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A tree in India is bigger than the average Wal-Mart

It may sound hard to believe, but the world’s widest tree, located near Kolkata, India, is bigger than the average Wal-Mart.

The gigantic Banyan tree may look like a forest from far away, but it’s actually comprised of a myriad of aerial roots that cover 3.5 square acres of land, which equals roughly 156,000 square feet, or 14,400 square meters.

Compare that to data from the most recent unit count and square footage report from Wal-Mart, which says that the average store size (that’s not a Supercenter) is just under 105,000 square feet or 9,750 square meters.

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A radical solution to baseball’s All-Star game problem: MLB Vs. Japan

If baseball wants to increase interest in the All-Star Game for both the fans and the players, there is a radical yet simple solution, but it requires Bud Selig to look across the ocean.

MLB All-Stars vs. Japanese League All-Stars.

While the NFL and its players continue to mull the cancellation of their Pro Bowl due to the lack of interest, Major League Baseball has taken the opposite approach and has gone to great lengths in an attempt to return their mid-summer classic to prominence.

In 2006, Selig tried to artificially increase interest by giving the winner home-field advantage in the World Series. It was a solution that was only slightly less arbitrary than the “alternating years” system that served as the previous method.

Importing All-Stars from Japan’s Nippon Professional League would create genuine interest from both fans and the players.

Here’s how it works:

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McDonald’s is becoming a popular wedding venue in Hong Kong

McDonald’s restaurants are now doubling as wedding venues in Hong Kong.

McDonald’s launched a wedding party program a few years ago in response to customer demand, with three locations offering wedding services. Today, 15 McDonald’s locations in Hong Kong host weddings, as well as engagement parties, anniversary parties, and bridal showers, according to CNBC.

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Stunning Photos Of The Supermoon

On Saturday night, July 12, you may have noticed that the moon looked unusually large.

That’s because it was the “supermoon,” which happens when two phenomenon occur at the same time: the full moon and the “perigee moon.” The perigee moon is when the moon passes closest to earth causing it to look about 14% larger and 30% brighter than usual. It looks even larger when it hangs low over the horizon, as it does when it is rising, for reasons scientists can’t completely explain.

Don’t worry if you missed it though. You can catch another supermoon on August 10 and September 9.

Until then, check out our favorite pictures from this past weekend below:

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Bizarre photos of Chinese shoppers napping at Ikea

The beds and couches at Ikea are communal nap spots in China. Photographer Kevin Frayer captured the phenomenon for Getty Images.

Eight of the world’s 10 biggest Ikea stores are in China, where the home goods store is expanding to accommodate the growing middle class.

“The stores are designed with extra room displays given the tendency for customers to make a visit an all-day affair,” according to Frayer. “Store management does not discourage shoppers from sleeping on Ikea furniture, even marking them with signs inviting customers to try them out.”

The stores are a refuge in the summer heat.

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21 hauntingly beautiful photos of deserted shopping malls

Hundreds of shopping malls across the U.S. have been forced to shut down following years of debilitating declines in consumer traffic.

In many cases, the shuttered malls are left to decay for years before developers or local governments raise the funds to bulldoze or renovate the space.

Pseudonymous photographer Seph Lawless traveled the country for years to find these forgotten malls and document their decay from the inside.

The photos he captured are haunting and apocalyptic, featuring dead trees and abandoned shopping carts against landscapes of broken glass and crumbling walls.

He compiled the photographs in a new book, “Black Friday: The Collapse of the American Shopping Mall,” and shared some of them with Business Insider.

You can also see his work on Facebook and Instagram.

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Oklahoma farmer loses his cellphone in 140 tons of grain — 9 months later gets a call from Japan

Kevin Whitney of Chickasha, Oklahoma, was working on his farm last October when his iPhone fell out of his shirt pocket and up a grain elevator, where it was deposited into a pit containing 280,000 pounds of grain.

“I never expected to see that phone again,” he told KFOR-TV. It was a reasonable conclusion.

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19 pencil drawings that trick your mind into thinking they’re 3-D

Anamorphic drawings are two-dimensional drawings that, when viewed from a single point of view, seem to leap off the page. Graphic artist Alessandro Diddi has mastered them.

Diddi is an Italian designer who began working on the 3D-looking art in 2013. “The first drawings helped me to learn the basics of the technique and, once I got assimilated, I began to catch a glimpse of the expressive possibilities that this could offer,” Diddi told Business Insider via email.

To create the 3-D illusions with just graphite and paper, Diddi says he has to consider practical aspects (design, photography, and lighting) and psychological aspects (what the observer thinks he or she is seeing). His photos of the art often includes a pencil in them to immediately remind viewers that the items are 2-D.

Diddi’s drawings will be shown on July 19 at Santa Monica’s “Masters of Illusion” exhibit. Here are some of his mind-blowing works of art.

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Google’s Street View cameras are taking spooky selfies in museums around the world

It turns out that there are a surprising number of mirrors in museums, so when Google unleashed its Street View cameras to catalog the insides of museums around the world, more than a few of them ended up accidentally taking pictures of themselves, we learn via Quartz.

Spanish artist Mario Santamaría noticed this happening quite a bit and did exactly what one should do upon noticing a trend: build a Tumblr around it.

Titled “The Camera In The Mirror,” Santamaría’s site catalogs the eerie moments in which Google’s cameras photograph their own reflections. You get a peek at them wrapped up in silver cloth or exposed to reveal a surprisingly robot-like body.

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A Chinese bank regulator died from working overtime — And officials applauded his dedication

The Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission Management Committee confirmed this month that one of its staff, Li Jianhua, died of being overworked on April 23 — and has suggested that his fatal devotion to his job is a model for other Chinese workers.

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China tried to build a replica of Manhattan… and it’s not looking so great

Yujiapu, in China’s Tianjin Binhai New Area, was modeled on Manhattan and expected to become the financial center of the world. But it languishes as many wasteful Chinese ghost cities have. At one point it was reported that the Juilliard School had signed an agreement to set up an institute in Yujiapu. And there were plans for a Rockefeller and Lincoln Center as well. But construction in this Manhattan hopeful has ground to a halt.

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China’s most pompous millionaire just threw a ridiculously fancy lunch for homeless New Yorkers

Multimillionaire Chen Guangbiao, the self-proclaimed “most influential person of China,” held a massive event in New York City on Wednesday during which he handed out $100 bills to 200 homeless people at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park.

“He’s the man! He’s the man!” one man shouted, throwing his arm around Guangbiao and waving the three $100 bills in the air.

“I wish and hope that you will put the money into good use,” Guangbiao said in remarks delivered through a translator.

“I hope that you will use this money as seed money for whatever job training or job education you will receive so that you can help yourself,” he said.

Guangbiao, 46, then told the crowd that he would like to do this every year. They began to cheer and whistle.

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16 facts about India that will blow your mind

India is one of the world’s largest economies, and it has the second largest population. This means things in India tend to be fairly large-scaled — consider its network of roads, consumer spending, or its youth population. But it also experiences some problems on a large scale like suicides and road accidents. We pulled together some staggering statistics from the sub-continent.
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16 photos that show why Singapore has the world’s best airline

Singapore Airlines took the top spot on our list of the Best Airlines In The World.

The list ranked the best major international airlines for flying economy class, based on two categories: the quality of the in-flight experience and the on-time delays.

Last year, I flew economy class from New York City to Singapore (with a stop in Frankfurt) on Singapore Airlines, and saw for myself why the airline gets rave reviews.

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The emoji you send actually say a lot about you

Sometimes words just aren’t enough to convey what you have to say.

People tend to use emoji in both normal and unorthodox ways, and the emoji you use actually says a lot about you. 

Enter Emojinalysis, a Tumblr blog that tells you what’s wrong with your life based on your recently used emoji.

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The craziest fans at the World Cup

When it comes to sports passion nothing brings out the crazy in fans more than international competitions.Now mix that with the biggest tournament for the world’s most popular sport and we end up with a show in the stands at the World Cup that is nearly as entertaining as the matches being played.

Let’s take a look at some of the fans with the craziest costumes and attire from the first six days of the World Cup.

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Nearly half of all the people who play video games are women, but you wouldn’t know it by the video game industry’s biggest conference.

Only five women presented on stage at the major press events at E3, the video game industry’s huge conference, which took place in LA this week.

Sadly, that number won’t be surprising to anyone familiar with sexism in the tech industry, and the particularly appalling way women are treated in the video game industry.

But here’s the really shocking part. E3 actually featured more severed heads on stage than women: eight heads.

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15 of the highest-paid professional female video gamers

The professional video game world might be a boys’ club — males account for 70% of frequent viewers and players — and there aren’t a lot of women playing video games professionally. At least not yet.

But those who do are definitely making a name for themselves.

e-Sports Earnings has ranked the top 100 female players who have won the most prize money, based on information provided online.

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North Korean defector describes her crazy escape and adjustment to modern life

Life inside a communist country with a controlling dictator for a leader is not only suffocating and dangerous; it’s also vastly different from life in developed countries elsewhere across the globe.

Joo Yang, who defected from North Korea in 2010, did an “Ask Me Anything” on Reddit Wednesday and explained what it was like to leave the oppressive country and experience life in the outside world.

North Korean defectors have to escape the country covertly. Some of them were basically brainwashed by propaganda growing up — one defector who spoke to UK newspaper The Independent said she was raised to believe that Kim Jong-il was a god who could read her mind.

Yang joined her family in South Korea in 2011. An NGO helped her travel through a “modern-day underground railroad” to escape North Korea.

Here are some of the observations she made about life in North Korea versus life on the outside:

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A Chinese airline might start letting flyers bid on seat upgrades

It’s time to bid goodbye to discomfort while flying.

Chinese airline Cathay Pacific is considering starting an online auction program where customers could place bids to upgrade their seats, according to the South China Morning Post.

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