Photo credit: Hörður Kristleifsson
You’ve probably seen pictures of the mysterious “world’s loneliest house,” and for those who don’t already know, it’s real, but just very hard to access. Why? It’s located on Elliðaey, a remote island off the southern coast of Iceland. Currently, it’s deserted, but during the early 1900s, the island was inhabited by five families, with the last one leaving in the 1930s. Today, the house is owned by the Ellidaey Hunting Association. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.
Wingsuit flying is dangerous enough when you’re out in a wide open field, but imagine buzzing the Pyramids of Giza? Considering there are typically no parachutes, just a wetted area on the diver’s body to generate increased lift, flying this close to a natural wonder of the world is death defying to say the least. However, that’s exactly what Fred Fugen, Vincent Cotte, and Mike Swanson decided to do. Read more to see the insane footage they managed to capture with their GoPro-equipped helmets.
French photographer Mathieu Stern discovered a 120-year-old time capsule in the basement of an old family home, and inside the antique box that dates back to the year 1900, were two glass plate negatives. After combing through the other items, which included coins, a paper doll, seashell, and even a letter, he decided to develop the glass plates using an classic photographic printing method called cyanotype. Read more for a video and additional information.
There are over 2,700 active artificial satellites orbiting Earth as of now, and many of them are equipped with advanced cameras. Some managed to capture amazing footage of an underwater volcano that erupted in the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga, or more specifically, on the island Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai. The eruption sent ash plumes up to 12 miles into the air, stretching to have a radius of over 161 miles thus far. Read more for two videos and additional information.
Photo credit: Jacinta Shackleton
Photographer and marine biologist Jacinta Shackleton, managed to capture a rarely seen blanket octopus while diving off the coast of Lady Elliot Island in Queensland, Australia on January 6th. How did they get their name? Blanket octopuses are known for their long, transparent webs that connect the dorsal and dorsolateral arms of the adult females. That’s right, only the females have capes, which can be used to distract predators. Read more for the video and additional information.
Photo credit: Pio Andrea Peri
Photographer Pio Andrea Peri has always been fascinated by the mountain town of Centuripe in the province of Enna, Sicily. So, he decided to fly over it with his drone and capture its unique humanoid shape. For those interested in visiting this unique place, you’ll find some remains of the ancient city, mostly of the Roman period, along with numerous antiquities, including some fine Hellenistic terra-cottas. Read more for the video and an interactive map of the town.
Finally, after months of waiting, the Sony Xperia 5 III smartphone is now shipping in the United States. Priced at $999.99 USD, it features a 6.1″ 21:9 HDR OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G SoC, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of internal storage, a triple rear camera system sporting AI (artificial intelligence) super resolution zoom technology, and a 4,500mah battery that can charge up to 50% capacity in just 30-minutes. Read more for a hands-on video review and additional information.
Flying a drone is tough enough, or at least through narrow spaces, but this pilot takes things to a whole new level. Filmed at Akademie St.Gallen in Switzerland, every single shot in this single take took precise planning and the team had zero tolerance for any mistakes, since even a small bump could have easily damaged the drone beyond repair. The goal was to show the everyday life of a student in one single shot. Read more for the video.
Downtown Los Angeles in the 1930s was definitely something else, and thanks to the power of AI, we’re able to get a somewhat clear look at rare footage uncovered by A/V Geeks. On the technical side, the FPS was boosted to 60 frames per second, image resolution given an HD makeover, and then colorized only for the ambiance. Read more for the remastered version as well as the original footage.
Astronomers have captured and incredible image of a central black hole eruption in the galaxy Centaurus A, which is approximately 12 million light years away from Earth. When the black hole feeds on in-falling gas, it spews out material at near light-speed, thus resulting in ‘radio bubbles’ to grow over hundreds of millions of years. Read more for a video on Centaurus A and additional information.