This is way too far away from me, but if you happen to be in Ho Chi Minh City during the summer ...
100,000 LED lights down the Sumida River, Japan
Photo: tokyo-hotaru.com
The inaugural Tokyo Hotaru festival was held last weekend. And kicking off the festivities were an impressive display of 100,000 LED lights – made to resemble hotaru (fireflies) – that floated down the Sumida River through central Tokyo. Dubbed “prayer stars,” the LEDs were provided by Panasonic, who claims that the balls, which were designed to light up upon contact with water, were 100% powered by solar energy. After illuminating a large stretch of the river, which also hosts a popular fireworks festival in the summer, the LEDs were all caught in a large net....
Photographing Life and Death in Juarez
Juarez, Mexico is a war zone.
The war is being waged by two rival drug cartels, the Juarez and the Sinoloa, block by block for control of the city and its trafficking routes. The result is extreme levels of violence, corruption and intimidation. And for the past two years, photographer Dominic Bracco II has been covering the war’s effects on the border town’s residents. While he is working there as a journalist, Bracco can’t help but feel invested in the subjects that he’s become so familiar with....
Top 10 Weirdest Theme Parks
1. Napoleonland
It's been 200 years since Napoleon ravaged Europe in the name of French nationalism, so maybe it's time to put aside the differences over all that warmongering and failed empire-building and all go to an amusement park together. France thinks so, at least. By 2014, construction is set to begin on Napoleonland, a new theme park designed to pay homage to the French leader some believe to be a hero and others think of as one of history's most loathsome dictators. Park-goers can expect a water show recreating the Battle of Trafalgar, tributes to Napoleon's crushing defeat of the Russo-Austrian Army at the Battle of Austerlitz, a ski run littered with the frozen bodies of soldiers and horses and a re-creation of Louis XVI on the guillotine — all of it on the site of one of Napoleon's greatest victories, the Battle of Montereau. Even the Battle of Waterloo, which ended Napoleonic rule, will be featured. "It's going to be fun for the family," Yves Jego, the brainchild behind the park, told The London Telegraph. Indeed. After all, wouldn't Disneyland be better if its grounds were scattered with war casualties and 18th century beheadings?
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