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.  (more…)

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.  (more…)

  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.  (more…)

There is a house in South Korea shaped like a toilet.

It is the work of no mere waste-obsessed eccentric. This house was built by none other than Sim Jae-duck, the chairman of the organizing committee of the Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association. Jae-Duck’s organization exists to draw attention to one thing: the criminal lack of sanitary toilets the world over.

For almost half of the world’s population, toilets don’t exist. Without the miracle of indoor plumbing, diseases like cholera can run rampant. In Africa, a movement to ban plastic bags has a sanitary basis: no latrines in sight, residents of Nairobi’s slums would defecate in the bags and throw them out the door.

Back in South Korea, this house has a name: Haewoojae, or “a place of sanctuary where one can solve one’s worries.” The house contains two bedrooms, a few guestrooms, and four deluxe toilets outfitted with elegant fitting and top-of-the-line water conservation. Its center houses a toilet showroom.

They may be the most stylish carpenters in the world.

They are Journeymen - Gesellen. Since the 13th century, these young German tradesmen have gone ‘auf der Walz,‘ or taken to the road with little more than a walking stick and their tools. Then, as now, they always were their trademark, tailored Kluft: bellbottom pants, double-breasted vests with gigantic buttons, and a black slouch hat. In modern times, fedoras are very popular.

They wander the earth, for at least three years, doing their job. Stonemasons ogle the technique of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and carpenters survey the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. They take odd jobs, and are often put up and supported by strangers, cafe owners and farmers who are inevitably impressed with their skills. They’re almost always the most interesting people at parties.

There are rules. No Journeyman can come home: not within fifty kilometers of their hometown. No cell phones. Always wear the Kluft - of which they have a second, less expensive pair, for work. And it may or may not be a rule to look fantastically snazzy at all times.

In the whole world, there are only hundreds left: estimates range from 250 to 600. And yet, if you ask, many of them have tales of running into each other - from Morocco to New Zealand.

The miracle berry will unnerve you.

It will make lemons taste like lemonade, and goat cheese take like the sweetest candy. In the underground eating circuit, people throw ‘miracle fruit’ parties where they lay out a whole smorgasboard of bitter and unappetizing snacks. But after they take a swig of Synsepalum dulcificum, they go to town like its the most delicious food they’ve ever tasted.

This berry - and its rogue glycoprotein named, seriously, miraculin - temporarily robs you of your ability to taste sour and bitter flavors. It became a fixture in West Africa, where locals would use it to down otherwise unpalatable meals. But in a world of sweetness-hating dieting fads, a global following wasn’t long in coming.

It’s become a bit of a hit in Japan. And yet, the miracle berry is still not readily available in the United States - classified as a food additive by the FDA in 1974, it has not yet been approved for wide distribution. Most first-timers will be forced to track down an on-line distributor - or, alternatively, befriending a friendly circle of ‘foodies’ who like to throw sweet, sweet parties.

Right hook to left jaw. Checkmate.

Proponents describe chessboxing as the ultimate fusion sport for the body and the mind. For up to eleven rounds, a chessboxing match alternates between three-minute rounds of uppercuts and jabs, and four-minute rounds of studious, deliberate protection of your king.

Chessboxing is not a game for amateurs. Participants are required to have boxed in at least twenty matches, be less than thirty-five years old, and an ELO rating (used for measuring chess skill) of no less than 1800. If not sparring, training often involves running laps or hitting a sandbag, and then sitting down for blitz rounds of pawns, bishops and knights.

The world capitol of the chessboxing world sits firmly in Berlin: the 2007 Light-Heavyweight World Champion was none other than German Frank ‘Anti-Terror’ Stoldt. The Chess Boxing Club Berlin has been active since 2005, and since 2006 there have opened two schools who offer chessboxing programs to children. But moves are being made to expand into Russia and the Ukraine, where there apparently reside legions of experienced chessboxers.

Dolphins play frisbee with bubble rings.

This suggests that they understand both play, and fluid dynamics. After first creating invisible vortices in the water with their tailfins, these dolphins - particularly children - then infuse the vortices with air from of their blowhole. The result are called air-core vortex rings, and can be up to two feet in diameter.

The invisible dance of physics keeps the ring from going anywhere, at least for about ten seconds. But that is long enough for some playful porpoises to nudge the ring along wherever they like, and admire their handiwork. When they’re finished with their liquid toy, they bite it, and it breaks into thousands of tiny bubbles that, far more predictably, float to the surface.

They can also create helices up to twenty feet long. The same rules apply.

Ring-blowing stops entirely when children are outnumbered by adults. Which suggests the worrisome possibility that all species eventually grow up to be killjoys.

This is quite a comprehensive list and should I say covers best of Green hotels from across the world. Travel + Leisure’s November issue which is yet to hit the stands is devoted to ‘responsible tourism.’ In conjunction with Conservation International it has chosen 15 Green hotels after assessing parameters like environmental standards for water and energy conservation, supporting local communities, waste reduction etc.

Lets take a look at the list:

1. Spice Island Beach Resort (Grenada)

   
   
   2. Soneva Fushi Resort & Six Senses Spa (The Maldives)

3. Heritance Kandalama (Sri Lanka)

4. Voyages Longitude 131 (Australia)

5. Tiamo (Bahamas)

6. Whitepod (Switzerland)

7. Devil’s Thumb Ranch in Tabernash (Colorado)

8. El Nido Resorts in El Nido (The Philippines)

9. Chumbe Island Coral Park (Zanzibar, Tanzania)

10. Adrere Amellal in the Siwa Oasis (Egypt)

11. Campi Ya Kanzi a Masai-owned lodge in Chyulu Hills (Kenya)

12. Morgan’s Rock Hacienda & Ecolodge on Playa Ocotal, San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific Coast (Nicaragua)

13. Hotel Mocking Bird Hill near Port Antonio (Jamaica)

14. Tenuta di Spannocchia (Siena, Italy)

15. Strattons Hotel (Swaffham, England)

Surprisingly, Sadie Cove Wilderness Lodge (Alaska), the hotel which bagged number one slot in ‘10 of America’s Greenest Hotels’ list compiled by Forbes Traveler last year, did not get a mention here. Or, should I say, more surprisingly, not a single hotel from the US of A has been listed. One each from Australia, Switzerland, Italy and England are mentioned.