Jun 22, 2011

Johan's Ark

Twenty years ago, Dutch native Johan Huibers had a dream about devastating floods...so he did what any sensible person would do and set out to build a seaworthy ark. It’s 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high - half the size of the Titanic. After three years of work it is near completion and he is stocking it with faux animals. He is hoping to turn the vessel into a tourist attraction and to bring the ark down the Thames River for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Trash Can Games

This is a picture of a trash can in Lucerne, Switzerland. The city government wants to discourage littering by drawing attention to public trash cans. So it put down little games, including mazes and hopscotch, around the cans.

The Last Incan Handwoven Rope Bridge

Known as keshwa chaca, this is the only remaining example of the Incan handwoven bridges once common in the Incan road system. Made of woven grass, the bridge spans 118 feet and hangs 220 feet above the canyon’s rushing river.

The Incan women braided small, thin ropes, which were then braided again by the men into large support cables, much like a modern steel suspension bridge. Handwoven bridges lasted as long as 500 years and were held in very high regard by the Inca. The punishment for tampering with such a bridge was death.

Over time, however, the bridges decayed, or were removed, leaving this single testament to Incan engineering. This previously sagging bridge was repaired in 2003, christened with a traditional Incan ceremonial bridge blessing, and is now in extremely good condition.

7 Famous Movie Cars Redone As Pixar Characters

By the hand of Old Red Jalopy, we get to see what some classic movie characters -who happen to be cars- would look like if they were in the new Pixar film Cars 2.

The Batmobile

Bumblebee

The DeLorean

Ecto-1

The General Lee

Herbie

X-34 Landspeeder

A Public Library that Straddles the US-Canadian Border

The Haskell Free Library and Opera House is the public library of Derby Line, Vermont and Stanstead, Quebec. It sits right on the US-Canadian border. In fact, a black line across the floor marks the division. You enter the lovely turn-of-the-century building in Vermont, but you check out the books in Quebec. And, the librarian who assists you may be either a citizen of the United States or Canada, or both and, probably bilingual. The building and its facilities are governed by a seven-member board of trustees — four Americans and three Canadians — who serve without pay.