Nobody with half a brain should ever claim that they’ve seen it all. No matter how worldly or experienced a person may be, there’s a whole universe of unusual, out-of-the-box stuff out there that has the power to surprise.
Maybe you’ve seen some of this stuff before — but I’ll bet you probably haven’t.
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Halfsies.
Astute readers will probably recognize this as a parakeet. The remarkable thing is that this one was born with chimerism, when non-identical twins fuse together in the womb, resulting in a unique half-and-half appearance.
The difference conservation makes.
You’re looking at the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the two nations that share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The Dominican Republic protects its forest, while Haiti tends to clear-cut its trees.
Steamy.
This structure has been built on top of a natural hot spring, creating an indoor natural hot spring. I’d imagine the wood in this place never gets properly dry.
This man is all of us.
A scene like this can be found at any time in any airport, but this is special because it’s actually an ultra-realistic sculpture. Called “The Traveler”, it can be found in Orlando International Airport.
Missing a few bricks.
This building, found in the Netherlands, looks at first like a disaster waiting to happen. But a closer look reveals that the broken brick motif is all part of the design.
Tippy top.
This is the capstone to an Egyptian pyramid — the piece that went at the very top. Most capstones have been lost to history, and this is one of very few to survive to the present day.
Nope.
On the left, you can see the tentacles of a giant squid, which are designed to latch onto things. The right-hand photo shows the tentacles of a colossal squid, which are designed to tear things apart. No thanks.
The future of air travel?
This concept image shows what air travel may look like someday: windowless planes that project an image of the sky outside onto the walls of the cabin. I don’t know how to feel about this.
Out of this world.
I realize this photo looks totally unremarkable, but it cost billions of dollars to take it. It shows the surface of the asteroid Ryugu after a Japanese spacecraft landed on it.
Brain battery?
This is known as an RNS device, which sends harmless “shocks” to the brain of someone who gets seizures. It helps doctors treat patients with epilepsy and can prevent seizures altogether.
Mini monument.
If you’ve identified this as the top of the Washington Monument, stashed under a manhole cover, you’d be weirdly correct. For whatever reason, this can be found near the actual Washington Monument.
Blockbuster night.
This is the sad place where Blockbuster’s stock ended up when the chain closed its doors: a big discount bin full of DVDs in plain packaging.
This photo has everything.
This is clearly the work of a professional photographer, because I can’t imagine being good enough at photography to capture a double rainbow perfectly framing a massive lightning strike.
On brand.
This seems like a lot of effort to go to for a store’s facade, but when that store sells furniture, it at least makes some sense. I mean, it definitely stands out.
Future ship.
Modern warships look nothing like the ships of old. This is the USS Montgomery , a combat ship of the U.S. Navy that’s designed to be quick and agile.
Jammed.
The appeal of low-tech devices like hourglasses is that they don’t need power or updates in order to run. This hourglass, though, appears to have glitched out somehow.
Made for it.
The Padmanabaswamy Hindu Temple in India is an impressive building by any estimation. The fact that it was designed to highlight the setting sun, though, puts it on another level.
Too much work.
Someone went to the effort of dissecting this grapefruit. I’m glad they proved it can be done, and I’m also glad that I’m way too lazy to ever try something like this myself.
Freak of nature.
Bonsai trees, which have been selectively bred to be small enough to fit on a tabletop. They can also be selectively bred to be big again, as seen in this example.
That’s the sun.
Something about the development process of Polaroid photos causes this weird effect. When you use a Polaroid to snap a shot of the sun, it comes out looking like a black dot.
