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What Kind of Drinks drank the Stars in Oscar's backstage?

BIOTA has been chosen to be featured backstage at the 79th Academy Awards on Sunday February 25, 2007. BIOTA was served in the Architectural Digest designed Green Room as well as all the dressing rooms for the Oscar's.

BIOTA will also be the drink of choice in all the Eco-Friendly Limo's bringing the celebrities to the Oscar's!

Biota - the first biodegradable bottle - has gone on sale in Britain - heralding a new era in the battle against plastic packaging.

At present, plastic bottles are recycled by councils at processing plants or simply dumped in landfill sites. But the container for Belu mineral water, which is not yet sold in Scotland, is capable of breaking down in fewer than 100 days in the soil.


Belu, which donates its profits to third world water projects, has developed a method of producing plastic bottles using corn. They can be composted in the garden.

Environmentalists have given the "bio-bottle" a mixed reaction. Stuart Hay, of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said: "The most environmentally friendly way to drink water is from a tap."

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency has warned of a "deeply unsustainable" throwaway society - some 2,500 tonnes of packaging are discarded in Scotland every day.



Make Your Own Kite (Sled, Diamond, Delta, Box, Parafoil, Dragon). How to guide.

New Globus Kettle - Already in Sale!

At the article's end you will find SURPRISE-LINK!

Globus kettle is based on the primary geometrical primitive the sphere.


Since over the past 10,000 years humankind has encountered no serious troubles as far as the boiling of water is concerned, Art. Lebedev Studio’s main task was developing a beautiful rather than a functional kettle.

The kettle is made of corrosion-resistant steel and silicon handle. Can be used for gas and electric stoves.

The kettle costs approx. 60US$. Three handle colors: red, orange, blue!


Promised Link

Make Your Own Kite (Sled, Diamond, Delta, Box, Parafoil, Dragon). How to guide.

Make Your Own Kite

At the end of article find you SURPRISE LINK!

Have ever wanted to build a kite? Well, here is a simple kite you can make your self!

A kite consists of these basic parts:
The Spine. The up-and-down, or vertical stick that you build your kite around.
The Spar. The support stick(s), that are placed crossways or at a slant over the spine. Sometimes they are curved or bowed.
The Frame. The joined spine and spars, usually with a string connecting their ends, that form the shape of the kite and make a support for the cover.
The Cover. The paper, plastic, or cloth, that cover the frame to make a kite.
The Bridle. One or more strings attached to the spine or spars, which help control the kite in the air.
The Flying Line. The string running from the kites’ bridle, where you hold to fly the kite.
The Tail. A long strip of paper or plastic of ribbon that helps to balance the kite in flight. Not all kites need tails.
The Reel. The object you use to wind your flying line, to keep it form getting tangled or flying away.

DIAMOND KITE

Materials:
- butcher cord or thin garden twine
- scotch tape or glue
- 1 sheet of strong paper (102cm x 102cm)
- 2 strong, straight wooden sticks of bamboo or wooden doweling 90cm and 102cm
- markers, paint or crayons to decorate you kite.

1. Make a cross with the two sticks, with the shorter stick placed horizontally across the longer stick. Make sure that both sides of the cross piece is equal in width.

2. Tie the two sticks together with the string in such a way as to make sure that they are at right angles to each other. A good way to ensure that the joint is strong to put a dab of glue to stick it in place.

3. Cut a notch at each end of both sticks. Make it deep enough for the type of string you are using to fit in to. Cut a piece of string long enough to stretch all around the kite frame. Make a loop in the top notch and fasten it by wrapping the string around the stick. Stretch the string through the notch at one end of the cross-piece, and make another loop at the bottom. Stretch the string through the notch at one end of the loop at the bottom. Stretch the string through the notch at the other end of the cross-piece. Finish by wrapping the string a few times around the top of the stick and cutting off what you don't need. This string frame must be taut, but not so tight as to warp the sticks.

4. Lay the sail material flat and place the stick frame face down on top. Cut around it, leaving about 2-3cm for a margin. Fold these edges over the string frame and tape or glue it down so that the material is tight.

5. Cut a piece of string about 122 cm long. and tie one end to the loop at the other end of the string to the loop at the bottom. Tie another small loop in the string just above the intersection of the two cross pieces. This will be the kite's bridle, the string to which the flying line is attached.

6. Make a tail by tying a small ribbon roughly every 10cm along the length of string. Attach the tail to the loop at the bottom of the kite.

7. Decorate!

Tips:
- A properly located pivot point is generally located slightly ahead of the centre of gravity.
- Cut away from you!
- Spray can glue is really good for patching up paper kites.
- Stability is improved by the use of an effective bow and a flexible tail.
- Hold your kite up by the string when you are finished to see if it is balanced. You can balance it by putting more paper on one side.
- Kites are different each time you make one, so slight adjustments might need to be made for each kite.

Make Your Own Kite (Sled, Diamond, Delta, Box, Parafoil, Dragon). How to guide.

Surprise-Link: Body Art for Cats! :-)

Sparkasse Dresden
Sparkasse Magdeburg

Body Art for Cats (part 3)

Part 1 Part 2

One colouring work costs 15000$. Colour lasts on a cat 3 monats.

Read also an Article "Toach an Air: Heliodisplay"

Body Art for Cats (part 2)

Part 1 Part 3

One colouring work costs 15000$. Colour lasts on a cat 3 monats.

Part 1 Part 3

Body Art for Cats

One colouring work costs 15000$. Colour lasts on a cat 3 monats.

Optische Täuschung

Image Mosaic

At the article's end find you link to Image Mosaic Creator...


In the field of photographic imaging, a photographic mosaic (also known under the term Photomosaic or ImageMosaic) is a picture (usually a photograph) that has been divided into (usually equal sized) rectangular sections, each of which is replaced with another photograph of appropriate average color. When viewed at low magnifications, the individual pixels appear as the primary image, while close examination reveals that the image is in fact made up of many hundreds or thousands of smaller images. They are a computer created type of montage.

Originally, the term photomosaic referred to compound photographs created by stitching together a series of adjacent pictures of a scene. Space scientists have been assembling mosaics of this kind since at least as early as the Soviet Union space satellite missions to the moon in the late 1950s.

History

Related to the manually created 9th century art of Micrography which utilises letters & symbols to create larger images. Leon Harmon of Bell Labs created images from symbols and letters in 1973 which led to the popularity of ASCII art in the 1970s and 1980s.

1993 Joseph Francis, working for R/Greenberg Associates in Manhattan, is believed to be the inventor of the modern day computer generated colour image versions. His 'Live from Bell Labs' poster created in 1993 used computer themed tile photographs to create a mosaic of a face. He went on to create a mosaic for Animation Magazine in 1993 which was repeated in Wired Magazine (November 1994 p. 106). Francis has said, on his "History of Photo Mosaics" webpage, that his interest in developing these techniques further was in part stimulated by the work of artist Chuck Close.

1994 Dave McKean creates an image for DC Comics, a mosaic of a face made from photos of faces. Although this is believed to be created manually using photoshop.

1994 Adam Finkelstein and Sandy Farrier, creates mosaic of JFK from parts of Marilyn Monroe pictures. The result was displayed in the Xerox PARC Algorithmic Art Show in 1994.

1994 Benetton: AIDS - Faces mosaic. Over one thousand young peoples' portraits from all over the word computer-processed spell out the word AIDS.

1995 The Gioconda Sapiens, a face with ten thousand faces, was presented to the public in April 1995 (Spain, Domus museum). This was the the first large photographic mosaic, using photographs of 10,062 people from 110 countries to make the Mona Lisa.

1995 Adam Finkelstein (published mosaic in Mossy Bits), creates mosaic of the oil painting American Gothic from images collected from the web in early 1995.

1995 Robert Silvers creates a Photomosaic, and goes on to trademark the term Photomosaic and patent creation of Photomosaics in 1997.

2003Doubletake Images creates the world's largest photographic mosaic -- over 10,000 square feet. The live event took place at Disneyland and was created by thousands of castmembers holding up photographs of themselves.

2004Roy Feinson creates a series of 38 giant mosaic murals to celebrate Disneyland's 50th Anniversary in which 250,000 guest submitted photographs were used. The project included the first tri-level mosaic, comprising an image of Steamboat Willie made up by photographs of Disney castmembers, which themselves were mosaics made up of guest photographs.

Promised: Image Mosaic Creator

Make Your Own Kite (Sled, Diamond, Delta, Box, Parafoil, Dragon). How to guide.

How To Make A Boomerang

Part 1

A simple boomerang that is safe to fly indoors can be made with balsa wood, a rubber band, some blutack and a matchstick.

The only tools that are required are some sandpaper and a sharp knife. A true-blue boomerang is boomerang-shaped because bent bits of wood are easy to find in outback Australia, but the aerodynamic and gyrodynamic efficiency of such a shape is not good. You need wide open spaces to fly them. Small cross-shaped boomerangs have such good gyroscopic and aerodynamic properties that they can fly indoors.

You will need:
- two bits of balsa wood, 200 x 25 x 3 mm approx;
- some sand paper (not too coarse);
- a match stick;
- some blutack;
- a small rubber band.

Figure 1: A right handed boomerang

Step 1:

Decide if you want a right- or left-handed boomerang. They're each as easy to throw with either hand. Instructions here are for right-handers. Use the mirror image of all constructions to make a left-hander.

Step 2:

Figure 2: Mark sanding lines

Mark the centre of the two pieces of balsa and draw two lines in pencil near one edge of each piece as shown (about 1|6 the width from one edge). These lines must never be touched with sand paper!

Step 3:

Figure 3: Sand to this section

With sandpaper wrapped around a sanding block (a ruler will do), create airfoil shapes as shown leaving the bottom absolutely flat. Use the edge of a plank of wood as a firm base to get a good angle on the trailing edge. Don't make the trailing edge too `sharp' as it will be easily damaged in flight. When you have finished sanding the four airfoils, the pencil lines should still be visible.

Step 4:

Figure 4: Fasten together

Carefully press a matchstick through the centre of the two wings and join them together. Secure with a rubber band as shown.

Step 5:

Figure 5: Add weights

Add four small blobs of blutack (each about the size of a pea) to the flat side of each wing at about 3/4 the radius from the centre. This should roughly double the weight of the boomerang. You are now ready for a test flight!

The Test Flight

You will notice that good flight can only be obtained if the boomerang has just the right spin and just the right forward velocity. In fact the ratio of these two parameters is what counts and this comes from boomerang theory too. For a cross-shaped boomerang, we find that the `flick-of-the-wrist' needed is aw = Ö2V. You can experiment with different values of velocity and spin to verify that this is true.

Make Your Own Kite (Sled, Diamond, Delta, Box, Parafoil, Dragon). How to guide.

History Of Boomerang

"My boomerang won't come back" goes the song about the disgraced Australian Aborigine.

Figure 1: Traditional boomerangs from Australia.

Well, that's not so bad a thing because boomerangs used for hunting kangaroos aren't meant to come back - they are heavy, hockey-stick-shaped throwing sticks that move in a confusingly wobbly path, and they are designed to break the legs or wings of any 'roo or bird they encounter. So just imagine if that 'rang came back: how would you catch it? It would be as silly as if Robin Hood's deadly arrows came back! The only boomerangs that do come back are those intended to be used as toys and for sport: the Aborigines knew about the fun you can have with boomerangs thousands of years ago.

Figure 2: Some modern sports boomerangs.

Perhaps surprisingly, it's reported that the earliest known users of boomerangs were found in what is now Poland, about twenty thousand years ago (18,000 years BC!). Their boomerangs were the traditional bent-stick variety, like the Australian boomerangs in figure 1.

It wasn't too hard for boomerangs to be discovered by accident because if you were stuck for food you might try throwing a rock, a stick, anything at your prey, and if the stick you found did funny things you might think it was a magic stick and you'd want to keep it for another throw.

These days, we can make boomerangs in many other curious shapes (figure 2), and some of them fly much better than the traditional ones.

In fact, a cross-shaped balsa-wood "boomerang" that looks like a 4-bladed propellor (figure 3) works really well indoors - inside the average-sized living room!

Figure 3: Home-made balsa wood boomerangs, suitable for indoor use.

Why do boomerangs fly?

A boomerang works because it spins as it moves forward and the bit of the boomerang that is at the very top moves forward faster than the bit at the bottom so it generates more lift.

The overall lift force (like a spinning propellor)

Figure 4: Flight path of a boomerang.

points towards the centre of the circular flight path which is necessary for circular motion (centripetal acceleration and all that) but the boomerang has to turn to face forwards all the time as it goes around the circle (figure 4 shows the flight path of a boomerang). This is achieved by the difference in lift force between top and bottom . This difference creates a couple, and this couple causes precession.

A boomerang does funny things because it is in fact a gyroscope. Aerodynamic forces generate a twisting moment which cause the "gyroscope" to precess and to move on a circular path.

How to make a Boomerang

Make Your Own Kite (Sled, Diamond, Delta, Box, Parafoil, Dragon). How to guide.