Ugliest Animals in the Planet

California Condor
Part of the vulture family, it’s no wonder California Condor’s are pretty hard to look at. This Cali native is the largest terrestrial bird on American continent.
The Naked Mole Rat
The naked mole rat could be the ugliest animal in the world. Good thing they spend most of their lives underground.

Ugly Doggie
Ugliest dog search is nasty. This is a crazy one!!

The Great Ugly CAT
The cat with the long hair at the neck, almost ho hairs on other parts and cruel and ugly look. It deserves to be at the list.

Blobfish
Quite possibly the ugliest animal on earth. It looks like something out of a cartoon. To survive the intense pressure at depths of 1000m and more, its body is largely made up of a jelly-like substance slightly less dense than water. The jelly allows it to float just above the sea floor without having to expend energy on swimming.

Most Dangerously Ill-Conceived Theme Park Rides of All Time

The very idea behind theme park rides is to scare people. They attract the thrill-seeking, the naive and the stupid in their millions every year. Remember when you were a kid and you always wondered if the rides really were that dangerous? Well, turns out some of them were.
Neurotics beware: here lay enough horror stories to put you off your local amusement park for good, permanently rendering you one of those jittery guys who watch their friends plummeting through loop-the-loops while they eat corn dogs from the safety of a bench. Yes, we bring you the 10 most dangerous – and ill-conceived – amusement park rides of all time.

 Cannonball Loop Slide

 

As this list shows, New Jersey’s Action Park is pretty much the Mecca of bafflingly stupid ride concepts, so it was no surprise – sometime in the ’80s – that some genius at the park’s headquarters decided it would be a smart idea to invent a fully enclosed water slide that incorporated a complete loop-the-loop at the end. The ride was the only one of its kind, and proved so unstable that it was only tested a handful of times, reputedly following the apparent decapitation of a test dummy and, according to some reports, injuries suffered by employees who took the kamikaze plunge on trial runs.

 Alpine Slide

 

Alpine slides were seemingly only conceived in order to make use of steep slopes and save tightfisted theme parks some dollars. The concept is very simple: build a breakneck, winding concrete track way with shallow edges down a huge freaking’ hill and let the general public fly down it on a ludicrously temperamental cart with a mostly useless handbrake. Aside from obvious risks such as grazing one’s body practically to the bone upon bailing, actual deaths aren’t unheard of, with one unfortunate individual at a certain East Coast theme park hitting his head fatally against a rock when his cart derailed.

 Wave Pool

 

If you want our opinion, there surely can’t be a much stupider idea than encouraging crowds of untrained idiots into a deep body of water and subsequently subjecting them to increasingly intense waves. The wave pool is the scourge of the water park world, seemingly detested by lifeguard and visitor alike, and has developed a reputation in many parks as one of the areas that produces the most casualties. After all, what could be more unpleasant or dangerous than struggling for air and exhausting yourself whilst some greasy fat kid bobs up and down against you in the aquatic equivalent of a mush pit? Action Park’s Tidal Wave Pool had a notorious reputation, with one fatality in 1982.

Spinning Cart Roller Coasters

 

When we were kids our favorite ride at the fun fair was the waltzer. You know – the one where you get strapped into a circular, spinning carriage and subsequently thrown around a huge circle by a toothless corny controlling a lever. Considering the fact that safety precautions on these rides involve little more than a rusty bar and a sudden belief in God, you’ve got to be totally nuts to attach one of its deathtrap carriages to a freaking’ roller coaster. But attach it they did, bolting it onto a Wild Mouse roller coaster. This particular example of G-force stupidity, known as the Treetop Twister, eventually – and inevitably – caused a fatality at UK amusement park Lightwater Valley when an unfortunate girl was killed following a computer malfunction when two carts collided. There are various reports of other deaths and casualties in similar such rides around the world.

 Human Trebuchet

 

Can there be a stupider idea on earth than literally catapulting a human from a fully-sized replica of a medieval weapon originally designed to hurl boulders at castles? The idea behind this ride – thankfully not a theme park staple – is that you land safely on a huge net in the distance and hop off happily to go and change your underwear and have another go.
However, the concept backfired in the UK at Middlemoor Water Park, when an Oxford University student missed the safety net and ended up a mere smear on the grass. Two men were arrested and a huge collective “told you so” no doubt echoed throughout Britain.

 Vertical Log Flume

 

Is it any wonder that if one builds a water-based attraction with a near vertical drop, it’s going to cause an accident at some point during its lifespan? There have been several incidents involving these kinds of rides since they became a common feature in any self-respecting amusement park, including at least two tragically fatal mishaps. In the UK a young girl plunged 100 feet, at Oakwood Theme Park, after the safety bars holding riders in place at the very top of the drop were not checked properly. And three years earlier in a very similar incident, a 40-year-old woman at Knott’s Berry Farm, California was sent to an early grave after her ‘extreme body size’ incurred gravity’s wrath on the park’s Perilous Plunge attraction.

 River Rafting Ride

 

Putting the possibly-inebriated and definitely highly giddy patrons of a theme park in charge of significant elements of a ride is probably not a fantastic idea. With river rapids rides a handful of passengers are placed in a circular rubber and plastic dinghy – often with a wheel in the middle to let them spin them round – then sent down a poop–inducing series of ‘rapids.’ It’s far from unheard of for the vessels to capsize – with potentially fatal consequences if one is strapped in and trapped underneath.

 SCAD Dive

 

The nature of this particular attraction is so darned stupid that a scientist has used one to test human reactions to extreme levels of fear. One is hoisted to the top of a huge structure in a cage, attached to one paltry harness (only designed to keep you facing up), and then subjected to a 75 mph free fall onto a net from 160 feet up.
All well and good if everything is checked properly, but for the neurotics out there there’s always one story of human error leading to hideous tragedy. At one particular SCAD dive in the US, a 12-year-old girl was dropped prematurely and landed on the ground. Luckily she survived, but fractured her spine in ten places as well as her skull.

 Mind Scrambler

 

It might be a generalization, but it’s probably fair to say that carnival rides are decidedly more dangerous than their multi-million dollar counterparts at amusement parks. And one of the most common features at fairgrounds and carnivals all over the country is the Mind Scrambler, a spinning, multiple-armed roundabout with carts that pass each other at worryingly close proximity. The problem with many of these low cost, high G-force rides is that they tend not to employ such great safety procedures. Add to this the thumb less carnie eager to get the ride going and you have a recipe for disaster. Indeed, there have been cases where seatbelts weren’t correctly worn resulting, in accidents, and in one case a young girl was killed because the ride was started while she was essentially still clambering aboard.

 Kayak Experience

 

One more massive no-no at a water park is the introduction of electricity to H₂0. However, at Action Park in New Jersey – where else? – They figured they’d do just that! The Kayak Experience was a fixed boat ride down a narrow channel imitating a real whitewater course. Each patron was given their own kayak, inevitably leading to cases of capsizing. What’s more, in 1982 an unfortunate guest at the park fell out of his boat and in the ensuing chaos somehow managed to make contact with the electrical current of an underwater fan, with a loose wire held responsible. He and two others were electrocuted and he died later in hospital. The ride was shut down for good.

 Lion Petting Zoo

 

Not technically a ride but an amusement at a park nonetheless (Lujan Zoo, near Buenos Aires if you’re interested), the notion of this particular entry, dubbed by animal experts as “an accident waiting to happen,” is fairly clear: pet the hideously dangerous carnivores – in this case lions, tigers and bears – at your own discretion. The thing about these beasts is that they have something of a penchant for eating other slightly less bulky creatures than them. One visitor remarked: “I love Argentina. People aren’t hung up on safety… I sat on a lion’s back.” As of yet nothing seems to have gone wrong at the Argentinean park, but with accounts such as this we imagine it will only be a matter of time before little Jimmy has to eat his creamed corn with his left hand.

Junko Furuta: The Girl Who Went through 44 days of Torture

What they did to her was very INHUMAN

I was utterly shocked at what they did to her. It was unimaginable a human being can be so cruel. the following was an excerpt from a group dedicated to remember this poor girl on facebook . Her killers are free men. I think all her 4 killers should be stripped off their limbs. so they would not harm another life. ever.

DAY 1: November 22, 1988: Kidnapped
Kept captive in house, and posed as one of boy’s girlfriend
Raped (over 400 times in total)
Forced to call her parents and tell them she had run away
Starved and malnutritioned
Fed cockroaches to eat and urine to drink
Forced to masturbate
Forced to strip in front of others
Burned with cigarette lighters
Foreign objects inserted into her vagina/anus

DAY 11: December 1, 1988: Severely beat up countless times
Face held against concrete ground and jumped on
Hands tied to ceiling and body used as a punching bag
Nose filled with so much blood that she can only breath through her mouth
Dumbbells dropped onto her stomach
Vomited when tried to drink water (her stomach couldn’t accept it)
Tried to escape and punished by cigarette burning on arms
Flammable liquid poured on her feet and legs, then lit on fire
Bottle inserted into her anus, causing injury

DAY 20: December10, 1989: Unable to walk properly due to severe leg burns
Beat with bamboo sticks
Fireworks inserted into anus and lit
Hands smashed by weights and fingernails cracked
Beaten with golf club
Cigarettes inserted into vagina
Beaten with iron rods repeatedly
Winter; forced outside to sleep in balcony
Skewers of grilled chicken inserted into her vagina and anus, causing bleeding

DAY 30: Hot wax dripped onto face
Eyelids burned by cigarette lighter
Stabbed with sewing needles in chest area
Left nipple cut and destroyed with pliers
Hot light bulb inserted into her vagina
Heavy bleeding from vagina due to scissors insertion
Unable to urinate properly
Injuries were so severe that it took over an hour for her to crawl downstairs and use the bathroom
Eardrums severely damaged
Extreme reduced brain size

DAY 40: Begged her torturers to “kill her and get it over with”

January 1, 1989: Junko greets the New Years Day alone
Body mutilated
Unable to move from the ground

DAY 44: January 4, 1989: The four boys beat her mutilated body with an iron barbell, using a loss at the game of Mah-jongg as a pretext. She is profusely bleeding from her mouth and nose. They put a candle’s flame to her face and eyes.
Then, lighter fluid was poured onto her legs, arms, face and stomach, and then lit on fire. This final torture lasted for a time of two hours.

Junko Furuta died later that day, in pain and alone. Nothing could compare 44 days of suffering she had to go through.
When her mother heard the news and details of what had happened to her daughter, she fainted. She had to undergo a psychiatric outpatient treatment . Imagine her endless pain.
Her killers are now free men. Justice was never served, not even after 20 years.
They deserve a punishment much greater than they had put upon Furuta, for putting an innocent girl through the most unbearable suffering.
This story from 1989 is true. Please spread her story around. Everyone should know about the existence of Junko Furuta’s unimaginable and incomprehensible suffering, and this is why this group has been made.

Invite your friends. Never let her story be forgotten. If this story changes the life of at least one person then it has been worth it.

Rest In Eternal Peace,
Junko Furuta
1989-Eternity

11 Most Bizarre Burial Practices on Earth

1. Towers of Silence

 
Zoroastrians believe that the body is impure and shouldn’t pollute the earth after death through burial or cremation. Because of this belief, they have a communal Tower of Silence erected on the edge of town where they perch the dead on top of these towers and allow vultures and weather elements to destroy the body. After the sun has bleached and dried up the bones, they collect the bones and dissolve them in lime. This goes with the Zoroastrian belief that the body should be useful, even in and after death.
Zoroastrianism was the ancient source of Islam. It is also considered the oldest religion by many scholars. It is believed that it was this religion that begot Judaism, Christianity and eventually, Islam.

2. Tree Burials

The indigenous people of Australia place their dead up in trees. Like with the Zoroastrians, they allow the weather and animals to devour their relatives' dead bodies.

3. Viking Ship Burials

Since Vikings lived and died at sea, it was fitting to place the dearly departed Viking out to sea in his boat full of riches. Do you think they required "shipping and handling"? I have a feeling that scavengers of the two-legged kind would ascend upon these sea-worthy coffins!

4. Tibetan Sky Burial

The Tibetans were like the Zoroastrians in many ways. But, these people catered to the vultures and scavengers that would eat their relatives' dead flesh. They left milk and food beside the bodies to attract the animals, and would hope the scavengers would fly away with the body into the heavens.

5. Buried in a Bog

 
Do you hate traveling to foreign countries, spending all your savings for a well planned trip, only to come across a well-preserved body hundreds of years old? Then, you would be in a bog in Europe somewhere. This was the way Europeans buried their relatives in the middle Ages - dump grandma in a bog. They should rename this era the "Bog Ages."
As plagues and death swept Europe, tombs and other more sanitary means of burying people became more common during the later part of the middle Ages. However, funerals were still only for the most elite.

6. Burning the Widow 

Hindus believe that when a man dies, a woman should light herself on fire and go to eternity with her husband as the ultimate marital sacrifice. Though currently outlawed, Sati is still practiced in small numbers today.

7. Bury Me Once, Bury Me Twice 

In Melanesia, inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands buried their dead twice. First, they would bury them, then dig up the bones and carve them into spoons and other utensils. They believed this was an act of piety. Eventually, these utensils were placed in caves facing the sea. So, when your kid asks where Uncle Fred is, just tell him that he's a spoon, looking out into the sea. There's nothing creepy about that.

8. Paper Wrap, Burnt Dog, Pus and Gout

The Aztecs did funerals in style. First, they wrapped their dead beloved in a paper costume and if they believed that the person was bad or didn't die an honorable death, they were cremated alongside a random dog. The dog was necessary where the dead would eventually spend eternity because the bad or corrupt would end up in Mictlan, an underworld fraught with pus, gout, sores, bad weather and fierce beasts. However, if the person died in childbirth, in a war through bravery, in a lightening strike, or drowned, ironically they would be rewarded with an eternity in water, called paradise of Tlaloc. There, they would be greeted by a woman who died in childbirth. It was important to bury the good as a whole person, not cremated like the bad persons. They would also have pictures of mountain gods beside their bodies.

9. "Hanging Out" With Grandpa
The ancient Chinese hung coffins of their dead in tall trees or off cliffs. The coffins were designed to look like a macabre chandelier on a moon of Saturn. The Bo people, as they were known, hung hundreds of coffins like this. They would carefully place them in the best, most public view, proud of their rotting creations.
The coffins were hung, according to this site, at least 10 meters up from the ground. Some coffins were as high off the ground as 130 meters. Hundreds of these coffins have fallen to their peril over the centuries. Many of these coffins are being renovated and reattached the cliffs. The higher these coffins were hung, the more important the deceased was considered when alive. Subsequently, the coffins that did fall were a sign of fortune.
Word to the wise, if you plan to go to Southwest China, don't look up, especially with your mouth open!

10. What's For Dinner Tonight? 

The age-old question likely didn't originate from the Wari of the Amazon and Korowai of Papua; however, these tribes do have a very gruesome burial ritual. They eat their dead relatives. They believed that this was the ultimate portrayal of love for the deceased. They would also gain the wisdom and talents of the dead person that was eaten.

11. Dancing With Grandma

 
What is more romantic and affectionate than dancing with your loved and cherished family member? Those in Madagascar believe, in a somewhat new tradition, that the soul does not fully leave the body until it’s decomposed - a process that may take a few years. Thus, once her body was fully decomposed, she would be dug up, re-wrapped in silk shrouds, and relatives would dance around the burial plot. It was like grandma had another birthday.
Many of the people in this region are conservative Catholics. However, with all of the joyous celebrations during the mind-blowing Famadihana (’turning of the bones’) ceremony, one would never guess it. These same people are so superstitious that they won't leave their house after dark, fearful of witches and ghosts who will possess their bodies.
The Famadihana ceremony only happens every seven years or so in any given family. The gleeful family members are excited to see their completely decomposed family member and try to squeeze into the cramped tombs. There is a lot of happiness and laughter and drinking of expensive liquor.
Do you know why most people in the world wear black during a funeral? Most people don't know the answer. It turns out that our ancestors believed that ghosts could possess their bodies during a funeral. Ghosts were extremely feared, before Hollywood made them famous, revered, and even sought after. The only way our ancestors believed that they could protect themselves from having a ghost snatch their body was to hide under black paint that they would cover their bodies with. Tombstones were placed on the grave not only to mark the spot but also to deter the living from walking on the grave for fear of possession. Eventually, black paint would translate over the generations as black clothing. That was a good thing, considering all the people in the world with skin allergies.

10 Most Poisonous Animals in the World

10 Puffer Fish

 

Puffer Fish are the second most poisonous vertebrate on earth (the first one is golden dart Frog). The meat of some species is a delicacy in both Japan (as fugu) and Korea (as bok-uh) but the problem is that the skin and certain organs of many puffer fish are very poisonous to humans. This puffy fish produce rapid and violent death. Puffer’s poisoning causes deadening of the tongue and lips, dizziness, vomiting, rapid heart rate, difficulty breathing, and muscle paralysis. Victims die from suffocation as diaphragm muscles are paralyzed. Most of the victims die after four to 24 hours. There is no known antidote, most deaths from fugu happen when untrained people catch and prepare the fish. Statistics show that there were 20 to 44 incidents of fugu poisoning per year between 1996 and 2006 in all of Japan and up to six incidents per year led to death. Since Fugu’s poison can cause near instantaneous death, only licensed chefs are allowed to prepare it.

9 Poison Dart Frog

 

If you ever happen to be running through the rain forests somewhere in Central or South America, do not ever pick up beautiful and colorful frogs – it can be the Poison Dart Frog. This frog is probably the most poisonous animal on earth. The 2 inch long (5cm) golden poison dart frog has enough venom to kill 10 adult humans or 20,000 mice. Only 2 micrograms of this lethal toxin (the amount that fits on the head of a pin) is capable of killing a human or other large mammal. They are called “dart frogs” because indigenous Amerindians’ use of their toxic secretions to poison the tips of their blow-darts. Poison dart frogs keep their poison in their skins and will sicken or kill anybody who touches or eats it.

8 Inland Taipan

 

The prize for “The World’s Most Venomous Snake” goes to the Inland Taipan of Australia. Just a single bite from this snake contains enough venom to kill 100 human adults or an army of 250,000 mice. Its venom is at least 200 – 400 times more toxic than a common cobra. The Inland Taiwan’s extremely neurotoxin venom can kill an adult human in as little as 45 minutes. Fortunately this snake is very shy and there have been no documented human fatalities (all known bites were treated with antivenin).

7 The Brazilian wandering spider

 

The Brazilian Wandering Spider (Phoneutria) or banana spider appears in the Guinness Book of World Records 2007 for the most venomous spider and is the spider responsible for most human deaths. This spider is believed to have the most potent neurotoxin venom of any living spider. Only 0.006mg (0.00000021oz) is sufficient to kill a mouse. They are also so dangerous because of their wandering nature. They often hide during daytime in highly populated areas inside houses, clothes, boots, and cars. Its venomous bite causes not only intense pain, the venom of the spider can also cause priapism – uncomfortable erections lasting for many hours that lead to impotence.

6 Stonefish

 

Maybe Stonefish would never win a beauty contest, but it would definitely win the top prize for being “The World Most Venomous Fish”. Its venom causes such a severe pain that the victims of its sting want the affected limb to be amputated. It is described as the worst pain known to man. It is accompanied with possible shock, paralysis, and tissue death. If not given medical attention within a couple of hours it can be fatal to humans. Stonefish stores its toxins in gruesome-looking spines that are designed to hurt would-be predators. Stonefish mostly live above the tropic of Capricorn, often found in the shallow tropical marine waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans, ranging from the Red Sea to the Queensland Great Barrier Reef.

5 Death Stalker Scorpion

 

Contrarily to the popular belief most of the scorpions are relatively harmless to humans as stings produce only local effects (pain, numbness or swelling). However, the Death Starker Scorpion is highly dangerous species because its venom is a powerful cocktail of neurotoxins which causes an intense and unbearable pain, then fever, followed by coma, convulsions, paralysis and death. Fortunately, while a sting from this scorpion is extremely painful, it would be unlikely to kill a healthy, adult human. Young children, the old, or infirm (with a heart condition) are at the biggest risk. Death stalker scorpions are spread in North Africa and Middle East.

4 Blue-Ringed Octopus

 

The Blue-Ringed Octopus is very small, only the size of a golf ball, but its venom is so powerful that can kill a human. Actually it carries enough poison to kill 26 adult humans within minutes, and there is no antidote. They are currently recognized as one of the world’s most venomous animals. Its painless bite may seem harmless, but the deadly neurotoxins begin working immediately resulting in muscular weakness, numbness, followed by a cessation and breathing and ultimately death. They can be found in tide pools in the Pacific Ocean, from Japan to Australia.

3 Marbled Cone Snail

 

This little beautiful looking Marbled Cone snail can be as deadly as any other animal on this list. One drop of its venom is so powerful that it can kill more than 20 humans. If you ever happen to be in warm salt water environment (where these snails are often found) and see it, don’t even think of picking it up. Of course, the true purpose of its venom is to catch its prey. Symptoms of a cone snail sting can start immediately or can be delayed in onset for days. It results in intense pain, swelling, numbness and tingling. Severe cases involve muscle paralysis, vision changes and breathing failure. There is no antivenom. However, only about 30 human deaths have been recorded from cone snail envenomation.

2 King Cobra

 

The King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) is the world’s longest venomous snake – growing up to 5.6 m (18.5 ft) in length. Ophiophagus literally means “snake-eater” as it eats other snakes. One single bite of this deadly snake can easily kill a human. This snake is even capable of killing a full-grown Asian Elephant within 3 hours if the larger animal is bitten in a vulnerable area such as the trunk. Its venom is not as toxic as other venomous snakes, but King Cobra is capable of injecting 5 times more venom than black mamba and can result in mortality up to 5 times faster than that of the black mamba. It is quite widespread, ranging across South and South-east Asia, living in dense highland forests.

1 Box Jellyfish

 

The top prize for “The World Most Venomous Animal,” would go to the Box Jellyfish. It has caused at least 5,567 recorded deaths since 1954. Their venom is among the most deadly in the world. Its toxins attack the heart, nervous system, and skin cells. And the worst part of it is that jelly box venom is so overpoweringly painful, that human victims go in shock, drown or die of heart failure before even reaching shore. Survivors experience pain weeks after the contact with box jellies. You have virtually no chance to survive the venomous sting, unless treated immediately. After a sting, vinegar should be applied for a minimum of 30 seconds. Vinegar has acetic acid, which disables the box jelly’s nematocysts that have not yet discharged into the bloodstream (though it will not alleviate the pain). Wearing panty hose while swimming is also a good prevention measure since it can prevent jellies from being able to harm your legs. Jelly box can be found in the waters around Asia and Australia.

8 Festivals Celebrating Nature

1. Hanami

 

Hanami is Japanese traditional festival that celebrates the beauty of flowers (Hanami means flower viewing). Flower, in this case, always means cherry blossom or Ume blossoms. The Hanami planners approach very carefully to the organization of the parties all over Japan. They wait for the weather bureau blossom forecast and make the plans according to that, which result with parties wherever cherry blossoms can be found.

2. National Cherry Blossoms Festival

 

Washington DC celebrates the American version of Hanami festival, commemorating the gift Japanese cherry trees from Tokyo’s mayor in 1912. The gift was an effort for enhancing of the friendship between the tow nations. Although USA and Japan were in war in the meantime, the beautiful tradition of celebrating the nature continued. Among the events of the two weeks festival are the Cherry Blossom 10 miles Run, cherry blossom classes, sushi/sake celebrations an so on.

3. Momijigari

 

Japanese people obviously enjoy watching the nature in its best light. In autumn they traditionally visit the breathtaking scenes when leaves turn into red. The name of the tradition, Momijigari, derives from words “momiji” which means maple tree or red leaves, and “kari” – hunting. Despite “hunting red leaves,” people on the Oze plain use to visit areas where grasses changes color as well.

4. Bristol Festival of Nature

 

The Bristol Natural History Consortium organize annual two days long event in June, in Bristol, England, in which people could learn a lot about nature. The real nature lovers can attend lectures, film screenings and tours related to natural history and environment. This festival is organized on a little bit higher level than the rest on the list, due to the traditional conference of scientists, journalists and environmentalists who discuss about the recent environmental issues.

5. Olympic Peninsula Bird Fest

 

Sequim, Washington is the right place to be in April for every bird lover. The festival lasts three days in which, despite the enjoying of watching birds, participants can take some boat trip, visit the Endangered Waterfowl Breeding Sanctuary or attend nature photography workshop. However, there’s a lot to be seen and a lot to be learnt.

6. Tsukimi

 

Japanese are quite original in celebrating nature. They have Tsukimi, a festival honoring the autumn moon. The usual activities are enjoying the beauty of the full moon, eating rice dumplings and displaying decorations made of Japanese pampas grass, and, the strangest – offering sweet potatoes, beans and chestnuts to the moon. It’s held on the 15th day of the eighth month and the 13^th day of ninth month of the traditional Japanese calendar.

7. Wild Amelia Nature Festival

 

The traditional annual event is held in May in Amelia Island, Georgia. The three days nature festival started only five years ago, but it already offers the visitors a lot of activities that are great opportunity to become familiar with the biodiversity of the island through nature tours and workshops thought by local professionals. The participants can take in the photo contest, while there is also a kid’s niche

8. Shetland Nature Festival

 

The picturesque British island hosts the nature lovers every year in July. Visitors stay there for a week to enjoy the seabird colonies, sit amongst funny Puffins, and watch the Killer Whales while hunting near the coast or lay down amongst British rarest flowers. During the festival week participants can take family days, guided walks and hang out with others on the evening talks.

Secret Places Banned to the Public

Secretive Russian town of Mezhgorye

There is a town in Russia, called Mezhgorye, which is barred to anyone, except for those believed to work at the highly secretive Mount Yamantaw site, thought by many to be either an ultra-secret research facility, or be nuclear. Founded in 1979. The town is at the foot of the mountain, the highest in the Urals, at 5,381ft, where US satellites have recorded excavation projects, on a huge scale, though repeated enquiries about the nature of operations, at this maddeningly closely watched community, have been met by bland responses, such as it being a mine of some kind, or a repository for Russian treasures, and even as somewhere for government, in case of disaster, but nobody knows.

The mysterious Moscow metro2

Moscow, capital city of Russia, supposedly has a secondary, secret underground metro system, known as Metro-2, running parallel to the public Metro. Built, it is thought, during Stalin’s time, KGB codename for the project being D-6. The existence of this phantom system has never been confirmed, nor denied, by the FSB -Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, or indeed the Moscow Metro administration themselves. Rumored to be much longer, in length, than the public Metro.  And to consist of four lines, running between 50 and 200m below ground it connects the Kremlin with the FSB headquarters, Vnukovo-2 government airport, plus underground town Ramenki, as well as other, undisclosed locations.

The super secret Area 51 Groom Lake facility

Area 51, a phrase well known around the world, is a military base, Groom Lake, in the southern portion of Nevada, USA, 83 miles from Las Vegas. Found along the southern shore of Groom Lake, the large, secretive, military airfield appears to be involved in the development, and testing of experimental aircraft, as well as advanced weapons systems research.  So closely guarded is this place, and so well monitored, that it has been the subject of conspiracy theory for decades. Even the U.S. government only reluctantly admits to the existence of this place, and the fact that deadly force can, and has been used against people trying to get into the Area 51 zone, really does make you wonder

The ultra secretive Room 39 of North Korea

North Korea, that most oppressive of states, is infamous for Room 39, sometimes called Bureau 39, one of the most secretive of their organizations, dedicated to seeking methods of obtaining foreign currency for North Korea’s leader. Established in the late 1970s and described, by some in the west, as the lynchpin of the dynastic Kim family dealings. Room 39 is such a secretive institution that none are sure exactly what goes on there, though it is widely believed that ten to twenty bank accounts, in Switzerland and China, are used in illegalities such as counterfeiting, money laundering, drug smuggling and illicit weapon sales. The organization has, reportedly, 120 foreign trade companies that it operates, under the direct control of the ruling family, who obviously deny any illegal activities. Room 39 is believed to be l inside a ruling Workers’ Party building in Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea, but nobody knows for sure

The Inaccessible Ise Grand Shrine of Japan

Japan has an amazing series of over 100 shrines, known as the Ise Grand Shrine, the most sacred shrine in the country. Dedicated to Amaterasu, the Sun goddess, this wondrous place has existed since 4BC, and it is thought that the main shrine contains the single, most important item in Japanese imperial history, the Naikū. This is the mirror, from Japanese mythology, which graced the hands of the first emperors of Japan. Demolished, purely to enable rebuilding, every 20 years, honoring Shinto ideas of death and rebirth, the shrine is barred to anyone but the priest or priestess, who has to a member of the Japanese imperial family everyone else is kept away by very alert guards.

The terrifying Mount Weather Emergency operations center.

Mount Weather is not somewhere that that the US publics ever really want to goes to. This is the genuine article, as in the disaster films, where some highly classified area has been prepared, to accept the lucky few destined to survive. Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center truly is the real thing, set up in the 1950s, during the cold war; it still operates today, as a “last hope” area, though naturally highly classified. Federal Emergency Management Agency staffs, FEMA, are in charge of it, and already, when required much of US telecommunications traffic can be routed through it, so that emergency services operate well

The incredibly intrusive RAF Menwith Hill

The global ECHELON spy network, much employed by US and British governments, is the reason why Royal Air Force station Menwith Hill exists. Containing extensive satellite tracking ground systems, this communications intercept, and missile warning site, has been called the largest electronic monitoring station on earth. Ground station for satellites, of the US National Reconnaissance Office, serving the US National Security Agency, the station is famous for having antennae contained in highly distinctive white radomes. Believed by some to be part of the ECHELON system, reportedly created for the purpose of monitoring military and diplomatic communications, from Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc allies, during the Cold War, and these days I believed to search also for terrorist plots, drug dealing information, as well as political and diplomatic intelligence. Also believed to be involved filtering all telephone and radio communications in the western world, though not proven, this is an incredibly secretive and well guarded place that the public can never get into.