Cool Things In Random Places

Every October in Town of Windsor, Nova Scotia, Lake Pesaquid becomes a spectacle with giant decorated pumpkins sailing across its waters. Along with other Pumpkin related contests the Pumpkin Regatta has become a huge hit in the community. Individuals go to great lengths to carve and decorate their vessels.

 

 

 

“In the first year of the event, 1999, The Pumpkin Regatta, with an operating budget of $50.00, attracted about 2,000 skeptical spectators who turned out to watch five brave – and no doubt equally skeptical – participants attempt to manoeuvre their hollowed-out giant pumpkins across Lake Pesaquid.

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The sport of shin kicking has been around since the 17th Century. First established by Robert Dover in 1612. Shin kicking unfortunately died out in the early 1900’s, although I can’t imagine why? It was reborn in 1951 at Chipping Camden, England. Although the games are not quite as brutal as the earlier versions, I’m sure players are secretly rejoicing that they now prohibit iron capped boots. Players use to prepare for the games by smashing hammers into their shins.

“According to the rule book, only in mid-kick can a player attempt to bring his opposition to the ground, with a ‘stickler’ on hand to make sure a shin is hit before a fall can be scored. Each round features a best of three battle before winners go on to fight other winners – until only two remain.”

The games are held every year on May 31st in Chipping Camden.

 

 Even though the games have safer guidelines, the video outlines a barbaric ritual that appears to have many spectators. Congratulations to this years Barbarian, Steve ‘The Bull Dog’ Williams the British Shin Kicking Champion of 2008.

source via Sogloss

   
Roden Crater is a natural cinder volcano situated on the southwestern edge of the Painted Desert in northern Arizona. Since 1972, with grants from Dia Art Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, James Turrell is turning this natural geographic formation into a monumental environmental artwork. He has designed a series of chambers and observation platforms in the crater, in line with the sun, moon, stars, and planets, inspired by ancient sites like Stonehenge and Egyptian temples.



The Roden Crater remains Turells most ambitious project yet.

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The Kayabukiya tavern, north of Tokyo in Japan, has two interesting employees. The two Japanese Macaque monkeys working for tips are on two hour a day shifts. The new waiters serve customers hot towels and drinks, and are given generous tips in the form of soya beans. The two uniformed monkeys are family pets of the owners that have been allowed to help in the bar. Many patrons insist that the new servers are actually better than their human competition. The tavern is a traditional sake house owned an operated by Kaoru Otsuka. The tavern has been monitored by animal rights regulators to insure that they are cared for properly.  Mr.Otsuka is beginning to train new staff to handle the flood of curious customers. Three baby monkeys are already learning the trade and will soon be ready to join the ranks.

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An abandoned holiday resort in San Zhi, a small town on the north coast of Taiwan, consisting of bizarre podular buildings.

 

The site was commissioned by the Taiwanese government and several local firms. It was an attempt at a luxurious vacation resort for those travelling from Taipei. It was even going to include an amusement park. The project was abandoned with out ever being completed. The architect is unnamed.

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A spa in the northern communal village of Talmey El’Azar Israel offers snake massage treatments using Milk snakes, Corn snakes, Florida and California King snakes. Ada Barak applies the treatments to those that are unnerved by the reptiles, with the belief that once customers get over the fear of the creatures, they find the contact to be soothing.

Time Magazine reporter Tim Mcgirk was brave enough to experience this trend.


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“Rather than a conventional opening bridge mechanism, consisting of a single rigid element that lifts to let boats pass, the Rolling Bridge gets out of the way by curling up until its two ends touch. While in its horizontal position, the bridge is a normal, inconspicuous steel and timber footbridge; fully open, it forms a circle on one bank of the water that bears little resemblance to its former self.

Twelve metres long, the bridge is made in eight steel and timber sections, and is made to curl by hydraulic rams set into the handrail between each section.

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Located in West Beiruit, a hot new restaurant, “Buns and Guns”, is causing a skirmish. Declared the “Home of the ‘AK-47 Kalashnikov’” which is actually a beef steak on terrorist bread. Also try a delicious “Rocket propelled Grenade”- Chicken on a skewer. “They accuse us of terrorism, so let’s serve terrorist bread, why not?” Mr Ibrahim told Hezbollah’s al-Manar TV. Other dishes include the Kalashnikov, Dragunov, Viper, B52, while realistic-looking weapons and ammunition decorate the counters, and camouflage netting hangs from the ceiling.

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Geneva, 10 September 2008. “The first beam in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN¹ was successfully steered around the full 27 kilometres of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator at 10h28 this morning.”

 

 

 The world’s largest atom smasher’s first experiment will pave the way toward the recreation of post-big bang conditions. By creating hundreds of thousands of head-on collisions each second, physicists hope to understand the fiery conditions of the universe a trillionth of a second after the big bang.

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Built Mr. K. P. Singh this extraordinary tree house in Udaipur, India is very unique.

“The house is supported by a mango tree, and was conceived by Mr. Singh on a bet that he could maintain property value of a certain terrain without the need for chopping its fruit trees.” 

Branches of the tree have been preserved, creating an bizarre living space.

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