Saturday, October 30, 2010

$1,000 investment a decade ago would today be worth....

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1. Apple (AAPL) -- $32,280


Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL; previously Apple Computer, Inc.) is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Apple software includes the Mac OS X operating system; theiTunes media browser; the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software; the iWork suite of productivity software; Aperture, a professional photography package; Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio and film-industry software products; Logic Studio, a suite of music production tools and its iOS Mobile Operating System. As of August 2010, the company operates 301 retail stores [7] in ten countries, [8] and an online store where hardware and software products are sold.


Top 10 New Year's Eve Destinations in 2010

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10 - Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas


Sin City gets just a little bit more debauched (if that were possible) as the strip is pedestrianized for a massive party, complete with fireworks, sound and light shows, and more clubs than you could visit in a dozen trips. Hundreds of thousands of revelers turn up in the evening, and you can be sure the party is going to get a little crazy -- it isn’t called Sin City for nothing. At midnight, a massive fireworks display will grab your attention. And for once, it’s cool to drink on the streets; everyone else will be doing it. 




Top 10 tips for round-the-world travellers

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None of these points are earth-shattering but, collectively, they will help you get the most out of a round-the-world ticket. Many of the points apply equally to any long-range itinerary with several stops en route.


1. When planning your itinerary, be careful not to arrange too many stops. It is tempting to think of round-the-world tickets as some sort of all-you-can-eat buffet. But without a little care, you can get indigestion and travelling can become hard work. Just because a ticket allows you to stop at X number of cities "without extra charge," it does not mean there is no cost to you. Taxes and local charges have to be paid at each airport and these can really mount up. Also, each stop involves the cost of transport to and from a city centre. A "free" stop in a city can easily cost £60 before you have even paid for a hotel or food.

2. Most people pay great attention to the departure time of their first flight and, maybe, the arrival time of their return flight. Obviously these are important, but you should also consider the timings of all flights on your trip. Remember, hotels normally only allow you to check in from early afternoon, and rooms have to be vacated by 11am or 12pm. Early-morning arrivals or late-night departures can leave you 'homeless' for hours on end. A couple of these might be unavoidable, but too many could become really tedious. 

3. Consider using airport hotels as a way of reducing cost. Let's say you have a flight due to arrive in a city in the early evening. By the time you have got into the centre you will probably only want to have a quick meal and go to bed. Since an airport hotel might cost £50 a night – compared to, say, £90 for a city hotel of equivalent standard – you are wasting the cost of the more expensive hotel because you are not going to be able to enjoy it. Spending the first (or last) night at an airport hotel cuts the overall cost and makes better use of your budget. 

4. When spending time in big cities it is wise to stay as central as possible and book the best hotel within your budget. Better to spend three nights in a central New York hotel than four nights in a hotel in a more remote area. You are likely to get a much better experience of the city that way. 

5. Work out which destinations on your route are 'cheap' and which are 'expensive' and try to plan accordingly. You also need to allow a few days for rest – it is good to have a break of five days at one hotel every so often, rather than just darting from city to city for two nights at a time. For example, you could say that Bangkok is 'cheap' and Hong Kong 'expensive'. You might therefore plan to have a longer stay in Bangkok, where you can find plenty of reasonable accommodation at all levels, and then just a couple of days at a good class hotel in the centre of Hong Kong. Or you could choose Las Vegas as a cheap resting point in between visits to expensive cities like San Francisco, Chicago and New York.

6. Mix the price and quality of hotels to add some variety to the trip. If you combine all the points above, you can see that an eight-night trip through Bangkok and Hong Kong can be quite economical. You can spend longer in Bangkok, at a decent medium-grade hotel. Maybe the first night of your stay in Hong Kong could be at an airport hotel, and the saving on this would allow you to splurge a bit on a higher quality hotel in central Hong Kong for a couple of nights. 

7. Whether you book your ticket direct with the airline or through an agent, the first airline you fly with is the 'issuing airline'. Airlines like to boast of the advantages of their alliances and the "global, seamless service" they offer, but if you need to make changes to a ticket you will very often be referred back to the issuing airline. It therefore makes sense to take your first flight with a well-organised, large airline with offices around the world. If only for this reason, I would choose to take a first flight, for example, with British Airways rather than Malev, or with Lufthansa rather than TAM. 

8. If you are trying to collect frequent flyer points on your long journey, you should give some thought as to which airline card you use, assuming you have a number of different cards. You can normally only use one card for the whole journey. Earnings benefits can vary quite significantly between cards, so you need to work out exactly what you will get.
9. If you are not a member of any airline frequent flyer scheme then you should join the scheme of the airline you fly with first. Even if the journey earns you little or nothing, it is worth registering just in case. A round-the-world trip in Economy can – with some skill, and taking care to use the right airlines and card – earn you enough for a short flight to Europe.
10. Match the airlines you fly with to your requirements on each leg. For example, if you are flying in Economy, you might prefer to avoid long, overnight flights. A round-the-world ticket gives you every opportunity to keep these to a minimum. Similarly, if you have decided to fly Business Class, you should make sure that the longest sectors are on quality airlines that offer the best service available.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Crew Earth Observations 'Top Ten' Photos

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(23 May 2006) --- Eruption of Cleveland Volcano, Aleutian Islands, Alaska is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 13 crewmember on the International Space Station. This image, acquired shortly after the beginning of the eruption, captures the ash plume moving west-southwest from the summit vent. The eruption was short-lived; the plume had completely detached from the volcano summit two hours later. 

Photo credit: NASA 





Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Top 20 Amazing Sandcastles

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Sand art is the practice of modelling sand into an artistic form, such as a sand sculpture, sandpainting, or sand bottles. A sand castle is a type of sand sculpture resembling a miniature building, often a castle.

The two basic building ingredients, sand and water, are available in abundance on a sandy beach, so most sand play takes place there, or in a sandpit. Tidal beaches generally have sand that limits height and structure because of the shape of the sand grains. Good sand sculpture sand is somewhat dirty, having silt and clay that helps lock the irregular shaped sand grains together.

Sand castles are typically made by children, simply for the fun of it, but there are also sand sculpture contests for adults that involve large, complex constructions like these.

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Top 10 Predators of World

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10. Tarantula
Tarantula spiders are among the most feared animals on the planet, and with good reason. Not only are they giants, as spiders go, but they are such stealthy and sk*lled hunters that no small animal that wanders within their grasp stands a chance at survival. The typical hunting modus operandi for tarantulas is to be patient. They lie in wait for a hapless passerby and then pounce without warning. Because of their size, they can reach 5 inches in length with a 12-inch leg span; tarantulas are able to quickly subdue their prey and crush them with their large fangs. Finally, they shower their victim's body with digestive juices and then lap up the resulting fluid. 

Monday, October 25, 2010

Crazie CARS

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Some owners like to get creative with decorating their cars.


Sunday, October 24, 2010

20 Incredible LEGO Artworks

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Some artists use paint, others bronze, but Nathan Sawaya chooses to build his awe-inspiring art out of toy building blocks. LEGO® bricks to be exact. The former corporate lawyer quit his job in 2001 to focus on becoming the world’s foremost LEGO artist.

With more than 1.5 million colored bricks in his New York studio, Saway’s sculptures take many forms.

Sawaya’s art is currently touring North American museums in a show titled, The Art of the Brick. It’s the only exhibition focusing exclusively on LEGO as an art medium. The creations, constructed from nearly one million pieces, were built from standard bricks beginning as early as 2002.


Saturday, October 23, 2010

Pencil Magic

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The humble graphite pencil might seem like the simplest of drawing tool, but in the hand of true talent it is a magic wand.



















TOP 10 iphone tips

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1: Calculator

When you launch the app, simply turn your phone sideways to reveal a scientific calculator.
1 10 Top iPhone Tips & Tricks That You Might Not Know
Scientific calculator iPhone

10 Most Amazing Extinct Animals

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Tyrannosaurus Rex (extinct 65 million years ago)[Wiki]Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time,measuring up to 43.3 feet long, and 16.6 ft tall, with an estimated mass that goes up to 7 tons. Like other tyrannosaurids, Tyrannosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail. Relative to the large and powerful hindlimbs, Tyrannosaurus forelimbs were small and they retained only two digits.


Fossils of T. rex have been found in North American rock formations dating to the last three million years of the Cretaceous Period at the end of the Maastrichtian stage, approximately 68.5 to 65.5 million years ago; it was among the last dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. More than 30 specimens of T. rex have been identified, some of which are nearly complete skeletons. Some researchers have discovered soft tissue as well. The abundance of fossil material has allowed significant research into many aspects of its biology, including life history and biomechanics.

Amazing 3D chalk drawings

Posted by Narcissus 12:36 PM, under , | No comments

It is impossible to tell what is real from what’s an illusion


Most of drawings are made by Julian Beever ,he is an English artist who’s famous for his art on the pavement of England, France, Germany, USA, Australia and Belgium.  


ENJOY !!!




Friday, October 22, 2010

Pencil over Camera

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Is this REAL ???

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Body-painted in such a way to look as an acrylic masterpiece,to make illusion .















Realistic paintings

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These aren’t real people ?




Thursday, October 21, 2010

10 Most Expensive Music Videos

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Scream: Michael Jackson’s Scream is rated as the top most expensive music videos. The cost spent by Michael Jackson for making this video is $7,000,000 +. Scream was first aired in June 1995.








Fruit Sculptures

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Sculptured Papaya

Carved half-ripen papaya inlayed on uniformly-sized small pieces of ice is just perfect and the main ingredients complement each other. In the same manner the half-reddish and half-pinkish oranges and papaya become prominent like fresh morning flowers while the green leaves makes the sculpture complete and so cool you’re like in gentle walk on a filed of snow. This fruit sculpture befits any social gatherings.




Inventive furniture

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Furniture Made of Popsicle Sticks

The 56-year-old Los Angeles-based artist spends his days making one-of-a-kind chairs, tables, lamps and mirrors out of Popsicle sticks. 
Creating multiple layers to reinforce the sticks' weak points, Hrobowski's creations are fully functional, expertly crafted and aesthetically pleasing.


Add caption

Ugliest Dogs

Posted by Narcissus 11:13 AM, under | No comments


10. Chihuahuas

Let’s start by picking on the little guy.  Bulging eyes, a breed standard height that shouldn’t exceed 10 inches, and notoriety through Ren and Stimpy, put this little chap’s paws firmly in the list of ugliest dogs.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Most expensive photographs

Posted by Narcissus 2:47 PM, under | No comments


Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent II Diptychon (2001), $3,346,456, February, 2007, Sotheby’s London auction.




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