The WTF capitals of the world

Places which make your head go boom

THERE ARE MANY Bizarre and Inexplicable Phenomena in the world today, such as sightings of UFOs, appearances of Bigfoot, and the existence of buyers of Miley Cyrus CDs.

But most amazing of all is the growing number of Places Which Make Your Head Go Boom.

I found a new one just outside my house the other day.
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A head-exploding location is a place where you stop, look around and say: “Huh?!”

Internet addicts say: “WTF?”

Drinkers say: “I gotta lay off the drink”, before racing off for a quick shot (1.4 liters) of whiskey.
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The internet community recently discovered a long-celebrated head-exploding location in Asia, I heard from reader Eric Chiu.

Magnetic Hill in Ladakh, Kashmir, is a TOTALLY fun place to visit. You go there and place your hire car in a white box painted on the pavement with the brake off. After a few seconds, the car starts rolling UPHILL. It gathers speed. You’ll gape in astonishment.

If you have been stupid enough to forget to leave someone inside your car, the vehicle actually reaches quite a high speed and smashes itself to pieces against rocks.

What fun! Daddy will laugh and laugh, especially when he gets the bill.

This is PARTICULARLY fun for proprietors of car-repair shops in the vicinity, who just happen to find themselves standing on the roadside cheering: “Again! Again!”
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Eric asked whether it was “real”.

The answer is yes.

How does it work?

There are three theories.

One says there’s a huge natural magnet in the mountain that draws everything up towards it, in the same way that shoes of property developers magically draw the tongues of government officials.

The second says that all horizon lines in that area are tilted so your brain resets itself to perceive downhill slopes as uphill ones.

The third theory, and the one that appeals most to razor-sharp scientific minds such as mine, says that the Buddha’s toe-bone is hidden in the mountain and has an affinity to draw sports utility vehicles to itself, to fulfill some ancient prophecy.

(“And it shall come to pass that The Venerable Toe Bone shall summon unto itself many ornate chariots which cometh from the East and beareth names such as the Toyota 4Runner SUV.”)

But you don’t have to go to Kashmir to have fun wrecking a car. There’s a magnetic hill in Gansu, China, and another in the Laguna area of the Philippines.

In fact, places which make your head go boom are everywhere.  I found a small one outside my house.

On the steep hillside where I live in Hong Kong, a high road and a low road meet.

Seen from the low road, the high road slopes steeply down. But seen from the high road, only the low road slopes up. I filmed it yesterday on my way to work – see the YouTube clip above.

Going from one to the other makes you think “Huh?!”

You can use it to puzzle simple-minded individuals, such as small children, dogs, Greek finance ministers, etc.
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If there’s one thing I have learned, it’s this. There is nothing too weird to exist somewhere on this planet. Which is why top scientists are right now trying to work out explanations for mysterious sightings of the Bigfoot, UFOs, and buyers of Miley Cyrus CDs. To me, the last is the most puzzling.
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Readers, what other strange and puzzling optical illusions get you thinking? Describe it below. If you don’t know how to add pix, email them to me and I will add them for you.

Technorati Tags: optical illusion,hong kong,gravity hill,magnetic hill,ladakh

Comments

[Jason]

Here you go Nury and all. This award winning visual demonstrates it beautifully:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAXm0dIuyug

[Karuna aka Kaye Moreno]

once when in High school chanced upon a small classified ad in one of the inner page of the local newspaper. It had the answer to satisfy the dream of any teenage boy or shall we just say any men.
"X-Ray Glass - To see through skin, through clothes."
Secretly smuggled the advertisement out of my home to my school. During break time, shared this with a small gang of very trusted friends. The price was Rs.50/- which was a large amount for a school boy. So, we decided to starve for couple of days to collect the money required.
Next issue was how to take delivery of this product. We surely could not get it delivered to any of our houses. Middle class Indian mothers are not very kind towards their son who order X-Ray glass. So, it was decided that we should go to the address given and buy this product. So, a phone call was made from a public telephone and an appointment fixed for picking up the goods.
Next came the danger a police raid just as we buy the product ? X-Glass surely are banned products. So the gang of 6 was split into 3.
First 2 went up to the office to buy the product. The next 2 stayed at the ground floor. The last 2 stayed at the street corner to look out for police.
Finally, the product was purchased.
To first test the product, we used it to see our hands through the X-ray glass. And yes, we could see our bones within our little fingers.
But, however hard we tried we could not see through clothes.
Later, we decided to read the instruction manual which came with the product. The product gives the optical illusion of being able to see through the bones. And about the seeing through clothes, there was a note that it is to be used to fool people that it can be used to see through clothes.
Anyway, none of us could gather any courage to go back and get the refund.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Ray_Specs_%28novelty%29

[Mike]

James Dyson uphill water fountain is a neat illusion. And the Ames room at Stuart Landsborough's Puzzle world in Australia is clever.

I will attach links later when I get to work tommorrow.

[Mike]

Oh and a really cool WTF place on earth is Nacia Mine (Cueva de los Cristales)in southern Chihuahua Mexico. Where giant selenite crystals were formed.

[Ram]

I think most of you might have come across this one before... The spinning girl optical illusion... I was looking for an explanation and this one sounds quite convincing...
http://greengabbro.net/2007/10/20/the-spinning-dancer-and-the-brain/

[Jason]

For a truly interesting natural phenomenon, venture into Wan Chai late one night to witness the strange mating dance of the bloated British vulture as he attempts to mate with a stream-lined southeast Asian swift one quarter its size. Watch the courtship ritual carefully as the vulture plies his intended mate with refreshments while the carrier pigeon subtly kickbacks back part of the exchange to the female.

Other interesting birds to look out for is the male Thai cockortwo posing as a female to lure unsuspecting vultures into the nest.

[grandpa aka Faye Libad aka fardel]

Jason
Are you talking about a tiny female trapping a strong predator into feeding and pampering her?!
How unusual???
Maybe the predator is not the one we think it is

[sej]

Jason,

I presume you've seen this:
http://www.newscientist.com/special/best-new-visual-illusions-2010

It's a round-up of the top 10 plus some runners' up, from the competition that the illusion you link to came from.

[Christyn]

EUREKA! now i know why my brother's brain functions like that. My sister sees that I'm a man which I'm not (really I'm not), I think my brother is a princess and my brother and i see that my sister is a normal, unrebellious, self-confessing pride of nerds in Planet Zygote. In that planet they are born scientist first, everything else later. They believe in God as we do and tell others 'God knows you right down to your atoms.' Zygoters laugh at their own jokes and imagine plastic bottles as friends. To control them, play any miley song. Britney songs are forbidden because I say so. Optical illusion runs in my family. My granny gets hers around 7.30pm everyday after a round of raw home-made liquid that spells like a truck of nail polish remover. I smell alcohol, she is convinced its coconut drink.

[sej]

Fardel,

Jason's predators are indeed not of the type of any of those roaming within our midsts, for those in this gang, are far more dangerous.

Jason's predators attempt to catch us with their looks, which often fail at first light, whereas those here in this gang, catch us with both their looks and their brains.

[sej]

Now, here's a real illusion for you...

Think of how big the moon appears when it is sitting right on the horizon. How big is it? Is it bigger than when it is high in the sky?

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/20jun_moonillusion/

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question491.htm

[TS]

sej,

Are you by any chance going to TAM Australia in Sydney in November?
Doctor Karl and James Randi will be there among others (see the speaker list in link below).

http://www.tamaustralia.org/

I was at TAM London last year and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

I got to have a chat with Brian Cox from the LHC project in CERN and Adam Savage from Mythbusters and plenty more.
Everybody was really accessible and easygoing.

[Angela]

Hola chicos y chicas! Tu abuela esta aqui!

What did I miss?

Predatory birds of paradise?

[Chamin]

There is an uphill illusion called "mysterious slope", in Jeju island, Korea. I went there a few years back, and out tour guide made us try to run up the slope. That felt weird.

[Chamin]

I have heard of this illusion called "financial services market". There, you seem to be able to sell your debt and get more money. The illusion is so strong that an MBA graduate takes a couple of years to find out the truth.

[Mike]

This is the James Dyson wrong way fountain.

http://frankylicio.us/inventions/wrong-way-water-fountain-this-actually-is-brilliant/

This is the Ames room at Puzzling world in Wanaka NZ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZILOSkui4Y

And this is the Giant Crystal cave in Mexico
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q32WomEOZQY&feature=related

[fardel]

@grandma

You have been away too long.
You are gently reminded that your grandchildren need you , here
That' enough of corridas....

[Mahjuja]

Grandma are you back?! Grandpa is tempted to go astray!

[fardel]

what about this !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jigVGFUQimg&NR=1

[Dancer Arroyo]

Nice to see you finally back, grandma!

[Christy]

This is sort of unrelated but I've just discovered that in Korea, a tick means wrong and a circle on your answer means correct.

WTF? :p

Btw is any of the gang in Seoul?

[Nury]

Hi Christy, I have had letters and comments from Seoul, for sure, but not particularly regularly. I haven't been there for years, but i remember the food was great and the people friendly...

[grandpa aka Faye Libad aka fardel]

@grandma
Please remember than ,when you come back from vacationing, you should catch up with us first.
When/if you have time left you may be allowed to catch up with your job

[TS]

South Korea got their own little brand of crazy called "Death by Fan".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

[sej]

TS,

I wonder if this urban myth might actually have a sound theoretical base...

Consider the case of a faulty fan, specifically one where the motor is faulty and arcs continually. The arcing actually causes O2 (oxygen/dioxygen) in the air to recombine and form O3 (ozone). Ozone is actually quite toxic, and can severely damage the lungs. Even low concentrations for short periods have been known to cause significant injuy if not death. So if there is not enough air-flow through the room, then at least serious injury is not impossible.

I do think though, a faulty fan like this could only exist if other factors come into play, such as fuses and circuit breakers having been fiddled with and made effectively inoperable.

[sej]

I hadn't considered going to TAM, in fact don't think I'd ever heard of it before today. Might be interesting though...

A question I've always thought interesting though... Why should I be regarded as a "skeptic"? In my mind, I'm very certain, not skeptical at all. Skeptical suggests there is some level of doubt. I'm very certain psychics and what-not are all crack-pots. There is a distinct lack of doubt.

[TS]

Sej,
It's not about how you perceive yourself, but about how others perceive you.

Don't you want to know some more facts before you take a stand on a phenomenon you only hear about for the first time?

[sej]

TS,

I don't think it's perception. I think it just started as a catchy way for a group, potentially even a very small group, to refer to another group, again, large or small, and it just managed to stick.

[Moon Starer]

Places that make your head explode?
Won't work till you have a head to explode....
'This is a lie'
Is that a truth or a lie?

[Isman]

Just read the New Scientist article on the stretching bathtub illusion. This part's interesting:

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...by walking from one end of the image to the other, the viewer experiences a series of different retinal images of the tub, which makes the tub look smaller from the right but larger from the left.

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I wonder when will this become a standard practice of love-making for male?

"If your partner believes size does matter, tell your partner to walk from your left to your right. THEN turn off the light.

"CAUTION: mixing your lefts and rights will result in dire consequences."

[Ellie G.]

Isman, very funny, you sound a bit like Vince, who is also a very good comedian... might you be the same person by any chance...??

[kartini]

@karuna: I used to be a fan of performing magic and had plenty of stuff like fake blood, magic bulb, x-ray vision glasses, etc. Now, it's more on making my own money disappear and new clothes, etc will appear in my room.

@sej: first place totally deserved his award.

@jason: check this out. They are all prettier than me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=622lP8beuGo