Selasa, 29 Desember 2009

Burj Dubai Tower, Dubai United Arab Emigrates


The Burj Dubai will be the tallest building in the world when it opens in January 4th 2009. This tower designed by SOM in Chicago (also did the Sears Tower) is 2,640 feet, half a mile tall.

Its grand opening ironically comes as the great Dubai bubble bursts, including Dubai World's $60 billion debt. The extravagence climaxed with this grand ediface, but the future doesn't look pretty.

I recently talked with SOM representatives about Burj Dubai, who hailed the design as their new great achievment, with a design similar to the Sears Tower. Vertical structures rise up like sticks bound together with a band. But more significantly for SOM, it represents a more international approach.

Video- Opening ceremony
More info





Minggu, 27 Desember 2009

BACK IN EUROPE

How great to shoot again in Europe.
During the coming weeks, my schedule is going to look like that:

Stockholm: Dec. 28th - Jan 3rd
London: Jan 4th-20th
Paris: Jan. 21st-24th

All the photos of my 80-days-around-the-world trip are now up on my visual diary!

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

After you’ve turned citizens into junkies, with government as the pusher, it’s very hard to turn them back again, and even harder to get them to quit (if you’ll forgive the expression) cold turkey. It’s all but impossible in the present Continental political culture. Europe has a psychological investment in longer holidays: the fact that they spell national suicide is less important than that they distinguish Europe from the less enlightened Americans.

Mark Steyn - 12-27-04

Macao, Taipa, Macau - will this "city of dreams" bring you a 2010 Casino investment?


I thought I was going to write a buttoned up nice little article on investments to profit on the thriving Macau casino business's, but it turned out to be a more complicated discussion than I first thought. Pictured to the right is the Casino Lisboa which is owned by Sociedade De Turismo E Diversoes De Macau, (Symbol HK: SJM) which is owned by Stanley Ho(Hung-Sun) and his family and trades on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Stanley has had a monopoly franchise on the Macau casino business for 40 years before anyone else arrived. All the current folks have only been there 10 years. Taipa is the smaller of the two islands in Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (formerly the Portuguese colony of Macau).Craig Stephen's "This Week in China" on Marketwatch.com is an excellent source on keeping you up on events in Macau. The Chinese government holds the ultimate trump card here, like many other things in the world, so add a dose of measured risk for that fact. Also there are Hong Kong exchange stocks and US exchange stocks with varying levels of exposure to this market and the associated risk. Wynn and Las Vagas Sands have stocks on both exchanges. If you want to see the Hong Kong stock exchange it is listed at http://www.hkex.com.hk/index.htm, I will limit my discussion to the US investment stocks. WYNN (Symbol WYNN) and Las Vegas Sands (Symbol LVS) which owns the largest hotel in Macau, The Venetian Hotel Resort, are safe ways to get exposure to the Macau action. Melco PBL Entertainment LTD ADS (Symbol MPEL) with the "City of Dreams" on the Cotai Strip should also be one to look at. All of us were cheering for Playboy (Symbol PLA) with their Macau location to be a boom for the company, but evidently they are playing with such a "short stack" at the poker table that Iconix Brand Group (Symbol ICON) that makes London Fog raincoats, walked away from a buyout opportunity of PLA last week. That must be one ugly Bunny balance sheet.
If you are in the market to just look at some good casino stocks and don't care about China, WMS Industries (Symbol WMS) and Penn National Gaming, Inc (symbol PENN) are both worth a look.
If anyone has comments on the other Hong Kong exchange traded stocks in Macau with more information, I invite you to comment on this blog and share with others your insight.

Season Greetings and Happy New Year,

Freewilly

Great Mountains Wallpapers, hd wallpaper widescreen



Jumat, 25 Desember 2009

Les Choux Créteil, Val-de-Marne France


^Kristo
- flickr/cc license
Gerard Grandval designed these ten cauliflower-shaped residential towers, completed in 1974. Each rises 15 floors. Western nations were experimenting with new social solutions to mass housing needs during this time in history.

The round shape of the concrete structure maximizes external area to floor space, and personal balconies for each unit take advantage of the soaring height.
More Info


^federico novaro
- flickr/cc license

^cingularite
- flickr/cc license

^REMY SAGLIER - DOUBLERAY
- flickr/cc license

^federico novaro
- flickr/cc license

Beautiful women wallpaper,black and white,hi res

Nature pictures wallpaper,high definition desktop background