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Don't mess with the flight attendants aboard Hong Kong Airlines! They're
all trained in the deadly martial arts of Wing Chun, a form of kung fu
popularized by the film Ip
Man
If you're that airline passenger — the one who doesn't shut off your electronic device, who gets up to use the lavatory when the seatbelt sign is on, or the one who incessantly complains about food, fees or anything else you can think of — be glad you're not flying Hong Kong Airlines.
The carrier is encouraging its new flight attendants to study a form of kung fu, called wing chun, according to the South China Morning Post.
"Wing chun can be used in small, confined spaces so it's suited for an airplane," Katherine Cheung of the Hong Kong Wing Chun Union and one of the instructors who recently taught a flight crew, told the Morning Post. "It's easy to learn but difficult to master."The entire Hong Kong Airlines staff is able to sign up for training, but it is required for flight attendants, Eva Chan, deputy general manager of corporate communication, told the Morning Post, adding that the airline deals with about three disruptive-passenger incidents each week.
If you’ve long fantasized about living as a hamster, then have I got a hotel for you! The Hamster Villa in Nantes, France simulates the full hamster experience. Guests get furry hats and tails, an exercise wheel, a bed of hay and water from a fountain.
Link -via The Presurfer
Taking a trip to Las Vegas can result in gamblers losing the shirt right off their back at the game tables, and that feeling of loss often leads to bouts of binge drinking and self loathing.
Good thing the Hangover Heaven buses have come to town! Equipped with IV drip dispensers and a soothing air conditioned atmosphere, Hangover Heaven is both the result of, and answer to, Sin City’s excessive lifestyle.
So don’t be afraid to drink up when you visit the Vegas Strip, because the Hangover Heaven will pick you up off the floor and put you back on your feet again!
In the post-9/11 era of tight security, Americans usually avoid going to the airport unless they absolutely have to, but in Europe, the halcyon days of aviation are still here:
Kids at Learta Sinani's 10th birthday party here ate cake, played games and faced a thorough security screening. It's all part of celebrations at one of Switzerland's hottest tourist spots: Zurich Airport.
When Ms. Sinani's mother first proposed taking friends to the airfield, "I wasn't so sure," recalled the birthday girl during her recent festivities, as friends climbed in a child-sized control tower. "Now I think it's really exciting." [...]
Hospitality is proving so successful that these airports are increasingly pitching themselves as party venues. Revelers are climbing onboard. Zurich's three weekly birthday slots for youngsters are booked into next year.
"You should reserve before your child is born," jokes Rahel Kindermann-Leuthard, manager of visitor services and events at Zurich Airport.
Guests still have to clear security, but the upside of that is you can use the X-ray machines to guess the party gifts!
Daniel Michaels of The Wall Street Journal's The A-Hed column explains: Link
Doomsday's
no excuse for roughing it for some folks - not when there are luxurious
condos where Doomsday
Preppers can spend the Apocalypse in style:
Tucked deep beneath the Kansas prairie, luxury condos are being built into the shaft of an abandoned missile silo to service anxious -- and wealthy -- people preparing for doomsday.
So far, four buyers have plopped down a total of about $7 million for havens to flee to when disaster happens or the end is nigh. And developer Larry Hall has options to retro-fit three more Cold War-era silos when this one fills up. [...]
Built to withstand an atomic blast, even the most paranoid can find comfort inside concrete walls that are nine feet thick and stretch 174 feet (53 meters) underground.
Instead of simply setting up shop in the old living quarters provided for missile operators, Hall is building condos right up the missile shaft. Seven of the 14 underground floors will be condo space selling for $2 million a floor or $1 million a half floor. Three and a half units have been sold, two contracts are pending and only two more full units are available, Hall said.
Oscura Day, a day to explore the world around you, is coming up April 28th. Check out the schedule of events at the Oscura Day website -there may be something wonderful scheduled in your area! But check back often, because new events are being added every day. Link
Frito pie, a delicacy of the American Southwest, consists of Frito chips, chili, cheese, beans and onions. Its origins are a mystery, but one legend places its birth at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Woolworth’s isn’t around anymore, but a dime store still resides at that location. It serves Frito pie at a snack bar in the back, with the ingredients poured into a slit open Frito bag.
Look at that picture. You’re already getting hungry, aren’t you?
Link -via Tasteologie | Photo: Boulder Locavore
Previously: The Origin of Fritos
Chinese artist Kefeng Zhu and his team of artists use heavy metal as their medium, and the results are pretty darn neat. His unofficial Transformers theme park is called Mr. Iron Robot, and it’s a big hit with kids from throughout the Zhejiang Province and beyond.
It took Kefeng and his team over 10 years to complete the sculptures, and the opening of the park on March 20, 2012 represents the culmination of a lifelong dream for Kefeng, and a new tourist destination for China.
The park houses 600 metal sculptures, which are made entirely of recycled scrap metal and various junked car parts, and they all look so cool that someone should create an animated series based around these guys, something like The Adventures Of Mr. Iron Robot Saving The World.
Link –via DesignTAXI
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Kawah Ijen is a volcanic crater lake in East Java, Indonesia. This is no ordinary lake, but a pool of sulfuric acid. Miners harvest sulfur from the caldera, carrying it miles by hand, with little to protect them from poisonous gasses. Read more about them at Environmental Graffiti. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user Matthew Harrigan)
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Pumpkin Spring is a geological oddity is a limestone formation off the Colorado River. Some water spills over the top, but that which remains has a deadly mixture of arsenic, copper, zinc and lead. It’s dangerous, but beautiful. View more pictures at the link.
Link | Photo: Flickr user al_hikesaz
Where are the best places to hide from a zombie attack? We know from watching TV that the CDC in Atlanta is no help; neither is a bucolic farm. But there are some really fortified landmarks that could shelter you from the undead. Fort Knox is the closest sanctuary to me, but for aesthetic interest, I’d prefer Fort Boyard off the west coast of France.
Now completely uninhabited, this island fortress would make the perfect refuge from a Zombie attack, as it is surrounded by a particularly large moat: the Atlantic Ocean. Designed to repel the British, this fortress comes equipped with canon mounts and was once used as a prison, meaning it is pretty secure. So, if you find yourself stuck on a ship during the Zombie attack, why not head to Fort Boyard for a vacation from the undead.
Disregarding the fact that you would go to the closest shelter in the event of a zombie attack, which of these refuges would you like best? Link
Vietnamese architect Dang Viet Nga wanted to create a house like no other on earth, and she did it. The Hang Nga Guest House in Da Lat, Vietnam, is more often called the Crazy House. No single picture can do justice to even just the exterior, so you should go see more of them at Kuriositas. Link
(Image credit: Flickr user upyernoz)
Norwegian adventurer Aleksander Gamme spent three months in 2011-2012 skiing to the South Pole solo. On day 86, he reached a stash of supplies, and was delighted to find cheese doodles and chocolate. You might think his joy is a bit over-the-top, but I tend to act the same way when I find forgotten chocolate candy. Link
English translation. Link
Gamme also has an AMA (ask me anything) thread at reddit. Link
Just when you thought the food eaten by the mainland Chinese couldn’t get any stranger, here comes this disgusting delicacy-eggs soaked in the urine of boys under 10 years old.
Called Virgin Boy Eggs, they’re a big hit in the city of Dongyang, and the urine is collected from primary schools around town, making this a decidedly local flavor.
Vendors claim the eggs have good health properties, but don’t they say that about every gross food item they try to peddle in China?
There’s a marvelous bed and breakfast outside of Durby, Belgium called La Balade de Gnomes. It looks like it’s straight out of a fantasy movie. Outwardly, the building is a wooden bull. Inside, you can find an eccentric mixture of stucco and carved driftwood in the Gnome Revival style.
Photos and Official Website (Google Translate) -via Offbeat Home | Photos: Kozi Kaza
Atlas Obscura has announced the date of the third annual Obscura Day, which will be Saturday, April 28th. Obscura Day is a day to go exploring: to take a trip through the hidden wonders of the world, to see special places, maybe even in your own backyard! There are already lots of excursions planned, from Brooklyn to Scotland, from North Carolina to New Zealand, including places large and small. Select from nature hikes, museums, science facilities, abandoned architecture, historic landmarks, and at least three scavenger hunts. If your favorite place isn’t listed already, you can organize an Obscura event of your own! And the folks at Atlas Obscura are especially looking for photographers to documents the expeditions. Find out all about it at the Obscura Day website. Link
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To mark the launch of its new game, Angry Birds has turned Seattle's Space Needle into a launch pad! So that's how they got into space ...
Link - Thanks Tiffany!
See also: Neat Angry Birds stuff from the NeatoShop
Comments Off This was the first year that the WonderCon (Comic-Con’s little sister) was held in Anaheim instead of San Francisco, unfortunately, that didn’t mean that the weather was any better. In fact, it was pouring the better part of the weekend. While the poor weather and smaller size of the convention meant there were far fewer cosplayers than at Comic-Con, the diversity and quality of the costumes was definitely impressive. Here are a few of the best costumes as photographed by Zeon and myself.
There are always a lot of Batman costumes at any convention, but with The Dark Knight Rises coming out this summer, there were even more than usual -including this sexy group of cosplayers. There was also a matching Harley Quinn, but I didn’t get a good picture of her. Sorry boys.
Cat Women and Riddlers were particularly popular at the convention.
Harley Quinn was also a pretty popular costume, which is interesting since they still haven’t put her character into a movie yet. Nolan, maybe you should take note of that fact.
Cross-play was also a pretty big trend and this adorable Robin and Green Arrow did a great job at adapting their costumes accordingly.
more …
After years of preparation, filmmaker James Cameron has accomplished his goal of descending to Challenger Deep, the deepest ocean depth on Earth, down 35,756 feet into the Marianna Trench. That’s seven miles!
Reaching bottom after a 2-hour-and-36-minute descent, the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker typed out welcome words for the cheering support crew waiting at the surface: “All systems OK.”
Folded into a sub cockpit as cramped as any Apollo capsule, the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker is now investigating a seascape more alien to humans than the moon. Cameron is only the third person to reach this Pacific Ocean valley southwest of Guam (map)—and the only one to do so solo.
Hovering in what he’s called a vertical torpedo, Cameron is likely collecting data, specimens, and imagery unthinkable in 1960, when the only other explorers to reach Challenger Deep returned after seeing little more than the silt stirred up by their bathyscaphe.
NatGeo has lots more on the expedition. Link
(Image credit: Mark Thiessen, National Geographic)
Previously: The Deepest Ocean Depths
Norman John Gillies was 5 years old when he was among the final 36 people evacuated from their homes on St. Kilda. The tiny island, 100 miles off the coast of Scotland, was turned into a nature preserve afterward and no one lives there. Gilles is now the last living person who remembers living on St. Kilda.
Norman John was named after his mother’s two brothers. They were among five men trying to land on Dun in a strong sea swell when their boat capsized. No St Kildan could swim. Norman John’s grandfather was saved along with another man and one body was retrieved, “But not Norman or John’s.” Both uncles perished.
St Kilda could ill afford to lose able-bodied males. Already depleted by disease and emigration, by the 1920s the community was struggling to feed itself. Nurse Williamina Barclay, posted to Hirta at this time, was horrified by what she found. Well aware, too, of the limited medical service she could provide, she tried to persuade the islanders that the time had come to leave St Kilda. The younger adults were mostly in favour, the older ones against.
Young Norman John knew nothing of this. He remembers Nurse Barclay for teaching him his first hymn while she was treating burns he’d got when his young cousin, in a misguided jest, showered him with hot peat ash from the household fire. Too young to work with the adults (“like children over nine or 10″) or to be in the tiny island schoolroom, Norman John roamed over Hirta. “We didn’t have toys,” he recalls. “We played hide and seek and ran free.” There was no crime on the island – the community genuinely lived by the 10 commandments – and doors were never locked. His most vivid memory is of his mother standing on a high dry-stone wall beckoning and shouting to both ends of the island, “Tormod Iain” – Norman John in Gaelic – “Time for your dinner!”
It was the death of Gilles’ mother that convinced the last holdouts on St. Kilda to leave for good. Read about life on the isolated island and how different it became for the evacuees after they moved to mainland Scotland. Link -via Metafilter
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Sports
arenas sell naming rights, so why not cities? That's what the nearly-bankrupt
Japanese city of Izumisano is trying to do:
Neatoramanauts, this is our chance of having our very own Neatoramaville - Now all we've got to do is come up with the money... LinkFor the last three fiscal years, Izumi-Sano has been supported by funding from the national government.
Forced to take drastic measures, the government is proposing to accept applications from companies, both foreign and domestic, between June and November. Firms applying to rename the city will have to specify how much they are willing to pay for a contract of between 12 months and five years.The city is also willing to have the name of the city hall sponsored, as well as roads throughout the municipality.
Companies will also be invited to place advertisements on the uniforms of municipal employees, including refuse collectors, library staff and bureaucrats in the city hall.
Serious art lovers living in, or visiting, New York City are going to love this new app, which shows the location of all artworks contained in the subway stations across the city.
Created by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Arts for Transit app makes finding your favorite piece of public art a snap, so you won’t have to miss your train to admire works from the likes of Lichtenstein and Sol Lewit, just to name a few.
There are hundreds of works throughout New York City’s subway system, so having an app at your fingertips that shows you the location of each individual piece is quite convenient, and may make for a fun day of public art viewing.
Link –via DesignTAXI
The Magic Mountain Lodge is a luxury resort set in a private nature preserve in the mountains of Chile. It’s built to resemble a hollowed-out mountain. Fountains at the top can pour water over the surface, making it look like a series of caves in a waterfall. You can view more pictures at the link. The photos that show the lodge after a heavy snowfall are particularly striking.
Official Website -via Offbeat Home
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A lot of people like to travel, but Benjamin Jenks' idea is slightly different: instead of flying or driving, he hitchhiked around the United States for a year. It took Benjamin 3 months to shoot and 2 years to create this 162-second long Vimeo clip documenting his travel across 5,000 miles, in which he met 930 people.
Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] - via The Dish
Douglas Adams noted:
It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the phrase, ‘as pretty as an airport.’ Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort.
The effort put into this gate at Taiwan’s largest airport was worth the result.
Link -via @Ron Nurwisah | Photo: Late Departure
At the Mahika Mano cafe in Tokyo, chairs are out and hammocks are in. This business hosts a showroom for a hammock retailer, so you sway a bit as you hold a hot cup of coffee.
Link (Google Translate) -via DVICE
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Postman’s Park in London, England, has a small memorial garden featuring 54 plaques that honor common men and women who were never famous, but died during a heroic act of saving someone else.
The Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice was the brainchild of George Frederic Watts, a painter who, while eminent in the Victorian age, harbored a hatred of pomp and circumstance. Twice refusing Queen Victoria’s offer of a baronetcy, Watts always identified strongly with the straitened circumstances of his youth; he was the son of an impoverished piano-maker whose mother died while he was young. For years, in adulthood, Watts habitually clipped newspaper stories of great heroism, mostly by members of the working classes. At the time of Victoria’s jubilee, in 1887, he proposed the construction of a monument to the men, women and children whose deeds had so moved him—people like Fred Croft, a railway inspector who in 1878 attempted to “save a lunatic woman from suicide at Woolwich Arsenal Station but was himself run over by the train,” or David Selves, who drowned, aged 12, in the Thames with the boy whom he had tried to save still clinging to him.
Watts had to scale down his plans for the memorial due to fundraising problems, and kicked in a good chunk of his own money.
Link to story.
Link to an index of the memorials and the stories behind them.
(Image credit: Flickr user David Fisher)
This innovative new vehicle is called The Iguana-a sea and land vehicle that will not only make boating a blast but also much more convenient. Here’s more about this amphibious yacht:
The Iguana is a seaworthy boat even in rough seas, a fast boat (40 knots), a high quality good looking boat, a boat capable of traveling short distances on dry land across unstable land, at a low speed, but without the necessity to drive on roads, in the end, a boat easy to live with, both with family and friends.
The Iguana looks like a fun way to go from sea to land in a flash, just watch where you’re going if you hit the beach during spring break, or you might make a bloody mess of some drunken co-eds.
The Sphinx Observatory is the highest-built structure in Europe, at 3,571 meters (11,715 feet) above sea level near Jungfraujoch, Switzerland. It was built for science observations and experiments that require such a high altitude. Read more about the Sphinx Observatory, and see more amazing pictures at Kuriositas. Link
(Image credit: Flickr users Col Ford and Natasha de Vere)
Illustrator Caldwell Tanner has created some colorful travel posters for locations familiar to lazy people. So, now you can feel like you do all kinds of traveling every day, even though you rarely leave your house!
Who needs fresh air and sunshine when you’ve got the arctic chill of the refrigerator and the rainbow waterfall of infinite pages that is the glorious interwebs?
Link –via Rampaged Reality
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