Monday, October 18, 2010

Art of Egg Sculptures

These are very cool. These amazing photos are of art sculptures made entirely of eggs.
Don’t ask them why anyone thought this was a good idea, but the end result is way cool. Which just goes to show, if you want to make great art, you have to break a few eggs. Then make a sculture art from made of egg.

Beautiful Art Of Egg Scultures


the Simpson Escalator


This escalator is cool. I wish we could have it also in our very own mall.

coolest!!

cooloest. How did it happen? That what you call art.. :))

Legos & the City

Artist Temujin Doran has come up with a super way to advertise the toy brand Lego. He simply takes photos of small Lego figures placed in real-life situations.

The interesting part is how he manages to pick the right Lego for the right scene. The fact that he can find an appropriate Lego for almost any situation is a true testament to the vast library of available Legos.

The Worlds Longest beach in Britain


Place - Littlehampton, West Sussex in Britain
The beach is located along Littlehampton’s promenade by the Blue Flag beach. About 300 people can sit on it at the same time, and there is no way it’s going to be occupied, there is always room for everyone.

The bench is very “flexible” and colorful, giving the promenade a joyful and young touch. It almost looks like a long rollercoaster and it is probably made with that kind of inspiration. It is 324 meters long, and is made out of hardwood bars that are put together. It was made by the design company Studio Weave, but they needed help from other organizations as well as children and other locals. Something that can remind of this is the Phonehenge that’s located near Myrtle Beach in South California.

The worlds dangerous bird - Cassowary


The world most dangerous birds - Cassowary:

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Cassowaries are the world’s most dangerous birds, capable of dealing fatal blows. They are very unpredictable, aggressive creatures, especially if wounded or cornered. The Cassowary lives in the rain forests of Australia and New Guinea and are actually pretty shy animals if undisturbed, but if you get to close and it thinks you’re a threat you could receive a bone-breaking kick or get sliced by its dagger-like sharp claws. During WWII, soldiers stationed in New Guinea were warned to stay away from these birds, but some of them still became victims.

Monday, October 11, 2010

top 5 living on edge building

#1 Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

The Leaning Tower was supposed to stand straight and plumb, an imperious monument to the trading power of 12th century Pisa. Built on soft clay, however, the tower began to list only a few years after construction began. Upon completion in 1350, the tower leaned about four and half feet, but as time passed, the angle of the 16,000-ton tower became more precarious. By 1990, the tower leaned about 13 feet off kilter, and nearly two million pounds of lead ingots had to be placed on one of its sides to prevent its collapse. But the nearest the tower has been to destruction had nothing to do with its famed tilt. Allied forces ordered an American sergeant to blow it up during World War II when they thought the Germans were using it as an observation post. Only the reticence of the 23-year-old American saved the tower.

#2 Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Pisa’s famous tilt may have been an accident, but the tipsy new addition to Abu Dhabi’s skyline is not. The United Arab Emirates’ Capital Gate tower pushed its Tuscan cousin out of the limelight this week when the Guinness Book of World Records certified the new building as the “World’s Furthest Leaning Manmade Tower.” It’s not clear how stiff the competition for that category ever really was, but the 35-story structure does lean a gravity defying 18 degrees — nearly five times further than its Italian inspiration. Like Bilbao, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, the UAE built Capital Gate to put its premier city on the world’s architectural map. The sloping result — “designed to provide no symmetry” — looks a little like a shiny drunk slouching against a wall. Built with over 15,000 cubic meters of concrete reinforced with 10,000 tons of steel, the tower houses over 20,000 feet of “premium” office space and a five-star Hyatt. Whether hotel guests will be inclined to sleep in this off-center wonder is another question.

#3 WoZoCo Apartments, Amsterdam

When the Het Oosten Housing Association in Amsterdam requested 100 social housing units for the elderly, Dutch architectural firm MVRDV found itself in a fix. Only 87 apartments would be able to meet regulations on adequate sunlight and still fit neatly onsite. Fortunately, uniformity wasn’t the architects’ top priority. Rather than take up more green space in a garden city threatened by development, they cantilevered — or fastened — the leftover 13 units onto the building’s northern façade. The suspended suites look like a series of open, wood-sheathed drawers in an oversized glass dresser. Jutting out of the main block, the lower boxes hang just above street level and the heads of apprehensive passersby. The southern façade is checkered with haphazardly placed windows and protruding balconies like transparent, technicolor containers. But despite their gravity-defying convolution, the WoZoCo Apartments were completed between 1994 and 1997 with “the lowest building costs in Amsterdam,” according to MVRDV. “This was the result of inexperience,” says the firm’s website. “Nowadays we would have told the client that he should increase his budget.”

#4 Meteora Monasteries, Greece

Perched atop towering rock pillars, a cluster of medieval monasteries called Meteora crown Greece’s Pindus Mountains. Meteora means “suspended in air,” and it was an apt description for centuries. Until less than a hundred years ago, one could only scale the sheer cliffs in a hanging basket or by climbing flimsy rope ladders. According to legend, one monastery founder could only reach the mountain peaks on the back of an eagle. As early as the 11th century, the region’s caves sheltered hermitic monks, but by the 14th century the orthodox monks were constructing elaborate stone and terracotta buildings, safe from marauding raiders below. Even in the 18th and 19th century, the monasteries remained secure hideouts, housing not just persecuted monks but also guerrilla fighters called klephts who fought for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. Today, of the 24 original monasteries, only six are active, but the remaining monks still have the same heavenly views. Plus, these days they can eschew the basket or the eagle and just take the stairs.

#5 Puerta de Europa, Madrid

The old gateways of Spain’s capital, Puerta de Alcalá and Puerta de Toledo, were built in the late 18th to early 19th centuries to mark the eastern and southwestern boundaries of the city’s main roads. Their contemporary counterpart, Puerta de Europa, was completed in 1996 as a joint project between American and Spanish architectural firms. Reflective of Madrid’s evolution from an old kingdom to a modern city, the “Gate of Europe” does not have its predecessors’ granite build nor their neoclassical arches. And, unlike the older puertas, Puerta de Europa is also a functional corporate space. Twin steel-and-glass towers form a single, implied gateway leading into the northern end of Madrid’s business district. Each building has a vertical of 374 feet (26 floors) with a 15 degree incline toward its other half. This sideways tilt put the Puerta de Europa on the map as the world’s first leaning high-rise office buildings.

Hotel In New York made out of 200, 000 card keys

The Key Card Hotel in New York is built out of 200 000 card keys. Every room and every wall, even the toilet are made out of card keys. The hotel is made by Bryan Berg, who has the world record in card house building.

haha.

8 reasons why Harry Potter is Greater Than Twilight

Christian Undertones > Christian Overtones
It’s more than well known that Stephanie Meyer comes from a Mormon background. The same goes for J.K. Rowling and her Christian origins. Both writers display their religious beliefs prominently in their work but in very different manners. Now here’s the thing. I’m down for writers showing off their personal beliefs in their work, but it’s how they do it that matters. The Harry Potter series is rife with Christian themes and allusion. Some believe Harry Potter is a Jesus figure, lost at youth only to return in his later years to fight a force of evil. Upon his return, he starts a movement and gains a following. And his future? Well, you’ll have to read the books to find that out, or wait until 2011. But at the end of the day, he doesn’t have to represent that. The story works independent from that theme. The Twilight series, on the other hand, works almost exclusively as a campaign for abstinence and the evilness of male hormones. The story treats sexuality as a disease, as a vampire. A boy who is trouble because he can’t hold back his urges for a girl. A girl who can’t help but be attracted to that boy. And later in the series? Well, once again, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Dweebs > Emos
Harry Potter fans and Twilight fans generally come from two very different worlds. Potter is for dweebs. Twilight is for emos. Yes, it can be argued that both series have diverse fan bases that run that gamut from little kids to grandmas, but that’s not fun. Generalizing is where it’s at. Emo kids are “dark.” They speak in bad poetry and overly descriptive prose. They are tortured by the fact that their lovers left them bleeding and alone, dying for more, gasping just to catch a small breath. Dweebs never had the lover to begin with. They hang out in the darkest corners of their respective high schools, playing wizard games and Dungeons and Dragons. They go to that awkward store in the mall that sells swords and Lord of the Ringsmag glass 10x10 8 Reasons Harry Potter Is Greater Than Twilight memorabilia. They don’t just look around in awe at the existence of such a store; they actually buy stuff. So I guess both groups of are pretty lame. But at least dweebs are usually smart, right?

Hogwarts > Forks
There is no part of me that doesn’t believe that Hogwarts exists. How could it not? There’s no way that Rowling could have come up with all of that by herself. Whether it be through the books or through the films, Rowling’s world engulfs you, transports you into a completely different universe. She’s created languages, species, and a plethora of spells. So much detail has gone into the creation of this world that it’s hard to not get lost in it. In contrast, the world that Meyer has created in Forks, Washington is just like the city: kind of boring and bland with a lack of diversity. The vampire back story is sloppy and kind of cheesy and the little bit of history we see of the werewolves in Twilight is tired and unimaginative. And that’s all there is. Clearly Twilight is less occupied with giving us a world we can live in than it is in shoving a tedious love story down our throats.

Fairy Tales > Teen Tales
One of the most important tools in the arts of literature and film is allusion. Authors and screenwriters use it all of the time. It’s less copying and more an acknowledgement of what came before, what influenced the words that you write, knowing where you came from. One would think that a work like Twilight would include allusions to previous vampire and werewolf books or movies, but Meyer didn’t seem to read any of them, as her versions of these monsters hardly fall in line with what came before. Instead, they are neutered versions of these classic characters. Edward lacks fangs, sparkles in the sun rather than burns. Oh and he doesn’t drink human blood. He’s over that. Duh. Harry Potter not only do its best to call back to the fantasy stories that came before it, it also adds on to the lore with new characters and more detailed origins. There are elves and giants and centaurs, all of which are familiar but at the same time, brand new. There’s something pleasing about a writer alluding to great works. It’s better than alluding to 90210.

Speaking to Kids > Talking Down to Kids
One of the hardest things to do is relate to kids. Educators struggle with it constantly. If you attempt to talk to them as if you’re one of them, it can come off as condescending, belittling, and at worst, stupid. This is exactly what Twilight does. It feels like that teacher you had in school who would say things like “dude” and “tubular” and “do you dig it?” This is the hip-hoppin’ grandpa. Harry Potter never talks down to its audience, frequently putting common youthful feelings of loss, sexual awkwardness, and friendship at the forefront of its themes. While Potter is fighting He Who Must Not Be Named, he is also dealing with complicated relationships that suffer due to jealousy and lying. Even though Potter deals with things that a boy his age never should and probably never would, he never feels older than he is. On the other hand, Twilight’s characters are stuck as caricatures, merely archetypes with no real voices or unique voices.

Cedric Diggory > Edward Cullen
When Twilight first began gaining a larger fan base, it was instantly touted as the new Harry Potter. Then the first film’s cast was announced, and surprisingly enough, the same guy who played a fairly prominent character in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was named to play Twilight’s lead dude. That actor’s name, as you know, is Robert Pattinson. In the Potter flicks, he plays Cedric Diggory, a charismatic and honest upper classman at Hogwarts. Pattinson played the kid just as he should have, using his handsome looks for good with enough restraint to make the character both believable and sympathetic. Pattinson’s acting in Twilight is an entirely different story. The dude looks like he’s constipated most of the movie, and his cold nature comes off more contrived than real. Who knows? Maybe something was lost with the American accent, or maybe a lead role just wasn’t a fit for him. All I know is that he played a dead dude way better in Potter than he did in Twilight.

Best Buy Effects > Wal Mart Effects
If I could, I would include only two words under this heading: sparkling faces. There is not a single, more pathetic example of Twilight’s special effects than the sparkling faces of the Cullen family. But to leave it at that would deny the flick’s other awful effects their due. There is of course the light speed effect seen when any of the vampire characters run. And even worse, the climbing scene where Bella rides Edward’s back as he glides up the stump of a tree in his backyard. I’ll be first to admit that the computer graphics in the first two Potter films were laughable, but the movies have evolved very nicely. Check out Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for a few amazing sequences during the Tri-Wizard Cup or the final battle of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix between Dumbledore and Voldemort. The movies have grabbed hold of the epic nature of their source material and owned it, while Twilight hangs flaccidly off the screen, depending on special effects dredged up out of a dollar store bargain bin.

Hermione > Bella
Let’s just admit it to ourselves. Sure, Kristen Stewart has her days, but Emma Watson has more. We’ve seen her grow from a frizzy-haired snob into a wide-eyed witch, and sure, she’s still a bit bossy, but isn’t that the best part? No one likes a pathetic girl throws herself at guys. Everyone wants a chase. That’s the world we live in. We want what we can’t have, and Hermione is willing to not let us have her. She’s willing to play her little witch games. Poor Ron Weasley is left wondering, “is she mental?” while poor Edward Cullen is stuck in a relationship I’m pretty sure he regrets.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Eiffel Tower


The Eiffel Tower is the famous tower in Paris and many people wants to visit and take pictures of it. The tower is made up of pure iron. And it has 347 steps to the first level, 674 steps to the second level, and 1710 steps to the small platform on the top of the tower. The public can only climb as far as the second level via the stairways. Public access to the summit is by elevator only. Also you can say the Eiffel Tower in French "La tour Eiffel" and I'm also learning French this days although this week we haven't met at all because of our exams. And my dream is to see the Eiffel Tower by myself. :))

Exams tomorrow.


Oh my. Time is so fast and its the quarter examinations again. Pressure again, need to study. Speaking of studying what will I study first? The hard one or the easiest. hmmm. And our schedule for tomorrow are Mathematics followed by Biology and the last one is Journalism. I'm also worrying, because I cannot understand about the cycle that our teacher explain and its very hard to understand it unless your brain is like Einstein just one explanation then he got it already. Just try to understand it. Good luck everyone and learn from your mistakes. And be honest & no cheating. :))