Orbit Wheel Skates

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Orbit Wheel Skates

Capable of radical moves? Awkward? You decide.

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It's a cross between inline skates and a skateboard. More info here

Today's pictures & links:
Click to enlarge images.

Subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica
- via

Nothing's visible on the surface, of course:

"Lake Vostok lies in the heart of the Antarctic continent hidden beneath 4 kilometers of ice. As big as Lake Ontario in North America, Lake Vostok is one of the world's biggest freshwater lakes.

The lake was named for the Russian research station that sits above its southern tip - a place where in 1983 the temperature fell below -129°F (-89°C), the coldest ever recorded temperature on Earth."

(image credit: Michael Studinger)

As an added interest for its scientific exploration, this freshwater lake can harbour ancient forms of life (according to this article)
"If one recent published research report can be believed, at least one spore-forming microbe survived unthinkable extremes of time, reviving after being dormant for 250 million years."

(image credit: Michael Studinger)

More than 145 lakes have been identified beneath the thick Antarctic ice sheet. Most of these lakes, covered between 3-4 kilometers of ice, are several kilometers long. See the exceptional flash animation about how these lakes form and evolve here

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Cars That Would Not Die

Great addition to our "Ghost Cars of the World" article:

(photos by De Daap)

"Some Venezuelan examples. I actually travelled with the Ford (what's left of it) when my friend and I needed a ride to an airport. The only thing that matters for drivers in Venezuela, is the car stereo. Many cars are old American V8's, which probably even run on two cylinders if needed. And then, fuel is cheaper than beer or bread (in this order)."

Keep sending us the pictures of "zombie vehicles" you find.

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The Mitchell Corn Palace

The original "palace" was built in Mitchell, South Dakota, in 1892 - the present structure is built out of reinforced concrete, not corn. "Every spring, however, its exterior is completely covered with thousands of bushels of native South Dakota corn, grain and grasses that are arranged into large murals" (source)

(image credit: Pattye G.)

Here are some of the most corniest art examples:

(image credit: Mary Harrsch)

(image credit: Pattye G.)

(image credit: Pattye G.)

Check out more photos on Flickr River

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The Pope has Something Behind Him

(image credit: Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi)

"Pope Benedict XVI waves to the faithful, flanked by Archbishop James Michael Harvey and his personal secretary Georg Genswein, during his weekly Wednesday general audience at Paul VI Hall at the Vatican"

Is it just my imagination, but does the sculpture behind has some kind of a lizard head?

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Mixed fresh links for today:

Coolest Recycled Furniture - [design]
Dragon Blood's Tree - [wow photos]
Good Idea for Upcoming April Fools - [funny]
Data & Spam Art - [fascinating gallery]
Vintage Microphones, cool shapes - [design]
Snake bones... looking weird - [weird]
Neatest Way to Park Cars - [photo]
Only One Woman: awesome vocals - [music video]
Elephant Rampage! - [wow video]

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Another Dramatic Hamster
(this time with an escape plan)

Escape!

([photos by Artem Sapegin)

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There are still some cool characters in the world:

(original unknown, via)

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Ice formed after freezing rain

An interesting series of images, will be good addition to our "Ice Storms!" article:
Every flower, every blade of grass got ice embellishment:

(original unknown)

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A Thing from Space

These "presents" fall out of the sky from time to time. There are space satellite debris, pieces of technological trash littering our orbit.
According to this source, a strange tangled ball below is a part of a rocket launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1998. It landed in Australia on a farmer's property:

A 70kg titanium piece of Delta2 rocket engine landed in Saudi Arabia in 2001:

A rusty friend of R2D2 fell somewhere in Texas:

Here is how the tracking site represents "space trash population" around Earth. Green dots are current satellites.
Red dots - 2,377 pieces of debris from just one satellite - that have been catalogued by NORAD:

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Life-like Baby Doll

"Precious Dreams": very special sculpture/toy, designed and lovingly made by Ruth Annette. See more photos and info here.