The disguise has finally been pulled off of Mercedes’ all-new supercar.

By Mike Monticello
September 2009

Finally, the disguise has been peeled off of Mercedes‘ all-new supercar, the SLS AMG. And what can we see? Exactly what we expected: a modern successor to the legendary 300SL Gullwing, with a remarkably upright windshield. The front is pure modern Mercedes, a bit on the blocky side with large headlamp clusters, a long hood and a giant 3-pointed star. Of course there are the gullwing doors along with retro strakes on the front fenders. The short rear deck, though, is a bit more squared-off than we expected, reminding a bit (dare we say) of the old Acura CL coupe. A flush-mounted rear wing rises at speed. The driver-focused interior appears nicely done, if slightly understyled, in typical German fashion.

But as AMG’s first-ever clean-sheet design, the SLS is all about the driving experience. And as R&T Senior Feature Editor Douglas Kott found out in our October 2009 issue, an awesome experience it is. The heart of the SLS is the front-mid-mounted normally aspirated 6.2-liter dry-sump V-8, which cranks out 563 bhp at 6800 rpm and 480 lb.-ft. of torque at 4750. Power is delivered to the rear wheels via a 7-speed twin-clutch transaxle (called AMG Speedshift DCT). The SLS’s lightweight aluminum space-frame construction translates to a curb weight of about 3600 lb.

The SLS will hit the market in the spring of 2010. Pricing hasn’t yet been announced, but figure somewhere between $150,000−$225,000.

Source & Credits: roadandtrack.com

Today, we’re going to do some urban exploring as we’re searching for the tallest abandoned structures around the world. We’re going to visit Russia, North Korea, the US and Poland on our quest for the rustiest. Once found, we’re going to climb the towers and buildings so make sure you leave your vertigo behind…

1. Ostankino Tower, Moscow – 540 m (1772 ft)

The Ostankino Tower was completed in 1967 to mark the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was the first free-standing structure to exceed 500 m (1640 ft) and held that title for nine years until it was surpassed by the CN Tower in Toronto in 1976. The Ostankino Tower is named after the Moscow district in which it is located.

The Ostankino Tower in all its glory…

Image via English Russia

…during the fire in 2000…

Image: Elke Wetzig

It served telecommunication, observation and tourism purposes until it caught fire in August of 2000 when most of the tower’s interior was destroyed. Rebuilding the heavily damaged tower proved a long and costly task, so that both the tower and the idea of renovation have been abandoned ever since.

… and a stomach-churning view down during construction:

Image via English Russia

2. Ryugyong Hotel, North Korea – 105 floors, 330 m (1,100 ft)

The Ryugyong Hotel was named after the historic name for Pyongyang, “capital of willows”, the district it can be found in. Unlike a willow and more like a pyramid that would be every skater’s dream, it towers over the city of Sojang-dong; the whole country in fact. Construction of the ambitious project began in 1987 as a response to Singapore’s Westin Stamford hotel built by a South Korean company the previous year.

Not yet under construction in June 2007:

Image: Timur

Construction went on for five years but ceased due to lack of funds, electricity and building materials. It was abandoned for 16 years, but construction resumed in 2008 and the hotel is now being readied to open its doors in 2012 for the 100th anniversary of Kim II Sung’s birth. With 360,000 sq m (3,900,000 sq ft) of floor space and 105 stories, it would be the world’s tallest hotel. It is currently the world’s 28th tallest building.

Something’s going on – in February 2009:

Image: Myouzke

3. Mystery Tower, somewhere in Russia – around 300 m (1,000 ft)

The next tower is one of Russia’s tallest abandoned structures but that’s pretty much all we know about it. It certainly looks like a TV or radio tower and someone without vertigo has made the climb up those icy steps to snap some dizzying pics.

Where do you even hold on?

Image via English Russia

The tower when it’s not frozen over:

Image via English Russia

4. PacBell Building, San Francisco – 26 floors, 133 m (435 ft)

Though almost 200 m shorter than the previous structure, the PacBell Building in San Francisco’s South of Market district can claim to be the world’s tallest abandoned skyscraper. It was completed in 1925 and housed the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph company, which is why it was called Pacific Telephone Building at first. Part of the Bell System, the company had bell motifs chiseled into its façade.

The PacBell Building rises behind SF’s MoMA:

Image: Christopher Beland

Renamed PacBell Building after the breakup of the two big phone companies, the Neo-Gothic office tower was sold to investor William Meany Sullivan and Stockbridge Capital Partners in 2007 at the recession price of $118 million. Though a request for a building permit was made in December 2008, no redevelopment has started yet.

Faded glory – the auditorium’s waiting room on the 26th floor in sunset glow:

Image: Jonathan Haeber

The PacBell eagles have kept a watch since 1925:

Image: Jonathan Haeber

5. Gliwice Radio Tower, Poland – 118 m (385 ft)

Radio Station Gliwice’s tower might not be the tallest abandoned structure mentioned here, but it has two records to its name: It is the only remaining radio tower constructed of wood in the world and the tallest wooden construction on earth.

The radio tower today:

Image: Tonkow1993

But that’s not all. The tower was completed in 1935 and with the impending Second World War, had a bit of a tumultuous history. It was used by the Nazis for broadcasting as Gliwice was a Prussian province until 1945 and therefore belonged to Germany. The Nazis even staged an attack on it by Polish soldiers as one of various border incidents on the night of August 31st, 1939 – an excuse for their invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 – a move that would start WWII, 70 years ago almost to the day.

Looking up at the wooden construction:

Image: Andrzej Jarczewski

The radio tower, nicknamed Silesian Eiffel Tower for some resemblance in construction to its famous Parisian cousin, was used until the 1980s. Though not in service any more, the tower has served as a museum since 2005. Most other wooden radio towers, popular in the ‘30s, disappeared by the ‘50s.

6. Broderick Tower, Detroit – 35 floors, 113m (369 ft)

The David Broderick Tower in Detroit, Michigan is a Neo-classical and Beaux-Arts limestone skyscraper completed in 1928. It was commissioned by Theodore Eaton, an importer and trader in chemicals and dyes, and was initially known as the Eaton Tower.

The Broderick Tower with a whale mural by local artist Wyland painted in 1997:

Image: Aaron Barth

The building was bought by David Broderick, an insurance broker, in 1945. Since Broderick’s death in 1957, the tower has changed ownership many times and closed completely in the 1980s. Except for bars or restaurants occupying the first floor, the building has been abandoned ever since. However, redevelopment has been underway and the tower is set to reopen in early 2010. Planned is a mall on the first four floors, office space on the two floors above and residential apartments on floors 5 through 34.

A view from the 17th floor down:

Image: Aaron Barth

A view from Broderick’s once exclusive Sky Top Club on the 33rd floor:

Image: Aaron Barth

Who would’ve thought that so many amazing towers and buildings would just get abandoned? If only we could put all that wasted space to use for where it is needed. Some of the buildings portrayed here are already under new contract while the others will have to crumble, er, fend for themselves.

Source & Credits: environmentalgraffiti.com

Here’s 21 from our ‘How I took It‘ section. Click pictures to read the story and techniques used behind the shots.

1. Light Sugar Cube

2. Dart Shot

3. Know When to Fold’em

4. How I Shoot the Moon

5. Bubble World

6. Digital Unmasking Ripping one’s face

7. Bottles on Fire

8. Light + Clothes dryer

9. Partial Solar Eclipse on Feb 7 in New Zealand

10. Parabolas

11. Balls

12. Long Exposure While Driving

13. Light Painting “Love”

14. Master Chief’s Bad Day

15. Splash of Color

16. Make Your Own Cadillac Commercial

17. Chuck Norris Eyedrops

18. Shaped Bokeh!

19. Smoke Photography

20. Create Flames Using Light

From our first training bra to the fancy La Perlas we charged up last week, bras are at once a girl’s best friend and her worst enemy. Empowering and sexy but sometimes cumbersome and awkward, the bra has long been linked to women’s rights, feminine identity, and, yes, boobs of all kinds. History’s also heaving with events where the brassiere has taken center-stage, but since the birth of the bra goes back to BC, we’ve compiled a list of modern moments—like Jane Curtin’s infamous on-air (and apparently, imageless otherwise we’d have featured it—rats!) statement of her own sexiness for boob-tube favorite, Saturday Night Live. Sexy, epochal, and, oh yeah, silly, these intimates did way more than just keep the girls in place!

Read on for our list…

1) Madonna’s Gaultier Cones
With two extremely perky Bugles covering her already perfectly formed ladies, the now-infamous Gaultier number was—if you can believe it—inspired by Gaultier’s grandmother. Like the seriously hardcore Victorian corsets of Nanna Gaultier’s past, the centerpiece of the Blonde Ambition tour pays homage to ladythings of lore, but warned showgoers to not look too close lest they poke an eye out.

2) Princess Leia’s Captive Bra
The holy grail of nerdy sexpots, Princess Leia (and more specifically, the captive Princes Leia) steamed up the already muggy cave of Jabba the Hut with a metallic bra and matching loincloth.

3) The Push-Up Wonderbra
Advertised to “lift and separate” (do we really want the latter?), the first Wonderbra was born in the ’30s, but it wasn’t until the ’60s that the push-up model was introduced.

4) Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate
We’ve never attempted bribing anyone by flashing our brassiere (at least to our very sober recollections), but if we ever did, we’d re-watch the famous Anne Bancroft scene where the seductive Mrs. Robinson gets naughty in her Playtex.

6) Lil’ Kim’s Parading Pasty
As an exercise on liberal definitions, Lil’ Kim’s “bra” bounced and jiggled onto screen during the 1999 MTV Music Video Awards causing Diana Ross to give her squeeze of approval and a nation of television viewers’ jaws to drop straight to the ground.

5) Susan Sarandon in The Rocky Horror Picture Show
We’ve been to countless Rocky Horror Picture Show sing-a-longs, but no two-bit Susan Sarandon can mimic the subtle sexiness of Janet’s simple, white bra. Pure genius!

7) Britney’s Rolling Stone Cover
The then 17-year-old Britney had a lot to show for herself on her first magazine cover where, in pigtails and her iconic schoolgirl garb, she finally let the buttons—and her innocence—go. The rest, as they say, is history.

Victoria’s Secret 10-Million-Dollar Bra
Every year, Victoria’s Secret releases a Fantasy bra that looks like it dropped out of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry box; Covered entirely with diamonds, rubies, and other precious stores, each version is custom-designed by some of the best known jewelers in the business.

9) Brandi Chastain’s Sports Bra
Soccer-star Brandi Chastain’s game-winning kick in the 1999 Women’s World Cup gave the sports bra back its moment in the sun (literally). Why should guys hog all the whipping-my-victory-shirt-off fun?

10) Janet Jackson’s Nipple Snafu
We can’t be sure if Janet’s starburst nipple ring was a bra or not, but her inadvertent flashing at the hands of grab-happy Justin Timberlake might have been the best story of the bra that never was.

11) The Seinfeld Bro
Sometimes, the guys need a little support, too. An invention for Seinfeld’s Frank Costanza, The Bro (or Manssiere, if you will) provided that extra bit of male security for Frank’s extra bits of man.

Source & Credits: refinery29.com

Here is a little more footage from a local news station of Faith the wonderdog…

And because I found this videos commentary hilarious, check out this crazy rabbit, watch as it viciously attacks just like a predator…

Source & Credits

Lomatia tasmanica has proved very difficult to successfully propagate. (Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service)

• Video: Tasmania to protect ‘oldest living organism’ (The Midday Report)

Tasmanian scientists have cloned what is believed to be the world’s oldest living organism as part of a battle to save it from a deadly fungus.

The tree species commonly known as King’s Lomatia was first discovered in Tasmania’s remote south-west wilderness 70 years ago.

Carbon dating revealed the trees were more than 43,000 years old.

Botanist Natalie Tapson from the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens says the tree can only reproduce by cloning itself.

And she says all 500 stands of the tree – produced from one original plant – are under threat from the deadly root rot disease phytophthora, which is spreading rapidly through grass plains surrounding its habitat.

She says an insurance population is being established by creating clones through tissue cultures.

“When we first started we lost all the plants almost straight away,” she said.

“We now have about 20 plants in tissue culture that have survived for about eight months and we’re hopeful that we can keep tubing these on and get more and more plants that way.”

Source: CollegeHumor.com

The Spanish actress dropped her layers for ‘Broken Embraces’ that centres on a four-way tale of dangerous love, reports the Sun.

The Oscar-winner is reportedly seen topless as she lies back on a bed in the throes of passion.

The film, Cruz’s fourth with director Pedro Almodóvar, also stars Ángela Molina and Lola Dueñas.

Source & Credits: Zopag