Wednesday, June 15, 2011

BMW 328 Hommage Concept Car Design Was Inspired by The Legendary 328 Model

BMW has launched the 328 Hommage concept, a design study concerned with a speedster, at the Villa d'Este. Taking its inspiration from the legendary 328 model, some of its awe-inspiring features include carbon-fiber body with asymmetric windscreen. The 328 Hommage holds the same layout. It is an exceptional 2-seater roadster having a front-mounted engine with a lightweight construction. The 328 Hommage BMW is unlike the 1930's model in terms of its make, the usage of carbon fiber reinforced plastic. The exterior design boasts a surface treatment related to the one followed by BMW for its newest concepts, with its design incorporating an assortment of elements, which creates a visual tie to the original model. Thanks to the usage of materials as well as freely suspended elements including 2 iPhones included in the dashboard via special aluminum housing having a silhouette of classic stopwatches , that expresses a sense of lightness in terms of its interior structure. Clear-cut lines run across the sedan body's taut surfaces. Overall, the 328 Hommage model is very awe-inspiring.

Designer : BMW

BMW 328 Hommage Concept Car

BMW 328 Hommage Concept Car

BMW 328 Hommage Concept Car

BMW 328 Hommage Concept Car

BMW 328 Hommage Concept Car

BMW 328 Hommage Concept Car

BMW 328 Hommage Concept Car

Most Creepy YouTube Videos Ever

 School by Jared Lee Loughner


This video was uploaded to YouTube by the Arizona shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner. It has since been taken down from its original YouTube location, but news organizations as reputable as the Wall Street Journal have confirmed its legitimacy as the video that resulted in Loughner being expelled from Pima Community College. The madman later went on to shoot 20 people, injuring a U.S. senator and killing six of the victims, including a district court judge. These ramblings show just how disturbed the young shooter was before his arrest, and listening to his rantings are chilling to say the least.





Edarem

Sure, the old man in this video with his bad sweater, terrible teeth and frazzled hair, is a little creepy, but is he someone's grandpa playing on YouTube really bad enough to get on the list of the most creepy YouTube videos ever? Yes, when that "grandpa" is actually a sex offender who was eventually sent back to prison for violating his parole because of said videos.


Crooked Rot

I've left out creepy music videos and other clips that weren't created specifically for YouTube, which is why it's so nice to be able to include a video of such caliber that was actually intended for web distribution. This video by David Firth was an experiment in stop motion photography and the result is a spine-tingling mess of mannequins, pig heads, scratchy footage and rubber hands.


The Biggest Pimple In The World

While this might not officially be the biggest pimple in the world, it's most certainly a creepy sight to watch it get popped. In fact, it is so nasty that the video was flagged as 18 and up by the YouTube community despite the fact that there is nothing violent or sexual about the actual footage.


KerryJTV

If you haven't heard of masking, then I'm sorry to introduce you to the disturbing world where men wear expressionless women's masks and dance around trying to look sexy. Of all of the maskers, the most famous star is Kerry, who not only has her own website, but her own YouTube channel as well. Here's a taste of the fun.



Peeping Tom

Like a sick version of miming mixed with male belly dancing, this video not only has me scratching my head, but covering my eyes. One question remains, is the person in the video playing the role of the peeping Tom in the song, or is that the viewer watching the creepy masked man?





Humanimal Alex

If this video was just showing someone who really wanted to audition for a role in the Broadway musical Cats, it really wouldn't be that bad. But yet again, YouTube has played the host for another freaky fetish convention, this time, the yiffs. A yiff, if you don't know, is someone who likes to pretend to be an animal during their "intimate" moments. Just look at that seductive clawing, have you ever seen something so arousing? If you're not a yiff-lover, I'm sure the answer is "yes, just about anything is more arousing than that."




Bananas Exploding On Face

Like many videos on YouTube that seem to show an utterly bizarre sexual fetish, this one leaves the viewers scratching their heads and asking, "Why, dear God? Why would anyone find this sexy?" I can't answer that for you, but I can tell you that there are a lot of fetishes out there that are a lot more unsettling than this.




Little Boy Turned Stripper

Usually little kids dancing are cute, or at worst, annoying, but this little boy's dance seems disturbingly like something you'd see a stripper do before she started taking off her cheap lingerie. It certainly doesn't help that he's wearing a ripped up tee shirt over a bra. In fact, his outfit looks like he got it out of a hooker's closet.



IBM shows off the old hardware in its basement

Historical hardware from IBM's 100 year history is on show at its Hursley site


IBM IS CELEBRATING its 100th anniversary this year, and like any centenarian it has accumulated a cornucopia of bric-a-brac over the course of its life. At the company's Hursley offices near Winchester, however, this means bits of old mainframes and suchlike.

This is a card punch from 1949, used for preparing punched cards, the data storage medium of its day.
More card punch equipment bearing the Hollerith name. Herman Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company, one of the three firms that merged to form IBM in 1911.
A timestamping machine for workers clocking in. Another ancient product from one IBM's precursor companies.
IBM Type 77 punched card collator, dating from 1937. It could automatically sort and file two sets of punched cards, handling up to 240 per minute.
IBM Selectric typewriter from 1967. These models featured proportional spacing, and a golf-ball head to print instead of each key manually striking the paper. Some Selectric models could record text to tape, allowing for editing like a crude word processor.
A magnetic tape reel of the type used with the Selectric typewriters to record and edit text, pre-dating the word processor by many years.
Before RAM chips, computers used magnetic core storage for data memory. This unit dates from 1958.
A Transformer Read-Only Store (TROS) module, used by IBM to store microcode in some computer systems in the 1960s.
An early card assembly using plug-in modules built using integrated circuits (chips) instead of individual transistors.
IBM 5444 disk storage device, developed at Hursley in 1969 for the System/3 computer. The removable cartridge on top contains a single 14in disk storing up to 2.5MB of data.
Another early disk drive, showing how little the basic design has changed in decades. The disk platters and read/write head assembly are clearly visible.
An 8in floppy disk, originally developed by IBM for loading microcode into System/370 mainframes at power-up. Later, floppies developed into a widespread general-purpose storage medium.
Introduced in 1979, the IBM 3279 was the company's first colour mainframe terminal and could even display graphics.
The IBM PC was introduced in 1981, and is the direct ancestor of today's Windows PCs. This model is a PC XT with a hard disk (early models had only floppy drives or a cassette interface), but shows the original PC keyboard layout and the bulky monochrome display screen.
IBM's PC Convertible, from 1986, was the firm's first 'laptop' computer. It weighed over 5kg, and had a detachable screen allowing it to be used with a monitor on a desk. It was costly compared to rival machines from vendors such as Toshiba, and did not sell well.
The ThinkPad 701, an early ThinkPad laptop model from 1995, featured a unique 'butterfly' keyboard that unfolded and locked together as the lid was lifted, to give a full-size keyboard that is wider than the system case. Later laptops had larger and wider screens, doing away with the need for such a feature.
Not an antique, but a modern z10 mainframe used at Hursley as part of IBM's software and services development, and safely behind glass to keep it away from the grubby hands of visitors.

The Zong - Slave ship

The Ship below is a replica of the infamous Slave Ship The Zong, seen here passing through Tower Bridge on Thursday 29th March 2007


The Zong was owned by William Gregson and George Case, well-known merchants in the City of Liverpool.  Both were former Mayors of that City.
The Zong sailed from the west coast of Africa on 6 September 1781 with 442 slaves aboard.  She was grossly overloaded and did not have sufficient provisions for such a large number.
The voyage took nearly 2 months by which time most of the slaves were malnourished and succumbing to sickness and disease.  The ship was under the command of Captain Collingwood who lost his way in the Caribbean Sea which added to the length of the journey. 
Many of the slaves had already died and Collingwood knew that those who survived would not fetch a high price on the slave market.  He decided to use a shortage of fresh water as the pretext for recording that his 'crew were endangered'. 
In this way he justified throwing overboard 133 slaves. 
  • 55 were thrown overboard on 29 November, 42 on the 30th
  • A heavy downfall of rain the next day provided plenty of fresh water
  • Despite this 26 more slaves were thrown overboard on 1 December
  • another 10 jumped in of their own accord
The owners claimed £30 a head from the insurers which was disputed. 
The case went to court in 1783 backed by the King's Bench and the insurers lost.
The underwriters petitioned the Court of Exchequer and again lost. 
Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, said 
  • 'The matter left to the jury was whether it was necessary that the slaves were thrown into the sea, for they had no doubt that the case of slaves was the same as if horses had been thrown overboard.


THE ZONG

The 18th century replica slave ship due to enter the Pool of London under Royal Navy escort on 29 March 2007 will be named The Zong. This was the name of the most notorious of the slave ships.  It was owned by William Gregson and George Case, well-known merchants in the City of Liverpool.  Both were former Mayors of that City.
The Zong sailed from the west coast of Africa on 6 September 1781 with 442 slaves aboard.  She was grossly overloaded and did not have sufficient provisions for such a large number. The slaves were chained two by two, right leg and left leg, right hand and left hand, each of them was said to have less room than a man in a coffin.
The voyage took nearly 2 months by which time most of the slaves were malnourished and succumbing to sickness and disease.  The ship was under the command of Captain Collingwood who lost his way in the Caribbean Sea which added to the length of the journey. 
Many of the slaves had already died and Collingwood knew that those who survived would not fetch a high price on the slave market.  He decided to use a shortage of fresh water as the pretext for recording that his 'crew were endangered'.  He thus justified his action of throwing overboard 133 slaves.  55 were thrown overboard on 29 November, 42 the next day and despite a heavy downfall of rain which alleviate the shortage of water 26 more slaves were thrown overboard on 1 December while another 10 jumped in of their own accord.
The owners claimed £30 a head from the insurers which was disputed.  The case then went to court in 1783 backed by the King's Bench, whereupon the underwriters petitioned the Court of Exchequer.  After the case, Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, stated, 'The matter left to the jury was whether it was necessary that the slaves were thrown into the sea, for they had no doubt that the case of slaves was the same as if horses had been thrown overboard.'
The barrister for the owners argued, 'So far from a charge of murder lying against those people, there is not the least imputation....even of impropriety.'
The law at that time is stated, 'The insurer takes upon him the risk of the loss, capture, and death of slaves, or any other unavoidable accident to them: but natural death is always understood to be excepted: by natural death is meant, not only when it happens by disease or sickness, but also when the captive destroys himself through despair, which often happens: but when slaves are killed, or thrown into thrown into the sea in order to quell an insurrection on their part, then the insurers must answer.'
Granville Sharp, the intrepid Abolitionist, took up the case and used it in his campaign.  He visited every bishop in the country most of whom joined the abolition cause as a result of this case and he spoke at public meetings throughout the land. The story of The Zong became a national talking point.  The fact that throwing 133 Africans overboard was not regarded as murder but simply as the lawful disposal of 'merchandise' at last stirred the national conscience. Although it took another 24 years to persuade Parliament to ban the slave trade, The Zong was the first significant turning point in the abolitionist campaign.

I’d disown my daughter right then and there. MySpace?


I'd disown my daughter right then and there. MySpace?

10 Coolest Underwater Places


Hotel Conrad Rangali Island Maldives



If you are planning for that ultimate honeymoon whose memories are to be etched into your minds forever, here comes the award winning Hotel Conrad Rangali Island Maldives with its exciting honeymoon- suite for all you newlyweds.

Being one of the finest hotels in the world it already swaggers of having several luxurious villas, striking beach villas and marvelous spa water villas. But the honeymoon suite is something that will sure make you fall for it. After all, who wouldn't love to spend a night underneath the sea with panoramic views of the marine life?


Poseidon Undersea Resort





Giving the phrase "Under the sea" a whole new meaning, the Poseidon Undersea Resort($15,000 and up) lets you rest underneath the waves in a room made mostly of acrylic glass. Located in Fiji, the resort offers guests private plane transportation from a Fijian airport to the Poseidon Mystery Island, where they'll enjoy a week's stay - including two nights in the underwater hotel, with a three-passenger Triton 1000 submarine at their disposal. With a coral reef to explore, beach bungalows for above-sea level accommodations, an underwater library, wedding chapel, restaurants, and more, it's an out-of-this-world experience just 40 feet below the surface.


Red Sea Star Restaurant





The Red Sea Star has been receiving extensive coverage throughout the world since its establishment, especially because of the unique concept it was based on, its exceptional construction process, its fascinating interior design and the fact that it is a "green" project, which contributes profoundly to the preservation of the coral reef surrounding it.

The Red Sea Star was constructed by first line experts using special resources and equipment imported from all around the world. The underwater floor of the complex is shaped like a star, displaying a fascinating marine-world interior design admired throughout the world. The underwater floor functions as an observatory, in which the underwater restaurant and bar are located.

The Red Sea Star enables you to "sense the sea" through a "dry diving experience" and to discover the magnificent and exciting underwater world of the Red Sea. A breathtaking view of hundreds of various tropical sea creatures in the colorful coral garden is seen through 62 panoramic amorphous windows surrounding the observatory, located five meters below the sea level.


Jules' Underwater Lodge





What began as La Chalupa Research Laboratory in Key Largo, Florida, is now Jules' Undersea Lodge (though it still has the fully operational Marine Lab). To enter the lodge, guest must dive down 21 feet through the Emerald Lagoon with trained professionals leading the way. Located five feet above the bottom of the Mangrove lagoon, the lodge has a common room to keep guests entertained, as well as a fully stocked kitchen, dining area and communication center.





Grenada's Underwater Sculpture Park





Meet the first Sculpture Park in Grenada. Located at Molinere Bay, the original sculptures were designed by British sculptor Jason de Caires Taylor, who is working on a similar project in the waters around Cancun. Officials say the sculptures have had a positive impact on the underwater ecosystem by allowing for the creation of artificial reefs. Snorkelling or diving in the Sculpture Park is considered a 'must do' by many visitors to Grenada.


Serpent Slide at Atlantic Paradise





In the Serpent Slide (located in the Atlantis Paradise Resort, Bahamas), guests travel on a tube at high speeds through the darkness of the Mayan Temple's core (another slide). The twisting and turning ride culminates with a leisurely pass through a clear acrylic tunnel submerged in a shark-filled lagoon.


Utter Inn





Lake Mälaren in Västeras, Sweden, is home to the very quaint but beautiful Utter Inn. Transportation to the inn starts with an inflatable boat ride from the port of Västeras. Then guests enter through a Swedish-inspired house that floats on the surface of the water and travel below to reach a room completely surrounded by windows, thus providing a perfect view of the creatures living below the surface. Relaxing activities include swimming, sunbathing and going for canoe rides-and dinner is delivered by boat.


Vanuatu's Underwater Post Office





Vanuatu's Underwater Post Office, found just off Hideaway Island near Port Vila, has quickly become one of the busiest post offices for postcards in the world!

Visitors from around the world have literally donned their mask and snorkels, postcards in hand to experience the world's first underwater post office. And they have not been disappointed. The Post Office is only 50 metres offshore and at just three metres below the surface, is very accessible to the young and young at heart. Thousands of visitors have posted one of the special waterproof postcards available in Vanuatu; these cards are collected regularly by one of Vanuatu Post's four trained scuba divers and "cancelled" underwater with an embossing cachet. Mail that requires a normal Underwater Post Office date stamp is cancelled in the Main Post Office.


Bali Underwater Wedding





Bali is the most beautiful and idyllic place to arrange your marriage. The tropical climate and the mystical ambience of "The Island Of The Gods" makes Bali the perfect location for a wedding or a honeymoon. For more than 50 years Bali has been a popular destination to get married.

BIDP now offers a dream wedding in Paradise. Enjoy a full day of boating in Bali and choose from the most suitable of ceremonies offered!

The Underwater Wedding can be organised for certified divers and people who have never tried scuba diving before. Non certified divers will be asked to have an Intro Dive course before the wedding day without extra charge and the ceremony must be concluded in a pool setting in that situation.


The Shark Reef and Aquarium at Mandalay Bay





The Shark Reef and Aquarium at Mandalay Bay is an excellent showcase for adults and children of all ages. The viewing cost is about 15$ for adults and is discounted for children; the price seems pretty reasonable in comparison to other shows and exhibits in Las Vegas. There is a large variety of fish, sharks, jellyfish, stingrays, etc.