Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Minas Tirith Made from Matchsticks
If you are a fan of the Lord of the Rings then the name Minas Tirith will be well known to you. If not, we won't ask where you have been for the last ten years but we would scratch our heads and look at you oddly. These shots taken recently at the Iowa State Fair show Minas Tirith made from matchsticks, something which would no doubt reduced any LOTR who saw it to an orgasmic mess on the floor.
The labor of love is the work of Patrick Acton, an artist from Iowa who you may recall from his fairly numerous TV appearances when he faithfully reproduced Harry Potter's Hogwarts in a similar manner. Now he has turned his attention to Minas Tirith - and what a beauty it is.
Mr Acton is not a full time artist - most of his waking hours are devoted to his job as a Careers Counsellor. However, when he gets home after work he spends a few hours each night in his workshop constructing his latest masterpiece.
He started his hobby in 1977 when he recreated a local church. It was a case of light the touch paper and retire as he hasn't really looked since. From his first model which was made from 500 matches - a tiny figure compared to the many thousands it takes to recreate something like Minas Tirith
He uses non sulphur tip matches (a specialist hobby requires specialist materials) and has his one unique way of manipulating the matchsticks in to shape, through a process of crimping and bending done with pliers.
After the matchsticks are in place and the glue has set a light sand gives the finished effect. Altogether the attention to detail here is mind boggling. Fantastic!
Source :- Kuriositas
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Qatayef
Qatayef (قطايف) is an Arab dessert commonly reserved for the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, a sort of sweet crepe filled with cheese or nuts. Palestinians make biggest "Qatayef" dessert to set world record
Palestinian sweets-makers prepare the biggest piece of eastern dessert "Qatayef" during an event organized by the tourism ministry to make a new world record, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The Qatayef piece is weigh about 104 kilograms and its diameter is three meters.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Kori no Suizokukan - The Frozen Aquarium
The "Kori no Suizokukan" (Ice Aquarium) in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, displays around 450 specimens of fish from over 80 different species, flash frozen in a life-like state after being unloaded from fishing vessels at a nearby port.
The Aquarium (more like a museum or a supermarket's frozen seafood
section, actually) contains about 50 clear ice columns from which octopuses, crabs, salmon, saury and other local sea creatures gaze out sightlessly upon humans hoping to beat the heat of Japan's notoriously hot & humid summer.
The ice columns are exposed to the open air inside the Aquarium so a powerful refrigeration system is constantly working to keep the ambient temperature at A bone-chilling minus 20 degrees Celsius (-5F). On hot days, the temperature differential between the Aquarium's interior and the outside air can exceed 50 degrees Celsius (58F). Visitors are able to don protective clothing to help them stay warm while browsing the eerily motionless displays, which are illuminated with icy pale blue lighting to enhance the "frozen world" effect.
The Kori no Suizokukan is made possible by the existence of sophisticated ice-making technology used to flash-freeze freshly caught seafood unloaded in nearby Kesennuma's seaport. The chill atmosphere also makes it possible to preserve and display a hunk of ice brought back from Antarctica by the Japanese Antarctic observation ship "Shirase". Look but don't touch - especially with the tip of your tongue!
Oh by the way... visitors who've worked up an appetite browsing the Aquarium's displays will be pleased to know that there's an excellent Maguro (tuna) Sashimi restaurant just next door. Nice, nice, baby!
Source :- CNET Via Inventor Spot
Red River phenomenon in the Rockies
A lucky photographer captured the image of a lifetime - shooting the incredibly rare moment a waterfall turned tomato soup red.
Rochelle Coffey was stunned when she saw the normally crystal-clear water turn deep red over the course of two hours.
The mother-of-two had been visiting the impressive Cameron Falls, in Alberta, Canada, with her husband and had taken photos of the normally clear water for six years.
Red river: The naturally-occurring phenomenon was captured by Rochelle Coffey at Cameron Falls, in Alberta, Canada. The red colouring of the water was a result of heavy rainfall washing sediment into the river
Quite a sight: The river turned a colour similar to that of tomato soup after heavy rainfall
However, on her last trip she could not believe her luck as she saw the water change colour and witnessed a naturally-occurring phenomenon.
Rochelle and her husband had driven to Cameron Creek, which runs into the falls, following a heavy storm and were shocked to see it was a deep shade of red.
They hurried to the waterfall but the water had not reached it yet.
After waiting for two hours the couple were rewarded with the extraordinary sight of the red water gushing over the rocks, something never seen to that extent by locals before.
The phenomenom was caused by the high levels of rain washing a red coloured sediment called argolite from the rocks and into the water.
Special: The red water plummets down the impressive Cameron Falls
Waterton Lakes, where the falls are located, has some of the oldest sedimentary rock in the Canadian Rockies, with stone dated from 1,500 million years ago.
Rochelle said: 'Earlier in the day there was a very heavy rain fall, which isn't uncommon, but the conditions must have been just right to bring down that much sediment.
'We decided to go for a drive and see just how much damage the storm had caused.
'We make that drive hundreds of times a year and we had always seen this crystal clear water.
'But this particular evening, I was shocked to see the creek tomato soup red.
'At this time, the falls were still clear. It took a couple hours for the sediment to reach the falls, and when the falls did finally turn red, it was a lot slower a process than we had anticipated.
'Another photographer waited beside us, but had to leave before the water turned colour. He missed the shot of a lifetime.
'The ironic thing is, I don't shoot a lot of scenery, and this truly was being in the right place at the right time.'
Rochelle Coffey was stunned when she saw the normally crystal-clear water turn deep red over the course of two hours.
The mother-of-two had been visiting the impressive Cameron Falls, in Alberta, Canada, with her husband and had taken photos of the normally clear water for six years.
Red river: The naturally-occurring phenomenon was captured by Rochelle Coffey at Cameron Falls, in Alberta, Canada. The red colouring of the water was a result of heavy rainfall washing sediment into the river
Quite a sight: The river turned a colour similar to that of tomato soup after heavy rainfall
However, on her last trip she could not believe her luck as she saw the water change colour and witnessed a naturally-occurring phenomenon.
Rochelle and her husband had driven to Cameron Creek, which runs into the falls, following a heavy storm and were shocked to see it was a deep shade of red.
They hurried to the waterfall but the water had not reached it yet.
After waiting for two hours the couple were rewarded with the extraordinary sight of the red water gushing over the rocks, something never seen to that extent by locals before.
The phenomenom was caused by the high levels of rain washing a red coloured sediment called argolite from the rocks and into the water.
Special: The red water plummets down the impressive Cameron Falls
Waterton Lakes, where the falls are located, has some of the oldest sedimentary rock in the Canadian Rockies, with stone dated from 1,500 million years ago.
Rochelle said: 'Earlier in the day there was a very heavy rain fall, which isn't uncommon, but the conditions must have been just right to bring down that much sediment.
'We decided to go for a drive and see just how much damage the storm had caused.
'We make that drive hundreds of times a year and we had always seen this crystal clear water.
'But this particular evening, I was shocked to see the creek tomato soup red.
'At this time, the falls were still clear. It took a couple hours for the sediment to reach the falls, and when the falls did finally turn red, it was a lot slower a process than we had anticipated.
'Another photographer waited beside us, but had to leave before the water turned colour. He missed the shot of a lifetime.
'The ironic thing is, I don't shoot a lot of scenery, and this truly was being in the right place at the right time.'
22-meter long Riverside Scene At Qingming
Farmers display their brede creation of ancient Chinese great artwork "Riverside Scene At Qingming Festival" in Luxi County, east China's Jiangxi. Seven farmers spent a year to complete this brede work which is 22 meters in length and 0.8 meter in breadth.
Source :- cam111
Anglerfish - Four Legged Fish
Anglerfish - 'Four-legged' fish goes for a walk along ocean floor in stunning photos taken on deep sea dive Perhaps he had just got tired of swimming.
For this odd-looking fish looks like he's just decided to head out for an evening stroll along the ocean floor.
But while it looks like he has sprouted legs, this angler fish's limbs are just the fins he uses to balance himself on the sea bed.
The fish rests on the ocean floor as he prepares to make a dart for any passing prey he has lured towards him using the protrusion above his mouth.
Faye Archell, or the Centre of Applied Zoologym said: 'Many species of Angler Fish are what are known as ambush predators. Their fins have adapted as limb like structures to allow them to remain stationary on the sea bed while causing minimal disturbance to the substrate and remaining totally camouflaged.
'They then use a protrusion on their heads, just above their mouths, that they use as a lure to catch their prey'.
Most of these species live in the great depths of the oceans, but some are found in shallower, tropical environments
The stunning picture was taken by scientists using cutting-edge technology to explore waters off Indonesia.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
25 Funniest Celebrity Tweets Of All Time
These days, Twitter has become all the rage and many celebrities are taking full advantage of the service to say things that they wouldn’t say in public. A case in point is the numerous celebrity tweets in this post that are sometimes naughty but still very funny.
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