Sao Paulo’s Incredible Storm Drain Graffiti
Where there is concrete, let there be colour; where there is asphalt, let there be kickass graffiti. The world’s metropolises are grey enough places without a hard line stance against good graffiti. Take Sao Paulo, whose sprawling mass is home to almost 20 million people. When street art duo 6EMEIA started painting storm drains in the Barra Funda neighbourhood of Brazil’s largest city, their plan was to transform everyday life in the way only a smile can.
Continue reading...6. November 2009
The Cutest Flying Animals on Earth
The sugar glider is a marsupial native to the forests and rainforests of eastern and northern Australia, New Guinea, and the Bismarck Archipelago. It was introduced to Tasmania and about 15 years ago to the United States. Sugar gliders are tree dwellers that live in colonies of 15 to 30 animals. During the day, these nocturnal animals rest in hollow trees, in nests lined with leaves.
Continue reading...5. November 2009
7 Most Massive Single Meteorites on Earth
Like fugitives on the run from distant solar systems, meteors hurtle through the earth’s atmosphere, lighting up the eyes of observers on the ground. Often these fireballs of metal and rock burn up in a blaze of glory, and many do not survive their impact with the Earth’s surface. Those that do start a more settled life here on Earth as meteorites. Some might even claim to be the new sheriffs in town – they’re that big and resistant to weathering.
Continue reading...5. November 2009
Sound As You’ve Never Seen it Before
People become trains, trains become movement and sound, and time blurs into past, present and future simultaneously. Meet Semiconductor, a Brighton-based artist duo obsessed with our environment, landscape, architecture, chaos theory and other subjects. In creative and original fashion, they have been creating cutting-edge digital artworks – their sound films – since 1999.
Continue reading...5. November 2009
Mortal Combat: El Salvador’s Fireball Street Fight
It looks like a warzone or at least a riot in full swing. Fireballs tear through the streets painting the night air orange as young men, their faces emblazoned with fearsome patterns, prowl the streets waging in pitched battles against one another. The incendiary missiles explode on impact – sometimes in the faces of their targets. Pyromaniacs take note. If you love fire, you’ll be blown away by the Bolas de Fuego festival in El Salvador.
Continue reading...29. October 2009
The Rise and Fall of Christianity’s Warrior Monks
The Knights Templar were the Crusade's premier weapon of certain destruction. They repeatedly tested Saladin and Muslim leadership for almost two centuries. The Templars also became a European banking power that would earn the lethal hatred of Philip IV, King of France. Let's saddle up for a history of this legendary elite order and follow these warrier monks through the most epic battles in which they fought.
Continue reading...28. September 2009
The Myth Behind the Lantern Bug
Anti-air missile, elephant bug, Pinocchio – these are just some of the nicknames the lantern bug has to endure. All because its nose is slightly long. Okay, fine, that might be an understatement – it is about half the size of the bug’s whole body. If that weren’t enough, the bug’s even supposed to poke its long proboscis into people’s sex lives. Or better, the lack of it might kill them. Find out how.
Continue reading...30. October 2009
The Lady Bug Gymnastics
With Halloween just around the corner, we’d like to leave scary witches and willowy ghosts aside for just one minute and focus on one helpful critter that might get forgotten otherwise. After ridding crops of plant lice and scale insects, the Halloween lady beetle invades homes in October where it prepares for its well deserved hibernation. Before that long period of inactivity, it likes to stretch its wings a bit. That’s probably an understatement – wing acrobatics is more like it but see for yourself…
Continue reading...25. September 2009
Female Bugs ‘Make Out’ to Attract Males That Can Stomach It
The tropical citrus root weevil or sugarcane root stalk borer weevil (diaprepes abbreviatus) is a pest accidentally introduced to the state of Florida in 1964. Since 2005, it’s also been spotted in California not only devouring citrus, avocado and potato roots, but also engaging in some cunning mating behaviour. Here are the facts.
Continue reading...2. November 2009
Gazing into the Limits of the Universe
Astronomers have seen farther back in time and identified the earliest and youngest object that can be observed in our universe. It is a galactic cluster, 10.2 billion years distant. We observe these galaxies as they were when the universe was only a quarter of its present age. This awe-inspiring discovery lies at the limit of what we will ever be are able to 'see' in the universe. Incredible!
Continue reading...8. October 2009
The Blueprint for Stonehenge
The ritual timber circle at Durington Walls known as the Southern Circle may be the model used by the priest-astronomer-architects who designed Stonehenge. Let's reconstruct this incredible archeological find. In so doing, we'll get a feel for what life was like in the only Neolithic village discovered in England - and possibly the largest of its time in all of northwest Europe. This settlement may even have been the resting and feasting place for the work crews who built Stonehenge.
Continue reading...27. October 2009
Black Gold Still Rules in Pipelineistan
The bottom line on the Iraq and AfPAK wars, and the American fixation on Iran, is oil. Obscene amounts of money, civilian lives and American integrity continue to be wasted on attempts to secure control over Central Asian energy resources, and the pipeline network that must be built to get this Black Gold to market.
Continue reading...26. October 2009
Former War Zones Too Dangerous to Enter
When the smoke clears and the last shells have fallen, some war zones will retain painful reminders of former unpleasantries. Uncleared and unmapped, it's safe to say minefields present an extremely unpredictable and deadly danger to civilians, often long after the conflict in which they were used in has come to a close. Here are some of the deadliest places to go walking unescorted...
Continue reading...24. September 2009
Incredible Bamboo Architecture by Vo Trong Nghia
Bamboo is the stuff of green dreams these days. Not only is this material a winning combination of strong, lightweight and flexible; it also scores highly in the sustainable stakes, being super fast growing and easy to harvest locally in many parts of the world. What's more, it is increasingly lauded for its aesthetic qualities. None of this is news to any architect worth their salt – but one in particular, Vietnamese virtuoso Vo Trong Nghia, stands out for his exceptional bamboo designs.
Continue reading...17. August 2009
The Land of Cuckoo Clocks & Environmental Beauty
Although often associated with banks, cuckoo clocks, chocolate and cheese, it's less commonly known that Switzerland is also one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world. Travelling there offers fresh alpine air and spectacular mountainous scenery, but behind the scenes, less appreciable things are going on to keep it that way. Discover why Switzerland is keeping it green and what you could savour by taking an eco-friendly trip there.
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7. November 2009
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