Thursday, October 31, 2013
China Says Goodbye To Its Mysterious, Illegal High-Rise Fortress
The luxurious "mountain villa" built atop a Beijing high-rise is being torn down. The $4 million penthouse was built by a Chinese health care entrepreneur named Zhang Lin on the roof of an existing apartment building earlier this year, much to the chagrin of its party-pooper occupants.
5 Creepy, Scary, Awesome Things You Never Knew About Blood
The internet has been beating us over the head with the fact it's Halloween today, and that means lots of fake blood. But the real stuff coursing through your veins can be scary all on its own. Here are some of the weirdest and wildest things going on in the world of blood.
A Map of Where All Your Favorite Horror Movies Take Place
The monster in a horror movie is scary, sure. But an eerie setting is just as important. Fortunately just about anywhere can be freaky as hell when you're alone in the dark, but some places get more horror movie love than others. And this great map by the folks at Esri shows you the horrible hotspots.
10 Truly Creepy Vampires From Around The World
Looking at the plethora of wimpy, tween-friendly vampires books and movies have given us in the last few years, it’s easy to forget that vampires began life as something a lot different—and a lot scarier. Centuries ago, our ancestors would quiver with dread at the mere mention of the word, which isn’t surprising when you consider just how downright unsettling and macabre their mythology could be.
Consider the following 10 vampires, taken from the traditions of 10 different countries, which, even by the standards of our ancestors, manage to stand out as some of the creepiest creatures mythology has to offer.
Consider the following 10 vampires, taken from the traditions of 10 different countries, which, even by the standards of our ancestors, manage to stand out as some of the creepiest creatures mythology has to offer.
10 Spooky Facts About Halloween
Halloween has a very long and storied past, rich with tradition and lore. Originally it was known as “Samhain,” a Celtic festival marking the end of the summer and the beginning of the cold months. The pagans who first celebrated the holiday believed that on Samhain the veil between the two worlds was at its thinnest, and the dead could walk the earth. The otherworldly nature of Halloween has captured people’s imaginations for centuries, and led to many superstitions and traditions that last to this day.
Why A Lake In India Is Full Of Skeletons
In 1942, hundreds of skeletons were found in a lake located in the Himalayas. For over 60 years, nobody knew who they were or how they got wiped out. There were many theories surrounding this morbid enigma, and it wasn’t until 2004 when scientists concluded that a freak, brutal hailstorm was the culprit.
9 Intensely Creepy Stories To Really Get Under Your Skin
We know how much our readers love creepy stories, and we've once again hit the creepiest time of year. You clicked the article—you must want to be creeped out. In fact, you must want to be downright disturbed, clicking on an article with a title like this.
Allow us to oblige you.
Allow us to oblige you.
FAA Oks Air Passengers Using Gadgets on Planes
Government safety rules are changing to let airline passengers use most electronic devices from gate-to-gate.
The change will let passengers read, work, play games, watch movies and listen to music.
The Federal Aviation Administration says airlines can allow passengers to use the devices during takeoffs and landings on planes that meet certain criteria for protecting aircraft systems from electronic interference.
Most new airliners are expected to meet the criteria, but changes won't happen immediately. Timing will depend upon the airline.
Connections to the Internet to surf, exchange emails, text or download data will still be prohibited below 10,000 feet. Heavier devices like laptops will have to be stowed. Passengers will be told to switch their smartphones, tablets and other devices to airplane mode.
And cellphone calls will still be prohibited.
The change will let passengers read, work, play games, watch movies and listen to music.
The Federal Aviation Administration says airlines can allow passengers to use the devices during takeoffs and landings on planes that meet certain criteria for protecting aircraft systems from electronic interference.
Most new airliners are expected to meet the criteria, but changes won't happen immediately. Timing will depend upon the airline.
Connections to the Internet to surf, exchange emails, text or download data will still be prohibited below 10,000 feet. Heavier devices like laptops will have to be stowed. Passengers will be told to switch their smartphones, tablets and other devices to airplane mode.
And cellphone calls will still be prohibited.
The Roller Coaster Designed to Kill Its Passengers
In 2010, architect and PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art in London, Julijonas Urbonas, from Lithuania, decided to attempt to design a method of euthanizing people that they might even enjoy.
The Popularity of Halloween Candy, Graphed
The beauty of Halloween is that we buy idiotically large bags of candy and then, pretending to be sad about the chore, eat what the trick-or-treaters don't take. (Unless you're bad at math, there's always candy left.) We decided to figure out which candies have been the most popular over the last five years, because we are social scientists.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Meet The Guy Who Drove Across The U.S. In A Record 28 Hours 50 Minutes
He's a tall, lanky Southerner with a penchant for cars, and, of all things, lizards. He teaches Sunday school with his wife. Ed Bolian is the kind of guy you might meet on an airplane and forget before you picked up your bags – with one exception: he claims he's the fastest man ever to drive across the United States.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Top 10 Scary Short Films
It's almost Halloween, which means it's that time of year again when you desperately search through your Netflix queue for anything scary that you haven't seen yet...and that doesn't look terrible.
Unfortunately, the search for a good scary movie can often lead to hours of your life being wasted on bad acting, horrible dialogue, incoherent plots, and awful remakes. Fortunately, there is some really fantastic work being done with scary short films that give you all of the best parts of a good horror flick (dread, fear, and something to keep you up at night) without all the other stuff.
Unfortunately, the search for a good scary movie can often lead to hours of your life being wasted on bad acting, horrible dialogue, incoherent plots, and awful remakes. Fortunately, there is some really fantastic work being done with scary short films that give you all of the best parts of a good horror flick (dread, fear, and something to keep you up at night) without all the other stuff.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Massive 80-Room Tree House Stands Almost 100-Feet-Tall
Anyone who ever wanted to have a small tree house in their backyard will be totally amazed by this massive construction, The World's Biggest Tree House, located in Crossville, Tennessee. Designed by Minister Horace Burgess, the structure relies on six oak trees as the base to support all five stories, which collectively stand 97-feet-high.
I challenged hackers to investigate me and what they found out is chilling
It’s my first class of the semester at New York University. I’m discussing the evils of plagiarism and falsifying sources with 11 graduate journalism students when, without warning, my computer freezes. I fruitlessly tap on the keyboard as my laptop takes on a life of its own and reboots. Seconds later the screen flashes a message. To receive the four-digit code I need to unlock it I’ll have to dial a number with a 312 area code. Then my iPhone, set on vibrate and sitting idly on the table, beeps madly.
I’m being hacked — and only have myself to blame.
I’m being hacked — and only have myself to blame.
What Lies Beneath
Deep below the streets of New York City lie its vital organs—a water system, subways, railroads, tunnels, sewers, drains, and power and cable lines—in a vast, three-dimensional tangle. Penetrating this centuries-old underworld of caverns, squatters, and unmarked doors, William Langewiesche follows three men who constantly navigate its dangers: the subway-operations chief who dealt with the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, the engineer in charge of three underground mega-projects, and the guy who, well, just loves exploring the dark, jerry-rigged heart of a great metropolis.
The Secret Life of a Manhattan Doorman
The smells are the thing I don’t forget. Harsh cleaners, dead bodies, the results of four a.m. bodega runs, cluttered apartments filled with rotting paper. I can recall each smell distinctively; they are unique to that time and place. It also works in reverse: if I stumble upon one of the smells, it takes me back to being a naïve seventeen-year-old, working in the hot New York City summer—the buzz of air conditioners working in the night, straining power grids. The city was asleep and I was awake. I was a doorman.
The 10 greatest Stephen King horror novels according to Goodreads
Although dismissed by critics for much of his career—one New York Times review called him “a writer of fairly engaging and preposterous claptrap” — Stephen King is by any measure one of the greatest horror writers of all time. The author of fifty novels, nearly two hundred short stories and nine collections of short fiction, he is as productive as he is versatile. With so much fiction to choose from, it can be difficult to decide where to begin.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Hanging Out At The DIVE Bar
 |
| Hermit Crab races! |
 |
| Rick & Deb's FIRST place winner! $23 dollars to the good. |
Coco View Is MADE For Diving!
 |
| My locker. |
 |
| Dive boats ready and waiting! |
 |
| Showers and gear rinsing stations. |
 |
| Walk right on with your gear. |
 |
| Full tanks are ready 24 hours a day. |
 |
| Need weight for buoyancy? They've got you covered. |
 |
| The boats leave daily at 8:30 am and 2:00 pm. |
 |
| Gear drying in the sun. |
 |
| Valve out means a fresh tank. Valves in means the tank has been used. |
 |
| Identification tags for night dives. |
 |
| My tag on the nail means: load me up for the next dive! |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)