duminică, 30 iunie 2013
TEN THINGS I LEARNED FROM MAN OF STEEL
TEN THINGS I LEARNED FROM MAN OF STEEL
1. Superman can actually be cool!
2. It’s not an “S". It means hope.
3. You think your son is safe? I WILL FIND HIM!
4. A good death is its own reward.
5. I was bred to be a warrior, Kal. Trained my entire life to master my senses. Where did you train? ON A FARM?
6. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith. Then the trust thing comes afterwards.
7. It’s all downhill after the first kiss.
8. All-powerful alien refugees go for gingers.
9. Superman actually can kill people.
10. Michael Shannon rocks.
sâmbătă, 22 iunie 2013
Top 25 Similar Movies Released Around the Same Year
Have you ever noticed two seemingly identical movies being released at
the same time and wondered why Hollywood studios would do such a thing?
While you may have first chalked it up to mere coincidence, a quick
scroll through the list below suggests otherwise.
Earlier this week, Redditor CircadianHour compiled a list of ‘twin movies‘. As to why? Another commenter (tossedsaladandscram)
suggests that competing studios often own similar movie scripts and if
one studio gets wind that another is making a movie that is similar to a
script they own they may try to make it and put it out earlier or
around the same time.
A secondary reason, suggested by Ducksaucenem,
implies the benefits of shared marketing and buzz, especially if Studio
B has a smaller budget. Interestingly, this could be why studios prefer
to buy exclusive rights to comics and graphic novels, so other studios
can’t replicate the storyline.
Coincidence or not, below is a list of strangely similar movies released
around the same time. Any suggestions for additional ‘twin movies’
please let me know in the comments!
02. Babe | Gordy – 1995
04. Chasing Liberty | First Daughter – 2004
05. Volcano | Dante’s Peak – 1997
06. Antz | A Bug’s Life – 1998
07. Turner & Hooch | K-9 – 1989
08. Armageddon | Deep Impact – 1998
09. Friends With Benefits | No Strings Attached – 2011
10. Shark Tale | Finding Nemo – 2004/2003
11. Mirror Mirror | Snow White & the Huntsman – 2012
12. Red Planet | Mission to Mars – 2000
13. Top Gun | Iron Eagle – 1986
14. Capote | Infamous – 2006
15. Happy Feet | Surf’s Up – 2006/2007
16. Abyss | Leviathan – 1989
17. Stealing Harvard | Orange County – 2002
18. Powder | Phenomenon – 1995/1996
19. Tombstone | Wyatt Earp – 1994
20. The Wild | Madagascar – 2006/2005
21. Striptease | Showgirls – 1996/1995
22. The Truman Show | EDtv – 1998/1999
23. The Cave | The Descent – 2005
24. Cop Out | The Other Guys – 2010
25. After Earth | Oblivion – 2013
vineri, 21 iunie 2013
Top 10 Most Expensive Wedding Ever
For
many of us, weddings are a time to celebrate love with our closest
family members and friends. Add a couple million dollars to this
sentiment–and you get the record-breaking wedding budgets of some
outrageous celebs. Read the info-graphic to see which musicians,
designers, and political leaders take the wedding cake for most
expensive weddings of all time
joi, 20 iunie 2013
Top 20 World's Biggest Megacities
20. Buenos Aires
Urban area: 13.5 million people
City: 2.9 million people
According to the 2012 edition of Demographia's World Urban Areas index,
the capital of Argentina is the second largest urban area in South
America after Sao Paulo. Its per capita income is among the highest in
Latin America and its quality of life is ranked number one in the
region, although some estimates say that 4 million people in the area
live in poverty. It is also reportedly the most visited city in Latin
America.
Urban Detail — Buenos Aires is known for its European style architecture
and culture, a legacy of the Spanish and Italian origins of most of the
population. It has the highest concentration of theatres in Latin
America and is the birthplace of Tango music and dance. (Source:
Reuters)
19. Karachi, Pakistan
Urban area:13.8 million people
City: 13.0 million people
Students attend a rooftop evening class in a private school in a slum
area in Karachi, the largest city, main seaport and financial center of
Pakistan. Karachi is the second largest city proper in the world after
Shanghai and accounts for about 20 percent of Pakistan’s GDP. It is
growing rapidly due to rural-urban migration.
Urban Detail — After Pakistan won independence from the British and
separated from India Karachi’s population increased hugely as hundreds
of thousands of Muslim migrants from India settled there, transforming
its demographics and economy. (Source: Reuters)
18. Kolkata, India
Urban area: 14.4 million people
City proper: 4.5 million people
Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, sits on the banks of the River Hooghly which
empties into the Bay of Bengal. The city is India’s oldest port and the
commercial and cultural capital of East India, with the third largest
economy in South Asia after Mumbai and Delhi. Here Kolkata students
smear each other with colored powder during Holi, the Indian festival of
colours heralding the beginning of Spring.
Urban Detail — Much of the city was originally wetland and swamp. The
land was reclaimed over the centuries to accommodate the rapidly
increasing population. Kolkata is where Mother Teresa began her work
caring for the poor and the sick. (Source: Reuters)
17. Los Angeles, USA
Urban area: 14.9 million people
City: 3.8 million people
Los Angeles is the second biggest city in the United States by land
size. An extensive grid of freeways, boulevards, and smaller
neighborhood roads spans the city.
Urban Detail — Los Angeles is home to the largest Mexican, Guatemalan,
and Korean populations outside of those countries. Almost 40 percent of
the city’s population was born outside the United States. (Source:
Reuters)
16. Dhaka, Bangladesh
Urban area: 15.4 million people
City: 7 million people
One of the fastest growing cities in the world, Dhaka has attracted
economic migrants from all over Bangladesh. As many as one quarter of
Dhaka’s residents live in crowded slums, according to the World Bank.
Urban Detail — Dhaka is known as the rickshaw capital of the world as
most people get around using cycle rickshaws or autorickshaws. (Source:
Reuters)
15. Moscow, Russia
Urban area: 15.5 million people
City: 11.8 million people
By far Europe's biggest city, Moscow has been swelled by rising numbers
of migrants from other parts of Russia and the former Soviet states,
attracted by higher living standards. Russia’s expanding economy has
attracted people to the capital which is becoming richer.
Urban Detail — With more passengers than New York City and London
combined, Moscow has the world’s second busiest metro system after
Tokyo. It serves more than nine million people a day, has 182 stations,
and 301 kilometers (187 miles) of routes. (Source: Reuters)
14. Guangzhou-Foshan
Urban area: 16.8 million people
City: 11 million people
Historically known as Canton, Guangzhou is China’s third largest city
and located on the Pearl River in southern China about 120 kilometers
northwest of Hong Kong. It is a critical trading port and capital of
China’s industrial and manufacturing province of Guangdong, which has
been one of the fastest urbanizing areas of the world for many years.
Urban Detail — Ahead of the Asian Games in 2010 many buildings were
demolished to make way for more modern developments as property prices
soared and developers poured billions into real estate. (Source:
Reuters)
13. Mumbai, India
Urban area: 16.9 million people
City: 12.5 million people
Mumbai–called Bombay until the name was changed in 1995–is the
commercial and movie capital of India and has attracted millions of
migrants from the countryside. With high birth rates and the continued
influx of migrants, Mumbai’s population is expected to grow rapidly in
the future.
Urban Detail — Over half of the city’s population lives in slums. Poor
infrastructure and widespread poverty make it very difficult to meet the
demands of an ever-growing population. (Source: Reuters)
12. Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto
Urban area: 17 million people
City: N/A
Made up of the commercial and industrial city of Osaka, the port of
Kobe, and the ancient cultural capital of Kyoto, the Kansai megacity
encompasses all aspects of Japanese life from the neon lit Dotonbori
shopping district in Osaka pictured here to the Zen gardens and geisha
houses of Kyoto and is home to about 15 percent of Japan’s population.
Urban Detail — Large parts of the city of Kobe were destroyed in the
Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 which claimed over 6000 lives and
caused about 100 billion dollars in damages. The disaster was widely
seen as a major wake up call for the Japanese emergency services and led
to improvements in construction that paid dividends during the massive
2011 earthquake. (Source: Reuters)
11. Beijing, China
Urban Area: 17.3 million people
City: 11.7 million people
China’s capital hosted a spectacular if controversial Olympic Games in
2008. Despite spending billions to clean the city's air, average air
pollution levels remain five times above WHO safety standards.
Urban Detail — Bicycles are a common means of transportation for most
people in Beijing. But the number of cars is increasing by an estimated
15,000 every day. (Source: Reuters)
10. Cairo, Egypt
Urban Area: 17.8 million people
City: 6.7 million people
Located on the banks of the Nile River, Cairo is the biggest urban area
in Africa and in the Arab world. Bustling bazaars and narrow lanes, the
smells of spices and pipe smoke, the call to prayer five times a day and
the cacophony of horns–this is Cairo.
Urban detail — The city is also known by the name “Al-Qahirah”, “The
Triumphant” in Arabic. It is home to the oldest and biggest music and
film industry in the Arab world. (Source: Reuters)
09. Mexico City, Mexico
Urban area: 19.4 million people
City: 8.8 million people
Mexico City is ten times the size it was in 1940. The Mexican capital
generates a quarter of the country's wealth. However, with low
population growth, the number of people in retirement is expected to
rise rapidly.
Urban Detail — Security, air pollution, and traffic congestion are prime
concerns in Mexico City. These problems result from poor resource
management and unstructured growth. (Source: Reuters)
08. Sao Paulo, Brazil
Urban area: 20.2 million people
City: 11.2 million people
Sao Paulo is Brazil’s richest city and the most important financial
center in Latin America. Poverty and crime, however, remain a problem.
An average of 6,000 people are murdered annually in Sao Paulo.
Urban Detail — Sao Paulo is a very young and ethnically diverse city.
More than half of its population is under twenty years old, and it is
home to the largest Japanese community outside Japan. (Source:
Shutterstock)
07. New York, USA
Urban area: 20.4 million people
City: 8.2 million people
New York City, especially Manhattan, is a role model for balancing dense
development with good public transport and access to open spaces. New
York is the only American city where most households do not own a car.
Urban Detail — New York has been a gateway to America ever since the
first immigrants came to the U.S. Over 170 languages are spoken there
today. No single nationality or ethnicity dominates the city’s
culturally diverse population. (Source: Reuters)
06. Shanghai, China
Urban area: 20.8 million people
City: 17.8 million people
Shanghai has become China's financial and commercial center and is
ranked as the planet's largest city proper. It has one of the world’s
busiest ports and the world’s most extensive bus system with more than
one thousand lines.
Urban Detail — Shanghai has one of the world's most remarkable skylines.
Thirty five structures are taller than 200 meters, including two over
450 meters, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower and the Shanghai World Financial
Center. (Source: Reuters)
05. Manila, Philippines
Urban Area: 21.9 million people
City: 11.8 million people
Manila's colonial past is reflected in its architecture. Intramuros, the
historic center, is surrounded by a massive wall built by the Spanish
in the 16th century. Its parks and historic buildings have become a
major tourist attraction.
Urban Detail — More than 3 million people in Manila live in slums
without electricity, sanitation, and access to drinking water.
Population density is extremely high, in some areas more than 100,000
people live on one square kilometer. (Source: Reuters)
04. Delhi, India
Urban Area: 22.2 million people
City: 11 million people
Delhi is India’s capital and recently overtook Mumbai as the biggest
city by population size. It’s a place of striking contrasts. Mosques,
bazaars, and narrow lanes mark the old town. New Delhi, the capital,
features grand boulevards, business centers, and shopping malls.
Urban detail — Twenty languages are spoken in Delhi. The official and
most widely spoken language is Hindi, followed by Punjabi. English is
used for business and other official purposes. Urdu is common among the
Muslim community. (Source: Shutterstock)
03. Seoul-Incheon, South Korea
Urban area: 22.5 million people
City: 10.5 million people
Seoul has grown rapidly since the Korean War (1950-53). Today, nearly
half of the country’s population lives in and around Seoul. Seoul has
made remarkable progress in combating air pollution and is one of the
cleanest cities in Asia.
Urban Detail — Seoul is located 50 kilometers south of the heavily armed
border with North Korea. The city is in range of North Korean
artillery. Plans to move the capital further south have already caused
much debate. (Source: Reuters)
02. Jakarta, Indonesia
Urban area: 26 million people
City: 9.6 million people
Jakarta has been booming since 2005 after suffering economic crises and
disasters like floods and earthquakes in recent decades. Jakarta's
economy has boosted Indonesia’s economy to a growth rate of 6 percent.
Urban Detail — Despite many wide roads, Jakarta suffers from terrible
traffic congestion. To reduce traffic jams, some major roads have a
'three in one' rule during rush hours, prohibiting fewer than three
passengers per car. (Source: Reuters)
01. Tokyo, Japan
Urban area: 37.2 million people
City: 8.9 million people
Greater Tokyo is the largest urban agglomeration in the world,
swallowing up the neighboring cities of Yokohama, Kawasaki, and Chiba.
Despite its size, Tokyo has very efficient public transportation, which
accounts for almost 80 percent of all journeys.
Urban Detail — Tokyo Bay has been gradually filled up to create more
living space. Odaiba, an island made from waste, has become one of
Tokyo’s most interesting tourist spots and destinations for day
trippers. (Source: Miki Yokoyama)
miercuri, 19 iunie 2013
Top 10 Most Unusual Parks in the World
Nature - The best artist, but sometimes it interferes with the idea man,
and because such an alliance appear surprising places. We offer you a
selection of the most unusual parks in the world.
Park Buddhas — Laos
The park was started in 1958 by Luang Pu (Venerable Grandfather) Bunleua
Sulilat. Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat was a priest-shaman who integrated
Hinduism and Buddhism. His unique perspective was influenced by a Hindu
rishi under whom he studied in Vietnam. After the revolution in 1975,
anxious about the repercussions of the rule of Pathet Lao, he fled from
Laos to Thailand where he built another sculpture park, Sala Keoku in
Nong Khai. Both parks are located right next to the Thai-Lao border
(Mekong river), only a few kilometers apart from each other, and the
tallest structures of the Buddha Park can actually be seen from the Thai
side of Mekong.
The statues are made of reinforced concrete and are ornate, and
sometimes bizarre, in design. The statues appear to be centuries old,
though they are not. There are sculptures of humans, gods, animals, and
demons. There are numerous sculptures of Buddha, characters of Buddhist
beliefs like Avalokitesvara, and characters of Hindu lore, including
Shiva, Vishnu, and Arjuna. These sculptures were presumably cast by
unskilled workers under the supervision of Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat. One
notable sculpture resembles a giant pumpkin. It has three stories
representing three levels - Hell, Earth and Heaven. Visitors can enter
through an opening which is a mouth of a 3-metre-tall demon head (9.8
ft) and climb staircases from hell to heaven. Each story contains
sculptures depicting the level. At the top, there is a vantage point
where the entire park is visible. Another sculpture, an enormous
120-metre-long (390 ft) reclining Buddha, is also a park attraction.
Green Lake — Austria
Grüner See (Green Lake) is a lake in Styria, Austria near the town of
Tragöß. The lake is surrounded by the Hochschwab mountains and forests.
The name "Green Lake" originated because of its emerald-green water. The
clean and clear water comes from the snowmelt from the karst mountains
and has a temperature of 6–7 °C (43–45 °F). During the winter, the lake
is only 1–2 m deep and the surrounding area is used as a county park.
However, during the spring, when the temperature rises and the snow
melts, the basin of land below the mountains fills with water. The lake
reaches its maximum depth of around 12 m from mid-May to June and is
claimed to look the most beautiful at this time. In July, the water
begins to recede.
The lake supports a variety of fauna such as snails, water fleas
(Daphnia pulex), small crabs, fly larvae, and different species of trout
(Salmo). The flora is not abundant because of the rocky bottom of the
lake. Furthermore, the lake’s depth is variable since its inflow comes
from snowmelt.
The lake is popular among divers who can observe the green meadows in
the edge zone of the lake particularly in June when the water is at its
highest. A bridge and a bench can also be found underwater. Text — Via
Park Sinners — Thailand
90 minutes outside of Bangkok sits the Wang Saen Suk Hell Park, one of
several "hell gardens" that can be found throughout Thailand. At this
tourist destination, you can pack a picnic and ramble around the
charming sculpture garden, which depicts sinners being eviscerated
wholesale in the Buddhist underworld.
After all, nothing says "sunny weekend stroll" quite like statues of
demons disemboweling the damned, arsonists transforming into snakes, and
dogs eating a lost soul's giant testicles. Also, if you've ever used
birth control, there's apparently a giant bloody vise waiting in the
afterlife. (I'm not sure if dental dams qualify one for an eternity of
squeezing.) Notes Fortean Times of this charming point of interest:
Around the giant sinners stand a further 21 life-size sinners, whose
heads have been turned into various animals according to their misdeeds.
Thieves are transformed into monkeys; the dishonest into toads; the
corrupt into pigs [...] Although often gruesome, Thailand's hell gardens
are popular weekend destinations for family days out. As well as an
entertaining way of teaching strict morality, they also encourage
donations as a form of merit-making to support the monks and the
monasteries.
One of io9's friends in Thailand further elaborated on the park's
family-friendly angle — "It's fun seeing little Thai kids running around
statues of people being eaten alive, having their guts torn out, etc.
My five-year-old cousin loves the amusement park, but is terrified of
Ronald McDonald." So yes, if Faces of Death ever went in cahoots with
Six Flags, the result might just look like this. Text — Via
Park Space Reflection — Scotland
Space View Park is located less than 15 miles directly across from the
launch pads. The Park is the first and only walk in the nation that
honors America's astronauts as well as the men and women behind the
scenes who helped America lead the world in space exploration. Located 5
miles North from HWY 50 off of US1 on Broad Street on HWY 406 (Garden
Street) off of Indian River Avenue. Text — Via
Creation Museum — USA
The Creation Museum is a tourist attraction near Petersburg, Kentucky
which presents a mythical account of the origins of the universe, life,
and humankind, portraying a 'creationist' narrative based upon a
literalist interpretation of the Book of Genesis, rather than scientific
knowledge. The Creation Museum opened its doors to the public on May
28, 2007.
The Creation Museum has been criticized as promoting "fallacy over fact"
and attempting to advance the tenets of a particular religious view
while rejecting, overlooking and misconstruing authentic science. The
museum has received criticism from the scientific community, educators,
Christian groups acquainted with the scientific method, and in the
press.
Its exhibits reject universal common descent and biological evolution,
and assert that the Earth and all of its life forms were created 6,000
years ago over a six-day period. In contrast to the scientific
consensus, exhibits promote creationist claims including the proposition
that humans and dinosaurs once coexisted, and that dinosaurs were on
Noah's Ark. Scientific evidence supports the conclusions that the earth
is approximately 4.5 billion years old, and that the dinosaurs became
extinct 65.5 million years before human beings arose. Text — Via
Keukenhof Gardens — Netherlands
Keukenhof, also known as the Garden of Europe, is the world's largest
flower garden[citation needed]. It is situated near Lisse, Netherlands.
According to the official website for the Keukenhof Park, approximately
7,000,000 (seven million) flower bulbs are planted annually in the park,
which covers an area of 32 hectares.
Keukenhof is located in South Holland in the small town of Lisse, south
of Haarlem and southwest of Amsterdam. It is accessible by bus from the
train stations of Haarlem, Leiden and Schiphol. It is located in an area
called the "Dune and Bulb Region" (Duin- en Bollenstreek).Keukenhof is
open annually from mid-March to mid-May. The best time to view the
tulips is around mid-April, depending on the weather. Text — Via
Francisco Alvarado Park — Costa Rica
The park sits in front of the church at the town center. It is noted for
its topiary garden produced and maintained by Evangelisto Blanco since
the 1960s. Shrubs in the park have been trimmed into the shapes of
various animals, including some that are quite abstract and bizarre.
Iglesia de San Rafael: Zarcero's pink and blue church was constructed in
1895. The interior features very nice paintings of the stations of the
cross. Materials for the construction of the church are not what they
seem. Columns are painted to look like marble, and the exterior is metal
siding, not brick as it appears. Text — Via
Jurong Bird Park — Singapore
Jurong Bird Park, is a tourist attraction in Singapore managed by
Wildlife Reserves Singapore. It is a landscaped park, built on the
western slope of Jurong Hill. It is located within the Boon Lay Planning
Area of the Jurong district and has an area of 202,000 square metres
(50 acres). Text — Via
Kingdom of dwarfs — China
The Kingdom of the Little People is a theme park located near Kunming,
Yunnan that features comic performances by people with dwarfism.
Supporters of the park claim that it provides employment to people who
would otherwise be unable to find work, but it has been criticized for
treating dwarfism as a humorous condition. Text — Via
Chess Park — Japan
The garden was erected to celebrate the sister city relationship between
Sydney and Nagoya in Japan. Some of the interesting features in the
garden include a set of magnificent stone lanterns presented to City of
Sydney by Nagoya. It also incorporates various plants in the garden
which have cultural significance to Japanese people. For example, pine
tree symbolise long life, a plum tree represents gracefulness and bamboo
is a sign of vitality. Text — Via
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