Video of the Day – Musical Birds on Wires

by Stephen Greenwood on

This video has been making the rounds on the internet for about two years, but every time I watch, it brings a smile to my face.

In 2009, São Paulo based musician Jarbas Agnelli came across a photo in a newspaper of birds perched on electric wires. His musical curiosity took over, and he decided to find out if the birds created some sort of melody based on their positions on the wires. Sure enough, a surprisingly well constructed melody emerged, and Agnelli posted the final result in this video.

Agnelli later gave a talk at TEDx São Paulo to discuss the piece and has been interviewed with the original photographer, Paulo Pinto, in the same newspaper that the photo first appeared.


Perhaps you’ve caught a natural tune in one of your travel photos or video? Share it with us in the Gadling Flickr Group and it could be our next Photo / Video of the Day!

Video of the Day: Big Wheel vs. Bus

by Mike Barish on

We’re all for using public transportation whether you’re at home or exploring a new city. It keeps excess cars off the roads, allows you to see a real cross-section of the population and is cheaper than taking taxis everywhere. That said, buses can be slow. Especially in major cities like New York. How slow? Well, comedian Mark Malkoff decided to find out. He raced a New York City bus across town on 42nd Street (right in the heart of Manhattan) while riding a child’s Big Wheel bike. Having ridden a bike in New York for years, I can tell you that it’s faster than taking a bus. But can the same be said for a tiny tricycle? You might just be amazed by the results (at the very least, you will be amused).

[Via our friends at Urlesque]

Photo of the Day- Yosemite National Park

by Chris Owen on
National Park Week is happening right now in the United States, offering Free Entrance Days to America’s National Parks from now through April 24th. During that time, admission fees are waived as a special welcome to Americans visiting their national parks.

Today’s Photo Of The Day comes from Flickr member RuthannOC and is of Yosemite National Park.

We want to see your work too. Upload an image to Flickr’s Gadling Group Pool. Chosen images end up as future Photos of the Day.

Photo of the day – Maldives arrival

by Alex Robertson Textor on

When I was a kid, the Maldives were the stuff of dreams. A colleague of my father’s gave me a hardback Maldives-themed calendar one year for Christmas, with glossy photos of atolls peeking out of perfect blue seas in between calendar pages. The sand was so white and the palm trees were so green. Could any tropical islands be more beautiful than these?

Years later the low-lying Maldives began cropping up in stories about climate change. Rising sea levels may well make the Maldives uninhabitable by the end of this century. In the meantime, tourism is an enormously important to the Maldivian economy; according the CIA World Fact Book, tourism is responsible for almost thirty percent of the country’s GDP.

Frightening climate change projections notwithstanding, what more magical way is there to encounter a tropical dreamland than from a plane about to land? This image, snapped by Flickr contributor Mystrimus, captures the ineluctable anticipation that accompanies most arrivals on picture-perfect tropical islands.

Got a pre-landing photo to share? Upload it to Flickr’s Gadling Group Pool. If we like it we might just select it as a future Photo of the Day.

Photo of the day – monastery in the mountains

by Meg Nesterov on

It’s appropriate that this cable car in Montserrat, Spain leads to a monastery, because I’d be praying the whole ride that we made it safely. Perhaps other visitors are less height-adverse because this is one of the most important religious sites in Spain, with many people making the trek each year up the mountain to pray at the sanctuary. It’s not just for pilgrims: Santa Maria de Montserrat is home to one of the oldest printing presses in the world, a museum with such art biggies as Picasso and Dali, and a nature park with some stunning views of Catalonia. Want to visit? It’s about an hour from Barcelona, more visiting details here. Thanks to Flickr user othernel for making the climb.

Want to share your favorite travel photos with us? Add them to the Gadling Flickr pool and we may just use it for a future Photo of the Day.