The seamless aluminium beer can turns 50 years old this month. That's right, just a half a century ago, the beer-drinking world suffered the ignominy of drinking suds through seamed steel cans. The fine folks in Golden, Colorado, changed all that back in 1958 and we've been celebrating the contents of the aluminium can ever since.
Perhaps even more useful than what lies inside the can is the can itself. It's recyclable, after all. And plenty of folks have put empty beer cans to astounding use.
Check out our gallery of amazing empties and dream of what you might do (aside from passing out) after you finish your next four-pack.
The Beer Can House gives a reason to visit Houston. The house includes 50,000 beer cans and 50,000 reasons to stop putting your cans in the recycling.
The good people of Darwin Australia started a beer can boat regatta to combat all the empty beer cans on their beaches. Of course, what do you do during the regatta but drink more beer?
If you have a spare USB hub you don't mind ripping apart, here's one that'll fit in your favorite beverage.
A little late for Thanksgiving decorations, but you could buy this Turkey Statue for your Super Bowl party.
Just using 50 aluminum cans, black paint and a few tools you can create a passive solar heater.
This recycled radio includes bottle tops and cans for its casing.
This MacGyver wannabe had a broken exhaust pipe on his motorized bicycle, so he fitted a beer can into his new exhaust system.
For the ultralight backpacker set, a cooking pot made out of a Foster's can for boiling water. The weight loss from the cook pot will be offset if your backpack contains extra beer. Only $14 at Backpacking Light.
Last year the Beer Can Crochet Hat made a comeback when designer Meghan Fabulous put one on each of her models during a fashion show. Expect all the cool kids to wear one this summer.
Designer Nikos Floros created a show of opera gowns from a weave of recycled beer cans. Now we know why she's considered the fat lady.
A man obsessed with PBR had a custom coffin made for himself. Until the ultimate Last Call, he'll use the coffin to store cold beers.
Don't you hate that all the good beer is kept locked away? Now you can modify a beer can to make a shim to pop that fridge open, and save you $20 that you'd pay for a commercial shim.
Here's a hack anyone could love: making a TV antenna out of beer cans. Warning: indoor use only, unless your beer cans are equipped with a surge protector.
A solid beer can might be used as a projectile for a beer can cannon, like this homemade job. Most of the better web HowTo's suggest filling the empty can with cement for best distance.
Combining a few of our favorite things is the Beer Can Mustang. It's a replica of a '65 Mustang from 50,000 beer cans.
Say you might have some sort of stash that you might want to keep away from prying roommates. Like jewelry, cash, or something green and sticky that makes you want to eat Taco Bell. There are plenty of different models of beer can Stash Safes on the market, costing $14, but you could probably make your own.
It might seem like a waste of beer, but the slugs love it, and you can make a simple slug or snail trap with an old beer can.
'Hey Steve, you ever get the feeling that something like a beer can is stuck up your ass?' Even bad beer will taste gourmet in a beer can chicken
Carpathian Wooden Churches is the name of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that consists of nine wooden religious buildings constructed between 16th and 18th century in eight different locations in Slovakia. They include two Roman Catholic (Hervartov, Tvrdošín), three Protestant (so-called Articular churches in Hronsek, Leštiny, Kežmarok) and three Greek Orthodox churches (Bodružal, Ruská Bystrá, Ladomirová) plus one belfry in Hronsek
Woooden churches in Slovakia, inscribed in the World Heritage Site list
One of few wooden Roman-Catholic Churches in Eastern Slovakia (most are Greek Catholic) near Bardejov in Hervartov
Greek Orthodox wooden church of Archangel Michael in Ladomirová Greek Orthodox wooden church of Saint Nicholas in Bodružal Articular Protestant wooden church in Hronsek All Saints Roman-Catholic wooden church in Tvrdošín
Wooden articular church in Kežmarok
The Wooden articular church in Kežmarok (Slovak: Drevený artikulárny kostol v Kežmarku) is a wooden church in Kežmarok, Slovakia. The local Lutherans built it during a period of religious persecution, when they were allowed to erect only wooden churches. That is why even nails were made exclusively of wood. The construction was financially supported by Protestants from various countries, including Sweden and Denmark
The church was built in the free royal town of Kežmarok
An old photograph shows the church before its expensive reconstruction in the 1990s
Wooden Church, Miskolc
The Wooden Church (Deszkatemplom) is a church in Miskolc, Hungary. It is built of carved wood. The present building was built in 1999 in place of the previous one that was destroyed by arson in 1997.
The first church was consecrated on September 13, 1637, but both this date and the existence of the church are preserved only in tradition and there is no documentary evidence. The first document mentioning a church at this site dates back to 1698. This church was built of wood, but nothing else is known about it. The first church known by the name of 'Wooden Church' was built in 1724 and it stood until 1937.
The church
Aerialphotography of the chrurch
Wooden Churches of Maramures
The Maramures wooden churches in Northern Transylvania are a selection of eight examples of different architectural solutions from different periods and areas. They are Orthodox churches. They are high timber constructions with characteristic tall, slim bell towers at the western end of the building. They are a particular vernacular expression of the cultural landscape of this mountainous area of northern Romania.
Maramures is one of the better-known regions of Romania, with autonomous traditions since the Middle Ages - but still not much visited. Its well-preserved wooden villages and churches, its traditional lifestyle, and the local colourful dresses still in use make Maramures as near to a living museum as can be found in Europe.
Biserica din Sârbi josani
The portal from Sârbi Susani, 1639, Maramures Budesti Josani church Sârbi Susani church
Calinesti Susani church
Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland
Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland and Subcarpathia of the UNESCO inscription are located in Gorlice, Nowy Targ, Bochnia counties ( Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Malopolskie), and Brzozów County (Subcarpathian Voivodeship) and are in Binarowa, Blizne, Debno Podhalanskie, Haczów, Lipnica Murowana, and Sekowa. There are in fact many others of the region which fit the description: "The wooden churches of southern Little Poland represent outstanding examples of the different aspects of medieval church-building traditions in Roman Catholic culture.
This important pilgrimage church was the starting point of the so-called Via Tolosa, the route that led from Arles to Toulouse (Saint Sernin) with the final destination being Santiago de Compostela. "This road was taken by pilgrims coming from Italy, Switzerland or Central Europe, as well as the "Romieux" who, after Rome, were going to Compostela, or vice versa. They had come after crossing the Alps at Montgenèvre Pass, or by the road along the Ligurian coast" (Roux 77). According to Alan Borg, the earliest church at this site was probably a 9th century Carolingian church dedicated to Saint Stephen but by 972 the relics of Saint Trophimus had been deposited in the church. By the beginning of the 12th century the church was dedicated and named solely for that first bishop of Arles. The impressive facade of the existing church, dated at about 1170-80, shows the influence of classical antiquity, particularly in its gable, classical columnar forms, statues with Roman solidity (albeit a bit squatty), and architectural details--fluted pilasters, classical moldings, and variations of Corinthian capitals. This is not surprising, given the fact that Arles was an important Roman city with Roman monuments that survive even today
Front facade
The crossing tower
Decorative sculpture on the gable
Cloister Conant describes this cloister as one of the finest in France" (256). This very large cloister has both Romanesque and Gothic sections, the former constructed during the second quarter of the 12th century (the northern gallery) and in the late 12th and early 13th centuries (the eastern gallery), the latter not built until the 1380s and 1390s--the southern and western galleries.
The lintel and the voussoirs
Front facade: reliefs of the Last Judgment
Front facade: reliefs of the birth and nativity of Jesus
Saints on the front facade
Bases to the columns on the front facade
Views of the interior
Sainte Foy, Conques, France
The abbey church, which has survived intact in its Romanesque form, is located in the town of Conques, from the Latin concha, meaning a shell (appropriate because the town is nestled in a gorge or hollow). This site was attractive as a retreat from the outside word to the early medieval founders of the abbey. Originally, in the 8th century there was a simple oratory at the site, but once the relics of Sainte Foy were in possession there (a Benedictine monk had stolen them from a monastery at Agen) in 866 and 883, the site was expanded. In the 11th century a new church was begun which was completed by the mid 12th century. This Romanesque pilgrimage church became a major stage on the Via Podiensis, the route between Le Puy and Moissac--one of the main pilgrimage roads to Santiago de Compostela.
The site became famous because it housed the relics of Sainte Foy, the daughter of a wealthy family in Agen who had converted to Christianity and thus refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. In one of the last persecutions of Christians by the Romans, in 303 the proconsul Dacien condemned this 12-year old girl to be burned alive according to the imperial edict of Diocletian. Although the flames were "miraculously" extinguished, the young martyr was then beheaded. Her remains were saved and in later years miracles were attributed to their presence. Once the relics were situated at Conques, they attracted many pilgrims; stories of the blind seeing again or prisoners being freed are attributed to the saint's intercession. (The depiction of Sainte Foy on the tympanum of the church includes shackles hanging above her figure as a way of emphasizing these miracles.) Today in the Treasury of the church one can see some of the most fabulous golden religious objects in France, including the very famous gold and jewel-encrusted reliquary statue of St. Foy.
The golden treasure
Charlemagne's A Pépin's shrine Bégon's lantern Reliquary of Pope Pascal II Arm of Saint Georges
Interior: views of apse, choir, transepts, and ambulatory
Saint-Gilles-du-Gard
This important pilgrimage church was on the so-called Via Tolosa, the route that led from Arles to Toulouse (Saint Sernin) with the final destination being Santiago de Compostela. "This road was taken by pilgrims coming from Italy, Switzerland or Central Europe, as well as the "Romieux" who, after Rome, were going to Compostela, or vice versa. They had come after crossing the Alps at Montgenèvre Pass, or by the road along the Ligurian coast" (Roux 77). This route was, however, also known as the Via Aegidiana--an indication of the importance of the shrine to Saint Gilles (Aegidius in Latin).
A major building campaign began in 1116 to build the crypt in the "lower" church. This area with the shrine to Saint Gilles was the important site for pilgrims, although the facade, begun later, is notable for the most spectacular ensemble of sculpture. Carra Ferguson O'Meara claims that the "richness and complexity of its architectural and sculptural composition rivals that of the west portals of the cathedral of Chartres and of the abbey church of Saint-Denis. . ." (2). Unfortunately, much of this decoration was mutilated during the religious wars of the sixteenth century. A number of sculptors (6-8 and their assistants?) no doubt carved the ensemble on the facade, evident in part because their styles vary widely. (See Stoddard for details.) Stoddard dates this project as early as the late 1120s although other scholars have posited dates in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
This church, influenced by the Roman architecture and sculpture in the area as well as early Christian sculpture (some now in the Arles museum), was also influential on other buildings, most notably St. Trophime, the stop before Saint-Gilles on the Via Tolosa.
Views of the tympana
Views of the upper frieze with Entry into Jerusalem and other scenes
Views of the upper frieze with payment of Judas and Christ's cleansing of the Temple and other scenes
Views of the upper frieze with the Last Supper and the kiss of Judas and other scenes
Views of the upper frieze with Jesus before Pilate, the Flagellation, the Three Marys at the tomb and other scenes
In 1930s Russian army was … by the idea of creating huge planes. At that times they were proposed to have as much propellers as possible to help carrying those huge flying fortresses into the air, jet propulsion has not been implemented at those times yet.
Not much photos were saved since that times, because of the high secrecy levels of such projects and because a lot of time passed already. Still on the photo below you can see one of such planes - a heavy bomber K-7.
Now modern history lovers in Russia try to reconstruct according the plans left in once to be top-secret Russian army archives their look in full color. This is one example based on ideas of Russian aviation engineers of that times.
The classical natural wonders are huge and hard to miss - vast canyons, giant mountains and the like. Many of the most fantastic natural phenomena, however, are also least easy to spot. Some are incredibly rare while others are located in hard-to-reach parts of the planet. From moving rocks to mammatus clouds and red tides to fire rainbows, here are seven of the most spectacular phenomenal wonders of the natural world.
Sailing Stones
The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.
Columnar Basalt
When a thick lava flow cools it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity - in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such examples is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above) though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water.
Blue Holes
Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation - leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.
Red Tides
Red tides are also known as algal blooms - sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposure are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplankton in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers.
Ice Circles
While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spin a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above
Mammatus Clouds
True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers - appearing around, before or even after severe weather
Fire Rainbows
A circumhorizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another
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The Spaceship House, in Chattanooga (TN, USA). The Teapot Dome, in Zillah (WA, USA). It was built in 1922 as a reminder of the Teapot Dome Scandal involving President Warren G. Harding and a federal petroleum reserve in Wyoming. The Boeing 727 House, in Benoit (Mississippi, USA). The plane set Joanne Ussary back $2,000.00, cost $4,000.00 to move, and $24,000.00 to renovate. The stairs open with a garage door remote, and one of the bathrooms is still intact. And let’s not forget the personal jacuzzi in the cockpit. The Toilet-shaped house, in Suwon (South Korea). South Korean sanitation activists marked the start of a global toilet association right here on November 21, 2007, by lifting the lid on the world's first lavatory-shaped home that offers plenty of water closet space. The Nautilus House, in Mexico DF (Mexico), is a seashell-inspired abode built by designed by Senosiain Arquitectos for a couple. The Shoe House in Hellam (Pennsylvania, USA). It was an actual guesthouse (3 bedroom, 2 baths, a kitchen and a living room) of a local shoe magnate, Mahlon N. Haines. After his death, it was an ice cream parlor for a while, and now it is a museum. The Upside-Down House, in Szymbark (Poland). The house was created by Daniel Czapiewski to describe the former communist era and the present times in which we live. The Cube houses, in Rotterdam (Holland). All of this 32 cube houses are attached to each other. Designed by architect Piet Blom in 1984, each cube house has three floors. The Bubble House in Cannes (France). In the early eighties, fashion designer Pierre Cardin bought this atypical summer house built by architect Antti Lovag. The Eliphante Art House, in Cornville (AZ, USA). Artist Michael Kahn and his wife Leda Livant built it from found materials piece by piece. The Mushroom House, in Cincinnati (Ohio, USA). The One Log House, in Garberville (California, USA). It is a one-bedroom house hollowed out from a single log that came from a 2,100-year old redwood tree. After felling this 13 foot diameter forest giant, Art Schmock and a helper needed 8 months of hard labor to hollow out the log into a room 7 ft. high and 32 ft. long, weighing about 42 tons. The Fallingwater, in Pennsylvania (USA). It was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 and built partly over a waterfall. The Steel House, in Lubbock (Texas, USA). Architect and sculptor Robert Bruno spent 23 years building this strange home that looks like a giant pig out of 110 tons of steel. The Pickle Barrel House, in Michigan (USA). The Strawberry house, in Tokyo (Japan). The Errante's Guest House, in Chile. The Kettle House, in Texas (USA).
The Walking House, a 10ft high home that's solar and wind powered and can stroll at walking pace across all terrains. Made by the MIT and a bunch of danish artists.
All normal artists use pencils to draw and paint over their canvas, all but one. By the name of GhostPartol, this australian artist creates beautiful work of art using pencils as canvas. A self-taught illustrator, he moved from the area of stencil art to exhibit his illustration work worldwide. His works of art ranges form fine ink drawings, graffiti, and commissioned murals to soft sculptures. Meet GhostPartol's Pencil Art. "Tartan overture"
"Leaving Pencil Forest" "Hostage, Throat Cut"
"A book is good"
"Wooden boat from wooden knife" "Raising deer forest"
Bruno Torfs was born in South America and lived there with his family till the age of fifteen. At this point the whole family made the move to Europe in seek of new opportunities. After training and working as a sign writer Bruno made a gradual transition to become a full time artist... Through his diverse talents and a spirit for adventure Bruno created a unique style full of culture and character. This was achieved through many trips around the world, both alone and with his wife Marleen. Sketching the scenes and faces of his journeys allowed Bruno to return home and make oil painting and sculpture versions of his experiences. These artworks would then be sold in a series of annual exhibitions hosted in the lower levels of the family home.
Saving hearts of mankind throughout the world, countless dogs have devoted their lives to bring joy, happiness, love, and protection to their owners, as unsung heroes amongst us. This is a tribute to one such hero — a shih tzu named Daisy
Daisy was a purebred shih tzu rescue dog from what we had determined to be a small puppy mill in our city, and the proverbial ugly duckling turned princess, who left us this past weekend for the Great Puppy Park in the heavens.
From a shivering pooch that walked with her head and tail down, she blossomed to strut with an air of arrogance and importance that could not be denied — a trait for which shih tzu are famously known for.
Her precious photo has been my avatar on numerous social media sites.
At the age of 2 1/2 years old when we brought her home, Daisy had already been used to breed 3 litters of pups — a horrid abuse which would nearly be her demise in about 2 years to come. She wasn’t house trained to go to the bathroom, let alone taken out for walkies or car rides.
Sick baby girl post-surgery 2 years after we got her.
Friends told us to take her on a one-way trip to the country, but she would later prove them all wrong in their assumptions that you can’t teach an older dog new behaviors — it merely takes a lot of love, attention, and some patience.
Daisy was the love, joy, and light of our everyday life, which was torn from our family when she had congestive heart failure. There were no signs or advance warnings — for which we can only guess was a trait attributed to alpha dogs that she may have learned from her big brother who died last spring — a German Sheppard police dog, who hid his ailing deceptively well. I will never forget our last night together that you blessed me with, my little girl … the adorable look that you gave me as I worked at my desk in the wee hours of the morning which brought me to pick you up and lay with you in the recliner.
We snuggled together in the blanket I had just bought earlier that day because it reminded me of you with its long cream colored fuzzies. There we lay content together watching a movie until you’d had enough to want down, and I fell asleep.
Never will I forget the horrifying cries of pain that I awoke to which emanated from the bedroom where you laid in your bed. Your bliss to lie with us in bed had us fooled into believing it was merely a bad dream as you lay there as though nothing had happened, soaking up the love and attention.
We will never know if the 3 hours that the emergency vet wasted leaving you unattended before giving you tests was what cost you your life, despite the fact that your father had told her that he thought you might have had a heart attack.
Placing you in an incubator with high heat likely exacerbated your situation — something which a shih tzu cannot take and a reputable vet should know — putting even more stress on your struggling heart which had bloated to at least twice its size, as your lungs were filling with fluids.
You put up such a fierce fight to stay with us — your heart having been restarted 3 times, as you lay there unconscious under oxygen while they used a pump to breathe for you. Alas, after a couple of hours, it was too much for you, and we could not bring you back. For the countless times that you saved my heart and soul, in the end, I was unable to save yours.
I miss you and love you beyond all measure. You shall live on always and forever in our hearts. Don’t ever believe for a single moment that you will ever be replaced, as you were one of a kind, my little angel, and will always hold a special place within me. You have given me such great memories which will never be forgotten …
The Famous Claw Paw — always and only on car rides while stopped at red lights when you knew for certain I’d have your undivided attention and would not be distracted, out comes the claw paw … bat pat bat on my hand with your paw demanding pets, even breaking out the claws if you were seriously desperate for lovin.
Turbo Face — a sight to behold as you stuck your head out from the car window. You had no idea how funny you looked as I’d watch with you unaware in the side mirror with your long furry face being turbo-blown by the wind.
Land Walk — how you hit the seat of the car walking as I’d set you into it every single time was ever so sweet and adorable.
Puppy Lies — you were one clever cookie, but oh so gullible each time I’d distract you during car rides — ‘(Gasp!) Look Daisy, see the puppy?!,’ and into a barking frenzy you’d go, bouncing from one side of the car to the other in search of something that often wasn’t even there.
Dinner Dance Diddy — dancing in one spot from one foot to the other, as your mouth quivered and you shivered in excitement over the scrumptious meal that you knew was being prepared with your favorite meat treats on top.
Hot Shot Pajama Party — one of our favorite past times together, lying in bed watching movies on TV while pigging out on our favorite treats to our heart’s desire when your dad was gone on hot shots, and we’d fall asleep together with the TV on.
Ear Pull Foot Stomp — baby, I know how much you tried to please me by allowing me to pull the hair out from your ears with tweezers that little shih tzus build up — your little leg and foot vibrating and stomping as you tried to bear the pain. But trust me even more when I say that it hurt me a lot more to do it than it did you.
Bum Walk — as much as you were such a princess, that little crown of yours would slightly fall as you’d drag your bum across the area rug in the living room. What were you doing? Scratching your butt? I know you didn’t have worms, little thing.
Face Push — as if you could feel even more lovin from one’s hand as they reached to pet your head, pushing your face into their palm as far and hard as you could.
Nose-Licker — due to your short snout, you frequently lick your running nose — a sight not fitting for a princess, but somehow you manage to pull it off in an enchanting, humorous manner.
Waddle Walk — your vet had attributed your hind bowlegs to short ligaments, possibly due to poor breeding (the latter said quietly so as not to permit your tender ears from hearing which could scar that fragile ego that you’ve worked so hard at building up). You have no clue as to how endearing your little waddle walk was to watch from behind.
I loved you then during all of those moments, little thing, I love you now, and I shall love you always. I cannot bear to say goodbye to you, but what I will say, is until we see each other again … sweet dreams and playtime as you join your big brother in the heavens above.
About Shih Tzu Reportedly the oldest and smallest of the Tibetan holy dogs, Shih Tzu originated in China over 2,000 years ago, and were presented as gifts from rulers in Tibet and China to Chinese royalty. Recent DNA analysis confirms that the ancestors of today’s Shih Tzu breed are the most ancient dog breeds.
Adult Shih Tzu in full show coat. Most Shih Tzus are kept with shorter, more manageable clips.
Professor Ludvic von Schulmuth researched canine origins by studying the skeletal remains of dogs found in human settlements as far back as 10,000 years ago. He created a genealogical tree of Tibetan dogs that shows the “Gobi Desert Kitchen Midden Dog” — a scavenger — evolved into the “Small Soft-Coated Drop-Eared Hunting Dog.” From this dog evolved the Tibetan Spaniel, Pekingese, and Japanese Chin. Another branch coming down from the “Kitchen Midden Dog” gave rise to the Papillon and Long-haired Chihuahua and yet another “Kitchen Midden Dog” branch to the Pug and Shih Tzu.
The breed was imported into Great Britain in the late 1920’s or early 1930’s and brought into the U.S. in the late 1950’s, and has always been bred as a companion dog.
The Shih Tzu — the term which also applies to plural form — literally translates from Chinese as “Lion Dog,” its vaguely lion-like look being associated with the Tibetan Snowlion, and have therefore been nicknamed “Tibetan temple dog.” They’re also often known as the “Xi Shi quan,” based on the name of Xi Shi who was regarded as the most beautiful woman of ancient China. Shih tzu are sometimes called the Chrysanthemum Dog because their face looks much like the flower, and the Chinese or Tibetan Lion Dog.
Temperament Shih Tzu have an exceptionally good-natured, outgoing, friendly, intelligent, loyal, trusting, playful, gentle, and docile personality, with a warm, sweet, wide-eyed, and trusting expression on their face.
They’re a lively little dog with a highly alert nature which makes them a good watchdog, as well as being a very affectionate companion dog. They soon work out their owner’s territory and will defend it in a flurry of activity, barking furiously at any intruder.
They have a proud, distinctively aristocratic posture with head well up and tail curved over the back, with an air of arrogance and self-importance that conceals a gentle and playful nature.
Shih Tzu thrive on human companionship, both adult and child, and need a good deal of attention, being completely devoted to their family in return. Stand-offish with strangers, they’re a devoted pet for adults or families with older children, but a teething puppy and a small child do not make for good companions.
The breed can be obstinate, but patient and consistent training is the key to controlling this tendency, which should essentially begin early as a puppy.
They require minimal exercise but are a sturdy, active little dog that enjoys playing fetch or going for a short walk outside.
Shit Tzu Care Shih Tzu can require more care than some other breeds if the hair is kept at show length, needing frequent brushing to avoid tangles. A short haircut — also known as a pet trim or puppy cut — can reduce this brushing task to once month or so.
They have 2 coats of fur — the bottom coat shedding into the top coat rather than off of the dog entirely, resulting in very little shedding in the conventional sense. With regular brushing and bathing, shedding can be reduced to almost nothing. As they shed so lightly, Shih Tzu are considered to be one of the breeds more suitable for people with allergies.
Owners often tie strands of fur from their head into a pony-tail that sticks up — called a topknot — and many different hair clips and bows are added to make them appear more “cute.”
These animals are house dogs that cannot stand hot, humid weather.
Since the breed is adapted to a cool climate, letting the coat grow out somewhat for the colder seasons is appropriate, but there is still a substantial difference from a floor-length show coat and a warmer, medium-length winter coat.
Shih Tzu noses are small and flat, so eating contributes to a rather unclean face which can be wiped with a damp paper towel to remove food remnants. This is another area where the haircut matters. A proper show cut will get messier — often even requiring the hair to be rubber-banded together for eating efficiently — than other ways of cutting the facial hair.
The area around the eyes should be checked daily for mucus buildup and cleaned when needed. Their nails need to be clipped about every month, as they can easily injure their ears.
Food Shih Tzu are very sensitive to food allergies. It’s best to feed them foods that are free of any corn. It has been shown that the corn in dog food can cause itching, hot spots, dandruff, excessive shedding, foot-licking, face-rubbing and staining, loose stools, and gassiness.
When drinking, it’s sometimes necessary to supervise them because water can enter their face-level noses more easily and inhibit breathing.
This is why many Shih Tzu are trained to drink from the sort of licker bottles used by hamsters and gerbils. It’s best to have them drink from these or a water bottle to keep the face clean and dry, preventing red yeast from growing on their beard and moustache. Red yeast is a contributor to the reddish color that some display.
Providing them with bottled water — or water that doesn’t contain chlorine — helps to keep eye mucus to a minimum.
Shit Tzu Health Issues Shih Tzu are considered to be snub-nosed dogs. As such, they’re very sensitive to high temperatures, which is why many airlines that ship dogs will not accept them for shipment when temperatures at any point on the planned itinerary exceeds 75°F (24°C).
Some health issues common among the breed are portosystemic liver shunt, renal dysplasia, and hip dysplasia, and various eye problems, such as cataracts and clogged tear ducts.
This breed can also suffer von Willebrand’s Disease — a blood disorder for deficiency in clotting. Dogs affected by the disease are more likely to have excessive bleeding episodes upon injury or surgery, which is similar to hemophilia in humans. They may also develop nosebleeds or bleeding from the gum, bleeding in the stomach or intestine, and some dogs may have blood in their urine. Symptoms similar to those of arthritis may also occur if bleeding is into the joints.
Umbilical hernias are common, which are a bubble-like protrusion at the navel that can range in size, but usually no larger than a nickel. This occurs when the umbilical rings fail to close fully after birth. Most umbilical hernias are small and don’t require surgical correction, but they can be repaired for inexpensively by your vet when they’re spayed or neutered. In the highly unlikely event that an umbilical hernia becomes painful to the touch, swollen or red, they should be examined by a veterinarian within 24 hours.
The life span of a Shih Tzu is 10 to 15 years, although some variation from this range is possible.
Shih Tzu Crossbreeds and Imperials A crossbreed is a mixed breed dog with 2 purebred parents of different breeds, often done in hopes of creating a puppy with desirable qualities from each parent. Of course, any time 2 different breeds are mixed, there’s no way to know which traits will be inherited from each parent.
Shih Tzu are sometimes crossbred with other toy dogs, creating much-hyped and very expensive designer mixed breed dogs as Shih-poo (crossed with a toy Poodle), the “Zuchon,” “Shichon,” or “Teddy Bear,” (crossed with a Bichon Frisé) and the Pom shih (crossed with a Pomeranian). Shih Tzu may also be crossed with Maltese, (the “Malshi,” “Schmaltz,” or “Shihtese”) and a ShiChi which is a Shih Tzu crossed with a Chihuahua. They have also been known to be crossed with Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Shorkie is 1/2 “teacup” Yorkie and 1/2 “Toy sized” Shih Tzu. Technically, there is no such thing as a “teacup” yorkie nor a “toy sized” shih tzu, which are terms used by unscrupulous breeders to make the naive public believe runt-sized dogs are desirable.
Imperial shih tzu is another term used by unscrupulous breeders to sell shih tzu that are below healthy standard size. These tiny dogs — frequently less than 50% of the recommended minimum size — are often prone to very serious health problems and may not live a full life span. Many are created by breeding the runt of one litter to the runt of another litter.
Choosing a Reputable Breeder While the reasons for welcoming a rescue dog to your home are plentiful, there are many benefits to giving a new home to purebred dogs, such as minimized health problems, resulting in far less emotional, mental, and financial stress of vet bills. Another advantage of purebred dogs is that the qualities of each generation are passed on to the next.
All breeds are different however, so consider their size, space requirement, coat type and grooming required, temperament such as obedience, level of independence or attachment, aggressive or passive nature, energy level, and exercise needed as a mature dog when developing your short list.
Do your research and take time to consider all aspects of the breed you select. Narrow your choices down to two or three breeds suited to your lifestyle, then get as much information as you can before making a final choice.
Never buy on impulse and really think through the decision to get a dog. They’re a lifetime commitment and will rely on you for all of their needs. The average life span of a dog is anywhere from 10 to 15 years or more, and a puppy is a living creature you cannot “try on for size.”
Under no circumstances is giving a puppy as a surprise appropriate. Too often the animal is unwanted from the beginning and finds itself helplessly abandoned or if kept, ultimately neglected
“Puppy mills” are breeding operations in which dogs are repeatedly bred for financial gain and kept in substandard conditions, confining dogs to small cages under squalid living conditions for their entire lives. These poor creatures commonly suffer from various infections and parasites due to poor care, with chronic health and behavioral problems in the puppies.
They sell primarily to retail pet shops and occasionally directly to consumers. The dogs are force-bred continuously with no concern for their physical health or psychological well-being, and most are disease-ridden.
The AKC and CKC registers over 160 uniquely different breeds, each with their own natural instincts, characteristics and appearance.
The American Kennel Club and Canadian Kennel Club have an extensive database of club recognized purebred breeders, mandatory standards which must be adhered to in order for breeders to maintain membership, as well as information about purchasing a dog, how to select a breed, and how to select a breeder.
The Canadian Shih Tzu Club’s Code of Ethics require that all breeding by members will be planned and aimed at improvement of the breed. The member-breeder must be familiar with the Standard and do everything in their power to discourage breeding from clearly inferior specimens of the breed, or to any such specimen with a stud. No dogs exhibiting a hereditary defect, unsound temperament or poor health are to be bred, and dams not to be bred before 12 months of age.
The breeder must inform buyers that the puppy is guaranteed to be free from disabling disease or congenital defects. Should a defect develop and it’s confirmed by 2 veterinarians that it is a congenital or inherited problem, the breeder must guarantee to refund the purchase price and reclaim the puppy or replace it with another puppy.
Only buy from a knowledgeable breeder who specializes in your breed of choice. Purchase from someone you’re comfortable with and who you feel you can trust beyond the day of purchase to be as concerned about your puppy’s future as you are.
The CKC does not recommend individual breeders but can refer you to accredited Breed Clubs who in turn refer potential buyers to breeders of their organization.
Some breeds of purebred dogs have a history of inherited health problems. Reputable breeders will have established a breeding program that dramatically reduces or eliminates the possibility of such disorders appearing in their dogs. Ask to see the formal health clearances for both the dam and the sire, which should always be on file. Also ask to see the mother which should always be there for their pups.
A member of the AKC or CKC cannot offer you a purebred dog with the papers at one price and another price without. If they do, leave, they’re not a reputable breeder.
If you have doubts that a breeder is a CKC member, call the Client Services Department at 416-674-3699 or email at information@ckc.ca. The AKC can be reached at 919-233-9767, or by their contact form.
Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
An unusual natural and historical site with the sparkling white castle -like cascades, Pamukkale is one of the most important highlights of Turkey, unique in the world. The site is named in Turkish as “Pamukkale”, that means “cotton castle”, parallel to the glorious and spectacular view of the site. The dazzling white calcareous castles are formed by limestone-laden thermal springs, creating the unbelievable formation of stalactites, potholes and cataracts.
The ancient city of Hierapolis was built on top of the white “castle” which is in total about 2700 meters long and 160m high. It can be seen from a great distance, eg. when driving down the hills on the opposite side of the valley to the town of Denizli, which is 20 km away. Pamukkale is located in Turkey’s Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which enjoys a temperate climate over the greater part of the year.
The tectonic movements that took place in the fault depression of the Menderes river basin did not only cause frequent earthquakes, but also gave rise to the emergence of a number of very hot springs, and it is the water from one of these springs, with its large mineral content — chalk in particular — that created Pamukkale. Apart from some radioactive material, the water contains large amounts of hydrogen carbonate and calcium, which leads to the precipitation of calcium carbonate. The effect of this natural phenomenon leaves thick white layers of limestone and travertine cascading down the mountain slope, making the area look like a fortress of cotton or a frozen waterfall.
Located in a very mountainous area about 750 metres (2,500 ft) above mean sea level, Ronda is a clifftop town in the spanish province of Malaga. "El Tajo", a 100-meter deep canyon, separates the old town form the new one, leaving some of the buildings and houses right on the edge of abyss. Going from one side to the other is possible, as the canyon is spanned by three bridges, each built in a different historical age: Roman, Moorish and 18th Century.
Bonifacio (Corsica): 70 meters (230 ft) over the Mediterranean Sea
At the southern tip of the island of Corsica, Bonifacio is the largest commune of the island. This fragile looking citadel sits precariously at 70 meters (230 ft) over the white limestone cliffs, eaten away by the wind and waves of the Mediterranean Sea. A naval haven throughout the century, Bonifacio is now a small marina for expensive yachts from around the world.
Castellfolit de la Roca (Spain): situated on a 50 meters (164 ft) high basalt crag
A municipality in Catalonia, Spain, Castellfollit de la Roca is bordered by the confluence of the Fluvià and Toronell rivers, between which the town's basalt cliff rises. The basalt crag where the town is situated is over 50 meters high and almost a kilometre long. It was formed by the overlaying of two lava flows and it is one of the smallest towns in the province.
Santorini (Greece): a 300 meter (984 ft) high paradise
Located about 200 km southeast from Greece's mainland, the archipelago of Santorini is essentially what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion, destroying the earliest settlements on what was formerly a single island, and leading to the creation of the current geological caldera. Its spectacular physical beauty, along with a dynamic nightlife, have made the island one of Europe's tourist hotspots. The Minoan eruption, which occurred some 3,600 years ago at the height of the Minoan civilization, left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits hundreds of feet deep and may have led indirectly to the collapse of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, 110 km (70 miles) to the south, through the creation of a gigantic tsunami. The giant central lagoon, more or less rectangular, mesures about 12 km by 7 km (8 mi by 4 mi) and is surrounded by 300 m (984 ft) high steep cliffs on three sides
Manarola (Italy): Italy's most precariously placed town
Located in Liguria, Manarola is certainly one of Italy's most precariously placed towns. It’s hard to say just how old this village is, but ancient Roman texts have been found which celebrated the wines produced there. Today, you can still enjoy strolls through the vineyards, a walk on the Via dell’Amore (Path of Love) and its brightly colored buildings just near the edge.
Ah, sex. Birds do it, bees do it. Wait a minute! How exactly do they do it? The mating rituals of some animals are wonderfully bizarre. For example: did you know that some insects’ genitals explode during sex? Or that some fish can change gender?
Intrigued? Read on for 30 of the most bizarre animal mating habits.
Honey Bee: Exploding Testicles.
The reproductive cycle of bees is fascinating - and complex. But here’s the short story: a queen is selectively bred in a special "queen cell" in the hive and fed royal jelly by worker bees to induce her to become sexually mature.
A virgin queen that survives to adulthood without being killed by her rivals will take a mating flight with a dozen or so male drones (out of tens of thousands eligible bachelors in the colony). But don’t call these drones lucky because during mating, their genitals explode and snap off inside the queen!
Strange as it is, this actually makes evolutionary sense: the snapped-off penis acts as a genital plug to prevent other drones from fertilizing the queen. But tell that to the dead drone whose penis just exploded.
Bonobo: Make Love Not War
Who said that violence is the only way to solve fights over food or territory? Instead of fighting, bonobos [wiki] have sex! Actually, their whole societal structure seems to revolve around sex.
Bonobos use sex as greetings, a mean of solving disputes, making up for fights, and as a favors in exchange for food. They tongue kiss, engage in oral sex, mutual masturbations, have face-to-face genital sex and even have a strange "penis fencing" ritual!
In their 1996 book titled Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson wrote:
"Chimpanzees and Bonobos both evolved from the same ancestor that gave rise to humans, and yet the Bonobo is one of the most peaceful, unaggressive species of mammals living on the earth today. They have evolved ways to reduce violence that permeate their entire society. They show us that the evolutionary dance of violence is not inexorable".
If bonobos "penis fence" as foreplay, flatworms do it for real.
For flatworms, sex is more like war than love. Like all sea slugs, flatworms are hermaphrodites (they have both male and female sexual organs). In this case, the male organ turns out to be two dagger-like penises that they use to hunt as well as mate. During mating, two flatworms fight (i.e. "penis fence") to stab each other, while avoiding getting stabed.
The "loser" who gets stabbed will absorb the sperm through its skin and then scoots off to bear the burden of motherhood!
Frigatebird: Fanciful Big Red Balloon.
Those fanciful male peacocks have nothing on frigatebirds! A male frigatebird has a throat sac that it can inflate with hard work - it takes over a period of twenty minutes - into a giant red, heart-shaped balloon. He then waggles his head from side to side, shakes his wings and calls the females to check him out.
A female frigatebird will mate with the male with the biggest and shiniest balloon. During sex, the male bird will sweetly put his wings over her eyes to make sure she doesn’t get distracted by other males with even nicer balloons!
Red-Sided Garter Snake: An Annual Mating Ball Orgy
Strange Fact 1. The annual mating of red-sided garter snakes is a tourist attraction in Manitoba, Canada. That’s because when a female garter snake emerges from hibernation, she releases a pheromone that attracts hundreds of male snakes in the vicinity to rush her and create a large squirming "mating ball."
Strange Fact 2. Like many snakes, the male garter snake has two penises, called "hemipenes," on each side of its body. The male will try to use the best-positioned penis to mate with the female in the center of the mating ball.
Strange Fact 3. As if the two facts above aren’t strange enough, turns out there is a "she-male" snake who releases pheromones just like the females do (and fools hundreds of other males to pile up on him/her). Why? Scientists think that this gives the she-male warmth and protection (and attention, too, I’m sure)
Hyena: The Females Got Balls!
Female hyenas wear the pants in the family. They’re bigger and stronger than the males. And definitely much more aggressive. Heck, they even got balls. Really.
A female hyena has a pseudopenis, basically an enlarged clitoris, that they can erect at will. To mate, the meeker male has to insert his penis into her pseudopenis. That’s difficult for the males, but still nothing compared to the female having to give birth through a penis!
Biologist Laurence Frank describes something else that is strange about hyenas - the way they say hello to each other:
After being separated for a few hours, spotted hyenas engage in "greeting" displays that entail lifting their legs and exposing their erect pseudopenises for inspection. Subordinate females often initiate greetings and this is the only known case of an erection being a submissive gesture. "This unusual display is not without its risks [because] each hyena puts its reproductive organs in immediate proximity to very powerful jaws," says Frank. "On the rare occasions when the aggression escalates to fighting, the resulting damage may be severe enough to destroy or seriously compromise the reproductive competence of the injured party."
Manakin: Moonwalking to Impress the Ladies
There’s dancing and there’s dancing - like the moonwalk that the male Manakin does to impress the ladies! Michael Jackson has nothing on them manakins!
Giraffe: Not in Estrus? No Thanks!
With that ridiculously long neck of theirs, mating is hard work for male giraffes. So, when a male happens upon a female giraffe, he will perform a procedure known as the "fleshmen sequence" to see if she is in estrus. First, he nudges her rump to induce urination. He then takes a mouthful of urine. If it tastes good to him, then he begins to court her.
Emperor Penguins, the subject of the popular 2005 documentary March of the Penguins, have a strange “marriage”. Penguin couples spend their lives apart from each other and meet once a year in late March, after traveling as far as 70 miles (112 km) inland - on foot or sliding on their bellies! - to reach the breeding site.
Once there, penguins look for their mates by making a bugling call. Male penguins generally stay in one place, lower their head to their chest and call out to the females. Once they find one another, they would stand breast to breast, repeatedly bow to each other and sing (okay, “bugle”).
Now, onto the mating itself: Like in most birds, penguins have no external genitalia. That’s right, male penguins don’t have penises and the females don’t have vaginas. The male’s sperm is produced in the testes and stored in his cloaca (kind of an all purpose orifice for defecating, urinating, and reproduction). The female also has a cloaca that leads to the ovaries. The female penguin lies flat on the ground and the male penguin presses his cloaca onto hers and passes the sperms through.
Once the egg is laid, the female Emperor Penguin transfers it very carefully to her mate (if the egg touches the ice, it would freeze and die), who then keeps the egg warm by tucking it under a large fold of skin until it hatches. The female penguin immediately returns to the sea to feed, leaving the male without food for about two months. The male penguins would huddle together in large groups to conserve body heat in the cold and harsh environment, where winds can reach up to 120 mph (200 km per hour). When the female returns, she finds her mate (and chick) by listening to one particular bugle over thousands other.
When it was released, March of the Penguins sparked a controversy when the Christian right claimed it as a parable of monogamy amongst other things. Turns out, Emperor Penguins are serially monogamous – meaning that for that breeding season, they only have one mate. However, if they can’t find one another the next season (and most can’t – only about 15% of pairs find each other in subsequent year, and just 5% in the third year) they will choose new mates.
Dolphin: That’s Not His Hand.
Here’s something you probably don’t know about Flipper: he has retractable penis. And if that’s not cool enough, here’s something else: his penis is prehensile. And it swivels. In fact, a male dolphin can use his penis to explore objects just like a hand.
Male dolphins also have a very strong sex drive. It can mate many, many times in a day. Now here’s the bad news: male dolphins aren’t that much of a stud. The average time to ejaculation? 12 seconds.
Another hushed-up fact is that male dolphins have a ravenous sexual appetite: they often try to hump inanimate objects and even other animals like sea turtles. When a pack of male dolphins happen upon a female, often times they will attempt to force her to mate.
Percula Clownfish: Your Mommy Was Your Daddy.
In Disney’s animated movie Finding Nemo, the animators forgot to tell you one thing about clownfish: they can change gender!
Clownfish live in a group consisting of a breeding pair of male and female, as well as some non-breeding males. There is strict hierarchy based on size: the largest is the female, next largest is the male, and then the non-breeding males.
If the female dies (or gets fished, I suppose), the male will change sex and become the female! Then the largest of the non-breeding males will get a promotion to become the breeding male.
Giant Panda: X-Rated Panda Porn!
For a while, zookeepers had trouble getting pandas raised in captivity to breed. In fact, male and female pandas showed little interest in sex - that is until someone at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base in Sichuan Province, China, had the bright idea of showing them panda porn!
Galapagos Giant Tortoise: The Longest Neck Wins.
To determine who gets to mate, male Galapagos giant tortoises will rise on their legs and stretch their necks. The shorter tortoise will cry uncle and leave the taller, larger tortoise to mate.
The victor then proceeds to attract a female by bellowing and bobbing his head furiously. When he has found a mate, the male rams the female and nips her legs until she draws them in, thereby immobilizing her. He then proceeds to mount her.
Mating can last for hours, during which the male grunts and roars loudly (see video clip). If he seems terribly excited about the whole deal, that’s probably because he’s been waiting a long time for sex. See, it takes 40 years for Galapagos giant tortoises to reach sexual maturity.
Garden Snail: Love Darts
Snails’ genitals are on their necks, right behind their eye-stalks. Not weird enough? Read on.
Snails are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female sexual organs, but they do not self-fertilize.
Before two snails mate, they shoot "love darts" made of calcium at each other. People used to think that these sharp darts are nutritional gifts, like you give someone you love a box of chocolate.
Snail love dart
Scientists now think, however, that these darts serve a more sinister purpose. The mucus on the darts allow more sperms to be stored in the snail’s uterus (and thus helped it gain an edge in reproduction).
There’s no advantage to the target snail (getting hit may even be dangerous as snails are really, really bad shots). Indeed, snails jostle each other not only to get into a better position to fire their darts, but also to avoid getting hit themselves!
Bedbug: Traumatic Insemination
Here’s chivalry for you: the male bedbugs don’t even bother with the female’s sex organs. Instead, a male bedbug uses its scimitar-like sexual organ to impale the female bedbug’s body and deposit his sperm!
Scientists even have a cute name for this sort of thing: "traumatic insemination." Ouch!
Porcupine: Wee Marks the Spot.
Quick: how do porcupines mate? If you answer: "carefully," you’d only be half right - it’s also "bizarrely." Indeed, porcupines have a very bizarre mating habit:
First of all, female porcupines are interested in sex only about 8 to 12 hours in a year! Second, to court a female during the short mating season, a male porcupine stands up on his hind legs, waddles up to her, and then sprays her with a huge stream of urine from as far as 6 feet away, and drench his would-be paramour from head to foot!
If the female wasn’t impressed, she’ll scream and shake off the urine. But, if she is ready, then she’ll rear up to expose her quill-less underbelly and let the male mount her from the behind (that’s the only safe position for porcupines!). Once mating begins, the female is insatiable: she forces the male to mate many times until he is thoroughly exhausted. If he gets tired too quickly, she will leave him for another male!
Red Velvet Mite: The Love Gardener
Red velvet mite, which is as big as one of the letters in this sentence, has a peculiar mating habit.
The male releases its sperms on small twigs or stalks in what scientists call the "love garden", then lays down an intricate silken trail to the spot. When a female stumbles upon this trail, she will follow it to seek out the "artist". If she likes his work, then she will sit on the sperm.
However, if another male spots the garden, he will trash it and lay his own instead!
Bowerbird: Obsessive Decorator of Bachelor Pad
To attract a mate, the male bowerbird builds an amazingly complex structure called a bower. It is made of twigs and often shaped like a small hut.
The male bird then decorates his "bachelor pad" bower with a variety of objects as gifts: flowers, feathers, stones, and even bits of discarded plastics and glass. Hundreds of pieces are carefully arranged in monochromatic themes (i.e. all blue items). The bird is so anal that it will get really angry if you mess up its pile (say, by putting one differently colored pebble in its pile).
The male bowerbird spends hours sorting and arranging things. In fact, it will break its focus only to go to a different males’ bowers to steal stuff and mess the place up!
Male macaques will pay (in form of fruits) to get a peek at the hind quarters of a female macaque.
Actually, that’s not all: they will also pay to gaze at pictures of dominant "celebrity" monkeys (i.e. the high-ranking males) in their pack. Huh.
Anyways, if that isn’t enough bad behavior for you, think about this: macaque males will attack their enemy when he is at his weakest: during orgasm.
Attackers often use considerable cunning to get near their victim without arousing any suspicion. They may feign indifference by barely glancing at him, digging casually in the sand or pretending to collect handfuls of pebbles. But the moment their victim ejaculates, they jump him, hitting, biting and tugging at his fur
Fire Ant: Queen and Workers "Negotiate" the Colony’s Sex Ratio
Ants have a complex social structure. Case in point: some scientists used to think that worker ants are all females who control the queen (a simple egg-laying machine) and kill their brothers while still larvae.
It turns out the queen has more say than this: she controls the number of females and male eggs she lays.
But why does a colony’s sex ratio matter? A queen wants to propagate her line by producing another queen, which needs male drones to mate and produce a colony. Worker ants, on the other hand, have no use for males (which die after mating).
So, the queen and her daughters negotiate a rather violent solution: when she needs male drones, the queen will "overwhelm" the colony with male eggs. The female workers will kill many of their brothers, but they can’t kill them all!
Sea Hare: Mating Chain
Sea hares, like all sea slugs (see flatworm above), are hermaphrodites. But that’s not all - they’re efficient hermaphorodites! When sea hares mate, they form a mating chain of several animals!
The sea hare in front acts as the female to the one directly behind it. Sometimes, they even form a giant circle, with everyone inside happily mating the day away.
Argonaut: Detachable Penis
Argonaut or paper nautilus is a weird species of octopus. First, they have a highly divergent sexual dimorphism. That’s science-speak for the difference in body sizes between males and females. A female argonaut grows up to 10 cm (~ 4 in.) with shells as large as 45 cm (~ 18 in.) The male, however, is only 2 cm (3/4 in) long!
But that’s not why argonaut is on this list. The male argonaut produces a ball of spermatozoa in a special tentacle called a hectocotylus . When meeting a female it fancies, the male then detaches its penis to swim by itself to the female!
Hectocotylus
This detachable swimming penis was actually first noted by an Italian naturalist back in the 1800s, who mistook it for a parasitic worm! Whiptail Lizard: Sex? No Thanks! We’ll Clone Ourselves Instead.
How does a whiptail lizard have sex? Trick question! There are no males - all whiptail lizards are females, so they can’t have sex at all. Wait a minute - so how do they reproduce? By cloning themselves:
In the bizarre life of a whiptail lizard, reproduction is preceeded by pseudocopulation, where two females act out the roles of a male mounting a female (they switch roles later on).
Apparently, this is required to stimulate egg production in both lizards. When the eggs hatch, they will be all-female clones of the mother lizard
Straw Itch Mite: Incestuous Brothers
After they are born, the male straw itch mites (pyemotes) hang around their mom, stinging her to suck out her body fluids.
The male mites are born sexually mature. In fact, they will immediately grab and mate with their sister within minutes of her birth!
Banana Slug: Penis Stuck? Chew It Off!
Banana slug, the beloved mascot of UC Santa Cruz, has a weird mating habit. First of all, they have an enormous penis. (In fact, their latin name dolichyphallus translates to "giant penis.") The average size of a banana slug penis is 6 to 8 inches. This is incredibly impressive, considering their entire body length is 6 to 8 inches as well!
Banana slugs are hermaphrodites, so two slugs will try to fertilize each other. To mate properly, a slug must choose a mate roughly its own size - if it miscalculates, its penis will get stuck during copulation.
This isn’t just an embarrassing faux pas, the other slug will actually bite off the stuck penis, a term scientists euphemistically called "apophallation."
Anglerfish: Let’s Me Be A Part of You. Literally.
Anglerfish, a deep sea fish named for the spiny appendage on its head that it uses as bait to "fish" its prey, has an unusual mating habit. As it spends its time in the bottom of the ocean, finding a mate is a problem - but the species solved this evolutionary challenge beautifully.
At first, scientists were perplexed because they’ve never caught a male anglerfish. Also, all female anglerfish have a lump on their body that looks like a parasite. Only later did scientists discover that the lump is the remain of the male fish.
The tiny male anglerfish are born without any digestive system, so once they hatch, they have to find a female quickly. When a male finds a female, he quickly bites her body and releases an enzyme that digests his skin and her body to fuse the two in an eternal embrace. The male then wastes away, becoming nothing but a lump on the female anglerfish’s body!
When the female is ready to spawn, her "male appendage" is there, ready to release sperms to fertilize her egg.
Barnacle: Inflatable Penis
Yes, that long thing is a barnacle penis mating with its neighbor
Barnacles, those crustaceans that stick themselves to the bottom of boats (much to the consternation of sailors everywhere), are stuck in one position all their lives.
So, how do they mate? The solution, turns out, is brilliantly simple: the barnacle has an inflatable penis that is up to 50 times as long as its body. In fact, it has the longest penis in the animal kingdom, relative to body length!
Fruit Fly: World’s Longest Sperm
The title of world’s longest sperm actually belongs to a tiny fruit fly called Drosophila bifurca. When the coiled sperm is straightened out, it measures about 2 inches which is over 1,000 times longer than a human sperm. In fact, the testes of a fruit fly makes up 11 percent of the body mass of the male!
Turns out the very long sperm is evolutionarily driven by the just-as-long female reproductive tract, which is like an obstacle course, complete with harsh chemicals to weed out weak sperms
Argentine Lake Duck: Very Well-Endowed, Can Even Lasso a Female.
The very well-endowed Argentine Lake Duck
The Argentine lake duck may be small, but don’t take pity on it. See, the drake (male duck) of the lowly fowl has the longest penis of any bird species in the world.
From head to tail, the Argentine lake duck measures about 17 inches. That also happens to be the length of its corkscrew-shaped penis when stretched out. The tip of the penis is soft and brush-like, which the drake uses to brush away sperms deposited by a previous suitor.
Gorilla: Big, But Not So Big.
Let’s end this lengthy article with the gorillas, the largest of all living primates.
Upside: Mature male gorillas, called silverbacks, are huge (up to 425 lb., sometimes even more). A silverback lives in a troop of 5 up to 30 females, with which he mates all year long. There is little competition for females, since a large silverback is scary and can easily protect its group from challengers. Source
Any picture can speak 1,000 words, but only a select few say something poignant enough to galvanize an entire society. The following photographs screamed so loudly that the entire world stopped to take notice.
The Photograph That Raised the Photojournalistic Stakes: "Omaha Beach, Normandy, France"
"If your pictures aren’t good enough," war photographer Robert Capa used to say, "you aren’t close enough." Words to die by, yes, but the man knew of what he spoke. After all, his most memorable shots were taken on the morning of D-Day, June 6, 1944, when he landed alongside the first waves of infantry at Omaha Beach.
Caught under heavy fire, Capa dove for what little cover he could find, then shot all the film in his camera, and got out - just barely. He escaped with his life, but not much else. Of the four rolls of film Capa took of the horrific D-Day battle, all but 11 exposures were ruined by an overeager lab assistant, who melted the film in his rush to develop it. (He was trying to meet the deadline for the next issue of Life magazine.)
In an ironic twist, however, that same mistake gave the few surviving exposures their famously surreal look ("slightly out of focus," Life incorrectly explained upon printing them). More than 50 years later, director Steven Spielberg would go to great lengths to reproduce the look of that "error" for his harrowing D-Day landing sequence in "Saving Private Ryan," even stripping the coating from his camera lenses to echo Capa’s notorious shots.
The Photograph That Gave a Face to the Great Depression "Migrant Mother"
As era-defining photographs go, "Migrant Mother" pretty much takes the cake. For many, Florence Owens Thompson is the face of the Great Depression, thanks to legendary shutterbug Dorothea Lange. Lange captured the image while visiting a dusty California pea-pickers’ camp in February 1936, and in doing so, captured the resilience of a proud nation facing desperate times.
Unbelievably, Thompson’s story is as compelling as her portrait. Just 32 years old when Lange approached her ("as if drawn by a magnet," Lange said). Thompson was a mother of seven who’d lost her husband to tuberculosis. Stranded at a migratory labor farm in Nipomo, Calif. her family sustained themselves on birds killed by her kids and vegetables taken from a nearby field - as meager a living as any earned by the other 2,500 workers there. The photo’s impact was staggering. Reproduced in newspapers everywhere, Thompson’s haunted face triggered an immediate public outcry, quickly prompting politicos from the federal Resettlement Administration to send food and supplies. Sadly, however, Thompson and her family had already moved on, receiving nary a wedge of government cheese for their high-profile misery. In fact, no one knew the identity of the photographed woman until Thompson revealed herself years later in a 1976 newspaper article.
The Photograph That Brought the Battlefield Home "Federal Dead on the Field of Battle of First Day, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania"
As one of the world’s first war photographers, Mathew Brady didn’t start out having as action-packed a career as you might think. A successful daguerreotypist and a distinguished gentleman, Brady was known for his portraits of notable people such as Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee. In other words, he was hardly a photojournalist in the trenches.
In fact, Brady had everything to lose by making a career move - his money, his business, and quite possibly his life. Nevertheless, he decided to risk it all and follow the Union Army into battle with his camera, saying, "A spirit in my feet said, ‘Go!’" And go he did - at least until he got a good look at the pointy end of a Confederate bayonet.
After narrowly escaping capture at the first Battle of Bull Run, Brady’s chatty feet quieted down a bit, and he began sending assistants in his place. In the span of only a few years, Brady and his team shot more than 7,000 photographs - an astounding number when you consider that developing a single plate required a horse-drawn-wagon-full of cumbersome equipment and noxious chemicals. Not exactly what you’d call "point-and-shoot."
Tethered as he was to his equine-powered darkroom and with film speeds being much slower then, Brady produced war photos that are understandably light on the action and heavy on the aftermath. Still, they mark the first time Americans were so immediately confronted with the grim realities of the battlefield.
The Photograph That Ended a War But Ruined a Life "Murder of a Vietcong by Saigon Police Chief"
"Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world," AP photojournalist Eddie Adams once wrote. A fitting quote for Adams, because his 1968 photograph of an officer shooting a handcuffed prisoner in the head at point-blank range not only earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1969, but also went a long way toward souring Americans’ attitudes about the Vietnam War.
For all the image’s political impact, though, the situation wasn’t as black-and-white as it’s rendered. What Adams’ photograph doesn’t reveal is that the man being shot was the captain of a Vietcong "revenge squad" that had executed dozens of unarmed civilians earlier the same day. Regardless, it instantly became an icon of the war’s savagery and made the official pulling the trigger - General Nguyen Ngoc Loan - its iconic villain.
Sadly, the photograph’s legacy would haunt Loan for the rest of his life. Following the war, he was reviled where ever he went. After an Australian VA hospital refused to treat him, he was transferred to the United States, where he was met with a massive (though unsuccessful) campaign to deport him. He eventually settled in Virginia and opened a restaurant but was forced to close it down as soon as his past caught up with him. Vandals scrawled "we know who you are" on his walls, and business dried up.
Adams felt so bad for Loan that he apologized for having taken the photo at all, admitting, "The general killed the Vietcong; I killed the general with my camera."
The Photograph That Isn’t as Romantic as You Might Think "V-J Day, Times Square, 1945", a.k.a. "The Kiss"
On August 14, 1945, the news of Japan’s surrender was announced in the United States, signaling the end of World War II. Riotous celebrations erupted in the streets, but perhaps none were more relieved than those in uniform. Although many of them had recently returned from victory in Europe, they faced the prospect of having to ship out yet again, this time to the bloody Pacific.
Among the overjoyed masses gathered in Times Square that day was one of the most talented photojournalists of the 20th century, a German immigrant named Alfred Eisenstaedt. While snapping pictures of the celebration, he spotted a sailor "running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight." He later explained that, "whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn’t make any difference."
Of course, a photo of the sailor planting a wet one on a senior citizen wouldn’t have made the cover of Life, but when he locked lips with an attractive nurse, the image was circulated in newspapers across the country. Needless to say, "V-J Day" didn’t capture a highly anticipated embrace by long-lost lovers, but it also wasn’t staged, as many critics have claimed. In any case, the image remains an enduring symbol of America’s exuberance at the end of a long struggle.
The Photograph That Destroyed an Industry "Hindenburg" Murray Becker, 1937
Forget the Titanic, the Lusitania, and the comparatively unphotogenic accident at Chernobyl. Thanks to the power of images, the explosion of the Hindenburg on May 6, 1937, claims the dubious honor of being the quintessential disaster of the 20th century.
In the grand scheme of things, however, the Hindenburg wasn’t all that disastrous. Of the 97 people aboard, a surprising 62 survived. (in fact, it wasn’t even the worst Zeppelin crash of the 20th century. Just four years earlier, the U.S.S. Akron had crashed into the Atlantic killing more than twice as many people.) But when calculating the epic status of a catastrophe, terrifying photographs and quotable quotes ("Oh, the humanity!") far outweigh body counts.
Assembled as part of a massive PR campaign by the Hindenburg’s parent company in Germany, no fewer than 22 photographers, reporters, and newsreel cameramen were on the scene in Lakehurst, N.J. when the airship went down. Worldwide publicity of the well-documented disaster shattered the public’s faith in Zeppelins, which were, at the time, considered the safest mode of air travel available.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Zeppelins had operated regular flights, totting civilians back and forth between Germany and the Americas. But all of that stopped in 1937. The incident effectively killed the use of dirigibles as a commercially viable mode of passenger transport, ending the golden age of the airship not with a whimper, but with a horrific bang that was photographed and then syndicated around the globe.
The Photograph That Saved the Planet "The Tetons - Snake River" Ansel Adams, 1942
Some claim photography can be divided into two eras: Before Adams and After Adams. In Times B.A., for instance, photography wasn’t widely considered an art form. Rather, photographers attempted to make their pictures more "artistic" (i.e., more like paintings) by subjecting their exposures to all sorts of extreme manipulations, from coating their lenses with petroleum jelly to scratching the surfaces of their negatives with needles. Then came Ansel Adams, helping shutterbugs everywhere get over their collective inferiority complex.
Brashly declaring photography to be "a blazing poetry of the real," Adams eschewed manipulations, claiming they were simply derivative of other art forms. Instead, he preached the value of "pure photography." In an era when handheld point-and-shoot cameras were quickly becoming the norm, Adams and other landscape photographers clung to their bulky, old-fashioned large-format cameras. Ultimately, Adams’ pictures turned photography into fine art. What’s more, they shaped the way Americans thought of their nation’s wilderness and, with that, how to preserve it.
Adams’ passion for the land wasn’t limited to vistas he framed through the lens. In 1936, he accompanied his photos to Washington to lobby for the preservation of the Kings Canyon area in California. Sure enough, he was successful, and it was declared a national park.
The Photograph That Kept Che Alive "The Corpse of Che Guevara" Freddy Alborta, 1967
Sociopathic thug? Socialist luminary? Or as existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre called him, "the most complete human being of our age"? Whatever you believe, there’s no denying that Ernesto "Che" Guevara has become the patron saint of revolutionaries. Undeniably, he is a man of mythical status - a reputation that persists less because of how he lived than because of how he died.
Unenthused by his efforts to incite revolution among the poor and oppressed in Bolivia, the nation’s army (trained and equipped by the U.S. military and the CIA) captured and executed Guevara in 1967. But before dumping his body in a secret grave, they gathered around for a strategic photo op. They wanted to prove to the world that Che was dead, in hopes that his political movement would die with him. in fact, anticipating charges that the photo had been faked, Che’s thoughtful captors amputated his hands and preserved them in formaldehyde.
But by killing the man, Bolivian officials unwittingly birthed his legend. The photo, which circulated around the world, bore a striking resemblance to Renaissance paintings of Christ taken down from the cross. Even as Che’s killers preened and gloated above him (the officer on the right seems to be inadvertently pointing to a wound on Guevara’s body near where Christ’s final wound was inflicted), Che’s eerily peaceful face was described as showing forgiveness. The photo’s allegorical significance certainly wasn’t lost on the revolutionary protesters of the era. They quickly adopted "Che lives!" as a slogan and rallying cry. Thanks to this photograph, "the passion of the Che" ensured that he would live on forever as a martyr for the socialist cause.
The Photograph that Allowed Geniuses to Have a Sense of Humor "Einstein with his Tongue Out" Arthur Sasse, 1951
You may appreciate this memorable portrait as much as the next fellow, but it’s still fair to wonder: "Did it really change history?" Rest assured, we think it did. While Einstein certainly changed history with his contributions to nuclear physics and quantum mechanics, this photo changed the way history looked at Einstein. By humanizing a man known chiefly for his brilliance, this image is the reason Einstein’s name has become synonymous not only with "genius," but also with "wacky genius."
So why the history-making tongue? It seems Professor Einstein, hoping to enjoy his 72nd birthday in peace, was stuck on the Princeton campus enduring incessant hounding by the press. Upon being prodded to smile for the camera for what seemed like the millionth time, he gave photographer Arthur Sasse a good look at his uvula instead. This being no ordinary tongue, the resulting photo became an instant classic, thus ensuring that the distinguished Novel Prize-winner would be remembered as much for his personality as for his brain.
The Photograph That Made the Surreal Real "Dalí Atomicus" Philippe Halsman, 1948
Philippe Halsman is quite possibly the only photographer to have made a career out of taking portraits of people jumping. But he claimed the act of leaping revealed his subjects’ true selves, and looking at his most famous jump, "Dalí Atomicus," it’s pretty hard to disagree.
The photograph is Halsman’s homage both to the new atomic age (prompted by physicist’ then-recent announcement that all matter hangs in a constant state of suspension) and to Dalí’s surrealist masterpiece "Leda Atomica" (seen on the right, behind the cats, and unfinished at the time). It took six hours, 28 jumps, and a roomful of assistants throwing angry cats and buckets of water into the air to get the perfect exposure.
But before settling on the "Atomicus" we know today, Halsman rejected a number of other concepts for the shot. One was the idea of throwing milk instead of water, but that was abandoned for fear that viewers, fresh from the privations of World War II, would condemn it as a waste of milk. Another involved exploding a cat in order to capture it "in suspension," though that arguably would have been a waste of cats.
Halsman’s methods were as unique as they were effective. His celebrity "jump" portraits appeared on at least seven Life magazine covers and helped usher in a new - and radically more adventurous - era of portrait photography.
The Photograph That Lied "Loch Ness Monster
While strange sightings around Scotland’s murky Loch Ness date back to 565 C.E., it wasn’t until photography reached the Loch that Nessie Fever really took off. The now-legendary (and legendarily blurry) "surgeon’s photo," reportedly taken in April of 1934, fueled decades of frenzied speculation, several costly underwater searches, and a local tourism industry that rakes in several million dollars each year.
But the party almost ended in 1994, when a report was published saying that model-maker Christian Spurling admitted to faking the photo. According to Spurling’s statement, his stepfather, Marmaduke Wetherell, worked as a big game hunter and had been hired by London’s Daily Mail to find the beast. But rather than smoke out the creature, he decided to fake it. Wetherell, joined by Spurling and his son, Ian, built their own monster to float on the lake’s surface using a toy submarine and some wood putty. Ian actually took the photo, but to lend more credibility to the story, they convinced an upstanding pillar of the community - surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson - to claim it as his own. Just goes to prove the old adage, "The camera never lies." People, on the other hand, do.
The Photograph That Almost Wasn’t "Gandhi at his Spinning Wheel"
"Gandhi at his Spinning Wheel," the defining portrait of one of the 20th century’s most influential figures, almost didn’t happen, thanks to the Mahatma’s strict demands. Granted a rare opportunity to photograph India’s leader; Life staffer Margaret Bourke-White was all set to shoot when Gandhi’s secretaries stopped her cold: If she was going to photograph Gandhi at the spinning wheel (a symbol for India’s struggle for independence), she first had to learn to use one herself.
But that wasn’t all. The ascetic Mahatma wasn’t to be spoken to (it being his day of silence.) And because he detested bright light, Bourke-White was only allowed to use three flashbulbs. Having cleared all these hurdles, however, there was still one more - the humid Indian weather, which wreaked havoc on her camera equipment. When time finally came to shoot, Bourke-White’s first flashbulb failed. And while the second one worked, she forgot to pull the slide, rendering it blank.
She thought it was all over, but luckily, the third attempt was successful. In the end, she came away with an image that became Gandhi’s most enduring representation. it was also among the last portraits of his life; he was assassinated less than two years later.
Before there was photoshop, there was Man Ray. One of the world’s most original photographers, Ray was tireless experimenter. In fact, his work was so inventive that he eventually left the camera behind altogether, creating his surreal "Rayographs" entirely in the darkroom.
"Le Violon d’Ingres" is perhaps his best-known photograph, and one of his earliest. Like many pieces from the Dada movement (which Ray is credited with bringing to the United States), it’s a visual pun. By drawing f-holes on his model’s back, he points out the similarities between the body of a woman and the body of a violin. But it’s a literal pun, as well. Both the model’s dress and pose echo a famous painting by French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominiqe Ingres, whose hobbies were depicting female nudes and playing the violin.
More than just highbrow it, however, Ray’s work was far ahead of its time. By ridiculing a now-obsolete concept - the photographic image as literal interpretation of reality - his pictures foreshadowed our own digital revolution
Ah, Internet Cafes … it used to be just a place where you can browse the Internet and grab a cup of coffee, but competition being what it is, some Internet cafes are offering something a little more than a cup of joe:
… Hungry? How about some taco?
In Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
No? How about some Rice and Pea? I
In West Yorkshire and Leeds, UK. … Or better yet, donuts!
In Palo Alto, California.
… For those who are pressed for time: browse the Internet and do laundry at the same time!
In the Philippines.
See many more weird Internet cafes from around the world:
… Or do your banking at the same place at the ING Direct Internet cafe:
In Philadelphia.
… Stressed? Get a massage, read some manga, and enjoy a boba drink with your Internet!
In Costa Mesa, California.
… If you need some laugh, here’s the LOL! Internet Cafe:
In Limerick, Ireland.
… Or if something stronger is needed than coffee, try this Internet cafe and Cocktail Bar:
In Morecambe, Lancashire, UK
Whatever you do, just don’t let these two find each other … the Internet will annihilate itself in a big flash of energy (or maybe not):
In Germany
In case you want to jack into the Matrix, the TRUE Internet cafe in Thailand got the set-up (brainwashing extra, okay?):
In Thailand
For those on the run, here’s the Internet Bus:
In Franz Josef township, New Zealand
For those who gotta run, here’s Fast Pee Internet:
In Washington D.C.
Internet? We have no stinkin’ Internet. Enternet? now that we have!
In Zanzibar
How about some famous names from the Net? Here’s Google’s Internet cafe, just in case that search engine thingy isn’t working out …
It’s Skynet!
In Kyrgyzstan.
If you ever wondered where the Internet lived, here it is: Whatever you do, just don’t look at porn!
Created by Tesla coils --a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891--, its fascinating sparks come from discharges of very high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Until the 1920s, Tesla coil circuits were used commercially in sparkgap radio transmitters for wireless telegraphy, and in electrotherapy and quack medical devices such as violet ray; today, their main use is entertainment and educational displays.
In that spirit, Australia's Peter Terren built a fully functional Tesla Coil in his back garden and has become an "artist of electricity" since, creating fascinating photographs using long exposure and a lot of creativity. Meet Terren's High-Voltage Sculptures.
Apart from having something comfortable under your feet, rugs can influence and change the atmosphere of a room quite significantly. Here are some pretty awesome and cool rugs that you probably have never seen before.
Here’s the story of how scientists unlocked the secrets of the worst natural disaster in the history of the West African nation of Cameroon… and what they’re doing to try and stop it from happening again.
THE DISCOVERY
On the morning of August 22, 1986, a man hopped onto his bicycle and began riding from Wum, a village in Cameroon, towards the village of Nyos. On the way he noticed an antelope lying dead next to the road. Why let it go to waste? The man tied the antelope onto his bicycle and continued on. A short distance later he noticed two dead rats, and further on, a dead dog and other dead animals. He wondered if they’d all been killed by a lightening lightning strike – when lightening lightning hits the ground it’s not unusual for animals nearby to be killed by the shock.
Soon the man came upon a group of huts. He decided to see if anyone there knew what had happened to the animals. But as he walked up to the huts he was stunned to see dead bodies strewn everywhere. He didn’t find a single person still alive—everyone in the huts was dead. The man threw down his bicycle and ran all the way back to Wum.
SOMETHING BIG
Nyos village, where nearly 2,000 people were killed
By the time the man got back to the village, the first survivors of whatever it was that had struck Nyos and other nearby villages were already stumbling into Wum. Many told tales of hearing an explosion or rumbling noise in the distance, then smelling strange smells and passing out for as long as 36 hours before waking up to discover that everyone around them was dead.
Wum is in a remote part of Cameroon, so it took two days for a medical team to arrive in the area after local officials called the governor to report the strange occurrence. The doctors found a catastrophe far greater than they could have imagined: Overnight, something had killed nearly 1,800 people. Plus more than 3,000 cattle and countless wild animals, birds and insects—in short every living creature for miles around.
The official death toll was recorded as 1,746 people, but that was only an estimate, because the survivors had already begun to bury victims in mass graves, and many terrified survivors had fled corpse-filled villages and were hiding in the forest. Whatever it was that killed so many people seemed to have disappeared without a trace just as quickly as it had come. LOOKING FOR CLUES
What could have caused so many deaths in such a short span of time? When word of the disaster reached the outside world, scientists from France (Cameroon is a former French colony), the United States, and other countries arrived to help the country’s own scientists figure out what had happened. The remains if the victims offered few clues. There was no evidence of bleeding, physical trauma, or disease, and no sign of exposure to radiation, chemical weapons, or poison gas. And there was no evidence of suffering or “death agony”: The victims apparently just blacked out, fell over, and died.
One of the first important clues was the distribution of the victims across the landscape: The deaths had all occurred within about 12 miles of Lake Nyos, which some local tribes called the “bad lake.” Legend had that long ago, evil spirits had risen out of the lake and killed all the people living in a village at the water’s edge.
Both the number of victims and the presence of fatalities increased as the scientists got closer to the lake: In the outlying villages many people, especially those who had remained inside their homes, had survived, while in Nyos, which is less than two miles away was the closest village to the lake, only 6 of more than 800 villagers were still alive.
But it was the lake itself that provided the biggest and strangest clue of all: its normally clear blue waters has turned a deep, murky red. The scientists began to wonder if there was more to the legend of the “bad lake” than anyone had realized.
STILL LIFE
Lake Nyos is roughly one square mile in surface area and has a maximum depth of 690 feet. It’s what’s known as a “crater lake”—it formed when the crater of a long-extinct volcano filled with water. But was the volcano really extinct? Maybe an eruption was the culprit: Maybe the volcano beneath the lake had come back to life and in the process suddenly released enough poison gas to kill every living creature over a very wide area.
The theory was compelling but problematic: An eruption capable of releasing enough poison gas to kill that many people over that wide an area would have been very violent and accompanied by plenty of seismic activity. None of the eyewitnesses had mentioned earthquakes, and when the scientists checked with seismic recording station 140 miles away, it showed no evidence of unusual activity on the evening of August 21. This was backed up by the fact that even in the hardest-hit villages, goods were still piled high on shelves in homes where every member of the house-hold had been killed. And the scientists noticed another mysterious clue: The oil lamps in these homes had all been extinguished even the ones still filled with plenty of oil.
TESTING THE WATERS
The scientists began to test water samples taken from various depths in the lake. The red on the surface turned out to be dissolved iron—normally found on the bottom of the lake, not the top. Somehow the sediment at the bottom had been stirred up and the iron brought to the surface, where it turned the color of rust after coming into contact with oxygen.
The scientists also discovered unusually high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolved or “in solution” in the water. Samples from a as shallow as 50 feet deep contained so much CO2 that when they were pulled to the surface, where the water pressure was lower, the dissolved CO2 came bubbling out of solution—just as if someone had unscrewed the cap on a bottle of soda.
CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE
As the scientists took samples from deeper and deeper in Lake Nyos, the already high carbon dioxide (CO2) levels climbed steadily higher. At the 600 foot depth, the levels suddenly shot off the charts. Beyond that depth, the CO2 levels were so high that when the scientists tried to pull the samples to the surface, the containers burst from the pressure of all the gas that came out of solution. The scientists had to switch to pressurized containers to collect their samples, and when they did they were stunned to find that the water at the bottom of the lake contained five gallons of dissolved CO2 for every gallon of water.
As the scientists pieced together the evidence, they began to form a theory that centered around the large amount of CO2 in the lake. The volcano that formed Lake Nyos may have been long extinct, but the magma chamber that fed it was still active deep below the surface of the Earth. And it was still releasing carbon dioxide gas—not just into Lake Nyos, but into the surrounding environment as well. In fact, it’s not uncommon in Cameroon to find frogs and other small animals suffocated in CO2 “puddles” that have formed in low points along the ground. (CO2 is heavier than air and can pool in low spots until the wind blows it away.)
But what was unusual about Lake Nyos wasn’t that there was CO2 in the lake; that happens in lakes all over the world. What was unusual was that the CO2 had apparently never left—instead of bubbling to the surface and dissipating into the air, the CO2 was accumulating at the bottom of the lake.
UPS AND DOWNS
In most lakes CO2 escaped because the water is continually circulating, thanks to a process known as convection: Rain, cold weather or even just wind blowing across the surface of the lake can cause the topmost layer of water to cool, making it denser and therefore heavier than the warmer layer below. The cool water sinks to the bottom of the lake, displacing the warmer, CO2 rich water and pushing it higher enough for the CO2 to come out of the solution, bubble to the surface, and escape into the air.
STILL WATERS RUN DEEP
That’s what usually happens, but the water at the bottom of Lake Nyos was so saturated with CO2 that it was clear that something was interfering with the convection process. As the scientists soon discovered, the waters of Lake Nyos are among the most still in the world: Tall hills surround the lake, blocking the wind and causing the lake to be unusually consistent in temperature from the surface to the bottom. And because Lake Nyos is in a tropical climate that remains hot all year round, the water temperature doesn’t vary much from season to season, either. Lastly, because the lake is so deep, even when the surface is disturbed, very little of the agitation finds its way to the lake floor. The unusual stillness of the lake is what made it so deadly.
FULL TO BURSTING
There is a physical limit to how much CO2 water can absorb, even under the tremendous pressured that exist at the bottom of a 690 foot deep lake. As the bottom layers become saturated, the CO2 is pushed up to where the pressure is low enough for it to start coming out of solution. At this point any little disturbance—a landslide, stormy weather, or even high winds or just a cold snap—can cause the CO2 to begin bubbling to the surface. And when the bubbles start rising, they can cause a siphoning or “chimney” effect, triggering a chain reaction that in one giant upheaval can cause the lake to disgorge CO2 that has been accumulating in the lake for decades.
CO2 is odorless, colorless, and non-toxic; your body produces it and you exhale some every time you breathe. Even the air you inhale consists of about 0.05% CO2. What makes it a killer in certain circumstances is that fact that it’s heavier than air: If enough escapes into the environment at once, it displaces the air on the ground, making breathing impossible. A mixture of as little as 10% CO2 in the air can be fatal: even 5% can smother a flame…which explained why the oil lamps went out.
SNUFFED OUT
The scientists figured that if their theory was correct, there might be other instances of similar eruptions in the past. It didn’t take very long to find one, and they didn’t have to look very far, either: Two years earlier, on August 15, 1984, a loud boom was heard coming from Lake Monoun, a crater lake just 59 miles southeast of Lake Nyos. In the hours that followed, 37 people died mysteriously, including a group of 17 people who died while walking to work when the came to a low point in the road—just the place where CO2 would have settled after being released from the lake. The incident was small enough that it hadn’t attracted much attention from the outside world…until now.
THE BIG BANG
In the months following the disaster at Lake Nyos, the scientists continued to monitor the lake’s CO2 levels. When the levels began to increase again, they concluded that their theory was correct.
In the meantime, they had also come up with an estimate of just how much CO2 had escaped from the lake on August 22—and were stunned by what they found. Eyewitness accounts from people who were high enough in the hills above the lake to survive the eruption described how the lake began bubbling strangely on August 17, causing a misty cloud to form above the surface of the water. Then without warning, on August 22, the lake suddenly exploded; water and gas shot a couple of hundred feet into the air. The CO2 had taken up so much space in the lake that when it was finally released 1.2 cubic kilometers of CO2—enough to fill 10 football stadiums—in as little as 20 seconds. (Are you old enough to remember the huge volume of ash that Mt. Saint Helens released when it erupted in 1980? That eruption released only 1/3 of one cubic kilometer of ash—a quarter of Lake Nyos’s emission.)
CLOUD OF DOOM
Grazing cattle killed in the 1986 Lake Nyos disaster
Cattle herders graze their animals on the hills above Lake Nyos, and after the lake disgorged as much as 80% of its massive store of CO2 in one big burst, dead cattle were found as high as 300 feet above the lake, indicating that the suffocating cloud shot at least that high before settling back onto the surface. Then the gas poured over the crater’s edge into the valley below, traveling at an estimated 45 miles per hour.
For people living in the village closest to the lake, death was almost inevitable. A few people on hillsides had the presence of mind to climb to higher ground; one man who saw his neighbors drop like flies jumped on his motorcycle and managed to keep ahead of the gas as he sped to safety. There were the lucky few. Most people didn’t realize the danger until they were being overcome by the gas. Even if they had, it would have been impossible to outrun such a fast-moving cloud.
CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT
In villages father away from the lake, people had a better chance of survival, especially if they ignored the noise the lake made as it disgorged its CO2. Some survivors said it sounded like a gunshot or an explosion; others described it as a rumble. But people who stepped outside their homes to see where the noise had come from, or to see what had caused the rotten egg smell (a common smell “hallucination” associated with CO2 poisoning) quickly collapsed and died right on their own doorsteps. The sight of these first victims passing out often brought other members of the household to the door, where they, too, were overcome…and killed.
People who were inside with their windows and doors shut had a better chance of surviving. There were even cases where enough CO2 seeped into homes to smother people who were lying down asleep, but not enough to kill the people who were standing up and had their heads above the gas. Some of these survivors did not even realize anything unusual had happened until they checked on their sleeping loved ones and discovered they were already dead.
AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION
The disaster at Lake Nyos was only the second such incident in the recorded history—the 1984 incident at Lake Monoun was the first. To date, scientists believe that only three lakes in the entire world, Nyos, Monoun, and a third lake called Lake Kivu on the border of Congo and Rwanda, accumulate deadly amounts of dissolved CO2 at great depths.
It had taken about a year to figure out what had happened at Nyos. Then, when it became clear that the lake was filling with CO2 again, the government of Cameroon evacuated all the villages within 18 miles of the lake and razed them to prevent their inhabitants from coming back until the lake could be made safe.
Scientists spent the next decade trying to figure out a way to safely release the gas before disaster struck again. They eventually settled on a plan to sink a 51/2-inch diameter tube down more than 600 feet, to just above the floor of the lake. Then when some of the water from the bottom was up to the top of the tube, it would rise high enough in the tube for the CO2 to come out of solution and form bubbles, which would cause it to shoot out the top of the tube, blasting water and gas more than 150 feet into the sky. Once it got started, the siphon effect would cause the reaction to continue indefinitely, or at least until the CO2 ran out. A prototype was installed and tested in 1995, and after it proved to be safe, a permanent tube was installed in 2001.
RACE AGAINST TIME
As of the fall of 2006 the tube was still in place releasing more than 700 million cubic feet of CO2 into the air each year. That’s a little bit more than enters the lake in the same amount of time. Between 2001 and 2006, the CO2 levels in Lake Nyos dropped 13%.
But the scientists who study the lake are concerned that 13% is still too small an amount. The lake still contains more CO2 than was released in the 1986 disaster, and as if that’s not bad enough, a natural dam on the north side of the lake is eroding and could fail in as little as five years. If the dam collapses, the disaster of 1986 may prove to be just a small taste of things to come: In the event of a dam failure, 50 million cubic meters of water could pour out of the lake, drowning as many as 10,000 as it washed through the valleys below. That’s only the beginning—releasing that much water from the lake would cause the level of the lake to drop as much as 130 feet, removing the water pressure that keeps the CO2 at the bottom of the lake and causing a release of gas even more catastrophic than the devastation of 1986.
Degassing Lake Nyos
Scientists and engineers have devised a plan for shoring up the natural dam with concrete, and it’s believed that the installation of as few as for more siphon tubes could reduce the CO2 in the lake to safe levels in as little as four years. The scientists are hard at work trying to find the funding to do it, and there’s no time to waste: “We could have a gas burst tomorrow that is bigger than either (the Lake Monoun or Lake Nyos) disaster,“ says Dr. George Kling, a University of Michigan ecologist who has been studying the lake for 20 years. “Every day we wait is just an accumulation of the probability that something bad is going to happen.
This hybrid species fish was born between a carp and a leather carp in the pond of a personal house in Chongju.
A Stink Bug A Death's Head Hawk Moth Heike Crab, native to Japan A Sheild Bug The axolotl, a neotenic species of salamander, a salamander that does not go through metamorphosis.
An Eucorysses grandis Another stink bug A Green Shield Bug This stink bug from Singapore looks like it’s carrying a gorilla-mask on its back.
Carpathian Wooden Churches is the name of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that consists of nine wooden religious buildings constructed between 16th and 18th century in eight different locations in Slovakia. They include two Roman Catholic (Hervartov, Tvrdošín), three Protestant (so-called Articular churches in Hronsek, Leštiny, Kežmarok) and three Greek Orthodox churches (Bodružal, Ruská Bystrá, Ladomirová) plus one belfry in Hronsek
Woooden churches in Slovakia, inscribed in the World Heritage Site list
One of few wooden Roman-Catholic Churches in Eastern Slovakia (most are Greek Catholic) near Bardejov in Hervartov
Greek Orthodox wooden church of Archangel Michael in Ladomirová Greek Orthodox wooden church of Saint Nicholas in Bodružal Articular Protestant wooden church in Hronsek All Saints Roman-Catholic wooden church in Tvrdošín
Wooden articular church in Kežmarok
The Wooden articular church in Kežmarok (Slovak: Drevený artikulárny kostol v Kežmarku) is a wooden church in Kežmarok, Slovakia. The local Lutherans built it during a period of religious persecution, when they were allowed to erect only wooden churches. That is why even nails were made exclusively of wood. The construction was financially supported by Protestants from various countries, including Sweden and Denmark
The church was built in the free royal town of Kežmarok
An old photograph shows the church before its expensive reconstruction in the 1990s
Wooden Church, Miskolc
The Wooden Church (Deszkatemplom) is a church in Miskolc, Hungary. It is built of carved wood. The present building was built in 1999 in place of the previous one that was destroyed by arson in 1997.
The first church was consecrated on September 13, 1637, but both this date and the existence of the church are preserved only in tradition and there is no documentary evidence. The first document mentioning a church at this site dates back to 1698. This church was built of wood, but nothing else is known about it. The first church known by the name of 'Wooden Church' was built in 1724 and it stood until 1937.
The church
Aerialphotography of the chrurch
Wooden Churches of Maramures
The Maramures wooden churches in Northern Transylvania are a selection of eight examples of different architectural solutions from different periods and areas. They are Orthodox churches. They are high timber constructions with characteristic tall, slim bell towers at the western end of the building. They are a particular vernacular expression of the cultural landscape of this mountainous area of northern Romania.
Maramures is one of the better-known regions of Romania, with autonomous traditions since the Middle Ages - but still not much visited. Its well-preserved wooden villages and churches, its traditional lifestyle, and the local colourful dresses still in use make Maramures as near to a living museum as can be found in Europe.
Biserica din Sârbi josani
The portal from Sârbi Susani, 1639, Maramures Budesti Josani church Sârbi Susani church
Calinesti Susani church
Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland
Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland and Subcarpathia of the UNESCO inscription are located in Gorlice, Nowy Targ, Bochnia counties ( Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Malopolskie), and Brzozów County (Subcarpathian Voivodeship) and are in Binarowa, Blizne, Debno Podhalanskie, Haczów, Lipnica Murowana, and Sekowa. There are in fact many others of the region which fit the description: "The wooden churches of southern Little Poland represent outstanding examples of the different aspects of medieval church-building traditions in Roman Catholic culture.
Water is having a significant impact on many people's lives around the world right now. From droughts to quake lakes, floods to monsoons, people and animals are dealing with water in many ways. In these photos, we can see people play, wash, mourn, survive, escape, celebrate and marvel with something so basic as water.
Department of Water and Power workers are emptying out bales of plastic balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2008. Department of Water and Power released about 400,000 black plastic 4-inch balls as the first installment of approximately 3 million to form a floating cover over 7 acres of the reservoir to protect the water from sunlight. When sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe's water, the carcinogen bromate can form.
Department of Water and Power workers are emptying out bales of plastic balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2008. Department of Water and Power released about 400,000 black plastic 4-inch balls as the first installment of approximately 3 million to form a floating cover over 7 acres of the reservoir to protect the water from sunlight. When sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe's water, the carcinogen bromate can form.
Earthquake survivors wash clothes at a river in Leigu town of the Beichuan county, in China's southwestern province of Sichuan on May 31, 2008. China was poised May 31 to drain water out of a dangerous "quake lake" as more than 197,000 people have been evacuated in case of flooding, an official from nearby Mianyang city said.
Water flows through a sluice channel of the Tangjiashan quake lake in Tangjiashan, Sichuan Province June 8, 2008 in this picture distributed by China's official Xinhua News Agency. The water level in the quake lake stood at 741.82 metres above sea level at midday on Sunday, still 1.45 metres higher than the sluice, with the lake's volume exceeding 240 million cubic metres, Xinhua News Agency reported.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, the water gushed out of the Tangjiashan quake lake at 9 a.m. of Tuesday, June 10, 2008 in southwest China's Sichuan Province. China declared an end Tuesday to the crisis over the brimming lake formed by the May 12 massive earthquake that had threatened to flood downstream communities.
A bridge is destroyed by floods in the worst earthquake-hit area of Beichuan county, in China's southwestern province of Sichuan on June 10, 2008. Muddy, brown water from a quake lake in southwest China was pouring into the flattened town of Beichuan June 10, piling new woes on its tormented population.
People place candlelights into a river to mourn the deceased of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake on a river beach the eve of 'Duanwu Festival' on June 7, 2008 in Beijing, China. More than 69,000 people are now known to have died in the quake and Chinese aid workers are struggling to find shelter for millions who lost their homes in China's worst quake in three decades.
People get hit by monsoon-driven waves from the Arabian Sea crashing on a seawall in Mumbai June 7, 2008.
A child collects rain water running off of a tent at a camp for people displaced from Cyclone Nargis near the Irrawaddy Delta town of Labutta, some 320 kms (200 miles) from Myanmar's largest city of Yangon on May 31, 2008. A month after Myanmar's cyclone left 133,000 people dead or missing.
Villagers set off firecrackers on their dragon boats on a river at Liede Village in Guangzhou, in south China's Guangdong province, Sunday, June 8, 2008. Dradon Boat Festival, or Duanwu Festival, the day remembrance the annivesary of the death of patriotic poet Qu Yuan, a minister who committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo river in central Hunan province after his nation was conquered in 277 B.C.
Passengers hang on as rescuers arrive to rescue them off a capsized ferry boat, where seven other passengers are missing on the Zhijiang river, a tributary of the mighty Yangtze river, after a storm hit Zhijiang county in central China's Hubei province on June 3, 2008. Torrential downpours in China have so far claimed 64 lives in 2008, with flash-floods destroying thousands of homes as well as bridges and large swathes of crops.
Residents walk through several feet of floodwaters to get to higher ground along Rocky Ford Road in Columbus, Ind. on Saturday, June 7, 2008. Hundreds of residents had to be rescued as floodwater shut off several areas throughout the city. The flooding resulted in one confirmed death and is estimated to have caused several millions in damges.
Four local Amish residents from the Worthington, Ind. area walk up to the shore of the flooding on State Road 67 where it is closed Monday afternoon just on the south side of Worthington.
A home near the 254-acre Lake Delton in Lake Delton, Wisconsin was damaged when flood waters breached the bank and drained the lake Monday, June 9, 2008. Floodwater washed away three houses and threatened dams in Wisconsin as military crews joined desperate sandbagging operations to hold back Indiana streams surging toward record levels.
A fawn struggles against the fast flowing White River as it tries to walk along the levee on Monday, June 9, 2008 in Edwardsport, Ind. The fawn was swept off the levee, but managed to swim to a bank and make its way from the water.
Pakistanis enjoy the shallow waters off a beach in Karachi on June 8, 2008, on 'The Day of the Oceans'. The future food security of millions of people is at risk because over-fishing, climate change and pollution are inflicting massive damage on the world's oceans, marine scientists warned this week.
A hippo swims in the surf at Thompsons Bay, about 50km (31 miles) from Durban, May 27, 2008. It is thought that the lone young male hippo has wandered from its habitat in Richards Bay.
Jupiter's moon Io floats above the cloudtops of Jupiter in this image captured January 1, 2001. The image is deceiving: there are 350,000 kilometers - roughly 2.5 Jupiters - between Io and Jupiter's clouds. Io is about the size of our own moon
This image of Jupiter's moon Europa rising above Jupiter was captured by the New Horizons spacecraft in February just after it passed Jupiter on its way to Pluto and the outer Solar System.
The gibbous phase of Jupiter's moon Europa. The robot spacecraft Galileo captured this image mosaic during its mission orbiting Jupiter from 1995 - 2003. Evidence and images from the Galileo spacecraft, indicated that liquid oceans might exist below the icy surface.
This view of the icy surface of Jupiter's moon, Europa, is a mosaic of two pictures taken by the Solid State Imaging system on board the Galileo spacecraft during a close flyby of Europa on February 20, 1997. The area shown is about 14 kilometers by 17 kilometers (8.7 miles by 10.6 miles), and has a resolution of 20 meters (22 yards) per pixel. One of the youngest features seen in this area is the double ridge cutting across the picture from the lower left to the upper right. This double ridge is about 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) wide and stands some 300 meters (330 yards) high.
A composite of several images taken in several colors by the New Horizons Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera, or MVIC, illustrating the diversity of structures in Jupiter's atmosphere, in colors similar to what someone "riding" on New Horizons would see. It was taken near the terminator, the boundary between day and night, and shows relatively small-scale, turbulent, whirlpool-like structures near the south pole of the planet. The dark "holes" in this region are actually places where there is very little cloud cover, so sunlight is not reflected back to the camera.
This image, acquired during Galileo's ninth orbit around Jupiter, shows two volcanic plumes on Io. One plume was captured on the bright limb or edge of the moon, erupting over a caldera (volcanic depression) named Pillan Patera. The plume seen by Galileo is 140 kilometers (86 miles) high, and was also detected by the Hubble Space Telescope. The second plume, seen near the terminator, the boundary between day and night, is called Prometheus. The shadow of the airborne plume can be seen extending to the right of the eruption vent.
Jupiter's moon Io, seen by NASA's Galileo spacecraft against a backdrop of Jupiter's cloud tops, which appear blue in this false-color composite.
A mosaic of Jupiter's ring system, acquired by NASA's Galileo spacecraft when the Sun was behind the planet, and the spacecraft was in Jupiter's shadow peering back toward the Sun.
An image of the leading hemisphere of Ganymede seen by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Many fragmented regions of dark terrain split by lanes of bright grooved terrain cover the surface. Several bright young craters can be seen, including a linear chain of craters near the center of the image which may have resulted from the impact of a fragmented comet, similar to comet Shoemaker-Levy/9 which hit Jupiter in 1994.
The area of Nicholson Regio and Arbela Sulcus illustrates many of the diverse terrain types on Jupiter's moon Ganymede, as seen in this image taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. The image covers an area approximately 89 by 26 kilometers (55by 16 miles).
Jupiter's Great Red seen by NASA's Voyager spacecraft. July, 1979 Around the northern boundary a white cloud is seen, which extends to east of the region. The presence of this cloud prevents small cloud vortices from circling the spot in the manner seen in the Voyager 1 encounter. Another white oval cloud is seen south of the Great Red Spot. This image was taken on July 6, 1979 from a range of 2,633,003 kilometers. The Red Spot is 20,000 km across.
This true color mosaic of Jupiter was constructed from images taken by the narrow angle camera onboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft on December 29, 2000, as the spacecraft neared Jupiter during its flyby of the giant planet. It is the most detailed global color portrait of Jupiter ever produced. Although Cassini's camera can see more colors than humans can, Jupiter here looks the way that the human eye would see it.
The pool extends beyond the building, out over the sidewalk above the 1500 block of Main Street! This infinity-edge pool will not only provide guests with a refreshing place to cool off and relax, but it is also another eye treat adding to the cutting edge excitement downtown. Passers-by below can see swimmers, plus a nighttime light show from the 132 fiber optic lights in the pool. Rooms at the Joule, which is part of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide LLC’s Luxury Collection, start at $380 a night, with the 20th-floor penthouse rising to $5,000.
Worlds Deepest Pool Nemo 33, a diving school in Brussels, operates the world’s deepest pool which goes to a depth of over 33 meters.
The world’s largest swimming pool In the South American resort of San Alfonso del Mar in Chile, this artificial lagoon and swimming pool has been acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the the biggest and longest swimming pool in the world. The pool is 1013 metres (3,324 feet) long and covers an area of 8 hectares (19.77 acres), had a 115ft deep end and holds 66 million gallons (250,000 cubic meters ) of water. It is even navigable in small boats ! The water is pumped in from the Pacific Ocean and treated before being pumped into the pool. The water temperature is kept at 26°C. It is 9°C warmer than the adjoining sea, allowing it to be used on cold days
Underground Pool in Utah Utah is in the middle of the United States, nowhere near an ocean but you can enjoy all sorts of ocean-type activities (scuba diving, for example) in the underground pool at Homestead Resort. It’s a natural attraction formed from a limestone wall that’s filled with geothermal water. It’s healing, relaxing and totally amazing to experience.
Gellert Baths
Budapests Gellert geo thermal baths are the closest thing to how i imagine an Imperial Roman bath to have looked.
Inverse pool A photo by Sanaa showing a family that appear to be underwater. The effect is created by having a glass bottom pool on top of the pool itself.
Glass Bottom Pool Vancouver
This is a classic case of an ambitious architectural gesture with utterly pedestrian execution. a glass swimming pool over an entrance is a spectacular thing, unfortunately the surrounding structure looks like a freeway overpass.
The Glass Pool
A lovely quirky Vegas landmark that was recently demolished. The glass pool in had portals that could be seen from the road.
Angkor Wat 1000 year old pool
Few places are as exotic and mysterious as Cambodias Angkor Wat. This “swimming pool” inside Angkor Wat, is incredible condition, considering that it is almost 1,000 years old.
Mini Cooper Stretch limo
Putting a swimming pool in a stretch limo is the kind of ridiculousness that is old hat - unless its a stretch mini, which is silly ridiculous and slightly newer hat.
This important pilgrimage church was the starting point of the so-called Via Tolosa, the route that led from Arles to Toulouse (Saint Sernin) with the final destination being Santiago de Compostela. "This road was taken by pilgrims coming from Italy, Switzerland or Central Europe, as well as the "Romieux" who, after Rome, were going to Compostela, or vice versa. They had come after crossing the Alps at Montgenèvre Pass, or by the road along the Ligurian coast" (Roux 77). According to Alan Borg, the earliest church at this site was probably a 9th century Carolingian church dedicated to Saint Stephen but by 972 the relics of Saint Trophimus had been deposited in the church. By the beginning of the 12th century the church was dedicated and named solely for that first bishop of Arles. The impressive facade of the existing church, dated at about 1170-80, shows the influence of classical antiquity, particularly in its gable, classical columnar forms, statues with Roman solidity (albeit a bit squatty), and architectural details--fluted pilasters, classical moldings, and variations of Corinthian capitals. This is not surprising, given the fact that Arles was an important Roman city with Roman monuments that survive even today
Front facade
The crossing tower
Decorative sculpture on the gable
Cloister Conant describes this cloister as one of the finest in France" (256). This very large cloister has both Romanesque and Gothic sections, the former constructed during the second quarter of the 12th century (the northern gallery) and in the late 12th and early 13th centuries (the eastern gallery), the latter not built until the 1380s and 1390s--the southern and western galleries.
The lintel and the voussoirs
Front facade: reliefs of the Last Judgment
Front facade: reliefs of the birth and nativity of Jesus
Saints on the front facade
Bases to the columns on the front facade
Views of the interior
Sainte Foy, Conques, France
The abbey church, which has survived intact in its Romanesque form, is located in the town of Conques, from the Latin concha, meaning a shell (appropriate because the town is nestled in a gorge or hollow). This site was attractive as a retreat from the outside word to the early medieval founders of the abbey. Originally, in the 8th century there was a simple oratory at the site, but once the relics of Sainte Foy were in possession there (a Benedictine monk had stolen them from a monastery at Agen) in 866 and 883, the site was expanded. In the 11th century a new church was begun which was completed by the mid 12th century. This Romanesque pilgrimage church became a major stage on the Via Podiensis, the route between Le Puy and Moissac--one of the main pilgrimage roads to Santiago de Compostela.
The site became famous because it housed the relics of Sainte Foy, the daughter of a wealthy family in Agen who had converted to Christianity and thus refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. In one of the last persecutions of Christians by the Romans, in 303 the proconsul Dacien condemned this 12-year old girl to be burned alive according to the imperial edict of Diocletian. Although the flames were "miraculously" extinguished, the young martyr was then beheaded. Her remains were saved and in later years miracles were attributed to their presence. Once the relics were situated at Conques, they attracted many pilgrims; stories of the blind seeing again or prisoners being freed are attributed to the saint's intercession. (The depiction of Sainte Foy on the tympanum of the church includes shackles hanging above her figure as a way of emphasizing these miracles.) Today in the Treasury of the church one can see some of the most fabulous golden religious objects in France, including the very famous gold and jewel-encrusted reliquary statue of St. Foy.
The golden treasure
Charlemagne's A Pépin's shrine Bégon's lantern Reliquary of Pope Pascal II Arm of Saint Georges
Interior: views of apse, choir, transepts, and ambulatory
Saint-Gilles-du-Gard
This important pilgrimage church was on the so-called Via Tolosa, the route that led from Arles to Toulouse (Saint Sernin) with the final destination being Santiago de Compostela. "This road was taken by pilgrims coming from Italy, Switzerland or Central Europe, as well as the "Romieux" who, after Rome, were going to Compostela, or vice versa. They had come after crossing the Alps at Montgenèvre Pass, or by the road along the Ligurian coast" (Roux 77). This route was, however, also known as the Via Aegidiana--an indication of the importance of the shrine to Saint Gilles (Aegidius in Latin).
A major building campaign began in 1116 to build the crypt in the "lower" church. This area with the shrine to Saint Gilles was the important site for pilgrims, although the facade, begun later, is notable for the most spectacular ensemble of sculpture. Carra Ferguson O'Meara claims that the "richness and complexity of its architectural and sculptural composition rivals that of the west portals of the cathedral of Chartres and of the abbey church of Saint-Denis. . ." (2). Unfortunately, much of this decoration was mutilated during the religious wars of the sixteenth century. A number of sculptors (6-8 and their assistants?) no doubt carved the ensemble on the facade, evident in part because their styles vary widely. (See Stoddard for details.) Stoddard dates this project as early as the late 1120s although other scholars have posited dates in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
This church, influenced by the Roman architecture and sculpture in the area as well as early Christian sculpture (some now in the Arles museum), was also influential on other buildings, most notably St. Trophime, the stop before Saint-Gilles on the Via Tolosa.
Views of the tympana
Views of the upper frieze with Entry into Jerusalem and other scenes
Views of the upper frieze with payment of Judas and Christ's cleansing of the Temple and other scenes
Views of the upper frieze with the Last Supper and the kiss of Judas and other scenes
Views of the upper frieze with Jesus before Pilate, the Flagellation, the Three Marys at the tomb and other scenes
From the tiniest veins, arteries and nerves to serial cross-sections of the spinal cord, these incredibly detailed dissections show and label most every part of the human body.
The collection is the product of a 17-year collaboration between David L. Bassett, a School of Medicine alumnus and faculty member known for his elegant dissections and love for the human body, and William Gruber, the photographer who invented the View-Master stereoscopic viewing device.
The partnership between the two resulted in the production of the Stereoscopic Atlas of Human Anatomy, which began in 1948, but was not not completed until 1962. It consisted of 221 View-Master reels with 1,554 color stereo views of dissections of every body region. Each stereo view was accompanied by a black-and-white, labeled drawing and explanatory text.
A deep dissection of the side of the head shows the many blood vessels (red arteries, blue veins) and nerves (graying white) in the facial region. The hole is the external ear canal. The temporal muscle, used for chewing, is the prominent fan shaped muscle on the side of skull, behind the mouth and above the jaw.
The Beer Can House gives a reason to visit Houston. The house includes 50,000 beer cans and 50,000 reasons to stop putting your cans in the recycling. 
The good people of Darwin Australia started a beer can boat regatta to combat all the empty beer cans on their beaches. Of course, what do you do during the regatta but drink more beer?
If you have a spare USB hub you don't mind ripping apart, here's one that'll fit in your favorite beverage. 
A little late for Thanksgiving decorations, but you could buy this Turkey Statue for your Super Bowl party. 
Just using 50 aluminum cans, black paint and a few tools you can create a passive solar heater.
This recycled radio includes bottle tops and cans for its casing. 
This MacGyver wannabe had a broken exhaust pipe on his motorized bicycle, so he fitted a beer can into his new exhaust system.
For the ultralight backpacker set, a cooking pot made out of a Foster's can for boiling water. The weight loss from the cook pot will be offset if your backpack contains extra beer. Only $14 at Backpacking Light. 
Last year the Beer Can Crochet Hat made a comeback when designer Meghan Fabulous put one on each of her models during a fashion show. Expect all the cool kids to wear one this summer. 
A man obsessed with PBR had a custom coffin made for himself. Until the ultimate Last Call, he'll use the coffin to store cold beers. 
Here's a hack anyone could love: making a TV antenna out of beer cans. Warning: indoor use only, unless your beer cans are equipped with a surge protector. 
Say you might have some sort of stash that you might want to keep away from prying roommates. Like jewelry, cash, or something green and sticky that makes you want to eat Taco Bell. There are plenty of different models of beer can Stash Safes on the market, costing $14, but you could probably make your own. 
It might seem like a waste of beer, but the slugs love it, and you can make a simple slug or snail trap with an old beer can.
'Hey Steve, you ever get the feeling that something like a beer can is stuck up your ass?' Even bad beer will taste gourmet in a beer can chicken
Processional Cross
The Kvivik Igloo, in Kvivik (Faroe Islands).
Flatworm: Make Love AND War.
Emperor Penguin: Starvin’ for Love
Macaque: Sneaky Attackers
A part of the southern hemisphere of Io, seen by the spacecraft Voyager at a range of 74,675 km. In the foreground is gently undulating topography, while in the back-ground are two mountains with their near faces brightly illuminated by the sun. The mountain in the right is approximately 150 km across at its base and its height is probably in excess of 15 km which would make it higher than any mountain on Earth. 
