The 1,444 Carved Pillars of Ranakpur Jain Temple No Two of Which Are Alike

Ranakpur is a village located in the lush green valley of Aravalli mountain ranges in Pali district of Rajasthan, in western India. It is home to one of the biggest and most important Jain temple complexes of India, covering an area of nearly 48,000 square feet area, and has 29 halls, 80 domes and supported by 1444 marble pillars, each of them intricately and artistically carved, yet no two of them are alike.

The Ranakpur Jain Temple was built by a wealthy Jain businessman named Dharma Shah under the patronage of the liberal and gifted Rajput monarch Rana Kumbha in the 15th century. According to local legend Dharma Shah had a celestial vision that left in his heart a burning determination to build a temple in honor of Adinath, the founder of the Jain religion. When…

Between 1951 and 1992, there were a total of 928 announced nuclear tests at Nevada Test Site. Of those, 828 were underground.  (Sixty-two of the underground tests included multiple, simultaneous nuclear detonations, adding 93 detonations and bringing the total number of NTS nuclear detonations to 1,021, of which 921 were underground.)  The site is covered with subsidence craters from the testing. The Nevada Test Site was the primary testing location of American nuclear devices; 126 tests were conducted elsewhere (many at the Pacific Proving Grounds in the Marshall Islands).

During the 1950s, the mushroom clouds from these tests could be seen for almost 100 mi (160 km) in either direction, including the city of Las Vegas, where the tests became tourist attractions. Americans headed for Las Vegas to witness the distant mushroom clouds that could be seen from the downtown hotels.

Unfortunately no Animal Rights organizations back in 1937. I’m sure the cats didn’t enjoy this very much.

This guy is talented.  And he must have the patience of a tree sloth.

Colorado artist Mike Grab creates astonishing towers of balanced stones using nothing but gravity, and his uncanny ability to find the natural balance of the stones. Grab says the art of stone balancing has been practiced by various cultures around the world for centuries evolving from simple curiosity “into therapeutic ritual, ultimately nurturing meditative presence, mental well-being, and artistry of design”.

The most fundamental element of balancing in a physical sense is finding some kind of “tripod” for the rock to stand on. Every rock is covered in a variety of tiny to large indentations that can act as a tripod for the rock to stand upright, or in most orientations you can think of with other rocks. By paying close attention to the feeling of the rocks, you will start to feel even the smallest…

Space Perspective’s planned $125,000-a-seat ride is heavy on the ambiance, if gazing down on Earth isn’t thrilling enough.

Space Perspective has revealed the cabin design for its upcoming Spaceship Neptune—a balloon-held capsule that, for thelofty price of $125,000, will take passengers to the edge of space.

Liftoffs aren’t slated to begin until late 2024, but newly released conceptual images of the Spaceship Neptune passenger cabin offer an early glimpse of what the experience couldlook like. But at $125,000 per seat, this is probably as close as any of us will ever get to actually stepping inside this thing.

The climate-controlled, pressurized interior cabin will be held aloft by a balloon as it rises to the stratosphere. Reaching a height of 20 miles (30 kilometers), passengers will have a 360-degree view of their surroundings, from which they’ll be able to see the curvature of Earth. The passengers will be able to…

Blue eyes are a rare sight in Indonesia, a country where the vast majority of the population has dark hair and dark eyes, but some members of an indigenous tribe have the most stunning blue eyes, because of a rare condition known as Waardenburg Syndrome.

Believed to affect about 1 in 42,000 people, Waardenburg Syndrome is characterized by some degree of hearing loss and pigmentation deficiencies, which can include bright blue eyes (or one blue eye and one black/brown eye). It is caused by mutations in any of several genes that affect the operation of neural crest cells in embryonic development. The visual effect of Waardenburg Syndrome is particularly impressive in ethnic groups where blue eyes are a rarity, as you can see in the photos of members of the Buton tribe taken by Indonesian geologist and amateur photographer Korchnoi Pasaribu.

Buton Island, which is located in Indonesia’s Sulawesi region, is home to the…

The covid cruise ship graveyard: Passenger liners are stripped for scrap at Turkish dock after the multi-billion pound industry was smashed by the coronavirus crisis
Cruise ships were home to the some of the earliest clusters of COVID-19 as it spread around the world
US authorities have issued a no-sail order on cruises and the multi-billion pound industry has been hammered
But business is booming for a ship scrapyard in Turkey which has welcomed five colossal cruise ships
One of them, the Carnival Fantasy operated by Carnival Cruise Line, had only just been refurbished last year
On Friday, workers were seen taking apart the vessels, some with their pools and mini golf course still visible

Cruise ships from Britain and the United States are being scrapped at a Turkish dock after the multi-billion pound industry was smashed by the coronavirus crisis.

The coronavirus cruise liner graveyard at the port in…

When you need to transport large cargo, goods, and materials from one place to another, the ship is the ideal choice even though they are extremely slow. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world’s seas and oceans each year, and they handle the bulk of international trade. Then there are heavy lift ships that are designed to carry excessively large loads that even cargo ships cannot bear, such as other ships, drilling rigs or anything else too large or heavy to be easily transported on a conventional ship.

Heavy lift ships are of two types: semi-submerging capable of lifting another ship out of the water and transporting it; and vessels that augment unloading facilities at inadequately equipped ports. Semi-submerging are more commonly known as a “flo/flo” for float-on/float-off. These vessels have a long and low well deck that can go down under water allowing oil platforms, other vessels, or other…