Maevepinto

LOS ANGELES—Sources close to the Lone Ranger and Pirates Of The Caribbean star confirmed Monday that unless Johnny Depp is playfully keeping his balance while wobbling along the length of a ship’s mast or comically teeter-totteri...

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

Adding a swimming pool or hot tub means displacing something else – usually a outdoor lawn, yard or deck or dedicated room inside a house. But what if you could have the best of both worlds: a usable space or surface replaced by a body of water when you want it?

These designs effectively let you walk on walk on water, in a sense, thanks to dynamic and on-demand functionality right beneath your feet. Designers of the exterior and interior swimming and wading pools (as well as hot tubs) shown here include companies like Hydrofloors (images above) and Agor (video below).

At the push of a button, decking descends autometically and water fills in the void left behind – conceal, reveal, rise and repeat as desired, turning a cocktail into a pool party and back again.

Depending on the nature of user needs, the mechanically-controlled platforms lower to become pool bottoms but also steps down into the resulting water.

Aside from issues of cost (and one can only imagine how expensive such custom solutions must be – there are no list prices), the question that remains, of course, is: how hard is it to clean and maintain? Perhaps if you have enough money to afford to build one of these liquid luxury machines, that price point is moot.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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rdreamwalker:

asilookatthemoon:

The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog.

I feel like I’ve been preparing for this image all my life.

The internet is over, everyone can go home

It’s just as beautiful as I always imagined.

My life is complete.

Life is over as we know it

bendydicks:

SAM

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

When libraries want to save space, they employ a rolling stack system that allows access to only one or a few aisles at one time. When not in use, the walkways between disappear as the bookcases are pressed backed together to  open a new aisle. So why limit this ingenious space-saving approach to the library? Why not try out a similar compact mobile track-shelving setup with interior walls instead of bookcases? One for home, one for the office, here are two projects that do.

First, consider Elastic Living, a project by CLEI for Milan Design Week. Knowing you only need to access one or two rooms at a time, this system proposes you pick and choose dynamically, opening, say, one big dinning room for guests, or your bedroom and bathroom when you are getting ready to go to sleep. When you wake up, you can file your sleeping space away for the whole day, until you need it again.

To be fair, the presentation is a bit garish – it could do with fewer drawn figures on the outside walls, and a bit less bold of a background color scheme, but strip away backdrop and the design itself is quite compelling. Each room can be not only opened and closed, but dynamiclaly re-sized to fit its function. The kitchen can host a small an intimidate dinner or an expansive and festive one.

Second, let us shift from residential to take a look a similar process in play in a more formal and commercial setting: the Environmental Grantmakers Association offices designed by Taylor and Miller Architecture and Urban Design. Here we again find the stacks-on-rails system supporting in this case four workstation units.

And also like the first project, we find infinite possibilities for deployment – space two out far enough and you can create a conference room, or pack them all tightly together and set them aside to make space for a big event.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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continuants:

Lil Bub drops the truth bombs.

Adopt, adopt, adopt. There are so many abandoned animals in this world (not just cats!) that need love.

Glad this was said…did not know that people intentionally attempted to breed Bub-like cats. Bub has a host of health problems that come along with her cuteness. I’m glad Bub’s owners are taking good care of her, but they also need to do everything they can to discourage people from wanting a cat like Lil Bub, because the process of creating those cats is cruel.

sam-winchester-cries-during-sex:

teaandbenedictcumberbatch:

sweatercrab:

floozys:

i think they should release a fashion magazine but instead of models use cats and instead of tips on how to lose weight, tips on how to gain cats, and instead of listing reasons why boys don’t like you, list reasons why cats are more important than body shaming and self hatred

YES

Would you call it a catalogue?

GET OUT

Listen, I don't want to freak you out or anything, but I know everything you're about to say. 

It's complicated. And kind of wibbly-wobbly.

Hey, you leave my mother out of this!

Now, look, we haven't got much time; the average internet-using adult's attention span lasts only... DUCK!!

  DON'T BLINK.

Then he'd win the staring contest.

 

Like I was saying, we don't have much... AAAAH WEEPING ANGEL!

Oh. Sorry, Sheila! Thought you were someone else. That's some really fetching pipe strapping and glitter tulle you've got there, though.

 

Anyway, guys, I'm sorry. I'm very, very sorry. But it's up to you now.

So... what do you think of this cake?

I mean, it's clearly descending into a temporal rift. Or possibly the Swamps of Sadness. And I'm sure there's some kind of hidden meaning to "police = box." But more importantly: is it bigger on the inside, and if so, can I have a piece the size of a buffalo?

 

Or how about this one?

I've always thought the TARDIS could be a bit softer/squishier, so this groom's cake/ throw-rug is JUST the thing.

 

Brace yourself, for I sense there are dark times ahead for this next one.

Or maybe just for your bowels. 

HeheheheheEW.

 (You'd almost think the color of the photo was off, until you notice the top "light." Da heck?)

 

Anyway, like I said, it's up to YOU to rescue these cakes from a bunch of garden statuary playing Red Light Green Light. It's super easy, though. You just need some fish sticks, an extra bow tie, a Cthulhu mask with a Pokémon ball, a really, really long scarf, and ...

 

TOO LATE!

By The Bunny Baker

 

Thanks to Krista C., Rauha, Marielen, Valorie M., and Mairi R. for the time out. (And yes, that angel cake IS pretty dang awesome. And terrifying. But awesome. But terrifying.)

NEW YORK—Confirming months of speculation, developers at Rockstar Games revealed today that the missions in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V video game will largely revolve around the player serving as a tutor and volunteering for various comm...

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

The Sydney Opera House might have been little more than a squat concrete building resembling a factory, and a visit to the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial could have required scaling a massive stepped pyramid. Ranging from close second-place finishes in design competitions to proposals that were little more than pipe dreams, these alternative designs for 12 major iconic landmarks around the world represent radical departures from the monuments we’re accustomed to.

Sydney Opera House

(images via: new world wonders, wikimedia commons)

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, with a dramatic series of vaults rising from the ground along Sydney Harbour. But Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s now-iconic design was controversial when it was first proposed in 1957, and the design that came in second place may have been more palatable to the public. American architect Joseph Marzella’s design was rather industrial in its appearance, but didn’t seem quite so out there.  It’s hard to imagine the magnificent performing arts venue looking so squat and dull.

Triumphal Elephant in Place of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe

(images via: wikimedia commons)

In place of one of Paris’ most famous monuments, the Arc de Triomphe, could have been a three-story elephant monument with a spiral staircase in the underbelly leading to the pinnacle. 18th century architect Charles Ribart offered this monument for the Champs Élysées, complete with a cross-sectional drawing showing the intricate rooms within, but was turned down by the French government.

This isn’t even the only massive, ridiculous elephant statue envisioned for Paris. Originally conceived by Napoleon, the imposing Elephant of the Bastille (third photo) was meant to be cast of bronze and placed in Paris’ Place de la Bastille on the site of the old Bastille prison, which was the birthplace of the French Revolution. A stairway set into the legs would give access to the top, and the base would be surrounded by a fountain. However, only a plaster model was built, as memorialized by Victor Hugo in the novel Les Miserables, and eventually the July Column took its place.

Unbuilt Design for the Golden Gate Bridge

(images via: pbs newshour, wikimedia commons)

Now 76 years old, the Golden Gate Bridge is an iconic symbol of San Francisco, coated in literally millions of gallons of orange paint. The Art Deco-style bridge is one of the longest suspension bridges in the world, beating many experts’ predictions that it wouldn’t last against gale-force winds in the straight where the San Francisco Bay opens to the Pacific Ocean. But this wasn’t engineer Joseph Strauss’ first design. The original proposal is markedly different, with a heavier look combining cantilevered and suspension designs. It was rejected by the planning committee.

Lincoln Memorial Pyramid

(images via: i own the world, wikimedia commons)

Highlighted at Unbuilt Washington, an exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., John Russell Pope’s Lincoln Memorial Proposal replaces the columned rectangular building honoring the 16th president with a pyramid. Anyone who wanted to get up close to Abraham Lincoln’s statue would have had to climb that entire thing to reach it. Some historians believe that this proposal was ridiculous on purpose; Pope wasn’t a fan of the swampy location chosen for the memorial, and may have created this and other absurd designs in an effort to encourage the committee to seek a new setting. Pope went on to successfully design the Jefferson Memorial.

Pyramid Necropolis for London’s Primrose Hill

(images via: andrew gough, wikimedia commons)

Infused in the Victorian preoccupation with melancholy and inspired by the Egyptian spoils of traveler and tomb-raider Giovanni Battista Belzoni, London architect Thomas Wilson proposed a massive, 15-acre pyramid-shaped necropolis for the city’s Primrose Hill. The granite pyramid would have towered into the air with 94 tiers of tombs in honeycomb shapes and a base measuring 18 acres, casting a gargantuan shadow over the hill many Londoners use for picnics and looking out over the city. Churchyards were so crowded at the time, that graves were bursting out of the ground – but concerns about what to do with London’s dead weren’t enough to convince the public that a necropolis was a good idea.

White House Alterations for President Harrison

(images via: loc.gov, wikimedia commons)

While he’s not nearly as forgettable as his grandfather, ninth United States President William Henry Harrison – who died after just 32 days in office – many Americans will struggle to recall any of twenty-third President Benjamin Harrison’s achievements during his tenure in the White House. However, Harrison could have made quite a mark. The first President to reside in the White House after it was wired for electricity, Harrison and his First Lady, Caroline Harrison, proposed significant changes to the complex that were never carried out. However, ten years later, Theodore Roosevelt made plenty of changes of his own, including the addition of the West Wing.

Next Page:
Alternative Landmarks 12 Monuments As They Almost Were

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[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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“One strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes.”

After the recently examined history of how coffee changed the world, the most democratic thing to do would be to offer those of us who prefer tea a comparable treat — and what would be more appropriate than a reading of George Orwell’s his secret to the perfect cup of tea? The passage, which discusses “one of the most controversial parts of all” — the matter of the milk — is part of his altogether fantastic 1945 essay “A Nice Cup of Tea,” originally published in the Evening Standard on January 12, 1946, and later included in the indispensable 1968 anthology George Orwell: As I Please, 1943-1945: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, Vol 3 (public library). Excerpted below, it presents Orwell’s eleven “golden” rules for the ultimate tea experience.

If you look up ‘tea’ in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.

This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.

When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:

First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup of tea’ invariably means Indian tea.

Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britannia ware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.

Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.

Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.

Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.

Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.

Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.

Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one’s tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.

Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.

Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.

Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

Some people would answer that they don’t like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.

These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tea leaves, such as telling fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one’s ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.

The same year, Orwell published one of his most celebrated and enduring essays, titled “Why I Write” and exploring the four universal motives for creation. It appears on this essential reading list of famous writers’ wisdom on writing.

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PARIS—Following a storied 21-year career, global soccer icon David Beckham officially announced Thursday that, at the age of 38, he is a giant quitter.

how many cats does it take to screw in a lightbulb? zero because you don’t have thumbs

DANIA, FL—Stating that things are “just really crazy right now,” local man James Kinter told reporters Monday that an appointment to pick up an object from his apartment floor would have to be moved to Thursday.

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SHARING
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AFTER THE SUPPER AND TALK

After the supper and talk--after the day is done,
As a friend from friends his final withdrawal prolonging,
Good-bye and Good-bye with emotional lips repeating,
(So hard for his hand to release those hands--no more will they meet,
No more for communion of sorrow and joy, of old and young,
A far-stretching journey awaits him, to return no more,)
Shunning, postponing severance--seeking to ward off the last word
ever so little,
E'en at the exit-door turning--charges superfluous calling back--
e'en as he descends the steps,
Something to eke out a minute additional--shadows of nightfall deepening,
Farewells, messages lessening--dimmer the forthgoer's visage and form,
Soon to be lost for aye in the darkness--loth, O so loth to depart!
Garrulous to the very last.

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Question of the Week: What literary destination would you most love to visit? Click here to share.

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What's that you say? You want a Sunday Sweets post based on the greatest movies of all time? Or at least, the greatest movies of the '80s?

By Miso Bakes

As you wish.

 

That's right, buttercup, get ready for some eighties movie madness, starting with these sweets based on The Princess Bride - although I hope you've already figured that out by now.

By GeekSweets

It's just that I was looking for the DVD at a store recently, and the clerk literally said, "Ummmmm, is that the one with Anne Hathaway?"

Kids.

 

But speaking of kids, I was sure that Jen had put this Little Mermaid cake in here by mistake, because I totally remember when this movie came out! It can't be that old.

By Emma Jayne Cake Design

Holy crab legs, this movie is 24 years old.

 

How crazy to think that we're now living in Marty Mcfly's future. And look, here he is!

By Black Cherry Cake Company

The baker really captured him perfectly. I'd recognize that puffy vest and wispy hair from a decade away.

 

Plus, how awesome are the little fondant flames behind the DeLorean?

Almost awesome enough for me to forget that I still don't have a hoverboard.

 

Hey, are you a Tom Cruise fan? A Val Kilmer fan? An edible sunglasses fan? If so, then I've got the cake for you:

By The Designer Cake Company

Such military precision! I'd expect nothing less from a Top Gun cake.

 

But I have bad news: the Terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever.

Until we eat it!

By Mike, aka Flickr user psychobean

Made with a Wilton skull pan and a metric ton of talent. So clever.

 

And speaking of cyborg assassins ...

By Clares Cakes

Ok, fine, so Inspector Gadget isn't exactly the same thing.
(And not technically a movie, unless you count the live-action film from 1999 - which you really, really shouldn't. - Jen)

 

But I can't believe we've come this far without mentioning the most quintessential '80s movie of all, Gremlins!

By Cake Rhapsody

At least, that's what I've heard. This movie may have traumatized me as a child; I still haven't even seen the entire thing. Great cake, though! His ragged little ears are my favorite - they're so cute and non-murderous.

 

Other things I ain't afraid of: no ghosts!

Submitted by Carey-Anne, made by Very Unique Cakes

Not with the Ghostbusters around, at least! I love that this cake is for a five-year-old. Who needs Spongebob when you can have Slimer?

 

But here's something I need: a teensy tiny topiary floating over everyone's favorite Goblin King:

Also by Black Cherry Cake Company - which has an even larger & more detailed Labyrinth cake here!

How amazing is this? It would be an impressive cake if it stopped with the globe, but there are so many other great details, from Jareth's sneer down to the tiny arrows on the stone path. So cool.

 

You know what?
That last cake reminded me of the babe.
What babe?
This one:

By Cake Central member Kayla1505

Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. A beauty in black and white! Whit-whoo! (That was me typing out the sound of a wolf-whistle. Not as easy as you'd think).

 

Now, I'm not sure if this stunner inspired by The Neverending Story is a wedding cake or not ...

By Art Cake

...but I can't think of a better way to start a new life together than with a luck-dragon on your cake! Can you? In fact, we should probably just start putting Falcors on all our cakes. Weddings, birthdays, graduations, Falker Satherhoods. All Falcor-worthy.

 

And finally, the '80s movie cake to end all '80s movie cakes (and especially appropriate since yesterday was Star Wars day!)

Photo by Rebel Belle Weddings, Cake by The Butter End Cakery

The Millenium Falcon!

I don't know what's more amazing, the insane amount of detail on this cake, the fact that it was made with modeling chocolate instead of fondant, or, I don't know, that it freaking GLOWS?

I hope it rocked your universe as much as it did mine!

 

Have a Sweet to nominate? Then send it to Sunday Sweets [at] Cake Wrecks [dot] com! And be sure to check our Sweet Directory to see all the pro bakers we've ever featured in your area!

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."

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SHARING
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AN EVENING LULL

After a week of physical anguish,
Unrest and pain, and feverish heat,
Toward the ending day a calm and lull comes on,
Three hours of peace and soothing rest of brain.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

It is a strange fact that Coca Cola is so widely distributed it is easier to obtain in some places than clean water. That powerful distribution network has sparked a brilliant packaging idea: utilizing empty space is Coke shipping crates to house vital medication.

Like a pathogen finding a way to sneak a ride in past an unsuspecting immune system, ColaLife packages slips into the interstitial space between bottles to provide diarrhea medicine, addressing the second biggest contributor to childhood mortality rates in many parts of Africa. Unlike many design projects, the point is not what specifically is sent out, but how things can be shipped (the ‘what’ comes second).

Simon Berry credits his wife with the essential and (only in retrospect) obvious realization that the best way to piggyback on Coca Cola’s established process was to use the leftover area in the crates they are already shipping. Thus the AirPod was born – a small and strangely-shaped packaged made to be wedged in that extra sliver of void.

For now, the kits are subsidized as the system proves itself workable. But aside from donor contributions, at just $1.00 US, these life-saving packages may yet be profit potential for retailers in the developing world. Either way, they are breaking ground toward future social entrepreneurship possibilities.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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