Odd Things You Should Know

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07.28.10 — A science fiction sand sculpture competition in Port Angeles, WA.


07.28.10 — New species of giant rat found in the "Lost World" of an extinct volcano crater in New Guinea.


07.28.10 — A visit to the Ghibli Museum in Japan, dedicated to animation and the work of Hayao Miyazaki.


07.24.10 — One of the world's oldest "doodles" found inscribed in a chunk of sandstone in the UK.


07.24.10 — The Lunch Box Museum of Columbus, GA.


07.24.10 — A second, wooden Stonehenge found 900 meters from original.


07.23.10 — Massive gun sculpture (i.e., sculpture made of guns) looks too cool for its anti-gun message.


07.23.10 — President of Venezuela exhumes the bones of Simon Bolivar.


07.23.10 — Discovery of a 15-million-year-old limestone cave in Australia yield fossils of giant marsupials.


07.23.10 — Cool stuff from Comic-Con 2010 in San Diego, CA.


07.21.10 — Wagon ruts on the Oregon Trail still visible after 150 years.


07.21.10 — The amazing "blue holes" of the Bahamas...and what they can tell us about life on other planets.


07.21.10 — Planned dinosaur museum in Australia boasts to kick the collective ass of the rest of the world's dinosaur museums.


07.21.10 — The Ice Museum holds ice sculpture reproductions of famous works of art at the Orange County fair in southern California.


07.18.10 — Larry and Vince, the crash test dummies from the "You could learn a lot from a dummy" public service announcements, are headed to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.


07.16.10 — One-time Russian resort now just Russian ruins.


07.16.10 — P.T. Barnum Museum in Bridgeport shut down to tornado damage and lead contamination.


07.16.10 — More than you want to know about sperm trees (also called trees of heaven).


07.16.10 — Corpse flower set to bloom in Austin, TX.


07.15.10 — Archeologists find 18th Century ship buried at Ground Zero.


07.15.10 — Roy Rogers' stuffed and mounted horse Trigger bought by Nebraska TV station (via @novaris).


07.15.10 — New witch museum in Salem, MA, run by witches.


07.15.10 — Double tomb unearthed in Egypt could be just the tip of the cemetery-berg.


07.14.10 — A university in Poland has a collection of tattooed human flesh preserved in formaldehyde.


07.13.10 — Cool article idea on theme park attractions that outlive their movie tie-ins.


07.13.10 — Massachusetts guy claims to have found the once-infamous Babe Ruth piano in a pond in Sudbury.


07.13.10 — UK unleashes world's first stealth robot fighter plane, Taranis. Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply.


07.13.10 — A Russian lake monster is eating people (via @novaris). I just want one lake monster sighting that isn't "long-necked" and "snake-like."


07.13.10 — Haven't you always wanted a monkey? A mummified howler mummy in a dress at the World of Mummies exhibit in Los Angeles, CA (via @atlasobscura).


07.12.10 — A tour of Mexico's drug tunnels.


07.12.10 — A solar-powered plane flies in Switzerland.


07.12.10 — Thousands gather on Easter Island to watch a total solar eclipse.


07.12.10 — Whale fossils found in Egyptian desert.


07.11.10 — Historians claim to find King Arthur's Round Table...and it seats 1,000...and it's not a table.


07.08.10 — A strange visit to the Temples of Humankind at the Federation of Damanhur in Italy.


07.08.10 — Tornadoes as tourist destinations.


07.08.10 — Ten fallen natural rock formations.


07.08.10 — P.T. Barnum's 200th birthday celebration, complete with medium and a Feejee Mermaid.


07.07.10 — The eerie, futuristic blue glow inside a German nuclear plant.


07.02.10 — Monster whale fossil found in Peruvian desert with teeth so large they were originally thought to be elephant tusks.


07.01.10 — New Ray Harryhausen exhibit at the London Film Museum opens on his 90th birthday and features many of his original models.


07.01.10 — We actually still have a lock of Napoleon's hair. Well, we don't, some guy that paid $13,000 at auction does. Still, that's cheaper than most celebrity memorabilia. We kind of suck.


07.01.10 — The flying car finally goes into production. Looks nothing like science fiction promised us.


07.01.10 — Corpse Flowers bloom this week in Wisconsin and California. Planning the invasion, I think.


06.30.10 — A 1000-mile-high Alpine viewing tower in Germany made up of a pair of open-air crossing walkways that dead-end in space.


06.29.10 — Antique (i.e., pre-Hitler) swastika quilt donated to Greeley Museum in Colorado.


06.29.10 — Amazing "homemade" animatronic Halo costume.


06.29.10 — This crack in Africa is the beginning of an ocean that will one day split the Dark Continent.


06.29.10 — Ten places you don't want to visit (except that a perverse part of you does).


06.28.10 — The infinity pool atop the 55-story hotel in Singapore is both relaxing and terrifying.


06.26.10 — World's largest gold coin sold at auction for $4 million. New owner will look just as silly as old owner carrying it around in his pocket.


06.23.10 — World's largest dinosaur graveyard found in western Canada.


06.23.10 — Behind the scenes at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.


06.23.10 — Lasers uncover earliest images of Apostles Andrew and John in the catacombs under Rome.


06.23.10 — Image gallery of hidden Easter eggs at the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, FL.


06.22.10 — Giant, Victorian-looking machine/topiary thing lands in France.


06.22.10 — The Atomic Testing Museum in Los Vegas, NV.


06.22.10 — Possible skull of Australian bushranger icon Ned Kelly handed over for forensic authentication after being stolen and missing for more than three decades.


06.22.10 — Visiting tragedies-turned-tourist-destinations in Oklahoma and Texas.


06.22.10 — Photo gallery of the goings on at the E3 Expo. Companies always bring out really cool stuff to push video games and related products.


06.21.10 — Museum of Arts and Design features "Dead or Alive" exhibit, with works that include the image of a skull made of cockroach wings, the skeleton of a dodo made of discarded fast-food chicken bones, and other macabre weirdness. Original link goes to a photo gallery; here's a link to an article about the exhibit.


06.19.10 — "The Sea that Vanished Overnight"


06.18.10 — Cool 40-foot 50s-era science fiction rocket ship art installation in San Francisco, CA, lets you go inside and explore.


06.18.10 — Vatican artifact exhibit comes to Pittsburgh, PA (via @cfmceroz).


06.18.10 — A proposed bridge for connecting mainlands that drive on opposite sides of the road.


06.18.10 — It's almost summertime. That means beach vacations and Bigfoot sightings. This one's named Knobby, and he's from North Carolina (via @novaris).


06.17.10 — Man, you've got to see what an over-sized gorilla mad of wire hangers looks like.


06.16.10 — Awesome before, during, and after pics of a 62-foot-tall statue of Jesus in Ohio being incinerated by lightning.


06.15.10 — Gigantic bamboo art installation on top of the Met in New York. It's cooler-looking than it sounds.


06.14.10 — House in Malibu, CA, built from the parts of a jumbo jet.


06.14.10 — 15 pieces of architecture featured prominently in 15 popular science fiction movies.


06.14.10 — The strange-looking Einstein Tower in Germany.


06.14.10 — 50-year-old London subway passage discovered with vintage posters still intact.


06.13.10 — The happily ending story of a 40-foot-long polyurethane and steel iguana with a 30-year past.


06.12.10 — Skull of a sixth "Iranian Saltman" found.


06.12.10 — Ten alternatives to Stonehenge in the UK.


06.12.10 — New York public art project gives you keys to random parts of the city.


06.12.10 — A statue of Lois Lane for Metropolis, IL.


06.10.10 — Stalin-era mass grave discovered in Vladivostok with 495 gunshot-riddled skeletons.


06.10.10 — The healing pyramids of Russia.


06.10.10 — Teenage mutant albino turtles.


06.10.10 — Cosmos takes a look at the 5,000-year-old murder of the strangely preserved Otzi the Iceman.


06.09.10 — Giant packing tape spider web art installation.


06.08.10 — Chicago about to get what looks like a pretty awesome giant eyeball sculpture.


06.08.10 — Map of the Bridgewater Triangle in Massachusetts.


06.08.10 — Lost WWII battlefield discovered in New Guinea...complete with war dead.


06.08.10 — Wizard of Oz celebration in town where L. Frank Baum was born closed down due to...tornado.


06.08.10 — Galileo's fingers go on display in Italian science museum.


06.07.10 — Decapitated, animal-mauled remains of Roman gladiators found in UK cemetery.


06.07.10 — A 400-year-old shipwreck recently unearthed by storms could be North Carolina's oldest.


06.07.10 — Ancient meteorite crater in Estonia believed to be site of animal sacrifice and other cult rites.


06.07.10 — World's first Ferrari-themed amusement park ready to open in Abu Dhabi.


06.05.10 — Denver Airport gets a 26-foot-tall statue of Anubis to keep its giant demon horse statue company.


06.05.10 — College prank turns campus astronomy observatory into R2D2.


06.05.10 — The haunted house as art.


06.05.10 — Exhibit featuring art inspired by H.P. Lovecraft opens in Brooklyn.



06.05.10 — Former gang member gives tours of L.A. gang hot spots.


06.04.10 — Dog skeleton goes on display that was salvaged from Henry VIII's flagship Mary Rose that sank in 1545.


06.03.10 — Biggest traveling exhibit of mummies ever assembled starts its U.S. tour in Los Angeles in July.


06.02.10 — Jimmy Fallon discusses NBC Studios' "Muppet Closet." Pretty cool Jim Henson artifact/story.


06.02.10 — James Bond's Aston Martin from Goldfinger to be sold at auction. Cool pics.


06.02.10 — Madame Tussaud's 4D Marvel Superheros exhibition in London.


06.02.10 — Giant bird image discovered in Australia could be oldest painting on the continent.


06.02.10 — The Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull...still a hoax after all these years.


05.29.10 — The Deep exhibition in London features creatures from the darkest parts of the ocean.


05.29.10 — Four-ton, $5M Jade Buddha for Universal Peace stops in Worcester, MA, on its world tour.


05.29.10 — Rome's Colosseum opens its underground tunnels to the public for the first time since they were imprisoned there.


05.29.10 — Gunther von Hagens, of "Bodyworlds" fame/infamy offers plastinated body parts for sale.


05.27.10 — Carnivorous plant show in San Francisco, CA, now through Halloween.


05.27.10 — Da Vinci's 500-year-old robot knight on display in Sydney, Australia.


05.27.10 — Cleopatra's sunken palace off the coast of Alexandria explored.


05.27.10 — New species of fish...with hands.


05.26.10 — Bannerman Castle on the Hudson in New York is falling down.


05.25.10 — "Amityville Horror" house for sale.


05.25.10 —  World's first motorcycle hearse (via @KatieCrisis).


05.25.10 —  One million dollar Ghost Ship haunted attraction debuts this weekend in Wildwood, NJ.


05.25.10 —  Sue, the famous T Rex skeleton at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL, replaced with a robot version that senses and reacts to visitors so that you can pretend to be Ben Stiller.


05.21.10 —  Mars-themed amusement park planned for Florida.


05.21.10 — Four 2,000-year-old clay Cyprian coffins found.


05.21.10 — Apparently, the bandage from Lincoln's death wound was divvied up for souvenirs by those at his deathbed. One of those fragments is currently on display in Texas.


05.21.10 — Ontario gets its own "Montauk Monster." Yet again, pics and then a disappearing body.


05.21.10 — A swear-its-not-a-canine Chupacabra corpse goes on display in Texas.


05.20.10 — Oldest known Mexican pyramid...complete with the skeletons of human sacrifice victims.


05.17.10 — In Brazil, the world's largest scientific collection of dead snakes, spiders and scorpions destroyed in a fire.


05.17.10 — The rare, and effeminate, pink katydid.


05.17.10 — Most near-complete fossil of a pre-dinosaur lizard discovered in Brazil.


05.17.10 — The Burnt Food Museum in Arlington, MA.


05.17.10 — Burkittsville, MD, mulls selling the town signs seen in the movie The Blair Witch.


05.15.10 — Giant Oarfish found dead in Swedish waters, first specimen Sweden has seen in 130 years.


05.11.10 — Legendary Legendary Ray Harryhausen's legendary stop-motion model collection goes on display in Beverly Hills this summer.


05.07.10 — Blue whale buried for two decades exhumed and its bones put on display in Vancouver.


05.07.10 — Photo gallery of water spillways, which look like holes in the universe.


05.07.10 — Company provides holograms of priceless artifacts for museums that can't get their hands on the real things. I'm really hoping that doesn't catch on.


05.07.10 — A look back at the off-screen life of Robby the Robot, including its current whereabouts.


05.07.10 — Gold-plated, diamond encrusted guns seized from a Mexican drug lord.


05.07.10 — France gives New Zealand back its shrunken heads with a bottle of wine and a "Sorry" note.


05.05.10 — The Dragon's Blood Tree bleeds red sap.


05.04.10 — A giant beaver dam that can be seen...from space. Giant beavers. Terrifying.


05.04.10 — Michelle Souliere, owner of The Green Hand books hop in Portland, ME, has just released her book Strange Maine: True Tales of the Pine Tree State.


05.04.10 — Subtropolis, Kansas City's underground business district.


05.04.10 — Cool art installation in Japan creates the illusion that visitors are walking around at the bottom of a full swimming pool.


05.03.10 — Crocodile mummies. Two tastes that go great together.


04.28.10 — A 21-foot-tall robot baby. Surrender.


04.28.10 — A look at an abandoned and perhaps soon-to-be-gone Coney Island.


04.27.10 — Peru would like to show you what a city-eating zinc and lead mine looks like.


04.27.10 — Noah's ark discovered on Mount Ararat with "99.9% certainty." There's certainly at least one thing certain about that statement.


04.27.10 — Panoramic view of a temporarily emptied 19th century underground man-made Belgian reservoir.


04.26.10 — Cool pics and info on Antarctic science outposts...ripe for attack by The Thing.


04.26.10 — 190,000-square-foot Musical Instruments Museum opens in Phoenix, AZ, and includes the piano on which Lennon wrote Imagine and a Gibson guitar from Cream-era Clapton.


04.26.10 — Interior and exterior pics of Johnny Depp's Caribbean yacht.


04.26.10 — Gene Roddenberry Star Trek artifacts up for auction..along with Bill Shatner's motorcyle.


04.25.10 — This article is two years old, but the topic is awesome...the private museum of a multimillionaire (thanks, @mcolombo).


04.23.10 — British reporter gets a sneak peek of Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios Orlando. Finds it immersive...except for the whole palm trees and baking sun of Florida bit.


04.23.10 — Dead Poets Grand Tour 2010 tours the graves of the country's deadest poets.


04.23.10 — Excavating Mayans buried beneath their homes. The body is in the basement.


04.23.10 — Albino alligators at the Georgia Aquarium (via @Sausagelinks)


04.22.10 — Francois Roberts plays with bones...and then photographs them.


04.22.10 — "From Cool to Creepy: 40 Modern-Day Sculptures."


04.21.10 — A 130-year-old Victorian pissoir.


04.21.10 — A highly detailed, scale model of Bilbo's "hole in the ground," Bag End from The Lord of the Rings.


04.21.10 — The National Gallery in London puts its biggest mistakes on display.


04.20.10 — A poetic look at the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, finally resting place of Shelley, Keats, and others.


04.20.10 — Giant suspended Tetris pieces in Sydney, Australia. The Tetris God is a vengeful God.


04.19.10 — Controversial (of course) museum dedicated to Nazi evil has opened in the castle home of the infamous Heinrich Himmler in Germany. Critics are apparently calling it "Naziland."


04.19.10 — 4,000-year-old Seahenge monument reassembled for display inside UK museum. Here's an old picture of it in its original natural habitat. Bonus in the latter: The practice of "excarnation" outlined.


04.19.10 — "10 Weirdest Urban Ecosystems on Earth."


04.19.10 — New Smithsonian exhibit on human origins features rare original Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon skulls discovered in the 1800s.


04.17.10 — The Saggaponack, NY, house of Charles Addams, creator of the Addams Family, is now open for tours. Snapping one's fingers encouraged inside.


04.16.10 — Another list (w/ pics) of abandoned places in the world. This time due to disaster.


04.16.10 — The Cockroach Hall of Fame Museum in Plano, TX.


04.16.10 — Plans for turning infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch into a habitable plastic island.


04.16.10 — "Military Testing High-Tech Dirigibles in Utah.


04.16.10 — If my office were like some of these, I wouldn't be pushing to work from home so much.


04.15.10 — Definitely need to give something this awesome a better name than "pizzley" or "grolar."


04.15.10 — The possibility of a lost cow transport tunnel under New York City (via @BAMstutz).


04.15.10 — A look at the Rainbow Eucalyptus, one of the most colorful trees on the planet.


04.15.10 — Scientists discover world's deepest undersea volcano vent.


04.15.10 — Travel destinations for [not] seeing UFOs.


04.14.10 — Maine man finds liquid-secreting piece of bone he thinks might be a mysterious skull.


04.14.10 — Plan for your doomsday with a futuristic bunker.


04.14.10 — A cliff-top monastery in Ethiopia...and how to climb there.


04.14.10 — Texas' Rattlesnake Roundup...with cool pic of children and a snake pit.


04.14.10 — Balanced rocks that scoff at earthquake prediction.


04.13.10 — Cool photo gallery of this year's Monsterpalooza event in Burbank, CA.


04.13.10 — Victorian taxidermy collection to go up for auction. Features such oddities as a yeti, a unicorn, and a flying cat.


04.12.10 — Cool story about Parliament-Funkadelic's missing Mothership stage prop...lost for decades in the overgrown junkyards of Prince George's County, Maryland.


04.11.10 — Steve Tobin's sculpture installation "Steelroots" in Lisle, IL.


04.11.10 — First ever multicellular creature found that lives without oxygen.


04.11.10 — Iowa proud of their giant garden gnome.


04.11.10 — Serial killer John Wayne Gacy's prison art...lots of creepy clowns.


04.11.10 — Examples of textured architecture across the world.


04.08.10 — Secret stone beehives discovered in a 600-year-old chapel in the UK.


04.08.10 — The world's ugliest political statues, according to some guy. Been to one of them. Was way okay with it.


04.08.10 — A look at the New Jersey convenience store that was both a setting and a character in Kevin Smith's Clerks.


04.08.10 — Naperville, IL, gets a nine-foot-tall bronze Dick Tracy.


04.06.10 — UK family discover ancient, secret church underneath their house.


04.06.10 — Dr. Evermor's Forevertron...in Wisconsin.


04.06.10 — Pompeii victims go on exhibit.


03.28.10 — A LIFE image gallery of famous mummies.


03.28.10 — Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC to exhibit a retrospective of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "Running Fence," the temporary 25-mile fabric fence art installation in California.


03.28.10 — Infamous Watergate garage in DC currently at the center of a web of lawsuits.


03.28.10 — "The Figures of the Musee Mechanique" in San Francisco, CA.


03.25.10 — Strange dark human forms made of iron and fiberglass suddenly populate New York City.


03.25.10 — Cool stuff to see in Houston, TX.


03.25.10 — Pics from the rotting towns on the Salton Sea in California.


03.25.10 — Munch's "The Scream"...in cardboard.


03.24.10 — Gold Rush ghost town of Bodie in California also happens to be the coldest place in the lower 48. It's the ghosts that shiver there.


03.24.10 — Mars as a winter wonderland of caron dioxide snow.


03.24.10 — Walt Disney museum about to open in San Francisco because there are just not enough places to access that man's work.


03.21.10 — France publicly displays a guillotine for the first time in more than 30 years.


03.21.10 — The Great Plains hides an underground natural "mega-tank" of America's helium stores.


03.21.10 — Plum Island, home of the 60-year-old high-security Plum Island Animal Disease Center, might be for sale.


03.21.10 — A map of Poe's life in Boston (Thanks, Becky).


03.19.10 — Someone allegedly attempting to shop around the alleged syringe that allegedly killed Michael Jackson. Allegedly.


03.19.10 — A gallery of the oldest trees in the world. Ents not included.


03.19.10 — Six Flags New Orleans: Abandoned, creepy, and awesome photographer fodder.


03.19.10 — Great photo of a shrimp discovered under the Antarctic ice.


03.17.10 — The severed and mummified hand of a cheating gambler stolen from the 684-year-old UK pub where it was displayed.


03.17.10 — "The Most Fascinating Tombs in the World."


03.17.10 — IKEA goes for some creative subway advertising.


03.17.10 — He Pingping, the world's smallest man, dies at age 21.


03.17.10 — Earthquake lights, Naga fireballs, and other unexplained natural phenomena.


03.14.10 — "Every year during the month of February, Horsetail Falls turns golden at sunset." (thanks, @mcolombo)


03.14.10 — Some corporate-sponsored guy visits the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, CA.


03.14.10 — Filling New York's cracks...with Legos. Everything is art.


03.14.10 — The terrifying coconut crab. "I did some research on them and it turns out they're nature's worst thing."...and they might have eaten Amelia Earhart.


03.13.10 — Spectacular theater-turned bookstore in Buenos Aires.


03.13.10 — An look at some amazing suspension bridges from engineers who want to be spider.


03.13.10 — New National Leprechaun Museum in Dublin, Ireland.


03.13.10 — World record set for a giant house of cards.


03.13.10 — Antique flying car up for auction.


03.11.10 — Mass grave of beheaded vikings found at London Olympic site.


03.11.10 — Blooming canisters of the cremated insane at Oregon State Hospital.



03.09.10 — The Alice in Wonderland tour at Oxford.


03.09.10 — Anticrepuscular rays or, as they are more commonly known, uh, sunbeams.


03.09.10 — A picture of strange-looking plant parasites.


03.09.10 — It's an island, a yacht, and a condo all in one. I am just a rock.


03.08.10 — Some oddities deserve a lot of really's in front of their cool's. For example, Blood Falls in Antarctica (thanks, @mcolombo).


03.07.10 — The mystery of the Mayan jade head (thanks, @HollyEdgell).


03.07.10 — Hotel cameos from famous movies.


03.07.10 — In Indiana, a 19th Century grave in the middle of the road (Thanks, Becky).


03.07.10 — The preserved baby woolly mammoth found in Siberia to go on display in U.S. for first time. Chicago is the lucky city.


03.07.10 — Secret snake discovered in a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I.


03.06.10 — Fossil found of a snake in the process of eating a nest full of baby dinosaurs. Something very Butterfly Effect about that.


03.03.10 — A baby tapir at the San Diego Zoo is what you'll see if you click the link.


03.02.10 — Nail from the crucifixion of Christ found...if you believe the Knights Templar it was buried with.


03.01.10 — Wales plans a gigantic dragon statue.


03.01.10 — In Australia, it rains fish.


03.01.10 — Dillinger and Capone memorabilia to be auctioned.


03.01.10 — Giant pharaoh head discovered in Egypt.


03.01.10 — H.P. Lovecraft birthday celebration.


02.28.10 — American Gothic Gigantica...from the artist who brought us The Awakening.


02.26.10 — Giant shark aquarium in Dubai cracks and causes mall evacuation.


02.24.10 — When in Australia, visit Cane Toad World.


02.24.10 — New Mexico finds itself home to the world's first spaceport, Spaceport America.


02.24.10 — An interactive map of London filming locations to visit. Because you've already seen Big Ben.


02.23.10 — The discovery of an 11,500-year-old temple in Turkey rewrites human history. What draft are we on again?


02.23.10 — Party in the Goondocks. In June, Astoria, OR, celebrates the 25th anniversary of The Goonies, which was filmed there.


02.20.10 — Apparently, Boston, MA, has its own real-life mysterious "Shutter Island."


02.20.10 — Ick, but hm. Serial killer Ted Bundy's VW Beetle goes on display at the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C.


02.18.10 — Cool pics and account of a visit inside an abandoned submarine.


02.18.10 — An [art?] installation of buried Airstream RVs.


02.18.10 — An expedition to the paved streets of a California city that was never built.


02.18.10 — Coney Island to make a comeback.


02.18.10 — British government releases 6,000 pages of material from its 1990s-era UFO files. Worth checking out all the hand-drawn "eye-witness" images.


02.17.10 — The strange story of 36 rotting, vintage Corvettes.


02.17.10 — An ooky Charles Addams exhibit of original artwork goes on display in New York.


02.17.10 — Bronze-Age shipwreck discovered off the coast of Devon, UK.


02.17.10 — Tiny Indonesian flying lizard. Unnecessary Avatar reference.


02.15.10 — The skeleton of St. Anthony go on display in Italy. Includes Great pic of his skeleton surrounded by monks.


02.15.10 — Despite the contradiction in terms, this is what an "underwater skyscraper" might look like when the world goes all Waterworld on us.


02.15.10 — A motorcycle made from an alligator carcass. Running in zigzags won't help you with this one.


02.15.10 — The only immortal creature on earth can still be eaten by any random passing fish. It should have wished for indestructibility, too.


02.14.10 — Traveling exhibit on the detritus of love from the Museum of Broken Relationships. Happy Valentine's Day.


02.13.10 — Great pics of Disney's abandoned and derelict "River Country" water park.


02.12.10 — Largest crab in the UK is not something I would want to see coming at me in the ocean.


02.12.10 — First ever footage captured of a live oarfish, which at upwards of 50 feet, is the longest bony fish in the world and a possible source of sea serpent myths.


02.12.10 — The fish with the transparent head has hard time keeping thoughts to itself.




02.05.10 — Giacometti sculpture sets new record for most expensive piece sold at auction. Take that, Picasso.


02.05.10 — Awesome and terrifying pics from the top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, home of the world's worst weather.


02.05.10 — The Dresden Codex: The oldest book in the Americas.


02.05.10 — Centralia, PA, continues its slow death as more homes razed. See the 2007 O.T.I.S. article about the ever-burning ghost town here.


02.04.10 — Disguising an airplane factory as a rural subdivision.


02.04.10 — The Robonaut 2. That's right, a robot astronaut.


02.04.10 — 700-year-old stone houses in Iran.


02.02.10 — A volcanic island on a lake on an island on a lake on an island.


02.02.10 — New Peter Jackson King Kong ride at Universal Studios Hollywood to open this summer after original classic Kong ride destroyed in fire two years ago.


02.02.10 — Interesting sculpture of life-size nude female made out of typewriter parts.


01-31-10 — 245-pound, 43-inch-tall Great Dane. You need a real pet.




01.30.10 — European festivals that feature fire and vikings. Pretty cool pics.


01.30.10 — A power plant shaped like a volcano planned for the UK.


01.30.10 — Famous Texas Alamo Village outdoor movie set closes to general public after 50 years. John Wayne is sad.


01.27.10 —Historian believes he has found satellite evidence of the body of a man who might have conquered Everest three decades before Sir Edmund Hillary.


01.27.10 — Mount Washington in New Hampshire loses the "world's fastest wind" record to a typhoon in Australia. Previous record: 231 mph. New record: 253.


01.27.10 — ABBAWORLD.


01.27.10 — In 2007, somebody with a video camera made it into the courtyard of the secretive Skull and Bones Society Tomb at Yale University in New Haven, CT.


01.26.10 — "Sheep scuptures made out of rotary phones" just does not sum up how cool this art at the Museum of Telecommunication in Frankfurt, Germany is.


01.26.10 — The atrocious-looking blobfish is endangered. Scientists are trying to decide how they feel about this.




01.24.10 — Manhattan Project sites considered for National Park status.


01.24.10 — The macabre treasures of St. Thomas Hospital in London.


01.24.10 — New book about the famously preserved Bog People.


01.24.10 — Atlanta Olympic Park bombing evidence on display at FBI headquarters.


01.24.10 — A treehouse mansion in Portland, OR. Great pics.


01.24.10 — Interior pics of the newly christened and posh Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest tower.


01.24.10 — What a NASA garage sale looks like.


01.24.10 — Cool pics of an albino deer in the wilderness of Italy.


01.24.10 — Way cool underground house in Switzerland.


01.21.10 — The African Tree Sausage. That is all.


01.21.10 — Egyptian cat goddess temple unearthed.


01.21.10 — Mutant human cadaver washes ashore. It has begun.


01.21.10 — New virtual museum dedicated to 1600s anatomical artist debuts. Cool pics.


01.21.10 — Skeleton found that could be an English princess...and the oldest remains of any English royal so far discovered.


01.17.10 — What Poe looked like without his mustache.




01.17.10 — Ruins of America slideshow from Slate.com.


01.17.10 — Australian meteorite becomes the center of a controversy.


01.17.10 — Oldest and largest elm tree in New England loses battle to Dutch Elm Disease.


01.17.10 — Hawaii-owned moon rocks found. Many more still missing. All of them more valuable than you'd think for things just randomly given away decades ago.


01.17.10 — Cool marque from the upcoming Broadway run of The Addams Family musical.


01.17.10 — He-Man art show in California.


01.17.10 — The Doomsday Clock in New York...is kind of silly. Thanks, Our Greatest Minds.


01.16.10 — Awesome pics of a realistic-looking Back to the Future DeLorean parked outside the Pasadena house that stood in for Doc Brown's in the movie.


01.16.10 — This roll cloud in Uruguay makes me hate roofs.


01.12.10 — Rare, 400-year-old map of the world goes on display at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.


01.12.10 — The first creature known to science that makes chlorophyll like a plant.


01.12.10 — Israeli robots for the battlefield. These terrors don't take Yom Kippur off.


01.12.10 — 10 places in the world you're not allowed to visit...even though you really want to.


01.11.10 — El Dorado discovered...on Google Earth.


01.11.10 — Rare, naturally occurring snow tubes for your winter enjoyment.


01.11.10 — 73-year-old Bugatti pulled from lake and sold at auction. Pretty cool pics of it being dredged.


01.11.10 — New Egyptian tombs reveal that slaves were not used to build the the great pyramids, say objective Egyptian archaeologists with no heritage at stake.


01.06.10 — In case you haven't marveled today, the Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival.


01.06.10 — Scientists discover oldest footprints on earth.


01.06.10 — Jeweler designs finger rings with plants growing in them.


01.06.10 — Skull-turned-ballot-box owned by the Skull and Bones Society to be auctioned.


01.06.10 — Roden Crater transformed into naked-eye observatory in Arizona.


01.03.10 — If you have 867 pinball machines, of course you should open a museum.


01.03.10 — 1912 remains of first ever plane to Antarctica found.


01.03.10 — NASA preps in advance to dole out the space shuttles to museums.


01.03.10 — Three-story tall monument of 25 already famous people gets ready for Oakland.


12.30.09 — Picasso's toy guitar found.


12.30.09 — Sea lions disappear from Pier 39 in San Francisco.


12.30.09 — Graceland Too in Holly Springs, MS.


12.30.09 — Filming locations for the highest grossing (domestic) movies of all time.


12.26.09 — University of Minnesota holds the largest collection of Sherlock Holmes memorabilia in the world.


12.26.09 — Behind the scenes at Garner Holts Productions, the creators of animatronic creatures featured everywhere from Disneyland to Chuck E. Cheese.


12.26.09 — Mississippis Museum of Art hosts the "Jim Henson's Fantastic World" exhibit.


12.26.09 — Inside the Robot Hut, one man's completely understandable fascination with toy and movie robots.


12.13.09 — Hitler's six-wheeled Mercedes-Benz on display at the Lyon Air Museum in Costa Mesa, CA.


12.13.09 — First Peeps retail store opens in Oxon Hill, MD. Do people really love those things that much?


12.13.09 — Strange designer staircases that make you want to climb them. Like the bookcase stairs in particular.


12.13.09 — Private-collection props from the New Zealand film and television industry go on display...in New Zealand. Haven't seen a Hercules and Xena reference in a while.


12.05.09 — Relics from "Black Sam" Bellamy's wrecked pirate ship on display in Norfolk, VA.


12.05.09 — A prehistoric, giant crystal under Manhattan Island is just waiting to be turned into a data network.


12.05.09 — Lichtenberg figures in acrylic blocks from artist Bert Hickman.


12.05.09 — The home of the Allman Brothers in Macon, GA, becomes a museum dedicated to them.


12.05.09 — The stories behind some of the strangest-looking houses in the world are even stranger.


12.03.09 — Brazil town beats average global twin rate by 1,000 percent. Some say it was a Nazi experiment.


12.03.09 — Cool pop culture museum in Baltimore, MD.


12.03.09 — World's tallest building to open next month in Dubai.


12.03.09 — Prohibition-era bowling alley found in a basement in Queens, NY.


12.03.09 — Richmond's contribution to the Year of Poe.


11.27.09 — A crystal Lexus from the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show.


11.27.09 — The history of Bannerman's Castle on Pollepel Castle in New York.


11.27.09 — Mysterious calf mutilations puzzle everyone except UFO enthusiasts.


11.27.09 — Harry Potter exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science through February 21, 2010.


11.27.09 — Theatre of Dionysos to be restored.


11.24.09 — Future museum of storytelling in Oxford, UK.


11.24.09 — Prisoner artists.


11.24.09 — World's largest earthquake-safe building.


11.24.09 — Rice paddy art.


11.23.09 — Way cool murals from around the world.


11.23.09 — A diamond-encrusted toilet and other of the world's most expensive toilets.


11.23.09 — Ornate wooden abandoned houses in Russia that are untouched due to their wilderness location.


11.21.09 — Death masks of the famous.


11.21.09 — A photo essay on the ever-photogenic redwoods.


11.21.09 — You can take down the "Missing" posters. Galileo's lost body parts found.


11.21.09 — Text found on Shroud of Turin.


11.21.09 — Hyper-realistic sculptures of the human form. Our bodies terrify me.


11.21.09 — First ever image of lightning emanating from a volcano. Our planet terrifies me.


11.19.09 — Rat croc, duck crock, and pancake croc: Crazy, ancient crocodiles from the Sahara. Nice pic included.


11.19.09 — Morbidly cool art exhibit at an abattoir in London.


11.19.09 — Amazing-looking new museum opens in Armenia: "Imagine an Art Deco version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon stretching nearly the height of the Empire State Building."


11.19.09 — Great pics from Tim Burton's artshow opening at the MoMA in New York. Includes props and artwork.


11.19.09 — Ghost trees in Trafalgar Square in London.


11.17.09 — Boneworms that feed off whale carcasses in the ocean darkness are my new nightmare. Actually, they're pretty little things.


11.17.09 — A hotel in France that treats its guests like hamsters, which is French for, well, hamsters.


11.17.09 — A guy in Florida shows off pictures of the sea monster he's been seeing. Wife is devastated by the news.


11.11.09 — Awesome photos from last night's major black-out in Brazil.


11.11.09 — The unlikely location of the highest wind ever observed by man.


11.11.09 — Ominous black plants, including the Dracula Vampire Orchid.


11.11.09 — Strange money trees in England.


11.10.09 — Unused International Space Station escape pod given to the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska.


11.10.09 — Giant magma plug fortress in Sri Lanka.


11.09.09 — How Vermont almost got the first domed city in history.


11.09.09 — Discovery of hundreds of bones in the desert could be a Persian army lost 2,500 years ago.


11.09.09 — Couple in Rome discover 500-year-old frescoes underneath the plaster of their apartment walls.


11.09.09 — The oddities and rarities of the New York Public Library, including the letter opener of Charles Dickens, made from the embalmed paw of his pet cat, and the cane that Virginia Woolf left on the riverbank the day she committed suicide.


11.06.09 — Drug lord's home in Colombia turned into an amusement park.


11.06.09 — A combination mace and gun from the early 1500s called the "holy water sprinkler."


11.06.09 — The haunting works of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.


11.06.09 — The Bolas de Fuego festival in El Salvador, where people throw fire at each other.


11.06.09 — Touring some famous filming locations in California.


11.04.09 — The sun hates the Tomb of the Black Prince.


11.04.09 — Some cool museums for your perusal.


11.04.09 — Beware the bald bears.


11.04.09 — Skeleton statues in the subway.




11.02.09 — Chesterfield, MO, gets the honor of a second casting of J. Seward's giant sculpture, The Awakening. Read about the original, currently located at the National Harbor in Maryland, here on O.T.I.S.


11.02.09 — An article on people who visit cemeteries for kicks.


11.02.09 — Holes in the Earth.


11.02.09 — The Museum of Death in Los Angeles, CA: "Possessions of serial killers, the mummified heads of decapitated mass murders, and such things as photos of celebrity crime and autopsy scenes."


10.24.09 — Largest web-spinning spider known to science found in Africa.


10.24.09 — The fossils of the tiniest dinosaur known to science on display in Los Angeles, CA.


10.24.09 — Walk through the Guardian of Forever in San Jose, CA.


10.24.09 — Crazy plans for a giant floating airport off the coast of California.


10.24.09 — The market for holy relics.


10.21.09 — A robot blob for defending the nation, courtesy of the Pentagon's DARPA.


10.21.09 — V...coming to the skies above a national monument near you.


10.21.09 — Original science fiction movie costumes on display at the California Museum in Sacramento.


10.21.09 — There's no place like...Chernobyl.


10.09.09 — Video of a Beluga Whale blowing bubbles on command.


10.13.09 — Couches made of cactus, chairs made of radiators, and other furniture that'll make you go ouch.


10.13.09 — Indianapolis, IN, throws festival in city cemetery.


10.13.09 — A look at the infamous history of the FeeJee mermaid.


10.13.09 — A set of stairs made out of giant working piano keys in Stockholm.


10.12.09 — Mysterious halo in the skies above Moscow.


10.12.09 — Disgusting blobs make the ocean, well, disgusting.


10.09.09 — Taxidermied chupacabra goes on display in October at the Lost World Museum in Phoenix, NY.


10.09.09 — A mainstream media tour of famous cemeteries.


10.09.09 — Giant new ring found around Saturn.

10.09.09 — The discovery of a second Stonehenge near the first means now we got a matching set.

10.06.09 — Infrared footage of 500,000 bats. Whoah.


10.06.09 — Camoflauge art. Looks pretty amazing...if you can see it.


10.06.09 — This is what it looks like when a missile silo is converted into a house.


10.06.09 — 100-year-anniversary cruise in 2012 will follow the course of the Titanic. Well, mostly.


10.05.09 — Intact, frozen woolly mammoth baby headed to Chicago for exhibit.


10.05.09 — Sometimes the only tool for the job is a gigantic machine.


10.04.09 — Rainforest sculptures in Olinda, Australia look positively lost city-ish.


10.04.09 — Awesome playgrounds of the 1970s.


10.03.09 — What happened to the Michael Jackson Neverland rides? You're probably riding them.


10.03.09 — 500-carat diamond found in a mine in South Africa.


10.01.09 — Hitler's skull found to be that of a woman. Repeat. We do not have Hitler's skull.


10.01.09 — Jaw-dropping white Bengal tiger attack shots.


09.30.09 — I usually don't make many demands, but you've gotta see these skulls and skeletons created out of cassette tapes by artist Brian Dettmer.


09.30.09 — Dwarves (dwarfs?) in China look to end discrimination and stereotyping by forming their own community...in which they dress like fairy tale characters, live in mushroom houses, and charge admission.


09.29.09 — Ancient, decapitated skeletons of over 50 men found in an old quarry in the UK with their skulls in piles.


09.29.09 — Amazing billboards that make me okay with visual pollution.


09.28.09 — Al Capone's Wisconsin hide-out on the market.


09.28.09 — Modern feats of building architecture that look like they'll fall over any minute.




09.28.09 — Rare cloth made from the silk of one million spiders on display at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.


09.24.09 — Astounding Halloween scarecrow art.


09.24.09 — Coast-to-coast science fiction road trip map.


09.24.09 — Latest accidental giant squid catch.


09.24.09 — Australia as Mars.


09.23.09 — Strange bus stops worth waiting at.


09.23.09 — How Germany does an upside-down house.


09.18.09 — Bermuda Triangle solved. Everything just crashed.


09.18.09 — Concept art for the next year's new Harry Potter theme park at Universal Studios Orlando.


09.18.09 — Save Ferris Bueller's house.


09.18.09 — Latest crazy-looking dead monster "photo but no corpse" evidence...this time in Panama.


09.18.09 — Prehistoric hominid skulls make us throw out ancient history books...again.


09.18.09 — Lost world of crazy creatures found in secluded volcanic crater.


09.10.09 — Way intriguing abandoned and rotting island city in Japan.


09.10.09 — One of the many "top coolest statues" lists circulating on the Internet. Every list is correct.


09.04.09 — Waterfall caverns for the delight of aquaphobes and claustrophobes.


09.04.09 — Incident at Exeter celebrated with first Exeter UFO Festival.


09.04.09 — War World II bunkers get turned into residences in Germany.


09.04.09 — Don't you fear the Yetis in Rio?


09.04.09 — Doomsday seed vault in the Arctic because, well, you never know.


09.04.09 — I can think of way more uses for robot fish than MIT can.


08.28.09 — Gov. Schwarzenegger keeps "Conan" sword at arm's reach in his office.


08.28.09 — Naturally occuring miracle fruit (actual name) makes everything taste sweet for up to half an hour.


08.28.09 — Behold the Mozart pee-stone in Austria.


08.28.09 — Loch Ness Monster found on Google Earth. Or something else. Probably anything else.


08.24.09 — Scuba divers under mosque in Istanbul find 800-year-old submerged graves of cannonized children.


08.24.09 — The Hope Diamond is getting a new setting, and we get to choose.


08.24.09 — Muck monster sighted. Or normal water animal not sighted.


08.18.09 — Man regularly cuddles with half a ton of crocodile. His death is worth those pics.


08.18.09 — Haunted Poe House. Part Theater. Part Haunted House. All Poe.


08.18.09 — Eerily preserved, 17-foot-long Xiphactinus about to go on display. It's an extinct fish with three-inch-long teeth. Pic included.


08.14.09 — Spooky abandoned subway stations.


08.14.09 — Meet a meteorite broker.


08.14.09 — The unbelieveable railway track market of Samut Songkhram in Thailand.


08.13.09 — New species of giant carnivorous plant discovered. I originally mistyped "plant" as "planet." Holy cow.


08.13.09 — 3,000-year-old Egyptian bust looks like Michael Jackson. I'm actually going to have to agree on this one.


08.13.09 — The under-appreciated cemeteries of Montreal, Quebec.


07.23.09 — Photo essay on the most alien landscapes on Earth.


07.23.09 — You knew about Rennaissance Festivals. What about Faerieworlds?


07.23.09 — Old gravestone in Milford, CT, with macabre inscription stolen then found.


07.07.09 — Super-security graveyard of the stars that may become Michael Jackson's final resting place.


07.07.09 — Michael Jackson-relevant sites around the world.


07.07.09 — Thriller filming locations courtesy of Google Street View.


06.25.09 — New documentary released on the Centralia mine fire.


06.25.09 — Egyptian mummies at the Musée de la civilisation in Quebec City, Canada.


06.25.09 — Adolf Hitler tree involved in controversy.


06.11.09 — The creation of a giant, life-sized Gundam in Japan.


06.11.09 — A visit to the imminently opening corpse flower at the Huntingdon Library in San Marino. More info here.


06.11.09 — Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh opens Roboworld, featuring a robot hall of fame.


06.03.09 — Ridiculously cool used-tire art.


06.03.09 — Gigantic crop circle jellyfish in England.


06.03.09 — Smallpox hospital ruins on Roosevelt Island in NY to be preservered.


05.26.09 — House where Cameron trashes a Ferrari in Ferris Bueller's Day Off for sale.


05.26.09 — The real-life search for Pee-Wee Herman's bike doesn't fall for Alamo basement answer.


05.26.09 — 3D murals make me walk into walls.


05.05.09 — An article on the CIA-commissioned sculpture that even the CIA can't crack.


05.05.09 — Random big things that attract tourists.


05.05.09 — Stu of Doom visits the Jim Thorpe Memorial and its irrelevant home.

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