343 hot air balloons took off at the 12th Lorraine World Air Balloon Festival, in Chambley-Bussieres, France on July 27, 2011, to set a new world record beating the previous best of 329 balloons, set at the same festival in 2009.
Also see: International Balloon Festival at Chateau d'Oex and Strange shaped hot air balloons
New York born Derek Gores is best known for his ripped paper collage portraits, made using recycled magazine pages and other found parts. In addition to his fine art, Derek has worked as a commercial illustrator and designer for 15 years, with clients including Lenny Kravitz, U2, Van Halen, Kings of Leon, Madonna, Lucasfilm, ESPN, the National Football League, Harley Davidson, Adidas as well as many others.
An Israeli health and beauty spa is offering a creepy new service for its customers - Snake Massage. For just $80 you can have large slithering reptiles such as California and Florida king snakes, corn snakes and milk snakes, wriggle down your back and up your spine and across your face. If you don’t freak out, it can be soothing experience, as the spa owner Ada Barak will tell you.
Barak figured out several years ago that heavy king and corn snakes produce a relaxing kneading sensation. She says that once people get over any initial misgivings, they find physical contact with the snakes to be stress relieving.
"Some people said that holding the snakes made them feel better, relaxed," she said "One old lady said it was soothing, like a cold compress."
The size of the snakes depends on the type of massage - the larger ones are said to alleviate deeper muscle tensions and the smaller ones create a 'fluttering' effect. All are the snakes used are non-venomous. Oh! What a relief.
Where do you find one hundred and twenty-one white bearded men, all carrying an eerie resemblance to American author Ernest Hemingway? At the Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest, of course. Exactly 121 contestant took part in the annual Ernest Hemingway look-alike competition at a Florida Keys bar once frequented by the author. 64-year-old Matt Gineo of Jensen Beach, dressed in a wool fisherman's sweater to emulate photographer Yousuf Karsh's famous portrait of Hemingway, bested 120 other entrants after an unprecedented tie-breaker vote. It was Gineo's 12th try. The six-day festival included a marlin tournament, a "running of the bulls" spoof and a short story contest won by Darci Bysouth of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Ernest Hemingway was an American author and journalist who produced most of his work between the mid 1920s and the mid 1950s. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1954 and many of his works are considered to be American literature classics.
Also see: Lady Gaga Lookalike Contest in Chicago, American Look Alikes By Emil Hartvig
French photographer Sacha Goldberger set up an outdoor photo studio at Bois de Boulogne, a park near Paris, and asked joggers if they would sprint for him and pose for a photo. Goldberger then asked these same people to come into his professional studio in their finest clothes exactly one week later. Using the same light, he asked them to pose the same way they had before. The effect is eerily reminiscent of drug user before and after photos as well as those of boxers before and after their matches.
Industrial Scars is an environmental photography project by American photographer J Henry Fair, which explores the detritus of our consumer society, through large-scale aerial photo shoots and accompanying documentary research. Industrial Scars subjects range from oil drilling and coal ash waste to large-scale agricultural production and abandoned mining operations. In small airplanes, Fair circles above industrial areas and photographs with a bird's eye perspective the effects these operations have on our environment. Through his project, J Henry Fair has called attention to environmental and political problems in different regions of the world including the global warming process, environmental pollution, and habitat destruction - all of which are illustrated in Fair's photographs.
Surfrider Foundation, a European surfing foundation, has released a tongue in cheek 2011 BP oil spill bikini calendar to bring attention towards preserving oceans and costal waters from future damages. This spectacular calendar features gorgeous beauties draped in nothing but crude oil.
From the press release:
Last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico left a deep impression in people’s minds. To remember this catastrophe, we have a created a calendar with photos of young naiads covered in oil…This calendar, which will be offered to all members of Surfrider Foundation Europe, is also designed to help recruit new volunteers
“Censorship tells the wrong story” is an amusing anti-censorship ad campaign by Reporters Without Borders, where images featuring political leaders are strategically pixelated to alter perception and add new meaning. Vladimir Putin engaging in self gratification, President Obama groping Hillary Clinton and David Cameron flipping the bird.
The campaign was created by the firm Ogilvy & Mather.
U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton
“The Unnatural History Museum” is a collection of cute needle felted woolen sculptures by Japanese artist/illustrator Hine [pronounced hee-neh] Mizushima.
Hine Mizushima was born and raised in Japan. She majored in Japanese traditional paintings, and worked as a designer/Illustrator in Tokyo. Then she moved to Rome, then Paris, then NY. She now lives in Vancouver, Canada with her family where she works as a slow Crafter, and Stop-motion puppet animation video artist. She has been commissioned for a number of commercial music videos, including several for They Might Be Giants. Her felt sculptures have been exhibited in galleries in NY, LA, SF and other cities.
Anatomical Female
July 24 was the first day that same sex couples were allowed to legally marry in the state of New York, the US. Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples lined up early in the morning outside the Manhattan City Clerk’s office to reap the benefits on Sunday, some of whom had waited decades for the right.
In New York City's five boroughs as well as across the state, clerk's offices, which are usually closed on Sundays, opened to marry gay couples for the first time in the state's history. Legislators passed the law legalizing gay marriage last month and couples eagerly awaited for it to come into effect on Sunday.
New York City issued 659 marriage licenses the first day and volunteer judges married 484 couples, gay and straight, according to a news release from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office.
Same-sex marriages in New York will be recognized in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington D.C., where the practice is legal, as well as in Maryland and Rhode Island.
Same-sex couple Mishan Moore (L), 39, reacts as her partner Jacqueline Rodriguez, 34, looks on during their wedding ceremony at Queens Borough Hall in New York July 24, 2011. (REUTERS / Shannon Stapleton)
Brooklyn photographer Lori Nix spends weeks, even months, hand-fashioning tiny painstakingly detailed dioramas and then captures them with her 8x10 large format camera. She builds the 3-D scenes in her living room on nights and weekends with the help of an assistant, with each one taking anywhere from two to fifteen months to complete. Her models are about 20 x 24 x 72 inches in size but appear nearly indistinguishable from full-size scenes.
Stewart Isbell found his interest in photography at the young age of 15 while growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was always seen spending his time living in the darkroom, working on the yearbook or school newspaper. Those formative years solidified his goals of having a career in photography.
A few years later, he loaded up and followed his dreams to New York City to study at The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. There he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography back in 2001. He began to shoot commercial assignments early on during his second year in school and things have taken off from there.
One of his recent photo series entitled “Then Quietly They Came” is best described by Creativedusk:
It began with a strange, bright light coming from the fields. No one knew what it was, but it was happening more and more in cornfields. Strange noises coming from wooded areas. Curiosity got the better of most people. Even your own car started emitting the light that would just transfix you. It drew you towards it like a lighthouse beacon. Crop circles appeared in the morning. Unexplained corpses were found semi-submerged. Fear started to spread in communities. People were determined to defend themselves. But the lights kept coming, even in broad daylight, in public places. Nothing could be done to stop the light. Then the men in contamination suits came. Evacuation, they said.
The San Diego Comic-Con International began on July 20 at the San Diego Convention Center. Passes for the Preview Night of this year’s edition of the 4-Day event were sold out during the 2010 convention. 4-Day Passes without Preview and daily passes were sold out in record time on Feb 6, less than 8 hours after going on sale. The event attracts some 100,000 visitors each year.
San Diego Comic-Con International, commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by Shel Dorf and a group of San Diegans. It is traditionally a four-day event, held during the summer in San Diego, California, United States, at the San Diego Convention. A three-hour preview night is open to professionals, exhibitors, and some guests.
Below are some pictures of the attendees and their fancy costumes on the preview night as well as on the day event. Also see Pictures from San Diego Comic-Con 2010
Guido Daniele was born in Soverato (Italy) and now lives and works in Milan. He graduated from Brera School of Arts and he has been painting and participating in personal and group art exhibitions since 1968. In 1972 he started working as hyper-realistic illustrator, in co-operation with major editing and advertising companies, using and testing different painting techniques. In 1990 he added a new artistic experience to his previous ones: using the body painting technique he creates and paints models bodies for advertising pictures and commercials, fashion events and exhibitions.
The "Handimals" collection originally started when Daniele was hired by an advertising agency to do some body paintings of animals. Instantly he took passion in the idea. "I researched each animal in depth to see how I could transfer it to a hand, and then set about bringing it to life." The first "Handimal" was the cheetah, and to this day is still his favorite. "It turned out perfectly the first time and gave me the courage to complete the rest of the set."
“Sport is a serious business at the Shichahai School, which is one of more than 300 elite, and controversial, government-funded academies devoted to training the next generation of Chinese athletes”, writes Telegraph in a report published in 2008, just before the Beijing Olympics.
Training for sports starts at a young age in China. Most were scouted at the tender age of six and sent to special sports schools along with thousands of others who showed promise. The majority don't make the grade but for those that remain, the pressure to win is intense.
Some 600 children aged between six and 18, from all over China, board full-time at the Shichahai Sports School. Six days a week, they study in the mornings and train for four hours in the afternoon. Parents are allowed to see their offspring only at the weekends, but most are willing to put up with the separation in the hope of reaping the lavish rewards won by Olympic champions. Parents of promising athletes who are poor are often given a home in their hometowns by the local sports bureau. Others just want a decent education for their children.
Greek artist Vally Nomidou creates life sized sculptures of human figures using nothing but paper and card board. The internal frame is built with cardboard with vertical and horizontal grid in order to give support to the structure. The outer skin is finished off with newspaper, paper towels, handmade paper and other materials salvaged from around the house, cut, sewn, glued and rubbed to achieve the realistic rendering of her subjects. Apparently, she also uses partial plaster casts.
The world’s highest tennis court stands atop the fourth highest hotel in the world - Burj al-Arab at Dubai. The tennis court is circular in shape and when no session is at play, it doubles as a helipad. The exact height of the tennis court is not known, but the hotel is 321 m (1,053 feet) tall and the court is located very near the top. My guess is, it’s close to 1000 feet.
In 2005, when Roger Federer and Andre Agassi were at Dubai for a tournament, they were invited to play a few rounds at the Burj’s helipad-converted-tennis court.
Nigel was born in Newry Co. Down Ireland and grew up on the edge of Dundalk, a small market town in County Louth, just below the border and was educated at Dundalk Grammar School. After graduating from Riversdale College in Liverpool he joined the Transglobe Expedition, led by Sir Ranulph Fiennes. This three-year expedition successfully achieved the first circumnavigation of the globe on land, sea and ice via North and South poles along the Greenwich Meridian and changed his life forever.
During the expedition Nigel would be at sea, on an ice cap or in some remote location for months on end. Spending large amounts of time alone, surrounded by the staggering beauty of vast and often barren spaces had a profound affect and the essence of this experience strongly influenced his painting.
For many years after the expedition Nigel lived abroad, painting watercolours and oils, exhibiting and undertaking private commissions. Now living in London, he paints on canvas or linen, building up thin layers of oil paint and glazes to develop depth and detail.
A curious ‘Bee attracting’ competition was held in Shaoyang, China, on July 16, 2011. The competitors stood on weighing scales, wearing only a pair of shorts, and by using queen bees they reared, tried to attract other bees onto their bodies. The total weight of the bees was read off from the weighing scale. Beekeeper Wang Dalin, 42, beat fellow beekeeper Lv Kongjiang after attracting 26 kg of bees on his body in 60 minutes, while Lv had 22.9 kg. Don’t try this at home.
A huge swath of algae in the Yellow Sea, 410-square-km in size, is drifting towards the Chinese city of Qingdao and expected to blanket Qingdao's beaches in two days' time. The part of the algae island which is currently blanketing a large expanse of the beach is reported to be 70 meters wide and 100 meters long.
The algae, though not toxic, ravages the ecosystem because it consumes large quantities of oxygen, thus suffocating other marine life.
The pictures look scary but the locals are used to this phenomena, as this is the third time in five years this has happened. Shandong suffered severe green algae invasions in 2007, 2008 and 2010 that decimated its aquaculture and cost millions of yuan in damage. In 2008, it threatened Olympic sailing events that were held in Qingdao’s waters.
As the hot weather approaches, both local residents and foreigners visited the city of Boryeong, a town around 200 km south of Seoul, South Korea, to enjoy the summer heat at the annually held Boryeong Mud Festival. The Boryeong Mud Festival is an annual festival which takes place over a period of around two weeks in July. The first Mud Festival was staged in 1998 and, by 2007, the festival attracted 2.2 million visitors to Boryeong.
The mud is of Boryeong mud flats, is considered to be rich in minerals and is actually used to manufacture cosmetics. In fact, the festival was conceived to promote a range of cosmetics that were produced using mud from the Boryeong mud flats. The festival has grown incredibly popular ever since. (Also see Michigan Residents Celebrate Annual Mud Day)
Jeon Heon-kyun / EPA
At first glance, the image below looks like a satellite image of Europe at night. Actually, it is a map that reveals how active Europeans are on social networking sites Twitter and Flickr. Created by Eric Fischer, the map combines data from geotagged photos from Flickr and geotagged posts on the micro-messaging network Twitter.
The red dots represent Flickr pictures while the blue dots are tweets. The white dots locations that have been posted to both. Mr Fischer focuses on the continents of Europe and North America, where computer and internet usage is most prolific, making detailed maps of big cities, including New York, Barcelona and Tokyo – as well as the entire globe.
Mr Fischer revealed that it takes 40 minutes to set up file data and 3 minutes to produce the image.
He added that the program runs through the photos/tweets in chronological order, plotting the earliest ones the most brightly and stepping the brightness down for points that don't show up for the first time until later on.
Points are also allowed to diffuse by a few pixels when there is an additional record for a point that is already plotted, with the brightness falling off exponentially as the point that is actually plotted gets further from its intended location.
Each pixel is the somewhat weird area of 2.25 square miles because a smaller area made the whole-world image too big for Flickr to let me post it.
Photographer Michael Wolf spent 30 days in a Tokyo metro station, capturing the traumatized faces of commuters on their way to work. Their woeful expressions have been immortalized in Wolf's photographic series, "Tokyo Compression". Each photograph is composed of individuals pressed up against windows and doors of the subway train with expressions of discomfort and stress after a hard day’s work.
The photographs were all taken at one station on Tokyo's Odakyu Line – the only stop where Wolf could get really close to the train windows. "Every 80 seconds a new train runs in," explains Wolf. "When the commuters get in and are pushed against a window, I'm two inches away from that window."
Having a camera shoved in their faces didn't make the commuters any more cheerful. "No one was pleased with it," admits Wolf. "My being there made them suddenly aware of how horrible the situation is and they were ashamed of it, but there was nothing they could do. They couldn't move away, leave the train, so some people tried to hide behind their hands. Others had this idea that if they closed their eyes, and they couldn't see me, then somehow I couldn't see them.”
Lucie Thomas and Thibault Zimmermann are the duo behind the contemporary design studio Zim and Zou based in Nancy, France. Thomas and Zimmermann explores a myriad of mediums including paper sculpture, installation, graphic design, illustration, and web design for their clients. Their latest collection of work entitled Back to Basics is consist of colorful paper devices cut meticulously by hand to recreate even the smallest of detail.
Back to Basics is apparently a personal project. See more at Behance.
The latest political magazine of Germany, Cicero’s promotional campaign titled PencilHead is about miniature busts of world leaders on the graphite tip of pencils. Perhaps inspired by Dalton Ghetti‘s incredible pencil lead art, Cicero Magazine roped in skilled German artist Ragna ReushKlinkenberg to do the carvings. Ragna’s skilled perfection speaks in the miniature carvings of political leaders on soft pencil heads.
Olvera is a small village located in the heart of the Cadiz mountains, Spain. The village’s main monument is the city itself, with its whitewashed houses, steep narrow streets all running up towards the impressive silhouette of its church and castle at the top of the hill.
The hills surrounding Olvera are full of olive tree plantations that provide the best extraction of olive oils in Andalusia. It’s believed that the name of the town is related to the amount of olive trees in the area.
Photoblogger dimoxod has an excellent set of pictures of this little place. Some of them are reproduced here.
”Forever Marilyn” is a sculpture by Seward Johnson that is to be unveiled today in Chicago, Illinois. The stainless steel and aluminum sculpture which stands 26 feet tall and weighs 34,000 pound will remain on display in Chicago through the spring of 2012. The sculpture was inspired by Marilyn Monroe’s iconic scene in the 1955 movie Seven Year Itch.
More than 1,500 people lined the streets yesterday at Colne in Lancashire to inaugurate the eight annual Colne Grand Prix. As an inaugural event, a ‘chopper dash’ was organized. Many riders came donning 1970s fancy dress on classic Raleigh bikes from the same decade for a Le Mans running start before completing two laps around Colne town centre.
The main event - Colne Grand Prix - is an 800m street circuit through the historic market town. The race, part of Britain’s Elite Men’s Circuit Series, is held over 60 laps. This year the event raised more than £3,200 for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research charity.
The Singing Ringing Tree is a unique wind powered sound sculpture resembling a tree set in the landscape of the Pennine mountain range overlooking Burnley, in Lancashire. Designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu of Tonkin Liu, the Singing Ringing Tree is a 3 meter tall construction comprising pipes of galvanised steel which harness the energy of the wind to produce a low and mellow hum. The harmonic and singing qualities of the tree were produced by tuning the pipes according to their length by adding holes to the underside of each.
Completed in 2006, it is part of the series of four sculptures within the Panopticons arts and regeneration project created by the East Lancashire Environmental Arts Network.
About 5,000 people turned up the at the Hines Park Nankin Mills Area in Westland, Michigan, for the state's 24th annual mud day. More than 200 tons of topsoil and over 20,000 gallons of water are mixed to produce a huge pool of mud, where both kids and adults play and frolic for two hours. The event also holds various contest like “Mud Limbo” and wheel barrow races. At noon, King and Queen Mud were crowned.
Carlos Osorio / AP
A sudden explosion in jellyfish population in different parts of the world has caused nuclear reactors to be shutdown in Japan, Scotland and Israel. Nuclear power plants draw water from nearby seas or rivers to cool down their reactors, but if the filters which keep out marine animals and seaweed are clogged, the station shuts down to maintain temperature and safety standards.
Four reactors in Japan, Scotland and Israel were recently shutdown after jellyfish blocked the screens used to filter out the seawater needed to cool down the reactors. A nuclear power plant in Shimane, Japan, was closed down recently as millions of jellyfish clogged the reactor's cooling system. Two reactors at Torness power station, operated by EDF, in Scotland also had to be shutdown.
The jellyfish bloom occurs mostly during the summer and spring months. Some scientists say rising sea temperatures caused by climate change may also contribute to jellyfish blooms, because many species of jellyfish are better able to survive in warmer waters. However, this year is one of the coolest years in recent history, so the surge of jellyfish population explosion this summer is mystifying. Apparently there have been dozens of similar shut downs over the last few decades and scientists still are struggling to figure out why there has been such a large increase in the jellyfish population.
The world bodypainting festival in Austria is one of the biggest art show in the bodypaiting theme. Since its inception in 1998, visitors have flocked to the event to admire the wild works of artists from over 40 nations worldwide. It draws the best two hundred body painting artist teams and models, as well as tens of thousands of visitors, from all over the world every year.
The festival lasts a week, of which the first four days consist of over thirty special workshops and lessons run by the WBF Academy, and the last three days consist of the actual festival event in the body paint city. The artists compete in many categories such as brush and sponge, airbrush, and special effects. At night time there is also a special UV effects contest giving the title for World Champion in UV bodypainting effects. There is a World Facepainting Award and a special award for special effects face make up.
Usually, the subject’s body is usually completely naked, save for a very short bikini or a G-string. Among other things, a great bodypainting job is measured how effectively the artist hides the the private parts of the subject.
The 2001 World Bodypainting Festival began on June 27 and finished on July 3. (Warning: this gallery contains nudity)
The Qingdao Haiwan Bridge, which was featured on Amusing Planet early this year, is open for business. State-run news channel CCTV says the bridge passed construction appraisals on Monday and the bridge and an undersea tunnel opened to traffic on Thursday.
The Qingdao Haiwan Bridge, connecting the city of Qingdao in Eastern China's Shandong province with the suburban Huangdao District across the waters of the northern part of Jiaozhou Bay, is the longest bridge over water. The 42.5 kilometer bridge is more than 4 kilometers longer than its previous record holder - a bridge over water is the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana. The six-lane bridge is expected to carry over 30,000 cars a day and will cut the commute between the city of Qingdao and the sprawling suburb of Huangdao by between 20 and 30 minutes.
A team of daring cave divers working on Orda Cave Awareness Project have produced an incredible series of photos of the longest underwater gypsum crystal cave in the world. Located near Orda village in Perm region, Ural, Orda Cave is also the biggest underwater gypsum crystal cave in the world and second in Eurasia in terms of volumes of its galleries that stretch up to five kilometers.
Over a period of six months, famous underwater photographer, journalist and dive-instructor Victor Lyagushkin led the team of cave divers and took stunning images of the cave at less than zero degree temperature.
The location of the cave in Ural region, which is known for rich mineral deposits in Russia, may be linked to the gypsum content in Orda Cave, which has transparent water because of the mineral. The water is so clear divers can see over 50 yards ahead of them.
Here are some pictures from the expedition.
UK-based artist JKB Fletcher has created a series of paintings depicting beautiful women who are themselves body-painted upon with colors that are distinctly themed from superhero characters such as Superman, The Hulk and The Flash. Working with oil on linen, Fletcher's paintings take approximately one hundred hours to complete, and are explicitly photorealistic.
I originally started painting toy super heroes as a humourous celebration. I wanted to embody them as godlike figures to show their place in today's society, as they're used to instill good morals, values, high hopes and virtue into kids as well as entertain them. I saw it as quite an honourable standing for a toy figure to represent such a noble philosophy, somewhat familiar to the Greek sculptures in their time (bearing in mind I have no idea what it's like to live in Greece in the 13th century!). However, they have severe weakness, they are often hugely flawed in one particular area and their 'normal' life, or facade of a life, which involves the closest of friends and family is most commonly subject to constant deceit in the form of lying cheating and stealing, arguably some of the worst characteristics. But flaws make them relatable and the ability to relate to the superheroes is the reason they are lasting such a long time and will always be a notable creation of our era. Our modern psychology and social paradigm is both reflected and represented through our love of the superhero.
JKB Fletcher new series titled ‘Dirty Faces’ are on display now at the Fortyfive Downstairs gallery in Melbourne, Australia.
Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is held every year on July 4 at Nathan's Famous Corporation's original, and best-known restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The contest is so popular that is beamed live on ESPN and estimated to be watched by 1.949 million viewers in addition to the 40,000 or so spectators that assemble at the ground in person.
The contest has gained public attention in recent years due to the sudden stardom of Takeru Kobayashi, his subsequent rivalry with American Joey Chestnut, and the current controversy over Kabayashi's contractual dispute and absence. In the ninety-sixth annual contest, held on July 4, 2011, four-time-defending champion Chestnut won his fifth title by consuming 62 hot dogs and buns in ten minutes.
Kobayashi, who has been banned from the contest due to a contract dispute with Major League Eating, competed from afar: on the roof of a Manhattan bar, in unison with Chestnut and his fellow competitors. Kobayashi polished off 69 hot dogs proving that he is still the best, but officials will not recognize Kobayashi's feat.
Chestnut remains the official champion, and he will share his official title with Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, who devoured 40 hot dogs and buns to beat eight other eaters in the first women's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Both Chestnut and Thomas were awarded $10,000.
Japan’s Fuji-Q Highland Amusement Park has unveiled its 14th Guinness world record-breaking ride – the Takabisha roller-coaster. Nestled at the foot of Mount Fuji, the new track is nearly two miles long and features seven major twists and a stomach-churning 141 feet single vertical fall at 121 degrees, making it the steepest roller-coaster drop in the world.
Takabisha riders will be hurtled around the track at 62 miles per hour, meaning that the ride, will last just 112 seconds. They’ll also experience a split second of weightlessness as they nosedive down the mountainous drop.
Costing three billion yen (£23 million) to build, the Takabisha steals the title from Mumbo Jumbo in Yorkshire, which features a 98ft drop at 112 degrees. However, when it comes to speed, the world's fastest rollercoaster is still Formula Rossa, which can be found at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. This speed-rides around its tracks at 150mph.
The new attraction at Takabisha will fully open to the public on July 16.
The Underground Catwalk, currently in its sixth year, has become an integral and popular part of the Berlin Fashion Week where models showcase designs from established brands and upcoming designers on an underground commuter train. The following pictures are from yesterday’s event.
Hannibal Hanschke/Efe
Tens of thousands of people packed Pamplona's main square on Wednesday for the launch of the "chupinazo" rocket that marked the start of Spain's most famous bull-running festival.
Made famous by Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises,” the San Fermin festival is known around the world for the daily running of the bulls and all-night partying. The first of eight runs came today when thousands look to outrun six fearsome bulls along a narrow 875 yards (800 meters) course through the city's cobblestone streets, with both beast and human often falling over — stomping on each other as they go.
Since record-keeping began in 1924, 15 people have been killed in the running of the bulls — the last victim 27-year-old Spanish runner Daniel Jimeno Romero in 2009. Already 15 people were injured with five taken to hospital for treatment.
After you have gone through the following pictures, do checkout the fantastic collection from last year’s San Fermin festival.
Juan Bautista Nieto was born in Lora el Rio, Spain. He studied at the Fine Arts Faculty of Seville. Prior to that he studied medicine, to which he attributes his understanding and appreciation of human anatomy.
His often large-format paintings exaggerate reality and reach beyond photographic representation. Nieto combines oil and acrylic paint with air brush techniques, resulting in delicate and continuous layers of shades and manifold notes of light, shadow and density. The every facet of his subject is depicted with a minute detail, hence Nieto produces relatively few paintings each year. Large paintings take between six to nine months to complete, he says.
For his project titled “Texters“, photographer Joe Holmes photographed unsuspecting people lost in their own worlds while texting on their phones. Also, see Mobile Mania and one of my favorite street photographer Danny Santos.
Terry Border takes objects from everyday life and turns them into humorous art. For years now, this unassuming photographer-sculptor has worked with snack foods, office supplies, toys, and other items to create evocative and bizarre scenes. Here are some of my favorite "Bent Objects."
Detroit's population has fallen steadily since the heyday of the auto industry in the 1950s, when it peaked around two million, to just a little over 700,000 in 2010. Disappearing jobs and burgeoning mortgage has driven even stable, middle-class families to the suburbs leaving thousands and thousands of homes and properties behind. According the Census Bureau, the number of vacant housing units doubled in the past decade to nearly 80,000, more than one-fifth of the city's housing stock. Even though the city has been demolishing about 1,000 broken-down houses a year, they can’t keep up with the rate at which families are abandoning them.
Photographer Kevin Bauman through his project 100 Abandoned Houses brings attention to the problem of vacant properties in Detroit.
When Kevin Bauman began photographing Detroit’s derelict houses in the late ’90s, his intention was to create a record of the homes before they were torn down to make way for new development. Using an old Hasselblad camera, Mr. Bauman, 37, a Web developer and freelance photographer, shot them straight on, in the style of commercial catalog photography.
For its upcoming auction at St. John’s in Plymouth, Michigan in late July, RM Auctions will offer a most unusual Pontiac – a transparent display car that General Motors built for the 1940s World’s Fair. GM developed two transparent cars for the New York World’s Fair of 1939-1940, one of which was a Deluxe seven-window touring sedan and the other of which was a Torpedo five-window touring sedan.
To prepare the transparent chassis of the 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six, GM collaborated with Rohm & Haas, the chemical company that had recently developed Plexiglas. Using drawings for the Pontiac four-door Touring Sedan, Rohm & Haas constructed an exact replica body using Plexiglas in place of the outer sheet-metal. The structural metal underneath was given a copper wash, and all hardware, including the dashboard, was chrome plated. Rubber moldings were made in white, as were the car’s tires. It reportedly cost $25,000 to build – an astronomical figure in those days.
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