Category: Anthropological

Happy Week ‘o Nature!

~ mehopper

This is a busy week for nature lovers!

Wednesday, April 22nd is Earth Day, and Friday, April 24th is Arbor Day!

Of course, the typical way to celebrate is to attend events and plant trees.

My way of celebrating is to also update Cosma’s Nature pages.

Done! Links to the updated pages are below.

In the past I’ve also written posts for Earth Day.
Great Views of Earth
Perspectives on Earth

However, this year I decided to dust the cobwebs off of my Nature Center!

Click “doors” and objects to enter 360° experiences and “i”s for information about them.


You can also see it directly on Kuula.

Touch signs or use these links to enter Botanical Gardens Orangery, Hiking Trails Hall, Critter’s Hollow Refuge, and Natural History Museums).

Happy Earth Day and Arbor Day!

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Find out more about Earth Day and Arbor Day!

Earth Day (Official Site)
Earth Day 2026 Events (Official Site)
Earth Day Network (YouTube Channel)
Earth Day (Time & Date)
Earth Day (Wikipedia)

Arbor Day Foundation (Official Site)
Arbor Day Foundation (YouTube Channel)
Find an Arbor Day Celebration Near You (Celebrate Arbor Day)
Arbor Day (Time)
Arbor Day (Time & Date)
Arbor Day (Wikipedia)

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Find out more about Nature@Cosma …

Earth
Sphere Land, Ice, Water (Ocean), Air, Life (Cell, Gene)
Ecosystem Forest, Grassland, Desert, Arctic, Aquatic

Tree of Life
Microorganism Virus
Prokaryote Archaea, Bacteria
Eukaryote Protist, Fungi, Algae, Protozoa (Tardigrade)
Plant Flower, Tree
Animal
Invertebrate
Cnidaria Coral, Jellyfish
Cephalopod Cuttlefish, Octopus
Crustacean Lobster, Shrimp
Arachnid Spider, Scorpion
Insect Ant, Bee, Beetle, Butterfly
Vertebrate
Fish Seahorse, Ray, Shark
Amphibian Frog, Salamander
Reptile Turtle, Tortoise, Dinosaur
Bird Penguin, Ostrich, Owl, Crow, Parrot
Mammal Platypus, Bat, Mouse, Rabbit, Goat, Giraffe, Camel, Horse, Elephant, Mammoth
Walrus, Seal, Polar Bear, Bear, Panda, Cat, Tiger, Lion, Dog, Wolf
Cetacean Whale, Dolphin
Primate Monkey, Chimpanzee

Athena’s Chamber & Muses’ Tea Party

~ mehopper

You are cordially invited to explore the two newest additions to the pantheon of Cosma’s Web Worlds.

They are both reimaginings of earlier Toy Worlds.

Just touch the 360° images to explore them!

Athena’s Chamber is a reimagining of Athena’s Office.

Muses’ Tea Party is a reimagining of Muses’ Playroom.

Enjoy!

You can also (re)visit Cosma’s Knowledge Navigation Center!

Touch posters and objects to find out about them or visit other worlds.


You can also explore it on Kuula.

About | Worlds | Adventures | Contents | Index

Cosma is not a funded project — money is neither requested nor accepted, so there is no budget for publicity.

The only request is that you please tell other people about it.

Thank you!

© M. E. Hopper

Fat Bear Award?

~ mehopper

I just read this fun story on CNN!

Fat Bear Week 2025 is the Distraction Everybody Needs (Lilit Marcus, CNN)

I couldn’t help but click on it because I was curious, and I did need some distraction.

So, there is a “Fat Bear Award” and it is pretty well known.

It even has a Wikipedia page. Here’s a quote from it.

Fat Bear Week is an annual event held in late September or early October by Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, commemorating the seasonal preparations made by Alaska peninsula brown bears inhabiting Katmai as they ready themselves for their winter hibernation. The competition is organized by the National Park Service and Explore.org. Spectators from around the world are invited to cast online votes to determine the bear that has most effectively accumulated fat reserves. — Wikipedia

If you want to watch Fat Bear Week voting unfold, here’s a link to the website.

Fat Bear Week (Explore.org, Official Website)

If you need more distraction, then watch Explore.org’s Live Cams. You can also check out Explore.org’s YouTube Channel that has Live Streams and a bunch of Videos.

Of course, I did 🙂

Then I went looking for 360° videos of the bears on YouTube.

Here’s a link to one that I think might be of bears at Katmai, but I’m not certain.

Swimming With Bears (National Geographic, YouTube 360° Video)

Of course, I couldn’t help but watch this video, even if it isn’t from Katmai.

Wildlife Protection Solutions (YouTube Channel)
Wildlife Protection Solutions (Official Website)

So, that’s was a LOT of distraction!

However, if you still need even more, check out Critter’s Hollow.

Yes, if you look around, there’s a bear!

Touch the door and animals to see 360° virtual experiences, and touch “i”s to learn more about them.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

Enjoy & Happy Fat Bear Week!

Find out more about bears and animals in general …

Find YOUR Cool Museum!

~ mehopper

It’s officially summer, and baby it’s HOT outside!

Hot Outside

Stories like this are everywhere.

A Potent Heat Dome is Building Over the US, Sending Temperatures into the Triple Digits (Luke Snyder and Mary Gilbert, CNN)

Thus there are also many stories like this one about how to stay cool.

Here are 7 Fun Ways to Beat the Heat this Summer (Kelly Chan, Boston.com)

I was surprised to see that the above story didn’t mention museums, though.

Of course, I’m probably biased about this because I just updated my New Media Museum’s guide to learning about media and computing in the Boston area (NMM@Boston).

New Media@Boston
Media & Perception
Harvard’s Mark I & Hopper
MIT’s Whirlwind & Forrester
Artificial Intelligence & Robots
Logo & LEGO
Games & Immersion
Micro Center & MIT Flea

Not everybody is going to want to geek out to my guide.

Most folks are likely to opt for well-known museums like those in this article.

12 Boston Museums Everyone Should Visit at Least Once (Kristi Palma, Boston.com)

There’s actually a whole website devoted to the Museums of Boston.

If you’re further afield, here’s a website for finding somewhere to enjoy cooling off.

Museums & Galleries in New England (Visit New England)

Finally, if you’re nowhere near Boston, then there’s a site for you, too.

The 51 Best Museums in the United States (Condé Nast Traveler)

If you’re lucky, you may even have get free admission if you are a member of a museum in the North American Reciprocal Museum Association.

“The North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) Association® network is a mosaic of 1,470 art museums and galleries, historical museums and societies, botanical gardens, children’s museums, zoos, and more. When you sign up with your favorite participating NARM institution, you can receive reciprocal membership benefits across the United States, Bermuda, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.”

My membership to Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) includes it. If you have a museum membership, it’s worth checking.

Perhaps you’re feeling adventurous and want to try a museum that’s a bit off the beaten path, but is specific to your interests.

For example, if you’re into sports, there’s a Sports Museum located in Boston’s TD Garden (which is above where I catch the commuter rail).

Sports Museum

In fact, there are other sports museums here in this state.

Sports Museums in Massachusetts (Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism)

There are also hundreds of them around the country. You can find them here.

Sports Museums in the US (Museums.US)

Museums.US is a great place to find all sorts of museums.

Here’s a page with links to well over a hundred categories.

Museums in the US (Museums.US)

Although, I couldn’t help noticing that “illusions” wasn’t a category on the list.

This means that you wouldn’t find some of the experiences described in this post.

Perception, Illusions & Holograms@Boston (New Media Museum)

One of the experiences covered in the post is the Museum of Illusions, Boston.

It has illusions galore, and many of them are mind-bending!

Museum of Illusions, Boston

This museum displays a variety of well-known optical illusions.

Example Exhibits, Museum of Illusions, Boston

It also has many more elaborate exhibits such as an Ames Room.

Ames Room, Museum of Illusions, Boston
 
If you’re not in Boston, there are plenty of other neat museums out there.

Here’s a story about some of them.

10 of the Most Unique Museums In the United States (Nina Derwin, MSN)

The post includes the Idaho Potato Museum in, where else, Idaho. It covers the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, and last, but not least, the Spam Museum in Minnesota.

Of course, if you live anywhere near them, you’ve probably already heard of them.

Here’s a “somewhat” obvious trick for finding museums near you that you haven’t heard of yet.

Google “Unusual and Weird Museums, and then add your location to the search.

For example, my search for Unusual and Weird Museums in Boston included this article.

11 Quirky and Unusual Museums in Greater Boston (Celina Colby, The Boston Calendar)

The search also included this article from Atlas Obscura.

Unusual Museums in Massachusetts (Atlas Obscura)

If you’ve never hear of Atlas Obscura, then you MUST check it out!

Atlas Obscura: The Definitive Guide To The World’s Hidden Wonders

You’re bound to find something interesting near you.

Finally, it’s only fair to mention the museum that inspired this post.

Ice Cream Museum Boston

The Museum of Ice Cream is a “cool” and “instagrammable” place (and yes that’s a real word according to the Cambridge Dictionary).

One just opened in Boston, and there’s one in New York where it originally started.

You can also find one in Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Austin and even Singapore!

There you have it. I hope this inspires you to find a cool, refreshing experience near you!

However, if you prefer to stay ensconced in your air conditioning, then perhaps you might enjoy exploring this “Web World” with links to hundreds of virtual 3D and 360° experiences!

Click on objects to see 3D and 360° experiences, and click doorways to go to other Web Worlds.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

You can find out more about “Web Worlds” in this post …

Hike, Wander & Walk-in the Web!

Stay Cool & Happy Summer!

Find out more about Museums@Cosma …

Hike, Wander & Walk-in the Web!

~ mehopper

Welcome to Web Worlds@Cosma!

The pages of Cosma have links to many thousands of the best resources on the Web.

Immersive 3D and 360° experiences are among the most valuable types of resources, and so there are links to thousands of them distributed across the hundreds of pages on the Web site.

The Web Worlds@Cosma are thematic 360° images with visual links to a sample of ten to twenty of the best Immersive 3D and 360° experiences on the Web for a specific subject.

There are many Web Worlds distributed across the pages on the Cosma Web site.

The Web World below is a special one with links to many of the others.

There are hundreds of immersive 3D and 360° experiences to explore!

Click on objects to see 3D and 360° experiences, and click doorways to go to other Web Worlds.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

If you’ve been following Cosma, then you know that Web Worlds have been evolving over the course of the last year. Continue reading below to learn the story behind them.

———————–
New Worlds, Old Ways@MEHopper

The story of Web Worlds began while I was updating my MEHopper Web site last summer.

I had been playing around with virtual home staging software and noticed that some of the spaces looked as if they were generated in the virtual world SecondLife. It was neat to see that “nearly” photorealistic 360° images could be generated and exported from that system.

I’ve used SecondLife to create Knowledge Places for decades, and I knew that it was now possible to take and download 360° photos, but I hadn’t gotten around to trying it yet.

I finally got inspired to do it and started with (re)creating my MEHopper Gallery Toy World. Toy Worlds are dioramas created with dollhouse furniture and other miniature objects that are photographed with a RICOH THETA S 360° Camera. The resulting 360° photos are posted on Kuula to overlay links to the Web.

Sure enough, I was able to take a 360° picture in SecondLife and upload it to Kuula to add links in the same way that I had for the Toy World. The result was this new MEHopper Gallery.

Click on the pictures to read posts about when and where they were taken.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

———————–
Web Worlds@New Media Museum

The experiment was successful enough that I decided to try my hand at another one.

This time it was for a space for my New Media Museum Web site. I had experimented with making virtual museums using my own museum’s content, but this time the goal was to create an interface to other computer museums.

This goal also inspired me to resurect my idea of “Magic Doors” from my work in SecondLife. You can read about the history of them on the Knowledge Objects page.

M.E.Hopper's Magic Window in SecondLife 2006
M.E.Hopper's Magic Window Farm in SecondLife 2006

The result of this experiment was the Computer Museums Lobby below, and you can read the story about why this came about in this post on my New Media Museum Web site.

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring, objects to learn about them, “i”s to learn about the museums, and doors to enter the virtual museums.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

It was around this time that it dawned on me that Web Worlds was a good term for describing the 3D interfaces that I was creating in SecondLife and Kuula to make visual links to other immersive 3D and 360° experiences on the Web. I did some research and found that the term had been used to describe virtual worlds on the Web before, and so I decided that it was the right term to use for what I was doing.

———————–
Web Worlds@Cosma

It wasn’t long after the term Web Worlds stuck that I decided Cosma needed some of them.

One major goal of Cosma is to have 3D interfaces for spatial Knowledge Navigation of the resources on Cosma and other Web sites. The history of this work is on the Worlds page.

There are currently a series of Toy Worlds that serve as 360° visual interfaces for the major content areas of Cosma. There is also a Cosma Welcome Area Toy World on the front page of Cosma that has links to the others.

However, there are some content areas that don’t have Toy Worlds. That’s because I never got around to making them, and this has bugged me for awhile. Web Worlds struck me as a way to remedy the situation.

The idea of “Magic Doors” as links to other immersive 3D and 360° experiences came in handy, too. I’ve been adding links to immersive 3D and 360° experiences on the pages of Cosma for about five years, and there are thousands of them distributed across the Web site. Unfortunately, few people notice them because the links to amazing experiences blend in with more mundane links (Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Open Courseware, JSTOR etc.). I decided that Web Worlds with visual links could be a way to bring more attention the links to immersive 3D and 360° experiences.

I happened to be updating the Transportation pages, and it was one of the content areas with no Toy World. I also happened to have tons of cool objects in SecondLife to use for the job (Cars, Trains, Boats, Planes etc.). It wasn’t long before Transit Paradise was born.

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring, touch the objects and doors to enter virtual 360° experiences, and touch “i”s to learn about the experiences.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

One limitation of my approach to making Web Worlds reared it’s ugly head, though.

You can only cram so many doors and objects into a single 360° photo.

This result was that there wasn’t enough room for all of the Transportation content, and I decided that Space Transportation needed to go into a separate Web World.

I was also updating the Space pages at the time and decided to address another weakness. While the existing Solar Extremes Toy World was a fine interface for the Solar System pages, there were some pages related to Astronomy that weren’t included in it.

Ultimately Space Transportation and Astronomy were combined into Space Depot.

Touch the 360° image to begin exploring, touch the objects and doors to enter virtual 360° experiences, and touch “i”s to learn about the experiences.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

Soon after that I was working on the Library page and saw experiences there begging for attention. The Great Libraries Antechamber resulted, and the post Little, Big, Old, Spooky Libraries explains more about it.

———————–
Hike the Web!

November 17th is National Take a Hike Day, and I planned a post to highlight some virtual hikes on the Web. A Web World with doors to those and some parks seemed like a nice idea, and so Hiking Trails Hall came into being.

I was also updating the pages in the Nature section of Cosma around that time, and I thought it would be good to make Web Worlds to emphasize the links to experiences quietly lurking about on those pages.

For example, there were links to 3D tours of Natural History Museums on the Dinosaur page, and so a Web World for accessing Natural History Museums seemed like a “should do.”

The Plant, Flower and Tree pages had links to some lovely Botanical Gardens, so Botanical Gardens Orangery was an obvious choice for another Web World.

There were many links to fun experiences on the Animal pages that needed attention. I also happened to already have some very cute animals in my inventory in SecondLife, so Critter’s Hollow was a no-brainer.

Finally, I created this Nature Center to integrate and access the four separate Web Worlds and introduced it in the Hike the Web post.

Touch doors and objects to enter 360° virtual experiences, touch “i”s to learn more, and touch arrows to go to other areas of the Nature Center.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

———————–
Beach Bum Break

Then came January, in New England, and this year was worse than usual! 🙁

I’m a hopeless “beach person.” That’s why there’s even a Beach page on Cosma.

I couldn’t go visit beaches with warm weather, so making Enchanted Beach Hut, Enchanted Beach Shack and the Enchanted Beach House below were therapy. You can read about it in My Enchanted Beach Houses post.

Touch doorways to visit 360° experiences, and touch posters and objects to find out more.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

It turned out that my beach adventures weren’t just therapy — they also inspire the design of the largest Web Worlds creation so far …

———————–
Wander the Web@Wanderlust!

Later in January I got busy slogging through updating and expanding the “World” pages (Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Antarctica and their many children).

Years ago I made an arm-chair Travel Lounge Toy World. It was okay, but it didn’t showcase many immersive experiences.

In fact, there were so many links to fantastic experiences on the pages that I was updating, a single Web World wasn’t going to be enough. There ended up being six Web Worlds (Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Antarctica).

Notice that I loved my Enchanted Beach House so much, I repurposed it for all of them. Then, as with the Nature Center, I made a central Web World to access the others. Voila! The result was Wanderlust Travel Villa!

Touch doorways to visit 360° experiences, and touch posters to find out more.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

———————–
Walk-in-Web

Earlier in February, after the extravaganza that was Wanderlust, I wasn’t sure that I would be up to making more Web Worlds any time soon. Then I was updating the Arts & Entertainment pages and realized a few things.

First, I don’t spend nearly enough time on them, and I don’t add that content to the other pages as much as I should either. I need to fix that.

Second, my earlier Walk-in-Art Toy World was kind of pathetic, and it didn’t have links to great art museums that you can visit on the Web.

Of course, that just wouldn’t do at all, so welcome to Walk-in-Art & Museums.

Touch the art and doorways to visit 360° experiences.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

———————–
One World to Rule Them All

After reading the story above, I hope you can see why I needed to make a single Web World to access the others. It became too unwieldy to find all of the Web Worlds distributed across the Cosma Web site, and old fashioned text links to them would be too boring and not in the spirit of why I made them.

I hope you enjoy using Web Worlds@Cosma to Hike, Wander and Walk-in the hundreds of 3D and 360° experiences that you can find through Cosma Web Worlds Welcome Area!

Enjoy!
— M. E. Hopper

Walk-in-Art & Museums!

~ mehopper

Last week I wrote Enchanted Beach Houses where I explained how I was inspired to create the Wanderlust Magic Travel Villa. It’s a “virtual travel” application with a visual interface to over a hundred 3D and 360° experiences.

In case you didn’t see it, here it is again.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

You can use the above interface or these posters to visit all seven “Web Worlds.”

           

One thing that I regretted was that I couldn’t include more 3D and 360° experiences.

There just wasn’t enough room in the Villa to link to the hundreds of experiences that I’ve included on the pages on Cosma.

For example, I had to decide whether to include the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre?

I ultimately decided to leave off the Louvre.

That means that there are links to virtual experiences on the page about France on Cosma that are not in the Europe Room in the Wanderlust Magic Travel Villa.

Here are examples of experiences that you will see links to on Cosma that are not in the Villa.

Virtual Tours (Louvre, Official Website)
Louvre Museum (360 Stories)
The Louvre Museum a 360° Experience (Escape Now, YouTube 360° Video)

I found myself leaving out a lot of museum experiences, and I was particularly sad to leave out experiences for some of the greatest art museums. That’s why I decided that this old Toy World Walk-in-Art could use an upgrade.

This is the old world. Click on paintings to see 3D and 360° experiences.


You can also explore this Toy World on Kuula.

Now welcome to Walk-in-Art & Museums!

Touch art and doorways to visit 360° experiences.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

Here are links to some other, related posts on Cosma.

Walk-in-Art
Art Revisited
Dive-in-Art
Leonardo Lately
Magical Paintings
Into Van Gogh

Enjoy, but beware, it’s easy to get lost in 360° art!

Find out more about the visual arts and museums …

Enchanted Beach Houses

~ mehopper

I live in the Northeast, and I hate January!

I know it’s “almost” February, but I’m not a huge fan of that either.

This is the view outside my window right now.

There’s more winter left than I can take, no matter what the ground hog says this weekend.

Look at my weekend forecast from yesterday.

What the heck is freezing spray advisory anyway? I had to look it up on Wikipedia.

Freezing Spray Advisory is issued by the National Weather Service to warn sea vessels and sometimes road vehicles near the shoreline that accumulation of freezing water droplets and icing due to a combination of cold suspended droplets, wind, and cold air, so vessel movement is possible, however, accumulations are not expected to reach rates of 2 cm per hour, or else a heavy freezing spray watch, warning or a specific notice would be issued. — Wikipedia

Lovely.

I guess I should be grateful that it’s not a heavy freezing spray warning, right?

Somehow I just can’t muster that gratitude.

Being the beach person that I am, it’s at times like this that I do what I’ve dubbed “beachscrolling” — it’s a bit like doomscrolling, but far less depressing.

For example, my favorite walk between King’s Beach and Nahant Beach looks like this now.

So I go visit various web pages where I’ve posted this 360° image that I took years ago.

When I go to walk at Revere Beach, this is what it looks like at the Wonderland MBTA Station.

Here’s a view from the South end of the beach.

That’s when I get a bit of joy out of re-visiting this 360° image that I took a few summers ago.

Finally, sometimes I get bored with my own still pictures of local beaches. That’s when I start beachscrolling on YouTube looking for other people’s 360° videos of beaches that I loved visiting in the past. This is probably more aptly dubbed “beachstrolling.”

Here’s a 360° video by Ryan Kawailani Ozawa for beachstrolling on Waikiki Beach.

Note: This is a 360° video — press & hold to explore!

Ryan Kawailani Ozawa (YouTube Channel)

Last week I got a little carried away, though.

I decided it would be more visceral to have a 3D interface for beachstrolling.

Here’s an imaginary hut that I hacked together on Waikiki Beach.

Just click the doorway to take a beachstroll.

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

Now that’s a break from winter in New England!

One problem, though.

I love to beachstroll on South Beach, too.

Here’s a 360° video from YouTube for doing that.

Note: This is a 360° video — press & hold to explore!

vr360videos (YouTube Channel)

There’s just one door in my tiny beach hut.

What to do?

Make a beach shack with more doors, of course!

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

I was happy with my new digs for a few days.

Then I happened to be updating all of the country pages on Cosma, and I came across a bevy of 360° YouTube videos showing awesome beaches in Australia. Here are a few of them.

Sydney Bondi Beach (SouthernCross VR, YouTube 360° Video)
Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia (Tourism Australia, YouTube 360° Video
Bells Beach Drone Interactive Flight. (Spin 360-3D, YouTube 360° Video)

That beach shack got an(other) upgrade!

Welcome to my Enchanted Beach House!

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

If you get bored with my set list and want to go somewhere else, here is how to do it.

Start by picking a beach. It can be one you’ve been to yourself, or any other one.

You can find plenty of great U.S. beaches on Stephen Leatherman’s Dr. Beach website. If you’re feeling more adventuresome, then you can take your pick from the best beaches in the world using CNN Travel’s Worlds Best Beaches website. They have an Interactive Map to help you find a great beach for “beachstrolling.”

Once you know where you want to go, then go to YouTube and put in the name of the beach followed by “360°.” Voilà, you will probably have plenty of gist for beachstrolling.

So a few things happened during my adventures in beachstrolling this week.

One of those things is that I got inspired to add a new category of links called “Fun in the Sun” to the country pages on Cosma.

In addition, I was listening to the radio and heard these lyrics to the song A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman.

There’s a house we can build
Every room inside is filled
With things from far away
The special things I compile
Each one there to make you smile
On a rainy day
— Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Now that was food for thought, and look what happened after that …

Welcome to Wanderlust Magic Travel Villa!!!

If you can’t see it, or it isn’t working, you can also see it directly on Kuula.

Happy beachstrolling … and other travels 😉

Find out more about Beaches, Travel and the World…

Americas Canada, United States, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina
Europe United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece
Africa Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa, Madagascar
Asia India, China, Japan
Oceania Australia, New Zealand
Polar Regions Arctic, Antarctica

Umbraphiles

~ mehopper

umbraphile : One who loves eclipses, often travelling to see them.

You’ve probably heard about the April 8th solar eclipse (Wikipedia), and if you live near the path of totality, then you’ve probably also seen news stories like this one.

Party in the Path of Totality at These Solar Eclipse Getaways Across New England (Kristi Palma, Boston.com)

There are also a ton of stories like this about why this year’s eclipse is a such a big deal.

Why the 2024 Eclipse Will be a Different Experience from 2017 (Ashley Strickland, CNN)

While there are plenty of information sources out there, my favorite one is good ol’ NASA.

They even made a trailer about this year’s event.

NASA (YouTube Channel)
NASA (Official Website)

NASA will be streaming the eclipse live April 8 From 1 to 4 p.m. EDT.

2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA (Official Broadcast, YouTube)

Here’s a link to their neat interactive website for finding out “where & when” it will happen.

2024 Total Eclipse: Where & When (NASA)

They also have a dedicated webpage for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse, one for Eclipses in general and one with Safety Guidelines.

Now, you may or may not know, all of the fuss about people in the United States getting to see a total solar eclipse might be just a wee bit overblown. With all the hype about the tourism and special sun glasses, you may have missed a couple of stories pointing out that the event isn’t all that rare. Here’s one of those stories.

Total Eclipses Aren’t that Rare — and You’ve Probably Missed a Bunch of Them: They Happen About Once Every 18 Months (Sara Chodosh, Popular Science)

There is one group of people who know this well — they are the Umbraphiles, more commonly known as Eclipse Chasers. They are unique tribe, and their fascination with the celestial event tends to be described in terms well outside the realm of science.

Here’s a link to the article about them that actually inspired the title of this post.

Chasing Totality: A Look Into the World of Umbraphiles (Andy Wright, Atlas Obscura)

Better yet, here’s a talk by David Baron that may have single-handedly helped to increase the ranks of Umbraphiles over the last few years.

David Baron’s Talk (TEDxMileHigh)
TEDxMileHigh – July 8, 2017 (YouTube Playlist)
TEDxMileHigh – July 8, 2017 (Official Website)

So, one way or another, in real life if you’re lucky enough to be in a good place to see the eclipse, or online with NASA at YouTube, enjoy next Monday’s eclipse with safety and awe.

Then if you’re inclined to join the ranks of umbraphiles after that, here’s a handy list from Wikipedia that includes when and where future total solar eclipses will occur.

List of Solar Eclipses in the 21st Century

If you would like to become an Armchair-Umbraphile, then head on over to YouTube — there are a ton of 360° Videos of Solar Eclipses to enjoy anytime and anywhere.

Here are even more links that might be of interest to Umbraphiles.

History of Eclipses (Objectivity, YouTube)
Eclipses (National Solar Observatory)
Eclipses (Eric Weisstein’s World of Astronomy)
Eclipses (Wolfram Alpha)

Finally, if you’re into really rare celestial events, then keep an eye out for a star to appear sometime between now and September. Here’s a NASA story about it that I tripped over while doing research for this post.

View Nova Explosion, New Star in Northern Crown (Beth Ridgeway, NASA)

Have a great week, and may your weather be great for viewing if you’re in the path!

Find out more about the Sun, Moon, Stars and the Universe in general …

Polar Party Toy World

~ mehopper

About five years ago I created a series of what I called Toy Worlds to be 3D interfaces to Cosma.

You can see all of my Toy Worlds on my page on the Kuula service that I use to post them.

That was a phase that I thought was over   —   I moved on to exploring other technologies for making 3D websites (more about that in the spring). However, I got nostalgic for Toy Worlds while I was pulling out holiday decorations this year, so here is a brand new Toy World.

Click and drag to look around and click on objects to learn more about them.

Enjoy & Happy Holidays!
Mary

Easter Tidings & Tidbits

~ mehopper

I’ve been immersed in working on updating Cosma pages about technical subjects like computers and the internet lately.

Make that TOO immersed, I needed a break.

Given it’s Easter weekend, make that a bunny break!

First, I dug up my old Bunny Fix post from 2020. That was fun, but those bunny clips were only a few minutes long. I wanted more, so I headed to YouTube in search of some more bunnies.

However, I didn’t find any because I got distracted by a video about Easter traditions.

The Adventure Buddies (YouTube Channel)

Some of the traditions were fun and familiar, but others not-so-much. The Scandinavian Witches, Czech Switches and Cold Water in Hungary weren’t so enviable.

Of course, that cute Australian Easter Bilby caught my eye. I set off on a YouTube safari in search of them. Here’s one of the better videos I found.

Behind the News (YouTube Channel)
Behind the News (Official Website)

Those bunnies and foreign traditions were fun distractions, but my favorite Easter thing to do remains coloring Easter eggs. That is why I was a sucker for this video about ways to dye them. It is a bit long, but each time you think the ideas won’t get any more creative, they do.

Cleverly (YouTube Channel)
Cleverly (Official Website)

Finally, one last fun traditional distraction is the Easter Egg hunt.

In case you can’t do a real one, here’s a 360° video with a quick virtual version.

ABC11-WTVD (YouTube Channel)
ABC11-WTVD (Official Website)

There you have it. That’s the end of my break — I hope you enjoyed coming along for my unexpectedly meandering (de)tour through Easter tidbits =:)

Find out more about bunnies and celebrations in general …

Pi = Spring

~ mehopper

Did you know that Tuesday, March 14 is Pi Day?

I’m both a geek and a softy for cool numbers, so I’ve known of Pi Day since not long after Larry Shaw made news about it with his escapades at the Exploratorium in the 1980s.

Although, I’m more aware of it than “usual” because I’ve been working on the Mathematics page on Cosma — it just naturally came up 🙂

If you don’t know what Pi Day is, then there are lots of ways to find out about it.

In fact, when you Google Pi Day, you’ll get around a whopping 1,290,000,000 results. Ironically, if you Google Pi Day Facts you’ll get a slightly more overwhelming 1,300,000,000 results (Hummmm, that’s “interesting”).

A simple way to cut through all that would be to search out the Wikipedia page about it.

However, I prefer going to the source, so I’m partial to the Exploratorium’s Pi Page.

There’s also a dedicated “Pi Day” site that has a page with the Top 25 Most Interesting Pi Facts. My favorite fact is that March 14th also happens to be Albert Einstein birthday!

One thing they fail to mention is the whole “Pi Day Food” thing. If you Google Pi Day Deals 2023, you will see that sources ranging from CNET to Good Housekeeping will give you advice on where to get deals on Pies and Pizza.

Now I personally prefer to learn about things using YouTube videos.

Alas, searching YouTube for Pi Day is only a bit less overwhelming than searching the Web. There are thousands of videos, and many of them are, non-coincidentally, 3.14 minutes long.

I spent awhile rummaging through them and think this minute long video is one of the best.

cleveland.com (YouTube Channel)
Cleveland.com (Official Website)

Now, for a bit o’ fun, it turns out that searching YouTube for Pi Day Song turns up slightly fewer videos. Here’s one of the cuter ones.

Tiny Tunes (YouTube Channel)
Tiny Tunes (Facebook)

Here’s another fun video from one of my favorite YouTube channels.

FlippyCat (YouTube Channel)
FlippyCat (Facebook)

I must confess that frequenting the FlippyCat YouTube Channel is akin to watching cat videos.

In fact, one of my favorite Flippy Cat videos features a cat!

FlippyCat (YouTube Channel)
FlippyCat (Facebook)

Ahhh, but I digress, a lot.

Onward, one of the reasons that Pi Day is so near and dear to my heart is that it is also one of a triad of holidays that serve as a prelude to the official start of Spring on March 20th (the other two were St. Pat’s and the Holi Festival of Colors).

So this post is also a salutation to Spring!

Happy Pi Day + Spring!

Find out more about Mathematics and Holidays …

Jigsaw Puzzledom

~ mehopper

I got lost in puzzles, and I couldn’t get out!

However, unlike most normal people, I didn’t get lost in doing jigsaw puzzles.

Nope. Leave it to me. I managed to get lost in finding out about them.

The journey began when I saw this video about a color-changing jigsaw puzzle from the MoMA Design Store. The pieces change color according to the angle from which they’re viewed.

MoMA Design Store (YouTube Channel)
MoMA Design Store (Official Website)

Geeezzz! Who thought of that? It looks mind-bendingly hard, but still neat!

Then this time-lapse video posted by Andre F caught my eye.

Andre F (YouTube Channel)

Again, neat! The description of the video said that the puzzle was called Around the World.

I did a Google search and, Voilà!, I found it …

Around the World – 42000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle for $559.99 (Puzzle Warehouse)

… but, I had also fallen deeper down the rabbit hole that is Jigsaw Puzzledom.

I couldn’t help noticing that my search for Around the World Jigsaw Puzzle also brought up a video about a different puzzle from Ravensburger entitled Disney Moments. Here’s a mini-documentary about their 40,320 piece monster.

Ravensburger UK (YouTube Channel)
avensburger UK (Official Website)

You may have noticed that the video covered just about everything that most normal people would ever want to know about how puzzles are made. However, if you want to know more, then here’s a recent article from the New York Times that I stumbled upon.

Here’s How Those Hot Jigsaw Puzzles Are Made (Amie Tsang, The New York Times)

Then I got curioius and did some fact checing. Guess what?

The Guinness World Records website says that the jigsaw puzzle with the “mostest” actually had a whopping 551,232 pieces, and it was completed by 1,600 students of the University of Economics in Vietnam.

Nice trivia.

In addition, the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of jigsaw puzzles is held by Luiza Figueiredo in São Paulo, Brazil. This 360° video shows a quick glimpse of her epic collection of 1,047 puzzles.

VR 360 (YouTube Channel)

Okay, as you can tell, I was way into Jigsaw Puzzle Land at this point.

Heck, while I was there, I decided that I might as well wander around and explore a bit more.

For example, YouTube kept suggesting that I watch a video about the history of jigsaw puzzles.

Piecing together the history of jigsaw puzzles (CBS Sunday Morning, YouTube)

If you would like to learn more about the history of jigsaw puzzles, then you might also be able to get your hands on the book The jigsaw puzzle: piecing together a history by Anne Williams (the historian featured in the CBS Sunday Morning clip above).

Also, did you know that you can order personalized puzzles from Shutterfly, Portrait Puzzles and Create Jigsaws?

Finally, if you’re still reading this post, let alone doing any of that stuff, then you’ve fallen deep into Jigsaw Puzzledom, too.

If that’s the case, then you should know that you’re in good company. Here’s an article that explains that you belong to a club that includes the likes of Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Bill Gates and Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones!

The Rich and Famous Who Love the Humble Jigsaw Puzzle (Wentworth Wooden Puzzles)

Fun stuff!

Alas, no matter how great the company, I had to finally drag myself out of Jigsaw Puzzle Land to share this with you, and then get back to work on what I should be doing (i.e. a much needed overhaul of this Cosma web site).

I will leave off here, but if you continue exploring Jigsaw Puzzledom on your own, then there’s a few things you should know.

First, be careful about calling yourself by a term like “Puzzler.” It’s colloquial. The correct, technical term to use is Dissectologist.

Second, you may want to join a club called the Benevolent Confraternity of Dissectologists. If you’re into jigsaw puzzles, seriously, check that out!

On the other hand, if this post has just gotten you in the mood to work a jigsaw puzzle, right here and now, then you will probably enjoy the online puzzles at Jigsaw Explorer!

Enjoy some for me! 🙂

Find out more about hobbies, fun and games…

Bunny Fix!

~ mehopper

Easter is here, and it’s time for a bunny fix!

I decided to go rummage around YouTube for some bunnies.

My quest began with searching for a random cute bunny that I could just watch for a awhile. Instead, I found a 360° video about the Japanese island Okunoshima.

Jackpot!

This video from NowThis explains why Okunoshima’s nickname is “Rabbit Island.”

Now This News (YouTube Channel)
Now This News (Official Website)

In addition, the site Gateway to Rabbit Island was basically a virtual vacation.

Next up I found a video entitled INVASION! from Baobab Studios narrated by Ethan Hawke and is a bit out of this world.

Note, as is usually the case with 360° YouTube videos, it makes sense if you watch it in the regular way, but it’s more fun if you interact with it and look around.

Baobab Studios (YouTube Channel)
Baobab Studios (Official Website)

After all of that, I was starting to feel better, but I still didn’t quite feel like I had gotten the “Easter bunny” vibe that I was looking for, yet.

Onward!

Happily, the next thing that I stumbled upon was exactly the medicine that I needed.

You’ve heard of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, right?

Well, it turns out that there’s a rendition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, narrated by none other than Dame Judi Dench, posted on the Beatrix Potter YouTube Channel. Better yet, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny and many others are posted there too.

Beatrix Potter (YouTube Channel)

Now that’s the kind of bunny fix that I needed, and I hope you enjoyed it too =:-)

Find out more about bunnies …

Forest Bathing?

~ mehopper

I just came across a new, perplexing phrase.

Forest bathing?

Ugh? What’s that? I want to know more!

It turns out that it’s a form of nature therapy that originated in Japan where it is known as Shinrin-yoku.

Here’s a link to a video I found about the practice.

Why You Should Try the Japanese Art of Forest Bathing (LifeHacker, YouTube)

That stress relief sounds good, but I don’t happen to have a forest handy 🙁

However, I did find this soothing 360˚ video of the Hokkaido forest.

GALAXIID (YouTube Channel)
GALAXIID (Official Website)

Nice, I could use some more of that!

Of course, there are plenty of other videos like that on YouTube. For example, you might enjoy a 17 minute long 360˚ video of a relaxing walk in a Norwegian forest.

Real Virtual Movies (YouTube Channel)

In fact, writing this post inspired me to create this 360° experience called Hiking Trails Hall.

Click the “doors” to enter 360° virtual parks and “i”s for information about them.

You can also see it directly on Kuula.

Here’s the thing, though. As neat as 360˚ videos and experiences can be, they are no substitute for the real thing when it comes to physical activity. If you don’t happen to have ingredients for “forest bath” nearby (i. e. an actual bunch of trees), then just go for a regular walk, in the real world, as often as you can.

So get out there and get moving to stay healthy and less stressed, whether or not you happen to be lucky enough to have a forest 🙂

Find out more about forests, trees and nature in general…

Penguin Playtime

~ mehopper

Brrr, baby, it’s cold outside!

Let’s embrace it, even celebrate it, by watching some penguins play for a few minutes!

Here’s a 360° video of magellanic penguins sledding, right up until and after they knock the camera over and have a good laugh.

Wildlife Protection Solutions (YouTube Channel)
Wildlife Protection Solutions (Facebook)

Okay, truth be known, they were probably making all of that noise for another reason 😉

Here’s a 360° video of rockhopper penguins frolicking in a tidal pool until they start doing close-up cameos for the camera.

Wildlife Protection Solutions (YouTube Channel)
Wildlife Protection Solutions (Facebook)

Finally, this 360° video introduces you to a vast party of king penguins and their woolly chicks carousing on a beach in Gold Harbour in South Georgia. It’s interesting enough to watch as a regular video, but it’s more fun to watch if you look around, and it’s really adorable if you look down — be sure to do that!

Adam Cropp (YouTube Channel)
Adam Cropp (Official Website)

What is it about penguins that make them so darn cute?

I’m not sure, but whatever it is, it inspired me to make a brand new page about Penguins@Cosma!

Happy Weekend!

Zip the World!

~ mehopper

Virtual zipline rides are addictive, and they’re also a neat way to see the world!

I found this out by accident.

While I was planning a trip to Niagara Falls, I stumbled over a 360° video of a zipline ride.

Akron Drone Services (YouTube Channel)
Akron Drone Services (Official Website)

Then I watched it again “just for fun,” and that led to a “side adventure” that grew into this post.

That’s because watching the Niagara Falls video led to YouTube suggesting another minute long 360° video of a zipline ride in Cañon City, Colorado within Royal Gorge Bridge & Park.

Royal Gorge Bridge and Park (YouTube Channel)

Then another 360° video of a zipline ride by Superfly Ziplines in Whistler, British Columbia popped up. Again, only a minute long — innocent enough, why not?

How beautiful, not to mention seasonally appropriate, was that!?!? Show me more!

The next 360° video that YouTube suggested was of a ride at Zip World in Wales.

Orchard Immersive Tech (YouTube Channel)

Wahoooo! Notice that the speedometer on the video said 100 MPH!

That ride turns out to have been on the longest zipline in Europe and the fastest in the world. Great to experience virtually, but probably terrifying in real life!

A Google search showed that Zip World is a sort of playground for grown-ups with a number of jungle gym like “destinations.” Here’s a non-360° video about what they offer.

Zip World (YouTube Channel)

After watching ten 360° videos of zipline rides in under 15 minutes, it occurred to me that ziplining is a “thing” at tourist destinations, and taking 360° videos of the rides is too. I couldn’t help but wonder, how many more 360° video clips of rides are there out there?

A YouTube search for zipline+360 turned up hundreds of results from all over the world!

Better yet, the rides themselves are only about a minute’ish long, by definition, and they’ve got great bird’s-eye views of scenery that you wouldn’t see otherwise. If you’re into seeing great places, what a way to do it!

Happy Zipping 🙂

If you enjoy adventures with a side of adrenaline then check out these other posts …

Heights!
Up, Up and Away!
Wingsuit Rush!
Go for a Fly!
NYC Highs
Extreme Biking, Artfully!
Catch Some Waves!

Find out more about travel, the World and adventure in general …

F.L.Wright (De)Tours

~ mehopper

It never ceases to amaze me how clicking on an innocent little link to a news story can turn into an unexpected, intriguing adventure.

For example, I clicked on a link to this story about a Frank Lloyd Wright house that will be going on the market.

A Frank Lloyd Wright Home in N.H. Will Hit the Market for $850,000 (Brittany Bowker, Boston.com)

The house is known as the Kalil House, and as is generally the case with Wright houses, there’s an interesting aspect to the architecture. In this case the house is one of seven “Usonian Automatic Houses” that Wright designed. They were intended to be moderately priced and used concrete blocks that could be assembled in a variety of ways.

That sounded like a sort of “LEGO” house, so I wanted to know more!

First, I found this video that shows the house.

Paula Martin Group (YouTube Channel)
Paula Martin Group (Official Website)

Interesting concept, but not my personal favorite example of Wright architecture.

However, while I was trying to find out more about how the house looked, something else caught my attention. The website for the sale of the house had a 3D tour.

Neat! Of course, I had to check that out!

That tour was created using a platform called Matterport. The core of their business is that they do a 3D scan of a space and host the 3D model on their platform so users can navigate by simply matching a blue circle attached to their cursor to white circles on the 360° image and clicking.

Matterport is clearly used for selling high-end real estate, but it’s also been used for other types of spaces, and their website has a gallery of interesting tours. The Arts & Culture and Historic sections feature hundreds of great sites. No surprise, I took some (de)tours.

I also accidentally tripped over something else.

There’s another Wright house up for sale, or in this case auction, in October. It’s in Phoenix, and it’s known as the Circular Sun House or the Norman Lykes House.

Heritage Auctions (YouTube Channel)
Heritage Auctions (Official Website)

Better yet, there was another 3D tour of it!

Once I found that, I decided a try a simple Google Search to find out if there were any other 3D tours of Wright houses
.
Sure enough, there were, which also meant more (de)tours for me!

There was even a tour of Taliesin West, which was Wright’s desert laboratory that was mentioned in the video about the Norman Lykes House.

Then my journey took yet another unexpected turn due to this article.

Take A 3D Virtual Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West (Katharine Keane, Architectural Digest)

That article was innocent enough, but it had a link to this article from a few years ago.

10 Facts About Frank Lloyd Wright You Didn’t Know (Carrie Hojnicki, Architectural Digest)

Here’s a sample of what’s in the article.

For all the praise Frank Lloyd Wright garnered in his 70-year career, the architect was equally a magnet for controversy in all its forms. With three wives and eight children (seven biological, one adopted), the architect spent much of his adult life racking up sensational, though not untrue, headlines like “SUIT ENDS WRIGHT ROMANCE; Sculptress Who Fled With Architect to Japan Obtains Alimony” (New York Times) or “ISSUE WARRANT FOR WRIGHT; Architect’s Wife Seeks to Re-enter Their Wisconsin Home” (also New York Times), each referring the personal tumult that seemed to follow the architect through much of his adult life.

Wow, so Mr. Wright wasn’t boring!

I did a tad more research about Wright’s life and found a trailer for a documentary about him entitled Frank Lloyd Wright: Murder, Myth & Modernism. It starts out covering his architecture, but it doesn’t end there!

Movies & TV (YouTube Channel)

I found out more about the “Murder” in the title of the movie in a YouTube video from the Smithsonian Channel entitled A Horrific Tragedy at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home, but it was so gruesome that I could not bring myself to include anything but a link to it here. I will caution you that you should take the word “horrific” seriously as you decide whether or not to click the link and watch the video!

I’ll stop sharing my own (de)tours here, but if you want to take some further ones on your own, then there are plenty of places to find out more about Wright’s work and his extraordinary life. You can check out the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust (YouTube Channel). The Architectural Digest has a very nice section. Then, of course, there’s good old Encyclopædia Britannica and last, but not least, Wikipedia.

Finally, on a brighter note, according to an article on Atlas Obscura, the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy says that there tend to be between 15 to 20 properties for sale at any one time. These days, a fairly high percentage of those are bound to have 360° tours to explore, so that means that Wright fans can enjoy some new Wright architecture (de)tours with just a bit of clicking.

Find out more about architecture and arts in general…

Wacky World

~ mehopper

It’s a weird and wacky world out there, and Guinness World Records (GWR) loves to remind us of that fact from time to time.

Just last week they released their 66th Edition of extreme factoids and an accompanying media blitz to rain outrageous strangeness down upon the media landscape.

It all started with a silly little one minute video. Here’s a link to it.

Guinness World Records 2020 – Out Now (Guinness World Records, YouTube)

Then Guinness World Records followed that up with a two minute video highlighting their hand-picked stars.

Meet The Stars of GWR 2020 (Guinness World Records, YouTube)

Then there was this article on their website with more detail about the “Stars” in the video.

Power your Curiosity: Introducing the Stars of Guinness World Records 2020 (Connie Suggitt, Guinness World Records)

They also have a YouTube Channel where they post separate videos about the Stars.

Finally, they distribute their press release, and voilà, there’s a media frenzy.

The next thing you know, news organizations starved for something to cover besides politics, the weather, the state of the roads and whatnot, latch on to it and print articles like this one.

Pinky Pull Ups, Mayo Eating and Other Weird Feats in the New Guinness World Records book (Scottie Andrew, CNN)

There is a finer point to be made here, though. Guinness World Records is a business, so they tend to delve into a “records for hire” approach sometimes.

That is why I was able to find a 360° video with this description.

Watch the All-New F-PACE defy gravity in a Guinness World Record-breaking 360° loop. As we celebrate our 80th anniversary, our new performance SUV was driven with daring precision by Legendary Stunt Driver Terry Grant, showcasing its lightweight design, agility, sports car speed and performance.

Here is a link to the video.

Jaguar F-PACE 360° Experience of Gravity-Defying World Record Loop (Jaguar, YouTube)

Yes, indeed, for better or worse, profit motive or not, they do a great job of catering to all sorts of interests — they even had a cool 360° video for me to post about here!

Lest you think you’re safe from their hijinks, I highly recommend that you check out their Showcase organized by interests. Better yet, you may wish you’d stuck to cat videos, because the website has a category for animal lovers!

Oh nooo… there you gooo…

Happy Weekend!

Find out more about competitions and the rest of the World in general …

Strange Stays

~ mehopper

I concluded my last post about Sand Art with highlighting how Booking.com offered the chance to stay in a sandcastle as a promotion for Coney Island’s Sand Sculpting Competition. Here’s a link with more on that unusual “opportunity.”

Giant Coney Island Sandcastle Offers Sleepovers (Summer Delaney, WPIX)

That may have sounded like a one-off type of oddity, but in truth, it wasn’t.

Booking.com is known for cooking up some “unique” promotions. For example, here’s a silly clip on what they did for that illustrious holiday, National Avocado Day.

Buzz60 (YouTube Channel)
Buzz60 (Facebook)

The aren’t alone in promoting atypical places to stay. In fact, far from it!

There are also a bevy of travel articles about a broad array of places to stay.

17 Weird and Wacky Hotels Across the United States (Violet Kim, CNN Travel)
22 Weird, Wonderful and Unique Hotels in the World (Stine Gjevnøe Sørensen, momondo)

No matter what your passion happens to be, there’s bound to be a place to stay for it.

The reason that I’m so aware of this is because awhile ago, with amusement, I realized that there’s some sort of lodging related to almost every subject on Cosma. Sometimes those experiences end up as adventures like Sand Art. That’s why I have a huge stash of links to “thematic” lodging that range from mildly amusing to pretty wild.

For example, there’s some kind of place to visit for what ever kind of transportation.

If you like trains, then you might enjoy a say at the Featherbed Railroad (Upper Lake, California). If you’re into cars, then you might want to book a night at V8 Hotel Motorworld (Stuttgart, Germany).

DIRS21 by TourOnline AG (YouTube Channel)

Are planes more your thing? There’s quite a few adventures ranging from sleeping in a Plane Airbnb (St Michel Chef Chef, France) to a 727 Airplane Fuselage (Costa Verde, Costa Rica).

If you’re into boats, then try a stay at The Queen Mary Hotel (Long Beach, California).

If you prefer an even more aquatic experience, then there are undersea hotels like these.

Atlantis – The Palm (Dubai, United Arab Emirates)
The Manata Resort (Psv-zanzibar, Tanzania)
Jules’ Undersea Loadge (Key Largo, Florida)
The Muraka (Rangali Island, Maldives)

Let’s say you are into trees, then how about staying in a tree house? There are many places to consider. Here are links to a few of them.

Out’n’About Treehouses Treesort (Takilma, Oregon)
Azulik Resort (Tulum, Mexico)
Treehouse Lodge Resort (Iquitos, Peru)

Less run-of-the-mill tree houses include Freespirit Spheres (Vancouver Island). Here’s a link to a video about them.

Free Spirit Spheres Ultimate Treehouses (Animal Planet, YouTube)

Trees are nice, but what if you prefer animals?

Dog lovers might get a kick out of cuddling up inside a beagle at Dog Bark Park Inn (Cottonwood Inn, Idaho).

KTVB (YouTube CHannel)
KTVB (Official Website)

If you love giraffes, there’s Giraffe Manor (Nairobi, Kenya). Here’s a virtual 360° visit.

Photos of Africa (YouTube Channel)
Photos of Africa (Official Website)

Do you long to see polar bears in the wild? Then climb on the Tundra Buggy Lodge (Churchill, Manitoba).

Amanda Williams (YouTube Channel)

There are also some places where you can take shelter in ice. The two most famous are Hôtel de Glace (Quebec City, Canada) and Icehotel, Sweden (Jukkasjärvi, Sweden).

There’s also a place called Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort in Saariselka, Finland where you can have all sorts of winter fun and then chill in glass igloos and watch the northern lights.

Goway Travel (YouTube Channel)
Goway Travel (Official Website)

So there you have it — there really is a place for about any interest that you can imagine, and also some that you might not expect.

For example, there are places where dyed in the wool Tolkien fans can live like hobbits!

5 Places Where You Can Vacation Like a Hobbit on Hobbit Day (A. Pawlowski, USA Today)

You might think that nobody would want to stay in a jail, voluntarily, but that’s not so.

While people do pay to stay in an ex-jail here in Boston called The Liberty Hotel, that’s a tame example. A far more extreme and bizarre experience can be found at the Karostas Cietums aka Karosta Prison (Liepāja, Latvia)!

Monta Krafte (YouTube Channel)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this adventure in strange places to stay around the world.

Now you know that whatever your passion, there’s bound to be some lodging where you can revel in it.

Here are still more sites where you can find unusual lodging organized into handy categories.

Unusual Places to Stay and Unique Holiday Accommodation (CoolStays)
The Most Unique and Unusual Places to Stay (Host Unusual)

If something isn’t covered in this post or those sites, then you can probably find something with a search for “Your+Interest+Hotel 🙂

That’s how I found a place for my inner librarian called the Library Hotel. It’s on Madison Avenue in New York City, and the rooms are organized by Dewey Decimal! Here’s a link to a video about it.

Library Hotel New York (NY) (HotelReviews, YouTube Channel)

So, next time you are booking lodging, I hope you will consider looking for something a bit less “traditional” that will fit your interests and maybe even become an adventure in its own right!

Find out more about travel, adventure, the World and knowledge in general…

The Maya Underworld

~ mehopper

Chichén Itzá is a fascinating place, and believe it or not, it’s just gotten even more so!

But let’s start from the beginning.

In case you aren’t familiar with it, here’s a link to a 360° video that will give you a sense of why it is considered a World Wonder.

Seven Wonders of the World: Chichén Itzá | 360 Video (The New York Times, YouTube)

It’s hard to believe that such a place could become more intriguing, but I just stumbled across another 360° video in which archaeologist Guillermo de Anda explains how there’s more below El Castillo than meets the eye — a lot more!

Inside Chichén Itzá | 360 Video (National Geographic< YouTube)

That video hardly scratches the surface of what Guillermo de Anda and Gran Acuífero Maya are discovering about underwater caves and their importance to the Maya.

Not only was Chichén Itzá built over a cave, but that cave is connected to Sistema Sac Actun which is now considered to be the largest underwater cave system in the world. In addition, sinkholes called cenotes serve as a network of entrances to the cave system!

Al Jazeera (YouTube Channel)
Al Jazeera (Official Website)

The most mind boggling thing of all is that divers are finding both Maya relics and much, much older human artifacts in the the underwater caves. Here’s a link to a video about the discovery.

Divers Discover 215-Mile-Long Cave in Mexico Full of Mayan Relics (Business Insider, YouTube)

Here are links to where you can learn more about these discoveries!

Remains of Maya Underworld Found in World’s Longest Submerged Cave (Megan Gannon, Live Science)
Cave Full of Untouched Maya Artifacts Found at Chichén Itzá (Jason Daley, Smithsonian Magazine)
World’s Largest Underwater Cave System Discovered in Mexico (Jason Daley, Smithsonian Magazine)

Follow these links to learn more about Chichén Itzá!

City of Chichén Itzá (UNESCO World Heritage Centre)
Chichén Itzá (National Geographic)

Find out more about Mexico, the Americas, the World and History …

Fairy Chimneys

~ mehopper

I was searching YouTube when a video about “fair chimneys” came up in my results.

It sounded so whimsical, I couldn’t resist checking it out.

It turns out that fairy chimneys are geological formations, also known as hoodoos, that form within sedimentary and volcanic rock in dry, hot areas around the world.

While that may not be that interesting, the video about them is quite enticing. It’s footage of an area of Turkey called Cappadocia where fairy chimneys have been carved out to be homes, churches and even whole villages for millennia.

Go Türkiye (YouTube Channel)
Go Türkiye (Official Website)

Here’s a 360° video that’s more history of the Goreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia featured in the above video.

Turing Kültür Sanat (YouTube Channel)

On a more entertaining note, anyone that visits Cappadocia can become a troglodyte because some hotels there are in fairy chimneys.

Here’s a video with some peeks into the exotic “cave hotels.”

Globe Motion (YouTube Channel)

Finally, what about all those hot air balloons in all of the videos?

They were there because Cappadocia also happens to be one of the hot air balloon capitals of the world. Check out this brief 360° experience.

VIEMR – Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality (YouTube Channel)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this “fairy chimney” inspired adventure.

If you’ve become as enchanted as I have with Cappadocia’s fairy chimneys, cave hotels and hot air balloons, maybe even added visiting them to your bucket list, then here are some links to where you can learn more.

Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia (World Heritage Site, UNESCO)
Turkey’s ‘Fairy Chimneys’ Were Millions of Years in the Making (Chris Heller, Smithsonian Magazine)
Cappadocia: Turkey’s land of fairy chimneys (James Bainbridge, Lonely Planet)

Find out more about the Asia and the world in general…

Yellow Submarines

~ mehopper

My last post was about an adventure with seals doing science in Antarctica.

This adventure begins where that one left off, but this is a very different, and fun excursion that happened because Boaty McBoatface surfaced in my news feed.

In case you never heard of him, Boaty’s a submarine that got his name via a publicity stunt by the UK’s National Oceanography Centre that went viral and didn’t turn out like they expected. He turned up in my news feed this week because he’s been doing science similar to the kind that the seals in my last post were doing, and the results have just been published.

Google assumed that if I would want to know what seals with antenna were doing in Antarctica, then I would definitely want to know about Boaty’s activities.

Here’s a video about Boaty’s discoveries as well as the fiasco that led to his name.

Audacy (YouTube Channel)
Audacy (Official Website)

Here are links to some stories about Boaty’s research.

Boaty McBoatface Sheds Light on Warming Ocean Abyss (British Antarctic Survey)
Rapid Mixing and Exchange of Deep-Ocean Waters in an Abyssal Boundary Current (Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, et al., PNAS)

Boaty’s research is important, but seeing him, whose thoughts could help but wander to The Beatles’ song/album/movie Yellow Submarine?

Google/YouTube couldn’t resist helping me along with those musings. Next thing I knew, nostalgia kicked in, and I was watching a trailer for the re-release of the movie in the UK and Ireland that was done for the movie’s 50th Anniversary.

Yellow Submarine UK Theatrical Trailer (Beatles, YouTube)

Then I discovered that The Beatles have official Playlists on YouTube, and there’s even a dedicated Yellow Submarine Playlist that has over twenty videos with all sorts of insider stuff about the movie.

The Internet then led me to scads of ancillary products inspired by the movie. For example, there’s a Yellow Submarine turntable from Pro-Ject (YouTube). Who knew?

LEGO also released a Yellow Submarine Set, and here’s their colorful trailer for it.

The Beatles’ LEGO Yellow Submarine vs. the Sea Monster (LEGO, YouTube)

That’s fun, but there are a number of fan videos that are pretty great, too.

Here’s a lovely stop motion video with a creative take on building the kit.

The Bits Beatles Tribute (YouTube Channel)

Here’s another fan made stop motion video done in the MTV style.

White House Productions (YouTube Channel)

Neat stuff!

Of course, LEGOLAND in California even went so far as to build a ride!

Theme Park Insider (YouTube Channel)

Personally, I prefer the open sea, and it turns out that there’s a ride for that, too.

An outfit called Submarine Safaris operates Yellow Submarine tours out of Tenerife and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Here’s a promo video for their tours.

Tenecar Tenerife (YouTube Channel)

If you’re inspired to book a trip on a real Yellow Submarine, then here’s a link to a video with some background on the Canary Islands that you may want to know before you head out on a real-life adventure.

Introducing the Canary Islands (Lonely Planet, YouTube)

There you have it. One minute you’re doing science with seals in Antarctica, and then the next thing you know, you’re exploring the warm waters of the Canary Islands in a Yellow Submarine.

Isn’t the Internet a wonderful place?

Finally, if all this talk about The Beatles has you craving something a bit more psychedelic, or you just want to play a little while longer, then here’s a trippy little 360° video that claims to be “inspired by The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.

Rock Hy. Zhang (YouTube Channel)

Find out more about music, fun stuff in general and ways of getting around in the water …

Under the Ice

~ mehopper

To paraphrase J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous words in The Lord of the Rings, “It’s a dangerous business, clicking on a link. You glance at a story, and if you don’t watch out, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

This week I innocently clicked on a link to this story from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Mysterious Holes in Antarctic Sea Ice Explained by Years of Robotic Data (University of Washington, AAAS EurekAlert!)

In turn, that link led to this research study that was just published in Nature last week.

Antarctic Offshore Polynyas Linked to Southern Hemisphere Climate Anomalies (Ethan C. Campbell, et al., Nature)

Indeed, the articles provided an interesting explanation for those odd polynya phenomena in Antarctica, but it was actually this intriguing image that really grabbed my attention.

Instrumented Seal, University of Washington. Credit: Dan Costa/University of California, Santa Cruz
Image: Ocean measurements were also collected by seals swimming under the sea ice with temporary satellite tags, showing normal water conditions in the years that did not have large polynyas.
Credit: Dan Costa/University of California, Santa Cruz

Yep, that’s a seal with an antenna on it’s head!

It turns out that the study used data combined from satellite images of sea ice cover, some robotic drifters as well as elephant seals outfitted with sensors.

What’s more, using seals wasn’t a one-off operation. It was part of a program that’s been operating for over a decade according to the Coriolis Operational Oceanography site:

Since 2004, several hundred seals have been equipped with conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) sensors in the Southern Ocean for both biological and physical oceanographic studies. A calibrated collection of seal-derived hydrographic data is now available from Coriolis, currently consisting of more than 300,000 temperature/salinity profiles. — Coriolis


The Coriolis site also has information about a program called Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole that provides access to an international database of validated ocean observations collected by marine mammals such as seals, sea lions, and even turtles.

You can find out more about the program here.

MEOP Web Portal: Ocean Observations by Marine Mammals (Argos System)

On my journey to learn how scientists have been strapping sensors to seals to find out about what’s going on under the ice in Antarctica, it was impossible to miss stories about other methods they are using.

For example, here’s a story where an evolutionary biologist named Paul Cziko explains how they setup something called the McMurdo Oceanographic Observatory (MOO).

Spoiler alert. This time it’s humans diving way down under the ice. Burrrr!

KGW News (YouTube Channel)
KGW News (Official Website)

Yes, you really can go to the MOO site and listen in on some seals and ice for yourself.

After all of this stuff about seals, why stop with listening? Aren’t you itching to see some more?

Here’s a link to a short 360° video that takes you under an iceberg to visit with a crabeater seal along with some gentoo penguins before returning to the surface to share some other views and perspectives about Antarctica.

360° Diving Under Icebergs With A Seal In Antarctica (BBC Earth, YouTube)

That video had a nice view of a seal under ice, but now here’s an even better 360° video that get’s you up close and personal with an elephant seal on a beach.

Wildlife Protection Solutions (YouTube Channel)
Wildlife Protection Solutions (Official Website)

So there you have it. The moral of this story is be careful about what you click on, or you might find yourself on an unexpected virtual journey to learn about seals with sensors, and then end up spending an hour or more exploring the frigid waters under Antarctica.

In case you’ve got a few more minutes and the interest, here are links to two more very nice YouTube videos about the amazingly diverse and beautiful life deep under the Antarctic ice.

The Deepest Dive in Antarctica Reveals a Sea Floor Teeming With Life (OceanX, YouTube)
Discovering Life Under Antarctica’s Ice (Great Big Story, YouTube)

Finally, now that I’ve got you down here with me on this unexpected adventure in Antarctica, the trip wouldn’t be complete without some more penguins, right?

Here’s a 360° close-up view of a colony of some Adélies, chinstraps and gentoos — some of them are having a rough time, but nonetheless, they’re all still fun to watch (esp. the chicks).

PBS News Hour (YouTube Channel)
PBS News Hour (Official Website)

Have a great weekend!

Find out more about seals, penguins and Antarctica …

NYC Highs

~ mehopper

New York City has a new place with a view.

Two weeks ago Hudson Yards opened to cheers from the developers and some jeers from the community.

The Escheresque whimsy of The Vessel captured the media’s attention at the opening, but the views from the observation deck called Edge is the big draw. Here’s a link to a clip about the views.

Sky-High Observation Deck Being Built in NYC (Associated Press, YouTube)

Seeing the views from Hudson Yards inspired me to open my files and look for my notes about other clips with views of New York City posted online — they’re all 360° videos, so look around!

This first clip takes you on a two minute stroll along the High Line which was mentioned in the Hudson Yards clip above. It’s a 1.45 mile long elevated walk way that ties together Greenwich Village, the Meatpacking District, Chelsea, and Midtown Manhattan. The views are nice, but more down to Earth than those at Hudson Yards.

TXTExploring the High Line, NYC’s Elevated Urban Park (Washington Post)

Of course, no matter how many new views are generated by new developers, there will never be a more iconic vista in New York than the one from the top of the Empire State Building.

Empire State Building 360 4K VR (Thoughtworks Canada)

A more adventuresome 360° experience was posted by the New York Times. It is a two minute clip from the perspective of a guy who climbed the spire of World Trade Center.

Climbing 1 World Trade Center: Man on Spire (The New York Times)

Finally, The New York Times< also published another great view from even greater heights. It's entitled Take Flight, and it was featured in their 2015 edition of Great Performances. The piece lifts you up from a New York City street at night to take you on a mesmerizing flight of fancy towards the Moon.

Take Flight 360 Video (The New York Times)

The soundtrack is fine, but I can’t help hearing Christopher Cross’s Arthur’s Theme when I watch it.

There’s also a non-360° version on The New York Time’s YouTube Channel that shows each of the individual performances up close, and here are some more stories about Take Flight.

Editor’s Letter: Take Flight With Virtual Reality (Jake Silverstein, New York Times Magazine)
Great Performers Take Flight (New York Times Magazine)
Behind the Scenes of ‘Take Flight’ (Kathy Ryan, New York Times Magazine)
The Art of Flying in the Movies: A cinematic history of going airborne (A. O. Scott, New York Times Magazine)

If you enjoy adventures with a tourch of adrenaline then check out these other posts …

Heights!
Up, Up and Away!
Wingsuit Rush!
Go for a Fly!
Extreme Biking, Artfully!
Catch Some Waves!
Zip the World!

Find out more about North America and the World …

St. Paddy’s Day Jaunt

~ mehopper

Yeah, it’s finally time to see some green around here — the official start of Spring is next week, and today is St. Patrick’s Day!

Brace yourself — you’re getting a whirlwind virtual visit to Dublin for St. Paddy’s Day!

We’ll start the excursion off with a quick 360° tour of some well known places in Dublin.

360 Video Ireland (YouTube Channel)

It’s early, so for the art lovers, we’ll take a quick trip over for a three minute 360° tour of the National Gallery of Ireland.

The Journal (YouTube Channel)
The Journal (Official Website)

It’s still early, and there’s a place called Knockdrin Castle that might still be for sale. I’m pretty sure we can’t afford it, but it will be a hoot to take a quick 360° tour. We do have those lovely lottery tickets for sale in the US, so you never know 🙂

Bloomberg Originals (YouTube Channel)
Bloomberg Originals (Official Website)

Knockdrin Castle is on sale for the first time in half a century. Here’s what it’s like to be inside (James Tarmy, Bloomberg)
Knockdrin Castle (Wikipedia)

Okay, the festivities will be starting, so it’s time to get back to Dublin and take in the parade. Thanks to SEDA College, we have a three minute preview taken last year.

SEDA College (YouTube Channel)
SEDA College (Official Website)

This adventure wouldn’t be complete without some traditional Irish music, so let’s stop into Hogans and get a close-up, 360° view.

Communications Concepts, Inc. (YouTube Channel)
Communications Concepts, Inc. (Official Website)

There you have it. I hope you enjoyed this brief virtual vacation, and the good news is that you still have plenty of time to head out and celebrate St. Paddy’s Day in your own way.

If you do decide to make a real Visit to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day, then there are a few things that you should know, though.

Jameson Irish Whiskey (YouTube Channel)
Jameson Irish Whiskey (Official Website)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Weekend!

Find out more about holidays …

Periodic Party

~ mehopper

Hey, it is the Periodic Table’s Birthday!

Dmitri Mendeleev sketched his first draft of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements on February 17, 1869.

Notice that this year’s a “big one” for the Periodic Table — it’s 150 years old!

In fact, it’s such a big deal that the United Nations General Assembly and UNESCO have gone so far as to declare this the International Year of the Periodic Table (2019 IYPT).

Of course, unless you’re a chemist by trade, it’s fairly unlikely that you’ve heard about this.

That’s a shame, too — who knows where we would all be without the handy dandy thing.

So celebrate!

Here are some suggestions for how to do it…

First off, rather than sing Happy Birthday, you could try to sing Tom Lehrer’s The Elements.

Here’s a link to a video of Daniel Radcliffe pulling it off in about a minute.

Daniel Radcliffe sings “The Elements” (The Graham Norton Show, YouTube)

In case you’re not familiar with Tom Lehrer’s music, here’s a link where you can learn more about the awesome guy.

Tom Lehrer at 90: a life of scientific satire (Andrew Robinson, Nature)

I also found a video where someone created an animation to go with Tom Lehrer’s version

Timwi Terby (YouTube Channel)

Here’s different fun one you could try to sing.

Partha Pratim Manna

Lest you believe that caring about such things is for boring old, incredibly geeky grown-ups, here’s a link to a segment from The Ellen Show where a 3-year old shows she knows her stuff.

Adorable 3-Year-Old Periodic Table Expert Brielle (The Ellen Show)

Slightly older children might enjoy a tradition of reading Harry Helium and the Noble Gases Party (Good Reads).

For the more intellectually minded, you could hold a discussion about the alternative life stories of the Periodic Table.

Here are some resources to get your started.

The periodic tables we almost had (Mark Lorch, Quartz)
Alternate Periodic Table Designs (Western Oregon University)
The Internet Database of Periodic Tables (The Chemogenesis Web Book)

Finally, if you do want to throw a party, Etsy’s got you covered.

Periodic Table Party (Etsy)

Here are more resources to help you celebrate…

The International Year of the Periodic Table (2019 IYPT)

An unelementary affair: 150 years of the periodic table (Robert P Crease, Physics World)
How the Periodic Table Went from a Sketch to an Enduring Masterpiece (Tom Siegfried, Science News)

Setting the Table (Phillip Szuromi, Science Magazine)
Ordering the Elements (Michael D. Gordin, Science Magazine)

The Periodic Table of Elements in Pictures and Words (Keith Enevoldsen, Elements.wlonk.com)
This Awesome Periodic Table Tells You How to Actually Use All Those Elements (BEC CREW, Science Alert)

Periodic Table of Elements (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry)
Interactive Periodic Table of Elements (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
Periodic Table (American Chemical Society)

Find out more about the periodic table …

Speleological Wonders

~ mehopper

I came across a cool 360° video about how biologist Naowarat Cheeptham has been searching for antibiotics in a cave.

Spelunking in Search of Antibiotics (New York Times, YouTube)

It’s an interesting story, and there’s a lot more about it in this article from Wired.

Inside the Slimy Underground Hunt for Humanity’s Antibiotic Saviour (Tom Ward, Wired)

What I didn’t expect was that a two minute excursion into a cave would turn into a fascinating journey into speleology. One thing just led to another, and that’s what happened.

It all started because the video and story about the cave reminded of my own experiences in Mammoth Cave. It’s in Kentucky, and I grew up in Indy — it wasn’t that far away, so I visited it numerous times over the years.

In case you’ve never been, here’s a link to a quick peek.

Nature: Mammoth Cave National Park (CBS Sunday Morning)

Each visit was a bit different, but the one thing that I remember most was that Mammoth Cave was billed as the largest cave on Earth. After many hours of tours, it felt like it, too.

Ha, what I saw hardly scratched the surface, literally and figuratively!

Check this video out!

International Mapping (YouTube Channel)

It was a bit mind-bending when they zoomed out to show the true scale of the place. Yet that was nothing compared to what I tripped across next.

It turns out that Mammoth Cave was the largest cave, but it’s not anymore.

That honor belongs to Son Doong Cave in Vietnam. It was “discovered” in 1991, but it wasn’t really explored until 2009. Wow, it’s positively Verne’esque — it even has a jungle!

Here’s a link to a video about how photographer and journalist Martin Edström went on a 360° photo expedition into the cave for National Geographic.

Journey Through the Largest Cave in the World Expedition Raw (National Geographic, YouTube)

Here’s a link to an interactive website where you can explore the results of the expedition.

Son Doong 360: Exploring the World’s Longest Cave (Martin Edström, National Geographic)

Here’s a link to another video with some awesome drone footage.

Drones Take You Inside Hidden World Live (Good Morning America, YouTube)

It’s worth noting that there are tensions surrounding tourism at Son Doong Cave. Here are links to a two part 360° video series about the issue.

Saving Son Doong: Part One (RYOT, YouTube)
Saving Son Doong: Part Two (RYOT, YouTube)

While it is hard to top Son Doong, I came across a number of other speleological marvels in my unexpected journey.

For example, speaking of Verne, here’s a link to some drone footage of a gorgeous ice cave in Vatnajokull National Park on the south coast of Iceland.

The Ice Cave – Drone Video from an Icelandic Ice Cave (Iceland 360VR)

Here’s a 360° video of another ice cave under Pemberton Icefield in British Columbia. Not surprisingly, the lifespan of such wonders in our current climate also comes up in the video.

360° Ice Cave Exploration Near Whistler, BC (Super, Natural British Columbia)

Here’s a 360° video by AirPano< that shows a breathtaking time lapse of a sunset looking out of an ice cave at Baikal in Russia.

AirPano VR (YouTube Channel)
AirPano VR (Official Website)

That was mesmerizing, but there is a Giant Crystal Cave in Mexico made out of gypsum instead of ice that might be even more stunning to see. Unfortunately, you can’t.

Luckily here’s a video that shows a bit of what it looks like as well as explains why you really don’t want to see it in person.

Weird Places: Mexico’s Giant Crystal Cave (SciShow, YouTube)

I was bummed that I couldn’t find great footage of Crystal Cave. However, while searching for that, I found this fun 360° video of the Waitomo Glowworm Caves in New Zealand.

Glow Worm Caves of New Zealand in 360° (National Geographic, YouTube)

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves even have a whole YouTube channel dedicated to them!

Waitomo Glowworm Caves (YouTube Channel)

Near the end of my unexpected detour into caves, I found this neat 360° video and lesson about ancient cave paintings. It’s about art, creativity and communication. These are all near and dear to my heart, so I couldn’t resist including it.

TED-Ed (YouTube Channel)
ED-Ed (Official Website)

Explore Cave Paintings in This 360° Animated Cave (Iseult Gillespie, TED-Ed)

Finally, my unexpected journey ended with this fun, semi-off-topic, discovery 🙂

GoPro Awards: Epic Cloud Cave Wingsuit in Fusion Overcapture (GoPro, YouTube)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this speleological detour as much as I did. If you want to continue exploring caves on your own, here are some resources to get you started.

From the Biggest to the Longest, Five Amazing Caves To Visit (Natasha Geiling, Smithsonian.com)
Hidden Earth: The UK’s National Caving Conference and Exhibition
National Speleological Society

Find out more about Earth and its geology …

Goat Yoga?

~ mehopper

Feeling a little stressed out and need a quick relaxation break?

How about a bit of goat yoga?

Wait, Goat Yoga?

If you haven’t heard of it yet, then it might strike you as a bit strange, but it’s become a real craze over the last year or two. Here’s a link to a short video about how it all started.

How an Oregon Farm Owner Started the Goat Yoga Craze (b/60, YouTube)

Yes, you can even buy books about how to do Goat Yoga by the woman who started it.

Little Book of Goat Yoga (Lainey Morse)

Still not sure if yoga and goats go together?

Here’s a fun two minute 360° video to give you a sense of why it’s so popular.

Goat Yoga in 360 is the Cutest Thing Ever (NowThis, YouTube)

Okay, I confess I was still skeptical. Then I found this video of a cute baby goat, and I started to believe that there could be something to it after all 🙂

VR Baby Goat (Deengineer, YouTube)

If you want to try it yourself, you might be able to get in on an “official” Goat Yoga class if you live in CA, FL, IL, KY, MI, MN or OG.

If there’s no “official” version available near you, then just enter “goat yoga” and “your location” into your search engine of choice, and something nearby will almost certainly pop up. It really is that popular!

Finally, if you don’t know yoga, start here:

Yoga With Adriene (YouTube Playlist)

Find out more about goats …

Palessi Shoes

~ mehopper

Payless pulled off quite a stunt!

They set up a fake “luxury” store dubbed “Palessi” and filled it with their $20-$40 footwear. Then they invited so called “influencers” to a clever party, and the invitees actually ended up paying up to $600 for the Palessi shoes.

Here’s a link to an ABC News YouTube video and news story about the “prank.”

Payless Opens Fake Luxury Shoe Store as Prank (ABC News)
How Payless Tricked Influencers Into Paying $600+ for Their $20 Shoes (Holly Rhue, Elle)

Here’s a link to a Payless commercial that explains the prank.

The Payless Experiment (Payless YouTube)

Of course, it’s shoe haute couture that was being lampooned in the ad. Yes, some people really do pay many hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for shoes.

Here’s a video tutorial and article for those of you that are unfamiliar with brands like Christian Louboutin and Manolo Blahnik that are featured at places like Neiman Marcus and shows like Sex and the City.

AllTop Ten (YouTube Channel)

Top 25 Most Expensive Shoes in the World (Beautiful Life)

Lest you think it’s just those of the feminine persuasion who fall prey to expensive shoe fetishes, here’s an article that covers the masculine side of the isle as well.

Top 10 Most Expensive Shoe Brands of 2024: From Gucci to Stuart Weitzman (Finances Online)

So, you may wonder, why are such shoes so outrageously expensive?

Here is a link to a short featurette thta covers some reasons why Christian Louboutins start at more than $600 and can cost more than five grand.

Why Louboutin Shoes Are So Expensive (Business Insider, YouTube)

Here’s a link to 360° video by the British Fashion Council with Manolo Blahnik explaining his artistic design process.

Join Master Shoemaker Manolo Blahnik in Virtual Reality

Finally, here’s a link to a fun video of Consumer Reports slaughtering a Manolo Blahnik.

Cutting up Manolo Blahnik Shoes (Consumer Reports)

Here’s a link to their research and results.

Are Manolo Blahniks Worth the Money? (Consumer Reports)

Short story, yes , they are better constructed, and perhaps more fashionable, but not necessarily more comfortable.

No shocker there 🙂

Find out more about fashion and commerce …

Yellowstone, Beauty & Beast

~ mehopper

If you have been Yellowstone National Park, then you know it is a vast, beautiful place with some fairly odd geologic features that smell bad, like rotten eggs. If you’ve never been there, then you might just have a fairly apocalyptic view of it because of the supervolcano under it that has been featured in disaster movies.

Here’s a link to a short short introduction about what is above and below the surface.

Yellowstone World’s First National Park (National Geographic, YouTube)

Very informative, and the last line is key.

It must be seen and experienced to be believed and enjoyed.

National Geographic also made a “Virtual Yellowstone” 360° video.

Virtual Yellowstone 360° – Zen-Out at Yellowstone National Park (Nat Geo WILD, YouTube)

Here’s a link to a more specific coverage about the most famous geyser, Old Faithful, along with the 200 others in the park.

Old Faithful from the Air (Smithsonian Channel)

Here’s a link to another clip from the Smithsonian Channel about the current scientific understanding of the volcano.

Why Yellowstone Supervolcano Could Be Huge (Smithsonian Channel)

You can find out more about Yellowstone on these websites.

Yellowstone National Park (National Park Service)
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory

You can also find out a ton more from these sources.

Yellowstone Supervolcano (Science News)
Yellowstone Supervolcano (Science Daily)
Yellowstone Supervolcano (Phys.org)
Yellowstone Volcano (JSTOR)
Yellowstone Volcano (NPR Archives)

Sometimes exploring news about Yellowstone can be interesting in unexpected ways. For example, I triped across a story about how studying life in Yellowstone’s toxic soup could help us find out if there’s life on Mars!

A Yellowstone guide to life on Mars (Michael Miller, Phys.org)

Neat stuff!

Find out more about Earth …

Great Views of Earth

~ mehopper

April 22nd is Earth Day! In honor of that, here are some great ways to see the honoree.

First, you can get a nice view from this neat 360° Video from Seeker. It essentially shows you what it would feel like if you could just fly straight up and see the Earth from space.

Seeker VR (YouTube Channel)

National Geographic also just released a 360° Video connected to their documentary series One Strange Rock that lets you see the Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).

National Geographic (YouTube Channel)
National Geographic (Official Website)

For a really, really extreme wide shot of Earth, there’s a relatively hot off the press snap from New Horizons. It was taken from about 3.79 billion miles away. Not surprisingly, this is the record for the furthest away a picture of Earth has ever been taken, and this video covers both the shot as well as some interesting context about how it was taken.

STM Daily News (YouTube Channel)
STM Daily News (Official Website)

Here are some more in-depth articles about the shot.

These record-breaking pictures were taken by the farthest camera from Earth (Ben Guarino, Washington Post)
New Horizons Snaps Farthest Image Ever Taken From Earth (Jason Daley, Smithsonian Magazine)

Of course, the video paid a humble tribute to the iconic Pale Blue Dot (Planetary Society) image taken by Voyager 1 that was then made famous by this commentary by Carl Sagan.

CarlSaganDotCom (YouTube Channel)
Carl Sagan (Official Website)

Those are certainly some awe inspiring views of Earth! Along the way it is hard not to notice that NASA has a lot to do with all of those long shots.

As great as it is to have the pictures and the knowledge from the missions, it turns out that NASA keeps pretty busy taking care of our home planet, too. Here’s a lovely article that Forbes published for Earth Day that highlights the many ways that NASA is working to save the Earth.

The 19 Small Ways That NASA Will Try To Save The Earth (Ethan Siegel, Forbes)

Find out more about our planet Earth, getting to space as well as zooming in and out …

Maya Megalopolis

~ mehopper

You may remember learning about the Maya in school, and you may have heard of Chichén Itzá (UNESCO) because it is often included on recent lists of “World Wonders” (as well as being a convenient day drive from Cancún). Here’s a link to a 360° video that will give you a sense of what it’s like to see Chichén Itzá.

Seven Wonders of the World: Chichén Itzá | 360 Video (The New York Times, YouTube)

There are also other less heavily promoted places where you can see Maya ruins, and one of the most impressive and famous is in Tikal, Guatemala (UNESCO). Here’s a link to a 360° video that will give you a sense of what it’s like to visit those ruins.

Tikal, Guatemala 360 VR Temple Number 2 (Miguel Barreto MAC, YouTube)

It is actually these ruins that are receiving more attention right now, and that is because an organization called Fundación Patrimonio Cultural y Natural Maya (Pacunam) backed a project to use a “laser” technology called Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) to discover and map what is being called a “megalopolis” built by the Maya from 250 to 950 CE. Here are links to a video and two news stories about it.

Lasers On Planes Used To Reveal Massive Complex Of Mayan Ruins (NBC Nightly News, YouTube)

Sprawling Maya Network Discovered under Guatemala Jungle (BBC)
Laser Mapping Uncovers Dozens of Ancient Mayan Cities (Oscar Holland, CNN)

Here is a link to a slightly longer, in-depth story that also mentions a nifty Augmented Reality (AR) application that makes it possible to “navigate” LiDAR data.

Scientists Use Laser Technology to Uncover More Mayan Ruins (CBS Mornings, YouTube)

Find out more about the Americas, the World and History …

Island Escapes

~ mehopper

One of the more entertaining stories to hit the net recently was a tale of some hearty Kiwis who successfully got away from a local alcohol ban by building their own island in nearby international waters.

New Zealanders Build Island in Bid to Avoid Alcohol Ban (BBC News)
To Avoid New Year’s Drinking Ban, Group Builds Tiny Private Island in New Zealand Waters (Grace Guarnieri, Newsweek)

Fun stuff, but these guys were certainly not the first to cook up a politically motivated scheme to get away from it all at sea. The concept has a long, albeit somewhat dubious, history. Pirates and the whole Water World fiasco aside, way back in 1960s there was a relatively well publicized, but ill-fated experiment dubbed Operation Atlantis.

More recently, there’s the Seasteaders. They periodically provide updates about how their vision of a floating utopia is just around the corner.

TomoNews US (YouTube Channel)

As Climate Change Accelerates, Floating Cities Look Like Less of a Pipe Dream (Mike Ives, New York Times)

Further afield, here’s a TED talk that presents a take on reasons to take to the seas. It does include a few obligatory libertarian cultural allusions to things like Burning Man, but it also covers environmentally responsible reasons for the movement like safety, sustainability as well as much needed new additions for cities and slums.

TEDx Talks (YouTube Channel)
TEDx Talks (Official Website)

If you watch the talk all the way through, you will see that it also covers a few more exotic topics like private floating islands (i.e. really, really huge yachts). If you’ve never come across that concept before, there are hundreds of videos about floating private islands on Youtube.

Now, if you truly love the idea of getting away from it all for libertarian leaning reasons, you could always join the Asgaurdians. Asgardia is Igor Ashurbeyli’s plan for taking the idea of sovereign nation to space. The Asgardians did launch a satellite, but no one is suggesting that if you want to move in with them, you won’t have a long, long wait.

Asgardia, The World’s First ‘Space Nation’, Takes Flight (Andrea Lo, CNN)
Space Nation to Earthlings: Do You Read Us? (Eric Mack, CNET)

Finally, if you are in a position where headlines like this are not terribly relevant, you may be wishing for a good old fashioned, non-politically motivated island escape. If so, then here’s a nice 360° video from Down Under for you.

Australia (YouTube Channel)
Australia (Official Website)

Find out more about sovereign states and government in general…

Around the World In …

~ mehopper

Once upon a time, back in the Victorian era a hundred years ago when Jules Verne was writing Around the World in Eighty Days, it took a little while to even vicariously circumnavigate the world by reading about it.

These days, thanks to professional video productions from groups like Travel Channel and Lonely Planet, you can feel like you’ve seen the world in far less time than it takes to read a book about it, and you can see it in considerably more vivid detail.

But now, thanks to the wonders of compilation, time-lapse and 360° video, you can make the journey even faster and with a far greater field of view than ever before. Here are links to three excellent examples from YouTube that together, appropriately enough, take eight minutes.

Daybreak Around the World (The New York Times)
The Best 360° Aerial Footage by AirPano (AirPano, YouTube)
Explore the World with IM360 (Ryan Whitehead, YouTube)

So, there it is — “Around the World in 8 Minutes,” and in 360° no less!

Of course, that just scratches the surface of how great 360° videos and other types of “3D virtual experiences” can take you to exotic places all around the world.

Check out Cosma’s newest Web World called Wanderlust Magic Travel Villa that is designed for exploring the World through 360° experiences!

Touch doorways to visit 360° experiences, and touch posters to find out more.

You can also explore it on Kuula.

Also, check out these recently updated pages on this site to see more fine-grained experience, but beware, there are enough experiences in the Wanderlust Magic Travel Villa and on these pages to take you around the world in about 800 hours!

Find out more about the World and how to travel around it…

Americas Canada, United States, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Argentina
Europe United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece
Africa Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa, Madagascar
Asia India, China, Japan
Oceania Australia, New Zealand
Polar Regions Arctic, Antarctica

Leonardo Lately

~ mehopper

Leonardo da Vinci sure gets press for a gentleman who hasn’t been around for five centuries! That’s not to say that it’s not well deserved. Here’s a brief video that gives just a glimpse of why he was such an amazing guy.

Past Vault (YouTube Channel)

The Smile

Of course, one perennial reason for Leonardo’s popularity is the never ending fascination with how he achieved Mona Lisa’s smile. This video is about just one study about it.

Newsy Entertainment (YouTube Channel)

Here’s a link to a video that further explains the fantastic techniques that Leonardo used to create the illusions that make the painting so enigmatic.

How Leonardo Da Vinci Augmented Reality More Than 500 Years Ago (The Atlantic)

Unfortunately, it’s hard for an average person to actually experience the effect for themselves. In case you’ve never been to the Louvre and tried to see the original, here’s a 360° Video that will give you a sense of what you will probably encounter (skip to 2 minutes into video).

360 Vacation VR (YouTube Channel)

The Genius

One of the above videos was made to accompany a story by Walter Isaacson about Leonardo da Vinci in the The Atlantic, and that story is a sample of the book Leonardo da Vinci that Isaacson has just added to his pantheon of biographies about geniuses (Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs).

Here’s an inspiring 2 minute video where Isaacson talks about Leonardo’s creativity.

New Scientist (YouTube Channel)
New Scientist (Official Website)

Here’s a link to another video where Isaacson discusses the book.

Walter Isaacson on Accessible Genius of Leonardo da Vinci (CBS, YouTube)

The Auction

It is probably no coincidence that Isaacson’s book was timed to coincide with the auction of Leonardo’s last painting in private hands — the Salvator Mundi was auctioned at Christie’s.

Associated Press (YouTube Channel)
Associated Press (Official Website)

Here’s a link to a video from Christie’s that explains the importance of the painting.

In truth, though, the authenticity of the painting still remains controversial in some circles.

Mystery over Christ’s orb in $100m Leonardo da Vinci painting (Dalya Alberge, The Guardian)

The painting ended up going to Saudi Arabian Prince Badr bin Abdullah, and the Wikipedia page about it keeps tabs on its whereabouts and exhibition status.

The Movie

Good news — Leonardo as Leonardo may be coming to a screen near you! Leonardo DiCaprio, who is named after da Vinci, is going to be starring in a movie about his namesake, and it will be based upon Isaacson’s book.

Here’s a link to a story about about the project.

The Role Leonardo DiCaprio Was Literally Born to Play (Yohana Desta, Vanity Fair)

Given what Leonardo da Vinci himself documented about his own exotic exploits, well, that should be “interesting” — it would be hard to be boring. Okay, it has the potential to be pretty gruesome, but fascinating nonetheless.

If you want to know about Leonardo da Vinci, but can’t wait for the movie, here’s a link to an older documentary.

Leonardo’s Universe (National Geographic, YouTube)

You can also find out a ton more about Leonardo on The History Channel and Wikipedia.

Find out more about the time I met Walter Isaacson at Harvard…

Finally, here are links to some other, related posts on Cosma.

Walk-in-Art
Art Revisited
Dive-in-Art
Magical Paintings
Into Van Gogh
Walk-in-Art & Museums!

Enjoy, but beware, it’s easy to get lost in 360° art!

Find out more about the arts and history…

Up, Up and Away

~ mehopper

Want to take a ten minute break and float away from it all?

Here are some nifty 360° videos that will take you on some virtual hot air balloons rides!

This first clip is from the The Golden Ring of Russia Air Balloon Festival.

AirPano VR (YouTube Channel)
AirPano VR (Official Website)

The next one is a one minute view of a ride in Cappadocia, Turkey.

VIEMR – Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality (YouTube Channel)

This one takes you on a quick ride over the Theban Mountains in Egypt.

Vocativ (YouTube Channel)
Vocativ (Official Website)

If you’re hooked, there a ton more hot air balloon 360° videos …

Finally, for those who are too young to know or too old to remember, here’s a fifty year old pre-MTV flashback by the The 5th Dimension singing the song that inspired the title of this post.

Groovy!

If you like this adventures then perhaps you will enjoy these other posts …

Heights!
Wingsuit Rush!
Go for a Fly!
NYC Highs
Extreme Biking, Artfully!
Catch Some Waves!
Zip the World!

Find out more about getting around by air, adventure and the World in general …

Beach Gazes

~ mehopper

You know those “virtual fireplace videos” that you can play to feel all warm and cozy? Yes, there’s even a YouTube Channel for that 🙂

Well, there are some 360° Videos made to serve a similar purpose for a summertime feeling, so you can kick back, relax and imagine some sand between your toes anytime you want.

The best one I found was this beauty from Australia.

Australia (YouTube Channel)
Australia (Official Website)

You can also find a number of other nice 360° videos on their YouTube Channel.

Now if you prefer the real thing, here’s a video for that.

TenPlus.TV (YouTube Channel)
TenPlus.TV (Official Twitter)

You can always check with good old Dr. Beach to find the best sea, sand and sun near you (or further afield if you’re very motivated).

Find out more about Beaches …

AirPano

~ mehopper

While reviewing the posts during “the move,” there was one glaring omission that emerged. It turns out that there was never a post about a fantastic Russian crew going by the name “AirPano” that has been traveling the world using drones to capture and publish fantastic 360° panoramic videos, and they have been doing it since before there were 360° YouTube videos. As soon as there was such a thing, they were doing that, too. It was very remiss to not “Spotlight” their work before this. Here’s their boiler info. off of their YouTube channel…

“AirPano is a not-for-profit project created by a team of Russian photo enthusiasts focused on taking high-resolution aerial panoramic photographs. Although we usually photograph from a helicopter, we also like to shoot from an airplane, a dirigible, a hot air balloon, and a radio-controlled helicopter. Today AirPano is the largest resource in the world — by geographical coverage, number of aerial photographs, and artistic and technical quality of the images — featuring 360° panoramas of the highest quality shot from a bird’s eye view.”

So true, so true, they are definitely not exaggerating. Check them out!

AirPano VR (YouTube Channel)
AirPano (Official Website)

AirPano VR (YouTube Channel)
AirPano (Official Website)

Here’s a great article about them!

A cut above the rest: Stunning drone photographs capture the new Seven Wonders of the World like you’ve never seen them before (Becky Pemberton, Daily Mail UK)

AirPano (Official Site)
AirPano (YouTube)
AirPano (Facebook)

Find out more about the world…