Now this is what I call poker for the big boys.
Built in 2007 for the promotion of a movie called Wise Guys On Texas Hold’Em, this giant poker table is 30 feet long and 12 feet wide making it the largest poker table ever built. I don’t know what happened to it after the whole movie promotion thing ended but I’m pretty sure it’s still kept as an attraction or maybe just in case some players want to play at a…whole other level.
One of the most beautiful frozen wonders on Earth, ice flowers are still a mystery to many people.
Ice flowers are formed on new layers of sea ice, from saturated water vapors that come up from under the ice through cracks. In contact with the cold air, the vapors start to freeze and the salt on the surface of the ice begins to crystallize and serves as a nucleus for the frozen vaporized water. Thus, molecule by molecule the ice flowers begin to take shape. They have recently been recognized as the dominant source of sea salt aerosol in Antarctica and scientist suspect they may be the main cause of tropospheric ozone depletion during the polar sunrise.
What’s amazing is that people pay to be close to these man-eaters.
This is Cango Wildlife Ranch in South Africa, a unique endangered animal shelter where people can dive in a pool with crocodiles and get close enough to see their teeth. Anyone over 12 years-old is allowed to dive into the cleverly designed cage that keeps the adrenalin junkies safe from the crushing bite of the crocodiles, but all children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
There is a small opening at about half the height of the cage where crocs can actually get their noses into the cage, close enough for you to touch them, but thankfully it’s to tight for them to open their mouth. Some activists may complain about how the crocodiles are treated but the organizers at The Cango Wildlife Ranch say that no harm comes to the animals and that they just want to show people how magnificent the crocodile is in its natural environment, so they can understand why it is such a perfect predator.
And when I say sting I mean just that.
I’ve seen many bottles of liquor with all kind of fruits in them, from small prunes to fully grown pears or apples but snakes and scorpions, this is definitely a first. You may have other tastes but to me these drinks look as bad as they must taste and you could pay me, I still wouldn’t try a sip of this stuff. Yuck!!!
This is the world’s largest hourglass.
Unveiled on May 1st 2004 to commemorate Hungary’s entrance in the European Union, The Time Wheel is made out of red granite, steel and bullet-proof glass and it combines one of humanity’s most primitive time measuring devices with a very precise computer. It lies in Budapest near the entrance to City Park. The sand in the hourglass flows from one side of the device to the other for an entire year and the last grains are programmed to flow exactly at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The flow is then turned manually so that it can start measuring time for another year. It takes 45 minutes for 4 people to turn it 180 degrees using metal cables.
The Time Wheel hourglass was designed by Istvan Janaki.
Don’t you love to see original art?
And painting on teeth is pretty original, even if some may find them a bit disturbing. I have to say I’m pretty scared of the dentist, but if I ever have a tooth removed this is definitely what I want to do with it, turn something painful into something beautiful.
It’s not exactly The Splitting of The Red Sea but it’s pretty close.
Jindo Island, in South Korea, is host to one of the world’s most amazing natural phenomenons, called the Moses Miracle. Two times a year, during a low tide, a land path 2.8 kilometers long and 40 meters wide is revealed, uniting the islands of Jindo and Modo for a period of one hour. A festival is dedicated to this natural wonder and people from all around the world attend every year. However the Moses Miracle was largely unknown until 1975, when a French ambassador visited South Korea and wrote about in a French Newspaper.
The legend behind this Korean phenomenon goes like this: a Jindo village was attacked by tigers and all the villagers ran to Modo island for shelter. All, except for a helpless old woman who was left behind, out of despair she prayed to the Sea God, who split the sea and helped her escape the bloodthirsty animals.
The Moses Miracle just took place on May 18th.
I can’t imagine why you’d want to eat something like this.
Sex sells, that we all know, but this is stretching it a little, if you ask me. I stumbled across these photos during one of my frequent web-surfing session and I thought they fit perfectly here. I sincerely wonder if anyone actually eats these things or where u can get them maybe a sex-shop?
Now this guys must have balls the size of watermelons!
Famous Austrian climber and photographer,Heinz Zak threw an incredible highline performance on May 3rd, walking on a string for a full 30 meters, between two giant sandstone towers, in the Czech Republic, the Starosta and Starostova (Mayor and Lady Mayor). Just a few days before this stunt, Zak had an impressive highline performance between two stone towers in Germany. This guy is amazing!
This toy tower brings back memories…
If you’re lucky enough to be living near Legoland Windsor, in England, than you’ll be able to examine this toy wonder in person. It may look pointless but this baby climbed its way into the Guinness Book of Records as the World’s Tallest LEGO tower. The former record was of 96 feet but the Legoland Windsor tower measures a whopping 100 feet. It was built to resemble a Viking longboat mast, to mark the inauguration of the land of Vikings attraction in the theme park, but also to celebrate 50 years of LEGO.
The tower was built by children, one 20 cm portion at a time, portions that were then lifted by a crane and it took almost half a million LEGO pieces to build. The tower is held in place by wires.
Man would I like to have that baby in my living-room…
Unfortunately that is simply impossible, considering it is one of a kind and designed especially for UEFA Champion’s League Finals ad for Dutch beer, Amstel. Still only seeing it and imagining how playing foosball on a 22 player table would be like, is worth it. The table can be dismantled and packed into 6 cases for transportation. Who knows, maybe after they’ll have filmed the ad, they’ll auction it or something, so keep your ears open and your savings close by.
It may not be the tallest tree in the world, but it’s is definitely the largest by volume.
General Sherman is a 2300-2700 year old sequoia tree located in the Giant Forest of the Sequoia National Park, near Visalia, California. In 2002 the volume of its trunk measured about 1487 cubic meters and it was identified as the largest in the world after a close fight with the nearby General Grant tree, after which wood volume was accepted as the determining factor. It’s not short either, it reaches 275 feet in height.
It was named after general William Tecumesh Sherman, the American Civil War leader, by naturalist James Wolverton in 1879.
Another interesting thing about the Sherman tree is that because of it’s extremely large volume it is also the largest known single organism by volume.
A place where tourists can pet tigers just like they do their cats, here’s something you don’t see every day.
The Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua is Theravada Buddhist forest temple, in Thailand. It has been a sanctuary for many endangered animals for quite some time now, including several tigers. It was founded in 1994 as a forest monastery, where animals could find sanctuary and in 1999 they received their first tiger cub, which died soon after. But they kept receiving tiger cubs from the villagers who probably encountered them wondering through the forest after their mothers were killed by poachers.
The Tiger Temple has raised money over the years and can now accommodate 12 mature tigers and 4 cubs. they live in cages and once a day they are taken to a nearby quarry, where they can roam freely. Tourists may watch from 10 meters distance and sometimes they are allowed to pet these magnificent creatures. Only one serious attack took place in the history of the temple.
The priests at the Tiger Temple are now gathering funds to build a larger facility and create an almost natural environment for the animals, so they can one day be let out into the wild where they belong.
In case you’re wondering, yes this is the place featured on Animal Planet.
Yeah these photos may date back to 2005, but a giant wall of sand moving at 60mph never gets old!
These amazing photos were taken by a civilian contractor who was supporting US troops in Iraq. he might be an amateur photographer but he did a pretty good job with these pictures, I must say. I wonder what was going on in the minds of the people in that camp, seeing something like that coming towards you at an incredible speed messes up your thinking completely.
I’ve never seen a sandstorm like this, maybe just in movies like The Mummy, but that doesn’t count, it was computer generated. Mother nature sure has some powerful weapons at her disposal…
Yet another place I’d like to visit at least once in my lifetime.
Sadly I might not get the opportunity, and not because I may not be able to reach it, but just because it may not be there for long. This extraordinary place is in danger, the underground river that supplies the water for Huacachina Oasis is now being plundered by the people of the neighboring city of Ika. It’s not specifically their fault, global warming is affecting water supplies everywhere, so it’s humanity’s fault, shame on us!
It’s a shame that a place that over the centuries has sheltered countless travelers, preventing them from finding their end in the sun-scorched desert dunes that surrounds it. Quite an unfitting end for such a unique location, that is just beginning to attract tourists from all over the world.
So if you have the chance, go to Peru and visit Huacachina Oasis, who knows if you’ll ever get the chance again…
