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In a beautiful part of southern China there are some mountains called the Southern Sky Column Mountains which have recently been renamed to the Avatar Hallelujah Mountains after the floating mountains that were featured in the blockbuster movie Avatar. The floating Hallelujah Mountains in the movie were the inspiration of a Hollywood photographer who, in 2008, shot photos of the Southern Sky Column Mountains. Now, tourists can go on a tour to see Avatar’s floating mountain and learn that they were once called the Southern Sky Mountains.

Source: massiveblack

[ By Angie in Architecture & Design, Furniture & Interiors, History & Factoids, Urban Images. ]

Are stairs dangerous? How about if you twirled round and round and then tried to walk them? How about if you did not whirl but the staircases spun around in dizzying spirals? There is something entirely intriguing about spirals. Spiral shapes can be found in architecture, in nature, in DNA, and even in other galaxies. These 101 sexy spiraling shapes are architectural art. They twist, curling like a spring. This is a celebration of spiraling architectural design, angles versus curves. They may make you smile or they may induce vertigo, but here are some the most impressive, most dizzying, spiraling staircases from around the world.

Vatican

(image credits:nespyxel,‘ Toshio ‘,Stealthy Rabbit,nespyxel)

In Rome, inside Vatican City, the Vatican Museums are some of the greatest on the globe. The above spiral staircase inside one of those museums is the most recognizable spiral stairway in the world. In the late ‘20s, Pope Pius XI commissioned the monumental project and entrusted the sculptor Maraini with the creation of the model. Marinelli Foundry cast it in bronze. Pope John Paul II later commissioned the Marinelli Foundry for the 340 meters of bronze handrail.

Bexhill to Budapest

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The top two images are of the spiral staircase built in 1935 at De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea, located on the south coast of England. Ceilings and balconies have also been inspired by the same circular design, like on the middle right, in a Budapest, Hungary museum. On the bottom is the spiral staircase at Piccadilly Circus in London. Enjoy this virtual trip and these architecturally artistic flights without needing to climb a step.

Castles to Towers

(image credits:5y12u3k,pugwash00,innusa,shexbeer,Rabid Miffy)

These might make you dizzy as you ascend and descend, twisting and turning, spinning and whirling. Spiral staircases were first popular in castles like the castle in Chmielno, Poland, on the top left. Spiral stairs constructed during medieval times were usually made of stone and tended to wind in a clockwise direction. The three pictures on the right are of the Arc de Triomphe, a monument in Paris. There are 284 spiraling steps to reach the top of the Arc. The middle photo is looking down the round shell, while the bottom photo is looking up. On the bottom left, the spiraling staircase is from a castle in Poland near Kopiec Kosciuszko.

Helical stairs

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Helical stairs have a handrail on both sides, but no central pole like true spiral stairways do. Here are some helix / double helix staircases. The top left is in the interior of the Statue of Liberty. Both the top right photo of Royal Château de Blois and
the Château de Chambord on the bottom left are located in France. There are double helix DNA outdoor stairs and yet another springy spiral shape at the Garvan Institute in Sydney.

From Sagrada To Vizcaya

(image credits:Darrell Godliman,. SantiMB .,kagedfish,tom.wright,Captain Blackadder, SirHill17)

The top two and also middle right photos are of Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. The Sagrada Familia is a massive, privately-funded, Roman Catholic Church in Barcelona, Spain. It was designed by Antoni Gaudí who started worked on it in 1883. There was a previous architect in 1882, but Gaudí redesigned the The Sagrada Familia. It will have 18 towers and is not expected to be complete until at least 2026. The spiral on the middle left can be found in Miama at the Vizcaya Museum. Construction started on the bottom left staircases in 1499. It is the twin spiral staircase inside the “Burg” in Graz, Austria. The bright yellow staircase is looking up to down in La Praille, Genève.

Dizzy

(image credits:lee.stephens,Aditya Bhelke,Andre Bob,Martin Haesemeyer,tompagenet)

You could spin round and round and probably not get any more dizzy than if you leaned over the railing to snap a shot of these gorgeous spiraling staircases. The top right photo is of The Tulip Stairs, inside the Queen’s House, Greenwich Park in London. It was the first centrally unsupported spiral stairs constructed in England. On the middle left is a view looking up the spiral staircase that leads from the upper floor of the Stift to the Cathedral. It is located in Melk, Austria. On the bottom is a great shot looking down at The Monument to the Great Fire of London.

Spirograph

(image credits:-p-a-u-l-,Awaraa,.: Philipp Klinger :.,polarskates)

Staring at all the spirals can be a bit hypnotic. The yellow spiraling staircase in Austria was taken at the bottom looking up. The green staircase was titled Spirograph. On the bottom left is Vertigo, taken in Padova, Veneto, Italy. At the bottom right is the spiral staircase at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Spiral Up, Spiral Down

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Palazzo Barberini is a palace in Rome. It was built in 1549 and the top two photos are of an oval staircase by Borromini. The ornate spiral staircase on the bottom left can be seen in Malaysia at Kuala Lumpur Railway Station. The middle right photo was snapped inside the Museum do Pobo Galego in Spain. On the bottom right is the Lighthouse Island Virgin in France, Phare de L’Ile Vierge. Both spiral and helical stairs are classified by the number of turns that are made. Most very tall, multi-turn spiral staircases are found in lighthouses, castles, and old churches.

Down The Hole

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People who photograph spiral staircases seem to be in good shape as there are hundreds of stairs to climb to the top for the pictures looking down. On the top right, the old spiral staircase was photographed on the Ile de Ré off the west coast of France. On the middle right is a spiral hallway in the Navel Aviation Museum in Castelar, Buenos Aires. The middle left photo is of the Northern Lyngvig Lighthouse in Denmark. At the bottom left is the view looking up the Lednicky-Vltava Minaret in the Czech Republic.

Black & White Vortex

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The narrow twists as you climb up or down can leave you intrigued to see what greets you at the top or bottom. Something wonderful or something ominous? Dizzying spiral staircases can be found all around the world and are architecturally superb. The top right is entitled Stairway Near to Heaven while the bottom left was taken at Rathaus-Glockenspiel in Munich. The middle right spiral staircase was photographed on the climb up to a flat in London. The bottom right was snapped at the top of a lighthouse, looking down.

Brown Spirals

(image credits:ecreyes,NightPhotographer,Darrell Godliman,diwan,s.j.pettersson)

Built in 1907 and in need of repair, the spiral staircase on the upper left is located at the Baron’s Palace, in Heliopolis, Egypt. This house is also supposed to have secret tunnels. At the middle right is the view looking up at a spiral staircase in the Architect Gunter Behnisch’s Museum für Kommunikation in Frankfurt, Germany. The bottom left leads to a restroom in Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Finland, while the bottom right is the view from a Paris hotel.

Spirals

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From Fleet Street in London, looking up, like in the upper left, to the swirling orange design to its right, spiral staircases apparently come in all colors and flavors. The middle left was taken in Alicante, Spain, while the spiral staircase on the middle right was not tagged with anything more than Orange Vertigo. On the bottom left, this spiral staircase at the Palazzo Rosso in Genoa was restored by architect and museum curator Franco Albini. The bottom right stairway shows art again meeting architecture at Frank Gehry’s Art Gallery of Ontario.

Round-n-Round

(image credits:xelcise,keiththrn,yushimoto_02[christian],nespyxel,javadoug)

The top left photo was taken at the Hotel Botanico in Tenerife, Spain. The top right was taken looking down a belltower in Zadar, Croatia. On the middle left is a hypnotic view looking up and captured at the Café Glockenspiel in Munich, Germany. At the bottom left is one of the many spiral staircases in Rome. The red carpeted spiral staircase is located in Heniz Hall that houses the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Heaven and Soul Connection

(image credit:Alicia-Lee-07)

This magnificent masterpiece is not a stairway, but a stained glass ceiling inside the Thanksgiving Chapel in Dallas. It spirals upward to 58 feet. It’s called the Glory Window. It was designed by Gabriel Loire of Chartres, France.

Spiral Down

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The spiral staircases at the top and middle left were photographed in Rome. On the top right, this staircase was built in 1854 for an octagonal house in Wisconsin. The middle right spiral is looking down from a stairway in Madrid. At the bottom left is a spiral staircase constructed in 1854. That must have been a good year for spiral design. On the bottom right is a restored staircase for Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum in Winter Park, Florida.

step Step STEP

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The red and white swirl was built in 1930 and is located within a skyscraper in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The photo at the upper right was taken within a hotel in Helsinki, Finland. On the middle left is the Emerald Spiral. It is located in Prague close to one of the “most dangerous” streets in Warsaw, Poland. Visitors are advised: “huge zoom lenses and video cameras will attract unwanted attention, quite possibly worse.” The top right is called The Green Snake. The bottom green spiral staircase was snapped in Munich. The bottom right photo is from the first floor looking up, somewhere in Rome.

Non-circular Spirals

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On the middle left is a dynamic artistic feature at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The black and white photo is of a spiral staircase in Italy. The bottom right picture was captured in Münster, Germany. Otherwise, look up or down and open your mind to the possibility that Rome has hundreds of fascinating spiral staircases. It was where the rest of these were photographed.

Colorful Staircases

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All of these colorful and architecturally enchanting stairways can be found in Rome. There is a group of photographers who belong to the “Spiral staircases and staircases project in Rome.” They walk around with their friends and capture these vivid beauties and their perception of reality for the rest of us to enjoy.

The Eye

(image credits:nespyxel,nespyxel,Alida’s Photos,NightPhotographer,NightPhotographer)

Mel’s Bookstore in Rome features this impressive elliptical spiral staircase in the top two photos. The beautiful spiral staircase on the lower left can be found in the Austrian Benedictine Abbey in Melk. But the dizzy feeling continues in the snail house design, spiraling up on the middle right. Dizzy yet? Going up or going down, can you tell which end is up in the lower right photo?

Going Down

(image credits:manidas2000,snappy chappy,[ n e m t o m ],notanartist,NightPhotographer)

So whether in England at Gateshead Quays like at the top left, or in Hamburg, Germany like at the top right, try to enjoy the angles versus curves in stairways and stairwells. Does the shape really need to be round to feel the vortex of spiral motion? Spiral out of control with the dizzying sensations as you peek over the edge and look down. Peer up in wonder at the architectural art to be found in stairways. Or you can come back and look here again if you do not wish to undertake climbing the thousands of steps that you can virtually take in. But if you ascend and descend, twisting and turning, spinning and whirling, it will be worth it to see in person some of the world’s best spiral staircases. Keep your chin up and keep an eye out for spirals that are all around us.

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[ WebUrbanist - By Angie in Architecture & Design, Furniture & Interiors, History & Factoids, Urban Images. ]

[ By Marc in Environment & Nature, History & Factoids. ]

Thankfully, evolution has most recently tended to reward creatures for strong thinking abilities, as it’s allowed us to rise to the top of the food chain. If we’d been alive in earlier eras, however, we may not have been so lucky. Different times called for different attributes, and there was a time when size and ferocity were a species‘ most important quality. Here’s an exploration of 14 of the largest, strongest, and in some cases, strangest, creatures that have called our planet home:

(Images via sumner, copyrighted, tenth medieval, wapedia)

The Moa were flightless birds that resided in New Zealand as recently as 1500 AD. Hunted to extinction by Maori tribesmen, this bird’s dominant physical presence wasn’t enough to fight off sharpened spears. At 12 feet in height and over 500 pounds in mass, the Moa make the modern Ostritch seem diminutive.

(Images via sedgwick museum, moblog , ny times, plesiosaur)

Pliosaurs haunted the world’s oceans, attacking with intense power and speed. With short necks and huge jaws, they were killing machines. The largest Pliosaur skeleton was an incredible 52 feet long, with its head making up almost 8 feet of its total length.

(Images via sasquatchers, free republic, unexplained mysteries, crypto mundo, API)

A possible inspiration for King Kong, Gigantopithecus’ appearance resembled modern day apes, only it was much, much larger. The heftiest ape in history, they could top out at nearly 10 feet and weigh over 1,000 pounds. Gigantophithecus was a distant relative of the modern Orangutan, so most artistic depictions take this into account.

(Images via national geographic, WSU, scifi meshes)

Whorl Sharks were similar to their modern cousins despite jetting along almost 300 million years ago. While modern sharks have rows of serrated teeth ready to replace any that fall out, the whorl shark has an interesting lower jaw that looked like a circular saw, where newer teeth would push older teeth further along the line. There’s some debate about the placement of the tooth structure, but regardless of its location in the mouth or deeper in the throat, it had a startlingly unique appearance.

(Images via fmnh, fogato)

Gastornis, formerly known as Diatryma, is another horrifically large flightless bird. The most terrifying aspect of this animal is the fact that its beak implies it was carnivorous.

(Images via uta, atw, deep sea news, dinosaur pictures, hmnh, dinocasts)

Unlike sharks, that have survived for over 400 million years, Dunkleosteus had a short run of 50 million years. They would get up to 30 feet in length and weigh over 4 tons. They were the last of their kind, as we’ve been unable to find any closely related descendants.

(Images via aljazeera)

Little needs to be said about Titanoboa beyond this: 50 feet long and over 2,500 pounds. Like a titanic exaggeration of the modern boa, be thankful this snake went extinct nearly 58 million years ago.

(Images via yale, avph, charlie’s playhouse)

Arthropleura armata was the worst nightmare of any homeowner: an 8 and a half foot long bug. Similar in appearance to the modern centipede, it was one of the first invertebrates on land, and as such, most likely had little to no predators. Thankfully, they lived well over 300 million years ago, and won’t show up in your hallway any time soon.

Even the smallest creatures deserve mention, and the horned gopher (Ceratogaulus Rhinoceros) is no exception. As the smallest mammal to ever have horns, they should have at least a little recognition. It was originally thought the horns were meant for digging, but the consensus now seems to be that they were used for defense.

(Images via sitioco, cope podo, cool fun blog, mediterraneo diving, naturalist)

Jaekelopterus Rhenaniae is similar to Arthropleuria, only it lived in the ocean. At over 8 feet in length, this “sea scropion” (only in appearance) makes the largest lobsters seem like toys. It crawled along the ocean floors nearly 390 million years ago.

(Images via encyclo123, wikipedia, exhibitsrex, zimbio)

Mamenchisaurus looks much like another famous dinosuar, Brontosaurus, and is similar except for one odd difference: neck length. Their necks were up to 46 feet in length and made up 50% of their full body length. They lived nearly 150 million years ago and were entirely herbivorous.

(Images via times online, nature)

What’s more fun than a kangaroo? A 10 foot tall, 500 pound kangaroo. Procoptodon Goliah was a marsupial just like its modern cousins, and had similar features, but with a shorter face and slightly different feet. They were alive as recently as 18,000 years ago and their demise is attributed to human activity.

(Images via abc, avph, absolute astronomy, darwin online)

Macrauchenia lived around 20,000 years ago and were first discovered by Charles Darwin on his famous voyage on the Beagle. These creatures seem like a grab bag of different animals, with a small trunk and a body reminiscent of a camel. Too large to be fast enough, and too small to frighten off potential predators, they never had much of a chance.

(Images via ucmp, blogol, wikimedia)

Chalicotherium was a giant beast that walked on its back feet and knuckles, and used its long arms to pull down high branches for feeding. They were most likely slow and spent a majority of their time consuming leaves. Their only protection was their size and heavy claws on their forelegs, both of which would deter modern predators, but were unexceptional at the time.

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[ WebUrbanist - By Marc in Environment & Nature, History & Factoids. ]

Apple’s long-awaited tablet is here which has now officially been named the iPad.
It is to be a mobile video-watching, book-reading, game-playing, photo-perusing, music-listening, web-surfing, and email-emailing device. It looks like an oversized iPhone, and behaves like one; working in both portrait and landscape modes

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Some of Spirits’ more amusing discoveries.

Alien head

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Bigfoot!

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Wu Tang Return Of The Wu mixed by Mathematics
In stores February 2010

I have to admit, I was kind of sceptical when I received the link from AllYoungKings.com for the full Wu Tang album download. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the content of the album. It’s a mix of old tracks remixed, new tracks, hardcore/chilled vibes and mixed by Mathematics. (To be honest, he needs to have stopped using the “I know why you’re here” sample….he uses it about 600 times throughout the album!
If you are a hardcore Wu fan then go for it, it’s good to hear them coming together again and doing what they do best…..
Download: ‘Clap 2010′. Wu-Tang Clan feat. Raekwon, Ghostface, Method Man & U-God from Mediafire

http://www.wutang-returnofthewu.com/

Paco Pomet has been painting solidly for 10 years now and he has a very whimsical approach to his work, blending, realism & surrealism together in a subtle way.

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