Advertising As ART

An Amazing Hotel That Gives Dubai an Architectural Run for Money

Whereas most of the new, awe-inspiring hotels and structures are popping up in and around Dubai, the Hareem Architects firm has just announced their plans for the Full Moon Rising and Caspian Plus hotels, which look to be one of the most incredible hotels ever built, but their chosen location is the central Asian republic of Azerbaijan. Watch out Dubai, you could have some competition on your hands.

The Ripple Faucet Makes Some Seriously Stylish Waves

The Ripple-15 faucet is so dang cool, every house should have one. But with such a hypnotic addition I fear we'd all waste a lot of precious water that way due to excessive overuse. Consisting of a simple rippled circle display and an electromagnetically attracted metal ball, you can change the temperature of the water by simply placing the metal ball either along the hot or cold side of the plate. Electromagnetic sensors housed beneath the plate adjust the temperature according to the ball's placement, and LEDs light up in red, blue or neutral to visually cue you in as well. A flash heater regulates the water and heats or cools it accordingly, while two separate channels direct the hot or cold water flows. Moving the ball to the outer concentric rings increases the water flow, while placing it in the center turns the faucet off.

EU fines Microsoft record $1.4bn

The European Commission has fined US computer giant Microsoft for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour.

Microsoft must now pay a record 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680.9m) after it failed to comply with a 2004 ruling that it abused its dominant market position.

The ruling said that Microsoft was guilty of not providing key code to rival software makers.

EU regulators said the firm was the first to break an EU anti-trust ruling.

The fines come on top of earlier fines of 280m euros imposed in July 2006, and of 497m euros in March 2004.

Interview With Oprah Winfrey

I was raised on a farm with my grandmother for the first six years of my life -- I knew somehow that my life would be different and it would be better. I never had a clear cut vision of what it was that I would be doing. I remember absolutely physically feeling it at around four years old. I remember standing on the back porch -- it was a screened-in porch -- and my grandmother was boiling clothes because, you know, at that time, we didn't have washing machines, and so people would, you know, physically boil clothes in a great big iron pot. She was boiling clothes and poking them down. And I was watching her from the back porch, and I was four years old and I remember thinking, "My life won't be like this. My life won't be like this, it will be better." And it wasn't from a place of arrogance, it was just a place of knowing that things could be different for me somehow. I don't know what made me think that.
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source: Academy of Achievement

Academy Awards, USA: 2008

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Winner: No Country for Old Men (2007) - Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin
Best Achievement in Directing
Winner: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007)
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Winner: Juno (2007) - Diablo Cody
Best Documentary, Features
Winner: Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) - Alex Gibney, Eva Orner
Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Winner: Freeheld (2007) - Cynthia Wade, Vanessa Roth
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Winner: Atonement (2007) - Dario Marianelli
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Winner: There Will Be Blood (2007) - Robert Elswit
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Winner: Once (2006) - Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová(“Falling Slowly” )
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Winner: Fälscher, Die (2007)(Austria)
Best Achievement in Editing
Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) - Christopher Rouse
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Winner: Marion Cotillard for Môme, La (2007)
Best Achievement in Sound
Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) - Scott Millan, David Parker, Kirk Francis
Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Winner: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) - Karen M. Baker, Per Hallberg
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Winner: No Country for Old Men (2007) - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Winner: Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton (2007)
Best Short Film, Animated
Winner: Peter & the Wolf (2006) - Suzie Templeton, Hugh Welchman
Best Short Film, Live Action
Winner: Mozart des pickpockets, Le (2006) - Philippe Pollet-Villard
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Winner: Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men (2007)
Best Achievement in Art Direction
Winner: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) - Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Winner: The Golden Compass (2007) - Michael L. Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris, Trevor Wood
Best Achievement in Makeup
Winner: Môme, La (2007) - Didier Lavergne, Jan Archibald
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Winner: Ratatouille (2007) - Brad Bird
Best Achievement in Costume Design
Winner: Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) - Alexandra Byrne

Pakistan 'sparks YouTube outage'

Pakistan's attempts to block access to YouTube has been blamed for an almost global blackout of the video website for more than an hour on Sunday.

BBC News has learned that the outage was almost certainly connected to Pakistan Telecom and Asian internet service provider PCCW.

A leading net professional said the global outage was "probably a mistake".

Pakistan ordered internet service providers to block the site because of content deemed offensive to Islam.

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Perceptive Pixel

Perceptive Pixel, Inc. was founded by Jeff Han in 2006
as a spinoff of the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
to develop and market the most advanced multi-touch system in the world.

Clinton tells Obama: 'Shame on you'; Obama fires back

A visibly angry Sen. Hillary Clinton lashed out Saturday at Sen. Barack Obama over campaign literature that she said he knows is "blatantly false." Obama, however, stood by the content of the campaign mailings, suggesting Clinton's outrage was "tactical." full story

Iran - Mohammad Nouri

Pilot Artistry

Watch for ICE

Get out of the car!

Evolution of Car Logos

This article should come in handy for the next time you’re stuck in traffic: have you ever wondered why the Audi in front of you has a logo of four interlocked rings? Did you know that the Cadillac emblem was inspired by a family crest of a nobleman who later turned out to be a fraud? Or that Volkswagen was Hitler’s idea?

We took a look at the evolution of tech logos before. Today, let’s take a look at the fascinating stories behind the logos of some of the most popular cars in the world.
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Nintendo Character Evolution Shows How Compute Graphics Have Evolved

LED Lamp Lit by Gravity

Concept illustrations of Gravia depict an acrylic column a little over four feet high. The entire column glows when activated. The electricity is generated by the slow fall of a mass that spins a rotor. The resulting energy powers 10 high-output LEDs that fire into the acrylic lens, creating a diffuse light. The operation is silent and the housing is elegant and cord free – completely independent of electrical infrastructure.

The light output will be 600-800 lumens – roughly equal to a 40 watt incandescent bulb over a period of four hours.

To “turn on” the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour-glass like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. The sled begins its gently glide back down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp, Clay Moulton said. “It’s more complicated than flipping a switch but can be an acceptable, even enjoyable routine, like winding a beautiful clock or making good coffee,” he said.

Moulton estimates that Gravia’s mechanisms will last more than 200 years, if used eight hours a day, 365 days a year. “The LEDs, which are generally considered long-life devices, become short-life components in comparison to the drive mechanisms,” he said.

8 Higly Effective Cold Prevention Strategies

1. Wash your hands
2. Avoid contact with people
3. Keep your hands out of your face
4. Drink water
5. Eat your fruits and vegetables
6. Multivitamins
7. Stay warm
8. Relax and rest
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You can't steal Intellectual Property

Intellectual property" is one of those ideologically loaded terms that can cause an argument just by being uttered. The term wasn't in widespread use until the 1960s, when it was adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization, a trade body that later attained exalted status as a UN agency.

Microsoft embraces Open Source

Protocols for programs including Vista and Office will be published and free for developers to exploit.

KeyBag

Any-side-up

Dutch designer Reinier de Jong has created Keer Chair, which can be used any way up.
I really love to move around my furniture a lot. But I often get stuck with the look of the room since, well, the furniture kinda stays the same if you know what I mean. I guess this is where having one of these any side up Keer Chairs would really help. Brainchild of Dutch designer Reinier de Jong the Keer chair is specially designed to do away with verticality. The chair can be placed in three different positions which essentially means you virtually have three different chairs. Though the chair elements are only 20cm wide, the various parts can be interconnected with built-in magnets

Lazy Student

All World Famous Men in One Photograph

Online Calculator

Most attractive online calculator which you have seen until now.
You can see the result of your calculation when you are typing without any need to push Enter.
You can draw any diagram with simple and quick way.
http://instacalc.com/

How Beijing Olympic Got its Logo

The Crab Nebula from Hubble

This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The above image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, is presented in three colors chosen for scientific interest. The Crab Nebula spans about 10 light-years. In the nebula's very center lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but with only the size of a small town. The Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each second.

Man's life saved by handshake

A GP diagnosed a rare brain tumour just by shaking a man's hand.

Mark Gurrieri, 36, from Loughton, Essex, was working in a restaurant when a friend introduced him to his dining partner, Dr Chris Britt.

The GP said he knew something was wrong when he shook Mr Gurrieri's large, spongy feeling hand.

Mr Gurrieri underwent tests and was found to have acromegaly - caused by a tumour in the pituitary gland which leads to excess growth hormone.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotameteaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenakitanatahu is the Māori name for a hill, 305 metres high, close to Porangahau, south of Waipukurau in southern Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. The name is often shortened to Taumata by the locals for ease of conversation. The New Zealand Geographic Placenames Database, maintained by Land Information New Zealand, records the name as "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu", a hill at 40.3480 S, 176.5321 E.^[1] It has gained a measure of fame as one of the longest place-names in the world. It is featured in a Mountain Dew jingle and also in the 1979 single "Lone ranger" by British band Quantum Jump. It is the subject of a 1960 song by the NZ balladeer Peter Cape.
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Silicon Valley Starts to Turn Its Face to the Sun

CAN Silicon Valley become a world leader in cheap and ubiquitous solar panels for the masses?

Given the valley’s tremendous success in recent years with such down-to-earth products as search engines and music players, tackling solar power might seem improbable. Yet some of the valley’s best brains are captivated by the challenge, and they hope to put the development of solar technologies onto a faster track.

There is, after all, a precedent for how the valley tries to approach such tasks, and it’s embodied in Moore’s Law, the maxim made famous by the Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. Moore’s Law refers to rapid improvements in computer chips — which would be accompanied by declining prices.

The chicago Spire

The Chicago Spire is a supertall skyscraper under construction in Chicago, Illinois. The skyscraper will stand taller than Chicago's Sears Tower and New York's upcoming Freedom Tower, as well as Toronto's CN Tower, to become North America's tallest free-standing structure and the world's tallest all-residential building. The building was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and is being developed by Garrett Kelleher of Shelbourne Development Group, Inc. The Chicago Spire is scheduled to be completed in 2011 with 150 floors.

Originally announced in July of 2005 by Christopher T. Carley of the Fordham Company, the project was supported by many Chicagoans and city officials. After several months of development, Carley failed to acquire necessary financing and the project was taken over by Garrett Kelleher of the Shelbourne Development Group. Since that time, three major revisions were made to the design

Xerox Monk Ad

1976 ad broadcast on Super Bowl

See The MacBook Earth,Water and Fire

You've seen the MacBook Air — are you ready for the MacBook Earth, Water and Fire? We weren't either, but then we got our hands on these images of a new generation of notebooks. Ever wanted your computer to be recyclable, blazing fast (literally), or poured out of a bottle? If you answered "yes" to any of those, there's now a MacBook for you. No word on prices or release dates, but click Continue for pictures and descriptions of each.

6 shot dead, including gunman, at Northern Illinois University

DEKALB, Illinois (CNN) -- A gunman dressed in black stepped from behind a curtain at the front of a large lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday and shot 21 people, five of them fatally, then turned shot and killed himself, said university president John Peters.

Four died at the scene, including the shooter, and two later died at the hospital, he said.

At least 22 people, including a graduate student who was teaching an ocean sciences class, were shot, Peters said.

Seventeen victims were taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital, its Web site said.

Of those, six were in critical condition and were flown to other hospitals. One fatality, a male, was confirmed -- but was not the gunman, the hospital said. Two were admitted, and three others were discharged. The other five were not addressed on the Web site.

Four of the fatalities were female, said Peters.

Most of the injuries are head and chest gunshot wounds, a hospital spokeswoman told CNN.

The gunman started shooting from a stage in the room shortly after 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) in Cole Hall, officials said.

Apollo Guidance Computer and Logic Modules

This is the type of computer that went to the moon in the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972. There was one computer in the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and one the mothership (CM) circling above. It was the first use of integrated circuits, as still displayed in the timeline cabinet to the left. It's cycle time was 1 Mhz, 11 instructions. It had 1K of 16 bit words of erasable (RAM) core memory and 12K of read-only memory (ROM). The ROM held the "Colossus 249" flight control software. There were no disks or tapes in the flight system.

It's a small world

This poem was nominated poem of 2005

Written by an African kid, amazing thought :

"When I born, I Black, When I grow up, I Black,
When I go in Sun, I Black, When I scared, I Black,
When I sick, I Black, And when I die, I still black...
And you White fellow,
When you born, you pink, When you grow up, you White,
When you go in Sun, you Red, When you cold, you blue,
When you scared, you yellow, When you sick, you Green,
And when you die, you Gray...
And you call me colored ???!!!

World's largest spanning arch bridge

FXFOWLE INTERNATIONAL’s proposal for the architectural design of a 1.7km and 205m bridge in Dubai was selected by the country’s Roads & Transport Authority in a major international design competition. The firm’s winning bridge design further advances the infrastructure and transportation initiatives in Dubai. FXFOWLE’s design makes the 6th Crossing the largest and tallest spanning arch bridge in the world. Sudhir Jambhekar, Senior Partner, FXFOWLE INTERNATIONAL stated, “The bridge’s design was inspired by multiple sources, each evoking similar imagery – the rhythmic grace of Dubai Creek’s current, the elegant splendor of the sand dunes adjacent to the City, the lighting patterns of the lunar cycle and the design of the future Opera House. We believe that our bridge design is not merely to link the City’s cultural and commercial developments or ease congestion, but an opportunity to connect people both physically and emotionally by creating an iconic landmark, destination, and gateway between the old, the new and the future Dubai.”

Coco Chanel Fashion Phone is powered by Dreams,Wishes

Looks like Chanel is trying to get into something other than fashion with this new concept phone. The Chanel Coco phone concept by Fred de Garilhe features a lower sliding part that has the display and the function buttons while the upper-piece has the numeric pad. When not in use, all the user interface elements disappear to reveal a pure shiny surface.

2+2=4

Slide Show Mounted in a Frame

The other day at a trade show, a reader accosted me. “I can’t believe you gave speech-recognition software a good review,” he scolded. “I had an awful experience with it! I wound up sticking it in a drawer.”

I was surprised. “You’re kidding,” I said. “When was this?”

“Around 1994,” he replied.

The point, dear anecdote aficionados, is that in technology, things change. Every fast, slick and successful product today has a crude, expensive and annoying ancestor.

Take digital picture frames. A few years ago, they were novelty items: small, expensive, with coarse screens. To load pictures onto one, you had to insert your camera’s memory card and fiddle with menus. Today, a lot of those early frames lie in gadget drawers — right beside the speech-recognition headsets.

Half the World from NYtimes's aspect

Nearly three decades after the Islamic Revolution, Iran is undergoing a quieter transformation, this one in tourism. The country has a trove of attractions, including sprawling pre-Islamic ruins, mosques glittering with kaleidoscopic mosaics of tile, and cities that present both a stern theocratic face and a glitzier Western one. Measuring 1,680 feet long by 535 feet wide — over 20 acres — Imam Square is one of the largest plazas in the world, and holds what is possibly the most stunning assemblage of Islamic architecture.

1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial

Behold the best tech ad in Super Bowl history: Apple’s “1984″ ad(The year which I was borned), which cost $1.6 million to make and run, and only aired nationally once. The following nine ads, while perhaps not as iconic, are all fascinating in how they seek to make the mysteries of tech compelling to the masses.

9 Simple & Bizzare Design Marvels

“Designing is not everybody’s cup of tea” – Not really! Some of the most creative designs that transformed our lives came not from any great celebrated beings. However, these designs did transform them into celebrities. After all, all of us are quite creative…

Well here are a few Designs that are incredible. These designs compel us to think of ways in which we can express our creativity and innovative ideas to simplify our lives; and thus make things easier for us.

Moscow Air Pollution

For the second year in a row Moscow has been the world's most expensive city. After calculating the cost of housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment Moscow is 34.4 percent more expensive than New York. The Russian capital is choked with luxury cars, upscale construction projects and a new financial self-esteem. If Lenin had ever been buried he'd be rolling in his grave now.

But all of the economic progress is coming at what cost? Over the past two years escalating numbers of vehicles on the roads put a stifling strain on the environment. Today Moscow has nearly 3,000,000 cars. Gray-brown noxious haze of smog covers the streets filled with jam-packed traffic, which blows out tons of unhealthy exhaust fumes of carbon monoxide and other harmful chemicals. Additionally there are 12 huge heat power stations, 53 district heating stations and 3,000 industrial enterprises still operating within the city borders. As a result concentrations of harmful substances often exceed maximum allowable by 10-20 times.

The level of air pollution varies from one neighborhood of the city to another. This accounts for the variability of child health levels. In the most severely polluted areas the prevalence of childhood bronchial asthma is much higher, and the cases of disharmonious physical development among children are more frequent.

Several government programs were designed to combat air pollution with a target to bring Moscow back down to EU standards by 2010. But those are just optimistic plans considering the severe present conditions.

10 Golden Lessonsfrom Alobert Einstein

Albert Einstein was an amazing physicist. He figured out so many universal principles and equations that he was way ahead of his fellow scientists at any point of time. But he is also remembered for another thing; a quality which made people call him a genius: his words. Prof. Einstein was a philosopher who clearly understood the laws of success and explained them like the way he did with his equations. Here is a list of 10 things out of the numerously wonderful things he had said; 10 golden lessons that you can put to use in your everyday life.

18 Smokin Hot Business Card Designs

A good business card is an essential tool in any freelancer’s arsenal. When you’re at a function networking, meeting new clients, or your work comes up in a conversation, your card is the anchor to make sure the discussion doesn’t come to nothing.

It’s important to think about what your business card says about you, as well as what to put on your business card, and whether it passes the business card trash test. But of course as any designer knows, the most important thing is to make sure your business card looks smokin’ hot!

So courtesy of our inspiration gallery FaveUp, which has just passed 1000 items of inspiration, here are 18 smokin’ hot business card designs

The Ascent of Bill Gates

How the retiring Microsoft chairman evolved from squeaky geek to Silicon Saint

The Evolution of Tech companies Logo

You’ve seen these tech logos everywhere, but have you ever wondered how they came to be? Did you know that Apple’s original logo was Isaac Newton under an apple tree? Or that Nokia’s original logo was a fish?

Let’s take a look at the origin of tech companies’ logos and how they evolved over time.

15 Square meter rainy forest destroy per minute