1. Big earthquake hits Indonesia…again
Looks like those poor sods in Indonesia can’t catch a break. Yesterday afternoon, a 8.6 magnitude earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra, followed up by a 8.2 aftershock two hours later.
The quake itself was shallow (22kms deep) and that usually spells trouble when they occur out to sea like this one did. There was no devastating tsunami though, as in this instance, the seafloor moved violently sideways, instead of in an upwards motion as it did in 2004 when 230,000 people were killed in the Boxing Day Tsunami.
Thankfully, there were little signs of damage, nor casualties which is pretty amazing. Officials in Indonesia have put this down to greater public awareness and successful earthquake drills since the big 2004 quake, as every person that was able to scrambled to higher ground.
To read more, click on the article form the Guardian here or on the image above.
Sometimes I come across things and they just beggar belief, like this story for instance. Operating from 1959 to 1966, the U.S built a semi-secret, nuclear-powered U.S. Army base that was built under the Greenland ice cap only 800 miles from the North Pole. Why you ask?
From the article:
The base was officially built to conduct scientific research but the real reason was apparently to test out the feasibility of burying nuclear missiles below the ice under an effort known as Project Iceworm. Remember, Greenland is way closer to Russia than the ICBM fields located in the continental U.S. Rumor has it that the Danish government had no idea that the U.S. was considering installing nuclear missiles on Greenland.
Of course the funny thing about ice is it moves, and so by 1966, the base had to be abandoned as it was been slowly but surely crushed. Today the place is completely inaccessible, survived by the pictures taken of it in its heyday.
Jump through to the article from Defense Tech to read more and check out the pics. Today’s crazy.
Enjoy.
I saw bears up close once. We were in the Romanian coastal city of Constanta, and had paid 10 lei to be bundled into an old Toyota Hiace with whole lot of other tourists, then taken to rubbish dump bordering a city park at about 11.30pm at night.
On arriving at the scene, I got a horrible feeling we’d been duped, expecting something other than what we were seeing, but on waiting twenty minutes, we saw our first bear arrive, then another and another. It was pretty surreal, these huge woolly creatures not six feet from the van foraging through garbage.
So on seeing the link below, I had to share it. The pictures from Slate magazine show what happened when Yellowstone was nominated as the United States first national park in 1960. Understandably, people flocked from all over the country to travel the newly paved roads and see the sights. Of course, the local residents also wanted to check out the new arrivals, which made for some pretty interesting Kodak moments when they met.
Check out the images from Slate here or click on the image above. Today’s must see.
4. This what a break down looks like
I hope I never lose it like this guy did. Using his Suzuki Grand Vitara as a battering ram, a 35-year-old doctor charged the packed storefront of the Pelican auto dealership in Northern Moscow like 166 horses on a rampage.
Apparently he didn’t want to wait any longer for his car tune up. Now he doesn’t need to worry about transportation where he’s going.
Check out the video below from RT.
With a money advance and orders to make it count from Nike, this is how filmmaker Casey Neistat spent the entire budget traveling the world in just 10 days.
While I’m sure this isn’t how Nike envisioned the money been spent, the end product is a nice little example about what you can do with some money and 10 days.
Enjoy.
You can share my ramblings if you like :)
