Crazy Junkyard

Sun glints off wave

Sand in surf

Tubular shining

Beach surf crashes down

Molten liquid gold

White tumultuous water

Splash stunning shot

Red mysterious shot

Break wave crashes down

Amazing splash

Pedestrian Bridge, Texas :This beautiful arched bridge in Lake Austin was a private build by Miro Rivera Architects and is used to connect the client’s main house to the smaller guest house on the other side of the water.  The idea was to make the bridge seem as natural as possible within its surroundings and to do this they made the decking and reed-like hand rails as imperfect as possible.  The result is a bridge that looks extremely fragile but definitely worth the risk.

Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge, São Paulo,  Brazil: Opened in May of this year, the Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge is a stunning x-shaped cable-stayed bridge that crosses thePinheiros River in Sao Paulo.  It’s design is unique in that the 2 curved decks of the bridge cross each other through its x-shaped supporting tower, an illuminated structure that stands 450ft tall and has attached to it 144 steel cables.

Kintaikyo, Iwakuni, Japan: The original Kintai Bridge was built in 1673 and didn’t stand very long until it was damaged due to flooding.  It was then rebuilt and survived for more than 200 years until a typhoon battered it to death in 1950.  The bridge that stands now over the Nishiki Riveris the 3rd build and looks magnificent, it’s 5 wooden arches displaying an incredible amount of detail and craftmanship.  Interesting fact: no nails or bolts have been used to build the arches, only clamps and wires.

Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge, Brasilia, Brazil: The JK Bridge in Brasilia is a lesson in elegant bridge design.  The 3 huge arches diagonally hopping over the deck of the bridge give the structure an amazing visual fluidity and make the whole 1.2km bridge look effortlessly cool.  Since being built the bridge has won awards for its design but is still massively underappreciated on a wider scale.

Rolling Bridge, London, UK: Thomas heatherwick’ s award-winning rolling bridge is an ingenious addition to the grand union canal system in london and is unique in its design.  Unlike regular movable canal bridges, the rolling bridge curls up on itself to form an octagon by way of hydraulics.  It’s an amazing sight and a reminder that a fresh perspective can produce great, innovative results, even when dealing with a structure as common as a bridge.

Beipanjiang River Railroad Bridge, Guizhou, China: Beipanjiang River Railroad Bridge in Guizhou is an enormous railway bridge that was built as part of the much larger ‘Guizhou-Shuibai Railway Project’.  Connecting 2 mountains over a deep ravine, at its highest point the bridge’s deck sits 918ft above the ground (to compare, at its highest point the Millau viaduct’s deck clears the river underneath by 890ft).  The bridge has succeeded in connecting 2 of the country’s poorest areas.

Henderson Waves, Southern Ridges, Singapore: ‘Henderson Waves’ is Wingapore’s highest pedestrian bridge and can be found at the southern ridges, a beautiful 9km stretch of gardens and parks which has frequently drawn comparisons to New York’s Central Park.  The bridge itself is absolutely stunning.  The deck is made from thousands of Balau wood slats, perfectly cut and arranged, and along the length of the deck a huge snaking, undulating shell cleverly forms sheltered seating areas on every upward curve.

Pont Gustave Flaubert, Rouen, France: This is the incredible, brand new vertical lift bridge in Rouen, France, a beast of a structure whose 2 bridge spans weigh 1’200tons each but can be hoisted 180ft vertically by the bridge’s lifting mechanism in an impressive 12 minutes.  Just the angular structures at the top of each tower weigh in at 450tons each, helping to support the lifting system as cruise ships sail through.

Hegigio Gorge Pipeline Bridge, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea: Technically, this is a bridge: it’s a structure which spans a gorge.  The only difference is, the bridge can’t be used by humans due to the fact that its purpose is to support 2 pipelines – 1 gas, 1 oil – across the extremely high gap in Papua New Guinea.  So high in fact that if this were to be officially recognised as a bridge it would rocket to the top of the ‘world’s highest bridge-span’ list at an impressive height of 1’290ft.  By comparison, the current highest bridge span belongs to the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado, hanging a mere 1’053ft above ground level, while Manhattan’s Chrysler Building measures 1’047ft.

This is Alpha Resort-Tomamu’s ice hotel in Shimukappu, Japan. The hotel where dining room, bed room and bath room are made out of ice, charges 8000 yen (A$255) per person per night.

Guests snap themselves on the bed of the ice hotel

Women are reflected on a mirror while eating their dinner served on an ice plate at the ice hotel

Women eat dinner served on an ice plate at the ice hotel in the Alpha Resort-Tomamu’s ice village

A woman drinks cocktail from an ice glass at the ice bar

A woman makes cocktails at the ice bar

Women drink cocktails at the ice bar in the Alpha Resort-Tomamu’s ice village in Shimukappu town

A woman eats dinner served on an ice plate at the ice hotel

Dinner served on an ice plate at the ice hotel

Women bathe at an outdoor bathroom of the ice hotel

1 – Tiger’s Nest Monastery, perched precariously on the edge of a 3,000-feet-high cliff in Paro Valley, is one of the holiest places in Bhutan

2 – Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Mai, Thailand is unlike any Buddhist temples in the world.

3 – Prambanan is a Hindu temple in Central Java, Indonesia. The temple was built in 850 CE, and is composed of 8 main shrines and 250 surrounding smaller ones

4 – No one knows exactly when the Shwedagon Paya [wiki] (or Pagoda) in Myanmar was built – legend has it that it is 2,500 years old though archaeologists estimate that it was built between the 6th and 10th century.

5 – Temple of Heaven is a Taoist temple in Beijing, the capital of China. The temple was constructed in 14th century by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty

6 – Chion-in Temple was built in 1234 CE to honor the founder of Jodo (Pure Land) Buddhism, a priest named Honen, who fasted to death in the very spot.

7 – In the 19th century, Dutch occupiers of Indonesia found a massive ancient ruin deep in the jungles of Java. What they discovered was the complex of Borobudur, a gigantic structure built with nearly 2 million cubic feet (55,000 m³) of stones. The temple has nearly 2,700 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.

8 – The Harmandir Sahib (meaning The Abode of God) or simply the Golden Temple in Punjab, India is the most sacred shrine of Sikhism.

9 – The Temple of Srirangam (Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple , in the Indian city of Tiruchirapalli (or Trichy), is the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world (Ankor Wat is the largest of all temple, but it is currently non-functioning as a temple – see below).

10 – Last but definitely not least is the largest temple in history and the inspiration to countless novels and action movies of Hollywood: Ankor Wat.

you would also be interested in most amazing statues

Icebergs in the Antarctic area sometimes have stripes, formed by layers of snow that react to different cold Blue stripes are often created when a crevice in the ice sheet fills up with melt water and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form.  When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside.  If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe. Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea.

This place is called Kalavaara Halli and the mountain is called Kalavaarahalli Betta (also called as Skanda Giri).
It is near Chikkaballapura (70 km from Bangalore India ).

Scenes from Antarctica

Down in Antarctica, November marks the end of spring, the beginning of austral summer, and the beginning of Antarctica’s cruise season. The Sun just rose for the first time in 6 months on September 22nd, and is now visible in the sky all the time. Recent studies in Antarctica have brought new insights into the origins of deep sea octopus species (a 30 million-year-old ancestor from Antarctic waters), volcanic contributions to disappearing antarctic ice, and the effects of increasing numbers of icebergs scouring the seafloor.

1. After waiting for over two weeks for his mate to return from the sea and relieve him of nest duty, this Adelie penguin’s hunger helps him make the decision to abandon his egg in search of fish and krill in the sea. Photo taken December 12, 2002. Known populations of the Adelie penguin have dropped by 65% over the past 25 years. (Melanie Conner/National Science Foundation)

2. A killer whale (viewed from above) swims amid floating ice in the Ross Sea in January of 2005. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Southwest Fisheries Science Center were studying the whales to determine if there are three separate species of Antarctic killer whales. (Donald LeRoi, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center/National Science Foundation)

3. Palmer Station seen from the ocean on June 10, 2006. Palmer Station is the smallest of the three U.S. Antarctic Program research stations, located on Anvers Island, near the Antarctic Peninsula. (Glenn E. Grant/National Science Foundation).

4. A molting emperor penguin seen on January 3, 2007. (Carlie Reum/National Science Foundation)

5. Sculptured iceberg in North Bay, Rothera Point, Adelaide Island, Antarctica.

6. The Calkin Glacier, seen on November, 2003. The glacier is located in the Taylor Valley in Victoria Land, named for Parker Calkin, US Antarctic Program geologist who conducted research in the area during the 1960-61 and 1961-62 field seasons. (Brian Johnson/National Science Foundation).

7. The aurora australis over the Dark Sector at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station on June 3, 2008. The Dark Sector is so-named due to the absence of light and radio wave interfence. The bright spot above the ground shield in the foreground is Jupiter. The white streaks of light going up are the Milky Way. (Keith Vanderlinde/National Science Foundation)

8. Penguins on a massive iceberg near the Antarctic Peninsula on November 28, 2003. (Kurtis Burmeister/National Science Foundation)