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Faces of the World

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Mursi Man, Ethiopia

Photograph by Salvatore Gebbia, My Shot

Omo River Valley, Ethiopia

(This photo and caption were submitted to My Shot.)

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Boy in Window

Photograph by Japoi Cequina, My Shot

A window made of bamboo reflected in the eyes of the boy and created a pattern. His eyes tell a story, as our eyes are the window of our soul.

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Parade Participant, Malaysia

Photograph by Philipp Aldrup, My Shot

Every year after the Chinese New Year, the Chinese communities in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, come together for a huge procession in which the deities of the five different dialects are jointly carried through the whole city. Various performances, operas, and rituals are shown over a couple of days.

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Posted by on August 25, 2012 in Travel

 

International Street Food

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Mint Tea, Morocco

Phototograph by Cezary Wojtkowski, My Shot

Glasses filled to the rim with mint, and a healthy helping of sugar, stand ready for the preparation of Morocco’s distinctive green tea. The beverage refreshes the spirit on a hot day in Marrakech, but it’s far more than a thirst quencher. The tea’s preparation and enjoyment are an essential part of the Moroccan culture and a “must-try” experience for any visitor.

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Miaokou Night Market, Taiwan

Photograph by Neil Wade, My Shot

Chilung’s Miaokou Night Market has an old temple at its center, but the main focus here is feasting. The market’s yellow lanterns illuminate a mouthwatering array of traditional Taiwanese snack foods, including savory noodle soups, oyster omelets, snails, sticky rice, and tripe. Taiwanese and tourists alike say no visit is complete without a fruity “bubble ice” dessert—black plum is a local favorite.

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Shanghai Dumplings, China

Photograph by Justin Guariglia

A Shanghai street vendor serves up a freshly fried helping of the city’s favorite snack—dumplings. The treats are ubiquitous in Shanghai, available in many flavors and combinations.

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Noodles, Thailand

Photograph by Dean McCartney, My Shot

A strainer full of noodles, fresh off an open fire, commands the total concentration of a cook in Bangkok’s Chinatown. The skill of such street chefs, and the aroma of their creations, proves irresistible to many passersby.

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Chicken Intestines, Philippines

Photograph by Jun Aviles, My Shot

Filipino food vendors created this heaping helping of isaw manok, skewered chicken intestines that are first marinated and later grilled or deep fried to perfection. The snack is typically served with sweet, sour, or spicy sauces.

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Beach Food, India

Photograph by Anne Kohl, My Shot

When beachgoers in Goa need a break, tasty treats like these are always close at hand. Unlimited supplies of samosas, chicken, cool drinks, and other favorite Indian fare are found at Anjuna Beach—a onetime hippie haven that still draws sun-loving, fun-loving travelers from around the world.

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Grasshoppers, China

Photograph by Boaz Meiri, My Shot

Chinese street foods, like this “bouquet” of skewered grasshoppers, often raise Western eyebrows. But insect eating isn’t as unusual as you might imagine. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than 1,400 protein-rich insect species are regularly enjoyed by humans around the world.

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Banh Mi Sandwiches, Vietnam

Photograph by Tim Hall/Photo Library

Serving with a smile, a Vietnamese vendor taps a colonial legacy to create an irresistible street cuisine. Banh mi sandwiches, like these in Nhatrang, feature French baguettes filled with a tasty variety of meats and vegetables. They are eagerly consumed across Vietnam, especially for breakfast or lunch.

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Sausages, Germany

Photograph by Olivia Sari, My Shot

Only the best of the wurst are served at this German imbissstand. Merrymakers at this Sachsenhausen festival devour bratwurst, bockwurst, and other sausage delicacies while washing them down with beer.

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Ceviche, Peru

Photograph by Abraham Nowitz

A cook prepares ceviche in the seaside town of Máncora, Peru. Popular throughout Latin America, ceviche is made by using the juice of citrus, in this case limes, to pickle and “cook” a mix of raw fish and seafood.

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Roasted Pigs, Cambodia

Photograph by Mark Ikin, My Shot

Visitors needn’t speak Khmer in order to understand the menu of this street-side food stand in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Pork is the most widely eaten meat in the world. Austria eats the most per capita, followed by Spain and Denmark.

 

Penang, Malaysia

Photograph by Srinivasan Ramakrishnan, My Shot

This is a Chinese hot pot, or steamboat, photographed in Penang, Malaysia.

 

Pratunam, Thailand

Photograph by Thanh Lai, My Shot

I was walking around the streets in Pratunam, Thailand, at 11 p.m. looking for street food. My older sister (with a look of shock and excitement) tells me this vendor has been here at the exact same spot for 25-plus years making fried doughnuts.

Melaka City, Malaysia

Photograph by Edgar Alan Yap, My Shot

An assortment of street food is laid out at the weekly Jonker Walk Night Market in Melaka City, Malaysia.

 

Beijing, China

Photograph by Douglas Bakshian, My Shot

I saw these grilled scorpions at a festival in Beijing. Their upward pointing claws created a satanic image, like the devil’s pitchfork. Besides the jumbo black ones, and the bite-size whites, you could follow up with a snack of grilled locusts. I was not feeling adventurous.

Pakistan

Photograph by Pervaiz Saeed, My Shot

This variation of flatbread, made from ground wholemeal flour, is a popular part of Pakistani cuisine. Here the cooked roti is being removed from the heated pit with the help of thin metal rods.

 

Hyderabad, India

Photograph by Rakesh Kalyankar, My Shot

Sugar- and cream-filled savory, at a bakery in Hyderabad, India

 

China

Photograph by Min Shi, My Shot

Grilled pachyrhizus is a popular food in the northern part of China.

 

Kolkata, India

Photograph by Mahfuzul Hasan Bhuiyan, My Shot

Street food is very popular with tourists in India, especially in Kolkata. Varieties of food and fruit juice shops attract tourists. Shops also create a colorful environment, which creates a competition to sell products. This shot was taken in a street in Kolkata.

 

Harbin, China

Photograph by Hjortur Valgeirsson, My Shot

The picture was taken on the streets of Harbin in northern China in January 2011. The temperature in the city reaches minus 30°C. Street vendors line the streets selling sugared apples, candy floss, and even ice cream. This lady covers her face and is dressed in multiple layers to sustain the cold. The heat from the cooking and the breathing from the staff create an ever-present mist evaporating from the small cubicle. Taken with an EOS 7D, with Tamron 17-50mm 2.8 lens.

 

Seoul, South Korea

Photograph by Michael Robinson, My Shot

This gives new meaning to “fried fish.”

 

Taipei City, Taiwan

Photograph by Steven Domjancic, My Shot

Interesting looking hot dogs are sold by this vendor in a small town just outside of Taipei City.

 

Gujarat, India

Photograph by Sahil Lodha, My Shot

Somewhere in the vast and barren desert of Rann of Kutch in western Gujarat, a lady prepares roti for lunch for her family.

 

Hoi An, Vietnam

Photograph by Eric Cheung, My Shot

I captured this photo on a street in Hoi An, Vietnam.

 

Delhi, India

Photograph by Romeo Wee Edong, My Shot

Street food in Old Delhi

 

Malaysia

Photograph by Wahyudhy Zukara, My Shot

A rich historical heritage has evidently resulted in an exotic cuisine. This picture of jackfruit was taken in my hometown of Terengganu, Malaysia, during a wedding feast.

 

Tamil Nadu, India

Photograph by Thirumurugan Ponnusamy, My Shot

As it gets chilly and cold even at midday in the mountains, these warm, hard-to-resist corn kernels really sell like hotcakes among the local tourists in Yercaud Hills, Tamil Nadu, India.

 

Beijing, China

Photograph by Liz Chivvis, My Shot

On a trip to Beijing, we visited Wangfujing Street and I snapped this shot of one of the vendors and his starfish on a stick, waiting to be fried.

 

Beijing, China

Photograph by Han Chong, Your Shot

Scorpions to be fried in Wangfujing Street, Beijing, China. In  China, deep-fried scorpions are a delicious food.

 

Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)

Photograph by Shashwat Saraf, My Shot

All the different parts of the pig are being sold on bamboo sticks on a street of Yangon.

 

Hong Kong

Photograph by Mike Bove, My Shot

At the Shim Shui Po marketplace in Hong Kong, I tried to slide in and grab a shot really quick without being noticed.  I do not believe I was successful.

 

Yunnan, China

Photograph by Wen Ye, My Shot

A woman making a buckwheat pie on a slate in Qiunatong village, Yunnan, southwest China, near Myanmar (Burma)

 
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Posted by on August 25, 2012 in Food and drink, Travel

 

Otak Recipe

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Otak-otak (otah-otah) is a South East Asian delight, popular in Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia, and consist of fish paste with spices wrapped & grilled in fragrant banana leaves. My family loves my home-made otak-otak because of the fresh fish used in the fish paste mixture. If your kids/family do not take chilli, you can make your own non-spicy version. It is great as a snack on its own, or served with Nasi Lemak (local rice cooked in coconut milk). Instead of grilling them the conventional way over a charcoal fire which really smokes and stinks the kitchen, I do so in the oven and the result is just as good.

Otak-Otak Recipe

  • Serves: makes 8 to 10 large otak-otak
  • Prep: 40 mins
  • Cook: 12 mins

Otak-otak is a South East Asian delight,  made of spicy fish paste wrapped & grilled in fragrant banana leaves.

Ingredients

  • 100 grams tengirri fish meat (spanish mackerel) or any white fish you like
  • 150 grams shallots
  • 4 candlenuts
  • 5 kaffir lime leaves finely snipped
  • 1 stalk lemongrass outer green leaves removed, sliced as thinly as possible
  • 3 cloves garlic peeled
  • 10 grams belacan (dried shrimp paste)
  • 15 grams galangal (blue ginger) sliced
  • 10 dried chilli soaked in water to soften & sliced
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2  tsp curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp tumeric powder
  • 2 tbsp rice flour
  • 1-2 tbsp corn flour/starch
  • 1/2 tbsp coconut cream or milk

Instructions

  1. Add fish meat to blender and give it a few pulses. If you don’t have a blender, you can use a knife to chop the flesh to smaller bits. Set aside.
  2. Add shallots, candlenuts, lime leaves, lemongrass, garlic, belacan, galangal, dried chilli and oil in an electric blender. Grind until you get a smooth paste.
  3. Place blended paste in a stain-proof mixing bowl and add egg white, curry powder, tumeric powder, rice flour, corn flour and coconut cream. Mix well.
  4. Return fish meat you prepared in step 1 into the spice mixture; mix well. Your otak-otak paste is ready.
  5. Soak banana leaves in hot water till softened and wipe dry with kitchen towel before use. Cut to 25x20cm sizes. The longer width must run parallel to the lines of the banana leaf.
  6. Place about 2 ½ tbsp otak-otak paste in the center of the banana leaf.
  7. Fold one edge of the banana leaf to cover the otak paste. You must fold along the lines of the banana leaf and not against, else the banana leaf will crack and break.
  8. Fold the other edge in and press down gently. Use bamboo toothpicks to secure both ends of the otak-otak. Repeat until all the otak-otak paste is used up.
  9. Bake or grill the otak-otak in preheated oven of 200°C (392°F) until the leaves have browned evenly, about10-14 minutes. Tip: Position grill rack nearer the top heating coil.

 
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Posted by on August 15, 2012 in Food and drink, Travel

 

The invisible woman – Art Photography by Cecilia Paredes

Article adapted from Adam Stone.


“Siren in the Sea of Roses” photography by Cecilia Parades

The invisible art or photos shoot by people melting with the surrounding environment already has a tradition in the works of Liu Bolin and Desiree Palmen, however, it does not make Cecilia Paredes a plagiarism because her art photography is completely unique and unforgettable. Her style is characterized by strong color saturation and does not occur in the work of anyone who creates in this style.

“Transition” by Cecilia Paredes photography wallpaper

The art photographer Cecilia Paredes was born in Lima, the capital of Peru. In 1998 she moves to Costa Rica where she lives and works for 8 years. Her first original art photography exhibition is held in 1998 in Guatemala. In her latest project she recreates her body as a part of a landscape, as this landscape is unique in every single picture.

“Paradise” photography by Cecilia Parades

The invisible woman series

“Meditative Mermaid” photography wallpaper by Cecilia Paredes

For this series she selects specific fabrics and linens made of natural materials. With this project she is trying to avoid the nomadic life and to find her identity. With the project “Landscapes,” the artist proves that the female body (in this case on these unique pictures – her own body) is something sacred and mysterious, which is worth to be admiring. Meanwhile, a woman’s body appeared on earth as a connection key to the dialogue between the soul of man and nature around us. Currently the artist lives and creates her art photography in Philadelphia USA.

“Invisible Woman ” series a wallpaper “Spirit of the East” by Cecilia Paredes


“Lilly” a photography wallpaper by Cecilia Parades

“Magnolia” Art Photo by Cecilia Paredes from series “Invisible Woman”

“Invisible Woman” “Tutti Frutti” Art Photo by Cecilia Paredes

“Dreaming Rose” a photo wallpaper by Cecilia Parades

“Crisantemo” photo wallpaper by Cecilia Paredes

Cecilia Paredes art photo wallpaper

Cecilia Paredes and her “Invisible Woman” series art wallpaper

Artwork photography by Cecilia Parades called “Rhythmic Garland”

Photography artwork by Cecilia Parades from “Invisible Woman” series wallpaper

“Art Nouveau” art photography by Cecilia Paredes

Artwork by Cecilia Parades from photography series “Invisible Woman”

 

 

 
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Posted by on July 25, 2012 in Design, Photography

 

Color Art Show Fall-Winter 2012 for Christian Dior

Adapted from Adam Stone’s article.

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Flower art show by Raf Simons for Christian Dior

Since it become clear that Raf Simons is headed to Christian Dior the fashion world waits with bated breath for the outcome for this famous brand and it is already here – with the debut of color art show for fall-winter 2012. A crowd of celebrities entered the residence Avenue d’Iena where the rooms were decorated with real flowers to enjoy the beautiful view. There were designers such as Azzedine Alaia, Diane von Furstenberg, Alber Elbaz, Riccardo Tisci, Donatella Versace and Marc Jacobs, Sharon Stone, Princess Charlene of Monaco and many other fashion art stars and other stars as well. Raf Simons decorated in a unique and artistic way five large rooms of this residence located in Paris outskirts.

Colorful Decoration

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With these vibrant colorful decorations he brings a fresh and modern approach to the vision of the famous fashion house. The rooms are covered from floor to ceiling with beautiful tapestry of colors including blue delphinium, white orchids, pink peonies and different-colored roses, dahlias and many others. It is stated in a popular ad from the closed past “Say it with flowers!” Raf Simons definitely knows how to express himself.

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Art fashion show by Raf Simons

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Model in colorful fashion art show

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz7qwUslYcQ

 
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Posted by on July 25, 2012 in Design, Entertainment, Photography

 

Thai Transvestites look so feminine

On May 4, 2012 Pattaya hosted the traditional beauty contest for transgendered models. Thai transsexuals look more and more like real girls every year. Warning to men: Going to Thailand in search of sexual adventures become more and more dangerous.

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Posted by on July 9, 2012 in Business, Entertainment, Travel

 

Jaguar: Beauty by design

By Jeremy Sinek for MSN Autos

Why are Jaguars so darn pretty? It’s easy — their designers try harder. Toronto, Ont. — One of the highlights at the recent Toronto auto show was the Jaguar C-X16 prototype. The gorgeous two-seater, widely hailed as a modern-day E-Type, was accompanied to the show by design chief Ian Callum, who answered our questions about the C-X16, the E-Type, and Jaguar design.

The C-X16 looks like a real, workable car, not just a blue-sky concept. Is it ready for production? We call it a production prototype for obvious reasons. It is feasible. That car drives — quite quickly actually. But we haven’t made a statement of commitment yet that we will build it.

I don’t see much value in producing something at the conceptual stage that you can’t really make or use. Concept cars used to be hugely flamboyant. But nowadays any vehicle is constrained by so many inputs, whether they be legislative or packaging or cost, that invariably if you do something completely fancy you couldn’t build it anyway. So you might as well take all these inputs up front and work with them.

Also we’re less precious now about showing the world what we might want to do. The secrecy is less than perhaps it used to be back in the ’50s and ’60s when it was more about the fashion and the latest model. Now with the world being so international, and the supplier base so common among many manufacturers, these things are not so easy to keep secret.

Are you calling the C-X16 a successor to the E-Type? Only in that, if we were to build it, it would be the first two-seater since the E-Type. And for me personally, that type of vehicle is the very centre of our brand. But we’ve had other things to do first. Now we’ve got to it I’m very glad we have. It will fit into what the E-type stood for in the 60s, hopefully.

The E-type is widely considered the most beautiful car, ever. Why not just reproduce that shape exactly as it was, but with modern engineering? Where do I start? In legal terms it would be impossible. Not by millimetres but by inches. From the nose to the tail. Almost every aspect of the cars we design now, I can give you reason to why it ends up the way it does. The designers have to be creative and manipulate these rules into something we all like at the end of the day.

But right, let’s start at the front: it’s got no bumpers. It’s got wheel coverage. The hood line is too high for the four-degree down-vision line. The windshield header is too low for the U.S. unbelted occupant requirement. The vision lines around the car probably infringe on a number of legal requirements now. And the side impact … there’s no way there’s space to get airbags in there.

Besides, I think if we did that car right now, the stance would look very old-fashioned because nowadays we like to get the wheels out to the body. And compared with the C-X16 the E-Type was tiny. It was probably about the same length, but it was about a foot narrower at least. And certainly a lot lower. I don’t like to get into an E-Type because it’s too small, even for somebody my size.

So there are many physical reasons why you wouldn’t do it. Now if you were to replicate that car in the dimensions that I’ve just spoken about, all the areas it would have to fit into, I don’t think you’d like it. It’s not the way to design a car. The E-Type was of an era. It was a very pure car, and that’s its beauty. And what we try and do is instil these values into a modern car.

Where is Jaguar now with moving forward while still acknowledging past design cues? I don’t like the word “cues” because I think they tie you into very specific things which may or may not be relevant. A lot of designers talk about design language, and “this is what our cars will do,” and it’s called whatever it’s called. Jaguar design is based on two or three fundamental values. One is to have a very exciting proportion and profile. You may say, “well, every car company wants to do that,” but they don’t do it. The reason they don’t is that they don’t actually decide it’s very important to them. Other designers will take a set of hard points that are given by some other set of inputs and they work to those hard points. I challenge every millimetre, to get that perfect roof line, that perfect fender line. And that is part of Jaguar’s DNA and its values.

 

 
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Posted by on July 6, 2012 in Business, Design, Hobbies, Travel

 

Legends of automobile design

By Annette McLeod for MSN Autos

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Carroll Shelby

Automotive icon Carroll Shelby passed away in May of 2012 from a heart condition from which he’d suffered most of his life; it necessitated a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996. And yet, he still made it to age 89, proof that that good don’t always die young. Shelby made his permanent mark on design with the Mustang Cobra, and his mark on motorsports starting in the ’50s; he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in an Aston Martin in 1959. Shelby and his team get credit not only for souped-up Fords like the GT and the Mustang-based Shelby cars, but also for turning the K-car into a rocket, developing the Dodge Viper and creating the muscle truck. A moment of silence, please.

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Giorgetto Giugiaro

Giugiaro won an international poll of automotive journalists under the management of the Global Automotive Elections Foundation to be named Car Designer of the Century in 1999; he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002. In addition to cars, Giugiaro also designed cameras for Nikon, computers for Apple, even pasta shapes, but his automotive designs were many and mostly pretty righteous, including a host of origami-based 1970s designs, the DeLorean DMC-12, Lotus Esprit S1, Audi 80, Alfa Romeo 159, BMW M1, and the late, unlamented Hyundai Pony. Oh, and he also pulled off the odd motorcycle for Ducati and Suzuki.

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Harley Earl

A stroke carried Earl off to the great wrecker’s yard in the sky in 1969 at age 75. As GM’s first-ever vice president of design, Earl pioneered several techniques, such as freeform sketching and the use of hand-sculpted clay models. He also thought up the concept car as a design tool and marketing aid with the Buick Y-Job, which would eventually become the Corvette. He is widely credited with authorizing the introduction of the tail fin, but scuttlebutt has it he did so only reluctantly after higher-ups decided they liked the look. The Hollywood-born Earl also made a contribution to the art and science of camouflage in the Second World War.

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Alec Issigonis

Sir Alec is the man from whose mind sprang the Mini, and that alone would earn him a spot, but he also designed the Morris Minor and the Austin 1100. The eccentric Issigonis was outspoken in his belief that market research was bunk, and even mathematics were ‘the enemy of every truly creative man.’ A reasonable position for a creative guy who repeatedly flunked math to take. Issigonis was born in Smyrna (then Greece, now the Turkish city of Izmir) to British parents in 1906. His father and grandfather were both engineers; his efforts to follow in their footsteps led him to an engineering program at Battersea Polytechnic, where he may have stunk at math, but he shone at drawing.

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Bill Mitchell

Mitchell started sketching cars at an early age, presumably taking inspiration from his father’s Buick dealership. He parlayed the skill into a job as the official illustrator for the Automobile Racing Club of America before Harley Earl recruited him to GM in 1935, where he would go on to influence the design of landmark vehicles including the 1949 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, 1955 Chevy Bel Air, 1963 Corvette Stingray, and 1970 Chevrolet Camaro. Mitchell spent his entire automotive design career at GM, a total of 42 years that culminated as vice-president of design for the 19 years prior to his retirement in 1977.

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Virgil Exner

Virgil Exner made his biggest mark designing ‘Forward Look’ cars for Chrysler in the 1950s. Soaring tail fins, lots of glass, a little chrome, and low belt-lines across the line-up. Prior to that, he’d gotten his start at Pontiac, and joined Raymond Loewy’s industrial design firm in the late 30s, where he helped shape the Studebaker line-up. The man behind the original Chrysler 300 and 300C won six national design awards. His 1960 Valiant featured radical long-hood, short-deck styling and was among the first computer-aided designs. When replaced at Chrysler following an unsuccessful design-downsizing on the 1962 Plymouths and Dodges, he went on to design boats.

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Raymond Loewy

French-born Raymond Loewy spent most of his career in the U.S., where he was responsible for a host of non-automotive designs including a Greyhound bus, Shell and BP logos, vending machines, a couple of trains, refrigerators, and a cigarette package. But it’s Studebaker that got him on the list. Studebaker first retained Loewy as a consultant in the late ’30s, along with Virgil Exner. They went on to produce the 1953 line highlighted by the Starliner and Starlight coupes (credited in particular to team member Robert Bourke) and the early ’60s Avanti. Loewy also overhauled the logo and came up with Studebaker’s lazy S. He made the cover of Time magazine in 1949.

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Frank Quick Hershey

Frank Quick Hershey authored the tail fins Earl finally approved, on the 1948 Cadillac, but carved his place in history by coming up with the Ford Thunderbird. Also, for being fairly openly gay (he had a wife and two kids) — and remember, he was born in 1907. He became lead designer at GM in 1931 and redesigned the 1933 Pontiac, adding the streak of chrome that would be the brand’s trademark for a long time after. Hershey worked for Opel in Germany just prior to the Second World War, and also worked at GM’s Australian division, Holden.

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Battista “Pinin” Farina

Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina was the 10th of 11 children, born 1893 in Turin, Italy. At 12, Farina started working in his brother’s body shop and quickly learned enough to start designing cars of his own. He formed Carrozzeria Pininfarina (a coachworks) in 1930. He started working with Ferrari in 1952. He legally changed his name to ‘Battista Pininfarina’ in 1961. In his career, he worked with Maserati, Rolls, Cadillac, Jaguar, Volvo, Honda, Fiat and Lancia; he also designed trams, trains and trolleys in Europe and the U.S. The last design attributed to him personally was the 1600 Duetto for Alfa Romeo, which appeared at the Geneva Motor Show in 1966. Pininfarina died less than a month later.

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Dick Teague

The prodigious Dick Teague has a wild back story, including losing the sight in one eye to an accident caused by one drunk driver that also turned his mom into an invalid, and then losing his father to another drunk driver. He also had a stint playing a girl on Our Gang. Teague would go on to influence designs at Kaiser, General Motors, Packard, and AMC including the 1963 Rambler Classic and Ambassador. He stayed with AMC from 1959 until he retired in 1983, leaving a totally awesome design legacy that included the Gremlin, Pacer, Javelin, Hornet and Matador coupe. He also helmed the Jeep Cherokee in the early ’80s.

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The Callum Brothers

Dumfries, Scotland-born brothers Ian (1954, pictured in photo) and Moray (1958) both worked long stints at Ford, with Ian making his mark on the Blue Oval’s bread and butter cars of the 1980s, and Moray currently serving as director of design for Ford’s North American passenger cars. Moray served a respectable term at Mazda too, playing a prominent role in the brand’s early 21st-century revitalization. Ian is the current design director at Jaguar; his partnership with Peter Stevens and Tom Walkinshaw in TWR Design (for which he left Ford in 1990) resulted in the Aston Martin DB7 and Vanquish.

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Trevor Creed

Trevor Creed retired as head of Chrysler design in 2008, leaving a legacy that included the PT Cruiser, Challenger, Viper, and Ram trucks. Creed has the dubious distinction of producing the Plymouth Prowler, too. Now 62, he was a 20-year Ford vet before joining Chrysler as Director of Interior Design and Color & Trim. A graduate of the University of West Midlands in Birmingham, England, Creed was awarded an Automotive Interiors Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995, and currently acts as chairman of the board for the Walter P. Chrysler Museum.

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Chris Bangle

This quirky corn-fed Wisconsonite is currently in the midst of authoring a three-part, fictional e-series that takes place in the car industry of the future. The narrative gimmick for his Peter Teuful: A Tale of Car Design in 3 Parts is a Christmas Carol-y structure, a la Dickens. Even his website is a little surreal. Bangle made a big splash over the pond at Opel and Fiat before immortalizing himself in Munich with a 2002 BMW 7 Series overhaul that included the infamous Bangle Butt. The Bavarians’ first American chief of design, he left in 2009 to pursue his artistic interests with his own company, Chris Bangle and Associates, in Turin, Italy, leaving his post to the awesomely named Adrian van Hooydonk.

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J Mays

Mays (whose actual first name is J, after his grandfather S J) currently serves as group vice president of global design and chief creative officer at Ford. In his early days, Mays worked on exteriors for Audi in Germany, including the Audi 80, and for BMW in Munich, where he contributed to the 5 Series and 8 Series cars of the early ’80s. Back at VW, he worked on the Golf and Polo. He unveiled the Audi Avus quattro concept at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1991, which would lead to the development of the TT by colleague Freeman Thomas. As chief designer of VW in the U.S., he developed the Concept 1 concept car in 1994, which would go into production as the New Beetle. He joined Ford in 1997.

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Ralph Gilles

Ralph Gilles is president and CEO of Chrysler’s SRT brand, and senior veep of design of the Chrysler Group LLC, to which he ascended in 2008 after Trevor Creed; he joined Chrysler career in 1992. NYC born of Haitian parents and raised in Montreal, the exotic Gilles was named 2005 Motor Trend designer of the year. Gilles gets credit for the interiors of the 2003 Dodge Viper and 2002 Jeep Liberty, as well as a handful of nifty concepts, like the Jeep Jeepster and Dodge Viper GTS/R. We’ll admit that it’ll be a while before we know if he’s going to achieve truly legendary status, but he’s definitely the hottest designer on the list.

 
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Posted by on July 6, 2012 in Design, Hobbies, Travel

 

Solar plane takes off for its first transcontinental flight

The Swiss sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse takes off on May 24, in Payerne on  its first attempted intercontinental flight  from Switzerland to Morocco. Solar Impulse, piloted by Andre Borschberg, is expected to land in Madrid for a stopover before heading to Morocco without using a drop of fuel. Bertrand Piccard will pilot the second leg on to Rabat, scheduled to leave Madrid on May 28 at the earliest.

The president of the Swiss sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse project, Bertrand Piccard, helps pilot Andre Borschberg prepare for takeoff on May 24, in Payerne on its first attempted intercontinental flight  from Switzerland to Morocco.

AP reports — An experimental solar-powered airplane took off from Switzerland on its first transcontinental flight Thursday, aiming to reach North Africa next week.

Pilot Andre Borschberg planned to take the jumbo jet-size Solar Impulse plane on its first leg to Madrid, Spain, by Friday. His colleague Bertrand Piccard will take the helm of the aircraft for the second stretch of its 1,554-mile journey to the Moroccan capital Rabat.

Fog on the runway at its home base in Payerne, Switzerland, delayed the take off by two hours, demonstrating how susceptible the prototype single-seater aircraft is to adverse weather.

“We can’t fly into clouds because it was not designed for that,” Borschberg said as he piloted the lumbering plane with its 207-foot wingspan toward the eastern French city of Lyon at a cruising speed of just 43.5 miles an hour.

Before landing in Madrid in the early hours of Friday, Borschberg will face other challenges, including having to overfly the Pyrenees, the mountains that separate France and Spain.

Just in case things go disastrously wrong, Borschberg has a parachute inside his tiny cabin that he hopes never to use. “When you take an umbrella it never rains,” he joked in a satellite call with The Associated Press.

The Swiss sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse prepares for takeoff on May 24, in Payerne on  its first attempted intercontinental flight from Switzerland to Morocco.

Japan Sets Sights on Solar Future

As it shifts from nuclear power following the Fukushima radiation disaster, Japan is positioning itself to become the second largest market for solar power. The country introduced incentives for renewable energy that could expand revenue in this area to more than $30 billion by 2016. In the U.K., energy from renewable sources accounted for roughly 12.4 percent of the European Union’s overall consumption, with Estonia recording the largest increase between 2006 and 2010.

Germany, who also opted to move away from nuclear by 2022, is feeling the burden of its decision. Miranda Schreurs, director of the Environmental Policy Research Center at Berlin Free University, said, “The way for Germany to compete in the long run is to become the most energy-efficient and resource-efficient market, and to expand on an export market in the process.” If Germany succeeds, Technology Review reported, it could provide a workable blueprint for other industrialized nations.

A new report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory finds the prospects for renewable energy, at least in the U.S., to be promising—concluding it could supply 80 percent of the country’s electricity by 2050.

 
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Posted by on June 27, 2012 in Design, News and politics

 

Japanese Capsule Hotel カプセルホテル. Try one?

Nine Hours is an ultra minimalist capsule hotel in Kyoto, Japan (see a video tour of the hotel by Monocle). The hotel seeks to distill the hospitality experience into a simple equation: one hour to shower + seven hours of sleep + one hour of rest = nine hours. The design of the hotel echoes the overall concept with a mostly white interior and simple pictographic signage.


Elevator to your capsule.


Main Hall way after entry.


Capsule Hotel’s entrance.

Most famous are Tokyo’s napping salons and capsule hotels  which offer  one moment out of the energy-sucking Japanese working life. Commutes are long  and work often stretches across the weekends. And working twelve hours a day is  none of an exception. The Japanese call it ‘Karoshi’: death caused by too  much work. Karoshi claims roughly 150 lives a year. So the Japanese are  embracing a new cure for stress, the power-nap.

 
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Posted by on June 27, 2012 in Business, Design, Travel