love & war | lifestyle digest - covering design, culture and travel

World's Most Dangerous Airports

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 23:07:15 +0100

1. Princess Juliana International Airport (Saint Martin)

Princess Juliana International Airport serves Saint Maarten, the Dutch part of the island of Saint Martin. It is the second busiest airport in the Eastern Caribbean. The airport is famous for its short landing strip — only 2,180 metres/7,152 ft, which is barely enough for heavy jets. Because of this, the planes approach the island flying extremely low, right over Maho Beach. Countless photos of large jets flying at 10--20 m/30-60 ft over relaxing tourists at the beach have been dismissed as fakes many times, but are nevertheless real. For this reason as well it has become a favourite for planespotters. Despite the difficulties in approach, there has been no records of major aviation incidents at the airport.

Tony Wilson

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:07:07 +0100

Anthony Howard Wilson (20 February 1950 – 10 August 2007) was an English record label owner, radio presenter, TV show host, nightclub manager, impresario and journalist for Granada Television and the BBC.

Wilson, commonly known as Tony Wilson, was the music mogul behind some of Manchester's most successful bands. He was the founder and manager of The Haçienda nightclub, and was one of the five co-founders of Factory Records. Wilson was also known as Mr. Manchester, dubbed as such for his work in promoting the greater cultural status of Manchester throughout his career. He was portrayed by actors Steve Coogan and Craig Parkinson, in Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, and Anton Corbijn's 2007 film Control respectively.

Vermont Eco Builders

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:08:07 +0100

Raedia and Ian Albinson are used to thinking outside the box. So when the artistic couple - she's an animator, he's a designer and media producer - started house hunting, it's not surprising that their search took an unconventional turn.

They yearned for community, proximity to farmer's markets, and a space uniquely suited to their tastes. They also wanted to live green. To them, this meant more than adding eco-friendly-looking finishes. It meant finding - or building - a house with passive heating and cooling capabilities and energy-efficient insulation and using Energy Star-rated appliances and lighting. It meant avoiding fossil fuels. And it meant using as many green building materials as possible, and choosing a spot located within walking distance, not driving distance, of daily activities.

Sticky Note experiment

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:00:47 +0100

Very niceeeee...

Lufthansa Airbus 380 - VIP Saloon

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 09:08:34 +0100

More informations on Airbus 380 tech data, can be found here, and detailed deck plan here.

Futuristic Medical Center Concept

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:51:49 +0100

Medical center concept designed by Sarah Schneider is a whole new concept of outer space home base right in the middle of Alps where people love to have Jacuzzi and fly ion jet wings. It is an unbelievable concept for a medical center for rehabilitation of trauma surgery patients. This unrealistic concept is no less than an Alien Space Ship. But no one can imagine how much investment and labor this concept would require for construction. Designed to accommodate 50 patients, it features balconies overlooking the mountains and raised walkways running through the surrounding forests. Looks pretty awesome for a medical center in the future.

Science Proves Exotic Cars Turn Women On

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:39:45 +0100

David Moxon subjected 40 men and women to the sounds of a Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari, then measured the amount of testosterone in their saliva. He found everyone had higher levels of the stuff -- a measure of their arousal -- after hearing the revving exotics, but the amount the women had was off the charts. The econobox, however, left everyone colder than a January day in Nome. Link

Sharpie Lamborghini Gallardo

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:39:45 +0100

No matter how tasteful or tasteless you think Lamborghinis are (as if it matters what most of us think of them), you have to admit the idea of writing all over one with Sharpie markers is pretty cool. It took Prestige (Lamborghini Miami) about 2 weeks to ink the artwork and seal it up with a layer of clear coat. See more pictures of the car here.

BMW kinetic sculpture

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:46:36 +0100

One particularly stunning highlight from the 125 exhibits packed into the newly-renovated BMW Welt in Munich is a mechatronic installation by ART+COM, the Berlin-based interactive media company. The project uses 714 metal balls that are individually suspended one barely visible strings, creating an seemingly weightless, amorphous mass. Each ball lowers and retracts independently, which allows them to approximate almost any form.

The installation moves through a cycle of classic and contemporary BMW car shapes from throughout the company's 90-year history. In between cars, it goes through some impressive routines, showing the creation's versatility. Take a look at one visitor's video below. (via Core77)

Paris Hilton doesn't change facial expressions

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 17:07:31 +0100

Self-promoted lifestyle icon, Paris Hilton virtually never changes her facial expression for pictures. That dumb little smirk just stays there.

Culture digest

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:13:14 +0100

UbuWeb is an unlimited resource with unlimited space to fill. It is in this way that the site has grown to encompass hundreds of artists, hundreds of gigabytes of sound files, books, texts and videos.

"UbuWeb posts much of its content without permission; we rip out-of-print LPs into sound files; we scan as many old books as we can get our hands on; we post essays as fast as we can OCR them. Totally independent from institutional support, UbuWeb is free from academic bureaucracy and its attendant infighting, which often results in compromised solutions; we have no one to please but ourselves."

Banksy

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:25:06 +0100

Banksy is a well-known pseudo-anonymous British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974, but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details.

He started as a freehand graffiti artist 1992-1994 as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), often assisting writers Kato and Tes. He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene. From the start he used stencils as elements of his freehand pieces, too.

Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects include animals such as monkeys and rats, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly.

On 7 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three Banksy works, reaching the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction: over £102,000 for his Bombing Middle England. Two of his other graffiti works, Balloon Girl and Bomb Hugger, sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively, which were well above their estimated prices. The following day's auction saw a further three Banksy works reach soaring prices. Ballerina With Action Man Parts reached £96,000; Glory sold for £72,000; Untitled (2004) sold for £33,600 - all prices being significantly above estimated values. To coincide with the second day of auctions, Banksy updated his website with a new image of an auction house scene showing people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit." (via wiki)

More Banksy works here and @ his website.

Earth 7 amazing holes

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:23:20 +0100

Discover some fascinating photos of the largest holes on the Earth.

Piers of Tomorrow

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 07:38:27 +0100

Piers are timeless landmarks of many oceanfront metropolises, as they embody paradise on the edge of civilization. Gaining popularity early in the 1900's, piers resembling scaled down versions of Coney Island were erected in coastal cities around the world. People of all ages were drawn in by the glowing aura of their attractions, the aroma of fried cuisine, as well as the sounds of mechanical rides and the adjacent ocean. Alas, the evolution of modern theme parks has ostracized pleasure piers into a realm filled with the nostalgic relics of our past.

Nevertheless, the humble pier is being reinvented around the world in more creative ways than we could ever imagine.

Bradford Waugh's Bike with No Chain Design

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:52:34 +0100

Bradford Waugh concept and idea for future bike transmission system. It looks awesome...