World’s Strangest

Epic Launch Video

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Scroll down for today’s pictures & links.

Epic Launch Video

Feel the raw power of “riding a controlled explosion into space” – watch this Space Shuttle Discovery launch in high-res and with loud audio. And if you want more, then watch this too.

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Now for those who want to savor all the details of launch from all possible camera angles, this long video is the ultimate treat.

Today’s pictures & links:

Another Kind of Launch

(image credit: Expositions)

Multitude of balloons grace the sky above the Fifth Paris International Exposition of 1900… Here is the main entry “Monument Gate” from the same Exposition, designed in the great Victorian style – click here for large version:

(image via)

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The Fibonacci Sequence and the “Golden Ratio”

This perfectly-proportioned spiral was spotted in Kew Gardens in London:

(image credit: James Newbery)

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The road is narrow

(we’d like more information about this road):

(original unknown)

UPDATE: One our reader writes: “It is either the Leh or Siachen region in the state of Jammu & Kashmir in India. From what I can recollect the roads freeze over around October and stay that way till the end of May, when the army uses equipment to clear the roads.”

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Mixed fresh links for today:

Maybe Black Holes Don’t Really Exist – [what?!]
Extreme Graphic Design Plagiarism –
Hydrophobic, Nano-textured Glass – [wow science]
Soviets Built a Laser Tank!, pics – [why I'm not surprised]
Literary Inquisition Facts – [thought-provoking]
Another incredible way to fly – [wow tech]
Eye-Opening Info about Texas Drought – [infographic]
Surreal Art by Travis Louie – [scroll down, art]
Great Counterattack from Goalkeeper – [fun video]
Interesting Portable Track System – [wow video]
Riding the Abandoned Road in Japan – [cool video]
Dramatic Rescue Gone Wrong – [fun video]
Another Hilarious Roundup of Photoshop Disasters – [pics]
Bats, Bats, Bats! – [Neatoshop product]

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Is this the Tower of Babel? Hardly. But still a very tall ancient mosque.

This impressive spiral minaret of the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq was built in 848 A.D. and for a long time was a highest mosque structure in the world:

(images credit: Reuters, via)

See another incredible tower in Afghanistan – The Mysterious Minaret of Jam.

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This Poor Little Cat Loves You

(image via)

The apotheosis of cute.

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The Kitchenware Sellers

Seen in Naples in 1903 (Vintage photographic postcard, published by A. de Simone, Naples, Italy):

(image credit: Casas-Rodríguez Collection)

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The following is a short round-up of the best from our Facebook stream (which we update every day with unique material, not available on DRB otherwise):

This makes me dizzy… The Library, D’Espresso’s Coffee Bar in New York:

The REAL movie monsters! “Weird Tales of the Future” cover art, 1952 -

Spilling grass and water:

Taming a wild truck in Pakistan:

(image credit: “Kashmir Motor News” via)

Great fresh idea for a shower! – the AMETIS collection from Graff Faucets:

(image via)

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Nature Wins. Always.

The most amazing (and tenacious) tree grows in the “urban jungle” of Hong Kong:

(image credit: Kahscho)

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Medieval Reading Gadget: their version of a browser, tabs and bookmarks

(image via the Smithsonian Institution Libraries & the Washington Project for the Arts, click to enlarge)

This is an illustration from the book “Le diverse et artificiose machine” by Agostino Ramelli (1588). “Back in the 16th century, books were big and heavy, and therefore some people devised new technologies for making the reading experience more enjoyable” – more info:

Zoom… Enhance! -

(image via)