paper the questions is which way is the caution causation. >> you can watch dismiss other programs online at booktv.org. ... [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> hello. it is 9:00 p.m. the book festival has been going on for nine hours. the next event -- if you have not seen the book already, you must have been out of the country because she is

everywhere, >>ld, >> both are in this book and many other things after five years she has put this book to get there with more than 700 different entries of what happens around the thrld. [applause] i am delighted to be here i cannot think of anywhere i would rather be on a saturday night with a bunch of book lovers in a library laugh laugh and i am particularly jazzed to me n madison home of the mustard museum laugh laugh it is wonderful to be here.

as has been mentioned coming out in book form a few weeks ago so some background of what thises about it started as the website 2009 with the collaboration between my two co-authors and the goal was to assemble lead data base of places that inspirere wonder the that you may not know about the hidden wonders of the of world and to give you an example the eiffel tower is one that the secret compartment near the top that he built to impress his friends that has the

carvings and the grand piano tha is the hidden wonders though this all began seven years ago as he started to assemble these places opening it to the public to say show us what you got there weren't quite sure what to expect or how many submissions or people wouldd understand the head did wonder but it has taken off with over 1,000 places and it people seem to get it. we have submissions from people who remember something from their childhood down the road the the guy built that of wonder if it is still there and there is us sense of hometown pride showing off with a discovered so as a

way to show you and samplesin of what is inside this book we have collected 700 uh greatest hits album us sampler platter for the website of what to take keylock eight quick to our of a few places in the book for this is one of the first places that was submitted to the website with the pursed few months of launching who lives in the north the india this is one of the look wettest most humid regions in the world one of the problems creating infrastructure is that it disintegrates pretty quickly battle will arrest him thehe wood will rot so the people

have come up with ingenious and visually stunning solution. these are the bridges there are a few but this one in particular is double decker and this spectacular but the way that they are made is they build a trestle over the river then they guide the roots of the trees across the trestles it takes about 15 years for the bridge to grow and it can continue growing for centuries. so we thought okay when we yes.this. it is incredible and it is real. this is also a bridge. a land bridge to unite and island in south korea but itor

only appears for about one l. were twice a year. per there is some of mythology associated with the bridge that the south korean equivalence of moses and the story goes a tiger descended upon the island and everybody managed to escape except the elderly woman pet tiger paw was menacing and she thought not on my watch said she had a bridge to open up so she could safely escape the island. according to mythology this did happen in. every year once in may and june the bridge opens people

walk from their separate i went to meet in the middle than turnaround and go back home. this is a fascinating place about 100 miles north in. in 1958 and eccentric urban planner had 80,000 acres in the mojave desert. he had a grand plan to establish in automobile base a utopia. he laid out all the streets gave every street a name in that as as far as the project got.

[laughter]'s because he over estimated people's willingness to move to the mojave desert to establish the utopia mitropoulos. [laughter] is a but this still exist all the roads that have the name barstool there. we have real-world events where we go out and explore whee with various chapters around the world and we organize the convoy asa people of what would be called california city they walked along the streets that are now being reclaimed by the same and. have not been there yet but i want to. from the air it looks like a giant circuit board. this is the greatest hit.

this is a classic. this is the result of an accident is referred to as the gates of hell or the door to help locally. 1971 geologist were drilling for natural gas they found some but the descended giant subterranean caverns as they began to drill del whole open up and a red felt in. so they were panicked driven and so they set the whole thing on fire. the mentality was given a few weeks now 45 years later

it is still burning. another subterranean caverns one of the creative and driven visionaries and rather eccentric that we celebrate in the atlas and former monk from the dread you will go up one morning and decided he needed to build a cathedral for the next 50 years of his life and still doing it.s stil and somewhat similar by s using safe and. since the 1990's he has

spent walking out to the new mexico desert digging the incredible caves and takes commissions but it isn't about that but tim expressing himself through the way that he puts the wheelbarrow on his back and carries a shovel and he has made about one dozen of these. this fellow looks the worst for whereby it not when you consider he died in 1783 at the age of 96. and mummified himself. he was one of many monks

with the variation of buddhism. for refuse centuries these monks wearing teach in the art of self mummification andy may be thinking i studied ancient egypt iom could do that to somebody else in theory with they are dead to hook out the nostril with the cream not - - criticality but how do you mummify yourself? in happened and is this a 10 year process that began with a very strict diet

undertaken in 1,000 days that is basically nets and the seeds because the idea is to use strict your body of fat in the initial stage. once that was diane it done then you could feast upon use like of wood and the a.d. it is that is the internal organs. it is just that easy. [laughter] once this stage was complete they were very close to death so they go into the tomb and they would chant their mantra and every day they would a reading of fell to say they were living and

then when dead bill would stop bringing they would seal the tomb then after awhile the monk would be retrieved. several hundred monks tried in about two dozen succeeded and 69 still on display in northern japan. this was sexually l. latta at the end of the 19th century by the emperor who i imagine. [laughter] but this is a charming local mystery on the north shore of lake superior. this is called the devil's cattle. -- cattle its present 22 on

the left side the water goes into the devil's kettle and nobody knows it where 80 merges. not for lack of trying. they have thrown ping-pong balls and they tried to dive they throw a gps devices did nobody has yet yielded. is a fine and local mystery. this fix like the a delight place to go on a pleasure cruise. but i would not recommending th going bare because it is called snake i went. -- island..

it is off the coast of brazil and is home to golden the diapers that exist only on this island and given the chance they will kill you their venom doesn't killian but it will cause a lot ofki damage. but it is the density that they have very over the years spent there is one snake per square meter. so i work in that you're never more than 3 feet from potential death and they're

not just terrestrial so you could walk along and feel one drop in. that is terrifying. you're not allowed to go you have to convince the brazilian navy have a legitimate scientific reason let . is sounds enticing start thinking of reasons. [laughter] in florence it it has the michelangelo, but the lines get along in some manner -- in summer but there is a museum around the corneris that is less visited is a science and you'll find

galileo's and middle finger. [laughter] classic. about 100 years later how to

know on the south coast of england but to build the semicircles says the mean to amplify a incoming aircraft. and they hope for the best. you can see there is a stand

where the microphone could be mounted. >> like the stethoscope and then listen hard they sorts of work but no where near as well as radar. but is aircraft moose faster they could give you the slight edge but not a lot of time to prepare. but both are known as the rope bridges and bridges like these that you see on

the bottom right but as far as we can tell we are the last one. for them but what makes it special because it is usedid submachine so they come together to cut down the existing bridge but then the villages but then they reestablished for hamas analysts -- last surviving of what used to be a whole network.

but this just looks like an l organ in a cave but you were not seeing the whole picture. because the man with the incredible name but then to make the perfect backdrop of the world's largest musical instrument. what you see here is thatou but you don't see the pipes of the church organ and they are stalag takes and he yeart years searching caves

for stella tights that would make exact sound when he struck them once he found that he wired five cables to teach individuals down tight it is called a static tight organ it is now played but they're still on sale in the luggage shop and think it is musically gems from solid rock. [laughter] this is an attempt it was

first exhibited at thehe 185-1110 exhibition and created by adman george meriwether. sto but then they seemed to get a little agitated so how do we harness this? so he built a device that is the very device that how it works is there is a is a circle that the freshwater leach would be placed and is similar to the glorified

monks now that i think abouton it. but if they were when approaching these not so much is my redo have and did it is a little bit sad but there is still a model in a museum that is what we would in this call barometer world the north of england and all about barometers laugh laugh and this is safely said first it is like the crane and salt.

but. but each cooling light theses unlike the case in new zealand and the northis island. and is a big network but eight goes a long the subterranean river and all of a sudden pest feeling of the universe opens before you with these amazing clothing for things.

so i was born in new zealand and this is in my neck of the woods on the southeast coast of australia a volcanic chard or a spire

1800 feet tall for the pyramid and the significance comes from 2001 to scientist because they've looking for a creature that the world had given up upon. l and pet this insect is the ifze of your palm. jests that they found the

remains and they used to exist on the island that isou 13 miles. and she was introduced then they began to disappear in then they thought they were extinct. but.org is the working bodies that were discovered by having made thiss discovery but what do we do with them plaques went in

2003 davis cited to take to get the population going again. unfortunately one had diedagain. but the second pair with the working suffrage punishment onei this one is disturbing. do we have fans in the audience? i am so glad. this object is located in dennis said he and go.

it is a good time. >> but according to the curators they assisted in the 17th century. . . and you approach the a friend and rented to say when you negative and in hand -- commanders can only from the waist down? [laughter] unrea . .

this is something that we see a lot that is part of the philosophy which is, there are incredible things all around us. you do not have to go to peru you don't have to go see the digger pants in iceland to happen upon something strange, wondrous and exciting. there are things in our own backyard that are incredible. it's just a matter of opening your eyes and not becoming complacent about what is rountree. to that end, i wanted to talk about one more place very briefly which is right here in the wonderful state of wisconsin. it is -- [applause] how many have been here? yes.

this is what eyes talking i was talking about earlier about hometown pride, but wanted to share the special things that you found in your neighborhood with the world. because doctor -- of a tron is incredible. it was in the 1980s by a retired wrecking and salvage expert, tom every who has he built this and developed his own alter ego, the idea of this space machine is that he will blast into the heavens and the lightning beam that sits at the top like in a. it's just just north of madison off highway 12. these are the kind of places that would love to celebrate. we would love for you all to go out there and explore, see what is in your neighborhood and stay. share them with us in the world and be an explorer. and we hope that use "atlas

obsucra" as your guide. that is about it for my formal presentation part of the proceedings. i would love to take questions if you have any. my only disclaimer is, if you ask me about a specific detail in one of the 700 places in in the book i may not immediately remember. but that's only because their 700 places in the book. i will try my very best. does anybody have questions? there is a microphone in the center. i will give you time to go to the microbe. do you see the nick her pants again? [laughter] [inaudible] >> i gather this started as a website and i would imagine that the book is constantly in need of updating.

to anticipate future additions? >> yes, definitely. not just for that reason. we would definitely want to put future updated versions of the specific book out into the world. we are all also looking at what other books we can rights. condensing the world wonders into 480 pages is very difficult. we're looking at putting out books that are bit more specific in their focus, whether that's geographically or by subject matter. if you look at the index in her book and is things like treacherous -- of mummified remains. anyone of those categories could be an entire book on itself. our editor give some feedback about the fact that we had too many anatomical museums that features wax molds and diseases, so we could easily put 40 of those in a book.

but yes we would love to put future additions and updated editions of this book but also others. >> thank you. i also wanted to say that while this is a great example of what you are investigating around the world, wisconsin is full of those places. and any other number of candidates, i don't know if you have other examples in the book. >> we have a lot on the website. one in the book which all of your familiar with his house on the rock. it is one of those that you will note about what people around the world don't. it's something worth sharing with the world. i hope you don't mind sharing it.

>> the dickey villa grotto, there's a number of places. and thank you for doing this. >> thank you. [inaudible] >> this is for tall people. we are actually going to new zealand for the first time. what would you recommend, or should i just buy the book? >> that would be the main version. there are so many things. if you go to a museum in wellington where i was born, he will see a giant squid that has been a colossal squid that has been beautifully mummified or that is a great place to go. what else is in the book?

there is something all craters of the moon which is wonderful to walk around. it's a lunar landscape and very strange. then have places like if you are interested in the economy there is a machine called the imo near machine which uses water to demonstrate how the economy works. which is, think it's at the university of -- is in the book. i would definitely recommend that. it's a magical experience. >> where's the university? >> on the south islands. i should really notice. >> thank you.

>> was there a wonder that you wanted in the book that did not make the cut? >> there were so many. the problem with narrowing down, we started out with this giant spreadsheet. we tried to to have a balance in terms of geography and the types of places. the problem was, we all had, had, three of us had certain things that we adored, not all of which made it into the book. as i was talking before we really love medical museums, it's museums, it's just a thing we all like. one of the problems that that is some of them are quite similar to each other. these places that by themselves are so incredible but when you already have one that is very similar in the book, like we have to take one out but i

really want to keep it. i was a medical museums generally. and bone churches, we tried not to make the book to death like. there is a lot of death in there but death is treated in very interesting ways. and like coffins that look like tigers. the cemetery -- thank you. >> thank you. [inaudible] [inaudible] >> the question is how many places have i or the others got to. we had been to his many places as possible that are in the book. we are up to, we there is a

place on the website to log places you been to. we each got up to about 100 and stopped counting. the book is very much a crowd sourced project. we definitely rely on our wonderful community of atlas obscure people who are finding things for us. we been to as many places as time and budget will allow. we've done as much fact checking as possible. i did go to the saul cathedral -- it does taste like salt. it is very much a collaborative project. >> another question is coming up.

>> two quick questions. one is too often dick get asked by people not to put stuff up because they don't want people to know about it? they wanted to be their own secret. secondly where their issues, or has there been issues about cultural sensitivity? people being concerned about you making light of something they see as a very spiritual place? >> that's a good question. the first question is about people not wanting places to be included in the book. that is a concern of ours. we don't want to overexpose or make people annoyed by the fact that they suddenly have a lot of people out the door. what was previously a special small place. we have found, thus far without exception that the places we have highlighted our places that in some cases were struggling to survive. bringing attention to them has been a good thing. that has been our experience so far but it is a concern of ours. it is a bit strange to be called "atlas