At AllThingsD's Dive Into Mobile conference today, Troy Carter, head of entertainment management company Atom Factory and Lady Gaga's manager, noted that "CDs are still a huge business" that drive some 70 percent of an album's revenue compared to 30 percent digital — iTunes, Google Play, and so on.

"The physical CD is still the driver right now. Not just from the industry perspective, but from the fan perspective. Walmart has a pretty big CD business," he said, adding that Target had been responsible for moving over 300,000 copies of Justin Timberlake's latest album in the early days of its release.

The continued importance of physical media might come as a surprise to many: Samsung's Experience Shops are in the process of displacing...

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If there were any lingering doubt that the music video has found a new home away from the television screen, here's a clip that MTV couldn't play even if it wanted to. For Light Light's new video for "Kilo," the Netherlands-based band enlisted Roel Wouters to create an browser-based experience that tracks your cursor movements and later integrates them into the video itself for future playback. As instructed by messages at the top of the screen, thousands of cursors form patterns by sticking within guidelines, obscure band members' faces by acting as a collective mask, and create an opponent for a boxer on the other side of the screen. Play the video for yourself at www.donottouch.org.

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Mars One, the ambitious (some might say crazy) project that aims to make the red planet's colonization into a successful reality TV show, will begin accepting video submissions for its first batch of astronauts in July. In an attempt to separate serious candidates from dreamers, the company plans to institute an entry fee that will vary depending on your native country. It's reportedly going to top off at $25 though, so hopefuls won't need to take out a second mortgage to plot out their departure from Earth. The mandatory fee is also a means for Mars One to secure funding for the actual trip and Mars colony buildout.

There's no going back

Speaking to Space.com, co-founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said, "we expect a million applications...

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The Burrard Blog, April 16, 2013

Check out these hot vintage pics from this talented team: 

Photographer: Victoria Kovacs // Twitter: victoriagkovacs // Instagram: VictoriaKovacs

Makeup Artist: Jacqueline Parker  // Twitter: JACQMakeupArt // Instagram: jacquelinemakeup 

Hairstylist: Emma May Garland - Chop Shop Gastown

Stylist: Bayley Thompson Willard - Holt Renfrew

Models: Brianna Neely& Brianna Townsend

Please go ahead and forward my mail and post mark it “paradise” please. I’m pretty sure life couldn’t get any better than living in this villa in Majorca, Spain. Designed by Spanish architect Alberto Rubio, the property overlooks Port Andratx on the Mediterranean coast.

Located in a prime location with crystal blue waters in both the ocean and the curved infinity pool, imagine spending most of the year outdoors lounging with this view.

The split level terraces are all-white making the array of blues the focus.

The division between indoors and out is nonexistent, making the space one large area to enjoy.

The white continues through the interior creating a super bright space that showcases just how open it is while also not distracting from the scenery.

The roof lines are beautifully angled providing a variety of picturesque views depending on which window you look out.

If this place piques your interest, it’s for sale for a cool €9.8 million (or ~$12.8 million).

If you need me, I’ll be here, relaxing…

When anti-virus software entrepreneur Friðrik Skúlason teamed up with a genetics company to create genealogy website Íslendingabók (the Book of Icelanders), the idea was to map the family connections between the citizens of Iceland. However, since its launch in 2010, the project has morphed into something much more, spawning a new mobile app that is now being used to check if Icelandic natives are dating close family relatives.

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Yesterday we shared THIS photo of the urban beaver that showed up in The Village on False Creek on Wednesday, and today… THIS!

Video by James Shearer on Youtube.

Expected to launch in the summer, Facebook's new video ad units may prove to be a revenue success for the company, but they may also become another nuisance for users. According to AdAge, Facebook is currently in talks with various agencies to secure its first video ad partners ahead of a June/July launch, with a view to displaying three video advertisements in users' News Feeds each day.

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Scientists have implanted a laboratory-grown kidney into a rat for the first time, a medical milestone that they hope will soon lead to similar solutions for human beings needing full organ transplants. "It's the first one ever that's been implanted into an animal," said Harald Ott, MD and PhD at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Regenerative Medicine and the lead researcher behind the project, to The Verge.

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SCENE AND HEARD showcases the independent music scene here in Vancouver. Green Couch Sessions is a live music video series – experiments in which GCS attempt to marry the artist with the environment. The music fills the space and the various locations, inevitably producing a sound unique to the session, never to be reproduced, only to be enjoyed by you, the viewers. VIAindie is excited to partner up with Green Couch to show YOU their latest and greatest videos of musicians and locations from all over the city! Stay tuned!

Artist: Dear Rouge
Song: Different

On a cold rainy evening in Vancouver we met up with 2012 PEAK Performance Project winners Dear Rouge in an empty parking lot for a little musical action. We parked the couch exactly where they told us not to… cause we are rebels and we roll like that.

Unfortunately, our perfect undercover location lacked just one thing, an outlet. Which we desperately needed to power our lights, amps and recording gear. So what did we do? Well, we did what any good gorilla operation would do, we hiked to the closest Canadian Tire, purchased an additional 70 foot extension cord, plugged that into our other 70 foot extension and ran it down the street for about a block… to steal… sorry, borrow… energy from an unsuspecting condo.

It all worked out in the end and this video is perfect to cool you off after a hot spring day.

Hosted by: The parkade at 7th and Hemlock

The next time you chop up a head of romaine lettuce for salad, hang on to the very bottom. The "heart" can be placed in a pan of water and with a little time, will eventually sprout a whole new head of lettuce, ready to harvest, eat, and repeat the process. More »

A nice side-effect of President Obama releasing his 2014 budget proposal today: a number of federal agencies, including NASA, have released more detailed information on what they plan to do with their allocations for the coming year. In NASA's case, that includes the news it's starting work on a far-fetched plan to capture an asteroid and bring it closer to the Earth so that astronauts can visit it by 2025. NASA also revealed new details, imagery, and video animation on just how it plans to nab the space rock.

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You spend your time in them every week and they become as familiar as your own home sometimes; I’m talking about the most beloved apartments and homes in television history. Often times, they’re their own separate character in the show, and now you get to look at them from a completely different angle – from above.

Spanish artist and interior designer Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde draws these famous house and apartment floor plans as a hobby, giving the TV viewer a new perspective on the homes in which our cherished characters reside. Luckily for us, we can get a piece of these fantastical domiciles because these floor plans are sold as prints. Hooray!

Dexter

Thanks to Freshome for the great find! We’re off to explore each residence and relive some of our favorite TV moments…

Friends – Apartment of Monica & Rachel

Friends – Apartment of Chandler & Joey

Friends – Both apartments

The Big Bang Theory – Apartment of Sheldon & Leonard

The Simpsons

Seinfeld

Will & Grace

The Golden Girls

I Love Lucy

Buy prints here.

I caught wind of Superfront from Remodelista today and boy am I glad I did. The Swedish company creates special cabinet fronts, handles, and legs that you can use with IKEA products like Bestå sideboards, Pax wardrobes, and even some kitchen cabinetry. There are nine cabinet front options, and eight different handle and leg options. I’m pretty excited about this and I hope it comes to the US soon!

I think the biggest problem I would have is choosing a favorite combination. I love the Illusion front (above) and the Big Balls feet (top photo).

I think this combo of Big Fish doors, Ball handles, and Captains leg is pretty awesome.

These leather pulls, called Loop, are available in four colors with either brass or copper rivets.

Lifehacker reader JonesyVan's workspace looks like your typical cubicle. Hidden in the filing cabinet, however, is some serious entertainment for break times (i.e., "when Bossman decides to exit his office"): a wall-mounted TV and Xbox 360. More »

We’ve partnered with our sponsor Hy’s Steakhouse to host a Then & Now Caption Contest to help celebrate their awesome history in our city.

The Hy’s of Service
Hy’s Steakhouse has long been known for their service. 50 years to be exact. So it’s really no wonder that many of the people that work there have done so for a very long time. Some for more than 30 years. After all, they do consider everyone that works there, and the guests that visit, to be family. But that’s what makes Hy’s so very special. They’ve never wavered from their founding beliefs of ultimate comfort, respect, and attention to detail. It’s for these reasons that despite all the changes we’ve seen over the years, Hy’s remains a true classic.

Then & Now Contest
To participate, all you have to do is look at the image below and create your very own Then & Now speech bubble caption. Simply click HERE to share with us on Facebook for your chance to win a gift certificate for two to dine at Hy’s or the grand prize feast, a $1000 gift card.

Need some inspiration? Check out the Then & Now GALLERY. And good luck!

To celebrate the 38th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, authorities in the port city of Da Nang have opened the world's largest dragon bridge. Featuring more than 2,500 energy-efficient Philips LED lights, the dragon is capable of releasing bursts of fire from its mouth and can spit water during the country's major festivals or at weekends.

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Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that the budget for Apple's new "spaceship" campus has risen from $3 billion to "nearly $5 billion." Citing five anonymous sources, the publication notes that the stretched budget would make Apple Campus 2 more expensive than the World Trade Center complex currently under construction. The project was originally scheduled for completion in 2015, but the move-in date has now been pushed back to 2016 as architects Foster + Partners search for a way to cut the current cost by a billion dollars.

The new campus was announced back in 2011 at what was to be Steve Jobs' last public appearance. Even at $3 billion the budget for what is essentially an office complex was high, but Jobs believed the cost was...

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Portuguese architect and illustrator André Chiote has created a series of prints that pay homage to the iconic architectural museums around the world.

Alésia Museum by Bernard Tschumi

Referencing the style of 1920′s travel posters, the designs are instantly recognizable with clean graphics and a scaled-back, minimalist feel that honor the architecture they illustrate.

Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry

MUSAC by Mansilla+Tuñón

MAC de Niterói by Oscar Niemeyer

LACMA by Renzo Piano

Casa das Histórias – Paula Rego by Eduardo Souto de Moura

Fundação Iberê Camargo by Álvaro Siza

Museum of Islamic Art by I.M. Pei

Musée du quai Branly by Jean Nouvel

SFMOMA by Mario Botta

Bonnefanten Museum by Aldo Rossi

IT’S FITNESS FRIDAY! For the next 3 months I’m blogging about my adventure to complete the 36 classes in 90 challenge put on by and in partnership with Barre Fitness! Hopefully you’ll join me and be motivated to get fit! I’ll be sharing recipes, exercises, class and workshop ideas, and more.And *BONUS* if when I complete the challenge and go to 36 classes, I get to give away TWO 2-Week Trial passes to Barre Fitness to some lucky VIA readers! So encourage me on twitter follow the challenge hashtag: #BBFC and I’ll see you at the Barre!

As promised this week’s post is about smoothies…GREEN SMOOTHIES to be specific.

Back during week one when I got sick, the lovely ladies at Barre Fitness tweeted at me that I should make some Green Go-Go juice…following the link I found myself at my first green smoothie recipe. I’d like to tell you that the one pictured above/my first attempt was delicious, but I got the green-to-fruit balance wrong and it was horrible. Nevertheless, I tried it again and had MUCH more success and was officially hooked.

Green Go-Go Juice (click for recipe)- by Alyssa at Nourished:

Then, something else wonderful happened…while tweeting Barre back about my success, BeCoconut (a Vancouver company) and I started chatting and they sent me over some coconut water to use in my smoothies! How awesome is that?

Coconut water is a great alternative to sugary sports drinks and perfect for pre and post-barre.  It’s natural and hydrating, loaded with tons of nutrients and stocked full of electrolytes. I realized that most every recipe that calls for you to add water, you can add coconut water and make it that much better for you!

Here’s a bit about BeCoconut Water – it is 100% pure, with no added sugar and not from concentrate.  It is the only coconut water that has superfruit infused coconut water – using only 100% pure fruit juices with no added sugar or water. AND it is fat free, cholesterol free and gluten free.

There are 3 flavoured options as you can see above, Mango (which has: Vitamins A, B-1, B-2, B-3, B-6, B-9, C, E and K and a range of essential minerals, including calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, sodium and zinc. -and is a great source of fibre), Pomegranate (rich in natural antioxidants and anti-viral properties, vitamin A, C and E, as well as folic acid, – AND three times the antioxidants as wine or green tea) and Aloe Vera (aloevera juice is a powerhouse of vitamins, loaded with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C and E, Folic Acid and Niacin).

So for the first smoothie with my new source of coconut water, the BeCoconut team also gave me a recipe!

Spinach, kale, cucumber, frozen berries and Be Pomegranate Coconut Water - I eyeballed the amounts, knowing from my first smoothie experience that you wanted lots of greens, but to make sure it didn’t taste like pureed salad. and it turned out great:

I threw in a banana for good measure because the BarreFitness girls suggested chopping them up and freezing them that way – frozen fruits will give the smoothie a bit more of a slushy consistency (and sweeten it naturally)!

Left: BeCoconut Berry Smoothie —- Right:  Paula Deen “Good Morning Green Smoothie” (click for recipe)

So for my 3rd smoothie I bought a ton of frozen fruit from No Frills (it was on sale for $4 a bag, pretty good!) and made another green-coloured one. If you check out Barre Fitness’ Pinterest account they have a section on Smoothies & Juices, from which I got most the of the recipes I’m going to tell you about.

This one was great. I found it impossible to locate frozen pineapple, so I put it on my to-do like to buy some fresh and then cut them up and freeze them too!
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“A Green Smoothie That Doesn’t Taste Like Grass!” (click for recipe) – Lauren Conrad

This was probably the prettiest smoothie I made, definitely one of the easiest and my favourite green coloured one.

This one called for Chia Seeds, which meant a trip to Whole Foods – here are some of the (crazy!) facts and benefits of such a tiny little thing. I’m hooked and put them in every smoothie I make now, even if it doesn’t call for it, just because I can!
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Preet’s Special Smoothie (click for recipe)- YYoga

This smoothie required my first foray into making my own Sprouted Almond Milk! (it tells you how in the recipe) This took a bit of prep, soaking the almonds overnight, but the end result was delicious. I had enough for a smoothie, and a bit extra that I stashed in a mason jar for later. – This obviously isn’t a GREEN smoothie, but it was nice to mix it up in the middle of the week, and use my veggies in a stir-fry instead!

Oh, and the recipe called for Hemp Seeds, which I also picked up at Whole Foods (their bulk section is great!)

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Be Green Smoothie (click for recipe)- BeCoconut

BeCoconut has a bunch of recipes on their website as well and I pulled the Be Green one up for this particular morning’s smoothie. It’s similar to some of the other green veggie based recipes, plus their Coconut Water (I used the Aloe Vera one) – and it was neatly placed in this Greyjoy glass that I got from the media screening of the first episode of season 3 of Game Of Thrones. Which was awesome…much like this smoothie.

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Tropical Green Smoothie (click for recipe)- 52 Kitchen Adventures

So at this point in the week, my bag of spinach was starting to not look so hot, and in my adventures on the internet I came across a post saying you should blend it and freeze it at that point in an ice cube tray, so that a: it wont go bad, and b: perfect dividers for making smoothies with! So I did, blending it with pure/plain coconut water and it worked PERFECTLY!

This particular smoothie recipe was realllllllly good. The main difference being that it had (plain, Greek) yogurt in it, so it came out really rich and smooth – and tasted amazing. It was probably my 2nd favourite recipe.

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Power Protein Smoothie (click for recipe)- Whole Living

Back to berries for a change, and this recipe called for tofu as well. It was definitely tasty, but I missed having the greens in there too!
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Raspberry Avocado Smoothie (click for recipe)- Eating Well

When I told people that I was starting to make smoothies, everyone had a suggestion for ingredients, one of which was avocado (I’m still looking for a recipe with beets -if you have one, tweet it at me!). I LOVE avocado milkshakes, so I went looking for a recipe that had some in there. Luckily I also had local BC raspberries, frozen in my freezer from last summer too, and it made a perfect combination!

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Green Smoothie [Cups] (click for recipe) – Muffin Tin Mania

Finally Day 10 of the smoothie experiment (ie today) arrived and I took my last recipe from a site that suggests blending the smoothie and freezing it in a muffin tin, this way you can just toss the cups into the blending in the morning and BOOM, smoothie.

I like the idea of having these on hand if I’m out of veggies and don’t have the resources to make a smoothie, but I’d prefer to use fresh ingredients if I could!

Either way this one, like the others, was great, and I put it in my to-go container and drank it on the way to Barre Classic today!

Thanks to Barre Fitness for introducing me to this, AND to Be Coconut for the coconut water (I’m officially hooked, which is just fine because they deliver cases to your house if you live in Vancouver!)
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My Findings:

It might take some practice to get a balance between green and fruit, but it’s well worth it. I’m TERRIBLE at breakfast and am not hungry until close to lunch, but a liquid breaky full of veggies, fruit and vitamins is exactly what I need for my early morning Barre classes, and/or afterward too for a boost of energy.

I’d recommend playing around with what you have in the fridge (KALE!!!) until you find what you like, and you too might end up addicted, like I am now. (It really is spreading, my neighbour bought a blender after I gave her a smoothie I made!).

Happy Blending!   — I’ll be back next week outlining some of the great workshops that Barre just announced… You can sign up for them online right now. And if you, like myself, are doing the Barre Body Fitness Challenge – you get a special promo (3 classes for $30). I’m excited for Ballet 101!

David Thomas Smith's first solo show of photographic art is called Anthropocene, and makes use of Google Maps image data in a pretty novel way — the satellite photos serve as the fabric for intricate patterns inspired by Persian rugs. Each piece uses several thousand individual images from Google Maps, which are then stitched together using Photoshop. Anthropocene is currently on show at the Copper House Gallery in Dublin; while the images look impressive enough on screen, the gallery says they have "a level of detail one can only really experience in person."

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On April 3rd, 1973, Motorola engineer Marty Cooper placed the first public call from a cellphone. In midtown Manhattan, Cooper called Joel Engel — head of rival research department Bell Labs — saying "Joel, this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cell phone, a real handheld portable cell phone." The call was placed on a Motorola DynaTAC 8000x, which weighed 2.5 pounds, a far cry from today's 4-ounce handsets.

Last year, The Verge's Chris Ziegler sat down with Marty Cooper to discuss the history of the cellphone, the issues facing the current market, and the future of phones and spectrum. What better way to celebrate the forty-year anniversary of the portable phone than to hear from the man who invented it?

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Italian authorities have made their largest ever seizure of mafia-linked assets, appropriating properties and bank accounts worth a reported 1.3 billion euros ($1.7 billion) connected to renewable energy farms. According to the AP, local police seized 43 wind and solar energy companies and 66 bank accounts belonging to Vito Nicastri — known as 'Lord of the Wind' for his role in developing his energy businesses.

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Bette Midler, David Bowie, Michael Jackson and Cher

Yesterday we published THIS breathtaking photo of 4 horses galloping at Spanish Banks, and there was some speculation (even internally!) that it was an April Fools hoax. A clever Photoshop job. It wasn’t. Pictured below is another shot taken from that day, from a series by Lesley Hemsworth. HERE is the gallery.

CLICK for the larger version

If you enjoy McDonald's breakfast sandwiches, this may be life-changing information: You can get a real egg—not that rubbery mystery egg-like substance—on any breakfast sandwich (including the biscuit ones) just by asking for it. More »

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/press-releases/article/City-Bike-Company-Brooklyn-Cruiser-Partners-with-4365351.php#ixzz2OfVNSPqI

The Federal Aviation Administration may be moving to allow the use of electronic reading devices during takeoff and landing, reports The New York Times. The administration may be set to relax the rules within the year for devices such as tablets and e-readers, allowing them to be switched into airplane mode rather than powered off; however the new rules would not cover cellphones. The FAA began studying the issue last year, and its findings will be announced by the end of July. An anonymous FAA official told The New York Times that the administration is under great pressure to either allow the devices or to provide a scientific explanation for why they cannot be used.

The New York Times reports that the administration is also...

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In order to lower the cost of getting packages to its online shoppers, Walmart is considering turning to other customers to take care of the deliveries, reports Reuters. In an interview, Walmart.com’s chief executive Joel Anderson reportedly said that he sees "a path to where this is crowd sourced," suggesting that the company could give shoppers a discount on their shopping bills, covering the cost of their gas. "This is at the brain-storming stage, but it’s possible in a year or two," said VP Jeff McAllister.

Walmart is already shipping online orders directly from 25 of its retail stores (using professional drivers) but it reportedly plans to grow the program to 50 this year as it continues to take on online retailers like Amazon....

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