Can you believe that this art was created using a typewriter?

TAKEN FROM www.crookedbrains.net

 

The 2008 BMW 1-Series coupe has been officially, though somewhat anticlimactically, released. Considering most of the specs and details of the new four-seater rear-drive coupe have made their way online this past week, we’re surprised the BMW PR team has anything else to talk about. But they’ve found a few things, but it’s pretty much everything we’ve been talking about the past week, including the lack of a US diesel. So yes, it’s now official — the BMW 128i and BMW 135i are coming to America. Hopefully they will find a queen. Actually, forget the queen, as the 135i has the same twin-turbo, 3-liter inline 6 with 300 horses and equal level of torque sitting in the engine bay of the big brother 335i. Full press release in its enormous entirety after the jump.

TAKEN FROM jalopnik.com

Normally supercomputers are housed in high security government buildings which are specifically built and designed to accommodate such mega structures but the MareNostrum in Barcelona Spain the 9th largest supercomputer in the world, fifth fastest in the world and the largest in Europe is installed in a Chapel. The supercomputer consists of 2560 JS21 blade computing nodes, each with 2 dual-core IBM 64-bit PowerPC 970MP processors running at 2.3 GHz for 10240 CPUs in total. It has 20 TB of RAM and 280 TB of external disk storage for more persistent storage. Running on SUSE Linux it is capable of 62.63 teraflops and a peak performance of 94.21 teraflops. It may look beautiful from the top but when you dig deeper it gets more typical.
MareNostrum’s Myrinet interconnect fabric requires four cabinets. Myricom did a nice job of reducing the cable count as much as they could by using quad-link ribbon cables between their switch elements. But with 12 separate switch elements in the fabric that means they still have a lot of cables and more cables means more connectors, more points of potential failure. They also use one cable per compute node, as is typically done in cluster configurations. Lots more cables, lots more connectors.

TAKEN FROM www.newlaunches.com

The American company UniModal Transport Solutions developed a concept for a very high-capacity and high-speed Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) network. Pictures and informations of this sky transportation vehicle are showed below.

This SkyTran system operates with individual, two-passenger vehicles, which are propelled and suspended by a maglev system from overhead guideways. These are laid out in a one mile by one mile networked grid throughout the city. A large number of small departure and exit portals are placed underneath the guideways at approximately every 400 metres or at every city block.

SkyTran has no fixed routes or timetables. Users can simply enter any departure portal, get into the first empty vehicle in the queue and select their destination. The vehicle then speeds up on the acceleration lane and enters the high-speed overhead guideway.

At the selected exit portal, the vehicle enters a deceleration lane where the speed is reduced until it stops at the arrival portal. Individual vehicles are capable of speeds up to 160 kilometres per hour within city limits or 240 kilometres per hour between cities. A very short braking distance allows a distance between traveling vehicles of a mere 25 metres.

TAKEN FROM thecontaminated.com

Would you believe that the tallest bridge in France reaches higher than the Eiffel tower, or that a single dam in China can hold back 1.4 trillion cubic feet or water? Each of the projects depicted here has set at least one world record for its height, scale, daring or ingenuity. From Venice to Boston, Egypt to England, here are seven amazing engineering wonders of the modern world. Know of others? Add to the list below!

Venice, Italy: The Venice Tide Barrier Project will be the largest flood prevention project in the world. The project has been debated in one form or another for over 40 years as a way to protect this historical city-on-the-water for future generations. With Venice slowly sinking, and the water around it slowly rising, and floods always a fear, Italians have known for a long time that something needs to be done. Finally, the Prime Minister of Italy approved the second phase of the plan, including 80 hinged barriers, each approximately 6,500 square feet.

Zhangjiajie, China: The Bailong Elevator is the world’s largest exterior elevator. At over 1,000 feet tall, this elevator looms high midway up a cliff overlooking a valley far below. Moreover, the elevator is mostly glass, affording passengers a dizzying view to the depths below. There is some concern, however, about the elevator’s long-term impact on the surrounding natural environment.

Millau, France: The Millau Viaduct is the highest bridge in the world. At almost 1,000 feet high (taller than the even the Eiffel Tower) and over 8,000 feet long it sometimes sits above the cloud line, as shown in the beautiful photographs above. The engineered wonder of the bridge itself is nearly as amazing as the view of the valley below.

More, Norway to Easington, Britain: The Langeled Pipeline is slated to be the longest underwater gas pipeline in the world. It will ultimately supply 20% of Britain’s gas needs, connecting England to the largest gas field in Europe via 750 miles of complex underwater terrain. Engineers have had to account for subzero temperatures an stormy waters in addition to developing techniques for installing the pipeline in the first place. They are able to lay an amazing 8 miles of pipe per day.

Yangtze, China: The Three Gorges Dam has drawn fire from people around the world for its role in raising water levels and displacing millions of Chinese residents in the area. As a work of engineering, however, it is unparalleled. It will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world, 600 feet high and holding 1.4 trillion cubic feet of water behind 100 million cubic feet of concrete. This engineering wonder will also eventually provide as much as 10% of China’s vast power needs.

Boston, Massachusetts: The so-called Big Dig is a massive tunneling project in the heart of Boston, and is the most massive and expensive construction project in the history of the United States (at 15 billion dollars). Disaster and scandal have haunted this endeavor from the beginning, including accidents, deaths and even arrests for criminal negligence. Engineers were forced to navigate a maze of subways, pipes and utility lines in the course of the project, all with minimum disturbance to the bustling streets of Boston above.

Mubarak, Egypt: The Toshka Project is an amazing attempt to convert a half million acres of desert landscape into arable land. The Mubarak Pumping Station is at the center of this effort, and will channel millions of cubic feet of water per hour. It will ultimately redirect 10% of the country’s water from the Nile and will increase the inhabitable land in Egypt by as much as 25%.

TAKEN FROM weburbanist.com

Today you’ll see a great example of what a woman did with a small piece of land without any “architectural” help: 2 rooms, kitchen, 3 bedrooms with washrooms and a veranda! This narrow house belongs to the lady in yellow - Helenita Queiroz Grave Minho ,designed by her. She live in this 1 meter wide by 10 meter tall house in Madre de Deus, Brazil. At first, the municipality refused, but in the end with the plan allowed the construction, that became a touristic spot of the small town of 12 thousand people. I think that this project is a very unique idea and something like this could be designed in big cities where the space is really a problem, but to live daily in a house like this would be exhausting. - Via - Ahboon

TAKEN FROM freshome.com

TAKEN FROM computerworld.name/asus-wooden-laptop/

Photography can make or break a website - got a great site with lame pictures, then you’ve got a lame website. Today we’re going to take a look at the ones that got it right…

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Incase - Lovely close up photos of the products allow you to see the textures of them. Class

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Nike - Every Nike website has great photography, I’ve chosen to showcase their Golf site here

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Brook Pifer - Large quality photography is the main focus of Brook’s portfolio site, some really striking imagery

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Stratocucine - Large crisp photos of the modernist kitchen designs makes this site

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The Touch Agency - Nice Graphic design portfolio site, uses effective photography to display their work

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Dirk Lambrechts - Great fashion and beauty photography portfolio from Dirk Lambrechts

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Design House Stockholm - Makes use of high quality black and white photos for the background

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Albert Oviedo - Some cracking photos in this Photography portfolio site

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Georgiew - Photography portfolio

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Andreas Burz - Another great photography portfolio

TAKEN FROM /tutorialblog.org

As cities become denser, we all find ourselves wishing we had more space at times, or wanting to make better use of the space we have. Purchasing changeable furniture that adapts to different uses is one solution to this problem. The above example of the Safe Bedside Table is a more funny than useful. However, the transformable, convertible and collapsible designs below are impressively practical.

FlexibleLove is an amazing piece of furniture that is ecological, adaptable and highly practical. Made of minimal and sustainable materials, this piece converts from a single-person chair into a flexible bench seating up to sixteen people. Don’t believe it? Watch the video.

Tagei is a remarkably beautiful piece of craftsmanship, and somehow manages to be an attractive piece of furniture both when collapsed and extended. One could easily imagine using this as a side table and extending it into a bench for gatherings.

Scheren Regal presents an interesting shelving option. This piece would be highly portable for moves and could be used as a side table until more storage is needed, with an elegant but engineered look typical of good German design.

Futaba is a brilliantly simple design solution, and converts with amazing ease. The quick-and-easy method of transformation makes this one of the more practical transforming items listed here.

ChairLibrary is perhaps a little garish but would certainly work for people whose houses are already overly filled with books. The storage spaces make good overflow storage, at least, as a stop-gap measure before buying more book shelves.

Mogga is a remarkably elegant chair that turns into a table. The actually mechanical means by which it transforms is as impressive as the fact that it can so easily convert from one use to another.

Ali is a neat and simple piece of furniture that can be configured in a variety of ways. It can be folded and stored, used as a long sofa or pair of love seats or even folded flat into a bed. This seems a much more streamlined solution than many hide-a-beds.

Doc is another amazing couch-and-bed solution, but as an added bonus: this one converts into a bunk bed for two. This piece seems like a great solution for people who have visiting friends or farmily who bring children on frequent visits.

Fletcher Capstan Tables are beautifully designed and as expensive as you might expect. Still, one has to weigh the cost of one’s furniture versus the cost of more real estate. Either way, it is impressive to see these in action. Know of other collapsing, converting or transforming furniture? Feel free to share below!

TAKEN FROM weburbanist.com

Photography: Starslate

If you think understanding photography law can be a nightmare, try dealing with the horrors that can happen when you don’t understand it.

Or when publishers choose to ignore it, stock agencies hide behind it or subjects try to use it to restrict the use of images.

Here are five photography court cases that should scare the bejesus out of photographers.

1. Lara Jade Coton Versus Bob Burge and TVX Films

Lara Jade Coton, who we interviewed here not long after the story broke, was a 14-year-old schoolgirl in England when she shot a self-portrait wearing a top hat. She was still under 18 when Bob Burge, owner of TVX Films put the photo on the cover of a porn film called “Body Magic.”

Lara Jade, now an 18-year old photography student, had placed the image on deviantART, protected (she’d hoped) with a watermark and copyright symbol.

After being told that her self-portrait was being used to promote porn, Lara Jade contacted Bob Burge who was less than polite. Complaining that her photo was harming sales anyway, he promised to change the cover of his Hustler-rated DVD.

Months later, ads for the film featuring Lara’s image could still be found on the Web.

It was only when Lara Jade used her Flickr page to describe what happened that things really took off. She received press coverage around the world, comments of support from hundreds of photographers… and a court case filed against Bob Burge and TVX films in the summer of 2007.

Photography: Lara Jade Coton

2. Flickr Member Sues Virgin Mobile after Appearing in Australian Ad

Lara Jade isn’t the only underage victim of a company trying to promote itself. Alison Chang, a 16-year-old from Bedford, Texas was photographed flashing a victory sign at a church fundraiser in April 2007. The photographer, a youth counselor, posted the image on his Flickr stream with a Creative Commons license.

Advertising executives at Virgin Mobile Australia grabbed the image and placed it on at least one bus shelter with the caption “Dump your pen friend.”

Ryan Zehl, an attorney for Ms. Chang was quoted in the Dallas Morning News saying:

If a company uses your face in its ads without your consent, then you’re entitled to whatever money those ads generate for the company… It’s Texas law.

Australia, of course, is a long way from Texas but the law suit does touch on all sorts of important issues, including model releases, privacy and copyright as it relates to Creative Commons licenses.

3. Corbis Sued For Losing Photos

Most photographers have nightmares about something happening to their images. So they keep back-ups and they trust stock companies to do the same.

Or at least to look after their photos properly.

Corbis didn’t do either. Early in November 2007, photographer Chris Usher won his suit against the stock company after discovering that it had lost 12,640 of his analog images — one in four of the images the photographer had submitted.

Usher, who used to represent himself, had signed up to Corbis to supplement his sales to Time, Newsweek and other major publications. He asked for his images back when he grew disappointed at Corbis’s licensing deals and billing practices.

Corbis initially denied that they had lost any of Usher’s photos but admitted on the first day in court that they might have misplaced a “mere 5,877.”

This isn’t the first time that Corbis has been sued for losing photos. Arthur Grace was awarded $472,000 after Sygma, a French stock company that Corbis bought in 1999, lost 40,000 of his slides. That case will receive a new hearing and could lead to even higher damages. Chris Usher will have to wait until December to learn the size of his court-awarded compensation.

4. Passer-By Sues Philip-Lorca diCorcia for Selling his Photo

In general, if you’re in a public place, you can photograph it. And in general, if you want to sell an image of someone for commercial use, you need their permission.

Philip-Lorca diCorcia though, thought he was on safe ground when he set up strobe rigs in New York in 2006 and photographed people walking down the street. He didn’t put the photos on ads or mount them on billboards. He placed them in an exhibition and sold them as prints.

And he was sued by Emo Nussenzweig, an Orthodox Jew, who appeared in one of the photos and considered the sale both an invasion of his privacy and a breach of his religious rights.

The court ruled that although ten copies of the images had sold for up to $30,000 each, they were still considered works of art, were not commercial and were therefore protected under the First Amendment. Nussenzweig’s appeal was filed too late to be considered.

5. Goosed Farmer Seeks $7.5 Million in Damages for Photo

You might be able to argue that a work of art is not commercial but photographer John Burwell could struggle to make the same claim for an image he shot that appeared on greeting card.

The photo, which was taken in 1996 at the State Fair of Virginia, shows poultry farmer Andrew Marsinko with a goose on his knee. Burwell submitted the image to Jupitermedia who licensed it to a company called Leanin’ Tree.

Leanin’ Tree used the photo on the cover of a greeting card with the caption “Since it’s your birthday, you decide — Would you rather get spanked… or goosed?”

Marsinko, who was a well-known figure in goose-breeding circles, is now an even more well-known figure.

He is suing Burwell and his wife, Jupitermedia, Getty Images (who bought the rights to the image) and Leanin’ Tree, for defamation, unauthorized use of a picture, conspiracy and attempted conspiracy, and reckless infliction of emotional distress. Marsinko claims that he did not sign a model release form.

TAKEN FROM blogs.photopreneur.com