Cool Things In Random Places

Surf at Your own Risk 

Far from the beaches of Hawaii, big wave surfers McNamara and Mamala were the first surfers to ride an Alaskan Glacier Tsunami. Waves sheer ice faces of over 400 feet calved away from Child’s Glacier, crashing into the waters below and setting off left- and right-breaking waves that peel across a pebble-bottom river bank for more than 300 yards, offering rides of up to one minute long. Surfers wait up to several hours in icy water for a glacier to calve. When it splits off, it produces a deafining eruption of water, with chunks of ice exploding into the air, producing a 20-25 foot wave. The surfers then chase down the wave on their jet ski and attempt to ride with out being injured or killed by ice and rock debris. The forecast for surfing these bizarre waves looks good for awhile, with global warming contributing to a massive increase in glacial calving. Child’s Glacier is located on the Copper River, in South-Central Alaska, located near the town of Cordova, Alaska.  continue reading…

On Sept. 10th 1945, a chicken in Fruita, Colorado, intended for dinner was beheaded. Not so bizarre, except this bird lived for 18 months, and ran around “like a chicken with his head cut off”. Forever known in memoriam as” Mike The Headless Wonder Chicken“. A festival now marks his bizarre existence. Featuring an inspiring 5k, aptly titled, The Run Like a Headless Chicken Race. Register to run the 5k here. continue reading…

Jump Those Babies!Since 1620 Castrillo de Murcia has celebrated Corpus Christi with a bizarre event that sees grown men dressed as the Devil leaping over helpless babies, an act that is known as El Colacho.The Catholic festival of Corpus Christi is celebrated all over Spain with processions, mystery plays and a wide variety of popular celebrations, but this one has to be the strangest. It is believed that as the incarnate devils jump they take all their evil with them and the children are cleansed.  continue reading…

111 degrees outside, 21degrees inside.

The $3 million Chillout ice lounge in Dubai, where nearly everything is sculpted out of ice. 

Chillout is the Middle East’s first ice lounge and the latest venture in this desert Gulf emirate that has been transformed by a mania for the biggest, first or most outlandish.Gulf men in traditional white robes with wives covered in black cloaks, teenagers eager to experience their first cold blast and Westerners who miss the chill are flocking to the bar-restaurant to hang out in what amounts to a freezer.

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Natives target the photographers  flying overhead, with their bows and arrows. Acre State, Brazil- Images from Survival International Indian’s of the Envira, who have never before had any contact with the outside world, photographed during an overflight in May 2008, as they react to the over flight at their camp in the Terra Indigena Kampa e Isolados do Envira, Acre state, Brazil, close to the border with Peru.

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Rice field art in the country of the rising sun. Each year these guys make new images on their field by planting rice in different patterns making various images. They use different sorts of rice for color. The result is amazing as you can see. It’s a pity they only last as long as it’s time to harvest the rice.-

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  Abandoned  Russian artifacts and installations from bizarre military/scientific research, strangely futuristic forms left to rust and decay – to be found by a curious photographer.     “Master” stumbled upon this installation close to Russian city of Istra (50 km from Moscow) quite by chance, and these mysterious shots were percolating for a while around the web, until the answer was found. According to this little, cryptic, and quite secretive website, the weird alien-like towers are the Experimental Grounds for High-Voltage Generation, the only open-air kind in the world. Amazingly, it’s still in use… as the powerful lightnings rip through the night and the darkened forest – much like in “The Prestige” movie.  continue reading…

Live strange, die strange, and leave a strange gravestone. We have explanations for some of these weird stones, but for others we do not. Educated guesses and pure speculation as to their origin are welcome.

The Clothespin Grave, Middlesex, VT 

Created for the owner of a local clothespin factory. 

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  Be careful when digging holes in Russia! At a Construction site in Chelyabinsk city, a 5 foot long ’something out of this world’ was caught. While digging a foundation ditch at a construction site, workers discovered an underground river. Later, they noticed some movement in the water. They threw in some of their lunch, and it stirred even more. They eventually caught this creature and pulled it out of its home. They said it was aggressive and tried to bite them, so in a big panic they killed it. You be the judge fact or fiction… Does anyone know what this is?    

It’s where the ‘four-knights opening’ could inspire a rap song.

The Hip-Hop Chess Federation holds tournaments that combine chess, poetry, and martial arts. Founded by a lecturer and a visual artist, its last tournament in October was frequented by multiple founders of the Wu-Tang Clan, members of Hieroglyphics and Living Legends Crew, and black-belt Ralek Gracie. Chess master and child prodigy Josh Waitzkin didn’t play – it wouldn’t be fair – but instead, he spoke on a panel.

Many rappers have a tendancy to use chess metaphors in their songs. Rap star GZA once opined, in ‘Queen`s Gambit’: You know, war, capturing, thinking, strategy; Planning, music, it’s hip-hop, and sports; It’s life, it’s reality.` That song was only one of the songs on his 2005 album. It was titled, ‘Grandmasters.’

This federation was founded, first and foremost, to help educate young people. Chess, martial arts, and poetry all involve strategy, deep thinking, patience, focus – all the things that are so underemphasized in popular culture. Their chess tournaments are often mixed, for example, with symposiums on non-violence.