The 15 Most Terrifying Homemade Prison Weapons

Prison is a scary-ass place, there’s no doubt about it. Hundreds of potentially violent people locked into a limited space, all of whom really, really don’t want to be there. With such high pressure stakes, things easily take a turn for the violent, and in an environment with almost no weapons, any tool to hurt other people is a major advantage. These 15 weapons were all crudely constructed from prison materials, but all could do some serious damage to you. Proving once again, that humans will always find a way to fuck each other up.

15. Fake Machine Gun
Let’s say you want to stage an attempt to get the hell out of prison — after all, nobody wants to be stuck there for the rest of their life. There’s no way in hell you’re going to get your hands on a decent gun, but you need some sort of weapon to intimidate people. Enter the world of fake guns — crafted to look like the real thing, but obviously not, and with the side benefit of not carrying as large of a punishment if you end up being caught as the real thing either. This fake was made from a grease injector, wood, a rubber sleeve and tape, and the inmate was planning on using it to make an escape. From a distance in the dark? Yeah, I’d totally believe it looks like a gun.

The 10 Most Amazing Discoveries of Modern Astronomy

Astronomy has come a long way in the past 100 years, with revelations from Einstein, Bohr, Hubble and other great astronomers, physicists, and scientists.  While certainly some of the greatest discoveries in astronomy of all time include the discovery of the other planets of the solar system, the true relation of the Earth to the Sun, and the mathematical calculations for planetary orbits by Kepler and universal gravitation by Newton, more shocking discoveries have been made in modern astronomy than in times past, and shows us just how cool our universe actually is.

Dark Energy

As we’ll discuss later in this article, it has been discovered using the Hubble constant and measurements of supernovae of distant stars that the universe is not contracting, nor is it static (as Einstein thought), but instead, the universe is expanding, and the expansion is speeding up. To account for this, a hypothetical form of energy known as Dark Energy has been proposed and is being investigated by leading astrophysicists and cosmologists. Whether it is a scalar property of space time itself, as proposed through a cosmological constant, or something dynamic, known as quintessence, is a matter of large debate, but current astrophysics places a full 74% of the energy in the universe as being dark energy.

10 World Biggest Holes on Earth

It is believed that holes are wrath of god on this earth and are pathway to hell. Most people reading this would agree but here it is certainly not the case. Holes created in different parts of the world either due to human works like mining, as sum of these are diamond mine shafts that have been abandoned or due to wrath of god as we all know through meteor shower or something similar falling that made the dinosaurs extinct are today popular vacation spots as they are a visual extravaganza.

Whether it’s the Great Blue Hole of Belize, Mirny Diamond Mine of Siberia or the Burning Gates of Turkmenistan, all of these attract a hell lot of tourists and adventure seekers every year just to get a glimpse and experience the ultimate souvenir of nature. Check these cool pictures.

Mirny Diamond Mine of Siberia

The Most Amazing Earth-From-Space Photos You’ll Ever See

“An angry meeting of air and water on the Chilean coast.”Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield, currently on board the International Space Station, has been sharing some pretty remarkable photos on Twitter.

The Ten most Dangerous Airports to Land

We all love to travel and while most of our journeys are by air we tend to enjoy that. True enough, landing and take off in a jet plane is fun experience but if you have been to one of the following airports, I am sure you beg to differ. This lists brings for you the ten most dangerous airports to land in. The reasons include the length of the air strip, the location, the winds etc. Believe me, that heavy thud when the air plane touches the ground is nothing compared to what the pilot and the passengers go through while landing on one of the following air strips.

10. PRINCESS JULIANA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, ST. MAARTEN

This is perhaps one of the busiest airports in the Caribbean. United States Airline, KLM Royal Dutch and Corsairfly are usual users of the airport. The air strip is about 7,152 feet long and was built for smaller planes to land on but it still used by 747s and A340s. The air strip is located right next to the beach, so if you are sun-bathing and tall,  make sure to not stand up. It can be very dangerous with the strong gushes of wind. Also, you need to stay clear of the engine exhaust. It can blow you away, literally.

Ten Strange Forests of the World

I have always been very attracted by forests; all the greenery and the curiosity for the creatures that might dwell in them. Forests cover around 9.4% of the Earth’s surface. It’s fast shrinking of course because of all the deforestation. There were times when the forests covered around 50% of the surface so it’s a shame really. Most of the people around the world haven’t had the unique experience to be able to go inside a forest and see what it is like, I mean sure we have seen lengthy documentaries on television but that isn’t that same now is it. This article covers some of the strangest forests around the world.

10. NORTH SENTINEL ISLAND FOREST

This particular forest can be found in the Bay of Bengal. Almost the entire Island is covered with trees. The total area covered by the trees is around 72 square kilometers. The trees are very old. Interestingly, a tribe called Sentinelese lives here with around 50 to 400 individuals and considering the fact that the island is completely isolated, that is saying something. It will be an interesting experience to visit the forest/island, although reaching there might still be a problem.

Ten Fastest Animals on Land

Wildlife has always fascinated me. There are many diverse species and each and every single one of them is quite awesome in its own respective way. Another thing that gets my attention is speed and that’s how I arrived at this article. By the way, my favorite bird will have to be a falcon because of its superfast hunting speed. In the wild, agility is something the animals bank on, to survive. This article discusses the ten fastest animals on land. Of course, you must be familiar with some when it comes to speed, but there are still some on this list that I was unaware of until recent past. Nevertheless, it is an interesting read.

10. GRAY FOX

This cute little guy is usually found in Northern and Central America. It is known for his fast hunting speeds. The gray fox is not a very big animal weighing in on around 10 pounds and that’s one of the reasons that can achieve such speeds. If the gray fox feels the need to, it can run at around 42 miles per hour. Unlike most animals in the wild, this fox likes to hunt alone which I think is pretty brave on its party considering its small size.

Top 10 Coincidental Years in History

If there’s one thing students of history agree on, it’s that there’s a lot of it. Seriously, do you know how many years there have been? By our count, just over two thousand. Plus there are six billion people alive on the planet right now, and those are just the living ones. How many have died? Probably like twice that. And all of them do things, like, every day! Mind blowing, right? Our point is that there is a lot of stuff that’s happened in the world, and we’ve noticed that some years seem to have consistent pretty consistent themes. What does this mean? Global Conspiracy? Aliens? Meaningless coincidence? No one can say for sure, but it’s definitely that last one.

 10. 1439: The Year of Printing

Kareena Kapoor Photoshoot For Vogue Magazine 2013

Manhattan of the Desert Shibam — Yemen

The city of Shibam, located in the central-western area of Hadhramaut Governorate, in the Ramlat al-Sab`atayn desert, is best known for its towering mudbrick skyscrapers. This small town of 7000 is packed with around 500 mud houses standing between 5 and 11 stories tall and reaching 100 feet high, all constructed entirely of mud bricks. The bizarre skyline that the high rise buildings bestow upon the city has earned Shibam the moniker "Manhattan of the Desert."

Shibam is often called "the oldest skyscraper city in the world" and is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction. Its plan is trapezoidal, almost rectangular; and it is enclosed by earthen walls within which a block of dwellings, also built from earth, have been laid out on an orthogonal grid. Shibam was founded in the 3rd century AD, but most of the houses you see here dates only to the 16th century, following a devastating flood of which Shibam was the victim in 1532-33. However, some older houses and large buildings still remain from the first centuries of Islam, such as the Friday Mosque, built in 904, and the castle, built in 1220.

Photo credit

The Atlantic Ocean and The Caribbean Sea at Eleuthera

Eleuthera is one of several islands that lies within the archipelago in The Bahamas, about 80 km east of the capital city Nassau. It is long – about 180 km – and thin - only about 1.6 km wide in places. The light blue waters of the shallow Caribbean Sea on one side of the island stand out in stark contrast to the deep blue of the Atlantic Ocean thousands of feet in depth. One of the best places to see this extraordinary juxtaposition is at the Glass Window Bridge.

The Glass Window Bridge is about two miles east of Upper Bogue and joins Gregory Town and Lower Bogue at the narrowest point on the island. It is one of the few places on earth where you can compare the rich blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean on one side of the road and the calm turquoise-green waters of the Exuma Sound (Caribbean Sea) on the other side, separated by a strip of rock just 30 feet wide.

10 Lessons We Can Learn from the Nazis

Decades after it lost all relevance on the world stage, the Third Reich continues to fascinate us. Adolf Hitler remains a exhaustively studied and caricatured figure. Historians still pick over every detail of the Nazis’ greatest crimes. And while it might seem morbid, pointless, and just plain stuck-in-the-past, there are some useful lessons that can be learned from both their failures and their unfortunate successes.

1 - Don’t Condemn Individuals for the Groups They Join

It was very big and exciting news when it was revealed that Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) was a member of the Hitler Youth. It feeds prejudices against the Catholic Church and implies a scandalous secret. Until you realize that at the time, being a member of the Hitler Youth was essentially compulsory. He was not an active member of the group and did not even attend meetings. And rather than reaping the short term benefits of membership, he was first drafted into manual labor during the war before being drafted into the armed services in 1943, which he deserted in April 1945. It serves to illustrate that we shouldn’t judge individuals based on labels. 



10 amazing things you did not know about Dreams

There have been many studies that have been conducted on human dreams for the simple reason that having a dream is an amazing phenomenon. We all know that dreams are colorless and whatever we imagine in our dreams is just that, imagination. We are also familiar of the fact that the only faces we can see in our dreams are the faces that we have seen in real life! The most interesting thing is that all that we see in our dreams can have a huge impact on our lives. The base word from which this word was taken (dreme) actually refers to joy and music but there have been instances (several of them) where dreams have not been all joy and music! This list will take you into the finer details regarding dreams, things that you many not know about dreams!

10. BRAIN ACTIVITY WHEN YOU DREAM

Have you ever heard that a person died of fatal insomnia, a problem where the patient cannot sleep at all! Well that is due to the reason that the brain decides not to shut off at all, not even if coma is induced! The amazing thing that most of you might not have known before is that a lot of portions of the brain are actually active while we sleep. There are different stages of a human sleeps where different parts of the brain are involved specially the visual areas of the human cortex and the limbic system that is responsible for our emotions. The human cortex is, in some cases, more active during the sleep than it is while a human is awake!

10 Popular and Deadliest Suicide Points in the World

I would not like to linger on the point of explaining what suicides are and what makes people commit them because it is an immensely sad and depressing topic. So moving right along, I would like to add to your knowledge as to what are the most famous suicide points in the world. Yes you are right, I will point out the places in the world where people like to go to, which people actually prefer, when they get suicidal. If you have an impressionable mind I suggest you to not delve to long in this article.

10. AOKIGAHARA

This forest is present at the base of the famous Mount Fuji in Japan. Aokigahara is also lovingly known as the Sea of Trees. This place has been known to be home to quite a number of ghosts and a lot of paranormal activity has also been reported several times. It is quite the spooky place to be in and it has also been rumored that its caves remain icy cold. Even in the summers they are covered in icing. As far as the statistics are concerned, there have been a total number of 70 suicides reported in this haunted forest EVERY YEAR. It breaks my heart to know that so many people lose their lives mostly out of depression. And i am sure all those who die must be later on rumored to have been haunted and then taken away bu ghosts and other unknown beings. How terrifying is that.

The Fastest Plane on Earth

Since 1976, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird has held the world record for the fastest ‘air-breathing manned aircraft’ with a recorded speed of 1,905.81 knots (2,193.2 mph; 3,529.6 km/h). That works out to a staggering 36.55 miles/58.83 km per minute.The Blackbird was so fast that its strategy against surface-to-air missiles was to simply accelerate and outfly them. Below you will find an extensive gallery of this iconic aircraft along with information on the history, design and records the plane holds to this day.

World's first hand-woven car

Inside the White House

President Obama and first lady Michelle wear 3-D glasses while watching the Super Bowl with family, friends, staff members and members of Congress in the family theater of the White House, February 1, 2009 . 

America's 24 Best Adventure Towns

01. Los Angeles, California

Here are top 24 adventure towns of the United States according to National Geographic. These  adventure towns offer something for everyone, whether you love hiking, skiing, biking, kayaking, climbing, snowboarding, or a little bit of everything. Stay for a long weekend or the rest of your life, 

Bird Nest Hanging on a Telephone Pole

n the vast barren landscapes of the southern Kalahari, Sociable Weaver Birds assume ownership of the telephone poles that cut across their habitat.Their burgeoning nests are at once inertly statuesque and teeming with life. The twigs and grass collected to build these nests combine to give strangely recognisable personalities to the otherwise inanimate poles.

Artist turns guns into musical instruments

Mexican sculptor Pedro Reyes poses behind an instrument that mimics the sound of a basS guitar, made from seized guns, at his workshop in Mexico City, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2013. The guns that have caused so many deaths in northern Mexico are transformed into musical instruments by Reyes. “It's important to consider that many lives were taken with these weapons, as if a sort of exorcism was taking place,” says Reyes in a description of his project titled, "Disarm." The Mexican artist said he was able to choose his instruments from about 6,700 guns that were turned in or seized by the army and police in Ciudad Juarez, a city of about 1.3 million people that averaged about 10 killings a day at the height of the violence. 

Alan Friedman’s Photographs of the Sun from his Own Backyard

Alan Friedman is a fascinating guy. By day he’s a maker of greeting cards and a lover ofhats, but in his spare time he’s a self-proclaimed space cowboy who points a telescope skyward from his backyard in downtown Buffalo, directly into the light of the sun. Using special filters attached to his camera Friedman captures some of the most lovely details of the Sun’s roiling surface. The raw images are colorless and often blurry requiring numerous hours of coloring, adjusting and finessing to tease out the finest details, the results of which hardly resemble what I imagine the 10-million degree surface of Sun might look like. Instead Friedman’s photos appear almost calm and serene, perhaps an entire planet of fluffy clouds or cotton candy. From his artist statement:

My photographs comprise a solar diary, portraits of a moment in the life of our local star. Most are captured from my backyard in Buffalo, NY. Using a small telescope and narrow band filters I can capture details in high resolution and record movements in the solar atmosphere that change over hours and sometimes minutes. The raw material for my work is black and white and often blurry. As I prepare the pictures, color is applied and tonality is adjusted to better render the features. It is photojournalism of a sort. The portraits are real, not painted. Aesthetic decisions are made with respect for accuracy as well as for the power of the image.

Although the photos above are amazing, Friedman offers extremely high-resolution views of his work on his Tumblr and you can pick up some prints over on Photo-Eye. He also recently gave a TEDx Talk.

25 Best Tattoos

Brazilian Carnival 2013

Feathers, huge moving scenery, sequins, bright makeup, masks, colorful costumes and paraphernalia. Yes, in Brazil, the annual carnival, famous worldwide for its samba schools, and incredibly entertaining performances. Have a look of amazing colorful photos of the event.

Incredible Photos of Sharks and Dolphins Preying on Mackerel

British Wildlife photographer Christopher Swann swam in the midst of this frenetic battle of life and death to capture this images off the coast of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. Thousands of mackerel swam into a huge shimmering ball 30 feet in diameter to protect themselves from the predatory onslaught of dolphins and sharks. But as the shoal flees from deeper waters towards the surface, clusters of Cory's shearwaters begin to dive-bomb them from above. Left with no escape, the blue jack mackerel have little choice but to wait until the pod of short-beaked common dolphins have had their fill.

Christopher Swann has been involved in the professional diving arena as a diver, photographer and writer, for many years. He first came in contact with oilfield diving in 1965 when he made a film on the first commercial lock-out diving bell Purisima after coming to California from his native England to take a course at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara.

Since then he has worked for the French subsea company Comex, as a photographic technician in the North Sea oilfields and on the administrative staff of a small independent oil company in Indonesia. He was the head of the photographic department, and a crew member with the Johnson Sea Link I submersible, at the Harbor Branch Foundation in Florida. He has done archaeological work in the Mediterranean and dived on wharf inspection and maintenance contracts. In 1973, he was a subject in two 1,000ft chamber dives at the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina.

10 Beautiful Hot Springs of Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the USA, is one of the most geothermically active regions in the planet. Half of the world's all geothermal features are located here. The park spanning an area of nearly 9000 square km comprises of 10,000 geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles, thanks to its location in an ancient active caldera. Yellowstone itself is one massive super volcano that erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining, nearly intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone.Here is are some of the most beautiful hot springs within Yellowstone National Park.

Cistern Spring and Steamboat Geyser located in Norris Geyser Basin are linked underground. Normally, Cistern is a beautiful blue pool from which water continually overflows, but during a major eruption of Steamboat, the water in Cistern Spring's pool drains.

Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge, Japan

How do you build a bridge on a mountainside when the grade is so steep that a linear ramp isn’t possible? Build a loop, and if one is not enough, build two. This is what engineers did when the built the Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge, also known as the Japanese Double loop spiral, in Kawazu, Japan. This double spiral brings cars up and down a full 45 meters while being seemingly suspended in a valley between two mountainsides. The spirals measure 80m in diameter and the whole ramp section is 1.1km long.The bridge on Highway 414 between Tokyo and the Izu peninsular was finished in 1982 and has become a well known landmark since.

The Bizarre Sport of Goose Pulling

Goose pulling is an old sport originally played in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, England and North America from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The sport involves a goose that is hung by its legs from a pole or rope that is stretched across a road. A man riding on horseback at a full gallop would attempt to grab the bird by the neck in order to pull the head off. Whoever makes off with the head is declared winner and becomes the noble hero of the day. Goose pulling is still practiced today, in parts of Belgium and in Grevenbicht in the Netherlands as part of Shrove Tuesday and in some towns in Germany as part of the Shrove Monday celebrations.

During the old days a live goose was used. To make the sport challenging, the goose's neck was generously oiled to make it difficult to retain a grip on it, and the bird's constant fluttering and flailing made it difficult to target it in the first place. Sometimes "a nigger” with a long whip in hand was stationed near the target who would harass the horse as he passed by.

Up Helly Aa - The Viking Fire Festival

Every year, thousands of Scots gather for the Up Helly Aa fire festival in Lerwick on the Scottish Shetland Islands to pay homage to the country's Viking heritage. The day long celebration consist of costumed parties and culminates in a torchlight parade and the burning of a Viking long boat. There are also plenty of kilts, marches to brass band music, even a new beer found only at the event.

At least 5,000 spectators come to watch more than 1,000 torch carrying "Vikings", in silver plates and helmets, with heavy axes and shields, march the galley around the town. Some enact the roles of famous "Jarls" from the local saga, the Orkneyinga. At the climax, all the Vikings throw their flaming torches into the galley. The whole crowd sings Viking songs and the party continues long after the last flames have died away.

Scotland's Shetland Islands have a rich Viking heritage. During the Regency period and the years following the Napoleonic Wars, Lerwick was the home of many returning soldiers and sailors, most of whom were looking for a good party. It became a rowdy place, particularly during the week after Christmas, and by the 1840s, celebrations usually involved setting lots of things on fire. Initial ceremonies revolved around a single custom called "tar-barreling" -- knocking together tubs of tar and setting them on fire. When that became too dangerous, the annual ceremony was changed to a more elaborate procession of costumed Viking events.The first official Up-Helly-Aa celebration started in 1880 and it has been going on since then.

Frozen Moscow TV Tower

Tulip Fields in the Netherlands

The tulip has come to be a loved symbol of the Netherlands. Many tourists visit the country just to see the bright coloured flower and the astonishing view over the bulb fields. The season begins in March with crocuses, followed by the daffodil and the yellow narcissi. In April the hyacinths and tulips blosssom to some time in mid May, depending on the weather. Later, in August it is time for the gladioli. Even when spring is over, the Netherlands is still a garden, visitors can enjoy flowers in the Netherlands all year round.In the 20th century, the bulb flower business continued to boom, resulting in the establishment of auction and trading houses, large-scale cultivators and cooperatives. Today, The Netherlands exports bulbflowers in large quantities to over a hundred countries worldwide.

Snowstorm dumps on Northeast

Much of the US Northeast from New York to Maine spent the last few days digging out after blizzard conditions and record-setting snowfalls left hundreds of thousands temporarily without power in winter temperatures. The storm surge during high tides at the height of the storm caused beach erosion and flooded coastal towns with ice-filled waters and rocks washed in from the sea. 

Chinese Lunar New Year

The celebration of the Lunar New Year is a phenomenon as global as various diaspora allows. Perhaps most well-known in the West as a Chinese celebration, the lunisolar calendar is observed in many more places than just that nation. That said, the Chinese observation is unique in that the holiday transforms the nation into a river of humanity, with a 40-day travel season that sees hundreds of millions of people board trains for home. Gathered here are images of preparations and celebrations in many parts of the world.

Amsterdam, the City of Bicycles

Amsterdam is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, with an estimated 800,000 bikes within the capital. In contrast, the city has a population of only 750,000 – less than the number of bikes. According to an estimate made 5 years ago, 490,000 bicyclists take to streets everyday and together they log more than 2 million kilometers, each day.

Amsterdam is one of the most important centres of bicycle culture worldwide with special facilities for cyclists such as bike paths and bike racks, and several guarded bike storage garages (Fietsenstalling) which can be used for a nominal fee. Compared to other transportation in the city, bikes are cheap, fast and clean while also offering inherent health benefits. Bikes also take up relatively little space.

The Tree Houses of the Korowai Tribe of New Guinea

Deep within the inaccessible jungle of the southeast Indonesian province of Papua, about 150 kilometres inland from the Arafura Sea, lives the Korowai tribe – a clan totally isolated from the rest of the world. They are hunter-gatherers living in a small society of traditional family ties who need to share all they have in order to survive. Until their discovery by a Dutch missionary in 1974, the Korowai had hardly any contact with the outside world.

The Korowai people live in tree houses ranging in height from 6 to 12 meters, but some are as high as 35 meters above the ground. Usually the houses are built on a single tree but frequently the base of the house consists of several living trees, and additional support is derived from wooden poles. These tree houses protect families not only against swarms of mosquitoes below, but also ward off annoying neighbours and evil spirits.

The sky's Beauty

The Ocean waves

Palawan Island Philippines

Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival 2013

The opening ceremonies for this year's Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China were held earlier this week. The event, held since 1963, can last more than a month, depending on the weather, and attracts visitors from around the world who come to see the elaborate ice and snow sculptures.

Dakar Rally 2013

This year, racers in the Dakar Rally are more than halfway through their 8,000-mile journey. They travel via motorcycle, quad bike, car, or truck over extreme terrain in three countries in South America. Competitors and support crews come from more than 50 countries to challenge their mechanical, driving, and orienteering skills. The race kicked off in Lima on Jan. 5 and will wrap up this Sunday with the podium celebrations in Santiago, Chile. 

Maha Kumbh Mela - World's Biggest Mela

Held only once every twelve years, the cleansing ritual of the Maha Kumbh Mela sees up to a hundred million Hindu devotees symbolically bathe away their sins in the holy Ganges River. It is thought to be the largest gathering of humanity on earth. For 55 days devotees wade into the river to bathe, and join other religious observations on the banks of the Triveni Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. Various sadhu and sadhvi (holy men and women) abound. The Maha Kumbh Mela began this year on January 14, with preparations starting weeks earlier.

World’s Longest Tree Top Walk in Bavaria

Opened two years ago in Neuschonau, Bavaria, in Germany, the tree-top walk is the longest of it’s kind at 1300 meters that takes you to an impressive height of 25 meters above the tree tops. The walkway ends at an oval shaped dome, 44 meters high. The 360-degree spiral staircase around the dome offers breathtaking views of the surrounding nature. In clear weather you can even see the north ridge of the Alps. The tree-top walk is a part of the largest protected forest area in central Europe – Bavarian Forest National Park, which is also the first national park in Germany.

The tree-top walk, Baumwipfelpfad in German, begins with a short elevator ride or stair climb to the ticket booth, a mere 8 meter above the parking lot. As hikers begin the leisurely walk down a 1300-meter long wood path, the ground begins to gently fall away -- or so it appears -- as the path inclines almost imperceptibly, making it easily accessible for parents with strollers. It is obvious the creators of the Baumwipfelpfadwanted to make visitors feel a part of the natural environment. The path advances freely through the forest, leaving the mature pines forever undisturbed.

Several adventure stations are placed along the walkway including a narrow wooden plank enticing hardy trekkers to balance on the beam. These obstacles are fully-enclosed with a safety net and offers a rewarding view of the earth 50 feet below. The observation dome is shaped like a giant egg. Once at the top, a spectacular view awaits the visitors.

The Skeleton Lake of Roopkund, India

Roopkund is a glacial lake located at an altitude of about 5,029 metres in Uttarakhand, a state in India. When the ice melts, hundreds of human skeletons are seen below the surface or floating in the waters.

The lake was first discovered in 1942 by a game reserve ranger, although there are reports about these bones from late 19th century. Initially it was speculated that the remains were those of Japanese soldiers who had sneaked into the area, and then perished to the ravages of the inhospitable terrain. This being the time of World War II, the British immediately sent a team of investigators to determine if they had stumbled upon some secret enemy move. However, upon investigation it was discovered that the corpses couldn’t belong to Japanese soldiers, as they weren’t fresh.

Excalibur The World's Tallest Climbing Wall

Towering over 121 feet (37 meters) in the air, the Excalibur at the Klimcentrum Bjoeks (Bjoeks Climb Center) in the town of Groningen, The Netherlands, is considered to be the tallest climbing wall in the world. What makes climbing the Excalibur a challenge, aside from the monumental height, is a sleek curve 36 feet (11 meters) out from the base that creates an artificial overhang as one encounters when climbing a real peak. Because of the curve it is possible to climb the tower in many different ways, each posing a different challenge.

At Bjoeks Climb Center, there is an array of indoor climbing walls, including one designed for first-timers and another that’s at a 45 degree angle. There’s also a large indoor-outdoor bordering area with 117 boulders to scamper over.The Bjoeks Climb Center was started in 1996 by Gert van deer Veen and his friend and climbing partner, Alco Pols.

Ancient Ice Houses of Iran

Before the invention of the refrigerator, which is a relatively modern invention, ice was a precious commodity that couldn’t be easily obtained or made, especially during the summer. To preserve meat and other food items huge blocks of ice had to imported all the way from Scandinavian countries in the Arctic circle or from mountain tops carefully insulated with straw. In the US, the UK and other countries in Europe, ice was brought in from Norway. The Russians collected ice along the Neva River while the Indians got their share from the Himalayas. The ice were stored in specially made buildings called ice houses and they lasted throughout the year.

The most common designs involved underground chambers, usually man-made, which were built close to natural sources of winter ice such as freshwater lakes. During the winter, ice and snow would be taken into the ice house and packed with insulation, such as straw or sawdust. It would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during summer months. This could be used simply to cool drinks, or allow ice-cream and sorbet desserts to be prepared.