Milena Markovna Kunis, professionally known as Mila Kunis, is an American actress. At the age of seven, she moved from Ukraine to Los Angeles, with her family. Check out more Wallpapers of Mila Kunis Below:
Rabu, 03 Agustus 2011
Kamis, 28 Juli 2011
The EdgeWalk at Toronto's CN Tower
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Daredevils in red jumpsuits can teeter around the outside edge of Canada's tallest structure next month as Toronto's CN Tower opens a new attraction for thrill-seekers and those wanting to overcome fear. A reporter leans over the edge of the catwalk during the media preview for the "EdgeWalk" on the CN Tower in Toronto, July 27, 2011. Participants are strapped in to a harness that is attached to a guard rail while walking around the catwalk on the structure 356m (1,168ft) off the ground. REUTERS/Mark Blinch (CANADA - Tags: SOCIETY CITYSCAPE IMAGES OF THE DAY) |
The EdgeWalk at Toronto's CN Tower is an adrenaline filled excursion around an open-mesh metal walkway almost a quarter of a mile above the ground. There's no guard rail and no hand holds, just an uninterrupted view of the Toronto skyline and a through-the-mesh view of the ground, 1,168 feet beneath your feet. (Reuters)
Feet are seen in a view from the catwalk during the media preview for the "Edgewalk" on top of the CN Tower in Toronto, July 27, 2011. Participants are strapped in to a harness that is attached to a guard rail while walking around the catwalk on the structure 356m (1,168ft) off the ground. REUTERS/Mark Blinch (CANADA - Tags: SOCIETY CITYSCAPE)
A tour guide demonstrates the length of the rope during the media preview for the "Edgewalk" on top of the CN Tower in Toronto, July 27, 2011. Participants are strapped in to a harness that is attached to a guard rail while walking around the catwalk on the structure 356m (1,168ft) off the ground. REUTERS/Mark Blinch (CANADA - Tags: SOCIETY CITYSCAPE)
A reporter walks on the edge of the catwalk during the media preview for the "EdgeWalk" on the CN Tower in Toronto, July 27, 2011. Participants are strapped in to a harness that is attached to a guard rail while walking around the catwalk on the structure 356m (1,168ft) off the ground. REUTERS/Mark Blinch (CANADA - Tags: SOCIETY CITYSCAPE)
Canadian Press reporter Alex Posadzki leans over Toronto's downtown while participating in a media preview of EdgeWalk on the CN Tower on Wednesday, July 27, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darren Calabrese)
Source: Yahoo News
Senin, 25 Juli 2011
Evans’ victory caps a classic Tour de France
It was a Tour de France many hailed as a classic. There were crashes, dropouts, surprises and, above all, a new champion.
With Cadel Evans becoming the first Australian to win cycling’s most prestigious race, the Tour de France had a completely new look this year.
Lance Armstrong’s seven-year stranglehold over the Tour was a remarkable demonstration of strength and resolve, but the competition itself was not that engrossing. Alberto Contador then stepped up and won three titles in four years, with his third still in limbo after a positive drug test last year.
This year, with defending champion Contador far from his best, the race was wide open. Despite the early departure of some pre-race favorites, seven key riders were in contention halfway through the final week. And that’s not counting Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, who led through the Pyrenees and most of the Alps.
The rivalry between Luxembourg brothers Frank and Andy Schleck finally played out after it was cut short last year by a crash that forced Frank to quit.
The brothers displayed nothing but devotion to each other. Frank seemed genuinely delighted at his younger sibling’s success. They embraced at the line seconds after Andy finished his time trial Saturday. Their second- and third-place finishes for Leopard-Trek proved a team doesn’t have to tear itself apart if it has more than one contender—though it might take the strength of family ties to make it work.
Two Italians—Ivan Basso and Damiano Cunego—were in the hunt, though their climbing skills weren’t enough to counter their poor time trials. Contador was still dangerous, but he couldn’t make up the time he’d lost at the beginning of the race. Another Spaniard, Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez, finished sixth and won the polka-dot jersey for best climber.
Amid it all, seemingly untouched by the chaos, was Evans.
“A few people always believed in me. I always believed in me. And we did it!” the 34-year-old rider said after his triumphant entry into Paris on Sunday.
Up every mountain, Evans was never more than one cycle length behind his rivals. With a small lead that he’d picked up in the early stages and a lot of strength in the time trials, he knew he didn’t need to attack to win.
Still, when Andy Schleck broke away from the field on the climb of the Galibier pass on Thursday, some thought Evans’ BMC team made a critical mistake. But Evans remained calm. He went into the time trial needing to make up almost a minute on Schleck. He made up almost 2 1/2 .
“The real highlight of it all was the last three or four kilometers of the time trial,” Evans said. “The hardest part had been done until that point and coming into that finish I knew we were on the right track so that was just incredible. For once, the last four kilometers of a time trial wasn’t that hard.”
The race for the green jersey, given to the best sprinter, was far more clear. Trying to counter the almost-untouchable speed of Britain’s Mark Cavendish, organizers introduced another major sprint in the middle of each stage. But Cavendish won the green jersey anyway despite trailing to the finish of every mountain stage.
“The Tour de France for me is so far ahead of everything else,” said Cavendish, the winner of five stages this year who at age 26 is already fifth on the career list of stage winners.
“I’ll keep coming back for as long as my legs can keep coming back, and I’ll keep trying to win for as long as my legs can keep trying to win.”
The first week of this race made for plenty of rough riding. Crashes undermined Contador’s chances and forced out Bradley Wiggins, Jurgen Van Den Broeck and Alexandre Vinokourov, who immediately announced his retirement.
A rash move by a TV car sent rider Juan Antonio Flecha flying and catapulted Johnny Hoogerland into a barbed wire fence. He needed dozens of stitches but finished the stage—and the race—and held the polka-dot jersey for a time.
The French went crazy for Voeckler, who expected to hold the yellow jersey for only a day or two but showed extraordinary strength to stay with Evans and the Schlecks through most of the mountain stages and finished fourth overall.
Voeckler discovered the strength of French feeling for him and his teammate Pierre Rolland—the best young rider—when he was cheered the whole way Saturday.
“I felt that France was entirely behind us,” Voeckler said. “If we’ve given the public a little pleasure in these difficult times, so much the better.”
The last French winner was Bernard Hinault in 1985, but the country finally has hopes for the future—if not with the 32-year-old Voeckler then with young riders such as Rolland and Jerome Coppel. In all, five French riders finished in the top 15.
Another strong showing was made by Norway. Sprinter Thor Hushovd had looked to be past his best, but he outlasted younger riders and won two stage. Compatriot Edvald Boasson Hagen, 24 and riding in his first Tour, also won two stages, proving himself a sprinter, a climber and even a time trialer. He set himself up as a future contender.
By the race’s end, their country was consumed by grief. Before the final stage, the two riders stood together as the pack marked a minute of silence for the victims of the twin attacks in Norway.
Contador began the race to bood by fans after his positive drug test following last year’s Tour victory. The Court of Arbitration for Sport will hear an appeal by cycling authorities next month after the Spaniard was cleared by the Spanish federation.
Contador summed up the race on Twitter as “a different Tour, with troubles but that I finish with a very good taste.”
He added: “I’m thinking on 2012!”
Source: Yahoo Sports
Sabtu, 16 Juli 2011
Harry Potter Stars Then and Now
It's been nearly a decade since Harry Potter first waved his wand on the big screen. Ahead of the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, we chart the growing pains of the Potter stars
Emma Watson
Emma Watson rose to fame playing the bookish Hermione Granger in all eight of the Harry Potter films. Outside of the Potter films, the actress remained busy; between attending Brown University and appearing in Burberry campaigns, she designed a clothing collection in collaboration with fair-trade brand People Tree. All eyes were on Watson after she gave her signature waves a chic pixie crop in August 2010. "My mom has short hair, and I've always thought that women with short hair were so beautiful," she told InStyle. "I wasn't allowed to cut my hair during Harry Potter, so as soon as filming stopped, I was like, let's do this!" Although her days at Hogwarts may be over, the ever-fashionable Watson is currently the face of Lancome, and can be seen in the upcoming films My Week With Marilyn and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Daniel Radcliffe
Daniel Radcliffe's life was changed forever after beating out thousands for the role of Harry Potter at the age of eleven. "I was a kid, among other kids," he told Entertainment Weekly. "To be 'special' just because I had been picked for this part was just...bizarre." Radcliffe made the transition to the Great White Way between filming Harry Potter, starring in the play Equus during its run on London's West End, and later on Broadway in New York. Today, Radcliffe looks every bit the accomplished actor with his crisp black suit and windswept hair. He is currently starring as J. Pierrepont Finch in the Broadway musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Rupert Grint
Rupert Grint played Harry's best friend Ron Weasley in all eight of the Potter films. The actor shares many similarities with his character, from his high-spirited personality, to his fear of spiders. "I had always felt a connection to Ron," Grint told Entertainment Weekly. When he wasn't practicing magic spells at Hogwarts School, the actor appeared in independent films like Driving Lessons and Cherrybomb. These days, Grint has a more buttoned-up look thanks to his tailored blazer and groomed hair. He can be seen next in the 2012 war film Comrade.
Tom Felton
Although he appeared in two films and two TV movies prior to Harry Potter, Tom Felton catapulted to fame after taking on the role of bad boy Draco Malfoy. "I think my ability to lie was half the reason I was offered Draco," Felton said of his role. "At the very first audition, they just lined us up and asked us which bits of the book we were looking forward to in the film. I hadn't read the book, so I said the same as the guy next to me—which director Chris Columbus saw through in a heartbeat!" Now, Felton is less-sinister (and not as platinum!) than his Slytherin character, changing from his Hogwarts uniform to more clean-cut ensembles. The actor can be seen next in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Apparition.
Bonnie Wright
Bonnie Wright went from Ron Weasley's adorable younger sister Ginny, to the love interest of Hogwarts's Golden Boy. She and Radcliffe shared their first on-screen kiss in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. "It was a little hard to kiss someone you've known that long, and also on top of that in front of all the cast and crew," Wright told Entertainment Weekly of the scene. "But that was a scene a lot of people were looking forward to, and we're both actors. I think it went well!" Gone are the days of playful ponchos and cowboy boots. These days, Wright sticks to chic dresses and trendy heels. In April, the actress was engaged to boyfriend Jamie Campbell Bower, who appeared as young Gellert Grindelwald in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Caius Volturi in Breaking Dawn.
Matthew Lewis
Like many of his peers, Matthew Lewis was a huge fan of the Harry Potter books before landing the role of brave Gryffindor Neville Longbottom. "At my audition, I was given a ticket stub that said I was number 743 in the queue. We waited four and a half hours," he told Entertainment Weekly on his audition. "My mom kept saying 'Can we go now? I will buy you a McDonald's if you wanna go,' but I was such a huge fan of the books, I said I wouldn't leave!" Lewis was first seen on the red carpet in a crisp black suit and tousled hair. These days, the actor opts for a more relaxed getup while flaunting a new tattoo.
James and Oliver Phelps
James and Oliver Phelps stole our hearts as Fred and George Weasley, the hilarious older brothers of Ron and Ginny. While the twins may be hard to tell apart on-screen, the two couldn't be more different in real life. "We've learned to watch each other's backs, but we have pretty different personalities," James told People. "I tend to joke around a bit more, while Oliver is more sensitive." After finishing up on the set of Harry Potter, the dynamic duo retired their bold ginger hairstyles and three-piece suits in exchange for their natural brown hue and casual jeans and polos.
Evanna Lynch
Like her character Luna Lovegood, Irish actress Evanna Lynch has an eccentric style all her own. Lynch reportedly wore a pair of radish-shaped earrings, similar to Luna's, when she auditioned for the part. She may not wear the accessories on the red carpet, but she's ready for her close-up thanks to her keen fashion sense and loose ringlets.
The gas platform that will be the world's biggest 'ship'
Shell has unveiled plans to build the world's first floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) platform. The 600,000-tonne behemoth - the world's biggest "ship" - will be sited off the coast of Australia. But how will it work?
Deep beneath the world's oceans are huge reservoirs of natural gas. Some are hundreds or thousands of miles from land, or from the nearest pipeline.
Tapping into these "stranded gas" resources has been impossible - until now.
At Samsung Heavy Industries' shipyard on Geoje Island in South Korea, work is about to start on a "ship" that, when finished and fully loaded, will weigh 600,000 tonnes.
That is six times as much as the biggest US aircraft carrier.
By 2017 the vessel should be anchored off the north coast of Australia, where it will be used to harvest natural gas from Shell's Prelude field.
Once the gas is on board, it will be cooled it until it liquefies, and stored in vast tanks at -161C.
Every six or seven days a huge tanker will dock beside the platform and load up enough fuel to heat a city the size of London for a week.
The tankers will then sail to Japan, China, Korea or Thailand to offload their cargo.
"The traditional way of producing gas offshore was through pipelines. You brought gas up to a platform and piped it to the 'beach'. That is the way it's done in the North Sea," said Scotsman Neil Gilmour, Shell's general manager for FLNG.
The World’s Biggest Ships:
- The Seawise Giant was the biggest ship ever built. Fully laden it weighed 657,000 tonnes. It was scrapped in 2009
- Shell refers to its FLNG platform as a "facility" rather than a ship - fully loaded it will weigh 600,000 tonnes
- Daewoo are building 10 Triple-E container ships for Maersk. Weighing 165,000 tonnes, each can carry 18,000 containers
- The Titanic, in comparison, weighed a measly 52,000 tonnes. It sank on its maiden journey in 1912
'Cyclone alley'
But the Prelude gas field is 200km (124 miles) from Western Australia's Kimberley Coast and there are no pipelines there to be used.
Johan Hedstrom, an energy analyst in Australia with Southern Cross Equities, told the BBC: "The FLNG concept is an elegant solution because you don't need so much fixed infrastructure.
"You don't need the pipeline or the onshore refinery and when you run out of gas you can just pull up stumps and go to the next field."
Mr Gilmour said Shell had to overcome a "raft of technical challenges", ensuring for example that the vast amount of equipment on board would work in choppy seas.
The Prelude field is in the middle of what is known as "cyclone alley", an area prone to extremely stormy weather.
But Mr Gilmour said the vessel had been built to withstand category-five cyclones and even a "one-in-10,000-years' storm" producing 300km/h (185mph) gusts and 20m-high (65ft) waves.
The double-hulled vessel is designed to last 50 years.
When the Prelude field is exhausted, in 25 years' time, it will be completely refurbished and packed off to start work on another field off the coast of Australia, Angola, Venezuela or wherever.
Mr Hedstrom said: "FLNG is a neat way of going forward. The way that energy prices are going it does look like a good industry to be in and I think they could make a lot of money out of it."
The price of LNG has risen markedly as demand has increased.
LNG currently sells for $14 per one million British thermal units in Japan, where the price was boosted by the tsunami, which cut the production of nuclear power.
The project, estimated to cost between $8bn (£5bn) and $15bn (£9.5bn), could provide 3.6 million tonnes of gas a year.
Flaring off
Nick Campbell, an energy analyst with Inenco, said Shell's move into FLNG was a "smart move".
"Shell are positioning themselves in an emerging market, not just in China - where gas usage has increased by 20% - but in India, which is also increasing its demand," he said.
The project is expected to generate 12 billion Australian dollars (£8bn) in tax revenues for the Australian federal government and could benefit their trade balance by 18 billion Australian dollars over the life of Prelude.
Australia's Minister for Resources and Energy has welcomed the Prelude project, drawing attention to the reduced environmental footprint as compared with a land-based scheme.
But there has been opposition from environmentalists. Martin Pritchard from Environs Kimberley says he is concerned about the potential for "oil leaks and spills".
WWF Western Australia, meanwhile, argues that the underwater wellheads and pipelines will harm the tropical marine environment, and estimates the project will emit more than two million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year.
The gas raised from the seabed is purified during the process of liquefaction, and waste products will be flared off. This week the Australian government said it would tax carbon emissions from major polluters at A$23 (£15) per tonne.
But Mr Gilmour says the Prelude project could be the first of several. Shell has already identified the Sunrise gas field in the Timor Sea as having potential for FLNG.
The ship, whose first section will be laid in 2012, has no name. Shell normally refers to it merely as a "facility".
"There are only four or five dry docks globally which could have built this facility and there are certainly no yards in the UK large enough," says Mr Gilmour.
He has been to Geoje Island and, speaking in a broad Ayrshire accent, he said of Samsung's yard: "It's an extraordinary place.
"It's just a phenomenal yard. Samsung is very hi-tech, world class. There are going to be some very spectacular images coming out of there during the building process."
Source: BBC News
Kamis, 14 Juli 2011
How One Man Flies Like a Bird - Watch Video
Yves Rossy’s invention allows him to fly by attaching to his back a four-engine jet suit with wings, which he starts up after jumping out of a helicopter or plane.
Check out the Video of the man Who files like a bird Below:
Unlike similar aircraft, Rossy’s has no steering controls. Rather, he uses his body to steer — arching his back gains altitude and pushing his shoulders forward sends him into a dive. “If you put steering in it’s more like an airplane. … I wanted to keep freedom of movement,” Rossy told the TED Global crowd.
Traveling at speeds of up to 190 miles per hour and a height of 3,000 meters, the aircraft can stay in the air for about 10 minutes, which was enough time for Rossy to cross the English Channel. He also recently flew above the Grand Canyon.
The device isn’t quite ready for mass consumption, however. Rossy, who served as both a commercial and military pilot earlier in his life, has had to use the wing’s escape parachute about 20 times — sometimes after becoming disoriented in the clouds, others after more than one of the engines fails.
Rossy, who does hope that one day his invention or something like it could be used by anyone, summarized the experience by saying, “I don’t have feathers, but I feel like a bird sometimes. It’s an unreal feeling.”
You can check what one of his flights and invention look like in the video below from his Grand Canyon mission:
Source: Mashable
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