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Friday, May 29, 2009
Are Your Eyes Playing Tricks on You?
Image: Doron
What is 13 stories high, has 3,500 steps and is 100 feet deep? Right, this well, but do you believe it exists as shown in the photograph? Or has the symmetry been achieved with a little help from Photoshop? Not sure? We looked at it as if it were one of those wacky 3D-images and still weren’t sure. Read on for more details…
It is real! The image shows Chand Baori, a stepwell in Abhaneri, Rajasthan, close to Jaipur. It was built in the 9th century by Raja Chand, a rajput of the ruling Chamana Dynasty at the time, to solve the water problem of this arid region. Locals had to dig almost 30 m (100 feet) deep to find a dependable water source.
Feel reminded of M.C. Escher’s lithograph “Relativity” (1953)? We did too!
Image: Justin Foote
These kinds of deep, square wells with steps leading down can be found all over India, especially in the dry west. An adjoining temple and often elaborate designs are common, built in honour of the gods who are supposed to protect the crucial water source.
According to a local legend, the well was built in one night by ghosts and contains this many steps so that anyone who throws a coin in the well cannot retrieve it easily. More likely, the legend of the ghosts was created to keep thieves out who wanted to steal the precious water.
The back of Chand Baori with the temple, overlooking the stepwell:
Image: Pablo Nicolás Taibi Cicaré
The stepwell in Abhaneri village is one of the most spectacular ones and featured prominently in the movie The Fall (2008), when actors danced on each platform connecting two sets of steps.
Because water supply is much better and much more reliable now than eleven centuries ago, the well is now defunct, proven by the green mat of algae that has formed on top of the water.
For those who are still not fully convinced that no photoshopping was involved, here’s a 360-degree-view of Chand Baori with the temple:
Top Pedestrian Crosswalk Artworks
Artist Peter Gibson --aka Roadsworth, often referred to as Canada’s own Banksy-- creates fascinating artworks over pedestrian crosswalks. A direct response to what he calls the ‘car culture‘ that has gotten him into trouble with the law --he was arrested and charged with 53 counts of mischief--, he began painting the streets of Montreal in the fall of 2001 and received almost universal praise from the public for questioning the impact of our dependency on automobiles on society. Meet some of his finest works.
Top 10 Fascinating Art Installations
1. Banksy’s Telephone Booth
To parody the decline of the famous LondonTelephone Booths, infamous British guerilla artist Bangksy puts an axe through this one.
2. Reymond's Real Life Transformer
One of the most famous works of french artist Guillaume Reymond, this series of performances, "TRANSFORMERS", brings together different types of vehicles, gathering them according to a precise choreography, and creating what looks from the sky like gigantic robots.
3. Dougherty's Branchworks
4. Havel's Tunnel House
Houston artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck turned them into an art installation known as ‘Inversion.’ Using boards from the outside of the houses they created a large funnel-like vortex running between the two that ends in a small hole in an adjacent courtyard. It’s a cool effect particularly for those who always wanted to experience a black hole without the whole ‘being crushed to a quantum singularity’ end result.
5. Azevedo's Ice Sculptures of Melting Men
6. Mortimer's Public Prayer Booth
Combining a telephone booth and a prayer station, Kansas City-based artist Dylan Mortimer created this installation called "Public Prayer Booth". If you ever came across one, you can pull down the kneeler and pray on the spot.
7. Broecker's Drink Away the Art
Drinking in the name of art... what can be better? On this "interactive art" installation by Hannes Broecker, museum goers are invited to pick up a glass and take a drink of a variety of cocktails in the container.
8. Salcedo's Chair Building
This amazing art installation was made by Colombian sculptor Doris Salcedo for the International Instanbul Biennale in 2003. She used over 1,550 chairs stacked on an empty lot between two buildings.
9. Verdonck's Giant Nest
Belgian artist Benjamin Verdonck created a nest on the Rotterdam Weena Tower and stayed there for a while, on an installation called "the Great Swallow".
10. Lerner's Traffic Flow Panels
This interactive art installation in Munich was created by artist Markus Lerner for Osram, Germany. The interactive panels react to the flow of the passing traffic. It is interesting to see how the artist has used the passing traffic as an influencing input of the artwork, but the feedback appears to be very subtle. See video of installation in action below.
10 Misspelled Tattoos
Nothing says forever like a misspelled tattoo
And he'll juge your spelling
Possibly the most famous misspelled tattoo. Instead of Chi-Town as the man requested, he got "Chi-Tonw". He later sued the tattoo artist.
Does he means the spelling system?
You're ambelievable!
Tomarrow never knows how to spell tomorrow right
Can you spot the three misspellings?
ANSWER: freinds, straind, surley
CNN reported that Joseph Beahm paid $100 for this tattoo, which was supposed to read “Why Not, Everyone Else Does”. Instead it came out as, "Why Not, Everyone Elese Does." He sued the tattoo parlor to pay for his laser surgery.
Don't know if this is Comedy or... Tradgey
To bad you don't own a dictionary
Your alive? No, sir, that's my alive. Give it back!
Top 10 Most Bizarre Arrests
1. Dumb and Dumber: Bandits rob a bank, pose with loot, get arrested
Grinning stupidly for the camera and brandishing the proceeds of their ham-fisted raid, two Australian bank robbers demonstrate why they earned themselves the nicknames "Dumb and Dumber." Anthony Prince, 20, and Luke Carroll, 19, were jailed last month after pleading guilty to the bungled raid on a bank in Vail, Colorado. Carroll got five years in a tough US prison and Prince 4½. Federal prosecutors have released photos the pair took of each other joking in the toilets of a McDonald's shortly after stealing $170,000 in cash and terrorising bank tellers with fake pistols. They were captured the next day after leaving a trail of clues, which investigators said made their job laughably easy. Prince and Carroll had been regular customers at the bank and although they were wearing masks, the tellers recognised their broad Australian accents.
2. The Goat who got arrested for armed robbery
A vigilante group in Ilorin, Nigeria apprehended a group of would-be car thieves, including one man who "turned himself" into a goat. The mysterious goat, according to the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Tunde Mohammed, while briefing bewildered journalists at the Force headquarters, is an armed robber who attempted to snatch the said car, and later "transformed" into the goat in a bid to escape arrest. "While one of them escaped, the other was about to be apprehended by the team when he turned his back on the wall and turned to this goat. They quickly grabbed the goat and here it is." Mohammed said. The police spokesman said the goat "armed robbery suspect" will not be left off the hook until investigations into the case are concluded.
3. The 88-year-old Grandma who got arrested for not returning a kid's ball
4. The Man who got caught having sex with a picnic table
In March 2008, Art Price Jr. was arrested after a witness observed him turn over a metal picnic table and performe a sex act upon it. This is the latest occurrence of Mr. Price engaging in sex with furniture. On four other occasions neighbors had witnessed Mr. Price copulating with other outdoor furniture. Price faces up to four charges of public indecency.
5. The Man who got arrested for shouting naked at trees
Dieter Braun, 43, from Recklinghausen said the stress "release" technique had worked perfectly until he was arrested. It was his marriage guidance counsellor who advised him to run around naked shouting at trees. "For me it's a type of relaxation therapy" he said. "Feeling the breeze on my naked skin really calms me down." But local police said other visitors to the forest did not find his behaviour relaxing and have now charged him with causing a public nuisance.
6. The Boy who got arrested for opening his Xmas gift too early
A South Carolina boy, 12, was arrested on December 2006 after his mother called police to report that he had unwrapped a Christmas present without her permission. According to a Rock Hill Police Department report, the child opened a Nintendo Game Boy, though he had been directed not to by family members. When the boy's mother learned that the $85 gift had been opened, she called cops, who charged the juvenile with petty larceny. In an interview with The Herald newspaper, the boy's mother, a 27-year-old single parent, described her son as a disruptive child, noting that she hoped his arrest would serve as a corrective to disorderly behavior at school and home.
7. The Deaf man who got arrested for swearing at police in sign language
Balraj Gill, 31, who is deaf without speech, was arrested by police after he swore at them in sign language- and although he made no sound, he has admitted breaching the peace. Officers had taken Gill back to a hostel where he was supposed to be staying but until a worker translated his sign language for them, they had no idea what he was trying to say. The worker told officers every swear word Gill had signed at them. A police officer told reporters: "The officers could tell he was angry, but didn't know what he was saying. I suppose he's unlucky hostel staff were on hand to translate."
8. The Woman who got arrested for selling pierced cats
Holly Crawford, 34, pierced black kittens in the ear, neck and tail and then marketed them as "gothic" over the internet before she was charged with animal cruelty. She was trying to sell the kittens online for hundreds of dollars, PETA said. The Pennsylvanian woman said she didn't see the difference between piercing a cat or human, and pleaded not guilty.
9. The Man who got arrested for farting at policeman
Jose Cruz, 34, was arrested on September 2008 and charged with assault after he allegedly broke wind on a police officer. Police say they were fingerprinting Cruz, when he moved near Patrolman T.E. Parsons, lifted his leg and passed gas "loudly" on the officer. Cruz then allegedly waved the air in the direction of Parsons, who was preparing a breath test machine at South Charleston police HQ, West Virginia.
10. The Man who got arrested for having sex with street signs
Police in Sioux Falls South Dakota arrested 60 year old Verle Peter Dills after catching him performing various sex on a traffic sign in another residents yard. After searching his home, police found a “large amount” of videos showing Dills having sex with various traffic signs. Dills has been charged with burglary, unlawful occupancy, and six counts of public indecency.
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