Daredevil Nik Wallenda Conquers his Most Challenging Chicago Skyline

Nikolas "Nik" Wallenda is an American acrobat, aerialist, daredevil, high wire artist, and author. He can be easily described as "The King of the Wire". Wow, what a record-breaking daredevil Nik Wallenda 35 years old finally completed his most challenging feat to date: a tightrope walk between two skyscrapers 600 feet above downtown Chicago, moderately blindfolded. Huge crowds below cheered on the seventh-generation aerialist, who wore a microphone during his untethered walk. The "Skyscraper Live" walk was broadcast on Discovery. I love Chicago, and Chicago definitely loves me. What an astonishing roar, when he crossed above the Chicago River.

The daring walk comprised of two parts, starting from Marina City's West Tower, about 588 feet high. And then he has to cross above the Chicago River to the Leo Burnett Building in just under short time of 7 minutes, finishing 671 feet above the street. When he returned to the West Tower, Nik crossed to the East Tower blindfolded in one minute and 20 seconds.

As a member of the famed Flying Wallendas, founded by his grandfather Karl Wallenda in the 1920s, Wallenda is no stranger to death-defying stunts. He dared the walked across a wire 1,500 feet above a river in Arizona in June 2013, becoming the first individual to traverse the gorge near Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Before that, he made a record journey across Niagara Falls in 2012.

Jeopardy also runs in the Wallenda family. His Great-grandfather Karl Wallenda was killed at 73 during he was attempting to walk between two buildings in Puerto Rico in 1978. But on Nov 02, 2014, Wallenda made it look so easy.  He said I am so blessed for these opportunities, and you guys watching think I'm crazy, but this is what I was made for.

Source: Charismatic Planet 

A quick time-lapse of Nik Wallenda's record breaking #skyscraperlive in Chicago. from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.

Berlin Wall Being Rebuilt in a Glittering Show of 8,000 Glowing Orbs

In 1961, the ill-famed Berlin Wall was constructed and fully cut off West Berlin from East Germany and East Berlin. However, the ongoing infrastructure was taken down in 1989 and with it reclaimed free movement between East and West. That was about 25 years ago, and to honor this occasion, light artist Christopher Bauder and filmmaker Marc Bauder designed Lichtgrenze, a 10-mile reconstruction of the Berlin Wall. Nonetheless, in its place of concrete and barbed wire, the fundamental path will feature stunning 8,000 glowing white balloons to be set up for two days. The lovely installation will begin in the middle of the night on November 7 to signify the how the original wall was constructed, which was literally overnight.

Therefore at 6 prime locations have selected along the route, Lichtgrenze will show historical footage of life during the Berlin Wall’s presence. People will also catch that every 500 feet features personal stories and memories of people who lived on both sides of barrier, or whose lives were badly affected by it in some way. Lichtgrenze will be erected until November 9 at 7PM. In this time, more than thousands of volunteers (recognized as balloon patrons) will attribute personal messages to the orbs, separate their strings, and send the lit balloons into the sky. The glittering display will be ecological, too. Researchers at the University of Hanover particularly designed the lovely balloons to make sure that they’re entirely biodegradable.

New Windowless Plane Beams in Panoramic View is the Future of Air Travel

Well, this’d be quite thrilling to travel in a Windowless Plane to have an amazing panoramic view and allows passengers to surf the internet on full length screens fitted to cabin walls. A UK based company is set to revolutionize the future of commercial air travel with a windowless plane that lets passengers to select panoramic views of the world around them or swipe a touch screen to surf the internet or check their email from 35,000ft. Moreover windows would be replaced with ultra-thin and highly-flexible screens that’d display outside scenery captured by cameras attached to the plane’s exterior or act as a personal touch screen computer. The idea is still at design phase, but researchers believe it could become the world’s first windowless commercial aircraft in the next ten years. Therefore passengers in the “window seat” would be able to select their view or use the full-length screens as an in-flight entertainment system, whereas those who’re in the middle or aisle seats would be able to access the futuristic system on a screen embedded in the head rest in front of them. The views displayed on the high-definition screens would be able to changing as the passenger moves his or her eyes.

Moreover to offering more entertainment, the screens fitted directly into the fuselage or into the wall panels, would furnish delicate cabin lighting from gently glowing walls and could be switched on or off. The system could assist to offset jet lag as lighting panels would permit passengers to control color changes related with sunrise and sunset. That would support them to adjust to time zone changes on long-haul journeys, according to CPI, Based in north-east England, CPI is a member of the United Kingdom’s high value manufacturing catapult, which is aimed at stimulating development in new and emerging technologies. As government funding CPI works with firms to produce a new product, including the OLED screens at its facility in Sedgefield, County Durham.

Well, the screens are not just for the enjoyment of passengers as they’re beautifully designed to ease aircraft weight and costs for both airlines and travelers. The fuselage would be lighter without windows and that would translate into fuel savings, fewer harmful emissions and lower operating costs for airlines. Ultimately it could mean lower fares and wider seats for passengers. For every one per cent reduction in weight the approximate fuel saving is 0.75 %.  Although they’re amazingly futuristic CPI have faith in the screens could be formed at a stable cost that is likely to be any more than present displays. It’ll take around 5 years before the screens, using organic light-emitting diodes (OLED), are ready for full production.

Delicate Frost Flowers Looks like a Golden Glow

If you strolling in the woods or near a creek in cold morning, especially when the air is crisp and temperatures hover below freezing, you can see “Frostweed” grows to see nature’s odd ice sculptures the “Frost Flowers”. So fall is a wonderful time to find an amazing array of wildflowers on your national forests and grasslands. However several experienced nature explorers haven’t seen frost flowers. This is because you’ve to be in the right place at the right time. These’re really not flowers at all, just a spin glass or cotton candy fragile creations. The flowers last only until the sun or warm rays melt then away. Only very few lucky people able to see them and know about their existence, their formation and disappearance cover such a short period.

This is really interesting to know, that “Frost Flowers” forms when the ground temperature is warm enough for the plant’s root system to be active and the air temperature is cold enough to freeze the upward flowing plant juices. The freezing juices may split open a whole section of stem and push out in a side curling sheet, or it may emerge from small slits and form long, ribbon-like strands or flowerlike clusters. The moisture in the plant freezes, the ice crystals push out through the stem. At times more than a few ribbons of ice push out to make a flowerlike petal effect.

As long as the juices flow, air temperatures remain low and the plant is shaded from the sun, these ice crystals continue to form. The frostweed, Verbesinia virginica, commonly occurs in Texas, is one of species of plants, which are capable of producing icy creations. These waist to shoulder high plants grow in thick patches in the moist, shaded soil of river or creek bottoms and form heavy undergrowth’s in the shade of large trees. This plant also is recognized as Indian tobacco and “tickweed” because the dried leaves were once used by Indians as tobacco and people walking through the plants invariably gather a few seed ticks.

Frost flowers are delicate, attractive ribbons of ice crystals that form on the lower stems of a few species of Missouri native plants. When the backlit of sun shades on crystal threads of frozen plants, it looks like a golden glow. So it is recommended to take your camera. If you’re lucky enough, you may able to snap some photographs before the ice ribbons melt in the morning sunlight. If you want to relish the frost flowers in person this year, locate some of the “Frostweed” plants before cold weather arrives.

Exclusive Street Trials Rider Performs Unbelievable Gravity-Defying Trick in Abandoned Village

The 28 year old Glasgow professional street trials rider Danny MacAskill is performing a gravity-defying new trick in an abandoned tourist village in Argentina. The mind-blowing “Bum Front Flip” in Epecuen a lakeside resort that was submerged under flood waters in the 1980s. After riding up a specifically constructed ramp, MacAskill flips his bike over a sign, and turns 360 degrees in the air, and lands on his back wheel on the other side.

He managed to perfect the trick just before a huge dust storm swept into the village. He has also riding across the roofs of abandoned buildings and along the branches of dead trees, which have been turned white by the lagoon's salt water, and then navigating rusting train tracks and jumping over the tops of concrete tunnels.

MacAskill has been preforming street tricks for more than 17 years and got his first bike at the age of 4. He had wanted to go to Epecuén for the past two years so approached Red Bull with his idea to film a series of tricks there. The Argentinian town was once a lively lakeside resort but it was flooded without warning after a long period of heavy rains directed the lagoon bursting over its banks, plunging the small community in 1985.

The crew filmed there for 2 1/2 weeks to get the finest shots of the exclusive landscape, which appearances almost post-apocalyptic. Rusting cars, broken appliances and crumbling homes dot the landscape, which has once again become a popular tourist destination for people willing to drive at least 6 hours form Buenos Aires to get there.

 MacAskill said this was a town that was a lot of people's homes and they’ve been forced out by the flood so at first it was strange. After a while I settled into the place and respected how attractive it was despite what happened there. His favorite part was he rides across a series of rooftops. The sequence was filmed from the air and in fact shows off the scale of the village.  He was also fortunate to avoid any injuries during the shoot, and also had a few near misses riding the skinny beam coming off the side of one of the building’s roofs so I had a few ten foot jumps to the ground without my bike as I missed my spot!

One of resident 83 years old, Pablo Novak still lives on the edge of the town. He spends his days cycling around the ruins, welcoming people who wander into the wrecked streets. Whoever passes nearby cannot go without coming to visit here. It's getting more people to the area, as they come to see the ruins.

Amazing half-animal, half-plant

The Elysia Chlorotica (common name the eastern emerald elysia) is sea slug is not like most sea slugs.  Researchers refer to this animal as being "solar-powered," since it undergoes several plant-like processes and resembles a leaf!  This creature has chloroplasts that let him to convert sunlight into energy, so yes, it undergoes photosynthesis. The Elysia Chlorotica sea slug, distinct some of the more exotic animals we see here on Greenamajigger, can be found close to home!  By close, it means the east coast of the United States. It lives in a subcellular endosymbiotic relationship with chloroplasts of the marine heterokont alga Vaucheria litorea. It is feeding on algae; this amazing animal has a weird way of sustaining life.  Because it needs to eat plants to maintain its existence, but the only thing that it takes from what it eats are chloroplasts, which help it undergo photosynthesis more easily!  So, is the elysia chlorotica a plant?  Yes. Is it an animal? Yes. Mind Blown!