You might just see a huge steel ball, but this tuned mass damper is so much more.

This 728 tons steel pendulum is installed in one of the world’s tallest buildings, the taipei 101 in Taiwan. It helps stabilize the building in case of strong winds and earthquakes, through simple mechanics, when the building moves in a direction it swings in the opposite direction reducing movement by 40%. You can understand how it works by looking at the small GIF image.

It cost #4 million to install the huge damper in the skyscraper but architects and engineers said it had to be done. It spans across 4 of the building’s stories and it was assembled on site because it couldn’t be lifted by a crane, due to its enormous weight.

Here’s a video of the damper in action, on May 12th, when a horrific earthquake hit one of China’s provinces and the tremors reached as gar as Taipei. As the building started to shake, people ran towards the center to see the damper in action, it did it’s job.

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This house makes you hungry when you look at it.

Joel Richards from EASYJO.com created this delicious-looking house out of sausages, bacon and other eatable components and got some serious attention, deserved attention if you ask me, that house looks good enough to eat. Great job and looking forward to their next meat creation.

One of the wackiest competitions on Earth and also one of the funniest.

This year’s World’s Ugliest Dog competition was held at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma. Twelve dogs battled for the title of world’s ugliest dog, and in the end only Gus came out on top. Winers are selected from two classes, the Pedigree class and the Mutt class. Gus won the Pedigrees class and went on to beat Reggie who had won the Mutt class. After winning the competition Gus had to meet the Ring of Champions which included winners from the previous year.

Gus is a Chinese Crested, suffering from skin cancer, he only has three legs (one was amputated due to the skin tumor) and one eye (he lost the other in a battle with a tomcat) and no hair. He was adopted by a Jeanenne Teed and her daughter Janey after they had heard he was being kept in a crate in somebody’s garage.

For winning the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest, Gus got $1,600 ,which the owners say will go to his radiation treatment.

Image source

Set in Haukadalur valley, in the south part of the country, Geysir is one of Iceland’s largest geysers.

Geysers are quite a sight to behold when they erupt and they are also one of Iceland’s most precious resources. Geysir is one of the lazier geysers, it only erupts 4-5 times a day, while others do it at intervals of 5-10 minutes. Here are some photos of Geysir’s eruption caught on camera.

Although this is definitely one of the most original things I’ve seen lately, I don’t think I’ll be having a drink there.

The Ukrainian town of Truskavets, famous for its mineral springs, has just added another major attraction on its menu for tourists. A giant coffin, 20 meters long, six meters wide and 6 meters tall has been built by a group of undertakers and will serve as a bar. Named Eternity by its founders, the coffin bar will serve “Nine Days” and “Forty Days” salads to its customers on normal size coffins that will serve as tables. As you can see in the photos, the bar uses funeral flower arrangements and real coffins as decorations and according to one of the undertakers, the waitresses will be dressed to match the theme.

And I mean that literally, just take a look at these images and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

We’ve posted many photos of unusual piercings on Oddity Central, but I think these are the most painful of them all. Just imagine somebody pushing some pieces of metal under your skin until they fit into place. Sure being unique isn’t easy, but this is too much…at least for me.

That’s right, this is like a NASA-made ant farm.

Actually NASA only came up with the concept of AntWorks, developed so it could test the development of animal life in a 0 gravity environment. The prototype was created back in 2003 but these days you can buy your very-own AntWorks ant farm directly from the shop for about $40. This small ant habitat is filled with a special gel containing all the nutrients the ants need to survive so you don’t have to feed them, ever. Just sit back and enjoy watching the world’s strongest creatures (they are able to carry 10-20 time their own weight) at work. All yo have to do is lift the lid of the AntWorks colony so air can get in.

Pretty cool gadget this, I’m thinking of getting one myself since I live in an apartment and I’d just be torturing a dog if I kept it here.

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People seem to love having a rolercoaster in their own backyards.

This guy must have seen Jeremy Reid‘s wooden rollercoster and said he simply must top that. And he did, in the way that he built an iron rollercoster in his own backyard. John Ivers from Indiana is the man who built The Blue Flash, a miniature rollercoster, just so he wouldn’t have to wait in line at the amusement park. Judging by the photos, I’d say he did a pretty good job, but apparently he wasn’t completely satisfied so he built an improved version called The Blue Too. Some people just have too much time on their hands, don’t you think?

You might think this helicopter is American when you first look at it, you would be wrong.

This painted masterpiece is actually a Mi-24 Hind helicopter and it belongs to the Hungarian Air Force. You might have seen photos of this beautifully painted aircraft on other sites, with descriptions like “this American Eagle helicopter is currently on duty in Afghanistan (or Iraq) raining hell on terrorists”, but the truth is The Eagle was painted by its own crew and it was never intended for combat, i is simply a vehicle presented at air shows. So remember, appearances can be deceiving.

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China’s water supplies threatened by blue-green algae outbreak.

Chaohu Lake is China‘s fifth fresh water source, providing fresh water to over 300,000 people and is now being invaded by blue-green algae. Scientists say that, in order to thrive, these algae need a constant temperatures of over 25 degrees Celsius, at least 3 days of direct of sunshine and a lot of nitrogen and phosphorus. And, once again, man is to blame for this natural disaster, because it supplied the lake with the chemicals the algae needed to multiply at an increasing rate. The local area became increasingly polluted after cities became industrialized. The heavy snowfalls that eventually melted and carried the nitrogen and phosphorus into the lake, didn’t help very much either.

So, for the last 4 months the Chinese authorities have been trying to keep the situation under control while locals get involved and try to fish the blue-green algae as they know best. After all their drinking water source is at stake.

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A fountain in Rome holds a car in the air.

This unusual fountain set up in Rome, Italy is the work of Spanish artist Juan Galdeano who wanted to make a statement that would hopefully draw attention to the issue of global warming. The fountain was built to look like it’s sustaining a hatchback Seat Ibiza, when in reality the car is being supported by an intricate installation. Let’s face it, that would have to be quite a powerful jet of water to sustain the car. The fountain is available to the public from June 5 to August 10.

Nice artwork and an important stetment to the world, bravo!

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The melting of Briksdal Glacier in photos shot over the years.

Briksdal Glacier used to be the largest glacier on the European mainland, in Norway. But due to global warming it has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former self. Once a great tourist attraction of the Scandinavian peninsula, Briksdal Glacier is now no longer available for glacier tours. As you can see from the photos the effects of global warming are undeniable and they say you can here the ice melting because of the caverns formed between the glacier and the rocks. It’s a tragedy, but, as always, nobody gives a damn and no one with some real power does anything about it.

2001

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What’s wrong with these picture?

Hmm, I could swear I saw a gator amongst all those hypos… Oh wait, I did and apparently so did they. Ouch, I bet he wishes he hadn’t tried to mingle with the wrong crowd.

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Thousands of black plastic balls cover the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles.

It might not look like serious business, but The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power dropped 400,000 black plastic balls into one of the city’s reservoirs for a reason. The sunlight mixes with the chlorine and bromide in the water creating a deadly mix which some scientist believe may be causing cancer. The balls are meant to shade the water from the dangerous sunlight.

Sure a tart or some kind of lid would have seemed more normal, but the authorities say a tart would have cost to much too manufacture and a metal lid would have taken too long. So, although it looks like an oil spill, this was the best measure and it’s only temporary, the Ivanhoe and Elysian reservoirs will be covered by 3,000,000 black plastic balls for the next four years.

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Interacting with some animals seems impossible but this man makes the impossible, possible.

Kevin Richardson is an animal behaviourist that has bonded so much with wild big cats that he isn’t even afraid to sleep with them in the wild. He’s great friends with lions, cheetahs, leopards or hyenas and they all treat him like he’s one of their own. Former student of child psychology, Kevin decided to switch to animals when he decided he could trust a lion over a human every time. He never uses whips, sticks or leashes, just a lot of patience and most importantly respect for the felines.

Although these photos may seem unbelievable, they are very real and Kevin says he can get close to any big cat under a year old and become friends with it, but he feels most safe and comfortable around animals he has known from birth. He has had one accident when a 4-year-old male lion attacked and started biting him, but something about Kevin’s passive reaction made him stop. ever since then Kevin never engages wild animals if he feels there is something wrong.

Known as the Lion Whisperer by most people, Kevin Richardson is a real-life beast master.

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