Darvaza is a small mining town in the Dashoguz region of Turkmenistan. A desolate place where sand seems to permeate into every aspect of the locals life. The locals claim that everything has the taste of sand in it.

In the late 1950’s a group of miners stumbled across a large underground cavern, which swallowed up their drilling gear and began spewing toxic gas. In an attempt to keep the gas from killing the surround town folk and their livestock, it was set afire to burn off the gas.

It’s been burning ever since.

Spaning over 200 feet across, 50 in depth and visible for miles at night, it has become a local legend that the government would rather not be publicised. However, if you can get a visa and pay a local with a vehicle that can traverse the large sand dunes to mining spot, you can witness this flaming hole that they have named the “Door To Hell”.

Below are just a few photos by photographer John H. Bradley. Click here to see more of his eerie yet beautiful photographs. Also, there is a video that can be seen of the burning pit below the pictures.

Every summer as a kid, we used to drive from Detroit to my grandfathers house in Kentucky. Just outside of Cincinnatti on the side of I-75 is a giant statue of Christ called the “King of Kings”. The 62 foot statue depicts jesus from the chest up with arms and head raised to the sky and was erected by Solid Rock Church, a 3000+ member megachurch.

The “Big Butter Jesus” so named because of it’s pale yellow color, has inspired several different nicnames including “Giant Jesus”, “Touchdown Jesus”, “Drowning Jesus”, and “MC 62 Ft. Jesus”.

The statue has spawned several photoshop memes and Comedian Heywood Banks wrote and performed a song about the statue entitled “Big Butter Jesus,” which encourages all to “Spread” the Word.

So in the spirit of Easter, here is my gift to you. Take it away Heywood.

Christvertising takes a whole new approach to marketing your brand. We skip the strategic deliverables. We pass on the matrixes, the payoffs and the metrics. We ignore any viral functionality. We focus on the ultimate end-user: God.

Whether yours is a small, big or internationally renowned bran, God’s is infinitely bigger.

Here’s the site.

Reporter Fights With Anchor On Camera – Watch more free videos

Looks like I might be out of work.
I mean, how am I supposed to compete with this?

Look at the freaking animation here – How can I even come close to this without thousands of dollars of state of the art animation software? Dammit. And the Shop-O-Rama? Who did he have to blow to get this client?

Oh, and did I mention they also do motion picture quality CG? CRAP! I’m going into the taxidermy business.

Yup, I said lifesize!

So, probably a lot of scrolling.

Here it is

In the 1960s, some miners put a phone booth in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Long after they left, the booth remained … waiting for someone to call.

HELLO? ANYBODY THERE?

Miles from the nearest town, the old phone booth stood at the junction of two dirt roads. Its windows were shot out; the overhead light was gone. Yet the phone lines on the endless rows of poles still popped and clicked in anticipation – just as they’d been doing for nearly 30 years. Finally, in 1997, it rang.

A guy named Deuce had read about the booth and called the number … and continued to call until a desert dweller named Lorene answered. Deuce wrote a story about his call to nowhere, posted it on his website … and the word spread through cyberspace. Someone else called. Then another person, and another – just to see if someone would answer. And quite often someone did. Only accessible by four wheel drive, the lonely phone booth soon became a destination. Travelers drove for hours just to answer the phone. One Texas man camped there for 32 days … and answered more than 500 calls.

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE

Someone posted a call log in the booth to record where people were calling from: as close as Los Angeles and as far away as New Zealand and Kosovo. Why’d they call? Some liked the idea of two people who’ve never met – and probably never will – talking to each other. Just sending a call out into the Great Void and having someone answer was reward enough for most.

Unfortunately, in 2000 the National Park Service and Pacific Bell tore down the famous Mojave phone booth. Reason? It was getting too many calls. The traffic (20 to 30 visitors a day) was starting to have a negative impact on the fragile desert environment.

The old stop sign at the cattle grate still swings in the wind. And the phone lines still pop and click in anticipation. But all that’s left of the loneliest phone on Earth is a ghost ring.

So if the urge strikes you to dial (760) 733-9969, be prepared to wait a very, very long time for someone to answer.

I made this guy wealthy in the 80’s. If you don’t know who he is – google him.

Here is a video as a tribute to him.