Dark Roasted Blend

Link Latte 123

2009-11-15T19:39:00.003-08:00

#123 - Week of November 15, 2009

The Stone Forest... this is something else - [awesome pics]
Very entertaining infographic about coffee - [cool info]
"Oasis Of The Seas", the biggest ship, is completed, video and pics - [wow]
Half Car, Half Bike, is Really Bizarre - [wow auto]
Living Room Decorated Inside a PC - [crazy PC mod]
Divers Wrestling with Octopusses! - [anyone has pics?]
Interesting Surreal Set of Female Form Variations - [photography]
Peculiar qualities of a hyroscope - [neat video]
Something is brewing in the Moscow skies - [click image to enlarge]
Anamorphic Images & Illusions! - [follow the links]
Great visual graphic of music sales - [cool info]
World's Longest BASE Jump - [wow video]
Very strange, and yet somewhat cool game, more - [art]
Even Mona Lisa needs some coffee in the morning - [cool art]
Computopia, courtesy 1969 Japan - [futuristic]
100 year old Antarctic whiskey - [wonder about the taste]
Man-eating monster is alive and well - [and plays with its hunters]
Wonder (Bread) Woman, Disposable Paper Dresses - [weird art] - via
Bizarre and Brilliant Bed Designs - [compilation]
Love Story, Flickr-style - [romantic geek article]
How to commute on a motorcycle with your pet - [funny guide]
Most unique... some are simply nuts... golf courses - [round-up]
The Ultimate Argument Resolution Device (and the Apologizer) - [ha!]
Zooey sings an upbeat song... - [nice video]
Vivaldi played like you never heard it before - [unreal video]
One Russian guy did this animation for fun - [cool video]
An Epic Song Plus Epic Destruction - [equals a cool music video]
Sleeping Betty... is tired! - [animation masterpiece, funny!]
Make stunning Flash websites for free! - [promotion]
The strangest animals... but you knew that - [wow nature]
Never buy an animal from a pet store? - [health tips]
Some unusual photos of fathers and kids - [compilation]

SEE ALL OTHER LINK LATTE ISSUES HERE

Outrageously Creative Ads, Issue 12

2009-11-12T21:25:00.007-08:00

"QUANTUM SHOT" #598
Link - by A. Abrams

You are going to be shocked and entertained... and then maybe you're actually going to buy stuff

It would be simply impossible to list or even mention all of the great ads that appeared since our last issue. We're sure you've seen some of them already in the running campaigns, and perhaps even succumbed to their appeal and reached for the wallet. For this is what they are: creative masterpieces designed to part you and your money.

As always, this next installment in our highly popular series covers print, urban, and viral advertisements, chosen for originality and lasting impression.

Are you ready? Let's dive in -

"Water on Lens" Exhibition - Click here to see more, via

Where even nightmares come to rest:

Get rid of your nightmares, already:

Some spectacular wide-format visual ads (click to enlarge) -

More monsters and disasters:

What's the worst that could happen? Well....

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Household Surrealism

Tough, very tough:

Good suction:

Good lubricant:

Let them see and appreciate your kitchen:

Some weird situations. Do they even have to be explained? -

Extreme zoom:

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Viral Street and Urban Ads

New urban sport:

Followed by thirst for Guinness, of course:

Warning: gross! Click at your own risk here to see the gruesome campaign of relieving normal poster people of heads and other extremities.

Not an ad, but the best placement of street art possible: "Periodic Table", indeed -

Homegrown mattress sale ad? -

Continuing a popular theme of effective advertisement in elevators, here are some good examples:

Left: "Wake up!" - Right: "Yo-Yo Effect of Most Diets":

Brilliant stuff:

(images via)

More street smarts:

A valid concern:

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Unexpected Weirdness

This is creative art by David Stewart: Workplace and Household Hazards -

(images credit: David Stewart)

A similar ad, via:

Even aliens need sunglasses:

Humans need sunglasses badly in particular situations:

Great demonstration for "Change":

Multiple choice situations:

More ads that caught our attention -

"Obesity is Suicide":

A brilliant lingerie ad? (in light of recent H1N1 outbreak):

Sometimes shadows play unwanted tricks on billboard advertisements (this one says "Vote for...") -

This is not an ad, but simply creative photography - although it is a masterpiece, in our humble opinion (and advertising agencies should take note):

(image credit: Tatiana Mikhina)

CONTINUE TO OTHER "COOL ADS" ISSUES! ->

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Marvelous Burj Dubai Fountain Show

2009-11-08T21:09:00.008-08:00

Link
Scroll down for today's pictures & links.

Marvelous Burj Dubai Fountain Show

I can watch this over and over again... The tallest fountain in the world (with water reaching as high as 150 meters), near the tallest building in the world (see here) was recently completed and tested with this water/light/music extravaganza. The musical piece is the "Time To Say Goodbye", performed by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman.

url

We wrote about various architectural marvels of Dubai before. To check the latest updates on construction in Dubai, see this thread at SkyscraperCity.

Today's pictures & links:

Assemblage Cuties

Remember our Robot Art Series? Here is an odd couple, made by Joe Chasse - which already won a couple of awards at an art show (more info):

(image credit: Joe Chasse)

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Hamsters (Guinea Pigs) Are on the Move Today

(original unknown)

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Las Vegas? What Las Vegas?

We will not mention Las Vegas' Downtown Mainstreet Experience here. But... This is in China, so will take some traveling to get to:

"The Place" in Beijing, China, is covered by a giant LED screen - 250m (820 ft) long and 30m (98 ft) wide - claimed as the biggest in the world.

(images credit: Troy)

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This Is Paper Craft Gone to Heaven

Simply unbelievable construction put on display - where else? - in Tokyo. See other inspiring works from paper in our One Sheet of Paper and Cutting Up Books articles.

(images credit: zuzutop)

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Mixed fresh links for today:

This is more than fascinating - [journey into the micro-world]
Just a drop of water... and another drop, and another - [wow video]
The Man from Clapham, and a Person from Porlock - [interesting]
One of those 365 Days Flickr sets, but some are beautiful - [surreal]
Air Conditioner as a Thing of Beauty - [design]
Another awesome-looking motorcycle - [our soft spot]
Good overview of the state of digital music - [infographic]
Weirdest Restaurants! - [cool round-up, some nsfw]
Haunting Abandoned Places Gallery - [some are new to me, click next]
Rehashing YouTube videos to sell broadband - [fun video]
Bus Ride Through the Forest Fire - [harrowing video]
What if Matrix was shot in the silent films' era - [cool video]
Amazing Houses & Home Architectural Designs - [architecture]
Tips to boost metabolism (what, no beer?) - [health tips]
Make stunning Flash websites for free! - [promotion]

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Mind-boggling Cave Exploration Photography

Polish photographer Howito explores caves, with some spectacular visual results. See his photos in this gallery. Click to enlarge images below:.

(images credit: Howito)

Also, don't forget to check out our Most Amazing Caves article for more impressive photography.

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Dried Seahorse... Dried Gecko... Traditional Chinese Medicine. Add It to Your Tea?

Continuing the topic of weird, strange and (perhaps) wonderful food from all over the world, we just have to show these dried "herbal food" products, found by Troy in China:

(images credit: Troy)

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Mutant Snail Goes Hunting

What a splendid monster... Indeed, no Godzilla or any other Japanese imagination-spawned creature can tackle the German "Orchid-on-Drugs" Blob:

(image credit: A Journey Round My Skull)

See more illustrations from Der Orchideengarten, a rare German fantasy magazine, lovingly scanned by A Journey Round My Skull - Click Here. Also don't miss the covers (some nsfw).

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The Ugliest Car in the World

"The Aurora" (1957) was build by Rev. Alfred Juliano for safety, not speed... or beauty. Click to enlarge:

(click to enlarge)

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Awe-inspiring Hoover Dam Bypass Construction

Mind-boggling pics, recently taken from a helicopter flight over the site (see more construction photos here). A good addition to our Bridge Construction article:

Click to enlarge images!

(images credit: Hoover Dam Bypass - via)

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Is This Real?

Handshake with Mother Nature - more info.

(Photo credit: newsteam.co.uk)

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Cave City on the Moon

Check out these rarely-seen futuristic images from French sources (courtesy Mondorama 2000)

(source: "Le monde de demain", 1969, illustrator: inconnu)

(source: "Le monde et son aventure", illustrator: F.H.K. Henrion)

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Jeff VanderMeer's New Novel "Finch" is Launched

The third, and possibly final, part of a darkly surreal saga about strange City of Ambergris - "Finch" - was described as “fungal noir... steampunk delirium... paranoid spy thriller..." and can be already ordered from Amazon.

Visit "Finch" Reader's Page for various exclusive posters and downloads.

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Relax

(original unknown)

READ THE PREVIOUS ISSUE ->

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Weird Food McDonald's Sells Around The World

2009-11-05T00:12:00.008-08:00

"QUANTUM SHOT" #597
Link - Article by Chris Mitchell of Travel Happy, and A. Abrams

McDonald's Around The World: Marvels Never Cease, Especially in Asia

If you think McDonald's sells the same burgers and fries everywhere in the world, think again – here in Asia they’ve had to make some concessions to local tastes and come up with some peculiar fast-food variations on Asian favourites.

It all started with the Samurai Pork Burger. I saw this advertised outside a McDonald's in Bangkok back in 2004 and was somewhat perplexed. Why is it a Japanese name when I’m in Thailand? And what do Samurai have to do with pork? Actually, why is it called Samurai at all? Sadly, I never actually found out any of the answers, but it made me start paying closer attention to McDonald's every time I went to another country in Asia.

(Samurai Pork Burger, Bangkok, Thailand (left) and Thai Spicy Fish McDippers (right) - photos via)

Perhaps more traditional for Thailand, the Thai Spicy Fish McDippers (image above right) are a piscine breadcrumb and chili overload. Incidentally, don’t actually expect to eat your fast food in Thailand fast – you will inevitably be handed your burger but have to wait five minutes for your fries, which will be dutifully brought to you – by which time, of course, you’ve eaten your burger…

In Singapore, the national obsession with rice extends to having rice cakes in your burger.

(Rice Burgers, Singapore)

I expected lots of interesting stuff in a Japanese McDonald's – McTentacles perhaps – but the menu was disappointingly ordinary.

Although there were these – Seaweed Flavoured Fries. Also, see below-right: the tasty tentacle snack from Japan. Yum.

In Hong Kong, I nearly got arrested for taking this photo of the Green Tea and Red Bean Ice Cream Sundae. Didn’t realise they guarded their secret bean recipe quite so zealously.

(Green Tea And Red Bean Sundae, Hong Kong)

In Indonesia, as the world’s largest Muslim country, chicken is far more popular than beefburgers (and, of course, the Samurai Pork Burger would be completely taboo). Hence you get combo sets of chicken, rice and Coke:

Chicken, Rice and Coke, Jakarta, Indonesia

Perhaps my biggest WTF moment (Weird and Troubling Food, naturally) in a McDonald's was in the Philippines, when I spotted the clotted mess that is McSpaghetti. (McDo indeed). My Filipino friends explained to me that it was incredibly popular and basically consisted of spaghetti soaked in sugar. Ewwww.

Let me repeat this: Spaghetti - Soaked In - Sugar!.

McSpaghetti, Philippines

I also seem to remember that when I first went to Australia in 2003, there was a Billabong Burger that had tinned beetroot between two patties. Sadly (or perhaps thankfully), I don’t have any photographic evidence, though it tasted as grim as it sounds. There was also a similar one called McOz with only one patty (plus the tinned beetroot that is ubiquitous in Australia – fresh beetroot isn’t nearly as popular).

Spam, Spam, Spam, Eggs, Bacon, and Spam

David Gardner shares his experience: "Did you know you can get Spam, eggs, and rice for a McDonald’s Breakfast in Honolulu? Yup. Right there on Kalakaua St facing Waikiki. Totally cool!"

See this classic Monty Python sketch to truly appreciate the irony.

(images via 1, 2)

In the middle of Moscow, on a busy Arbat street, you can get a take-out for your horse:

(image credit: Kotofei)

Big Macs are a Big Unknown in Chongqing, China

My most memorable experience of McDonald's in Asia, however, is stumbling onto a MaccyDs in Chongqing, China. I’d just completed an excruciating trip up the Three Gorges on an overloaded passenger boat that played earsplitting soap operas the entire journey, and I was in need of comfort food. Chongqing is a vast city with a mind-boggling 31,000,000 inhabitants – and that’s just the official figure. Arriving there just as dusk began to fall was somewhat intimidating to say the least. Things were not helped when I arrived at the front of the McDonald's queue dishevelled and hungry, and found, much to my horror, that the universally understood phrase of “Big Mac” was not understood here.

Managers were summoned despite (or perhaps because of) my increasingly strident pointing at the overhead menu, until a Chinese teenager behind me stepped up and got me exactly what I wanted in 20 seconds flat. He spoke a little English, and I could tell he wanted to practice so I invited my culinary rescuer to join me and we had a great, if slow conversation about his life in Chongqing. “Chongqing is great”, he said. “But I want to go to America”. “Why?” I asked. He broke into a beam of a smile and said “Because I want to meet Christina Aguilera!”

That conversation rescued what had otherwise been a grim day, and makes me smile every time I recall it. And it wouldn't have happened if I hadn’t gone to McDonald's.

Some Other Fast-Food Masterpieces From Around the World

Some are not McDonald's, technically, but very hard to omit when making an article like this. Here is -

Tuna Pie! Seen at Jollibee (Philippines).

(image via)

This is wonderful pizza jigsaw puzzle, where every piece is a tasty morsel:
(Winter Double King Pizza at Pizza Hut, Japan)

(image via)

Peas and potatoes make up the patty in the McAloo Tikki at McDonald's in India -

(image via)

Great travel site Trifter shows more international Mac food variations, among them guacamole (avocado paste) McPollo burger in Chile:

(image via)

Let us know about other interesting McDonald's offerings you found around the world.

When Looking for McDonald's, Beware of Imitations!

(original unknown)

If you’re wondering why I even frequent McDonald's when I’m travelling in the continent of tremendous cuisine, the reasons are threefold:

1) Sometimes you’re so tired or cultureshocked or plain lazy you just want something completely familiar to eat in an air-conditioned, relatively clean environment, however bad it may be for you;

2) McDonald's is actually a great place to peoplewatch because, funnily enough, all the locals go there, and;

3) It irks travel purists no end, so that’s always a winner. (There is a great explanation of why eating at McDonald's while traveling is not to be sneered at by Rolf Potts, with an equally interesting addendum by Pico Iyer, both of which save me having to rewrite it here).

McDonald's Creativity Zoo: Unlimited Imagination from Used Packaging

We wrote about "Bent Objects" sculptures from McDonalds materials before.

(art by Bent Objects)

But now they've got some creepy new sculptures made, right in time for Halloween:

(art by Bent Objects)

But you do not need to use any fast food materials to create monsters: here is how to make (cook and eat) your very own alien caterpillar:

Speaking about post-Halloween cooking, here is another idea:

(original unknown)

CONTINUE TO OTHER "WEIRD FOOD"! ->

Other articles by Chris Mitchell Chris Mitchell of Travel Happy, for Dark Roasted Blend:
Komodo Dragons: They Eat Meat
Plain of Jars: Bombs and Mystery in Laos

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The World's Most Magnificent Pipe Organs

2009-10-31T00:39:00.005-07:00

"QUANTUM SHOT" #596
Link - article by M. Christian and A. Abrams

"Pipe Dreams" with Magnificent Sound: Quite Simply, The Blockbusters of Their Time

Some of the most epic and magnificent music masterpieces were created to be played on a large pipe organ - made even better if listened inside soaring gothic cathedrals with pretty much perfect acoustics. The wonder of this music is certainly timeless, and gets even more amazing when you start to investigate the history, science, and simple magnificence that has gone into the creation of some of the world’s most incredible pipe organs.

(on the left, the world's largest pipe organ console, in Atlantic City - photo via - and on the right: Tokyo pipe organ, built by Marc Garnier from France in 1991, via)

As with a lot of important technological – as well as artistic – achievements, trying to determine who made the first one of these things is a bit fuzzy. Some experts give the ancient Greeks most of the credit – specifically the genius Ctesibius of Alexandria. Those early Greek organs were pretty simplistic, but the basic principle is still the same: force air through a pipe and you get sound. Narrower pipes produce a higher note, wider pipes a lower note. From these simple tubes of metal works of amazing intricacy may be wrought.

(on the left, a pre-organ "instrument", described by Pretorius in "Syntagma Musicum", 1615 - on the right: a mobile organ from Maximillian time, 1517)

What’s interesting is that portable organs were not only made in certain parts of Europe during the Middle Ages - they were quite common. They were probably about as mechanically simple as Ctesibius' early invention, but it’s still remarkable that the technology was transportable by horse and wagon.

The Beer Bottle Organ is an obvious idea, that was realized way back in the 1800s. The right-hand image below is a portable bottle organ from the 1750s:

(images via)

But when you want to talk about size - you have to talk about the permanently installed ones.

Size matters, and does increase with the amount of money invested

As with astronomical clocks (see our article here), large organs quickly became the blockbusters of their time. If yours was a town of any note then you pretty much had to have one – and the bigger the better. The fact that they were used by churches, like the aforementioned fancy clocks, couldn’t hurt either, as they had the deep pockets to afford them.

Fantastic ornamental hanging tubes of the cathedral organ in Trier, Germany (left image below) and a strange horizontal arrangement of tubes in Madrid, Spain:

(images via)

(Helsinki Cathedral's elegant pipe organ, built by E.F.Walcker, 1832 - image via)

(left: balcony organ in Salzburg, Austria - right: Notre Dame du Finistere, in Brussels, Belgium - image via)

(very elegant organ in Hamburg, Germany - image via)

Here’s a bunch of interesting facts:

The pipe organ created for Halberstadt, Germany was a monster for its time. Its bellows had to be worked ceaselessly by ten men – who were, no doubt, music fans. The technology is impressive today, and was simply astounding when it was created in (ready for this?) 1361. Today it is the instrument and the site for the Slowest Piece of Music Ever Performed

(the bellows of Halberstadt, Germany, pipe organ - via)

Because the technology of a pipe organ is relatively unsophisticated, making them bigger was a simple matter of scale: bigger pipes, bigger air supplies, etc. While there were a lot of monster organs… stop giggling… there are some that took the the musical instrument from noteworthy to astounding.

One of the largest still played today is the Kotzschmar Memorial Organ in Portland, Maine. Built in 1911, it is a beautiful piece of engineering as well as musical artistry. Although much of its technology is hidden from sight, what is visible is simultaneously elegant and powerful, which also perfectly defines the sonorous air of its haunting notes.

(left: Kotzschmar Organ, photo via - right: Wanamaker Organ, photo via)

Another great pipe organ was created in 1904 for the St Louis World’s Fair, the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ in Philadelphia is a monster among monsters. Everything about the instrument looks like it was designed not just to make sound but a LOT of VERY BIG sounds: it has not one, not two … but, to get to the point, 28,482 pipes set in 461 rows (more info).

(a very small portion of Wanamaker's 28,482 pipes: strings section - photo via)

(the organ at United States Naval Academy has 522 registers (controls), image via)

Its keyboard looks more like something used to launch a space shuttle rather than underscore an aria… but the organ definitely creates music – on a scale commensurate with its standing as the second largest pipe organ in the world.

Nature Plays Its Own Melody

The Singing Ringing Tree (by Burnleys Panopticon design, architects Tonkin Liu Ltd) is a wind organ sculpture which sings (or moans) with the wind - some say very hauntingly so (watch the video here):

(images via)

Natural "pipe organ" formations can be found in some karst caves - they are eternally silent however, playing "The Sounds of Silence" to an attentive ear. Here is one in Mramornaya cave in Crimea, Ukraine:

(image via)

Which leads us to...

The Great Stalacpipe Organ - the World's Largest Musical Instrument!

Deep in the Luray Caverns in Virginia... there are sounds that might even rouse the Old Ones if played properly (or if Pippin drops a bunch of stuff down the hole). It is played by striking huge stalactites all around the cavern with felt hammers, producing sombre, sonorous tones... (more info):

(images via 1, 2)

The Loudest Musical Instrument Ever Constructed

How would you like to hear something six times the volume of the loudest train whistle? I'd say you should be warned before the sonic assault commences so that you could cover your ears.

Next time you’re in Atlantic City, swing on by and check it out in the Boardwalk Hall. Built in 1932, the organ makes that beast in Philadelphia look like a sickly kitten. While the Wannamaker Organ boasts those 28,482 pipes, the Boardwalk Hall organ has – ready for this? – about 33,000 pipes. I say ‘about’ because even the owner/operators of the machine aren’t sure. Indeed, the engineering for the organ looks like something that might have been built to power the Muzak in the Tower of Babylon elevators.

(images via)

The Boardwalk organ holds a total of three Guinness World Records: largest pipe organ in the world, largest musical instrument, and – it must have been a literal blast to have been there when this was set – the loudest musical instrument ever constructed. When asked how he felt about winning this last award, the keyboardist was heard, barely, to answer “what?” See more images here.

Trying to play this beast is a life-time job: there are four manuals, and a full list of "stops" (registers, and also controls that operate this mechanism) is published here. See if you can imagine memorizing this, let alone fluently play it.

(images via)

From "Spitz Flute Celeste" (register 217) to "Tuba d'Amour" (register 231) this fantastic instrument can indeed wake up the dead with celestial music, it seems.

"When all of these stops and pitches are played together, the result has been described as a "wall of sound" that can "move men's souls like no other organ". The stops are controlled by 1,235 stop-keys on the main seven-manual console (which is permanently located to the right of the stage) and by 673 stop-keys on a portable five-manual console" (source)

You were ready to hear about the world’s largest organ? (well, hello there, YouTube commenters) Unfortunately – as with a lot of big organ claims -- you’re likely to be disappointed. The Boardwalk organ, alas, is largely silent: having been damaged by weather, water, budget cuts, and poor attempts at repair, it can still be heard but at only a fraction of its true potential and power.

And there’s nothing funny about an organ that isn't operating at full capacity.

Something that looks like a giant mobile pipe organ, but is definitely NOT

These are the acoustic locators in Japan in the 1930s, indented to detect and track incoming bombers before the widespread use of radar. Here's the Japanese emperor Horohito checking out the AA guns intended to be used in conjunction with the sound locators (more info)

CONTINUE TO "UNUSUAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS" ->

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