The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
HowStuffWorks clears a trail for world explorers and armchair travelers alike.
See Fish that Walk at Cocos Island
by Amanda Arnold | February 3, 2010
The other day I was in the break room getting some hot chocolate when Rachel, Coolest Stuff podcaster, started telling me about fish that can walk. I was like, “Rachel, this hot chocolate is watered down. Is the machine broken?” And she was like, “It’s called the frogfish. Look it up.”
Just kidding — that’s not exactly how the conversation went. But anyway, since I like it when animals do things I don’t expect, I decided to research this fish that walks.
When many people hear the words “One Tree Hill,” they think of the WB TV show or the 1980s song from U2’s Joshua Tree album. But One Tree Hill is actually a real place in New Zealand. And the weirdest thing about it is that there is no “one tree” on the hill.
Why? Because one October night in 1994, a chainsaw-packing Maori man named Mike Smith climbed the hill to murder it.
Last week, I ran out of soap, so I dug up an old bar I stole from a beach condo a couple of summers ago. As soon as I lathered up in the shower, I was overcome by a really happy, carefree feeling. Why? Because the smell of the soap immediately took me back to that long weekend at the beach — not a cloud in the sky for four days straight, perfect sunbathing temperatures (hot, but not too hot), and all of my closest friends around me.
No, it’s a salt flat in Bolivia. It’s rainy season, so the endless expanse of barren ground has filled in like a puddle on a sidewalk. The water’s shallow — about 6 inches deep. So when you walk across it, you look like you’re pulling that trick Jesus pulled. To make matters even more heavenly, the sky and its puffy white clouds are mirrored rather perfectly in the water. It’s hard to tell which is salt-flat-puddle and which is sunny sky. And whether you’re walking on air.
That’s it. I’m officially hooked on Japanese festivals. I just watched Rachel and Matt’s Coolest Stuff video podcast on the Akita Kanto festival in Japan. Have you seen it? It’s lovely. I mean, first the Sapporo Snow Festival and now this.
Easter Island: Small Place, Big Statue Heads
by Amanda Arnold | January 20, 2010
I was reading Smithsonian magazine’s “Life List — 28 Places to See Before You Die” this morning and came across Easter Island. I agree with Smithsonian: You should try to see this place before you kick the bucket.
Why? Because the 14-mile-long island is populated by about 900 enormous statues with disproportionately large heads.
The other day, I was chatting with a co-worker about The New York Times’ list of “31 Places to Go in 2010.” We agreed that Sri Lanka sounds like lovely place to see, but that — seriously, after Tightwad 2009, who has the cash for that kind of trip? After I got back to my desk, I was tooling around the Web and came across an amusing retaliation list: “10 Places Not to Go in 2010,” which includes Pakistan, Scranton, Pa., and my personal favorite, Rotorua, New Zealand, a place that, because of its geothermal activity, reeks like “cheesy feet.”
If you ask fairy tales, a kiss can solve all kinds of problems: You kiss a frog, he turns into a prince. You kiss a sleeping beauty, she wakes up. You kiss a mermaid, she sings. The legend of Ireland’s Blarney Stone runs along those same lines: You kiss this rock, you gab.
Sapporo, Japan — 12,000 Snowmen Strong
by Amanda Arnold | January 8, 2010
It snowed here in Atlanta last night (y’all!). The “y’all” is plural for “you,” and the exclamation point is for how excited Southerners like me get about snowflakes. Anyway, in honor of snow appreciation, I’ve decided to blog about the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan, which holds the world record for most snowmen assembled in one place at one time — 12,379. That’s what I said — 12,379 snow-people. A snow-crowd, if you will.
My favorite color is green, so I was pretty psyched to find out that the sun flashes emerald at sunset.
It’s called the “green flash.” If you go to the beach, stand where your line of sight is parallel to the horizon, and watch the sun sink, you might — *might* — see a flash of green light right before the sun disappears and everything goes dark.
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