Ice Flowers

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.

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How to move a 700-year-old church

Yeah, I thought so too, but apparently it’s possible.

It’s actually been done too, in October 2007, a German cathedral, first mentioned in documents in 1297, was moved using a huge trailer platform from its original emplacement by a mining company. The village it was built in 710 years ago was evacuated and was going to become a coal mining site, so, forced by German legislation, the contracting company had to spend 3 million euro to move the church to another location.

At 19,6 meters high, 14,5 meters long and weighing 750 tons, you can imagine it wasn’t an easy task for those involved. Thankfully, the church reached its new home in Martin Luther Square, in Borna, after a few days of traveling.

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World’s most extreme modern beds

Now these “sleeping devices” are truly extreme.

Sleeping being what it is, a necessity, you’d think we’d keep our sleeping places as basic as possible, but according to the extreme modern beds collection posted over at Freshome, technological progress affects our very beds. Take a look at the photos for a taste of what I’m talking about, for the whole “shabang”, visit the original source.

Private Cloud – a rocking-chair style bed that promises to revolutionize sleeping experience and couple activity ( if you know what I mean)

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The Skeleton Church

The Sedlec Ossuary ( Kostnice Sedlec) is a Roman Catholic Church in Sedlec, The Czech Republic, famous for its unusual, organic decorations.

Unlike other churches that like to use religious paintings and religious jewelery as decorations, this one uses between 40,000 and 70,000 human bone. Built especially as an ossuary in 1400, the macabre decorating started in 1870 when the Schwarzenberg family hired a woodcarver to arrange all the heaps of bones in order. You can see the result in the photos, but just so u know, there are 4 giant bell-shaped mounds in each corner of the chapel, an enormous chandelier which contains at least one of every bone in one’s body in the center of the chapel, and a signature of the artist, executed in bone, of course, and other “works of art”.

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Vodka in a tube

I mean what’s next, juice in a carton-box? Oh wait…

GO Vodka is apparently a popular brand in the alcohol business, I for one never heard of it, but then again I don’t hang around in clubs all that much, the places where it is consumed most. It’s produced by Austrian Wenger Corporation, one of who’s founding members had the incredible idea of putting vodka in a tube in a time when tubes were used mainly for tooth paste. Now even though it still looks like people are sucking on a toothpaste tube, GO VOdka can be found in 15 countries around Europe and last year it made the big step to the US and Australia.

GO Vodka was the first alcoholic drink in a tube.

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Swimming with crocs

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.

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The London-New York Telectroscope

How would you like to see what people in New York are doing all across from London?

The Telectroscope was born from a very old, wacky idea of digging a tunnel to the other side of the world. Many of us had this idea or at least saw it in practice in children’s cartoons but nobody was crazy enough to try it. Nobody except artist Paul St. George who actually did it…sort of. He came across a 19th century article where a reporter misspelled the word electroscope, a device that measures electrostatic charges, and even misunderstood what it does, saying it was a device for the suppression of absence. The idea was a big thing at the time and people’s imagination started working, so St. George thought he’d try to put it in practice.

The Telectroscopes built in London and New York allow passers-by to take a look at what people are doing on the other side of the devices, not through a tunnel built between them but through a trans-Atlantic broadband network and HD cameras. So during the day Londoners can take a look at New York during the night and vice-versa.

The Telectroscope will be available for the public until June 15 and the company that created it wants to host special reunions between family and friends and even a marriage proposal from the other side of the Atlantic.

Read more on this incredible device right here

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The Time Wheel

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.

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Teeth paintings

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.

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No Man’s Land Fort

Not many places offer this kind of privacy.

Built between 1861 and 1880 to protect Portsmouth from French naval attacks, No Man’s Land Fort was last used for military purposes during WWII and in later years it has been transformed into a luxury hotel with 21 rooms, indoor heated swimming pool and 2 helipads. But due to multiple problems, including finding a dangerous virus in the water supply in 2004, this incredible location ended up for sale in 2005 and 2007. But the 4 million British pounds price tag kept buyers away and in the meantime the owning company went bankrupt. Now the building is on auction again, while the owner lies in prison.

If you have the money, No Man’s Land Fort is worth a look, it’s 81 meters in diameter and 18 meters in height, it’s built out of granite blocks and reinforced with a thick iron plating and if its luxury doesn’t convince you, at least you know that if you ever have to fend off a naval attack, you have a chance.

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Fencing never gets old

It never struck me like a sport for senior citizens but…

Apparently old people love it! at least the ones at Corpus Christi Catholic Home for retired priest and nuns in Melbourne, Australia, do. The over 80 years old athletes have been learning the art of fencing for nine months now, and apparently they are getting quite good at it. One of the care-takers from the home said the old people were a bit reluctant at first but after having a talk with the convincing instructor, they said yes.

Even 93 years old Sister Dolores says she loves the sport, even though she admits it’s a chalenge at her age and she’s always afraid she might fall over.

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The Acrobat Climber

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!

The bottle computer

Have you ever seen a computer set up in an empty whisky bottle? Well, you have now.

Janos Marton, a hardware moding enthusiast got the idea for this wacky computer, when he decided to make a quiet, low-power home server. But being so passionate about tuning hardware he wanted something unique for the case. So he went ahead and used an empty 1.5 litre bottle of Ballantines whisky. Pretty original work as you can see from the photos and the way he got all the parts to fit in there so smoothly.

If you want to find out more about how the Ballantines PC was created just hit the link to the original source.

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Giant jellyfish threatening Japan

How would you feel swimming next to one of these things on your holiday?

Echizen kurage, as the Japanese call them, are giant jellyfish, over 2 meters in diameter and 200 kg in weight, swimming in the waters of Japan, China and Korea and disturbing their activities. The presence of these giant blobs seriously affected the fishing business in many areas of Japan, because they would get caught in the fishnets and poisoned or simply crushed the fish under their weight. Back in 2005-2006 the problem was so serious that a “jellyfish summit” was organized in hope of finding a solution.

Many scientist claim that the problem got out of hand because of the global warming, the seawater temperature rose and allowed jellyfish to multiply at an abnormally high rate. Others say it’s due to the over-fishing, which let to the increase of plankton, jellyfishes’ main food source. Anyway you put it, it’s man’s fault once again, what a surprise right?

And these bad boys aren’t harmless like the jellyfish from Jellyfish Lake in Palau, they’re needles are highly poisonous and can cause serious damage.

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Chilli, the world’s largest bull

This guy makes a horse feel like a dwarf.

Chilli is a black and white Fresian bull, weighing a whopping 1.25 tons and standing at 6 feet and 6 inches in height. Abandoned by its owner on the doorstep of the sanctuary he lives in today, when he was just 6 days old, back in 1999, Chilli grew up to become the biggest bovine in the world, according to Guinness Book of Records. according to Naomi Clarke, manager of the Ferne animal Sanctuary in Ferne, Somerset, the bull doesn’t eat as much as the other cows and yet he outgrows them by far. He’s also abnormally friendly and gentle.

You could say Chilli had a stroke of luck when he ended up in the shelter, because normally he would have ended up chopped into pieces and on the shelves of a meat market somewhere. Now he’s 9 years old and the proud owner of the title “Largest Bovine in the World“, nice going Chilli.