The View From Above: netherlands

Showing posts with label netherlands. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Do Giants Bowl? If so, here's where they do it!

(Click photo to enlarge)

This large artwork can be found at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Eindhoven, Netherlands. 'Flying pins' is a piece of art by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. It consists of a bowling ball sunk in the ground with ten pins flying around.
The sculpture is constructed of fiberglass and is almost 9 meters tall at its highest point.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Rabbit Shaped Island, because... Rabbit Shaped Island!!

53°14'50.67"N 6°23'20.42"E

It's an island..... shaped like a rabbit. I haven't found much more about it than that. But then again, I'm not sure you can say much more about it than that.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Yes, there is a giant honkin' pyramid in the Netherlands!

52° 5'25.01"N 5°20'35.14"E

When one thinks of pyramids, one usually thinks of Egypt, or Central America. You don't typically think: the Netherlands. And yet, right there, in the Dutch town of Austerlitz, is a big ol' honkin' pyramid. It was built in 1804 by the soldiers of general Auguste Marmont. It used to be a popular activity to climb to the top of the watch tower at summit of the pyramid, but today, the tower is no longer open to the public. Cool stuff, huh?

Why "View From Above"

I have an unquenchable thirst for exploration and mysteries. But that isn't the only reason for "View From Above." This blog exists primarily thanks to the despicable ignorance and laziness of the many, many people who will post a picture of some anomaly and simply make guesses about it, rather than do five minutes worth of research. I can't count the many times I've seen aerial pictures of "UFOs parked in a row on the beach" (They're beach umbrellas, you dork!) or questions like, "What's this aircraft doing sitting in the middle of the desert?" (It's a military firing range. They use junk aircraft as targets. Duh!) The unwillingness on the part of most people to do even a minimal amount of research just boggles the mind.

Another pet peeve of mine is the practice of posting an interesting site without a precise location. I don't know if it's laziness, oversight, or a desire to hoard information, but it's irritating as hell to me. That's why mosts of my posts will always include coordinates to the site.

I hope you'll enjoy perusing the sites I've listed. I can't take credit for being the first to "find" most of them, but I will do my best to let you know what I find out about them!

Michael Makai