16 Incredibly Unconventional Hotel Rooms [PICS]

16 of the Most Creative (and/or Sexy) Hotel Rooms in the World: From Upside-Down to Local Urban Art

[above: the upside-down room from the Propeller Island Hotel]

Ever wonder what it would be like to live upside-down, sleep like a vampire or break out of prison? More and more hotels are breaking out of the tradition of cookie-cutter rooms and are moving toward unique one-of-a-kind artist-driven room designs. Here are sixteen such rooms that span the spectrum from clever and kitchy to sexy and surreal. Even though some may look uncomfortable, unusual or downright freakish at least they aren’t among the 7 tiniest hotel rooms in the world.

Watching horror movies one has to be a little bit curious about whether it is comfortable for vampires to sleep in attic coffins. Now those who are so inclined (or who prefer partying at night and sleeping during the day) can experience this vampire room first hand at the Propeller Island Hotel.

Prefer something less kitchy and more romantic? Perhaps the mirror room of the same hotel is for you. Mirrors are typically considered an erotic addition to a hotel room but this example carries the principle to the extreme with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling mirrors spanning the diamond-shaped space.

Mirrors too cliche and traditional for your tastes? How about a room with elegant furnishings and also complete with not one but two cages. Perhaps the most amazing (and strange) aspect of this particular room is the option to lift curtains and put on shows for one’s neighboring guests.

Up for more of an adventure? One room is outfitted as a surrealistically colored jail cell reminiscent of a cartoon lockup. At the end of the night, guests are encouraged to ‘break out’ of the room by punching and escaping through a hole in one false wall.

The symbol room might be more appropriate for the reserved and intellectual clientele. With over 200 unique wood panels, this room provides endless black-and-white food for thought as well as arrangeable furniture objects that can be turned over and moved to create personalized configurations.

The Arte Luise Kunsthotel (or Art Hotel) is also located in Berlin but takes less of a themed approach, with a variety of rooms that are the unique realization of singular artists’ visions. As you can see from the images above, some of them are abstract, others playful and still others simply bizarre. Best of all, each time someone stays in one of these creative rooms the artist gets a percentage of the payment.

Like the Kunsthotel, the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, Canada relies on one artist per room with remarkably varied results. One room (left) purports to simulate a meeting place for a “lesbian separatists commune,” another celebrates Canadian culture and kitsch (upper right) while yet another is simply the artists’ meditation on the history of Victorian-era English culture (lower right).

The Max Hotel in Seattle likewise boasts the work of artists but in this case emphasizes local art and is not limited to painting and sculpture. Shown above, local art is placed in rooms while photography and other media are applied both within rooms as well as in halls and other common spaces. A compilation of all of the art in the hotel is also available for purchase.

For those who enjoy art but aren’t sure about sleeping in it, the Benesse Art Site Naoshima in Japan provides a healthy compromise: a hotel attached to a beautifully constructed gallery of modern art. Visitors can interact in common eating and museum spaces while retiring to their own more conventional hotel rooms with sparse and minimalistic art. Looking for a more exotic destination? Be sure to check out these related articles on 3 of the most bizarre micronations on the planet and 6 ocean-going and underwater hotels from around the world or this book on 1000 incredible places to see before you die.

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How to Completely Ruin Your New Year's Resolutions

Let’s face it– New Year’s Resolutions are made to be broken. The holidays are a time of financial, culinary, and alcoholic excess that very few can escape. The horrible hangovers, the growing waistlines, the vicious credit card bills all lead to desperate pleas for change. How do we plan to dig our way out of this year’s holiday hole? On December 31st, we collectively raise our glasses, burp, and swear to “drink less” in the coming year…

We at GearCrave, however, have decided to swear off these ineffectual resolutions once and for all. Our New Year’s Resolution is not only to stop making them, but to help others break their own useless resolutions… and to do it in style. Read on, fellow GearCravers, for our ultimate guide to shattering your own personal New Year’s Resolutions. Here’s what we’ll be covering:

1. Resolution Number One: Spend More Time with the Family
2. Resolution Number Two: Quit Drinking
3. Resolution Number Three: Get in Shape

Continue reading below for creative ways to shatter your own New Year’s resolutions!

Some polls have shown that more than 50% of American’s vow to spend more time with family and friends in the new year. If these polls are accurate, we can conclude that 50% of Americans are liars. Sure, family is wonderful– but so is getting a box at the Super Bowl with your friends. So is a fake bachelor party in Vegas. GearCrave has three killer suggetions on how to shatter your resolution to spend more time with your family this year.

1. Super Bowl XLII: Just one month in, you can crush your resolution by spending a weekend with your friends at the greatest sporting event in the world: Super Bowl 43 in Phoenix, Arizona. Try the Super Bowl’s “Fairway to Field” package for groups of two. Get your friends together, pony up a hefty $10k each, and you get the royal treatment:
   • Your choice of a 4-night stay at the Millenium Resort, the Gainey Suites Hotel, the Scottsdale Embassy Suites, or the Buttes Resort, all in the greater Phoenix area.
   • A foursome round of 18 holes at the Blackstone Private Country Club on the day of your choosing.
   • A Saturday tee off at the Grayhawk Golf Club
   • Corporate Village tickets on the 18th hole at the FBR Open tournament
   • VIP Pre- and Post-game parties at the Glendale Renaissance Hotel and Spa
   • Finally, and most importantly, South Oasis Lower Level End Zone seating at Super Bowl 43.
2. Fake Bachelor Party in Vegas: This is for the truly creative, truly shameless, and truly sneaky. Have yourself a no-holds-barred fun fest in Las Vegas with your college buddies without the pain of impending marriage. Here’s how!
   • Gather your friends, gather some cash, and plan a weekend to remember.
   • Choose the “groom”– this can be a distant friend you never see any more, a member of your group that will never marry, or no one at all.
   • Select the dates, the hotel, and the details. With a group of 12, you can put 4 to a room with two double beds AND get yourself a suite for under $150 a piece per night. (We recommend The Wynn!)
   • Once you arrive, the fun begins. The best part, everyone gets to play bachelor and trade off the “benefits”.
   • What kind of benefits can you expect? Free meals, free drinks, free lap dances, and free attention from the visiting ladies.
   • One word of advice- don’t call the strippers to your suite, just go to a strip club. The strippers that come to your room are not strippers. You do the math.
3. Space Tourism: If you really want to get away from the family, how better than to leave the planet altogether? While this technique is reserved for the truly rich (and truly patient), there is no better “other-worldly” experience available, especially one with such bragging rights.
   • The cost: $30 million USD.
   • The carrier: The Russian Space Agency. Presently, no other public or private organization is actually booking scheduled trips out of the Earth’s atmosphere.
   • The trip: You’ll be escorted by Russia’s finest cosmonauts in a 3 person crew Soyuz spacecraft.
   • The launch: Trips are fully booked until 2009, so you’ll have to wait a bit for your departure.

Resolution Number Two: Quit Drinking

At GearCrave, we don’t feel you have a problem. We don’t feel you should quit drinking, you should just drink better. Take beer for example. If you choose to drink to get drunk, that is fine by us– but its how you do it that we are concerned about. There is so much more to beer than what you find on tap at your local watering hole. In fact, we feel that you should take on an entirely new policy when choosing what to pour in your glass. Give this a try for a few months: do your best to avoid beer imported by Anheuser Busch, Miller Brewing, Heineken or others. Yes, this will severely limit your selection, but here’s how you can find some amazing international and domestic brews to fill your fridge instead.

• Find your local specialty beer store or beer and liquor supermarket. In Chicago, for example, you could visit Sam’s Wine, Binny’s Beverage Depot, and more.
• Find the warm, single bottle beer section. If you’re lucky, there should be hundreds of choices here from domestic microbrews and international beer craftsmen alike.
• Grab six individual beers from the array in front of you. You may choose by country, by type, at random or even by what label is most attractive to you. The point is, try six new beers on each visit.
• Keep a beer journal. When tasting each beer, write down the brewery, beer type, and name. Then write down some notes about what you like or don’t like about each beer.
• After four or five visits, you’ll find yourself making more intelligent choices about the beers you drink. You might take to Flemish Red Ales, English Porters, or obscure Austrian Pilsners.
• We recommend you start with those Flemish Reds and even a Lambic, like the raspberry or Frambois Lambic by Lindemans. Our personal favorite? Read about that here.
• If you’re a drinker, and consuming less is your goal in this new year, we say quitting is for quitters. Keep drinking, just do it the GearCrave way– smarter.

Resolution Number Three: Get in Shape

Okay, so you had a couple extra turkey legs over the holidays. Maybe that extra slice of pie wasn’t your best idea. But at GearCrave, we think you’re beautiful just the way you are. You wanted to lose weight this year? Humbug. We’ve got better ideas for how to spend your spare time. Want some examples? Here’s three.

1. Buy the biggest plasma television money can buy: At the recent CES conference in Las Vegas, Panasonic showed their new flagship 150″ plasma TV. That’s 12.5 feet diagonally.
   • If you’re living in a major metropolitan area, chances are 12.5 feet is bigger than your bedroom wall.
   • Put one of these in your living room and get a nice couch to match.
   • From video games to hi-def movies to sports TV packages, it wouldn’t be difficult to spend an entire weekend planted in front of this thing.
   • The good news for you GearCravers on a weight loss plan, this baby isn’t available for sale just yet.
   • Start saving your money though. Once you’ve shaved off some healthy pounds, this puppy will hit the market, and new weight will hit your scale.
2. Go Back to School, Without Leaving your Computer: Above, we mentioned a fabulous trip to Super Bowl 43. We didn’t mention that this year’s Super Bowl will be held at the University of Phoenix’s new arena and football field. You’ve likely seen University of Phoenix Online commercials on TV or their ads on Digg, Yahoo, and other web communities. In 2008, University of Phoenix Online is a strong, credible university, and their online courses are a great way of improving your career and putting together a bullet proof resume. Here’s how to get involved.
   • First, find a degree that best fits your career and where you want to take it in this new year.
   • You can choose from any standard bachelor’s degree you wish, just like any standard college you’d attend in person.
   • Next, find out what it would take to apply and receive admission to University of Phoenix.
   • Bear in mind that the most difficult part of getting an online education is that you alone are responsible for motivating yourself to do the work.
   • There is no professor breathing down your neck, no deadlines you have to meet in person, no real sense of palpable urgency that a standard education brings.
   • If you have the entrepreneurial spirit and can motivate yourself to succeed, an online education might be right for you.
   • If you have issues with procrastination and inspiration, you might just want to save your money.
   • If you meet these qualities, you owe it to yourself to learn more about this opportunity.
3. Become a Competitive Eater: yes, we’re talking about competing at state fairs and other venues where the object is to push as much food into your system as possible. Here’s how:
   • The best place to begin your adventure is at the International Federation of Competitive Eaters website.
   • Its not easy. Imagine eating 58 Johnsonville Brats in 10 minutes. That leaves very little time to breathe… But competitive eating champ Takeru Kobayashi did it…
   • The best way to start your adventure is to try it at home. Get some friends together, cook a hundred or so hot dogs, and give it a shot. Chances are, if you can’t beat your own friends out the gate, you shouldn’t get involved in competitive eating.
   • If you’ve proven yourself worthy, its time to learn the tips of the pros. Every great athlete exercises, so you need to learn how the great competitive eaters do it.
   • Mr. Kobayashi trains each day by shrinking his stomach with cardio exercises, then filling it with water and difficult-to-digest foods to stretch it back out. This ability to expand and contract gives the 130 pound Kobayashi a competitive advantage in the world of CE.
   • If you can’t beat pros like Takeru Kobayashi, try inventing a new form of competitive eating. Anything edible can be competed against, so try something new. Want to blow them out of the water? Try bringing something new to the table, like eating bugs.
   • Each year, there is about $200,000 in prize money available to competitive eaters, so you can earn a pretty extra penny if you truly have the talent.
   • Keep in mind, though, if you aren’t ready to exercise and work for it, this could all become one ugly pipe dream. And by “pipe dream”, we mean “toilet”.
   Auld Lang Syne, son. Our whole point behind this article– we at GearCrave think you’re perfect the way you are, even with your flaws. If you made a resolution this past New Year’s, expect to break it at some point. And if you’re going to break it, why not have fun doing it? Keep reading GearCrave, my friends. We’ll be sure to keep you entertained with articles like this and the countless awesome buyers guide suggestions you’ve come to love. While you’re at it, don’t forget about our RSS feed! In the mean time, leave a comment below, let us know how YOU would suggest breaking your personal resolution below.

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Make Your Very Own Stress Ball

If you’re looking for a fun and easy project to help ease stress and tension, check out these step-by-step instructions on how to make your very own personalized stress ball.

What Exactly Is a Stress Ball?

A stress ball is an object that fits in the palm of your hand and can be easily squeezed to decrease muscular and emotional tension. It may be in the shape of a ball, or it may be something a bit more interesting, such as a funny face, a body part, or a pack of cigarettes (for those trying to quit!)

How Does a Stress Ball Work?

Whenever you make a fist, regardless of whether or not you have something in your hand, you create muscle tension. And when you release your grip, your muscles relax. This process of acute muscle tension and relaxation can flush out muscle tension and relieve stress. You can perform this stress management technique without a stress ball, by simply tensing and relaxing the muscles or your hands, or anywhere on the body that tension exists. But a stress ball gives you something to focus on and may aid in relieving stress.

What Other Benefits Do Stress Balls Have?

Stress balls have been used for years for a wide range of medicinal reasons. Stress balls were used in ancient civilizations to relieve stress, improve coordination, prevent arthritis and rheumatism, stimulate blood circulation, help during physical therapy and assist with meditation. Stress balls may also help in the prevention or treatment of carpal-tunnel syndrome.

Type 1: The Balloon Stress Ball

This is a fun and easy stress ball that can easily be made alone, but like many things, it’s usually more fun to make it with a friend. After you finish making this stress ball, decorate it with stickers, or paint a funny face on it. Just be sure to use decorations that will not irritate or rub off on your hand as you are squeezing it!

Instructions:

1. Look for a small, thick, round balloon.
2. Blow it up until it is about 4-5 inches around. (Don’t tie the balloon yet!)
3. Pinch the top of the balloon shut an inch or 2 from the hole.
4. Place a small funnel inside the opening of the balloon.
5. Using the funnel, pour cornstarch into the balloon.
6. Slowly release the top of the balloon so the cornstarch can slide down.
7. Continue adding cornstarch until your balloon is about three inches in diameter.
8. Tighten the end of the balloon and slowly let out any remaining air.
9. Tie the balloon closed as near to the cornstarch as you can.

Type 2: The Dough Ball Stress Ball

Get a friend to help you with this project, as it can be kind of tricky to insert each balloon into the next. Once you are finished, you can carefully poke holes in the outermost layer to create fun polka dots!

Instructions:

1. Mix together one half-cup salt, one-cup flour, one-tablespoon oil, one-teaspoon cream of tartar and one cup water.
2. Heat dough in a pot on low heat until mushy, stirring constantly.
3. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth.
4. Allow dough to cool for one hour.
5. Gather three or four balloons and cut the neck off of all but one of them.
6. Form a ball of dough about two to three inches across.
7. Stuff the dough into the balloon. (The more dough you use per balloon, the less squishy your stress ball will be.)
8. Stretch the balloon over the dough and immediately insert this balloon into the next one hole first (so that the second balloon completely covers the hole of the first one.)
9. Insert your balloon/dough ball into another balloon the same way.
10. Insert your balloon/dough ball into the last balloon, and tie off at the neck.
11. Decorate your stress ball with a face, legs, or silly sayings!

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Color By Hand: The American Sign Language Spectrum

Of all the ways to talk about color, sign language must be the most expressive. If you don’t already speak sign language, color words are a fun place to start. You’ll learn that it doesn’t take a palate to discuss a palette.

How To Sign Your Colors

Orange: This colour sign pantomimes squeezing an orange fruit. In front of your mouth, form the letter “c” with your right hand (make a “c” shape by curving your fingers toward your thumb, as if you’re grasping a can). Then squeeze your hand into a tight fist. Repeat this squeezing and inflating motion several times.

Blue: Form the letter “b” (fingers extended and held tight, thumb tucked against the palm) with your right hand, to the right of your body. Slightly shake your hand to the right from the elbow, without bending the wrist.
Red: Touch your lips with the tip of your index finger. (All other fingers are gathered toward the palm.) With a downward motion, glance the top lip, then the bottom. This motion is performed once, though sometimes people double it.

Brown: Form the letter “b” with your right hand (fingers extended and held tight, thumb tucked against the palm). Move your hand down the side of your right cheek, from your nose to the bottom of your mouth.

Gold: Touch your right ear with your right index finger. As you move your hand away, form the letter “y” (thumb and pinkie outstretched, other fingers tucked into the palm). Then shake your hand slightly.

Silver: Touch your right ear with your right index finger. As you move your hand away, form the letter “s” (a tight fist). Then shake your hand slightly.

Yellow: Form the letter “y” (thumb and pinkie outstretched, other fingers tucked into the palm) with your right hand, to the right of your body. Gently shake your hand to the right from the wrist.

White: Touch your chest with all the fingers and thumb of your slightly curved right hand. Move your hand away (about eight inches) while closing the fingers.

Black: Form the letter “d” with your right hand (index finger extended, middle finger and thumb touching). Touch your forehead with your index finger, then move it toward the right, across the tops of your eyebrows.

Gray: Spread the fingers of both hands. Move your hands in opposite directions, passing the fingers through the open spaces of each hand.

Green: Form the letter “g” with your right hand (index finger and thumb extending as if to pinch, other fingers tucked into the palm). Slightly shake your hand up and down from the wrist.

Pink: Form the letter “p” with your right hand (index and middle fingers extended, palm facing toward you). Draw your hand down your lips.

Purple: Form the letter “p” (index and middle fingers extended, palm facing toward you) with your right hand, to the right of your body. Move it from side to side.

How To Sign Your Letters

More Signs

For more photos of color signs in action, see Dr. William Vicars’ tutorial. Many thanks to Dr. Vicars for capturing so many signs and for allowing us to share some with you.

For illustrations of colour signs, see ASL tutor Joanne Mikola’s website.

About the Guest Author, Craig Conley
Website: http://www.OneLetterWords.com
Craig is an independent scholar and author of dozens of strange and unusual books, including a unicorn field guide and a dictionary of magic words. He also loves color: Prof. Oddfellow

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7 Powerful Steps to Actually Getting Stuff Done

There are a slew of popular books and systems, from favorites of mine such as Getting Things Done to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to the Now Habit and more, all designed to get us more productive and effective.

But getting things done is really about one thing, and one thing only: overcoming the resistance to doing what we need to do.

OK, I would add a couple more steps to that, to ensure that we’re managing our tasks correctly:

1. Have all our projects and tasks stored in an external system (out of our heads), such as a to-do list or lists.

2. Pick the tasks and projects that are most important to work on.

3. Overcome the resistance to actually doing those important tasks.

And I would submit it’s the last step that’s the most important (although I wouldn’t ignore the other two). Unfortunately, because we’re not very good at overcoming resistance, we procrastinate on this third step by fiddling with the external system — the tools we use to organize our tasks, coming up with new and better systems, tweaking them until they’re near perfect, and so on.

That’s Resistance.

As Stephen Pressfield writes in his excellent book on this topic, The War of Art:

“There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write.

What’s keeping us from sitting down is Resistance.”

The War of Art is all about Resistance, not only for writers and other artists, but for anyone trying to pursue their dreams or become what they’re meant to be. I highly recommend it. This, of course, is also a topic that is central to Zen Habits: overcoming Resistance to create new and better habits, to find happiness and simplicity, to do what you need to do and love to do.

I fight Resistance every single day, and I thought you might be interested in some of the ways I fight and beat Resistance, daily.

1. Become aware. The problem usually is that we don’t think about Resistance. We don’t understand it or even realize it’s there most of the time. We just think, “Oh, I better straighten out my desk … or get my to-do lists in order” or we get distracted by something on the web, or we feel that we have to check our email, or we’re just going to watch this one TV show, or any of a limitless amount of distractions.

Combat this by realizing that you are facing Resistance. Once you become aware of it, you can fight it, and beat it. It can be difficult to become more aware, but the key is to focus on it for a couple of days. Print out the words “Defeat Resistance” and put it somewhere visible as you work. That will help remind you to be aware of Resistance. Every time you do something that isn’t the most important thing you could be doing right now, be aware of what you’re doing.

2. Become a pro. This is the main technique that Pressfield outlines in The War of Art: combating Resistance by turning pro. The professional, unlike the amateur, comes to work ready to work. He’s doing it for a living (and loves what he does) and knows that as long as he shows up and starts working, the rest will come. Approach the work like a pro, and you’ll get the work done.

3. Be very clear, and focus. Before you start the day, be very clear about what you want to accomplish. You won’t be able to finish 10 major projects, but maybe you can finish one important project, or at least move it along to a certain point. Set three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Once you have those things defined, you’ve got to focus on them to the exclusion of all else (at least, during your prime work time). Do them first. Focus, finish, then move on to the smaller tasks you need to complete today. If you find yourself being lured to do something that’s not on that short list of three things, bring yourself back and focus.

4. Clear away distractions. Don’t spend a lot of time on this, because eliminating distractions can be a distraction itself. Instead, take one minute: close your email program and IM program and turn off all notifications. Shut down the Internet if at all possible. Close all programs except the one you need to do the important task in front of you. Clear your desk quickly (stuff everything in a drawer or something — you can organize it later) and turn off the phones if possible. Put on headphones or alert your coworkers (or family, if you’re at home) that you’re not to be disturbed for the next hour (or however long you plan to work on this task). Then get to work.

5. Have a set time and place. Make your first important task a daily appointment. For me, that’s writing. I always start the day with a writing task (such as writing this post, for example). For you, that might be different. Have a set start time, and possibly a set ending time — you’ll have to see what works for you, but the important thing is the set starting time. And when that time comes, you have to start. No exceptions.

6. Know your motivation. Why are you doing this? Why is this task important? What is it working towards? And how important is that end goal to you? Why is it important? You need to know these things to build up the motivation to overcome Resistance.

7. Just start. In the end, all the tips in the world won’t make as much a difference as this simple (and timeless) instruction. Just sit down and start. Feel Resistance to doing that? There’s no way to overcome it than to just start. Reading more about Resistance won’t help. Going to an online Procrastinator’s Forum won’t help. Working on your to-do lists won’t help. Only doing actually helps. And the only way to do something is to just start.

So how do you start, when you feel resistance? You just start. Feeling the need to do something else? Stop yourself from getting distracted. Remind yourself what you need to be doing, and why. Sit down and the set time and place. And just start.

For me, that means opening up a blank text file and writing the title of whatever I’m writing. Then I start brainstorming and outlining ideas. This gets me over the initial Resistance. And once I’ve started on that, I can usually get into the flow. But the important thing is to get started.

So stop reading this. And just start!

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Goth who walks girlfriend on leash is told "No Dogs Allowed"

Given that she describes herself as a human pet – and is happy to walk around on a lead – Tasha Maltby is used to odd looks and even odder remarks.

But nothing had prepared her for the reaction of the bus driver who allegedly told the self-styled Goth and her boyfriend: "We don't let freaks and dogs like you on."

Miss Maltby and her fiance Dani Graves were so angered they have complained to the bus company of being "victimised".

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Going walkies: Dani Graves and girlfriend Tasha Maltby were allegedly barred from a bus

"It is definitely discrimination, almost like a hate crime," 19-year-old Miss Maltby said yesterday.

The music technology student had this defence of her lifestyle.

"I am a pet, I generally act animal like and I lead a really easy life," she said.

"I don't cook or clean and I don't go anywhere without Dani. It might seem strange but it makes us both happy. It's my culture and my choice. It isn't hurting anyone."

The bus driver, however, has obviously not been listening.

He has repeatedly refused to allow Mr Graves, 25, and his "pet" on to his bus in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

Last month, with Miss Maltby on a leash as usual, the couple tried to board a bus at the bus station.

The driver, who was off duty, was standing near the door.

Mr Graves alleged: "He shoved me off the bus. He called us freaks and he called Tasha a dog.

"He said, 'We don't let freaks and dogs like you on'.

"He basically grabbed my T-shirt and slammed me backwards.

"I got a bit angry and called him a fascist pig."

In a separate incident, police were called when the driver, who has not been named, refused to allow other passengers on board after the couple ignored his orders and sat down.

The couple, who live on benefits in a council house and plan to start a family, have been friends for years.

They started going out together in July and became engaged in November.

Paul Adcock, of bus company Arriva Yorkshire, said: "We take any allegations of discrimination seriously.

"Mr Graves has already contacted us directly and as soon as our investigation has concluded we will inform him of the outcome."

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Science predicting Oscars!

The Oscar Code Cracked: The ‘Scientific’ Formula For Who Gets Nominated is Revealed

A new UCLA-Harvard study reveals the strongest predictors for Oscar nominations. After a careful analysis of nearly 20,000 film, they discovered who has the best chances, and apparently the odds are strongly in favor of dramas, female performers, and big distributors.

"The odds of being nominated for an Academy Award are so much greater for performers who appear in dramas that — at least this time of year — it really pays to be a drama queen," said Gabriel Rossman, one of the study's two authors and an assistant professor of sociology at UCLA.

To a lesser degree, it helps to have a major film distributor, prior nominations, a top spot in the pecking order of past movie credits, fewer films competing, and good collaborators. Also, it certainly doesn't hurt to be a woman, which the study’s authors claim will double your chances.

"A performer's odds of being nominated are largely set before the cameras even start rolling, back when the script was bought, the director was signed and the film was cast," said Nicole Esparza, the study's lead author and a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research at Harvard University. "It's surprising how many variables other than a performer's talent play a role in determining who gets nominated."

The 80th Academy Awards nominations are scheduled to be announced at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

"In the entertainment industry, there's long been a sense that the nomination process prefers dramas, but I don't think anybody is aware of the magnitude of the effect," Rossman said.

The second strongest predictor of a nomination proved to be the number of films screened in any given year.

"It's better to be nominated in a year when fewer films were screened, because there's less competition come awards time," Rossman said.

Actresses, meanwhile, proved more than twice as likely to be nominated as actors for any given performance, making being female the study's third strongest predictor of a nomination overall. But it’s not that judges favor women, it’s just that there are a lot more men in film.

"At least in this case, being underrepresented on the job works in women's favor," said Esparza. "Because there are fewer female than male performers in films, and both are eligible for the same number of awards, actresses stand a better chance of being nominated than actors. It's a simple matter of arithmetic, but as far as I know, nobody has ever raised the point."

Also, the higher a performer ranked in past movie credits, the more likely he or she was to be nominated. A history of high rankings in the movie-credit pecking order more than doubled the odds of a nomination, making pecking order in past credits the fourth strongest predictor, the researchers found.

"It turns out the performers with enough clout and respect from their peers to push themselves to the top of the credits also have enough clout and respect from their peers to be nominated for Oscars," Rossman noted.

Having a major distributor also provided a boost. As well as having been nominated for an Oscar in the past.

"This is an instance of what sociologists call the 'Matthew Effect,' after Matthew 25:29, in which Jesus says, 'For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich,'" Esparza said. "Just as the rich tend to get richer and popular Web sites get even more traffic, so do honors seem to pile onto those who have already been honored, be they scientists or movie stars."

Surprisingly though, they found that industry ties had little influence on the nominations. Performers who had worked over the years with a wide array of Academy members were no more likely to earn a nod than those with fewer industry ties. This was even the case, the researcher found, during the height of the studio system, when studio heads allegedly ordered talent to vote in blocks for other studio talent.

"In all kinds of walks of life, conventional wisdom holds that it's not what you do but who you know," Esparza said. "And Hollywood may be no different, except when it comes to Academy Award nominations. Surprisingly, who you know doesn't make or break you at nomination time."

Well, that’s good to know.

Posted by Rebecca Sato.

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7 Futuristic Sky Cities to Change the Way We Live (PICS)

As the world’s population continues to boom so does density in major conurbations. This increase in density is actually increasing around the world as an influx of people move to the cities in search of jobs and the (often hollow) promise of a better life. The shift from oil to biofuels is augmenting the problem because land that may have been used for development will be required to grow the crops needed for energy production in the future.

This leaves the world’s major cities with a conundrum: how do you accommodate more people in the same space? For many the answer lies in the architectural philosophies of Paolo Soleri, an Italian-American visionary accredited as the father of arcology. If you have ever played Sim City 2000 you may or may not already be acquainted with the arcology, a structure of mammoth proportions created to accommodate large populations in sync with the surrounding environment.

If you thought that Dubai had a monopoly on the biggest developments and architectural oddities, think again! Here are some of the best proposed arcology-inspired sky / vertical cities from around the world to feast your eyes on.

Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid, Tokyo

Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid: The dimensions of this sky city are nothing short of staggering. If ever completed the Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid will stand 12 times higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt at 6,574ft tall with an area of 3 square miles at the base. The structure would consist of 8 layers stacked on top of each other which would have a total area of 34 square miles. Each layer will consist of smaller pyramids each roughly the size of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas with layers 1 through 4 devoted for mixed residential and commercial usage and layers 5 through 8 for leisure and social facilities. There will be accommodation for 750,000 people, or 1/16th of Tokyo’s 12 million strong population. Getting that many people around will be a challenge met by a zero carbon, personalised rapid transit system and a network of accelerated walkways and elevators that connect the city via 55 strategically located nodes. The exterior facade of the proposed hyperstructure will be sprayed with a photovoltaic coating to convert sunlight into electricity for a greener city.

X-Seed 4000, Tokyo

X-Seed 4000: Note: X-Seed 4000 is an architectural dream, a proposal that was originally drafted in 1995 with the sole intention of drawing attention to the designers who came up with the masterplan. Nevertheless we think the X-Seed 4000 is awesomely cool, even if it is permanently consigned to the drawing board. At 13,123ft tall the X-Seed 400 would eclipse even Mount Fuji whose iconic shape has been attributed by the architects as their inspiration. The $1 trillion teepee-like, self-contained hyperstructure would be supported by a frame of pillars, each habitable. There would be 800 floors with 26 square miles of space capable of housing anywhere between 500,000 - 1 million people. Of course all sorts of technology would need to be developed to make such a gigantic project work including next generation rapid transit networks, high speed elevators and a system capable of moderating huge fluctuations in temperature, wind speed and air pressure throughout the building. X-Seed 4000 would be powered entirely by the sun, although it is unclear whether this would involve covering the facade with photovoltaic panels or next generation thin film solar panels. The interior of the building does appear to adhere to the Soleri’s ideology of humans in coexistence with nature; as seen above there is no shortage in terms of indoor foliage. The question remains: who would want to live in the shadow of a 2.5 mile tall building? Mental.

Sky City 1000, Tokyo

Sky City 1000: Sky City 1000 is an ambitious 3,280ft tall self-contained city first proposed by Takenaka Corporation in 1989 to help restore green space to Tokyo’s urban congestion. If Takenaka’s vision of an answer to Tokyo’s problems gets the green light we’ll see a city that fulfills Soleri’s visions. Sky City 1000 will consist of 14 glass-protected plateaus with a total floor area of 3.1 square miles that would be home to vast green spaces. The mixed use building will house 36,000 permanent residents with space for a further 100,000 workers as well as schools, shops, theatres and other social facilities. Next generation, triple-deck high-speed elevators are currently in development that will form the backbone of Sky City 1000’s transport system, allowing people to get from the ground floor to the top in just over 2 minutes flat. Each plateau will also have a monorail system which will help move people laterally. In theory Sky City 1000 will help reduce the high temperatures often seen in Tokyo by freeing up more land that can be reclaimed and turned into green space. This project is still at the proposal stage but authorities in Tokyo actually take it seriously; Sky City 1000 may turn out to be the world’s first arcology.

Millennium Tower, Tokyo

Millennium Tower: The cone-shaped, 2,755ft tall Millennium Tower was first proposed in 1989 by Foster + Partners to address the acute shortage of development land and overpopulation in Tokyo. The tower will be constructed 1.2 miles offshore in Tokyo Bay and stand 170 storeys high with 0.4 square miles of floor space for mixed residential and commercial use. Millennium Tower will be capable of sustaining a community of 60,000 residents who will move vertically and horizontally throughout the arcology using a high-speed metro network in cars that can hold up to 160 people at a time. This system will stop at transportation hubs available on every 13th floor where passengers may disembark and continue their journey via lifts, escalators and moving walkways. The Millennium Tower will use wind turbines and solar arrays installed in the upper floors to provide sustainable energy for the entire building, making this one of the greenest arcologies presently envisioned.

Crystal Island, Moscow

Crystal Island: Foster + Partners’ Crystal Island was recently granted preliminary planning permission for construction on Nagatino Peninsula, just 4.5 miles from the Kremlin. Crystal Island is a self-contained city that will soar 1,500ft tall with 0.96 square miles of floor space for mixed use, that’s 4 times the floor area of the Pentagon. This megastructure will accommodate up to 30,000 residents in 900 apartments but will also boast 3,000 hotel rooms, a cinema, theatre, museum, shopping malls, sports complex and an international school for 500 pupils. Panoramic views of the city skyline will be available on huge viewing platforms 980ft above the streets of Moscow. When completed Crystal Island will have one of the largest atriums in the world, which can be opened in the summer to regulate the temperature of the 500ft high public space inside

Ultima Tower, San Francisco

Ultima Tower: Eugene Tsui is known for his enthusiasm for futuristic megastructures. His design for the 2 mile tall Ultima Tower in San Francisco is a response to increasing population density in San Francisco where space comes at a premium. The proposed Ultima Tower will have a 6,000ft base diameter with 500 storeys shaped like a giant cone that encloses 53 square miles of space. Tsui’s plans reveal a space capable of housing 1 million residents in a vertical city that meets and exceeds anything previously conceived. Ultima Tower will be a sustainable building powered by facade-mounted arrays of solar panels, wind turbines and a technique called Atmospheric Energy Conversion that will use the difference in pressure between peak and base to generate electricity. If ever constructed the Ultima Tower will have a unique stacked design with entire floors devoted to green space complete with 100ft - 165ft ’skies’ for an open and non-claustrophobic feeling. One interesting thing to note: given the height of the building the journey from the ground floor to top would take just under 10 minutes travelling at 3 miles per hour in an elevator.

Bionic Tower, Shanghai / Hong Kong

Bionic Tower: The Bionic Tower is a proposed vertical city that has piqued the interest of Shanghai and Hong Kong, both cities with notoriously high population densities. If the project was to get the green light from either city it would reach 3,950ft tall consisting of 300 storeys with a total internal enclosed area of 0.8 square miles. The tower would be constructed on a 0.4 square mile artificial island connected to the mainland to allow the 100,000 inhabitants access. The cost of all this, in one of the most populous areas in the world? $15 billion.

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Caffeine doubles miscarriage risk: study

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day have twice the risk of having a miscarriage as those who avoid caffeine, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

They said the study provides strong evidence that high doses of caffeine during pregnancy -- 200 milligrams or more per day or the equivalent of two cups of coffee -- significantly increase the risk of miscarriage.

And they said the research may finally put to rest conflicting reports about the link between caffeine consumption and miscarriage.

"Women who are pregnant or are actively seeking to become pregnant should stop drinking coffee for three months or hopefully throughout pregnancy," said Dr. De-Kun Li of Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, whose study appears in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"There has been a lot of uncertainty about this," Li said in a telephone interview. "There was no firm advice from professional societies to say what a pregnant woman should do about caffeine intake."

Li said anywhere from 15 to 18 studies have found a link between caffeine use during pregnancy and miscarriage. But that association has been clouded by the fact that many pregnant women avoid caffeine because it makes them nauseated, which could skew the results.

Li and colleagues took pains to control for that possibility. Their study involved 1,063 pregnant women who were members of the Kaiser Permanente health plan in San Francisco from October 1996 through October 1998. Women in the group never changed their caffeine consumption during pregnancy.

What they found was women who consumed the equivalent of two or more cups of regular coffee or five 12-ounce cans of caffeinated soda -- were twice as likely to miscarry as pregnant women who avoided caffeine.

This risk appeared to be related to the caffeine, rather than other chemicals in coffee, because they also saw an increased risk when the caffeine was consumed in soda, tea, and hot chocolate.

Li said many researchers think caffeine is harmful because it stresses the fetus' immature metabolism. It may also decrease blood flow in the placenta, which could harm the fetus.

"To me, the safe dose is zero," Li said. "If you really have to drink coffee, try to limit it to one cup or at the most two cups." Or better yet, switch to decaffeinated beverages, he added.

Based on the findings, Dr. Tracy Flanagan, director of women's health at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said pregnant women should think about limiting coffee to one cup a day, and they might want to cut it out entirely.

"So many causes of miscarriage are not controllable," she said in a telephone interview. "This is an opportunity to do something active."

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Eric Beech)

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The Rice Big Pharma Fears

The recent study questioning the efficacy of two popular prescription drugs in reducing disease-causing cholesterol has triggered a strong response by their makers Schering-Plough Corp and Merck & Co. Full page ads in Sunday’s New York Times from the companies attest to the effectiveness of both Zetia and Vytorin.

While big pharma scrambles, adherents of natural remedies are talking about a new-old dietary supplement that even the Mayo Clinic says has impressive evidence of effectiveness. It’s something called red yeast rice. And in China it’s been used for its benefits to the circulatory system since 800 A.D.

Red yeast rice is named for a red or purple substance released by a fungus grown on fermented rice. It is marketed as a more natural and less expensive alternative to statin drugs such as Lipitor. Available in capsules in health food stores and over the Internet, red yeast rice actually creates the same monacolin-K, or lovastatin, that is the main ingredient in the generic version of the prescription drug Mevacor.

According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, red yeast rice has the benefit of “strong” scientific evidence, stating that “..since the 1970s, human studies have reported that red yeast rice lowers blood levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein/LDL ("bad cholesterol"), and triglyceride levels.”

Still, three red yeast rice supplements sold over the counter were ordered off the market recently by the FDA: Red yeast rice and red yeast rice/Policosanol Complex sold by Swanson Health Products Inc. and manufactured by Nature's Value Inc. and Kabco Inc. as well as Cholestrix, sold by Sunburst Biorganics. The stated reason for the FDA’s action is concern that the statin content in the supplements were approaching those in the prescription drugs. Some suspect that Big Pharma, concerned with the profitability of their key prescription statin drugs, encouraged the FDA to make the move against inexpensive red yeast rice, the more natural, but less regulated choice.

Meanwhile, the debate rages on in the fast growing alternative medicine community, and other versions of red yeast rice capsules are readily available online and in-store.

Note: The information in this article is intended for informational purposes only, and should not be interpreted as specific medical advice. You should consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making decisions about therapies and/or health conditions.

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Bust Burnouts: 5 Exercises You Probably Aren’t Doing

Staying committed to an exercise program is no easy task. Work, friends, loved ones, illness, holidays and the weather can all work against you. Don’t forget burnouts, injury and simply getting bored with your workout.

Here are some suggestions to keep your routine fresh, fun and effective. I’ve incorporated all of these exercises into my workouts and noticed the results. These tips range from traditional exercises to Yoga and Pilates postures.

Abdominal

Crunch, crunch, leg lift, leg lift and repeat; does this sound like your abdominal routine? If so you need to spice up your ab workout. Your body will adapt to your existing workout, to see continued gains, you need to shake things up.

• Flat Bench Abdominal Leg Pull Ins - The flat abdominal leg pull in is a Pilates based abdominal exercise. It works your abs and the surrounding stabilizing muscles. Take this exercise to the next level by rotating your body 90 degrees (your body and the bench form a +). Lie flat, or as flat as your can, for 60 seconds, then proceed to do 20 leg pull ins. These are pretty challenging and your abs will burn, but you'll thank me for this tip later. Remember, you can always modify this for beginners. Hold the prone position for 10, 20, or 30 seconds, then do 5 or 10 abdominal leg pull ins. If you ever feel discomfort, stop your exercise and take a break. If you have a weak lower back, place your hands under the small of your lower back for support.
  


• Chest Lift With Rotation - Chest lift with rotation is my new favorite crunch and is the real deal. You can take this exercise to the extremes by increasing the number of lifts. Everyone should be able to get a great workout with this one. An example of the chest lift with rotation is available here.

Cardio

• Swimming - If you have access to a pool, you should take advantage of it. Swimming is a phenomenal exercise that works your whole body, improves cardiovascular conditioning, endurance, muscle strength posture, and flexibility all at the same time. It's also the easiest workout on your body and joints. What if swimming laps isn't fun enough for you? Try diving; but please take swimming and diving lessons if you haven’t done this before.
  


• Sprint Intervals - Running is definitely a popular activity. The treadmills at my gym are always crowded and I see many people jogging along the rivers in NYC. However the majority of people who run avoid sprint intervals. Interval training stimulates fat loss, reduces stress and increases your metabolic rate. Simply run at a sprint speed for a minute (8 to 8.5 mph on your treadmill) then slow down to a jog for a minute (about a 6.0 mph). Do this about 5-6 times as a part of your regular running routine (which should be a minimum of 24 minutes).

Yoga

• Yoga Inversions - Inverted Yoga poses allow gravity to work for you. While in an inverted position, your spine elongates, which relieves pressure on the discs. Benefits include reduced back pain, improved posture and correct body alignment. Make sure you practice these poses on a soft surface. No one likes falling from a hand-stand onto a hard floor. In addition, inverted poses will work your entire body's stabilizing muscles.

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How To Make Stay-Awake Glasses

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France Showcases Worlds Fastest Rail Train

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The Simple Life

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.“
~ Confucius

Don’t you just love the excitement you feel after coming home with a new TV? Driving home in a new car? Opening the box on a new pair of shoes?

I sure do. But, from watching the behavior of myself and my friends I’ve found that the new quickly becomes just another item. The excitement of novelty passes quickly.

As we become wealthier, people seem to be adding more and more things to our homes. We then use our homes, and our treasures, to justify that we have won the game of life. Growing up in a family of pack-rats, I spent many years in my teens and early twenties accumulating stuff. During this time, much of my self-worth was unconsciously associated with the amount of stuff I owned; the brand names, and the latest trends. I spent a lot of money on clothes and stuff that made me feel ‘superior’. They gave me a sense of identity. If I just removed these things without awareness, my ego would have suffered. I had grown so attached to that definition of myself, that my loss would have been much deeper than just the cute sweater.

Not only did I not find myself in all this, I’ve also accumulated a lot of clutter in my living space and my inner space. Ironically, the piles of stuff actually held me back from understanding and inner peace with myself.

We are so eager to fill our homes, yet so disinterested in cleaning it out. As a result, we now require larger spaces, more storage space, and more clutter for the mind. Did you know that there are more self-storage facilities in North America than there are McDonald’s restaurants? We find it difficult to reduce the amount of stuff we own is due to our attachment to these things.

Is Less Really More?

The joy and art of having less while enjoying more of life can be summed up, as follows.

• The Zen of Space - There is beauty in space, but we fail to recognize it because we can’t see through the stuff we own. When we open up physical space in our environment, a tremendous feeling of peace can dwell within us. This is the principle behind Japanese style homes. Beauty in small spaces is the appreciation of minimalism, where less truly is more. We need to understand that space is to be enjoyed, not filled.
• Conserved Energy - Fewer belongings means we have fewer possessions to worry about. I once knew a wealthy young man, who had anything he dreamt of. He had so many expensive things, and he was so afraid of losing them. Much of his energy was devoted to protecting his possessions and trophies.
• Free Your Space - When we are reminded of something we own but never use, we can impose self-inflicted guilt for leaving it unused. For example, my mother owns a several exercise machines which are rarely used. Each time she sees them, she forces herself to feel guilty. Her guilt eats away at her inner, mental space. Our outer world is a reflection of our inner world. By cleaning out and simplifying our outer space, our inner space will open up like a flower.
• Appreciation - The less we have, the more attention we can give those things we own and truly need on a regular basis. Appreciation is the seed for abundance; abundance of the mind and the soul. It’s pretty amazing how little we actually need. When we clear our homes and our lives down to the essentials, we are able to better enjoy that which we do have.

Nothing external to us can give us permanent and true happiness. We actually have all we need to be truly happy within us.

The art of having less but enjoying our lives more, involves a few simple changes in perspective. First, we must understand where our true values lie and focus on them. Then, we must take time to enjoy the simple things, and slow down and see what’s right in front of us.

How to Have More With Less?

The following are suggestions and tips for incorporating the having less mentality into your life:

Doing One Thing At A Time - Avoid multi-tasking. When our attention is divided between multiple thoughts at the same time, we cannot excel in any of them. It’s best to place all focus on one task before moving on to another. I’ve learned the hard way that despite feeling productive, with multi-tasking, I rarely am. Whenever possible, remind yourself to focus on the Now, and fully immerse yourself in the subtle joys of this moment.

Slow down - It’s easy to speed through your day and not notice the little things. Slowing down is a vital part of simplifying your life and enjoying what you have. With focus, you can get the same tasks done without rushing. The key to being effective and productive is to work strategically, not blindly, by understanding why you are doing what you’re doing.

Be The Important - The only time we are guaranteed to have is this moment. I know this may sound a little mystical, but just think about it for a second. Life is so precious, yet we spend our most valuable resource, time, on things that are not important to us. In my life, this means that I will include time in my schedule to do what I truly want to be doing. Since the only time we have is right now, make sure you’re using your right now the way you truly want.

Clear the clutter - Clearing the clutter from your home and from your life is easier said than done. We are often emotionally attached to our posessions. This attachment goes beyond our need and we find it difficult to let go of nostalgia. When we are free of physical clutter, it frees our minds as well.

Control Your Spending - You’ve heard the saying “The best things in life are free.” Do you believe it? Spending time with family and friends, laughing, enjoying the antics of a pet, seeing a child smile, experiencing intimate and heart-felt moments with a loved one - these times are precious, and free. Money brings comfort, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying that comfort. But it’s important to spend money on the things that matter to you and let go of spending that does not add value to your life. We spend on what we need, but we forget why we are doing what we’re doing, and the spending becomes a habit.

Enjoy What You Have - If you want to have more enjoyment in your life, enjoy what you have. It is said that in order to live the life you love, you have to love the life you have. We don’t have to seek beyond ourselves in order to find happiness. No one person has everything they want; but we all have some things worth enjoying. So focus on those things and enjoy them!

Be Gracious - Following the previous point. Take time to be grateful for what you already have, however much or little you own. Be content with all the small gifts in your life, things you might take for granted like your body, your home, your good health, the chair you’re sitting on, the computer you have, the respect of those you love most.

Think Simple - There are so many simple pleasures that we don’t always take time to enjoy. Have you taken time lately to be outdoors and watch the clouds? When was the last time you curled up on the couch with a good book? If you enjoy baths, when is the last time you took a bubble bath? Take some time to really focus on something simple - focus on your breathing, focus on drinking down a cold glass of water, focus on enjoying the simple things you do every day. We can find so much happiness in the small everything things. They are there if we seek them, and when we seek, we shall find.

What are some simple things that you enjoy? Share with it with us in the comments. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this and related topics.

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Ferrari Enzo-crashing Gizmondo exec free from jail

The man who launched a thousand memes after crashing a Ferrari Enzo on the PCH that wasn't technically his -- was just released from a California jail where he's spent the past two years on charges of embezzlement in November 2006, days after a jury had failed to agree a verdict on charges he had stolen two Ferrari Enzos and a top-end Mercedes-Benz. Stefan Eriksson, the former Gizmondo executive, who goes by other names including "Fat Steffe" (in Sweden), "Ferrari Steffen" (in the US) and "The Evil One Who Destroys Beautiful Things" (in Maranello, Modena Italy), was transferred to a detention facility outside of LA on December 13th as he awaits transport...

...to either Sweden or Germany, where his wife and daughter have their home. No word on whether he'll also receive his license back -- but we're hoping he won't. We can't bear to see another Enzo bite the dust. Haven't we already been through enough? We mean, come on -- we're still waiting to see Dietrich/Karney go to jail and don't even get us started on Eddie Griffin -- we're still of the opinion there should be a death penalty for doing what he did. (Hat tip to JanTheMan!) [thelocal.se]

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