Packing for Holidays
So you’re planning a dream holiday. Why not do it in style?
Oroton Hunter wetpack, $195
Emporio Armani cashmere scarf, $390
Lenox radio, $129, Brooksfi eld
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French Photograher Captured Stunning Pictures Of Post-Soviet Holiday Camp In Artek, Crimea
Claudine Doury is a French photographer living in Paris.
She chose two main themes for her reports: exploring the changes in Eastern Europe, as well as the metamorphosis of juvenile period of life. In Paris in 2004, the book called: Artek, un été en Crimée (Artek, a summer in Crimea, Ukraine) of Claudine was published.
1. Svetlana, 1994.
The pictures were taken from 1994 until 2003. There are no boring staged or formal photos. All images of Claudine show the true story about the Artek life of children in there. Some people found the photos absolutely delightful, others subjected them to devastating criticism saying they are being inappropriate. Continue reading »
Lake Erie Algae Bloom Regarded as Worst in Decades
A massive algae bloom on the waters of Lake Erie in the U.S. is believed to pose a significant threat to aquatic life forms in the lake. The algae, which is toxic, is sucking the oxygen out of the water. According to reports, this is the worst bloom since the early 1960s. Scientists have also revealed that the bloom is caused, primarily, by the phosphorous from agricultural waste that is washed into rivers.
According to NASA Earth Observatory, such blooms were common in the lake’s shallow western basin in the 1950s and 60s. Phosphorus from farms, sewage, and industry fertilized the waters so that huge algae blooms developed year after year.
However, the condition improved in the 1970s when regulations were imposed on agricultural and sewage treatment procedures to limit the amount of phosphorus released. However, this year, a giant bloom has spread across the western basin once again. The particular reasons for the bloom are complex but may be related to a rainy spring and invasive mussels. Continue reading »
Port Adelaide Celebrates with Glow Show
Images are projected onto heritage buildings in the ‘old town’ of Port Adelaide as part of The Port Festival, a biennial event showcasing art and culture from around South Australia, October 9, 2011. (Helen Vercoe / ABC)
Architect Daniel Libeskind’s Steel Wedge Bursts Through the Redesigned Museum in Dresden
A metal wedge designed by U.S. architect Daniel Libeskind protrudes from the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden, Germany, Oct. 13. After seven years of renovations according to his plans, the new exhibition with 10,500 exhibits from 700 years of military history opens tomorrow, Oct. 14. (Matthias Hiekel / EPA) Continue reading »
Southern California Enjoys Unseasonably Warm Temperatures
Two paddle boarders walk their bikes at Venice Beach, California on October 13 as a mini-heat wave hit southern California. Temperatures soared 20 degrees Fahrenheit over normal highs reaching into the nineties and hundreds in the region tying record temperatures. (Mike Nelson / EPA) Continue reading »
World’s Largest Balloon Sculpture Created by a Single Artist
Adam Lee, balloon twisting artist, stands beneath his giant balloon sculpture hanging in the Great Wolf Lodge Lobby in Grand Mound, Wash. On Oct. 13. Lee broke the Guinness World Record for “Largest Balloon Sculpture” with nearly 3,000 balloons measuring 45 feet 2 inches wide by 22 feet 2 inches long. (Otto Greule Jr. / AP) Continue reading »
Alien Hunter: World’s Biggest Telescope will be Built in Chile
The European Extremely Large Telescope, also known as the alien hunter, will be the world’s largest optical telescope. Its mirror alone will be 137 feet wide, half the size of a regular football field.
The whole structure will weigh 2,800 tonnes, making it the heaviest of all telescopes as well. It will gather 13 times more light than existing earthbound telescopes and can even provide images 16 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope’s. European astronomers took years to decide on the final design of the alien hunter telescope.
“At the end of the three-year final design study, we will know exactly how everything is going to be built, including a detailed costing,” said Catherine Cesarsky, the European Southern Observatory’s director general. “We then hope to start construction and have it ready by 2017, when we can install instruments and use it.”
The E-ELT will find its home in Chile, where Foreign Minister Alfredo Moreno signed an accord with the European Southern Observatory. The Chilean government will donate 189 acres of land around the Cerro Armazones mountain. And in return, they will have 10 percent of the observing time on the huge telescope.
Construction will begin in early 2012 and the target year for operation is in 2018. The revolutionary telescope is designed to see the deepest parts of the universe and provide clear images of planets, stars and other galaxies.
This architectural concept drawing of ESO’s planned European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) shows the world’s largest planned optical telescope gazing heavenwards. Slated to begin operations early in the next decade, the E-ELT will tackle the biggest scientific challenges of our time. (IBITImes/Swinburne Astronomy Production) Continue reading »
Paradise for the Chickens: Heritage Hen Farms in Boynton Beach
If only you knew just how hard Svetlana and Marty Simon — and their few hundred chickens — worked for each egg they harvest, you’d never look at breakfast the same way.
The Boynton Beach farmers are up at 4 a.m. to feed the animals at their Heritage Hen Farms, change their water, chase the goats to the pasture, clean out the coops, collect eggs, find rogue egg layers, scrub the duck tubs, check the bees, check the fences. Then they go to their day jobs, only to return later for more farm work.
“To produce nutritious food like this takes so much labor,” Svetlana says.
Yes, but it’s paradise for the chickens. The Heritage hens (and geese and ducks and guinea hens and one lone turkey named Thomas) live a truly free-range lifestyle. (Photos by Libby Volgyes)
A sign welcomes visitors to the coop, where families can see firsthand where the eggs come from. Continue reading »
Demi Moore Returns for Ann Taylor 2011 Holiday Campaign
Despite the recent Ashton-Sara Leal controvery and regular tabloid reports about their marriage failure, Hollywood star Demi Moore has decided to distract herself and return as the face of the 2011 Ann Taylor Holiday campaign. Continue reading »
Solar-powered Catamaran Makes a Stop in Singapore
The MS Turanor PlanetSolar yacht arrives in Singapore for a stop on its global tour on October 12. PlanetSolar is the largest solar powered boat in the world and hopes to be the first to circumnavigate the world’s oceans in a 22,000 mile two-year odyssey. (Stephen Morrison / EPA) Continue reading »
Superhero Arrested in Seattle for Assault Investigation
This Feb. 18, 2011 file photo shows Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones during a patrol of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Seattle’s superhero, who has gained fans and a bit of fame as he works the streets of Seattle, was arrested and booked into King County Jail early Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011 for investigation of assault after an early morning incident involving pepper spray. His spokesperson says he was breaking up a fight and they have video of the incident. Police say he came up behind a group of people leaving a bar and sprayed them with pepper spray. (Joshua Trujillo / seattlepi.com via AP)
Photo of the Day: Survive
A dog stands on a car inundeated with floodwaters in the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya, 80 kms north of Bangkok, on October 12, 2011. At least 269 people have died in more than two months of floods that have damaged the homes and livelihoods of millions of people, according to the government. (PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images)
Deers in Richmond Park, London
A fallow deer buck watches from the cover of a bracken thicket after sunrise during the autumn rut at Richmond Park on October 10, 2011 in London, England. Autumn sees the start of the ‘Rutting’ season where the stags and bucks bellow in an attempt to attract female does and hinds. (Dan Istitene/Getty Images) Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Finger-licking Trouble
Customers lined up at ‘Obama Fried Chicken,’ opened by university students, in Beijing Sunday. The owners changed the name to ‘UFO’ amid trademark-infringement accusations from KFC, but kept the likeness of President Barack Obama in suspenders, which resembles KFC’s Colonel Sanders. (ChinaFotoPress/Zuma Press)
Underwater Giants: The Magnificent Manta Rays of the Maldives
Swooping gracefully through the water like giant bats, these huge manta rays gather to feed on microscopic plankton. These amazing pictures were taken by British photographer Warren Baverstock, who spent nine days on the Maldives to capture these beautiful creatures. Up to 200 mantas gather in Hanifaru Bay, which is just the size of a football pitch, to feed and be cleaned of parasites by smaller fish.
Manta rays are the world’s largest ray and have the biggest brain to body weight ratio of their cousins the skates and sharks. They feed on plankton and fish larvae either on the ocean floor or in open water. They filter their food from the water passing through their gills as they swim. Mantas frequently visit cleaning stations where small fish such as wrasse, remora, and angelfish swim in their gills. (Time) Continue reading »
Wifi Dowsing Rod
Today’s technology advances at such a speed that consumers are often left in awe of it all. The high tech terminology, the ultra small, ultra portable, metallic or white devices we carry around with us are, to the vast amount of consumers, simply baffling. The Wifi Dowsing Rod aims to work against this. By basing the design for a wireless Internet detector on century’s old technology, the user feels immediately at home with the product, whilst feeling less intimidated by the simple shape and natural materials. Project by Mike Thompson. Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Comedy Carpet in Blackpool
The final touches are put to Comedy Carpet by Gordon Young. The installation on Blackpool’s promenade immortalises the UK’s favourite comedians and comic writers from the heyday of music hall to the present day. The artwork took five years to compete and features catchphrases, jokes and sketches, made up from more than 160,000 letters cut from black and red granite and cobalt blue concrete. (Christopher Furlong / Getty Images) Click image to zoom.
Steve Jobs’s Top 5 Hits in Pop Culture
1. The 1984 ad (1984) The spot that introduced the Apple Macintosh aired only once, on Jan. 22, 1984, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. People haven’t stopped talking about it since. Envisioning a hellish dystopian future (or was it the present?) of drones under the thumb of a televised Big Brother, the Ridley Scott-directed ad brought on a hot Valkyrie with a hammer to smash through the screen and liberate the masses. What did this have to do with computers? Not much, but it established once and for all the terms of home computing’s dominant rivalry: fascist PCs vs. freedom-fighting Macs. The Apple board got cold feet about showing the ad at the last minute, but Jobs and cofounder Steve Wozniak held firm. In 1999, TV Guide called it the number one commercial of all time. (Ty Burr / The Boston Globe) Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Fuck Oil!
A penguin found on the beach coated in oil gets washed at the Oiled Wildlife Response unit set up in a makeshift camp in Tauranga, New Zealand. The belly of the penguin is normally colored white. The 47,000 ton Rena, a Liberan container vessel, struck a reef on Wednesday causing an oil leak that has spread over five kilometers. Authorities are preparing for the worst environmental disaster in New Zealand history should the vessel break up and spill 1,700 tons of fuel into the Bay of Plenty. (SUNLIVE New Zealand, Getty Images)
Apple Futureshock
Concept video showing off the applications behind Apple’s “Futureshock” Knowledge Navigator concept device from 1987. Siri was here.
Photo of the Day: I Love Steve
Flowers and an iPad showing a picture of Steve Jobs are placed at a makeshift memorial for Jobs at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, and a tag is painted outside Apple’s flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York. Apple founder and visionary Steve Jobs, 56, died from cancer on Wednesday, a premature end for a man who revolutionized modern culture and changed forever the world’s relationship to technology through inventions such as the iPad and iPhone. (Getty Images, AFP) Click image to zoom.
Photo of the Day: Superman Dog
A dog performs during a comedy dog show at the pet fair in Barcelona. (Josep Lago / AFP/Getty Images)
Zombie-boy for Schön Magazine
Rick Genest in photo session for Schön Magazine. Photographer: Matthew Lyn. Continue reading »
