The monkey acrobats

These guys have many tricks up their sleeves.

As everyone knows monkeys are great acrobats, to them it comes naturally, swinging through trees and all, but these guys do tricks that are actually meant for humans, so I have to say I’m pretty amazed to see them pull such things off.

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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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Saint Michel Chapel

One of the oldest chapels in all of France.

But age is not what makes it special, but it’s placement, on an 85 meters-high volcanic spire. Christians have to walk up 268 steps carved in the small mountain, to reach the place where Joan of Arc’s mother Isabelle Romee supposedly came to pray once.

Saint Michel d’Aiguile was built in 962 in Le Puy-en-Velay, a beautiful little French town also popular for its Notre Dame cathedral and it looks like it’s watching over it from above. It is quite a sight to behold.

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World’s first solar speedboat

Finally something solar-powered that’s got some speed.

The Czeerz MK1 is a Dutch-made speedboat that relies only on solar energy, which makes it the first solar speedboat. The 10 meters-long boat reaches the speed of 30 knots which isn’t bad at all for this kind of vehicles. It has a light, carbon fiber shell covered with 14 square meters of solar panels that power an 80 kilowatt engine. Only thing this thing lacks is space, u can only get 2 people in it and they wouldn’t be very comfortable. But after all it’s built for speed not comfort.

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The Sky Bridge of Malaysia

One of the most unusual, yet beautiful bridges I’ve ever seen.

Built on a an island in the Langkawi archipelago in Malaysia, the Sky Bridge rises 700 meters above sea level and spans over 125 meters in length and 1,8 meters in width to offer visitors a spectacular view of the surroundings. The bridge was built crooked on purpose to offer a beautiful view of the chasm beneath and of the sea and neighboring islands.

It has 2 triangular platforms at each end, offering views of the landscape from different angles and also shelter for those who have a problem with the shaking of the bridge. The constructors took all the necessary precautions, building an excellent protection system, so don’t worry you’re safe.

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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 Baby Jumping Festival of Castillo

Would you let someone jump over your infant like this?

Known as El Colacho in Spain, the Baby-Jumping Festival is a popular event that takes place in Castillo de Murcia near Burgos, every year since 1620. It’s basically all about infants laying on a blanket and adults dressed as devils jumping over them i a procession that’s supposed to cleanse the little ones of all evil doings. Doesn’t sound like it works, but hey who am I to contradict tradition? I just wonder if in history any of the devils tripped and fell over the poor babies…

I for one wouldn’t have my kid jumped over by a grown-up like this, even if they’d allow me to keep my hand over him as protection. If that guy falls my hand isn’t going to break his fall, the baby might though…

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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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The Dune of Pyla

Didn’t know they had deserts in Europe.

La Dune de Pila, as the French call it, is the largest sand dune in Europe. It’s located in the Arachon Bay, 60 km from the city of Bordeaux, and it is a very popular tourist attraction in France. The dune is 3 km long, 500 m wide and it has a maximum height of 117 m above sea level.

The Dune of Pyla is a recent formation, born in the XVII century through accumulation of Aeolian sand on a transverse dune. Each year, the dune covers about 8,000 square meters and at this rate, in 40 years the camping and the road at the bottom of the slope will be completely covered by sand.

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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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The greenest cars out there

And I’m not talking about environmentally green

Hell these babies could have huge v12 engines under their hoods, they’d still be green, because whether it’s real grass or astroturf, their nature suit is a statement to raise awareness on the problem of the environment. It must be tough driving to the country though, with all those cows and sheep chasing after you.

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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 TokyoFlash Infection

Calm down everyone, it’s not a disease or anything like that.

Infection is the name of the new watch released by funky manufacturer TokyoFlash. Combining LED technology with an original, ergonomic design, Infection introduces an innovative and odd way to read time. It has twelve red LEDs that represent hours, eleven yellow LED’s representing the flow of time in groups of five minutes and four green LEDs showing the single minutes.

Although it does look pretty cool and it probably attracts a lot of curious eyes I think this 99% fashion accessory and 1% watch. I mean just think how hard it must be just to get used to it, but who needs the time when u can be cool…

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