A ghost town buried in the sand

Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia.It became popular in 1908, when people rushed into the desert hoping to make money out of the diamond fever. At the time the diamonds were very easy to find, they would lay fully exposed on top of the sand. This caused a diamond rush from all over the world and the once desolated desert was full of fortune seekers.Within two years a town was established in the desert with some 700 families living in it.But after the drop in diamond sales, everyone left and the place became deserted again. The dunes began to reclaim what was always theirs.A couple of old buildings are still standing, but the rest are just crumbling ruins.

Empire State Building car zap mystery

In the shadow of the Empire State Building lies an “automotive Bermuda Triangle” - a five-block radius where vehicles mysteriously die.

No one is sure what’s causing it, but all roads appear to lead to the looming giant in our midst - specifically, its Art Deco mast and 203-foot-long, antenna-laden spire.

“We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day,” said Isaac Leviev, manager of Citywide Towing, the AAA’s exclusive roadside assistance provider from 42nd St. to the Battery. “You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up.”

Motorists like Russell Valeev, 25, learn about it the hard way.
“The lights work, the horn works, everything. But it won’t start,” Valeev, a driver for Golden Touch Transportation said one recent evening as he sat in his 2005 Ford van with the hood propped open on E. 35th St., between Lexington and Park Aves. “It’s my job. No money.”
The 102-story building, at Fifth Ave. between 33rd and 34th Sts., has been home to broadcast equipment since its opening in 1931, when RCA installed an experimental TV antenna.

Since the 9/11 attacks destroyed the twin towers, the building has regained its status as the leading transmission site for commercial broadcast outfits, with 13 TV and 19 FM stations mounting antennas on its spire.