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Puzzling World
Puzzling World is a tourist attraction near Wānaka, New Zealand. It began as a single storey maze in 1973, gradually expanding to become an award-winning complex of optical illusions and puzzling rooms and the world's first 3-D maze. Puzzling World is well known for its Leaning Tower of Wanaka and eccentric lavatory styled as a Roman bathroom. Puzzling World had received in excess of 4 million visitors and was attracting around 200,000 people a year. History Puzzling World, originally a single level wooden maze at Wānaka in the Queenstown, New Zealand, Queenstown area of New Zealand, opened in 1973. It was the brainchild of Stuart and Jan Landsborough who had been forced to sell their house to raise money for the venture after being refused a bank loan. In the first year the park received 17,600 visitors. A puzzle centre was added in 1979 and a second level added to the maze 3 years later. The park continued to develop with the signature Leaning Tower of Wanaka being added in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wānaka
Wānaka () is a popular ski and summer resort town in the Otago region of the South Island of New Zealand. At the southern end of Lake Wānaka, it is at the start of the Clutha River and is the gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park. Wānaka is primarily a resort town with both summer and winter seasons. Its economy is based on the many outdoor opportunities this offers. Historically, Māori visited the Wānaka area to hunt and fish in summer, or on their way to seek (greenstone) on the West Coast. Ngāi Tahu abandoned their seasonal camps after a raid by a North Island war party in 1836. The current town was founded as Pembroke during the gold rush of the 19th century, and renamed to Wanaka in 1940. Along with the rest of the Queenstown-Lakes District, Wānaka is growing rapidly, with the population increasing by 50% between 2005 and 2015. Names ''Wānaka'' is the South Island dialect pronunciation of , which means 'sacred knowledge or a place of learning'. The New Zeala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychic
A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, such as psychokinesis or teleportation. Although many people believe in psychic abilities, the scientific consensus is that there is no proof of the existence of such powers, and describes the practice as pseudoscience. Psychics encompass people in a variety of roles. Some are theatrical performers, such as stage magicians, who use various techniques, e.g. prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot reading, to produce the appearance of such abilities for entertainment purposes. A large industry and network exist whereby people advertised as psychics provide advice and counsel to clients. Some famous psychics include Edgar Cayce, Ingo Swann, Peter Hurkos, Janet Lee, Miss Cleo, John Edward ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Towers In New Zealand
A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifically distinguished from buildings in that they are built not to be habitable but to serve other functions using the height of the tower. For example, the height of a clock tower improves the visibility of the clock, and the height of a tower in a fortified building such as a castle increases the visibility of the surroundings for defensive purposes. Towers may also be built for observation, leisure, or telecommunication purposes. A tower can stand alone or be supported by adjacent buildings, or it may be a feature on top of a larger structure or building. Etymology Old English ''torr'' is from Latin ''turris'' via Old French ''tor''. The Latin term together with Greek τύρσις was loaned from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inclined Towers
An inclined tower is a tower that was intentionally built at an incline. Towers are built with an incline in order to support the weight of another structure, such as the Montreal Tower. Some towers are built with an incline due to the steep terrain upon which they stand, or simply for aesthetics. Design Despite the outward appearance of an inclined tower as "leaning-over", they are as structurally sound as any non-inclined tower. The mass of the tower's upper section is always equal or less than the mass of the tower's lower section, ensuring the building remains balanced around its centre of mass. Inclined tower vs. inclined building Inclined towers are specifically distinguished from " inclined buildings" in that they are not built to be habitable, but to serve other functions. The principal function is the use of their height to enable various functions to be achieved, including: visibility of other features attached to the tower such as clock towers; as part of a larger st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prizes For Proof Of Paranormal Phenomena
A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.Prize definition 1, The Free Dictionary, Farlex, Inc. Retrieved August 7, 2009. Official prizes often involve monetary rewards as well as the fame that comes with them. Some prizes are also associated with extravagant awarding ceremonies, such as the s. Prizes are also given to publicize noteworthy or exemplary behaviour, and to provide incentives for improved outcomes and competitive efforts. In general, prizes are regarded in a positive light, and their winners are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings And Structures In Otago
A building or edifice is an enclosed structure with a roof, walls and windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for numerous factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, land prices, ground conditions, specific uses, prestige, and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the concept, see ''Nonbuilding structure'' for contrast. Buildings serve several societal needs – occupancy, primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical separation of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) from the ''outside'' (a place that may be harsh and harmful at times). buildings have been objects or canvasses of much artistic expression. In recent years, interest in sustainable planning and building practi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tourism In New Zealand
Tourism in New Zealand comprised an important sector of the national economy – tourism directly contributed NZ$16.2 billion (or 5.8%) of the country's GDP in the year ended March 2019. tourism supported 188,000 full-time-equivalent jobs (nearly 7.5% of New Zealand's workforce). The flow-on effects of tourism indirectly contributed a further 4.3% of GDP (or NZ$9.8 billion). Despite the country's geographical isolation, spending by international tourists accounted for 17.1% of New Zealand's export earnings (nearly NZ$12 billion). International and domestic tourism contributed, in total, NZ$34 billion to New Zealand's economy every year . New Zealand markets itself abroad as a "clean, green" adventure-playground (Tourism New Zealand's main marketing slogan, "100% Pure New Zealand", reflects this), emphasising as typical tourist destinations nature areas such as Milford Sound, Abel Tasman National Park and the Tongariro Alpine Crossing; while activities such as bungee jump ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Island
The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south by the Foveaux Strait and Southern Ocean, and to the east by the Pacific Ocean. The South Island covers , making it the List of islands by area, world's 12th-largest island, constituting 56% of New Zealand's land area. At low altitudes, it has an oceanic climate. The most populous cities are Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson and Invercargill. Prior to European settlement, Te Waipounamu was sparsely populated by three major iwi – Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, and the historical Waitaha (South Island iwi), Waitaha – with major settlements including in Kaiapoi Pā near modern-day Christchurch. During the Musket Wars expanding iwi colonised Te Tau Ihu Māori, Te Tau Ihu, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optical Illusion
In visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide variety; their categorization is difficult because the underlying cause is often not clear but a classification proposed by Richard Gregory is useful as an orientation. According to that, there are three main classes: physical, physiological, and cognitive illusions, and in each class there are four kinds: Ambiguities, distortions, paradoxes, and fictions. A classical example for a physical distortion would be the apparent bending of a stick half immersed in water; an example for a physiological paradox is the motion aftereffect (where, despite movement, position remains unchanged). An example for a physiological fiction is an afterimage. Three typical cognitive distortions are the Ponzo illusion, Ponzo, Poggendorff illusion, Poggendorff, and M� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Prizes For Evidence Of The Paranormal
Paranormal challenges, often posed by groups or individuals who self-identify as scientific skepticism, skeptics or rationalism, rationalists, publicly challenge those who claim to possess paranormal abilities to demonstrate that they in fact possess them, and are not fraudulent or Self-deception, self-deceptive. Process After establishing procedures and measures of success agreed upon beforehand between the challengers and the claimants, a challenge is usually divided into two steps. The first is a "preliminary test", or "pre-test", where claimants can show their purported abilities under controlled conditions in front of a small audience, before being admitted to the final test. Sometimes these pre-tests have a smaller prize attached to them. Several local organisations have set up challenges that serve as pre-tests to larger prizes such as the James Randi Educational Foundation, JREF's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge or the 2012–2013 SKEPP Sisyphus Prize (for one m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illusion
An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are generally shared by most people. Illusions may occur with any of the human senses, but visual illusions ( optical illusions) are the best-known and understood. The emphasis on visual illusions occurs because vision often dominates the other senses. For example, individuals watching a ventriloquist will perceive the voice as coming from the dummy since they are able to see the dummy mouth the words. Some illusions are based on general assumptions the brain makes during perception. These assumptions are made using organizational principles (e.g., Gestalt theory), an individual's capacity for depth perception and motion perception, and perceptual constancy. Other illusions occur due to biological sensory structures within the human body or conditions outside the body within one's phys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Committee For Skeptical Inquiry
The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the U.S. non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims." Paul Kurtz proposed the establishment of CSICOP in 1976 as an independent non-profit organization (before merging with CFI as one of its programs in 2015), to counter what he regarded as an uncritical acceptance of, and support for, paranormal claims by both the media and society in general. Its philosophical position is one of scientific skepticism. CSI's fellows have included notable scientists, Nobel laureates, philosophers, psychologists, educators, and authors. It is headquartered in Amherst, New York. History The committee was officially launched on April 30, 1976, and was co-chaired by Paul Kurtz an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
