Man Etches Name In Sand, Visible From Space

   Gross opulence or a severe case of vanity it may be, but it's hard not to be impressed by this huge piece of graffiti. Or is it mega-landscaping? Or a new waterway? Frankly, it could be any of the above.

   Measuring 1,000 meters high, and two miles wide, the name "HAMAD" has been etched into the island of Al Futaisi just off the coast of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The letters are dug so deep that they form an artificial waterway when filled with seawater and it is so large that it can be easily spotted by satellite -- this landmark will be around for some time to come. So, who is Hamad? That would be the 63 year-old billionaire Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan.

   As a member of the ruling family of the oil-rich nation, Hamad is used to living it large. He built a pyramid to house 200 of his personal cars. He also built the world's largest truck, large enough to build four bedrooms in the cabin. Oh yes, and he has a motor home shaped like the Earth, exactly one-millionth the size... of the Earth.

   Out of interest, you can see "HAMAD" yourself by typing the coordinates "24.3442, 54.3255" into Google Earth or Google Maps.

10 Cameras + 1 Tesla Coil = 70 Megapixel Bullet Time Lightning.

Image via Wikipedia

This was one of the more challenging projects that Rob Flickenger had to do and it took him a while. He had to build a physical mount to hold all of the cameras, wire them together to a repurposed PC power supply, recompile CHDK to eliminate as many unnecessary camera keystrokes as possible, write some scripts to facilitate taking and retrieving the photos, then shoot the actual photos without accidentally frying the whole rig. And, of course, build and operate the Tesla coil itself, edit together the stills, and compile the whole thing into a possibly entertaining video.

reson8 from Rob Flickenger on Vimeo.

via: HackerFriendly

Japan - 3 Months after the Catastrophe

Japan continues to struggle with the effects of 9-point earthquake and ensuing tsunami that occurred three months ago on the northeast coast of the country. Local authorities are still trying to deal with the consequences of accidents at nuclear power plants, Fukushima. Workers continue to dismantle obstructions, while the approaching rainy season, which may increase the risk of spreading diseases. Collected here are photos taken over the past week - three months after the devastating catastrophe in the land of the rising sun, as well as photos of individual areas before and after the disaster.

The following are 30 high resolution pictures of Japan now. For a higher resolution make sure to click on an image.

1. Cars drive through the destroyed area for three months and two days after the 9-pointearthquake and tsunami, June 13, Natori, Miyagi Prefecture. The Japanese governmentis trying to deal with the consequences of disasters and problems of nuclear power plantaccident at Fukushima. The authorities are preparing for an increased risk of spread ofviral and infectious diseases as we approach the rainy season, which also hamper the work of raking debris. (Kiyoshi Ota / Getty
Images)

Soichi Noguchi's Top 15 Most Beautiful Photos, Tweeted From The Space

Soichi Noguchi is a Japanese aeronautical engineer who is currently a part of the Soyuz TMA-17 crew and Expedition 22 to the International Space Station and it seems that he is one of the first scientists who got an excellent idea to share what he sees from space with internet users.

Soichi recently started tweeting from the space and he decided to show us some of his best photos taken from there which he shares with us almost every day via Twitpic. Here you can see the list of some of the most beautiful photos taken by Soichi Noguchi from International Space Station.

Amazon River, Brazil, photo taken on February 6, 2010

Aruba Antiles near Venezuela, photo taken on February 6, 2010

Money Art

Some people might call this government property defacement, other might call this an art form. I'm pretty sure many people have seen some amazing drawings that alter paper currency into an art. Be it with a slight reference to X-Men, Tron, Star Trek or Avatar all of them are awesome. But wait, this is not what this post is going to be about. An artist by the name of Dan Tague creates a different kind of money art. Unlike many money-artistes, he folds currency to align the letters on the bills so that they spell out some intriguing messages and other common sayings. The Following exhibition of this unique art form is titled: "Live Free or Die"

cncntrc, an artistic monthly archive

cncntrc is a tumbler page that caught my attention while browsing for some cool images on the internet. It contains pictures, short videos, animated images as well as short eloquent quotes. The biggest factor that made me bookmark this page is the sheer quantity of very emotive and picturesque art that is archived chronologically by each month. The very minimalistic layout and the pure quality of the artwork posted there is majestic. This blog is a sure keeper in my bookmarks, so if you like my previous art-related posts you will definitely love cncntrc.

Here is just the tip of the iceberg of the amount of art that can be found over at the said blog:

Failblog - Epic Fail Funny Videos and Funny Pictures

Here is another iteration of funny site reviews. Today we will examine the FailBlog. This site consists of videos, pictures and .gif images. The site also prominently features pictures and videos of someone or something failing at something. All the content is captioned with the words "fail", "epic fail", "X Fail", "X; You're doin' it wrong" (X being the activity at which the subject has failed), "Things That are doing it", "M thru F; fails in the workplace", and "Probably Bad News", although occasionally there are some cases of "wins".

Without further adieu, here are my Top 5 Fails:

Iconic Images of our century, but with a little twist.

Here are some of the most memorable pictures of past 100 years, but there is a little something else added to them. Watch the amazing video to find out yourself:

via: YouTube