An Abandoned Shopping Mall in Bangkok Hides a Fishy Secret

In the post-apocalyptic films when the camera pans down the abandoned streets of Tokyo or New York long after people have disappeared and the buildings have fallen into shabbiness, we see nature thriving. Like trees and plants take hold in the sidewalks and wild animals like deer, bears, and lions stalk the ruins left behind by humans. But after descending the staircase at a vacant shopping mall in Bangkok, professional cook and photographer Jesse Rockwell discovered a wholly different take on beasts inheriting the Earth, specifically exotic koi and catfish teeming by the thousands in a secret subterranean aquarium.

A former 4 storey shopping mall, originally constructed as an 11 storey building found to be in breach of old town Bangkok’s 4 storey limits on building heights. The top 7 floors were smashed to adhere to building codes in 1997. However in 1999 the mall burned due to suspected arson committed by a competitor in the area. The disaster resulted in numerous casualties, and the building has remained abandoned ever since. Amazingly not having a roof, the basement floor remains under quite a lot of feet of water year round.  In the early of year 2000s an unidentified person starts introducing a small population of exotic Koi and Catfish species. The small population of fish starts to thrive and the result is now a self-sustained and astonishingly populated urban aquarium. What a remarkable discovery it makes you surprise what else lurks in abandoned places around the world? You can see more of Rockwell’s photography over on 500px and on his website, Taste of the Road.

Source: Colossal  
Charismatic Planet

Jesse Rockwell Website & Jesse Rockwell on 500px.com

Incredible Triple Lightning Strike on Three of Chicago's Tallest Buildings

Despite the fact that filming a time-lapse of a stormy derecho from his Chicago home, the talented videographer and Thread less creative director Craig Shimala able to capture magnificent and rare occurrence of a triple lightning strike on three of the city's tallest buildings. In the below video and stills images, three bolts of lightning can be seen remarkably striking Willis Tower, Trump Tower, and the John Hancock Building at the same time, illuminating the Chicago skyline in an amazingly dynamic way. Incredibly, this isn't the first time Craig Shimala has captured this unusual phenomenon. He filmed the same thing almost exactly four years ago back in 2010, and he says lightning never strikes the same place twice?

Check out Craig Shimala Website 

Source: My Modernmet 

“Hyperion” World’s Tallest Knowing Living Tree

Hyperion is the name of a coast redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens) in Northern California that was measured at 115.61 metres (379.3 feet), which ranks it as the world's tallest known living tree. Hyperion is the world’s tallest tree, who was discovered in 2006 and discovered three trees taller than the former world record holder “Stratosphere Giant 113.11m tall in late 2009”. The most successful discovery of “Hyperion tree”; when naturalists Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor discovered the first known living tree on Earth exceeding 115m height. Latest measurement of Hyperion is from late 2009 then the tree was 115.61m tall. Hyperion is in good shape and seems still to be growing up.

Traditionally the exact location of the tree has not been publicized due to the fear that human traffic would disturb the ecosystem the tree inhabits. This is done to avoid the temptation to develop this part of national park or simply to prevent disturbance to the forest by the crowds of motivated nature lovers wading towards the tree. It is only come to know that it takes hard walk to reach this remote location in Redwood National Park. The tree is estimated to contain 18,600 cubic feet (530 m3) of wood and to be roughly 700–800 years old. Therefore; in Feb 2012, Hyperion was featured in the BBC Radio 4 documentary James and the Giant Redwoods by James Aldred.

Even though the part of the scientific community is not pleased with this stance (location of the tree is not disclosed even in scientific publications), there’re several sad cases when delicate information from deeply scientific publications easily becomes VERY public. But, definitely the heated debates about ethics in science and personal intrigues form the prosaic side in the lives of scientists. The splendid Hyperion stands tall above this.

Magnificent Interactive Cloud Lamp Will Bring A Thunderstorm Into Your Living Room

This magnificent interactive audiovisual fixture by Richard Clarkson’s inter-disciplinary design studio brings beautiful thunder but none of the rain of a summer storm to your home’s interior. The superb “Cloud” thunder storm lamp and speaker system similar to a rain cloud on a leash that can even interact with people and sounds around it.

This creative little lamp is replete with lights, microphones, motion sensors, and a potent speaker system. A remote control permits user to set it to diverse modes, getting it to act alike a simple thunder cloud, to respond to movements in its surroundings, or to respond to sounds or music that it hears around it. The poufy outer layer definitely brings to an end the illusion that we are looking at a cloud. Check out this beautiful gifs and video below to see it in action! You can also check out our post about an artist who tried to create real clouds indoors!

Wonderful Birds “Cormorant” Fishing at Nagaragawa River in Japan

In this traditional fishing method “ukai” a cormorant master called “usho” succeeds cormorants to capture ayu or sweetfish. The ushos of River Nagara have been the official staff of the Imperial Household Agency of Japan since 1890 famous for its limpid stream, in Gifu Prefecture. Master trainers of cormorants dressed in ancient costume freely manipulate 10-12 wild sea cormorants to skillfully catch small trout and this fishing is performed every night between May 15th and October 15^th except during a full moon or in heavy rain. This 1300-year-old occasion is protected by the Japanese government.

You can look out the whole spectacle aboard a small wooden boat while dining and drinking sake. Cormorant fishing normally starts at 7:30 in the evening. The wooden boats are illuminated with pine torches lit on the boats. The master trainers slowly down to boat sail out into the river, and when the cormorants swallow small trout all at once at the shouts of the master trainers, the audiences applaud and cheer. The evening closes with six boats sailing side by side to corner the small trout into the shallows, which is a quite incredible view. Famous comedian actor Charlie Chaplin visited Nagaragawa River two times to see this cormorant fishing, kept on exclaiming "Wonderful!" throughout the spectacle.

Master trainers of cormorants belong to the Imperial Household Agency, and a vital duty of theirs is to make offerings of small trout to the Emperor. It is well prescribed that in every generation the eldest son succeeds his father, and these men live with cormorants in order to educate them every day. At the Ukai-no-Sato home of cormorant fishing nearby the river, you can take a close look at the lifestyle of these cormorant fishermen.