Thursday, April 30, 2015

Loyal Chinese Student Has Carried His Disabled Friend to School for Over 3 Years

An 18-year-old heroic teenager has been named “the most beautiful student in China.” For over 3 years, Xie Xu has carried his classmate Zhang Chi to school. Zhang can no longer walk because he copes with muscular dystrophy, a disorder that has slowly depleted his skeletal muscles. 
Both boys live in China, a country where over 243,000 children are not able to attend school because of their disabilities. Not only does Xie carry Zhang to school, he also helps him eat his meals and complete daily tasks. Because of this, these admirable friends have maintained their status as the top students in their class. 

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Sweet Wedding Proposal Created With 250 Helpers and Thousands of Post-Its

We’ve recently seen the magic that time and a lot of Post-it notes can produce, and in this video, it’s no different. To celebrate White Day in South Korea (an amorous holiday that falls on March 14), advertising agency Innored and Post-it teamed up to help a guy romantically propose to his girlfriend. It was captured in the form of a sweet video and shows how this three-inch-square sticky note can make a huge impact.
The clever wedding proposal starts by the man leading his unsuspecting girlfriend into an empty cafe. He makes an excuse to leave, calls her, and then tells her to look at the glass building outside. There, she sees a team of 250 people swiftly assembling a special message just for her. When completed, it spells out “Soojung, will you marry me?” in a mosaic of Post-it notes. Watch the entire thing unfold in the video below. It’s a heartwarming scene and might just bring a tear to your eye.
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Secretly Spends a Season Watching a Family of Red Foxes Grow Up in New York

When wildlife photographer Melissa Groo got tipped off by friends that a family of red foxes had set up a home in a backyard shed in Lansing, New York, she made it her mission to photograph them. She didn't just snap one or two shots, she spent an entire season with the family, watching the kits as they grew up right before her very eyes in suburban New York. Groo hid herself by setting up a pop-up blind near the family where she would quietly sneak in to take her shots. The picture above, of six baby foxes sitting together, was captured on the first or second day she started photographing them.
As she told MNN, "The original crew. When I would approach the blind upon each visit, if the foxes were in view, they would warily watch me, but once I was out of sight, they seemed to take no notice of me -- although occasionally when they would hear my camera clicking, they would look my way. On a sad note, by the time I stopped photographing them, there were only three kits left. One was killed by a car; a similar fate may have been met by the others, as the nearby road was very busy, although there are a host of other threats to foxes as well. The average life span of a red fox in the wild is only one-and-a-half to two years."
Groo watched the baby foxes become more and more adventurous, venturing farther and farther away from the den. She noticed that their behavior resembled that of puppies, in their play, curiosity and rambunctiousness. "They stole my heart," she said.
What Groo found most interesting was how the mother was oftentimes absent and that the father was the one who mostly cared for the kits. "I know that for part of the time she was certainly hunting, as I photographed her bringing home prey at least once. But apparently this is a common division of labor once the kits leave the den after the first five weeks or so of life. The father was constantly grooming the kits, and his tender way with them was very touching to me."
However, when the mother or father returned from an absence, the kits would be overcome with joy. "The kits would be completely ecstatic, and leap all over the adult."
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Jacaranda Tree

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms. The greatest displays of nature's colors, thanks to the ubiquitous jacaranda tree, which lines street after street, showering its bright petals on sidewalks and roadways, bringing a lightness to every day. 

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Photo credit Ricardo

Jacaranda is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of Central America, South America, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and the Bahamas. In early 1888 in South Africa it was imported from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, two trees were planted in a Arcadia school. Their popularity as a street tree soon took off and they now line in many kilometers of streets throughout Pretoria. The jacaranda has been declared a Category Three invasive alien plant, which means, in terms of the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act, as amended in March 2001 it can be kept only under certain strict conditions in South Africa. The plants are not allowed to occur anywhere except in biologically controlled reserves, unless they were already in existence when the regulation came into effect.This means that existing plants do not have to be removed by the land user. However, they must be kept under control and no new planting may be initiated and the plants may no longer be sold. The reason for this dispensation was that the trees were part of the character of the City and the City would thus lose something unique if they were all eradicated.

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Photo credit gerwinenmartine

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Photo credit Ricardo

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Jacarandas in bloom in Pretoria. Photo credit donati2012

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Photo credit Hannah Swithinbank

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Photo credit marduardo

Central Pretoria during South African Spring
Central Pretoria during South African Spring Oct 2014. Photo credit Peraion

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Photo credit Kalyan Neelamraju

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Photo credit Hannah 0013

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Photo credit Anisha Sharma

The Purple Paradise, Pretoria in South Africa is popularly known as the Jacaranda City due to the thousands of Jacaranda trees planted in its streets, parks and gardens. This is the months of October and November, Pretoria is transformed into a glowing purple mass - around 40 000 and 70 000 Jacaranda trees in Pretoria are in bloom! Jacarandas line the streets and dot the parks and gardens throughout the city and purple carpet their floors with their bee-attracting blossoms.
Photo credit GIOVANNI PACCALONI
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Krämerbrücke Bridge

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world. The unique bridge in Europe, The footbridge streach on Breitstrom, a branch of Gera River, connecting Benediktsplatz and Wenigemarkt. It was Originally constructed from wood in 1117 but due to annihilation by repeated six times fires in ninety years (1175-1265), it was renovate in 1293 with a stone bridge both bridgeheads stone churches, western end St. Benedicti and at the eastern end St. Aegidien. This 79 meter long arch bridge has been erected in lime and sandstone work and since then consists of six visible barrel vaults.

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit ulrich schmidt

In 1472 after a city fire destroyed nearly half of the city and the stands on the bridge, it was reconstructed in its current form with then 62 half-timbered buildings, each with about three floors. The deepness of the buildings was extended by the wooden “Sprengwerke” next to the arch vaults. The width of the bridge finished in 1486 since then amounts to 26 m with a space of 5.5 m between the two rows of houses. In 18th century the number of houses on the bridge had been reduced to 38, due to unification and reconstruction caused by fires. The church St. Benedicti was demolished in 1810 in order to build a new house. In 1895 its tower had to give place to the newly built “Rathausbrücke” (town hall bridge), which crosses the river parallel. 

Currently 32 houses on Krämer Bridge are mostly Artisans and remaining houses are municipal property. The doors at ground level are mostly antique and craft shops, while the upper levels of the building are still private residences. The houses of the bridge are the jewel of the city, which celebrates its rise to fame every year with a focus on small community called Krämerbrückenfest festival.

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit sirona27

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit Myles Chuter

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit Bob Stewart


The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit winninator

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit Tai Pan of HK

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit Roberto Strauss

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit Marcela

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit Tai Pan of HK

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit Tai Pan of HK

The Krämerbrücke bridge (Merchant's Bridge) in the Thuringian city of Erfurt in Germany which is covered with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides, Which make it the longest inhabited bridge in the world.
Photo credit ritsch48
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