Happy Halloween everyone!
via quaint living
30 October 2009
Tim Burton inspiration
For this project, Jack Skellington, the clay-mation hero of The Nightmare Before Christmas, was the inspiration. To create a King of Halloween lookalike, you need a white pumpkin and create a face design that mimics the original Jack. You can draw your own Jack Skellington freehand or use this downloadable template, just be sure to re-size the image to your pumpkin.
terror-ium
Here is an arrangement that embraces the darker, more macabre side of Halloween.
For the terror-ium four plants were used: Pygmy Sundew, D. Capensis Narrow, S. Dana’s Delight, and Dionaea (Venus flytrap). Every continent except Antarctica has native carnivorous plants. Contrary to popular belief, they don’t grow exclusively in tropical areas. They dine on small bugs and can usually find their own meals if left outside under proper conditions.
Placing the terror-ium on a hallway table or other high-traffic area during a Halloween get-together will be sure to “wow” your guests. Just make sure that after the party has ended you get these fellows into a proper home where they can plant some roots, because you don’t want to see them when they’re angry.
via design sponge
29 October 2009
40 winks in london
Situated in vibrant and trendy East London, designer David Carter's home is a historic and elegant four storey Queen Anne townhouse built in 1717. With two rarely used guest bedrooms, he has just launched 40 WINKS to help give photographers, stylists, art directors, designers, buyers, models and anyone in the creative and fashion industries somewhere fun and different to stay when they are in London for work or pleasure. It's bold, romantic, whimsical, quirky, glamourous.
Room 1 Description: small bedroom with single bed, clothes rail, desk and chair
Rate: £65 per night or £390 per week
A £5 supplement will charged per room for stays of just one night.
Room 2 Description: large bedroom with double bed, clothes rail, chair and table
Rate: £80 per night or £470 per week or £95 per night or £560 per week for two people sharing.
A £5 supplement will charged per room for stays of just one night.
Room 1 Description: small bedroom with single bed, clothes rail, desk and chairRate: £65 per night or £390 per week
A £5 supplement will charged per room for stays of just one night.
Room 2 Description: large bedroom with double bed, clothes rail, chair and tableRate: £80 per night or £470 per week or £95 per night or £560 per week for two people sharing.
A £5 supplement will charged per room for stays of just one night.
28 October 2009
the studio of bark design architects
Bark Design Architects, a small Australian practice located in Noosa Heads, Queensland, have designed a studio for themselves to work in.
This is what you can build if you don't have earthquakes!!
This is what you can build if you don't have earthquakes!!Read more about this beautiful and dramatic structure here.
via contemporist
27 October 2009
healthcare reform
Over the next 20 days I'm going to post one 30 second video a day about healthcare reform. Here's the first:
Human Instinct
by Natalie Kaufman & Jeff Goldstone
Human Instinct
by Natalie Kaufman & Jeff Goldstone
the botany of desire
The Botany of Desire, a two-hour special will premiere on PBS on October 28 at 8pm
Subtitled “A Plant’s Eye View of the World,” The Botany of Desire is based on the best-selling Michael Pollan book of the same name. It examines the unique relationship between humans and plants, with the premise that plants use us for their purposes just as we use them. Linking our fundamental desires for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control with the plants that gratify them — the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato — The Botany of Desire shows that humans are intricately woven into the web of nature, not standing outside it, as so many of us like to believe.
This is a beautifully-shot film that is as fascinating as it is entertaining. Watch it on PBS on Wednesday, October 28 at 8pm.
Subtitled “A Plant’s Eye View of the World,” The Botany of Desire is based on the best-selling Michael Pollan book of the same name. It examines the unique relationship between humans and plants, with the premise that plants use us for their purposes just as we use them. Linking our fundamental desires for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control with the plants that gratify them — the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato — The Botany of Desire shows that humans are intricately woven into the web of nature, not standing outside it, as so many of us like to believe.
This is a beautifully-shot film that is as fascinating as it is entertaining. Watch it on PBS on Wednesday, October 28 at 8pm.
no surprise here - unfortunately
Female CEOs' pay fell more than men's: survey
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Female chief executive earned just 58 percent of what their male counterparts did in 2008, and their compensation packages were slashed three times as much as their male peers, according to a survey released on Monday.
Corporate governance research firm the Corporate Library said total realized compensation -- which includes base salary, bonuses, perquisites, benefits, and the value realized on the exercise of options and vesting of other equity -- fell by a median of 18.5 percent in 2008 for female CEOs.
In the same period, the compensation of male CEOs fell 6.1 percent, the survey revealed.
Top female chief executives' median base salary was $40,000 higher than that for male CEOs, but mens' discretionary bonuses were more than 3.5 times larger than those given to females, and men's perquisite payments were nearly twice the amount received by women, the survey said.
Female CEOs earned on average 58 percent of what males earned in realized compensation, the Corporate Library said.
United Therapeutics Corp's Martine Rothblatt was the only female CEO among the top 150 earners of 2008, with total compensation worth $21.8 million.
Among female CEOs, Rothblatt was followed by Avon Products Inc's Andrea Jung, with $13.9 million in total realized compensation, and TJX Companies Inc's Carol Meyrowitz, with $12.8 million.
The survey was based on compensation data of 2,703 U.S. listed companies. Women CEOs accounted for only 3 percent of the total, the Corporate Library wrote in the report.
The survey also found that women are more likely to serve as CEOs at smaller companies.
(Reporting by Juan Lagorio; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Female chief executive earned just 58 percent of what their male counterparts did in 2008, and their compensation packages were slashed three times as much as their male peers, according to a survey released on Monday.
Corporate governance research firm the Corporate Library said total realized compensation -- which includes base salary, bonuses, perquisites, benefits, and the value realized on the exercise of options and vesting of other equity -- fell by a median of 18.5 percent in 2008 for female CEOs.
In the same period, the compensation of male CEOs fell 6.1 percent, the survey revealed.
Top female chief executives' median base salary was $40,000 higher than that for male CEOs, but mens' discretionary bonuses were more than 3.5 times larger than those given to females, and men's perquisite payments were nearly twice the amount received by women, the survey said.
Female CEOs earned on average 58 percent of what males earned in realized compensation, the Corporate Library said.
United Therapeutics Corp's Martine Rothblatt was the only female CEO among the top 150 earners of 2008, with total compensation worth $21.8 million.
Among female CEOs, Rothblatt was followed by Avon Products Inc's Andrea Jung, with $13.9 million in total realized compensation, and TJX Companies Inc's Carol Meyrowitz, with $12.8 million.
The survey was based on compensation data of 2,703 U.S. listed companies. Women CEOs accounted for only 3 percent of the total, the Corporate Library wrote in the report.
The survey also found that women are more likely to serve as CEOs at smaller companies.
(Reporting by Juan Lagorio; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Palestinians make world's largest embroidered dress
HEBRON, West Bank (AFP) — Palestinians in the West Bank town of Hebron on Sunday 25 October unveiled what they believe is the largest embroidered dress ever sewn, in a bid to promote their local handicrafts.
Around 150 women helped make the dress, measuring 32.6 metres (35.6 yards) long and 18.1 metres (19.8 yards) wide, which took four months to complete, according to the Palestinian Children's Home, the local organisation behind the project.
Palestinian officials were on hand for the official unveiling of the gown, which project organisers hope will secure a place in the Guinness Book of World Records and spark international interest in Palestinian handicrafts.
Women living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have increasingly turned to traditional handicrafts as a source of income in recent years as Israeli restrictions put in place during the 2000 Palestinian uprising have curtailed economic growth and contributed to high unemployment.
Copyright © 2009 AFP
Around 150 women helped make the dress, measuring 32.6 metres (35.6 yards) long and 18.1 metres (19.8 yards) wide, which took four months to complete, according to the Palestinian Children's Home, the local organisation behind the project.
Palestinian officials were on hand for the official unveiling of the gown, which project organisers hope will secure a place in the Guinness Book of World Records and spark international interest in Palestinian handicrafts.
Women living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank have increasingly turned to traditional handicrafts as a source of income in recent years as Israeli restrictions put in place during the 2000 Palestinian uprising have curtailed economic growth and contributed to high unemployment.
Copyright © 2009 AFP
26 October 2009
which book are you going to read?
The only similarity, other than the cover, is that neither one will have been written by Sarah Palin.
is obama keeping his promises?
The president is a person of nuance. But on both ends of the political number line, nuance is seen as wishy-washy. There's no nuance in partisan attacks, soundbites, slogans, which is why Barack Obama didn't run with the lines "Some change you might like if you're willing to settle" or "Yes, we can, but it will take a while."
- - - - - - - - -
So if the American people want the president to be more like the Barack Obama they elected, maybe they should start acting more like the voters who elected him, who forcibly and undeniably moved the political establishment to where it didn't want to go. After all, in our system, even great, audacious change is never as audacious as it seems: calls for a national health-care system can be traced all the way back to Roosevelt—Teddy Roosevelt, in 1912. When Sen. Olympia Snowe, Republican of Maine, broke with her party to vote a health-care bill out of committee, she said, "When history calls, history calls." And it's not asking for baby steps.
Read the entire essay here.
23 October 2009
the humble concrete block
Here's some great examples of concrete block tables (or technically known as CMU - concrete masonry units). They may remind you of grad school days but here, they're quite stylish.
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