and given a code name, which usually consisted of a number and the name of a nearby city.
Link via Hell in a Handbasket | Information about the Secret Cities Program | Photo: adevarul
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Why is customer service in Paris so horribly rude? It may have roots in the French Revolution (they really do take the égalité part of the national motto "Liberté, égalité, fraternité" seriously).
Emma Jane Kirby of BBC News discovers first-hand that the customer isn’t always right in Paris:
The fact is Parisians employed in any service industry simply do not buy into the Anglo Saxon maxim, "He who pays the piper calls the tune."
The revolution of 1789 has burned the notion of equality deep into the French psyche and a proud Parisian finds it abhorrently degrading to act subserviently.
This Sunday, a Parisian friend of mine waited in line at the fruit and vegetable stall of his local market. When it was his turn to be served, he asked the seller for a kilo of leeks. "They’re at the other end of the stall," snapped the vendor waspishly. "Take a bit of exercise and get them yourself."
There is no mistaking the undertone, "I’m not your slave."
Link (Photo: AFP)
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Photo: Lauren Besser
Urban artist Specter created a series of hand painted billboards that lampoons the gentrification of Brooklyn. The art is very tongue-in-cheek (don’t miss the "Ghetto Fabulous Condos"), but let me ask you this: what is wrong with gentrification? What’s so bad with cleaning up the neighborhood and raising property values?
Link – via Wooster Collective
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Marie Byrd Land and Bir Tawil Triangle are the only two land areas on Earth not claimed by any country.
Marie Byrd Land is a portion of Antarctica so remote that no country in the world bothered to claim it. It’s the single largest unclaimed territory on Earth.
Bir Tawil Triangle likely has no owner because of some administrative snafu. First of all, despite of its name, it’s not a triangle at all. In fact, it has a trapezoidal shape. In 1899, when the British drew the map between Egypt and Sudan, Bir Tawil was put in Sudan’s territory (which Egypt accepted). However, in 1902, when Sudan drew its own map, it put Bir Tawil on the Egyptian side! So far, neither country bothered to lay claim to this patch of land.
It was no big loss, however, as Bir Tawil is full of sand and a whole lot of nothing.
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A weekend trip to Granada, Spain gives us all a look at the Nazrid Palaces of the Alhambra, built in the 14th century by the conquering Moors of North Africa. Considering the history, it’s astonishing that these buildings have survived 700 years without significant damage. The Alhambra is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Link -Thanks, Juergen!
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Mei Lan the panda is on her way to Chengdu, China. She was born at Zoo Atlanta in 2006 under an agreement that all pandas in American zoos belong to China. Today she is being shipped to Washington DC, where she will join Tai Shan, the panda born at the National Zoo. The two will be the only cargo aboard a FedEx 14-hour non-stop flight to China.
After a caravan to the airport and a ride past dozens of waiting photographers, Mei Lan was lifted into the 777 Freighter emblazoned with panda logos. Shortly after 8 a.m., the door was closed, the plane taxied and the flight took off.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed agreed it was fine to be “reflective, or even wistful” about Mei Lan’s departure, but important, too, to remember that she’s a healthy member of an endangered species, and by moving to China, she can help her kind survive. (Reeds advice to her: “be fruitful and multiply.”) Scientists estimate there are about 1,600 Giant Pandas in the wild. About 300 live in captivity, mostly in China.
Three giant pandas remain at the Atlanta Zoo, Mei Lan’s parents and an infant. Link -via Metafilter
More on Mei Lan.
More on Tai Shan.
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Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the aftermath of powerful collision between two asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. They estimate the speed of the impact at “15,000 kilometers per hour — five times the speed of a rifle bullet — and liberated energy in excess of a nuclear bomb.”
What Hubble saw indicates that P/2010 A2 is unlike any object ever seen before. At first glance, the object appears to have the tail of a comet. Close inspection, however, shows a 140-meter nucleus offset from the tail center, very unusual structure near the nucleus, and no discernable gas in the tail.
Link Photo: NASA/ESA/D. Jewitt (UCLA)
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Artists in Detroit have encased an abandoned house in ice in order to bring attention to the startling number of foreclosures in the region. The Ice House blog chronicles the project and provides stunning pictures of the ice house.
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How well do you know US National Parks? Today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss will be easier if you’ve traveled a bit. You’ll be given a park name, and you identify where it is. Good luck; I only scored 50%. Link
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The Big Picture has a collection of 22 photographs of European festivals that are built around fire. Stand back, and be sure to wear your flame-retardent pajamas!
Today, we have two stories of fiery festivals in Europe, Up Helly Aa, a fire festival celebrated for over 130 years now in Scotland’s Shetland islands, and the even older Feast of Saint Anthony the Great, in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain, where residents ride their horses and mules through purifying bonfires.
(image credit: AP/Danny Lawson (left) and Daniel Ochoa de Olza (right))
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Chan Chan in Peru was and still is a maze of adobe walls adorned with Pre-Columbian designs. Archaeologists have been studying the site for years, and even up until now, they are still unsure as to how many inhabitants called Chan Chan their home.
Within the confines of the city there were religious buildings, cemeteries, reservoirs, communal gardens, residences, and some other structures that may have been used to house food and supplies.
Interestingly enough, there was a class system at Chan Chan, much like the districts are separated today. Social classes were sectioned off in nine “citadels” where they lived, worked, and carried on with their daily lives.
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Waze has a list of the most dangerous or complex roads in the world, including the above Lysebotn Road in Norway:
This is probably the most fun road you can travel on four wheels, and then maybe on your two legs checking out the various hiking trails leading from the area. In fact, this might be considered the most breathtaking place in Europe. It all starts with the narrow road up the steep walls of the Lysefjord, Norway. It has 27 switchbacks and a 1.1 km long tunnel at the bottom, with 3 switchbacks inside. The last 30 km of Lysebotn road is a true roller-coaster! It’s narrow but has a perfect surface, winding left and right all the time. If you happen to ride a motorcycle in Norway, then this is the road you simply cannot afford to miss!
Beyond simply dangerous roads, the post also includes pictures of and information about very complicated interchanges.
Link via The Presurfer | Photo: Rick McCharles
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Music by Serge Chubinski-Orlov, with vocals by Linda Ganzin. The beautiful time lapse video is a collaboration between the Innerlife Project and TimeLapseHD. Link -via Nag on the Lake
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If there’s one food that most people in China simply haven’t developed a taste for, that would be chocolate. Given that China represents over a billion potential customers, that simply won’t do, according to the chocolate industry (if there’s such a thing).
So, what do they do to promote chocolate? Behold the World Chocolate Wonderland, the world’s first theme park where everything is made out of the sweet stuff.
Damian Grammaticas of BBC News takes a look:
Up to 80 tons of chocolate was used in the creation of World Chocolate Wonderland, organisers said. The exhibition also boasts a life-size replica army of chocolate terracotta warriors, chocolate flowers and a chocolate car.
Link [Flash video]
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Tin House in Gamalakhe Tintown in Margate
If you’ve seen Neill Blomkamp’s movie District 9, the tin house above should be familiar. Indeed, the slum that housed the alien prawns is similar to the Gamalake township in South Africa, down to its purported "temporary" nature.
John Gore of 360 Cities wrote:
“This is a typical Tin House after which this area of Gamalakhe township got its name: Tin Town. Originally erected as temporary housing for these displaced people, these tin houses have become permanent residences for over 20 years. This home owner has been fortunate enough to now have a brick house as well, but the old tin structure is still used as a residency.”
The poverty is palpable – the spartan house has bare walls and floor, and as far as I can tell, open windows (no glass panes). Yet, it’s not completely devoid of technology though the choice of what appliance to have is strikingly logical: a refrigerator. (Compare this to the poor in United States where 91% own color TVs!)
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Winston in southern Oregon is where many tourists stop on their journeys north and south along Interstate 5; it’s where Wildlife Safari is. Recently the park acquired some help in the form of Wylie Malek, an autistic young boy people are calling a “natural elephant man.” It seems he’s bonded with the gentle giants, and has had breakthroughs of his own.
The young man’s communication skills have improved through the interactions, his father said, both with the adults at Wildlife Safari and with kids in his classes at Green Elementary. Sometimes it is hard to get the otherwise reserved boy to stop talking about the elephants, his father said. When he recites for the fifth time how much an elephant can eat, his family has to change the subject, Kris Malek joked.
Link | via The Obscure Store and Reading Room | Photo Credit: Robin Loznak
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Take a look at seven historic Chicago locations. Some were notorious hangouts of the Prohibition-era gangsters of Chicago. You may have even been to some of them without knowing the colorful background of these placces.
The speakeasy, 1920’s icon. When prohibition began, outlawing the sale of alcohol in the United States paved the way for criminals like Al Capone to come to fruition. And if you think prohibition stopped alcohol, well, then… the word naive comes to mind. Alcohol, if anything, was more rampant in the 1920’s. Want to make something that’s already fun even more popular?? Make it taboo. The “speakeasy” was the slang term for an establishment that illegally sold alcohol during these times. Some were seedy bars, others were extravagant nightclubs filled with the rich and famous. The Green Mill Jazz Club, still open today, was a popular speakeasy back during prohibition and at one point even owned by Jack McGurn, a right hand man of Al Capone.
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Conventional photographs of the Sphinx, such as the one featured in this month’s issue of Smithsonian magazine, are taken looking west and give the impression that the figure and the three pyramids sit in a remote Egyptian desert. The reality is that urban development of Cairo and Giza have brought the cities to within easy walking distance, as one can see from a Google satellite view. This photo, taken from inside a nearby fast food location, emphasizes that reality in a dramatic fashion.
Photo credit. Via Reddit.
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Sky from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
Best to view this HD time lapse in full screen. Filmmaker Philip Bloom shot this in Dubai over five days and nights, capturing the luminous grandeur of the city; music is “Xibalba” from The Fountain by Clint Mansell.
Philip’s blog is a great resource for HD-DSLR aficionados.
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Photo by Luna
It’s quite the coincidence that Roadside America has a list of America’s Stonehenges today, as I took a daytrip yesterday to the one here in Washington at Maryhill. It’s true that the ancient stone monument in Wiltshire County, England has inspired people all over, and the efforts to recreate the magic of Stonehenge are many.
Photo by Luna
As for the one I visited, it was the first of the American replicas, built to honor those Klickitat County soldiers killed in World War I. Started in 1918 by entrepreneur Sam Hill, it’s situated right on a steep cliffside overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.
Sam Hill’s Stonehenge, built to scale out of reinforced concrete, was dedicated in 1918 — the first World War I monument in America — but it wasn’t finished until twelve years later. By then, Maryhill, an experimental Quaker community, had been abandoned, and Sam Hill, who was known for his erratic bursts of manic energy, was in a deep depression. He died in 1931, living just long enough to see his Stonehenge completed. He is buried at the base of the bluff because he didn’t get along with his family, and there is no easy path to his grave because he wanted to be left alone.
Photo by Luna
My daughter and I had a pickup game of baseball in the center of the “Henge. Note the large sacrficial altar-looking slab. That’s exactly what it’s supposed to look like, because Hill incorrectly concluded that the original Stonehenge was a place of human sacrifices, and his aim was to remind us that “humanity is still being sacrificed to the god of war.” The plaque reads:
In memory of the soldiers of Klickitat County who gave their lives in defense of their country. This monument is erected in the hope that others inspired by the example of their valor and their heroism may share in that love of liberty and burn with that fire of patriotism which death can alone quench.
See more Stonehenge replicas (including one made out of cars, natch) at the link, and if you’re ever in the area, check out this one… it’s pretty neat!
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One
of the most memorable books I've ever read was From
Third World to First : The Singapore Story
While anyone who has ever visited Singapore can clearly see that the achievements are real, there are those who disagreed with the means Lee used to get the country there:
Achieving all this has required a delicate balancing act, an often paradoxical interplay between what some Singaporeans refer to as "the big stick and the big carrot." What strikes you first is the carrot: giddy financial growth fueling never ending construction and consumerism. Against this is the stick, most often symbolized by the infamous ban on chewing gum and the caning of people for spray-painting cars. Disruptive things like racial and religious disharmony? They're simply not allowed, and no one steals anyone else's wallet.
Singapore, maybe more than anywhere else, crystallizes an elemental question: What price prosperity and security? Are they worth living in a place that many contend is a socially engineered, nose-to-the-grindstone, workaholic rat race, where the self-perpetuating ruling party enforces draconian laws (your airport entry card informs you, in red letters, that the penalty for drug trafficking is "DEATH"), squashes press freedom, and offers a debatable level of financial transparency? Some people joke that the government micromanages the details of life right down to how well Singapore Airlines flight attendants fill out their batik-patterned dresses.
So, it was quite interesting for me to read this interview with Lee (now a "Minister Mentor" - a strangely apt title befitting the man still behind the curtain in Singapore even though he's ostensibly retired) by National Geographic Magazine's Mark Jacobson. In particular:
Perhaps the most troubling problem facing the nation is a result of its overly successful population control program, which ran in the 1970s with the slogan "Two Is Enough." Today Singaporeans are simply not reproducing, so the country must depend on immigrants to keep the population growing. The government offers baby bonuses and long maternity leaves, but nothing will help unless Singaporeans start having more sex. According to a poll by the Durex condom company, Singaporeans have less intercourse than almost any other country on Earth. "We are shrinking in our population," the MM says. "Our fertility rate is 1.29. It is a worrying factor." This could be the fatal error in the Singapore Model: The eventual extinction of Singaporeans.
Link (Photo: David McLain)
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San Francisco is a city that has hosted and inspired many great writers. So artist Ian Huebert created an enormous map of that city filled with the words of novelists and poets who either wrote their works in those locations, or located their stories there. In the links, you’ll find a larger image. And at Strange Maps, you’ll find a list of every author and work mentioned.
Larger Image | News Story via Strange Maps | Artist’s Website | Image: San Francisco Gate
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Yemen has been in the news a great deal recently and if the media is to be believed then it is a hotbed of terrorist training camps and munitions trading. However there are many people who could not -if asked- name the capital city of this republic on the Arabian Gulf. What is exceptional about this country though is its unique centuries old architecture which when seen for the first time never fails to astonish.
We will start in the town of Al Hajjara, so little known that even Wikipedia does not have a proper entry on it. Situated at the heart of Yemen in the Al Bayda Governorate of the country, the town boast one of the most simply amazing structures you will ever see. The residence of the Imam Yahya Muhamamd is perched – precariously or so it seems – atop a rocky outcrop. Imam Yahya was famous for stabilizing the north of the country and for his benign attitude towards minorities, particularly Yemenite Jewry.
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If you just finished looking at the Google Street View of Stonehenge, it might be time to take a trip to the World Famous San Diego Zoo. All from your computer, of course. The paths can be a little difficult to navigate and some of the animals are hard to see from the street map distance, but it’s definitely awesome to be able to check out one of the best zoos in the world from your home. When you first load the site, it drops you right in the heart of the zoo’s newest exhibit, the Elephant Odyssey.
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Stonehenge and other historic monuments in the UK are now available on Google Street View as a result of a joint venture between Google and the National Trust:
The pictures were taken late last summer using the ‘Google trike’ – a three wheeled bike with a Street View camera mounted on it, suited to collecting images in places not easily accessible by car.
Other locations include Stonehenge in Wiltshire, Lindisfarne Castle in Northumberland, Lyme Park in Cheshire and Ham House just outside Richmond-upon-Thames near London.
Link via J-Walk Blog
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Eyam is a small village in Derbyshire, UK. In 1665, the bubonic plague hit its population. Rather than flee, the villagers were persuaded that they had a moral obligation to isolate themselves from the outside world in order to prevent the spread of that disease:
They lined up stones to mark the village boundaries, and no one was allowed beyond them. Supplies of food and clothing brought to the village from the outside were left at the boundary stones and were paid for with coins placed in a disinfectant of vinegar and water.
The horror increased as the months passed. By the end of August 1666, two-thirds of the original population had perished. Format burial services were no longer held. When the cemetery became full, the dead were buried in gardens and fields.
Only a fourth of the population had survived when outsiders made contact a year later. Today, although the village was subsequently resettled, much of it is a museum and a memorial to its inhabitants.
Link via The Presurfer | Official Website | Photo: Cressbrook Multimedia
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The 2nd Annual Golden Gate Express Garden Railway is open at San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers. The garden features miniature versions of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, buildings, and of course, a train! Plus, they are all made of recycled materials. The exhibition is open until April 18th, but if you can’t go, you can see more pictures at Laughing Squid. Link
(image credit: Todd Lappin)
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