"a 30-story tall hotel in 360 hours"

China has yet another world record. Over new years, the Chinese sustainable building company, Broad Group has managed to build from total scratch a 30-story tall hotel in 360 hours. The big surprise is, that the construction crew in the south-central Chinese city of Changsha did not have a single injury or even death during the 15 days of completion. The Ark Hotel was built on Dongting lake, in the Hunan Province and is designed to withstand a magnitude 9 earthquake, as tested by the China Academy of Building Research. It was a perfectly planned project, with all materials being prefabricated and even complete sections built off-site, resulting in very little wastage. Just under two days were needed to finish the main skeleton and another 90 hours for the cladding.

"mother of culture"

Natural scenery, temples, shrines, towns and homes intermingle with a poignant historical beauty. Whether it is the Gion Festival, the Tea Ceremony or Japanese flower arrangement or Nishijin-brocade, so many aspects of characteristic Japanese culture continue to thrive in Kyoto. Over a period of 1200 years, dating from the decision to move the capital to Kyoto in 794, it nurtured a splendid, delicate and unique kind of culture, and over the course of history came to be considered the mother of culture within Japan.

The "reincarnation of Iron Wolf"

Apocalypse is another reincarnation of an existing roller coaster. For 21 years it was Iron Wolf ; a fixture at Six Flags Great America near Chicago. Now the stand-up coaster will become Apocalypse. Sporting a 90 foot tall drop, a vertical loop, and a corkscrew, the layout won’t blow any minds, but the stand-up riding position will be something different for most. Iron Wolf was well-known in the coaster enthusiast community as the first coaster from famous designers Bolliger & Mabillard. But locals will see this as a new roller coaster.

"Ruins of Pinara"

According to historian Strabo, Pinara was one of the largest and most important cities of the Lycian League of States in what is now modern Turkey. Pinara was established on the main road which ran through Lycia; this accounted for the city's prosperity.

Like the other Lycian cities in the region, Pinara has a wealth of ancient funerary art in its well-preserved tombs and sarcophagi. Even though the site has been abandoned by the archaeologist and is quite overgrown with foliage, the ruins are in good state of preservation. The city was founded between two hills. An Odeion is found at the base of the smaller hill, and the scant remains of a small temple are near it. The theatre is located on the side of the hill behind. Rock-cut tombs dating to the Roman period can be seen in the southern part of the city. Several of these are very interesting with their elaborate carving and reliefs. One comprises a high, pointed arch that is crowned with the ears and horns of an ox.

"Mission to the sun"

In 2018, NASA plans to launch a spacecraft called Solar Probe Plus to study the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, and its expansion into space, known as the solar wind.

“We want to share our love"

Made up of Piero Barone, Ignazio Boschetto and Gianluca Ginoble, the trio first appeared on the popular Italian talent show Ti Lascio Una Canzone and dazzled viewers with their flawless rendition of the Italian standard “O Sole Mio.”

Il Volo‘s self-titled debut album, which was released in Italy late last year, has already been certified platinum! Piero, Ignazio and Gianluca worked with a number of renowned producers including Humberto Gatica and their album is coming to the US on April 12th!

The guys shared in a statement about their music, “We want to share our love for this music with poeple all over the world, including kids our own age.”

"Race to Wrigley"

Chicago Cubs Charities' 7th Annual Race to Wrigley 5k Run, which starts and finishes at legendary Wrigley Field, helps kick off the baseball season and runners and sponsors can show their support for a good cause.

"Test your mental grit"

Tough Mudder events are hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle courses designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie. As the leading company in the booming obstacle course industry, Tough Mudder has already challenged half a million inspiring participants worldwide and raised more than $2 million dollars for the Wounded Warrior Project. But Tough Mudder is more than an event, it’s a way of thinking. By running a Tough Mudder challenge, you’ll unlock a true sense of accomplishment, have a great time, and discover a camaraderie with your fellow participants that’s experienced all too rarely these days.

"authentic Mexican Masked Wrestling, Striptease & Comedy"

Welcome to Lucha VaVOOM

Where authentic Mexican Masked Wrestling, Striptease & Comedy collide (est 2002)

We will be doing some Very Special Cinco de Mayo events in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Los Angeles 4th & 5th May at the Mayan and Chicago 5th May at the Park West

"Aurora Borealis" in Fáskrúðsfjörður, Iceland

The Northern Lights are seen in the skies near Faskusfjordur on the east coast of Iceland Thursday March 8, 2012. A solar storm shook the Earth's magnetic field early Friday, but scientists said they had no reports of any problems with electrical systems. After reports Thursday of the storm fizzling out, a surge of activity prompted space weather forecasters to issue alerts about changes in the magnetic field.

(AP Photo/Jonina Oskardottir) ICELAND OUT

"A Big Rock and a Bunch of Idiots"

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has acquired, in its wisdom, a 340 ton granite boulder that will form the centerpiece of Michael Heizer’s massive outdoor sculpture, “Levitated Mass.”

LACMA director Michael Govan points out that the huge rock is “only part of the sculpture,” which requires the construction of a subterranean slot upon which steel rails will support the rock, I mean the sculpture.

“The largest part of the sculpture is the negative space, the channel in the landscape,” he says. “It has its own independent sculptural presence. The marriage of these two forms comprises the sculpture.”

When was the last time you got to hear the term “negative space” used without facetiousness?

KONY 2012

A little-known American charity dedicated to helping victims of African conflict has scored a public relations coup. Invisible Children’s new 30-minute Kony 2012 video, directed by Jason Russell, has been viewed over 440,000 times since being placed on YouTube on March 5. The film is intended to raise public awareness of the devastating Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) conflict in Uganda; Fast Company has written previously about the LRA’s routine use of child labor and rape.

blogs.trb.com

"a love triangle with a difference"

A trio of British badminton stars have ended up in a love triangle with a difference after 23-year-old Chris Adcock ditched his girlfriend in search of Olympic glory.

Wait a second, though: Adcock has not pulled the plug on his relationship with 21-year-old Gabby White, but has stopped playing mixed doubles with her in order to play alongside her 24-year-old arch-rival Imogen Bankier.

Adcock and Bankier are now hot favourites to grab Britain's Olympic qualification spot, while White will have to do with watching the Games on TV.

And the situation sparked a Twitter spat between the two women.

From left to right above: Gabby White, Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier.

"You've Got to Be Taught"

Oscar Hammerstein II's lyrics reflected his personality and belief system, making him one of the first to transform the genre of the Broadway musical from lighthearted boy-meets-girl frivolities to more substantial intellectual shows.

The lyricist-librettist-producer explored the subject of miscegenation in the seminal 1927 musical "Show Boat," which he wrote with composer Jerome Kern. In 1945's "Carousel," his second collaboration with composer Richard Rodgers, Hammerstein presented a romantic drama fantasy that dealt with death, heaven and forgiveness. And in the 1949 Rodgers and Hammerstein masterwork, "South Pacific," Hammerstein looked at racism especially in his song "You've Got to Be Taught."

"I thought the song 'You've Got to Be Taught' really educated a lot of people to make them think about the civil rights subject," said JoAnn Young, director of the new PBS special "Oscar Hammerstein II: Out of My Dreams," airing Sunday on KOCE. The special is hosted and narrated by "Glee's" Matthew Morrison, who appeared in the Lincoln Center revival of "South Pacific" four years ago.

"On the big screen: a cinematic masterpiece"

A symphonic night at the movies! On the big screen: a cinematic masterpiece that has become part of American popular culture — ­"We'll always have Paris," "Here's looking at you, kid." On the concert hall stage: The gifted musicians of Pacific Symphony provide the soundtrack by performing Max Steiner's glorious score live! Click on the heading for more information.

A battle that changed the course of history

USS Monitor , a 987-ton armored turret gunboat, was built at New York to the design of John Ericsson . She was the first of what became a large number of "monitors" in the United States and other navies. Commissioned on 25 February 1862, she soon was underway for Hampton Roads, Virginia. Monitor arrived there on 9 March, and was immediately sent into action against the Confederate ironclad Virginia , which had sunk two U.S. Navy ships the previous day . The resulting battle , the first between iron-armored warships, was a tactical draw. However, USS Monitor prevented the CSS Virginia from gaining control of Hampton Roads and thus preserved the Federal blockade of the Norfolk area.

Following this historic action, Monitor remained in the Hampton Roads area and, in mid-1862 was actively employed along the James River in support of the Army's Peninsular Campaign. In late December 1862, Monitor was ordered south for further operations. Caught in a storm off Cape Hatteras, she foundered on 31 December. Her wreck was discovered in 1974 and is now a marine sanctuary.

The "Ty Cobb Legend"

Lee Blessing gives us a three-dimensional look at baseball legend Ty Cobb in his fiercely honest one-act Cobb now onstage at Group rep in NoHo. Superbly staged by Gregg T. Daniel and gloriously acted by an ensemble of four, Cobb is represented at the beginning, middle and end of his life by three actors who play simultaneously around and against each other, as the man, like all men, attempts to sum up his life and make sense of his accomplishments.

"$85 million project is under way"

When plans for an extension campus in Hollywood for Boston-based Emerson College were announced, it sounded like an amorphous plan. Well, we knew architect Morphosis, Thom Mayne's architecture firm, was picked to design the campus at Sunset and Gordon. But in a profile on attorney Lewis Feldman, who represents Emerson College, in this week's Los Angeles Business Journal, there's a rendering of the reported $85 million project which is under way.

First, more background: The program is designed for Emerson College seniors, who will reside on this Hollywood extension as part of a live/study program that'll see the college students studying at this center, while doing internships with companies in Los Angeles.

“America’s Top Young Scientist"

St. Paul, Minn – Discovery Education and 3M recently named Braeden Benedict from Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., winner of the 2011 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. Benedict, a 15-year-old recent graduate of St. John’s Fisher Parish School was awarded the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist,” $25,000 and a trip from Discovery Student Adventures for his innovation in developing a low-cost impact detection device that can make it easier to spot harmful concussions in athletes. He competed alongside nine other finalists yesterday during a live competition at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minn.

"Invigorating Change"

A former industrial site in London’s East End will be getting an uplifting transformation as a twisting commercial, residential and cultural high rise designed by Amanda Levete Architects. Located in Shoreditch, an area that has itself been changing over the past few years, the new building, called the Huntingdon Estate, will utilize natural light to illuminate its interior. Attracting new retail and residential opportunities, the green roofed tower will symbolize the invigorating change the area is undergoing.

Quote Of The Day - Rush Limbaugh

"I know I am a target and I know I will be destroyed eventually. I fear that all I have accomplished and all the wealth I have accumulated will be taken from me, to the cheers of the crowd. I know I am hated and despised by the American Left." - Rush Limbaugh, from an email written in 2010. Sooner rather than later would be nice.

Look what's happening at the Sunset Vine Tower

Neighbor to the Hollywood landmark Cinerama Dome, Sunset Vine Tower is a conversion of a 22-story office building into a 63-unit apartment building. This adaptive reuse project stands atop street-level retail. As the tallest building in Hollywood, Sunset Vine Tower’s Modernist design creates a dynamic exclamation point in the mostly traditional fabric of the Hollywood residential renaissance.

West Hollywood's Stylish Green Low-Income Housing

Sierra Bonita Apartments is a low-income mixed-use housing complex in West Hollywood that didn’t skimp on design. The project features inner green space, strips of solar panels, and a stylized lattice façade that lays out a stylish green presence in the neighborhood. The building, which heats its water with solar power and cools with an inner bamboo forest, is a pilot project for the WeHo’s Green Building Ordinance — one of the first ordinances of its kind in the country. Throughout the project Tighe Architecture successfully integrated high green design for low-income living.

Silverton Hotel & Casino Aquarium

The 117,000-gallon tank has one thing traditional aquariums don't: mermaids. They dive Thursdays-Sundays amid the 4,000 tropical fish and stingrays at this off-Strip casino. 3333 Blue Diamond Road; (702) 263-7777

http://www.silvertoncasino.com

Main Street Station Antiques

Grab a brochure for a self-guided tour of the unusual artifacts in this turn-of-the-last-century-style casino. Check out Buffalo Bill's private rail car and a 6-foot slab of the Berlin Wall in one of the men's rooms. (Yes, women can visit too by asking security for an escort.) 200 N. Main St.; (702) 387-1896, http://www.mainstreetcasino.com

Visit the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas

It's not as adrenaline-pumping as the Stratosphere Tower ride, but going 460 feet up the Eiffel Tower (half the scale of the real one) offers spectacular panoramas of the Strip ¿ without being strapped in. Why not create your own "Midnight in Paris" moment? It's open 9:30 a.m.-12:30 a.m. (barring bad weather) and costs $10.50-$15.50 for adults and $7.50-$10.50 for children. http://www.parislasvegas.com/casinos/paris-las-vegas/casino-misc/eiffel-tower-detail.html

Bird-watching at the Flamingo Hotel

Chilean flamingos, distinguished by their gray legs and pink knees, are the namesake bird of the hotel's 15-acre wildlife habitat, also home to pheasants, swans, native grackles and some koi fish. OK, it's nerdy, but bring your binoculars just in case. Go to http://www.flamingolasvegas.com and click on "wildlife habitat."

"Robo-Cheetah "

Robo-Cheetah doesn't run, it gallops. And it doesn't have a head, because it doesn't need one. It was designed for speed, and it has got plenty of that.

Robo-Cheetah can go up to 18 mph, making it the fastest robot on four legs.

Robo-Cheetah has completely shattered the previous robotic quadripedal speed record, which was 13.1 mph, set at MIT in 1989, according to a news release on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) website.

The robotic Cheetah was developed by the Massachusetts-based engineering company Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA. The money came from DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation program, which specifically supports research that looks to make robots faster, cheaper and more effective.

"Cheetah" isn't just a sexy name for the super-fast robot. According to DARPA, researchers patterned the movements of the robot after real Cheetahs, which are the fastest animals on land.

"The robot increases its stride and running speed by flexing and un-flexing its back on each step, much as an actual cheetah does," DARPA writes.

Marc Raibert, president of Boston Dynamics, told Business Week that the robot may be able to go up to 40 mph as he and his team continue to refine key features of the robot. That's fast, but nowhere near as fast as an actual cheetah, which can go from 0 to 62 mph in 3 seconds and can run as fast as 75 mph.

"The Most Lethal Sniper in U. S. Military History"

From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyles kills (the previous American record was 109), but it has declined to verify the astonishing total number for this book. Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.

"8"

"8" features an all-star cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon and others, "8" is a play written by Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and directed by acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner. It is a powerful account of the case filed by the American Federation for Equal Rights (AFER ) in the U.S. District Court in 2010 to overturn Proposition 8 a constitutional amendment that eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. Framed around the trial's historic closing arguments in June.

Performed 3rd. March 2012
Written by Dustin Lance Black who wrote 'Milk' and 'J Edgar'

"Architectural Landmark Near Completion as Cesar Pelli Tops Out Red Building at Pacific Design Center"

Seen from the east with the Green Building at left is the curved East Tower of the Red Building at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. The Red Building, the third and final installment of the West Hollywood showroom-and-office complex, was topped out on Monday and will be ready for occupancy by the end of the year. Architect Cesar Pelli designed the three buildings of the complex, starting with the Blue Building, completed in 1975. (PRNewsFoto/Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, StudioAMD)

Perillos of Athens

Of all the inventors who have died while trying to perfect their idea, this guy may be the one who most deserved to die at the hand of his own invention. Perillos was a bronze worker living in ancient Rome who designed a device called the Brazen Bull to be used to painfully execute criminals. The Brazen Bull was a hollow bull in which prisoners were locked and then roasted to death by a fire underneath. The device was even designed to channel the screams of the burning prisoner out of its nose to sound like a bull. Perillos pitched his invention to Phalaris, the local tyrant lord, and after Perillos showed Phalaris the bull, he was put inside and a fire was lit underneath him. History isn't clear about if Perillos was pulled out before dying, only to be thrown off a cliff by Phalaris' men, or if he expired within the bull. Either way, the bull did him in.

An Amazing Invention -- but deadly

Horace L. Hunley was a lawyer and a member of the Louisiana state legislature who had a thing for submarines. He helped design and build three different models for the Confederacy during the Civil War and was ultimately killed when his third design went under. His first submarine was built in New Orleans and was intentionally sunk when the city fell to the Union in 1862, and his second submarine sunk in Mobile Bay in Alabama. Hunley funded his third submarine himself, and on Oct. 15, 1863, Hunley, along with seven crewmembers, died when the sub that carried his name sank in the waters off Charleston, S.C. The Confederacy recovered the sunken sub and sent it back out with a new crew who managed to stay alive and also managed a major accomplishment: to sink a ship. It was the first ship to be taken down by a submersible vessel. However, the Hunley disappeared on this first and last successful mission, taking its third crew to the bottom of the sea.

Some inventors have been killed by their inventions

Franz Reichelt was an Austrian-born French inventor who made a living as a tailor but spent his free time working on a flying parachute suit designed to be worn by airplane pilots. Airplanes were a relatively new invention when Reichelt was working on his design, having only been flown for the first time in Kitty Hawk in 1903, and the mechanics of how a pilot would escape a damaged plane were still being worked out. Reichelt's first tests were performed using dummies and were successful enough for him to test the suit himself, which he did by jumping off the lower level of the Eiffel Tower. The 187-foot fall onto frozen ground killed him instantly.

"Wealthy home buyers demand bathrooms — lots of bathrooms"

Here's another way the rich are different: They have more bathrooms.

Real estate brokers who cater to the moneyed say their clients typically want homes that have at least two bathrooms for every bedroom. And with spacious tubs, floor lamps, dressing areas and seating, some bathrooms rival bedrooms in size.

"The bathroom has become the dressing room," said Bob Ray Offenhauser, a Studio City-based residential architect who routinely encloses the shower and toilet in their own rooms within a room. "They really don't look much like bathrooms anymore."

Some mansions have nearly as many commodes as entire blocks in less regal neighborhoods.

Pickfair, the Beverly Hills estate of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, was outfitted with 30 bathrooms in a later overhaul. But the record locally may be the 41 bathrooms boasted by an 18,400-square-foot Mediterranean-style home in Bel-Air that was recently on the market for $40 million, real estate agents say.

"The masked man is back in the saddle"

The masked man is back in the saddle. After suspending production last summer over budgetary concerns, Walt Disney Studios started rolling the cameras in New Mexico this week on "The Lone Ranger," starring Armie Hammer (above) as the western hero and Johnny Depp as Tonto.

"They're doing studio soundstage work through March and then location work around the state after that," said New Mexico Film Office director Nick Maniatis.

The film will shoot at Albuquerque Studios, in the Rio Puerco Valley and near Silver City while in New Mexico. Filming will also take place in Arizona, Utah and Colorado, according to a statement from Disney.

Production was set to start in October, but Disney shelved it in August until producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski trimmed the budget to around $210 million from an estimated $250 million to $275 million.

"Wynning Macau"

The Wynn Macau offers everything a traveler might expect from a Wynn hotel. Located across the street from the Grand Lisboa, the Wynn Macau is just as sleek and sophisticated as its Las Vegas counterpart. Tasteful decorations, an enormous casino, and plenty of great shopping and restaurants are making the Wynn Macau one of the most popular Macau hotels on the Cotai Strip.

"a tower with rooms stacked vertically"

Mexican architects Alejandro D'Acosta and Claudia Turrent have turned a priest's 19th century adobe house into a 21st century residence, rejiggered a hotel of ill repute into their architecture office and built a rammed-earth dwelling into a seaside cliff in Ensenada. But it's their off-grid country home in the Valle de Guadalupe wine region that may be their most unusual project to date: The house is partially built from an abandoned refrigerator truck trailer, but unlike the converted shipping container projects that have been so fashionable in architecture, this one is flipped up on its end — a tower with rooms stacked vertically.

"He ain't heavy, he's my brother"

Basel Zoo's new red titi monkey

BASEL, SWITZERLAND – The Basel Zoo has announced the birth of its latest monkey, a little red or coppery titi, born 27 December to mother Chica, age 9 and father Gunther, age 6.

The pair already have two offspring, unusual for red titis, not often born in captivity.

But as exciting as the news is, equally exciting is the zoo’s observation that the newborn’s two older brothers are carrying him on their backs.

The father traditionally carries his offspring on his back, but Hijo, age 2 and Hermoso, age 1, have been seen sporting their little sibling on their backs. It’s not yet known if the little one is female or male.

The zoo supports a research programme to study the animals in their natural habitat, in Peru.

On the Shoulders of Giants

Bill Littlefield’s thoughts on On the Shoulders of Giants:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is an extraordinarily accomplished fellow.

He led his UCLA basketball team to three national championships, and following his twenty year career with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers – a career during which he played on six champions – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. He has appeared in various TV shows, and he was brilliant at pretending not to be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Airplane!

He’s the author of several books, two of which – Black Profiles In Courage and Brothers In Arms – have nothing to do with basketball and everything to do with black history. In The Shoulders of Giants, the film for which Kareem Abdul-Jabbar served as executive producer and co-narrator with Jamie Foxx, Kareem continues his work along these previous lines. The movie is a celebration of the Harlem Rens, the aggregation Kareem characterizes at the beginning of the film as “the greatest basketball team you’ve never heard of.”

As the film establishes, the Rens were part of the sports wing of the Harlem Renaissance, which saw the brilliant if underappreciated flowering of black poetry, literature, music, and art during the ’20′s and beyond.

Some of the most striking sequences in the film feature members of the Rens discussing not only their triumphs, but also the obstacles that they had to overcome. One of the players remembers how spectators rooting for the white teams that the Rens played faced would sometimes reach on to the court with their umbrellas to trip up the Rens. John Isaacs recalls cutting the word “Colored” off his team jacket, which bore the legend “World Colored Champions.”

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s presence in the film is understated, but the power of his message is clear. In this film, as in his other work, he is determined to endow black men with the dignity that they were denied seventy and eighty and ninety years ago. The film that resulted from his determination is entertaining as well as enlightening, and very much worth seeing

Frankie Moreno -- In Las Vegas

"Napoleon: Total War"

OmeN2501 says "Promotional image I did for Creative Assembly and SEGA for "Napoleon: Total War" game. Napoleon might not look like the one you remember from old oil paintings because producers had their own vision of that character.

"Napoleon: Total War" by ~OmeN2501 on Deviant Art.com

http://omen2501.deviantart.com/art/Napoleon-Total-War-156146451

"Leap Day"

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — People jumped off tall buildings all around the country Wednesday, but no one got hurt.

It was all part of a "leap day" promotion for an energy drink.

In Atlantic City, two parachutists jumped off the top of The Water Club, the 43-story luxury hotel next to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, landing safely in the parking lot.

In London, Routemaster buses are on a roll again

An updated version of the signature red double-deckers debuts this week in London. The classic buses, which first appeared in the 1950s, were retired in 2005.

Davy Jones Remembered

British singer and actor Davy Jones poses for a portrait around 1960. Jones, whose charming grin and British accent won the hearts of millions of fans of the 1960s television series "The Monkees," died Wednesday, according to the Martin County, Florida, sheriff's office. He was 66.