World’s Most Expensive Meals
The life of luxury is what many people strive for over their lifetimes, and those that achieve it typically have nicer things than most. Expensive cars, large houses and high-cost clothing are images that typically come to mind when people think of luxury, but some wealthy people extend their extravagant spending to another area as well: their food.
Today’s infographic from The Huffington Post goes over 10 of the world’s most expensive dishes, a surprising amount of which are regular, everyday foods that have had an expensive twist put on them.
Things like pizza with lobster and rare spices to a $1,000 gourmet hot dog make this list, with most of the entries costing at least $1,000. Many of the dishes look interesting, such as the beer that’s packaged in roadkill, but their high price tags are definitely deterrents for the average person.
For more info on the list of dishes refer to the infographic below.
[Via]
The Underground Tunnels of Cu Chi, Vietnam
During the war in Vietnam, thousands of people in the Vietnamese province of Cu Chi lived in an elaborate network of underground tunnels. The tunnels were used by Viet Cong guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces, and played a major role in North Vietnam winning the war.
The Cu Chi tunnels were built over a period of 25 years that began sometime in the late 1940s during the war against the French. The excavations were used mostly for communication between villages and to evade French army sweeps of the area. When the National Liberation Front (NLF) insurgency began around 1960, the old tunnels were repaired and new extensions were excavated. Within a few years the tunnel system assumed enormous strategic importance, and most of Cu Chi district and the nearby area came under firm Viet Cong control.
11 World’s Heaviest People
This is a list of the heaviest people recorded and it is limited to those individuals who weighed over 450 kg (990 lb; 71 st).
Mills Darden
Mills Darden (October 7, 1799 – January 23, 1857) is alleged to have been one of the largest men in history. He was widely reported to have stood approximately 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m) tall and is said to have weighed around 1,000 to 1,100 pounds (450 to 500 kg) at his heaviest. If the reported figures are correct, Darden was 30 percent taller and about six times as heavy as the average American male of the 21st-century.
The Banpo Bridge in Seoul
The Banpo Bridge in Seoul, South Korea just got a major facelift in the form of a 10,000-nozzle fountain that runs all the way along both its sides. They were just installed last month, but already the bridge has turned into a major tourist attraction.
Which is understandable, as I've certainly never driven over a bridge that's pumping out 190 tons of water per minute. And since it's just pulling up water from the river below, it's nice and eco-friendly. Hit the jump for a video of this awesome bridge in action.
Whimsical Rock Formations at Little Finland,
Deep in the Nevada desert reachable by an off-beaten track called Gold Butte Byway, lies a fascinating area that few people know about. It’s known by various names such as Little Finland, Hobgoblin's Playground and Devil's Fire. This is a place where wind and water have sculpted red sandstone rock into fantastical shapes that is rarely seen anywhere else. Like a fanciful mirage, fiery sandstone fins and bizarre shaped mythical beasts springs from the desert floor. With little bit of imagination you can faces of people and wild animals that have been formed by the eroding sandstone, making for endless photographic possibilities. A few of these odd shaped formations have taken on descriptive names, such as the Ancient Elephant, Little Dinosaur and Big Nose.
Little Finland is so called because the rock formations here can seem to look like fins, but “Hobgoblin's Playground” sounds more appropriate. Akin to the nearby Valley of Fire, just 30 km from this place, this red rock setting was formed millions of years ago shaped by wind erosion and occasional heavy rains, a process known as Aeolian.
Space Hotel
Russian company Orbital Technologies is planning to open the world’s first space hotel in 2016.
- Innovative hotel will comfortably accommodate up to seven people.
Four private cabins will be equipped with toilets and sealed showers
Stunning Photos of Waves
These incredible pictures capture the stunning moment waves roll on to a tropical beach. Photographers Nick Selway, 28, and pal CJ Kale, 35, position themselves in the magnificent Hawaiian water – and then wait for the waves to crash into their heads. Their only equipment are standard cameras, but a waterproof case means they do not need to sacrifice their cameras for their art.
Nick Selway was born and was raised in Lake Stevens, WA on a lake along the North Cascade MT. Growing up surrounded by mother nature's beauty he always had an appreciation for it. He started photographing nature's beauty and light at the age of 19.
CJ Kale is no stranger to the area, raised in Hawaii on the Waianae coast. He spent his days in the surf and outdoors exploring the beauty of nature and learned early on that he had a love for the outdoors and a passion for photography.
Together with CJ Kale, Nick Selway runs a Fine Art Photography business in downtown Kona called "Lava Light Galleries" where he sells his Fine Art prints.
The most famous ghost photos
A strange legend surrounds the railway crossing in the south of San Antonio, Texas. It is said that there was an accident that killed several students, who were ghosts in the area and from time to time, they push the car standing on the move, although the road and goes up. Daughter of Andy and Debi Chesney with a few friends recently went on the move to check the legend. The girl took a few shots – one of them you can see the transparent figure.
Top 10 Firsts in the 2012 London Olympics
London may be a city of deep-rooted tradition, but it is also a place of empirical progress, and the 2012 London Olympics seek to present that dichotomy in its every underpinning. While the theme of the games are a tribute to England’s Industrial Revolution – where class distinctions have never been so distinct, divided by soot and grime – these games also mark efforts to be more thoughtful and inclusive than any previous era. So, in the name of breaking new ground, here are ten firsts for the 2012 London Olympics.
10
Third Time Hosting
First: City to Host a Third Time.
Having previously hosted in 1908 and 1948, London proved itself to be a gracious host, as it will soon come to host more times than has any other city. With everything it has in store this year, it will have no trouble winning over the Olympic Committee a fourth time.
Top 10 Unknowable Things
There are lots of things we don’t know; personally I’m a veritable cornucopia of ignorance. But there is a difference between things we don’t know and things that can’t be known. For example, no-one knows when Shakespeare was born (although we do know when he was baptized). However, it’s not impossible that in the future we could find out – a long lost document might be found that mentions his birth, so Shakespeare’s true date of birth is not unknowable, just unknown. This list contains 10 things that are unknowable in principle. Not only are they unknown now, they can never be known.
Most of these are mathematical; I’ve tried to make it as nontechnical as possible – apart from anything else, I’m no mathematician so I’ve tried to dumb it down enough so that I can understand it.
10
Sets and More Sets
Unknowable Thing: What’s in a set of sets that don’t contain themselves?
We have to do a little mathematics for several of these items! This is the first on the list because, in a sense, the concept of the “unknowable” starts with this paradox discovered by Bertrand Russell in 1901.
Let’s start with the idea of a set. A set is a collection of objects – for example, you could have the set of positive even numbers that contains 2, 4, 6, 8… or the set of prime numbers containing 2, 3, 5, 7, 11… so far so good.
Can sets contain other sets? Yes, no problem – you could have a set of sets that contain other sets – and that set would, obviously, contain itself. In fact, you can split sets into two types – those that contain themselves and those that don’t.
So, consider a set (S, say) of sets that don’t contain themselves. Does S contain itself? If it does, then it shouldn’t be in the set, but if it doesn’t, then it should. So S is continually hopping in and out of itself.
This paradox caused quite a lot of consternation amongst mathematicians. Imagine someone proving that a number could be simultaneously even and odd, it’s similarly worrisome to that. Ways have been gotten around the paradox – essentially by redefining set theory.
10 Fascinating Artisan Crafts
As has been discussed before in a previous list, an artisan craft is the practice of creating an item made to serve one or more practical functions and be influential as an artistic work. Though some of the entries on this list serve no practical purpose other than artistic merit and aesthetics, they are all the more welcome as they borrow from similar skill-sets to craft. The focus of this list is on the more intriguing and lesser-known artisan crafts but is also composed of suggestions in demand from the previous list. As such I have tried to include as much information on the crafts mentioned that I have deemed relevant and informative, and as a result, some of the list entries are longer than others. Feel free to suggest or mention your own craft in the comments!
10
Scrimshaw
Scrimshaw is the handiwork of carving and engraving the byproducts of marine mammals, most commonly the bones and teeth of sperm whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses. The practice originated on whaling ships around the 1750s on the Pacific Ocean, and was largely practiced until the ban on commercial whaling. The practice still survives as a hobby and as a trade for commercial artisans. A maker of scrimshaw is known as a scrims hander.
8 Deserts That Aren’t Really Deserts
Deserts take up nearly one-third of the Earth's land surface, yet only 41 countries in the world (one-fifth) are hosts to all the deserts on this planet. That leaves out quite a significant number of countries without one. I don’t know how it feels to live in a country without a desert, but it must certainly feel bad and inadequate because there are a large number of regions that don’t actually have these hot and arid geographic anomaly but are still quick to label any sandy or arid place a ‘desert’, and turn it into a tourist attraction.
Here are some of most notable pseudo-deserts around the world.
Desert of Maine
Portraits Made With a Single Unbroken Line
Reddit user who calls himself “renbo” shared some of his unique artwork on the social news site yesterday. The Redditor draws portraits that consist of single unbroken line that neither crosses over or ends. It’s just one long loop. It’s pretty amazing and reminds me of Kumi Yamashita’s work that I shared recently.
For renbo it’s a kind of meditation. “It puts my brain in a good place, completely random and I don’t know where I will go next”, says the artist.
What Is the Fear of Friday the 13th?
Question: What Is the Fear of Friday the 13th?
The fear of Friday the 13th is known as paraskavedekatriaphobia. According to About.com's Urban Legends guide, an estimated 8 percent of Americans may suffer from the fear of Friday the 13th. Some people refuse to start new projects, go out to eat or even go to work on that date.
The fear of Friday the 13th is related to the fear of the number 13. That fear appears to be rooted in pre-Christian religious traditions, when the Norse god Loki invited himself to the Banquet of Valhalla, becoming the 13th guest. His mischief caused the death of Baldr, a favorite of the gods. Early Christian traditions also highlight 13 as an unlucky number. Christ's betrayer, Judas, may have been the 13th to join the table at the Last Supper.
Friday itself is also considered an unlucky day. In many pre-Christian sects, Friday was the Sabbath. Those who spent the day involved in their own matters did not properly honor the gods. In return, they could not expect the gods to bless their projects. Early Christians noted the day as the "Witches Sabbath," differentiating their own day of worship from that of the pagans. The Bible is sprinkled with references to catastrophic events that occurred on Fridays, from the Great Flood to the crucifixion of Christ.
Since both Friday and the number 13 are considered unlucky, it holds that the conjunction of the two is particularly unlucky. Some claim that this connection was solidified when the Knights Templar were arrested on Friday, Oct. 13, 1307. Yet the fear of Friday the 13th seems to be a much newer phenomenon, dating only to the beginning of the 20th century. About.com's Urban Legends guide posits that the connection between Friday and the number 13 may have been solidified by a popular 1907 book provocatively titled Friday the Thirteenth. Though it actually dealt with stock market corruption, the novel may have generated long-lasting interest and fear in the juxtaposition of day and date.
Source:
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th Ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Animal Love Photography by Marina Cano
Animal Love Photography by Marina Cano. Marina is a landscape and wildlife photographer, based in Cantabria, in the North of Spain. She has strong commitment with the threatened wildlife and captured a series of amazing wildlife animal photography in Africa, in a hope people could find out true love in the wildlife.
