Tuesday, July 7, 2009

8 Beautiful Book Sculptures | Creative Art with books

Book Sculptures by Su Blackwell
This remarkable artist employs this delicate, accessible medium and uses irreversible, destructive processes to reflect on the precariousness of the world we inhabit and the fragility of our life, dreams and ambitions.

Book Sculptures

beautiful Book Sculptures
amazing Book Sculptures
cool Book Sculptures


Book Face Sculptures by Nicholas Galanin“What Have We Become?” series by Nicholas Galanin made from books with thousands of pages.

Creative Book Face Sculptures
Sculptures of book face



Book Art by Georgia Russell
Scottish artist who uses a scalpel instead of a brush or a pen, creating constructions that transform found ephemera, such as books, music scores, maps, newspapers, currency and photographs.

Book Art by Georgia Russell


amazing Book Art by Georgia Russell


Book Autopsies by Brian Dettmer
Brian Dettmer carves into books revealing the artwork inside.

Brian Dettmer carves into books sculpture
Book Autopsies sculpture
Creative Book Autopsies sculpture
craziest Book sculpture


Book Sculptures by Robert The
This talented artist began making book pieces in 1991. He currently lives in Kingston, New York.

Beautiful Book Sculptures by Robert




The Art Crisis by Robert The

The Art Crisis book-sculpture


Art of the Masters by Robert The

Creative Art of the Masters sculpture


Future of Books by Kyle Bean
The goal of “The Future of Books” project is to show what many of us believe to be the future of books.

15 Beautiful Designs Plant Pot | Modern plant pots

Solar Powered Plant Pot


Collection of modern plant pots and creative flower containers perfect for stylish indoor and outdoor gardening.

Self-Watering Plant Pot
This self-watering plant pot’s main feature is a medical drip feed. This unique characteristic allows the plant to be nourished with water when needed.

Self-Watering Plant Pot


Book Plant Pot
Why not turn some of your old books into plant pots? That is exactly what Tokyo Pistol design agency did with theirs.

beautiful Book Plant Pot


Dish Drip Plant Pot
Great design that lets the water from your drying dishes drip into the plant pot and water your flowers.

beautiful Dish Drip Plant Pot

Fabric Pots
Decorative containers made from waterproof and breathable fabric. This innovation allows the soil to aerate naturally, contributing to healthy root systems and plant growth.

beautiful Fabric greenhouse pots


Plant Pot Covers
Use them to decorate your house and give a smooth touch to your plant pot, while protecting your furniture from scratches.

beautiful Plant Pot Covers


Tab B Plant Pot
This unique design combines an ashtray with a plant pot. The pot sits on top of the ashtray, concealing it both visually and aromatically.

Creative Tab B Plant Pot


Light Bulb Plant Pot
Summon-The-Wolves shows us how to reuse old light bulbs.

Creative Light Bulb Plant Pot


X Tray
A set of 5 ceramic pots. The pots can be configured in several ways, including an “X” shape or in a straight line or in an “L” shape.

Creative X Tray ceramic pots


Solar Powered Plant Pot
This stylish designer plant pot soaks up the sun’s rays in order to charge internal battery that powers several built-in LEDs.

stylish Solar Powered Plant Pot



Umbrella Plant Pot
This creative pot design allows rainwater from your umbrella to drain into the plant pot.

creative pot design allows rainwater



Plant Pot Pillow
Unusual pillow shaped pot for plants made of PVC foam that expands according to the plants growing needs.

Creative Plant Pot Pillow


JVC Sound Garden Plant Pot
“Kirikabu” sound garden combines your choice of potted plants with multi-directional speakers.

amazing JVC Sound Garden Plant Pot


Digital Plant Pot
This cool looking plant pot measures soil conditions, temperature, and water - calculates these variables based on the need of said plant, and expresses its condition via an LCD display.

beautiful Digital Plant Pot


Light pot
Modern pot for growing plants and herbs indoors. It uses LED lighting and can be placed anywhere in the house.

Creative Plants Light pot
beautiful Plants Light pot



Nikon Camera Plant Pot
If you do not have a regular plant pot, you can always use a Nikon dSLR camera for your gardening. Just like Flickr user Dr Cullen.

Creative Nikon Camera Plant Pot

Monday, July 6, 2009

The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter

he Great White Shark is the largest known predatory fish in the sea, at the top of its food chain with no natural predators. They’re equipped with two of the most powerful sensing mechanisms in Nature, a highly developed sense of smell, and the ability to sense the electrical fields radiating from living creatures. Also known as the white shark, white pointer, blue pointer, man-eater, and manila shark, this killing machine averages a length up to 20 feet (6 meters) and 5,000 pounds (2,270 kilos).
The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter

Great White Sharks bear a set of nostrils near the tip of their conical snout, used solely for olfactory purposes to sniff out their prey, while breathing through their gills. The nostrils are divided by a small flap of skin separating the water into 2 flows, one incoming and one outgoing. The flow passes through a section with countless small sensory organs called lamellae, shaped like tiny flower petals covered with millions of olfactory cells. These cells are linked directly to the center of the brain responsible for detecting odors.
The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter
The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter
The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter
But the secret weapon in the Great White’s arsenal are ampullae — small pore-like markings on the snout — which provide the shark with the ability to sense the electrical fields of their prey. Each is a minute capsule filled with a gel like substance the shark excretes, sensitive to electrical discharges as low as .005 micro volts. This remarkable sensitivity is due to both the large number of ampullae, and their numerous sensory cells in each to pick up the signal which is also directly linked to the brain.

Every living creature in the sea discharges a small electrical field. Mucous membranes that coat the mouth and gills of fish also create steady current fields affected by their breathing patterns. A wounded bleeding animal produces yet another set of electrical information.

By their ability to discern these sets of information, Great Whites can detect and distinguish between prey swimming peacefully, those moving quickly in panic, and those which might be bleeding and debilitated. Recent research on interactions between great whites and various species of seals and sea lions suggests that great whites also hunt their prey visually.

These 2 sensory mechanisms make for an inescapable and formidable predator.

The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter
The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter
The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter
Food and Feeding Behavior
While young, White sharks feed on fish, rays, and other sharks, and as they begin to mature they’ll feed on marine mammals and forage for large animal carcasses. Progressing to small harbor seals, they hunt sea lions, elephant seals, and small toothed whales as they increase in size. Occasionally feeding on sea turtles and sea otters, they’ve been known to attack but not eat humans.

Camouflaging themselves near rocky bottoms, they’ll watch for unsuspecting prey near the surface. Once an animal is sighted, they accelerate quickly to the surface and ram into their kill from beneath, simultaneously stunning it and inflicting a large, potentially fatal bite. They then return to feed on the carcass.
The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter
The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter
The Great White Shark - Fearsome Hunter
World Range & Habitat
Great Whites have one of the widest geographic ranges of any marine animal, found in all cold temperate and tropical waters from 60°N latitude to 60°S latitude. Recent satellite tracking studies reveal that they migrate long distances, sometimes crossing entire oceans.

They can be found along the central California coast hunting near elephant seal haul-out areas from October through March, and off the western cape of South Africa near cape fur seal haul-outs from May to September. In North American waters, they’ve been reported from Newfoundland to Florida, and from the Aleutian Islands, Alaska to southern Mexico. Nowhere in its range is the white shark very common, and are becoming increasingly rare.

Great White Shark Attack
The cunning Great White appears almost to be toying with this seal
prior to its ferocious attack.

Top 10 Bizarre Medical Anomalies

[WARNING: some images and content may disturb and are not work safe.]
This list looks at some of the most unusual (and sometimes horrifying) anomalies of medical science.
Diprosopus
Diprospus (sometimes called Craniofacial duplication) is a rare disorder in which the face is duplicated on the head (as in the picture above). This is not to be confused with fetus in fetu (item 9) which is a joining of two separate fetuses; diprosopus is caused by a protein called (believe it or not) “sonic hedgehog homolog”. The odd name is due to a controversial tradition in molecular biology to use unusual names for genes. The protein determines the makeup of the face, and when there is too much of it, you get a second face in a mirror image. If you do not have enough of the protein, you can end up with underdeveloped facial features. Children with this defect are normally stillborn, but a young girl, Lali Singh, born in 2008 survived for 2 full months before dying of a heart attack.


Fetus In Fetu<br />


The man pictured above is Sanju Bhagat aged 36 from India. He is fully pregnant with his own twin. Because Sanju lacked a placenta, the fetus inside him attached directly to his blood supply. Doctors delivered the twin which was severely malformed and did not survive. Fetus in fetu is an extremely rare disorder in which a twin somehow becomes connected (internally or partly externally) to its twin while still in the womb. In some cases the fetus in fetu will remain inside the host twin unknown until it begins to cause problems. In more common cases, the signs are visible from the outset and are often initially confused with cysts or cancers. In a recent case a 7 year old boy was discovered to be carrying his twin when his parents noticed that something was moving in his stomach.


Proteus Syndrome



The Elephant Man (Joseph Merrick) is probably the most famous case of Proteus Syndrome. The disease causes excessive bone growth, excessive skin growth, and frequently comes with tumors. Only 200 cases have been confirmed worldwide since the disease was officially discovered in 1979. It is possible to have a minor form of this disease which can go undiagnosed. The case of the Elephant Man has been the sole reason that this disease is so widely known. Sufferers have normal brain function and intelligence.


Möbius Syndrome<br />


Möbius Syndrome is a rare disorder in which the facial muscles are paralyzed. In most cases the eyes are also unable to move from side to side. The disease prevents a sufferer from having any facial expressions, which can make them appear to be uninterested or “dull” - sometimes leading to people thinking they are rude. Sufferers have completely normal mental development. The causes are not fully understood and there is no treatment aside from addressing the symptoms (such as an inability to feed as a baby).


Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome



Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria syndrome (progeria) will be familiar to people old enough to remember the television program That’s Incredible from the ’80s in which a young sufferer of the disorder appeared. The disease causes premature aging - so rapidly that a young child can look like a very old man (or, if I may be so callous as to point out the obvious, an alien - as in the photograph above). The disease is especially interesting for scientists as it may lend clues to the natural aging process in man. The disease is caused by a genetic mutation, and does not pass from parent to child. There is no known cure, and most children with the disease do not live beyond the age of thirteen - usually dying of stroke or heart attack (diseases usually associated with old age).


Cutaneous Porphyria



Cutaneous porphyria is a disorder that causes blisters, excess hair, swelling, and necrosis of the skin. It can cause red colored teeth and fingernails, and after exposure to sun, urine can turn purple, pink, brown, or black. The disease is thought to be connected to the many werewolf and vampire legends of the past, where a sufferer (who would have lived apart from society) might have been confused for a monster. The disease is part of the more general group of disorders called porphyrias which cover a range of mental and physical disorders due to the overproduction of certain enzymes in the body. The disease gets its name from the Greek word “porphura” which means “purple pigment”.


Elephantiasis



First off, note the spelling - it is Elephant-iasis not Elephant-itis as many people wrongly think. Elephantiasis is a thickening of the skin (as opposed to proteus syndrome which is a thickening of the bones as well as the skin). Unfortunately, this is a disease that any one of us can get as it is caused by parasitic worms passed on through mosquito bites. It is, consequently, not uncommon in tropical regions and Africa. A slightly different form of the disease is caused through contact with certain types of soil. In some parts of Ethiopa, up to 6% of the population suffers from the disorder. It is one of the most common disabilities in the world. Efforts to eradicate the disease are well underway and it is hoped that it will be successfully relegated to the annals of history by 2020.


Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva<br />


Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP for short) is a very rare disease that causes parts of the body (muscles, tendons, and ligaments) to turn to bone when they are damaged. This can often cause damaged joints to fuse together, preventing movement. Unfortunately surgical removal of the bone growths is ineffective as the body “heals” itself by recreating the removed bone. To make matters worse, the disease is so rare that it is often misdiagnosed as cancer, leading doctors to perform biopsies which can spark off worse growth of these bone-like lumps. The most famous case is Harry Eastlack whose body was so ossified by his death that he could only move his lips. His skeleton is now on display at the Mütter Museum. There is no cure.


Lewandowsky-Lutz Dysplasia



Lewandowsky-Lutz Dysplasia (also known as Epidermodysplasia verruciformis) is an extremely rare inheritable disorder in which warts form on the skin. It normally affects the hands and feet and while it can start in middle ages, it normally begins between the ages of one and twenty. There is no known effective treatment for the disease though surgery can be used to remove the warts. Unfortunately, after surgery the warts begin to return and it is estimated that a sufferer would need at least two surgeries per year to remove them each time they grow back. In 2007 a sufferer had surgery for the disease and thirteen pounds (5.8 kilos) of warts were removed. 95% of the warts were removed.


Diphallia<br />

Diphallia (also known as Penile Duplication) is a condition in which a male is born with two penises. It is a rare disorder with only 1,000 cases recorded. Sufferers are also at a higher risk of spina bifida than men with one penis. A person with diphallia can urinate from one or both of his penises. In most cases, both penises are side by side and the same size, but occasionally one smaller penis will sit atop another larger one. One in 5.5 million men in the United States have two penises.
source:istverse