Real-Life LEGO Hotel

Playing with LEGOs is such fun, but getting to stay in a real-life LEGO hotel!? It's every kid's (and some parents') dream come true! This LEGO-themed hotel is located at LEGOLAND in Carlsbad, California, and it is scheduled to open on April 5, 2013. The 250-room hotel stands three stories high and features a large amount of colorful figures and sculptures, built completely out of LEGOs.

Visitors to the hotel will be able to select their favorite toy theme—Pirates, Kingdom, or Adventure—and experience the fun of the popular building bricks in a round-the-clock world of excitement. Every room is filled with decor that will transport hotel guests into a unique and imaginary land. Search your pirate's cabin for clues to crack the code to the treasure chest, avoid the toy tarantulas, lizards, and scorpions on a great jungle adventure, or fight off dragons and become a family of royalty in your own personal kingdom. 

Multidimensional Self-Portraits

Artist Veri Apriyatno born in the town of Kuningan, West Java profinsi, Indonesia, April 12, 1973. In 1998 received his degree at Bandung Institute of Technology, Department of Fine Art, Painting studio.  From 1993 until now, has been a lot of participation in solo and group exhibitions. some achievements and awards I have achieved, including: Winsor & Newton Worldwide painting competition in 2000, the Jakarta Art Award International Art Competition in 2010 and Bandung Contemporary Art Award 2010. In addition, from 2004 until now, he had produced seven books about the work of 'How to Draw'. Currently he is focusing on working with technical drawings on a large canvas, with a base of contemporary art. 

SOLO EXHIBITION
2006  Hotel  Hilton, Jakarta
2004   The Japan foundation, Jakarta
1999   The Japan foundation, Jakarta
1998   Grand Opening Gallery Barak, Bandung

JOINT EXHIBITION selected
2009   Middelbare Akte. Galeri Soemardja FSRD ITB, Bandung Indonesia
2010   Art For AIDS.  Bentara Budaya Jakarta Indonesia
2010   Exhibition finalists JAKARTA  ART AWARD 2010, North Art Space Ancol Jakarta, Indonesia

 AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENT
2010   Finalists  JAKARTA ART AWARD 2010
1999   Finalists  Windsor&Newton World Wide Millenium Painting competitions .

Kawazu Nanadaru Bridge

How do you build a bridge on a mountainside when the grade is so steep that a linear ramp isn’t possible? Build a loop, and if one is not enough, build two. This is what engineers did when the built the Kawazu-Nanadaru Loop Bridge, also known as the Japanese Double loop spiral, in Kawazu, Japan. This double spiral brings cars up and down a full 45 meters while being seemingly suspended in a valley between two mountainsides. The spirals measure 80m in diameter and the whole ramp section is 1.1km long.

The bridge on Highway 414 between Tokyo and the Izu peninsular was finished in 1982 and has become a well known landmark since. 

The Motherland Calls, also called Mother Motherland, Mother Motherland Is Calling, simply The Motherland, or The Mamayev Monument, is a statue in Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. It was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin. Declared the largest statue in the world in 1967, it is the last non-religious statue to be declared the largest; every record holder since has been a Buddhism-related sculpture. Compared with the later higher statues, The Motherland Calls is significantly more complex from an engineering point of view, due to its characteristic posture with a sword raised high in the right hand and the left hand extended in a calling gesture. The technology behind the statue is based on a combination of prestressed concrete with wire ropes structure, a solution which can be found also in another work of Nikitin's, the super-tall Ostankino Tower in Moscow.

Construction and dedication

The Making of Motherland Calls — When the memorial was dedicated in 1967 it was the tallest sculpture in the world, measuring 87 metres (279 feet) from the tip of its sword to the top of the plinth. The figure itself measures 52 metres (170 feet), and the sword 33 metres (108 feet). Two hundred steps, symbolizing the 200 days of the Battle of Stalingrad, lead from the bottom of the hill to the monument. The lead sculptor was Yevgeny Vuchetich, and the significant structural engineering challenges of the 7,900 tonnes (7,800 long tons; 8,700 short tons) of concrete sculpture were handled by Nikolai Nikitin. The statue appears on both the current flag and coat of arms of Volgograd Oblast.

The duplication of the wording in the title "Mother Motherland" does not exist in the original. The Russian word for "Motherland", is derived from "birth" and can be literally translated as "birth place". The title The Motherland that gave Birth to me is Calling would be an alternate translation, but The Motherland Calls is probably better idiomatic English.

The model who posed for the statue, Valentina Izotova, a native of the city, is still recognized for her resemblance to the statue. She was recruited by Lev Maistrenko, an artist who was working on the memorial complex in the early 1960s.

According to some sources the statue was partially inspired by the Winged Victory of Samothrace,[citation needed] with somewhat more extended drapery. Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov is buried in the area of the monument, as is famous Soviet sniper Vasily Zaytsev, who killed 225 Axis soldiers in the battle of Stalingrad.

The statue is currently leaning due to groundwater level changes causing movement of the foundations; the leaning is rapidly getting worse. The statue is not fixed to its foundations and is held in place only by its weight. It has moved by 20 centimetres and is not expected to be able to move much farther without collapsing. While local authorities deny that the statue is in danger, conservation and restoration works started in 2010.

Amazing Transparent Smartphone

Smartphones have been pushing the envelope of our technological capabilities most notably symbolized by the Steve Jobs led Apple powerhouse up to present-day. They are considered the most influential technology on everyone’s list. Samsung recently introduced its flexible OLED screen, which offers us a taste of what is on the frontier of smartphone evolution. The Taiwanese company Polytron has now stepped into the fray to give us a preview of what a futuristic, sci-fi tech infused phone may one day look like.

Polytron Technologies, a worldwide leader and manufacturer of optical and electronic vision glass, recently unveiled the world’s first transparent phone. Yes sci-fi lovers, the first iteration of Tony Stark’s phone has been created. Though only a prototype, it is clear from the images released that not all of the phones components are yet capable of being transparent. The device is essentially a phone-shaped piece of glass with a small, cen.

The smartphone industry is assuredly fiercely competitive, and any technological edge a manufacturer can get is sure to earn them a handful of interested consumers. Though the benefits of a transparent phone are not immediately apparent at this time, Polytron remains hopeful by stating that the technology may be available by the end of 2013. The time frame might be a stretch, but the results are there nonetheless - reality is plowing full-steam ahead toward the technological possibilities predicted in many of our favorite sci-fi media. Maybe if we can somehow get these smartphone manufacturing companies to collaborate, Tony Stark’s phone would be a reality.