Gandhi back to the sea

Photograph by Rajesh Nirgude/AP

In the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his assasination, the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi has been scattered in the water at the sacred confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna Rivers by his great-granddaughter Neelam Parikh.

Street Paintings

This is a gallery of trompe-l'œil chalk drawings on pavement surfaces. These kind of street paintings are particularly astounding because they have been realized using a tecnique known as "Anamorphosis" which gives them an amazing 3d effect.
Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image.
The following paintings are by the most famous anamorphic street painting artists:
Julian Beever, Kurt Wenner, Edgar Müller and Manfred Stader.
These pictures are just a little selection (including paintings related to water) from a bigger gallery that you can find here.

Screwed in the snow

Bob Pennell, The Mail Tribune

A trailer truck carrying a load of plastic containers lies twisted in the middle of Interstate 5 near Central Point, Ore. on Monday, Jan 28, 2008 after sliding off the road in Sunday's snow storm. I've never seen a trailer screwed up that way...

Twiggy, the water-skiing squirrel

photo: Tracy Woodward, Washington Post

Some posts ago I've spoken about The Radical Rodents, the amazing surfing mice, in that post I published also a picture of a water skiing squirrel that I found on the web flirting with the idea that the famous mice had alrady found their rival. After some web researches I can say that this is just the case! Infact the squirrel is Twiggy, a famous star who had also been in a Donkin' Donuts commercial.


Times photo: Anne Glover



Here you can see two videos to better apreciate Twiggy permorfing in Boat shows and other public events, with her trainer Lou Ann Best.

Awesome Aquarius

Look at this awesome fish tank I've found here

Ceremonial freezing baths

In the last few days, two different ceremonies had taken place. They are totally different in many aspects but they are connected by the fact that in both of them the faithfuls have to bathe in freezing waters in order to officiate the ceremony.

In Japan the partecipants wearing the traditional "Fudoshi" (a loincloth) transports the "Mikoshi" or portable shrine during the festival of Enoshima midwinter.






In the meanwhile in russia people celebrates the Orthodox Epiphany bathing inside icy lakes




photos by Reuters

Dolphins playing with bubble rings

In a previous post we've spoken about the incredible intelligence of the dolphins and how much their love behaviours could be similar to the human ones. In this awesome video instead we can see a dolphin blowing bubble rings from his siphon and playing with them in the same way as a human could do. This video in my humble opinion is simply touching...

Save the whale 2!

REUTERS/Icon Images/Spectral Q/Handout

The message is the same of the post before but the picture is undoubtly more pleasant...
This is happend on the 16th of November 2007 on Bondi Beach in Sydney, where hundreds of people gather to form the shape of a humpback whale in order to protest against japan and japanese whalers.
Here is the video:

Save the whale!

Sometimes humour can be the best way to send a message... nevertheless I've hesitated a little bit before posting this crazy image... you know, it's not exactly pleasant! However It's funny... so Save the Whale!

Record Crushed!

©Liot-Vapillon / DPPI / Idec

This post is the final part of a long and intriguing story that has taken place in the last two months around the world (literally!)
To read what's happened before click the following chapters:
That strange menage a trois
A record at a record's heels
The absolute adventure

Despite a technical problem that had occured to his Trimaran in the last part of his adventure, Francis Joyon had crushed the previous record of Ellen MacArthur for the single handed no stop world circumnavigation arriving this Sunday in Brest after 57 jours, 13 heures, 34 minutes and 6 secondes, almost two weeks less than MacArthur's time 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds.

And what has happened to Thomas Coville? The other challenger had been forced to abandon his attempt because of a severe damage of his trimaran. His cold comfort is having achieved the world record for distance in 24 hours with 619,3 miles!

Water footprints

Have you seen Rain Man passing around?

Prankster Penguin

Probably Arctic is a quite boring place... but this penguin has found a way to entertain himself!

The Water Bed

Sleeping and having a bath at the same time shouldn't be bad... especially with that woman.

The sound of the ocean always with you

This is bizarre! Are you wondering what's this strange object which in some way has an "elven" look? Well, it's the chance for you to have the sound of the ocean whenever and wherever you want. Everybody knows that putting a shell close to the ear you can hear a noise very similar to the sound of rolling waves. This object, I don't know how, is able to do the same and it doesn't need any kind of power supply, allowing you to have a moment of relax, hearing the sound of the sea, each time you want. The creator of this so called "Noisy Instrument" is Jun Murakoshi

In the womb under the sea

Channel 4

This is an amazing picture realized using a combination of three-dimensional ultrasound scans, computer graphics and tiny cameras, the authors were able to show the entire process from conception to birth of three different animals: Dolphins, Elephants and Dogs. Here you can find out more

Three Queens held court in Brooklyn at the same time

The three queens parade

Yesterday, for the first time in history, three of the biggest passenger ships in the world had been together in the same harbour, Brooklyn. We are speaking of the three Queens of Cunard Line, the famous luxury cruise ships: Queen Mary 2, which makes Brooklyn its home port; Queen Elizabeth 2, on her final visit to New York after forty years of service before being retired to serve as a floating hotel in Dubai; and for the first time Queen Victoria, on her maiden voyage. The chance too see those huge wonders all together in New York has been celebrated with a big fireworks show.


Queen Elizabeth 2


Queen Mary 2 and Queen Elizabeth 2

The fireworks show during the Queens Parade:


AP

AP

AP

AP

Chimeras of the digital age

This is a collection of chimeras, realized with Photoshop merging an aquatic animal with a not aquatic one. Some of them are quite impressive.













UPDATE:
I've added a second part (aquatic animals mixed with vegetables) here:
Chimeras of the digital age (Part 2)