The ‘heartbreaking’ moment tiles cascaded off a Chinese tower ‘older than the USA’ was caught on camera.
A 600-year-old ancient tower in China partially collapsed with ‘heartbreaking’ footage prompting viewers to reflect how ‘truly amazing’ it was no one was reported injured.
On May 19 at around 6:30pm local time, the Fengyang Drum Tower – which has been stood as one of the largest towers in China since 1375 – sent tourists scattering when roof tiles began to come cascading down.
Located in Anhui province, around 200 miles from the capital of Beijing, footage of the incident shared to social media shows sections of the roof collapsing and narrowly missing onlookers.
Thankfully, Fengyang County Culture and Tourism Bureau released a statement as cited by local media which said no one was injured.
Why Shauna Rae looks like an 8-year-old
Tiles came cascading off the roof (YouTube/ CNN/ @SENYU/DOUYIN)
The history of the Fengyang Drum Tower
The tower was built in 1375 in the eighth year of the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, the report by the Fengyang County Culture and Tourism Bureau continues.
The tower consists of two parts – a base and then the tower building on top.
The bureau notes the base ‘was listed as a key cultural relic protection unit in Anhui Province in 1989’.
However, it notes the original tower building was actually ‘destroyed in the third year of the Xianfeng reign of the Qing Dynasty, and the current building was built in 1995’.
And it’s not the first time some roof tiles have fallen from the building either.
Since 2017, the bureau reports ‘some’ tiles having fallen off and ‘eaves damaged’ in Gulou buildings.
So much so, a building maintenance project was launched in February 2023 as a result of the ‘worsening damage and safety hazards’ and the tower shut in September for an upgrade, which reportedly took around five months.
Video footage of the recent partial roof collapse, alongside eyewitness reports have since been released online.Play
Video footage and eyewitness reports of the Fengyang Drum Tower’s partial roof collapse
Videos taken around the time of the incident show the plumes of smoke and dust caused by roof tiles sliding off the tower.
One person near the historic monument and tourist attraction at the time of the incident told state-controlled newspaper Yangcheng Evening News the tiles fell for around ‘a minute or two’.
Another eyewitness confirmed to state media outlet The Beijing News ‘no one was injured,’ but reflected how ‘if it happened a little later’ there would’ve potentially been ‘many children playing [near the tower] after dinner’.
As one YouTuber noted: “I’d say it was truly amazing that none of the crowd upon which the debris fell were injured.”
“That tower is older the the USA. This is heartbreaking,” a Reddit user added.
An investigation is reportedly underway into what caused the roof to partially collapse.Featured Image Credit: fennazaoxing/douyin
Topics: China, World News, Social Media, Viral, History
Published 12:32 29 Sep 2024 GMT+1
Terrifying moment Titanic explorers lose light as they search through wreck in chilling footage
“We just lost another light. Very spooky.”
Titanic explorers were sent to look round the ship’s ruins; however, their lights eerily cut out.
While scientists continue to baffle people by coming up with bizarre strategies as to how to lift the Titanic wreckage from its final resting place in the Atlantic Ocean, others continue to explore the murky depths to take a look at the infamous ship.
Titanic explorers lose light
Credit: TikTok/ @titanicfansofficial
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The RMS Titanic sank in April 1912, and has been lying about 400 nautical miles southeast of Newfoundland, Canada, around 12,500 feet below seal level ever since.
In 2022, explorers were sent down to have a poke around of what remains of the vessel. A clip from the expedition was shared to TikTok by since-disabled account @titanicfansofficial – since having returned as titanic_fans_official.
In the footage, a voice can be heard narrating what’s being shown by one of the explorer’s cameras.
“You see the anchor? The central anchor?” They point out. “And the ring on the top.”
However, a few seconds later, the lights cut out and the wreckage becomes a whole lot more eerie.
The RMS Titanic was called an ‘unsinkable’ ship (History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
“We just lost another light,” another voice can be heard noting, adding the scene is ‘very spooky’ to look at now.
You can just make out the side of the ship and the rusty railing. However, everything else is shadowed in darkness and looks like the beginning of a scarier scene from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Thankfully, the light comes back on and the ship is lit up again. The camera shows an impressively clear view of the bow [front] of the ship – where that Jack and Rose moment took place in the 1997 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
The video is one of countless expeditions which have been launched by people across the globe to get a closer look at what was dubbed the ‘unsinkable’ ship.
The latest exploration – called the Titanic Expedition 2024 – involved scanning technology and documenting the ship alongside its debris field.
The lights went out leaving an eerie scene behind (TikTok/ @titanicfansofficial)
Hundreds of hours of analysis revealed the bow of the ship had since deteriorated further, a large 15-feet wide section having fallen overboard and come to a rest of the seabed below.
The expedition team at RMS Titanic Inc said: “We are saddened by this loss and the inevitable decay of the Ship and the debris.
“Over the course of the next few weeks and months, we will conduct a more thorough review of Titanic’s condition and her changes over time.
“Although Titanic’s collapse is inevitable, this evidence strengthens our mission to preserve and document what we can before it is too late.”Featured Image Credit: TikTok/ @titanicfansofficial
Topics: Social Media, TikTok, Titanic, Viral, World News, History, Science, Technology
Updated 15:40 24 Sep 2024 GMT+1Published 14:27 24 Sep 2024 GMT+1
Expert finally reveals truth behind 160-year-old painting of ‘time traveler’ using an ‘iPhone’
The real object she’s holding is way less fun.
An art expert has solved the mystery of the ‘time-traveling’ woman who appears to hold an iPhone in a 160-year-old painting.
The Internet had to do a double take after a 19th century painting went viral when some people spotted what they thought was a very modern smartphone.
The picture in question is The Expected One, painted by Austrian artist Ferdinand George Waldmüller in 1860.
The painting (which you can see in full below) features a woman walking alone in the countryside holding what resembles an iPhone in her hands.
Meanwhile, a man is waiting for her with a flower, but we don’t care about this detail that much.
Do we all see the same thing? (Wikimedia Commons)
Back to the time-travelling iPhone, it’s on display at the Neue Pinakothek – a museum of 18th and 19th century art in Munich. The object in the woman’s hands caught the attention of a tourist from Glasgow, Peter Russell, who was amongst the first to notice the bizarre detail in Waldmüller’s painting in 2017.
Russell reflected on how perception of an artwork can be altered in relation to the context of fruition in a chat with Vice.
“What strikes me most is how much a change in technology has changed the interpretation of the painting, and in a way has leveraged its entire context.”
He continued: “The big change is that in 1850 or 1860, every single viewer would have identified the item that the girl is absorbed in as a hymnal or prayer book.”
“Today, no one could fail to see the resemblance to the scene of a teenage girl absorbed in social media on their smartphone,” he concluded.
“Does Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller’s 1860 painting ‘The Expected One’ show a young woman walking along, staring at her smartphone?” No. Obviously not. Why is this a topic? People thinking that she is holding a mobile device are killing me. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!
It didn’t matter that most people know the first iPhones were marketed in 2007 given that the painting has gone to spark some bonkers time-travelling theories on Twitter/X, with some maintaining that hopping through centuries is definitely a thing.
Meanwhile, other users held on tightly onto their disbelief and rejected any possibility of a sci-fi explanation behind the painting.
Can a 1860 painting feature an iPhone? Of course not. (Wikimedia Commons)
Luckily for us, art expert Gerald Weinpolter has settled the question once and for all. Weinpolter’s beat is 19th and 20th-century art, and he had no doubt as to what object the woman is truly holding in her hands in the painting, which absolutely makes sense given the time of the artwork.
“The girl in this Waldmüller painting is not playing with her new iPhone X but is off to church holding a little prayer book in her hands,” he told Vice, shattering all time-travelling art hypotheses for good.Featured Image Credit: Hajotthu / Wikimedia Commons
Topics: Art, History, Social Media, Technology, Viral
Published 15:27 27 Dec 2024 GMT
Chilling photo shows 18-year-old girl’s final moments just before she’s washed away to her death
The teen posed for a photo before she was taken away by waves
A chilling photograph shows the final moments of an 18-year-old girl before she’s washed away by the ocean to her death.
Merlin Septiana and her friends ventured to Semeti Beach in Central Lombok Regency, Indonesia, on December 19 when the day went from happy yo tragedy in a split second.
Each of the schoolgirls reportedly took turns to pose for a picture on the rocky cliff by the edge of the thrashing Indian Ocean.
The teen enjoyed the view before disaster struck (@rejekianakbaik/Twitter)
When the 18-year-old’s came, she posed for her snap and moments later, she had vanished beneath the waves.
In the image, the teen was seen wearing headphones, that may have blocked the sound of the sea crashing against the rocks.
The footage appears to show a wave had knocked Merlin from her precarious perch, and although she clung onto a boulder, seconds later she loses grip, slips and disappears into rough surf below.
A harrowing video also shows her friends and locals frantically trying to find the girl who could be heard shouting and screaming.
Rescue teams were quickly deployed along the shores in hopes of finding the girl, but it was too late.
Lalu Wahyu Efendi, head of the Mataram Search and Rescue Office, said the incident happened at around 3pm local time and efforts to rescue the girl with ‘makeshift tools’ like fishing rods were sadly ‘unsuccessful’.
Footage shows Merlin admiring the ocean before she died (@baiqrosdiani/TikTok)
Merlin’s lifeless body was sadly later found amongst the rocks just a little more than two hours later, at 5.13pm.
Her body has been sent home to her family in Tanak Awu village.
The girl’s friends have since paid tribute to her on TikTok and Instagram, and have posted footage of Merlin in the moments before she died.
In one clip, she appears to extend her arms out to the sea in a carefree moment of joy.
Ridwan Mak’ruf, chief executive of the Central Lombok Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), said: “The girl’s body was collected by the search and rescue team, the BPBD, and the police. However, she was already dead.”
She posed with her arms open towards the waves (@baiqrosdiani/TikTok)
It isn’t the first time youngsters have been taken away by the unforgiving waves.
On October 13, a 20-year-old man from North Sumatra was washed away as he stood on the rocks at the Kedung Tumpang Beach in East Java.
The man, identified as Roni Josua Simanjuntak, had seemingly slipped into the water when waves crashed into the boulders and sent whitewater rushing inwards to where he was stood.
His body was found days later, on October 18, drifting off Karang Payung Beach.
The tragic news comes as Indonesia’s beaches continue to pose a threat, not only to swimmers but those taking in the beautiful scenery as huge crashing waves mixed with strong rip tides can snatch life away in an instant.Featured Image Credit: ViralPress
Topics: Social Media, World News, Nature
Updated 13:05 10 Aug 2024 GMT+1Published 17:39 7 Aug 2024 GMT+1
16-year-old diver stuns judges as her dive with ‘no splash’ wins gold
Resurfaced footage of a 17-year-old Olympic diver’s performance last year with ‘no splash’ has people questioning how it’s ‘even possible?’
Chinese diver Quan Hongchan’s performance at a diving world cup last year has resurfaced, leaving viewers absolutely stunned.
With the 17-year-old having just won two gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning her second yesterday (August 6) with a perfect score of 10, footage of her performance at the World Aquatic’s Diving World Cup 2023 in Montreal, Canada has resurfaced online.
Quan Hongchan at the Paris Olympics (Amin Mohammad Jamali/Getty Images)
Quan Hongchan won gold at the 2024 Paris Games (Clive Rose/Getty Images)
Quan took part in the women’s 10m platform yesterday, with her first out of five dives coming in at a perfect score of 10.
The Olympics’ website states: “She scored a total of 425.60 points and ranked first for four out of the five dives, with only her third-round dive ranking second among the 12 finalists.”
Fellow Chinese teammate Chen Yuxi took home silver with 420.70 points and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea diver Kim Mi Rae was awarded bronze, achieving a score of 372.10 points.
And since Quan’s monumental win and perfect score, footage of one of her dives at last year’s Diving World Cup where the diver – who would’ve been around 16 years old at the time – doesn’t even make a ‘splash’ has since been shared online.
Quan Hongchan took home two gold medals at the 2024 Olympics (Clive Rose/Getty Images)
A video from a spectator at the Diving World Cup in Montreal has been circulating on social media.
A user shared it to Twitter alongside the caption: “Quan Hongchan, wins gold with a dive so flawless the water doesn’t even splash.”
And in the clip, you can see Quan performing a ‘back three-and-a-half somersaults tuck’ in the final round of five of the women’s 10m platform event.
There’s no splash at all in the footage (Twitter/@womenpostingws)
Her score across the board is near-perfect – a sea of 10’s and one 9.5 – resulting in her taking the top spot with a total of 367.00, with China‘s Chen Yuxi coming in at second place at 342.90 and Great Britain’s Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix in third with 287.40.
And it’s not taken long for people to flood online in awe of the dive.
One Twitter user said: “How is that even possible, water diving IMO is one of the coolest sports.”
“Her ability is completely in another level. Most of the time, her lowest score is higher than most other athletes’ highest scores, which is insane….” another added.
A Reddit user also wrote: “She hacked water, how is it physically possible to jump from that height and not make a splash?”
Others pointed out you can see a tinsy winsy splash, but hey, as another user said: “I get more splashback from my toilet than that.”
So haters just stop hating please.
The most bizarre, discontinued Olympic sports
Painting
An Olympic gold winning masterpiece? (Getty Stock Images/Catherine Falls Commercial)
Back in the day, the Olympics dished out medals for art too, with events including painting and sculpture, as well as music, architecture and even literature.
Making its debut all the way back at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm and continuing until the 1948 London games, juries awarded competitors a total of 151 medals for artistic projects inspired by sport.
Tug of War
Tug of war used to be an Olympic sport (Getty Stock Images/Pict Rider)
Bet you didn’t think this playground classic was once part of the Olympics, did you?
Well, it turns out not only was the sport popular, but it stirred up a lot of drama too – with accusations of foul play flying around at the 1908 Olympics in London, with Team USA accusing Team GB of cheating due to their ‘illegal’ heavy footwear.
A mainstay for around five Olympic games from 1900 to 1920, Tug of War enthusiasts have even campaigned for organisers to reintroduce the retired sport back into the Games.
Hot Air Balloon Racing
Hot air balloon racing was introduced in 1900 (Getty Stock Image/Thomas Barwick)
Launching at the 1900 Olympics, hot air balloon drivers would compete in races scoring how far they could travel, altitude reached, ability to land within the correct coordinates and – to top it all off – who got the best photo from the balloon.
The sport ended up being canned after a ban on motorised sports was brought in.
Live Pigeon Shooting
The Olympics was not a safe space for pigeons (Getty Stock Image/Catherine Falls Commercial)
Also making its debut at the 1900 Olympics, the event was pretty self explanatory – a load of pigeons were released into the air as the competitor tried to shoot as many as possible. Grim.
The event only appeared at the Games once, and all in all, it’s estimated that Olympic hopefuls killed around 300 pigeons.
Pistol Duelling
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The Olympics used to be deadly (Getty Stock Images/powerofforever)
It doesn’t take much guessing as to why this event was scrapped, but back in 1906, people clearly didn’t bat an eyelid at competitors waving pistols around and shooting at each other.
It began with competitors shooting at dummies, but two years later organisers decided to shake things up and have them shoot at each other with wax bullets. Ouch.
1908 would be the last time the sport was included in the Olympics, so I’m guessing they quickly realised it was a bad idea – wax bullets or not.Featured Image Credit: X/ @thinking_panda
Topics: Sport, Olympics, Social Media, Viral, Twitter, Reddit, China
