World's biggest carnivals

 World's biggest carnivals

Carnival of Salvador, Bahia

Carnival of Salvador, Bahia is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest street party on the planet. Each year, two million people dance in the streets of Salvador during the six days of this huge party, including more than 800,000 tourists who enjoy themselves behind 100 electric trios and carnavalescas bands. Acording to Guinness Records, the Bahian Carnaval invades 26km of streets and avenues, generating US $254,000,000 in business in the process. 

Carnival, Rio de Janeiro – Brazil

Partying in Rio, famous for its beaches, reaches its peak during the carnival week. It is the most sensuous place to be during the carnival as you may spot some spectacular acts. It is known as the modern Brazilian Carnival, which popularised during 1845. People in beautiful costumes hit the streets with a lot of singing and dancing. Numerous Samba schools allow people to gather up for the practice of the carnival almost throughout the year.

Notting Hill Carnival, London

Since 1964, Notting Hill Carnival has taken place on the streets of Notting Hill, London, UK each August, over two days (the August bank holiday Monday and the day beforehand). It is led by members of the Trinidad and Tobago Caribbean population, many of whom have lived in the area since the 1950s. The carnival has attracted up to 2 million people in the past, making it the second largest street festival in the world.

The Aalborg Carnival in Denmark

It is the biggest and most colorful carnival celebrations in northern Europe - The Aalborg Carnival in Denmark. Aalborg Carnival has up to 25,000 carnivalists in the Grand Parade and more than 100,000 spectators catching the magnificent wave of colours and fantasy along the parade route. For one week the entire city is transformed into a huge party full of color, music, dancing, and laughter.

Trinidad and Tobago

Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago is the event of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. It is said that if the islanders are not celebrating this carnival, then they are preparing for it. Band leaders and designers begin working on their presentations months in advance. They usually hold a launch party 3-5 months before Carnival to showcase their costumes. The genesis of this "world's greatest" Carnival has been attributed to the many cultures of Trinidad and their interaction.

The Red Planet is simply incredible

New vision

Thousands of new images captured over the past few months by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have been released. These images show a wide range of gullies, dunes, craters, geological layering and other features on the Red Planet. This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the Orbiter shows gullies near the edge of Hale crater on southern Mars. The view covers an area of about 1 km across.

Team effort

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the orbiter recorded these images from April to August this year. Each full image from HiRISE, released by the camera team at the University of Arizona, Tucson, covers a strip of Martian ground 6 km wide, about two to four times that long, showing details as small as 1 meter, across.

Advanced study

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been studying Mars with an advanced set of instruments since 2006. It has returned more data about the planet than all other past and current missions to Mars combined. It was launched August 12, 2005, and attained Martian orbit on March 10, 2006. In November 2006, after five months of aero-braking, it entered its final science orbit and began its primary science phase.

Successfully managed

The Orbiter is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by the Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

The Hi-RISE camera

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera is a 0.5 m reflecting telescope; the largest ever carried on a deep space mission, and has a resolution of 1 microradian or 0.3 m from an altitude of 300 km. It collects images in three colour bands, 400 to 600 nm (blue-green), 550 to 850 nm (red) and 800 to 1,000 nm (near infrared).

Rib tickling laws and customs

Rib tickling laws and customs

Mooning the train!

In Laguna Niguel, California, US, there is the custom of mass mooning on the second Saturdays of every July. Crowds line Camino Capistrano, a road that runs along the railroad tracks, and pass the day dropping their trousers every time a train rolls by! It began as a bar bet in 1979 and has continued ever since. According to a city lore, a saloon patron offered to buy a drink for anyone who would moon the next train. He did - for one guy - and the annual rite was born. 

The extra-hygienic kiss

In Riverside, California, kissing on the lips, unless both parties wipe their lips with carbonized rose water, is against the local health ordinance. Another laws forbids molesting a butterfly - it can make you poorer by $500. Even animals have not been spared. Animals are banned from mating publicly within 1,500 feet of a tavern, school, or place of worship! In Ventura County, California, cats and dogs are not allowed to have sex without a permit.

Shower with clothes on!

It is illegal to shower naked in the State of Florida, US. One also cannot fart in a public location after the hour of 6 p.m.! If that wasn’t enough, residents are only allowed to have sex in the missionary position - and a man is not allowed to kiss the woman’s bust during sexual intercourse! Other funny Florida laws include that a man not being allowed to wear a strapless gown and no person is allowed to have sexual relations with a porcupine!

Paradise with 70 virgins?

In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death. If that wasn't enough, in many Middle Eastern countries it is prohibited to eat the sheep one has had sex with. A person who decides to eat this sheep is considered to be making a deadly sin, and it's believed there that such a man will never get into paradise with 70 virgins!

Where virgins can't marry

Talking of virgins, there are men in Guam, whose full-time job is to travel the length and breath of the country and find young virgins - to deflower them! What's more these virgins pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time with them. If the act wasn't weird enough, the reason is even weirder. Generations of Guamese have believed that it is unlucky for virgins to marry.