Minggu, 28 Februari 2010

Number 1 London Bridge, London UK


John S. Bonnington Partnership designed the No. 1 London Bridge building on the south side of the London Bridge in London. It has a 13 story tower with another 10 story section clad in pink granite and stainless steel. The distinctive front of the building is cut out of the corner with a skylight cut out at the top. The office complex was completed in 1986.

Info and images





Introducing The Rewritable Printer

Winter Olympics: Ice Hockey Canada beat USA winning Gold.

Sideny Crosby-Canada- Ice Hockey-Men's Gold Medal Canada won the Olympic title Sunday, beating the United States 3-2 to become the first host nation to capture men's hockey gold in 30 years.

Crosby got the winning goal 7:40 into the overtime period, taking a pass from Jarome Iginla and sliding a shot under the pads of US goaltender Ryan Miller.

Canada Gold Medal Ice HockeyCrosby Canada Winter Olympics Ice Hockey Sydney Crosby Canada Winter Olympics Ice Hockey Canada Ice Hockey Team

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell - health care costs

Here is a math problem for you: Assume that the legislation establishing government control of medical care is passed and that it "brings down the cost of medical care." You pay $500 a year less for your medical care, but the new costs put on employers is passed on to consumers, so that you pay $300 a year more for groceries and $200 a year more for gasoline, while the new mandates put on insurance companies raise your premiums by $300 a year, how much money have you saved?

Thomas Sowell

Naruto Games Online - Battlegrounds

In an accomplishment to amuse the anytime accretion cardinal of admirers of the Naruto anime series, a new anatomy of ball accept started to spread, featuring the appearance Naruto as the capital character. Naruto amateur are accessible chargeless on arcade websites featuring this accurate category. The amateur themselves are fabricated in the beam platform, and accommodate agnate thrills and spills as the admirers consistently adore on the television alternation or manga episodes. The alternation was originally appear in Japan as a one-shot banana by Kishimoto in August, 1997. The storyline abaft the Naruto anime alternation narrates the adventure of a adolescent boy and his attempt to become an Hokage, or the accomplished baton in his home village. The Hokage is admired to be the arch and best able ninja in town, and thus, accustomed the appellation as the best ascendancy in town.

The simple artifice in the Naruto anime alternation allows for a aggregation of situations which are chip into chargeless beam bold episodes. The amateur are accessible chargeless online, and affection a casting of characters that resemble the alternation as presented on television. One of the best ambrosial aspects of Naruto, the character, is the actuality that he is a ninja and has assertive appropriate abilities, which accommodate a accomplished use of the sword. This aspect is exploited in some of the chargeless Naruto amateur online, such as Naruto Battlegrounds. The beam appliance is accustomed to Professor Jefferson, T.A. Matt, Gregg Burrus and Steve. It is a simple multimedia creation, the cachet of which is uncertain, as the archetype accessible online is still unfinished. The appear date is formed as actuality February 25, 2007.

The article of this Naruto online bold is simple, action your way through the accustomed aisle and appoint the bang-up in action at the end. The amateur will accept to face an asperous path, with area at altered heights and inclinations. In adjustment to airing through assertive ground, the appearance will allegation to jump appealing high. At several credibility forth the way, a cardinal of altered creatures will be cat-and-mouse for you to anticipate you from accepting through. Zombie, monsters and added creatures accomplish up the casting of creatures you will acquisition forth the way.

There is an abounding card of controls accessible to use in this Naruto online game. For movement, the arrow keys are acclimated for larboard and appropriate motion, while the up key is for jumping and the bottomward key after-effects in a crouch. Captivation bottomward the arrow key while befitting the letter w pressed, will acquiesce bout appearance to run. The letter Q will allegation your chakra and R will teleport your appearance back the chakra beat is at atomic bisected full. In adjustment to appoint in battle, the amateur will accomplish use of the letter S to physically advance your opponent, the letter F to block a hit, and the A to bandy a "Kunai". Pressing the A key while captivation bottomward the S key is a appropriate ability, which allows the appearance to administer added damage.

Naruto Battlegrounds is a actual absorbing Naruto Bold to comedy online free. Hopefully, the developers will accept a accomplished adaptation accessible online soon.

Secondhand woes

The Baltimore Sun had an article this week on reprocessing of single-use devices. This was quite a controversial topic for hospital epidemiologists about 10 years ago, but I hadn't heard much about it recently. Now there's a new argument for it--it's good for the environment. I also think the green argument could be used to encourage alternatives to contact precautions giving the vast amount of consumables it requires. Anyway, in 2001, I wrote a piece about reprocessing of single-used devices that has survived multiple hard-drive to hard-drive transfers but I never did anything with it. So I dug it out and pasted it below.

Secondhand Woes
Healthcare is not the profitable venture it once was and hospitals in the United States have fallen on hard times. In an attempt to stay afloat, hospitals have looked long and hard at ways to reduce cost. To that end, healthcare consulting firms have advised hospitals on numerous ways to cut corners, going so far as to recommend that bed linens not be changed on a daily basis.
One area of cost savings that hospitals have found quite tempting to explore is the re-use of medical devices that are labeled by the manufacturer for single use only. Obviously manufacturers of medical devices have an incentive to label products as single use so that more devices will need to be purchased. However, some devices should be used one time only based on the type of materials used in manufacturing or by a design so intricate that cleaning of the device is not feasible. Nonetheless, many single-use devices can be appropriately sterilized without damaging the integrity of the product, and reused without difficulty. Consider the case of the $600 catheters that are used by cardiologists to test the heart for abnormal rhythms. These catheters are typically inserted into a major blood vessel and threaded into the heart. Many hospitals have found that the reuse of these catheters after sterilization can result in significant cost savings. This is only one example of the hundreds of products labeled as “single use” that can be reused after appropriate reprocessing.
In response to the increasing frequency with which single-use devices are being reused in hospitals, the FDA has issued guidelines to standardize the cleaning and sterilization process so that the reused devices are safe for patients. This will heighten the accountability of hospitals and businesses that provide reprocessing services.
As a physician trained in infectious diseases, microbiology and public health, I must admit that I am bothered more by the ethical issues surrounding reuse of devices labeled as single use only, than I am about the potential for the transmission of infectious diseases via these devices.
Clearly, there does exist a small risk of transmission of infectious diseases via reused devices. However, it seems likely that this risk is no higher than for the thousands of devices designed for reuse, and which are, in fact, routinely reused after sterilization. Most surgical instruments, for example, are reused on a daily basis in hospitals without any problem. Of course, any process that involves humans is inherently prone to error and therefore entails some risk.
The ethical questions surrounding reuse of single use devices are, I believe, more challenging. First, do patients have the right to know if their procedure will involve the reuse of a product designed and labeled for single use? If they have this right, do they have the right to request that a new device be used for their procedure? And what do we do when patients refuse to accept a used device?
The ethical quagmires don’t end there. Much of the cost savings that can be generated by reusing devices occurs by charging all patients the cost of a new device, even though some patients will not get a new device. How many of us would be willing to pay the factory sticker price for a used automobile? Moreover, how incensed would we be if we paid the sticker price for a car we thought was new, but was not? We have laws that prevent this type of fraudulent activity.
Lastly, which patients will receive the new devices and which ones will get the reused? Could it be that indigent patients will end up with the hand-me-downs, while insurance-card-carrying patients will get the shiny, new ones?
The ethical questions are really not that difficult to resolve. First, hospitals should inform patients on admission about their policy for reuse of single-use devices and supplement this with a brochure that gives patients who want more detail the information they need. Physicians performing procedures involving these devices should ensure that patients understand the issues. Secondly, it is imperative that hospitals that decide to reuse devices develop a system that insures that the selection of a device for a patient is done in a completely random manner. In this way, the corporate executive stands the same chance of receiving the used device as does the man who lives under the bridge. Lastly, the charges for devices must be adjusted to reflect the number of times a product can be used. If a product can be reused five times, then the charge for the product should be the new charge divided by five, plus the cost of reprocessing. If hospitals prorate the charges, the financial impetus to reuse devices may melt away.
The patient must come first. And putting patients first requires honest dialogue. Healthcare administrators must not allow the bottom line and deceptive practices to be guideposts for the way that we provide care because the doctor-patient relationship is too precious to be subjected to harm by dishonesty. What’s best for the patient is, in the end, what’s best for all of us.

Aria Resort & Casino, City Center Las Vegas Nevada


César Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects designed MGM Mirage's Aria Las Vegas in City Center Las Vegas, completed in 2009. The $9 billion project starts with only the mountains, the sunlight and the views. Pelli describes creating the building's own context with complex programs and procession paths. Maya Lin, Jenny Holzer, and other renown designers and artists contributed to this massive project.

The LEED certified 4004-room hotel lets go of the Las Vegas kitch and allows daylight into the deep mall spaces with unique materials and lighting schemes to define exciting spaces. The majority of rooms fit into the gently curving glass building looming into the skylight. It establishes a man-made landscape of crevices and cliffs.

More images inside , More Images inside (2) , More Info and Images , Interview with the architect
Also by César Pelli: Petronas Towers, Minneapolis Public Library
















2560 x 1600 Widescreen Landscape Wallpaper



MILAN - fashion week aw 10, day 3, 02/26/10




More MFW voguistas on vogue.it.

What is a jalopy?


Search
: jalopie; jalopy origin

Why: On the SNL sketch "New Car Horns (by Tina Tina)," the old-timey horns goes, "Aawoooga, jalopy. What?"
Answer: It's just an old-ass car! Theories of origin:
  • from the Yiddish word shlappe, a term for an old horse (actually Polish)
  • from the French word chaloupe, a kind of skiff - which is a boat, not a car
  • from the Italian-American pronunciation of "jelly apple" - the jell-oppy, "one of the decrepit old carts from which Italian immigrants sold this delicacy during the early part of the 20th century..."
  • from Spanish galapago, i.e. one of those big slow tortoises (galapago means "saddle," btw)
And this:
A theory is that it is derived from a non-Spanish pronunciation of Jalapa, Mexico. It seems that, during the 1920s, many decrepit automobiles were shipped from New Orleans to scrapyards in Jalapa. The theory is that some of the dockhands or crew members who did not speak English began naming these broken-down autos after their destination, and the name eventually morphed into our current jalopy.
Other words for shitty cars: flivver (1910), heap, tin lizzy (1915), crate (1927), bucket, beater, hooptie (1990), and clunker (2009).

Source: Historical Origins of English Words and Phrases, Answerbag

The More You Know: Doorbells and More. Ding dong! Router! Netflix! What?
Unusual view of a fire hydrant I photographed in San Francisco:

Sabtu, 27 Februari 2010

Milan Fashion Week: Moschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 Collection

Rosella Jardini's Cheap & Chic fashion show for Milan Fashion Week is not just an ordinary runway show. The guests stood beside the red carpet while models strutted across them. According to Rosella Jardini, the concept of Cheap & Chic's Fall 2010 fashion show is about women with various fashion styles who went out of a hotel.

Enjoy the Cheap & Chic's fab fashion show with humor!

Moschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 Milan Fashion WeekMoschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 Milan Fashion Week
Moschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 Milan Fashion WeekMoschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 Milan Fashion Week

Moschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 Milan Fashion WeekMoschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 Milan Fashion Week
Moschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 Milan Fashion WeekMoschino Cheap & Chic Fall 2010 Milan Fashion Week


Source: Style.com

Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010

Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010

Brazilian model Isabeli Fontana looked stylish at the March 2010 issue of Harper's Bazaar Russia. She pulled a chic-look by wearing fabulous pieces such as floral-print corset by Dolce & Gabanna, pink pencil dress and patterned sundresses.

With her flowing dark locks and red lips, she sported fashionable outfits for day and night. Check out Isabeli Fontana's fashion shoots for Harpers' Bazaar Russia March 2010 issue.

Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010
Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010
Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010
Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010Isabeli Fontana Harpers Bazaar Russia March 2010

Source: Fashionising.com