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Saturday, June 21, 2008
The best video game wedding cake ever - The Gamer Gene
The best video game wedding cake ever - The Gamer Gene
I’ve seen plenty of video game cakes in my time - but they pale in comparison to this amazingly detailed piece of 100% edible art. I think I’d feel guilty eating a piece. Click through for close-ups.
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Top 5 Strange and Beautiful Wonders in the World | Confessions of a Social Climber
You’re about to discover the depth of strangeness and beauty the world holds.”Top 5 Strange and Beautiful Wonders in the World | Confessions of a Social Climber-Warren Ellis, from the comicbook Planetary
That’s actually a pretty accurate summation of what the not-so-popular parts of the world is: strange and beautiful. The curious mix evokes varying reactions from people … is something fascinating because it’s strange, or is it fascinating because its beautiful?
Here are five examples of strange natural beauty that goes undiscovered most of the time.
Curtain of Fire, Hawaii – Located in volcanic Hawaii, Extreme pressure gushing out of a volcano, a fissure vent, and tons and tons of deadly lava, maybe something even hotter than Damien Rice’s “Volcano” — that’s what the Curtain of Fire is. Imagine a geyser, but instead of one hole to burst out of, think, a whole line — it makes for some spectacular display of the awesome power hidden beneath areas with volcanic activity — and seeing it gobble up a tree just adds to the excitement even more.
Death Valley Moving Rocks – Much like crop circles, these mysterious rocks up in Death Valley, California are being debated upon. Are they man-made occurrences? Does someone move them via air at night? Do the rocks come alive when no one’s looking? Are strange energies pulling the rocks underground? Are there sand people sand-submarines that use these rocks as periscopes? However they happen, these rocks show off a trail, with no external footprints of who, or what pushed them. The thing is, the local authorities have prohibited people from actually going near the rocks, to prevent them from being stolen or moved.
Blue Holes in the Bahamas – We’ve all heard about black holes, but what the heck are blue holes??? Blue holes are, according to Wikipedia, “oughly circular, steep-walled depressions, and so named for the dramatic contrast between the dark blue, deep waters of their depths and the lighter blue of the shallows around them. Their water circulation is poor, and they are commonly anoxic below a certain depth; this environment is unfavorable for most sea life, but nonetheless can support large numbers of bacteria.” What are they exactly? Almost-perfectly circle holes in the water that is noticeably bluer than the rest of the water surrounding it. These deep water caves are said to hold details of almost a hundred million years of history. The fun thing is, 90% of these caves are virgin territory … now wouldn’t that be something to explore one?
Banaue Rice Terraces – Located in the Philippines, these layered rice plantings have been built by the native Ifugaos and are estimated to be 2000 years old. Using minimal equipment, they’ve managed to create a primitive irrigation system that waters the crops from the top to the bottom by utilizing the rainforest areas located on top.
The Matterhorn, the Swiss Alps – This mountain may not be the highest, but there’s something special about it. It is immediately recognizable by its outline. It seems like a mountain that has edges. Four sides make it seem like a pyramid. But wait, there’s more! There’s an interesting story behind it too, from the website I found this info from, it says, that “About 40 million years ago, the Alps were created. When two sections of the Earth’s crust crashed into each other, it threw up rocks into a chain of buckled, folded mountains.” Hence, the origin of this unique natural splendor.
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101 days of sex | FunHigh
101 days of sex | FunHighAccording to statistics in USA, married couples are making love 66 times in a year. To put the passion back in married couples and prove that sex can be fun in a marriage, authors Annie and Douglas Brown made love 101 days in a row and published their experience in a book called “Just do It”.
Douglas admitted that it was very exhausting experience but it did make them realize how much they grew apart and this experience brought them closer together.
They advice for a good marriage is to have sex atleast once a week, even if you are tired.
If a relationship have lost the passion you can make up some rules that will keep you entertained and hopefully bring the passion back in your relationship. Some couples are throwing dice and the number that comes up will be the number of times they will have sex in a week. Others are relying on the “suprise” effect which can be anything from waiting for your partner in “sexy display” or bringing whip cream to the bedroom.
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Sironi Peace
Sironi Peace
The survey
Last month the UN conducted a worldwide survey with one question:
"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"
The survey was a huge failure.
In Eastern Europe they didn't know what "honest" meant
In Western Europe they didn't know what "shortage" meant
In Africa they didn't know what "food" meant
In China they didn't know what "opinion" meant
In the Middle East they didn't know what "solution" meant
In South America they didn't know what "please" meant
In the US they didn't know what "rest of the world" meant.
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Toxel.com » Breathtaking Sky Art
Toxel.com » Breathtaking Sky Art
It looks like sky was the primary source of inspiration for these images. Enjoy.
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Top 10 Most Beautiful Eyes | Top Ten Lists | TopTenz.net
Top 10 Most Beautiful Eyes | Top Ten Lists | TopTenz.net10. Charlize Theron
She’s got great eyes, but what else? She won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in Monster.
9. Sophia Loren
She’s got sexy eyes, but what else? She won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role
in Ciociara, La.
8. Kristin Kreuk
She’s has gorgeous green eyes, but what else? She has starred in “Smallville” as Lana Lang and has kissed (among other things) Superman.
7. Giada De Laurentiis
Okay, her eyes are amazing, but what else? She is a professional chef and has her own cooking program, Everyday Italian, which has been broadcast on Food Network since 20003.
6. Sharbat Gula
Her sparkling green eyes are mesmerizing, but what else? She is known as the cover girl for National Geographic because Steve McCurry was fortunate enough to take her photograph. Her photo is the most popular that the magazine has published.
5. Audrey Hepburn
Her eyes are beautiful, of course, but what else? Audrey won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role
in Roman Holiday.
4. Elizabeth Taylor
Her blue eyes make the sky look pale, but what else? She won two Oscars, one for each beautiful eye. She won for Best Actress in a Leading Role in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? & Best Actress in a Leading Role in Butterfield 8.
3. Lynda Carter
Azure blue eyes that sparkle are nice, but what else? Lynda was the superhero Wonder Woman and won the 2004 TV Land Award for Superest Super Hero for “Wonder Woman” which aired in 1976.
2. Angelina Jolie
Okay her eyes are drop-dead gorgeous and her lips are incredible, but what else? She is the daughter of Jon Voight and won an Oscar Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Girl, Interrupted in 2000.
1. Aishwarya Rai
Her eyes are truly the most beautiful eyes in the world, and that is enough, but just for kicks, what else? Aishwarya was chosen by Time magazine in 2004 as one of the World’s “100 Most Influential People” and she is widely considered the most beautiful woman in the world and with eyes like that you can “see” why.
And there you have it, ten of the most beautiful eyes in the world. As with most lists, even top ten lists, there is some subjectivity, so please include any beauties you may think were missed.
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illy’s cosy container cafe | the style files
illy’s cosy container cafe | the style files
Artist/architect Adam Kalkin has transformed standard shipping containers into living quarters. His Quick House can be used for different circumstances, from disaster-relief housing to luxury dwellings and for promotional purposes. Italian espresso company Illy has used the Quick House at the 52nd Venice Biennale to provide visitors a space to relax and to enjoy their complimentary espresso.
With the push of a button, the Illy house opens in 90 seconds like a flower and transforms from a compact container into a fully furnished and functional space with a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, bedroom, living room and library. All materials used were recyclable or recycled. Between November 28 and December 29, 2007, New York holiday shoppers have a chance to sit down and relax in Kalkin’s creation as Illy will install the temporary Push Button cafe in the Time Warner Centre.
Kalkin’s concept can also be used for luxury dwellings, as pictured above. Seeing this, I wouldn’t mind living a container like that!
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Firefox 3 At 14 Million Downloads - The Channel Wire - IT Channel News And Views by CRN and VARBusiness
Firefox 3, the Web browser from Mozilla, has broken the 14 million download mark. Launched on Download Day this past Tuesday, The company hoped for 5 million downloads in a World Record attempt. The Web browser surpassed that goal, ending up with over 8 million downloads in a 24 hour window.Firefox 3 At 14 Million Downloads - The Channel Wire - IT Channel News And Views by CRN and VARBusinessNow, less than 72 hours after Download Day wrapped up, Firefox 3 downloads are over 14 million. Removing the approximately 8 million downloads from 1 p.m., PDT Tuesday, June 13 to Wednesday, June 14, means that 6 million people have downloaded the open source browser in less than three days.
Reports of security flaws in Firefox 3 have not stopped eager users from downloading the software. And on Download Day itself, a system overload merely delayed " but didn't stop " users from downloading the software.
The next step for Mozilla is to send its documentation off to Guinness World Records for verification. The logs are expected to ship sometime in the next few days, with an official ruling from Guinness to follow thereafter.
Mozilla's attempt to set a Guinness World Record for most software downloaded in a day is the first such attempt that would be recognized by the world record gatekeepers.
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Photographer Documents Secret Satellites -- All 189 of Them
Photographer Documents Secret Satellites -- All 189 of Them
Artist Trevor Paglen's time-exposure photographs show the streaks of light left by classified satellites.
Photo: Trevor PaglenBERKELEY, California -- For most people, photographing something that isn't there might be tough. Not so for Trevor Paglen.
His shots of 189 secret spy satellites are the subject of a new exhibit -- despite the fact that, officially speaking, the satellites don't exist. The Other Night Sky, on display at the University of California at Berkeley Art Museum through September 14, is only a small selection from the 1,500 astrophotographs Paglen has taken thus far.
In taking these photos, Paglen is trying to draw a metaphorical connection between modern government secrecy and the doctrine of the Catholic Church in Galileo's time.
"What would it mean to find these secret moons in orbit around the earth in the same way that Galileo found these moons that shouldn't exist in orbit around Jupiter?" Paglen says.
Satellites are just the latest in Paglen's photography of supposedly nonexistent subjects. To date, he's snapped haunting images of various military sites in the Nevada deserts, "torture taxis" (private planes that whisk people off to secret prisons without judicial oversight) and uniform patches from various top-secret military programs.
The nearly vertical streak in this image shows a satellite called Keyhole 12-3 crossing the sky near the constellation of Scorpio.
Photo: Trevor PaglenWhile all of Paglen's projects are the result of meticulous research, he's also the first to admit that his photos aren't necessarily revelatory. That's by design. Like the blurry abstractions of his super-telephoto images showing secret military installations in Nevada, the tiny blips of satellites streaking across the night sky in his new series of photos are meant more as reminders rather than as documentation.
"I think that some of the earliest ideas in the modern period were actually from astronomy," Paglen explains. "You look at Galileo: He goes up and points his telescope up at Jupiter and finds out, hey, Jupiter has these moons."
More significant than the discovery itself, Paglen says, was the idea that anyone with a telescope could verify it and see the same exact thing that Galileo saw -- an idea Paglen is trying to re-create in his own photographs.
"It really was analogous to a certain kind of promise of democracy," says Paglen, who sees a similar anti-authoritarian premise running through his own work.
Paglen says his most recent project is the culmination of close to two years of trial-and-error experimentation with astrophotography, untold hours of fieldwork and analysis, an ongoing collaboration with amateur astronomers, and many nights in his Berkeley backyard and at California's Mono Lake.
"Lacrosse/Onyx II Passing Through Draco (USA 69)" shows the transit of another surveillance satellite.
Photo: Trevor PaglenTo capture his images, the researcher and "experimental geographer" employs a motorized mount with various combinations of telescopes and digital and large-format film cameras. Paglen uses spy-satellite data compiled by Ted Molczan -- a renowned amateur astronomer profiled by Wired magazine in 2006 -- to predict where a given "black satellite" will be in the sky. Then he decides how he wants to compose the image.
"I'll find where a star will be in the compositional plane," he says. "Then I'll use one telescope, which is attached to a webcam, to focus on that star."
With the help of a computer program that controls the mount of the telescope and keeps it focused on the heavenly body, Paglen says he can get the telescope to swivel with the Earth's rotation.
He then uses another telescope attached to a high-end digital camera for his deep-sky shots, similar to the rig he used for his desert shots.
"I'll see the satellite in the sky, kind of know where it's going to be in the frame, then I'll open the shutter and take a long exposure of the satellite passing through."
Paglen's initial interest in the government's so-called "black projects" took shape while combing through U.S. Geological Survey archives of satellite prison photos in 2002. He noticed that many of the photo frames of prison sites were missing or, in some cases, heavily edited.
"I thought: What the hell is this? We still have blank spots on maps? We've mapped the whole structure of the cosmos and the human genome, so what's this all about?" Paglen said.
Eventually, those blank spots led Paglen to other covert subjects and turned a hobby into a full-time job -- one with a decidedly political stance.
"For a time, people were getting arrested for photographing the Brooklyn Bridge," Paglen notes. "So to me, what it meant to do photography also changed. There was a new kind of politics to it -- something that was very aggressive and dangerous -- and a presumption that it would reveal some kind of truth or evidence."
Ultimately, the satellite photos are an attempt to critique that attitude. While the budget for black military operations has more than doubled in the last 10 years and the government continues to espouse the virtues of secrecy, it can't prevent interested amateur astronomers from calculating the orbital paths of spy satellites.
"The National Reconnaissance Office cannot classify Kepler's laws of planetary motion," Paglen says. "They just work ... and they're unbelievably accurate."
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Top 10 Bizarre Facts About BMW Gina You Didn’t Know |
Top 10 Bizarre Facts About BMW Gina You Didn’t Know |BMW has always been a great company in terms of design and creativity which comes up with innovative ideas. It seems that BMW’s design department has been working hard lately. Just a few weeks ago the leading German car manufacturer introduced its M1 Homage Concept and now BMW presents GINA – a futuristic shape shifting concept car made of cloth. This aggressive-looking skinned beast is an inspiring example of how future vehicles may look like. Here are top 10 bizarre facts about the coolest car you have ever seen.
1. GINA stands for Geometry and Functions in “N” Adaptions which really means that BMW set out to explore the creative freedom and push the boundaries. As a result, BMW GINA Light Visionary Model Concept Car has become a new take on car design, materials and flexibility – it is futuristic in a whole new way.
Wow, I am really impressed!
2. GINA replaces old-fashioned metal/plastic skin with flexible fabric “body-shell” wrapped around a meshwork of metal and carbon fiber wires. The cloth that covers GINA’s body is made of waterproof, temperature-resistant, durable and flexible fabric material.
Great! Put it into the laundry-machine and here you are – it’s clean again. Just wash separately, do not bleach, do not tumble dry, only warm ironing is required. By the way, it’s a joke.
3. The Light Visionary Model is skinned by four large pieces of fabric: a front panel that starts at the front of the car and leads to the base of the windscreen, two side panels and the last panel make up the rear deck. So, the traditional elements of producing cars, such as doors, wheel arches, engine hood, a trunk lid, are not present in the conventional sense.
4. Underneath the covering material is a light sub-frame controlled by electro and electro-hydraulic devices. This means that the car can bend and contract and, thus, change its shape and exterior as many times as the driver desires.
I guess the criminals will fall in love with GINA as they can commit crimes and drive away as no one will be able to identify what the car looked like at the time.
5. It is amazing how much the outer skin of GINA resembles sheet of metal, but the impression changes as soon as the doors open in a semi-scissor fashion – the fabric artfully binds up.
Hmm, nice wrinkles when doors open! I suppose the care will need facelift quite soon.
6. The rear panel of GINA is movable as well.
7. The headlights of GINA can be magically hidden or exposed when necessary. The headlights of the car open like human eye. BMW is particularly proud of the GINA’s futuristic headlights.
The car really looks like an alien with exposed double lights, which look like eyeballs under eyelids.
8. The turn signals and taillights shine trough the translucent fabric when activated and become invisible when turned off.
Looks like a new James Bond car, doesn’t it?
9. BMW GINA Light Visionary Model Concept Car is built over a Z8 platform and equipped with realistic 8-cylinder powertrain package.
10. GINA’s hood opens and closes from the center like an old-fashioned doctor’s bag to expose the engine.
How much that car is? One, please…
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