With a population of 51,803 people, Coron Island, located in the north of the Palawan Province, Philippines, is considered one of the world’s most beautiful islands.
With endless shades of tropical blue, beautiful white beaches, lagoons, and stunning ecological features, including shallow-water coral reefs and freshwater lakes, Coron Island does look like paradise.
On a historical note, Japan used the island as a refueling base during World War II. So there’s known to be some shipwreck-diving tours around as well.
Behold this rare video of a great horned owl “swimming” (read: trying to fly) through a canyon in Lake Powell. The great horned owl is a type of force eagle-owl native to the Americas.
The young swimming owl – identifiable by the spot of nestling feathers — accidentally fell from its nest on the cliff edges during a snooze. Luckily, the owl treaded enough water to make it to shore. Surely it won’t be as careless as a grownup.
Known as the “tiger of the sky,” great horned owls excel at hunting using their keen eyesight and powerful talons. The owl can exert 28 pounds of force to split the spine of large prey. Imagine being wrapped in such an intense grip.
Zhongshuge Bookstore is a popular book chain in China. Each of its stores leverages mirrors in its architectural design to give off a kaleidoscope effect on the interior.
However, one of its stores in the city of Chongqing features a magical and elaborate bookcase. The location features a ceiling mirror that creates an optical illusion of intertwined staircases, a magnified room, and an infinity of books.
Designed by architecture firm X+Living — Zhongshuge bookstores are mind-boggling for readers and viewers alike. Can you imagine if JK Rowling wrote her next book in one of these inception-like wonders?
They are renowned for their extraordinary abilities, diving to depths of over 70 m with nothing more than a set of weights and a pair of wooden goggles (Schagatay, 2014) and spending 60% of their daily working time underwater (Schagatay et al., 2011).
They’ve evolved to harbor extreme breath-holding capabilities with up to 13 minutes underwater. Even without weights, the Bajau can stay negatively buoyant enough to walk across the sea bottom as one does on terra firma.
Africa is a massive continent. But for whatever reason, map makers make it appear smaller than its “true true” size. As Polish-American scientist Alfred Korzybski reminds us, “the map is not the territory.” Lines are ultimately arbitrary.
Map design is deceptive. But computer-graphics designer Ka Kraise took it upon himself to ‘fight against rampant immappancy,’ in particular the popular Mercator projection originated by Gerardus Mercator in 1569 which tends to exaggerate the size of continents and countries more than others. Greenland, for instance, is 14 times larger than Africa.
As you can see above, Kraise illustrates the reality of Africa’s size, which is “larger than the USA, China, Japan, and all of Europe, combined!” The Economistrevisualized Kraise’s map as well.
Kudos to Kraise for illuminating our ignorance about geographical knowledge, pointing the finger at Western and Asian students who tend to inflate the size of their countries when in actuality Africa makes everyone else look so small.
Iceland’s government, in partnership with the country’s tourist agency Promote Island, will allow anyone in the world to scream into an app and broadcast it into the nation’s vast wilderness.
Let it all out on a speaker in Iceland
All one needs to record a loud scream, wail, or shriek — whatever they want to get off their chest — at lookslikeyouneediceland.com and their frustration will play on one of the seven speakers situated around Iceland’s vacant countryside.
Looks like you’ve been through a lot. It looks like you need to let it out. It looks like you need Iceland. Record your scream from anywhere in the world at https://t.co/sTLs7Fafhi and we’ll release it in Iceland. You’ll feel better, we promise! #LetItOutIcelandpic.twitter.com/YFoZeMIMNi
The Alaska National Guard airlifted the abandoned bus from 2007 classic Into the Wild due to public safety concerns.
Located on the Stampede Trail near Alaska’s Denali National Park in Healy, Alaska, the Fairbanks Bus 142 attracted hikers from around the world trying to reach it.
Some hikers even drowned in the attempt. The state issued 15 search and rescue operations between 2009 and 2017.
The film was an adaptation of the 1996 non-fiction book Into the Wild which tells the story of American hiker Christopher McCandless. He traveled across North American before winding up in the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1990s.
McCandless lived in the bus until starving to death in 1992 after spending 114 days there.
Siete Tazas, or The Seven Teacups, is located 125 miles from Santiago, Chile. These natural rock pools stack on top of each other to create a sequence of beautiful waterfalls before emptying out into River Claro.
According to travel site BookMundi, visitors can do more than just stare in awe at the amazing waterfall. They can kayak, go rafting, or stand-up paddleboard all the way.
via Reddit
But for the extreme sports enthusiast, consider wakeboarding via drone. See below how pro wakeboarder Steel Lafferty made his way down the 7 freshwater basins.
Add the 7 Teacups Waterfall at Patagonia, Chile to your travel list along with the stunning rainbow waterfall at Yosemite National Park.
There is a bizarre-looking church in the Indonesian jungle that’s shaped like a giant chicken.
Located in the forests of Magelang, Central Java (here it is on Google Maps, Gereja Ayam or “Chicken Church” was built in 1992 by Daniel Alamsjah.
He foresaw the structure in the late 80s when he received a spiritual message from God telling him to construct a prayer house for all religions in the shape of a dove. However, given the small beak and fluffy feathers, it appears to look more like a chicken.
Closed temporarily in 2000 for renovation — the second-floor walls have since been repainted with scenes from Indonesian mythology — the church has since been reopened as a tourist attraction but still offers a religious tour.
You can learn more about the church on its official tourism website.
Ever wondered what Earth might look like from a bird’s perspective, soaring through the sky?
Elite Falconry, a falconry center based in Scotland, put a 2 oz camera rig on of its White Tail Sea Eagles to record flying over the beautiful cliffs of Orkney, Scotland.
Writes the company on its Facebook page:
Over the past number of years, we have developed an incredibly small, aerodynamic, lightweight, amazingly well balanced, and most importantly, comfortable, onboard fullHD video camera that some of our birds can carry. If you are a long time follower, you will have seen several of the videos we have created. Lots of the work, especially those created with Marra our White tail Sea Eagle, and Stanley, one of our Golden Eagles have featured on numerous TV shows and documentaries. We are delighted with so much of the work, but for us, this one, made on a trip for a little goose hunting on the utterly breathtaking Orkney Islands, on the sea cliffs near the Kitcheners Monument, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean toweards North America and Iceland, is our absolute favourite.
In addition to offering flying demonstrations, Elite Falconry invites wedding organizers to hire the birds of prey to gather aerial footage of events.
Let’s look for the bright side of this virus……look at Venice after the Italian lockdown……nature returns to its space, 🐟 fish are back as well as 🦆 ducks xxx💗💗💗 https://t.co/u9JWx2ytxp
There’s a road in the Netherlands that starts to sing the Frisian Folk Song when cars hit the right speed of 60 kph/40 mph limit.
The musical road resides in the village of Jelsum in the north part of Holland.
The structure of the strategically laid “rumble strips” was built in 2018 to celebrate the unique language and culture of the Friesland region. But the special ‘singing road’ also served as a warning to slow down speedy drivers.
However, the musical experience struck a chord (literally) with the locals who grew tired of hearing the notes 24 hours a day.
According to Dutch News, the €80,000 custom-built pavement markers were finally removed for driving (see what I did there) ‘psychological torture’.
