This is the most recent picture of the upcoming Porsche Panamera mule; this particular model is one of the first spotted in the US. Caught by Fast Lane Daily viewer mcshin, who tells us:

Seen in Marina Del Rey, California today with a chase care behind. When I pulled my camera out the chase car would drive really close to the car and try and block my view. Thank goodness for the traffic.

The Panamera is Porsche’s first ever four-door, and should be htting the auto show stands in the very near future. Price estimates sit at anywhere from the high-$50,000 range all the way up to a $100,000+ Turbo model, competing right with the BMW 7-Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class.

Watch today’s show, with the Panamera spy shot featured!

TAKEN FROM www.fastlanedaily.com

Samsung has come up with a sexy landline phone with all sorts of net capabilities. The SMT-i8080 can give you two-way video calls via Ethernet thanks to its flip-up LCD and embedded video cam, as well as allowing users to buy stuff, reserve movie tickets, stream audio and watch internet TV, using the phone’s navigation buttons below the screen.

Although only available in the Far East right now, Samsung has plans to roll out the phone throughout the US and Europe, saying that it sees a market for for the i8080 worldwide. Prices will depend on the service you choose, and will probably include a subscription to the phone’s special Internet features.

TAKEN FROM gizmodo.com

This monocycle replica from 1873 is an stunning engineering and mechanical feat. Created by a spaniard using 19th Century documentation and old-style handcrafting techniques, it uses a 6.16-foot wheel, with a 238-teeth inner segment. As you can see in the gallery, the quality of his work is simply amazing.

This man from Burgos, Spain, created the whole thing by himself, casting the main bronze wheel from a carved oak model. He also used different steel alloys for different parts of the mechanism, depending on the stress they are going to suffer. The saddle’s suspension bar was treated in a forge to obtain the necessary elasticity to make it work right.

TAKEN FROM gizmodo.com

Steampunk is a kind of speculative fiction that usually takes place in urban settings where the future meets the past: Victorian era inventions clash with often dark alternate realities. However, what started as a literary genre has since evolved into an art form with incredible real-life inventions, modifications and redesigns. The following is an introduction to the art of Steampunk, with everything from altered guitars to a Steampunked iPod.

In Steampunk literature, the living computers and flying cars of science fiction are typically replaced by hulking steam-powered machines and floating dirigibles. Moreover, the art of design in these future-past visions reflects the ultimate integration of form and function epitomized during the periods being referenced: where even gears and buttons on an archaic machine were beautifully crafted. Shown above are three amazing modifications of contemporary technologies to fit the aesthetic of the Steampunk era: the Villianizer, a re-engineered Stratocaster and a Vespa.

Like Goth, steampunk draws on elements of Victorian dress. Like Cyberpunk, there is an emphasis on the technology and culture of the material world as shown through and alternate present or future. Beyond those, however, there is a kind of celebration of the more elemental and tangible science and technology of periods prior to our present computer age. However, some of the most amazing Steampunk redesigns combine these two eras and involve modifications of computer monitors or even entire laptop computers.

One of the most amazing feats of Steampunk art and engineering is the Steampunk Tree House, constructed for the Burning Man Arts Festival. This fully-functional interactive art pieces was one of the highlights of this year’s Burning Man Festival, lit up spectacularly at night and able to withstand strong daytime winds as shown in the above photographs.

 

Steampunk ideas have also increasingly been retroactively applied to existing cult classics. Perhaps the most notable of these is Star Wars. Shown above is one of a series of Star Wars themed Steampunk renderings depicting, in this case, the Death Star reimagined for the Star Wars universe. Other artists have created tangible works such as a Star Wars Steampunk light saber made from old radio parts and evening a functioning R2D2 Steampunk robot. Some clever individuals even scripted and filmed a hilarious Star Trek parody set to a Steampunk theme and complete with archaic cinematography and a fitting musical score:

 

TAKEN FROM weburbanist.com

 

Paintings normally require canvas and most theater takes a stage, but carvings can come out of almost any material - a fact which some talented artists have put to into practice in amazing ways. Most people are familiar with amazingly carved ice statues and perhaps even giant cheese sculptures, but what about eggs, pencils or books? Here are three approaches to carving used to create amazing art from ordinary (and often fragile) objects.

Lew Jensen, Don Lisk and Brian Baity and others have approached the art of egg shell carving in a variety of ways and with strikingly varied results. Some artists work layered reliefs into the seemingly one-dimensional shells, others are subtractive and emphasis the relationship between figure and void. One set of artists has even gone into the business of taking larger bird eggs to create lamp shades.

Mizuta Tasogare and Kato Jado divide their incredibly intricate pencil carvings into four basic types and the rest they consider variations on these basic themes. Any mistake, they note, is fatal for an individual work which must remain intact throughout the delicate carving process. Creating link after link without breaking through thin wood barriers and while dealing with the material change between the graphite and surrounding wood is extremely challenging.

Brian Dettmer is a kind of “book surgeon,” performing “autopsies” on old volumes with engaging three-dimensional results. He uses an array of precision instruments to create or reveal patterns within a given book or set of books, often taking advantage of the particular appearance, form and content of his subject material. In many cases, the connection between the material, process and product is overtly evident, as he reveals an interpretation the past through history books and the dissects virtual bodies via anatomy texts.

TAKEN FROM weburbanist.com

Ironhide as he appears in the film, Transformers

Of all the GM rides playing Autobots in Transformers, one of the favorites around here is Ironhide (above), who rolls as a completely tricked GMC TopKick 6500 pickup truck when he’s not kicking ass, taking names, and intimidating Chihuahuas as the Autobots’ weapons specialist. Monroe Truck Equipment, which modifies rides like the TopKick for business owners, has partnered up with Hasbro to offer the ultimate adult Transformers toy: a near-exact Ironhide replica (minus the giant transforming robot element, of course).

Ironhide buyers get twin big-rig-style smokestacks, 20″ black wheels wearing massive tires in lieu of the TopKick’s standard dualies, custom, powder-coated front and rear bumpers, and a monster winch up front. The only real differences we see on the Monroe Truck version are the amber running lights (Ironhide’s are blue) and the non-aero (but more useful) mirrors. As for the look of horror on Prius drivers’ faces when you thunder by in this thing, well, that’s an intangible that you can’t put a value on. Ironhide effing rules!

TAKEN FROM  

Click the image above for more images from Best Car.

Within days of announcing Toyota’s formation of a “Committee to create interesting cars,” this summer’s Best Car Plus magazine reveals that the long-rumoured new AE86 type car has indeed been spawned by the group and should be in showrooms in the winter of 2008.

The new article goes into some detail of the new car’s spec. Under 4m long and 1.7m wide, it’s pretty low at 1.35m tall, and engineers have been directed to keep weight below 1,000kgs. Power will come from a 1.5L 2NZ-FE good for 120 horsepower. What has been unknown until this time is where Toyota would source a cheap RWD drivetrain, but Best Car has learned that it will come from new partner Fuji Heavy Industries - better known to you and me as Subaru.

And the best news of all? The committee’s final directive is to keep the new car’s sticker price below 1.5million Yen. That’s about $12,300 USD in today’s money.

TAKEN FROM  www.autoblog.com

This is one of the biggest hamburgers in the world which was pronounced as “The Hamburger King”. It is made by a man with skills abut also with a big love in this one of the most famous fast food. On this cool pictures you will one, big, weird but cool giant hamburger, the Hamburger king.

TAKEN FROM /thecontaminated.com/

The British company Prodrive envisioned a new concept for a vehicle with an enclosed body and the width of a motorcycle. Its concept Naro however has four wheels and works with a tilting mechanism to prevent it from tipping over in curves in the road. Check out those cool pictures of those two city concept cars:

Naro: “NARROW CITY VEHICLE” is a city vehicle designed to diminish the traffic congestion and pollution in urban areas. With its narrow body, the four-wheeled Naro is able to drive through traffic congestions much in the same way as a motorcycle. The two passengers sit behind one and another in the fully enclosed body, which offers a passive safety level comparable to a small modern passenger car. The front-positioned driver however sits higher above ground level and therefore has a better view over the road.

A conventional four-wheeled vehicle with a similar narrow track and high centre of gravity would tend to fall over sideways when turning at high speeds. To avoid this problem, the Naro is equipped with a carving mechanism which makes all four wheels and the body tilt sideways during cornering. The amount of tilt during cornering depends on the driving speed.

Prodrive envisions various applications for the Naro, including a passenger vehicle, city taxi and delivery vehicle. The company has completed a first prototype and is conducting road-tests during 2006.

Another enclosed motorcycle concept is in development by a European consortium, on initiative of the Technical University in Berlin, Institute for Motor Vehicles. This three-wheeled vehicle, named CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport), is designed as a city vehicle for two people, which requires little space, has a low weight, a low fuel consumption and low emissions.

The CLEVER (Compact Low Emission Vehicle for Urban Transport) is a compact city vehicle for two people, which requires little space and has a low weight. In turn, the vehicle requires just a small engine in order to reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. The CLEVER is under development by a European consortium, on initiative of the Technical University in Berlin, Institute for Motor Vehicles. In 2006 a prototype vehicle was built by the University of Bath in Great Britain.

The two occupants sit behind one another in the streamlined, narrow cabin. To prevent the danger of tipping over, the cabin of the vehicle is designed to tilt when cornering. The CLEVER is driven by a single-cylinder engine of 230 cc displacement, running on natural gas.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
DRIVE SYSTEM:
Direct drive with single-cylinder 230 cc engine
POWER OUTPUT: 12.5 kW (17 hp) @ 8,600 rpm
FUEL: Natural gas
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 2.4 l / 100 km (98 mpg US)
ACCELERATION 0 – 60 KM/H (37 MPH): 7.0 sec.
MAXIMUM SPEED: 100 km/h (62 mph)

Vehicles such as the Naro and CLEVER could replace conventional cars for daily commuting. But an implementation problem is that most people would still require a full-sized family car to drive in the weekend and on holidays. This means they would need to invest in the purchase and maintenance of two vehicles. To make this a realistic scenario, the commuting vehicle would have to be cheap enough to purchase and offer great savings on fuel consumption in order to replace the family car as the daily driver.

Also parking of all these extra vehicles is a very relevant issue. The American MTI Medialab believes a solution could be found in a network of its small electric City Cars, which are available to anyone subscribed to the system. No individuals own such a car. They can be found all over the city, efficiently parked in Vehicle Stacks.

TAKEN FROM /thecontaminated.com/

Images in coffee, creator of these would call this and coffee art. As you can see all those images in those cups of coffee are created with talented hands and creative minds. Creators of these images are professional coffee makers in exclusive restaurants who are going to make you to drink every single drop of coffee with this beautiful images in it. For taste of it I really don’t know , but shapes into it are really great. Check out the pictures of those remarkable art, coffee art.

TAKEN FROM thecontaminated.com/