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While most Starbucks coffee shops follow a template for their architectural style, this Starbucks in Japan features a custom-made design. Architects at Kengo Kuma and Associates set out to form a unique looking cafe for the well-known brand, while maintaining its identity and complementing its surroundings.

Located in Fukuoko Prefecture, on the path to one of the most major Shinto shrines in the nation, Dazaifu Tenmagu, the architects sought to combine traditional and contemporary motifs to refrain from disturbing the aesthetic flow of the environment. As such, the shop provides a very natural setting.


Using the extended limbs of trees and ceremonial lumber structures as inspiration, this branch of the chain coffee shop utilizes wood and highlights 6cm stretched square blocks, appearing like bundles of interwoven sticks.

The intertwining planks reflect a striking resemblance to a nest, adding to the eco-friendly aura. In addition to the 2,000+ wooden batons that line the establishment's interiors walls and ceiling, the organic ambience is heightened with a strip of planted reeds at the entrance.

Some of the ideas are awesome.. Why they reject these stuff??

Hungary hosted what the organizers claimed to be Europe's first ever beauty pageant - Miss Colours Hungary - for the differently-abled contestants in Budapest Saturday.
The pageant was held almost four decades after the first Ms. Wheelchair America pageant was held (in 1973). Katalin Eszter Varga (26) won the contest, followed by Edina Melnyik in the second place and Marietta Laura Molnar in the third place. Varga, a saleswoman, was crowned by fashion model Szilvia Magony for winning the Miss Colours Hungary title.
Following this win, Varga will raise awareness of the wheelchair's successes, achievements and the importance of accessibility, as an ambassador for a year.



"The beauty contest is to show that the wheelchair is especially important for women of beauty and femininity, and the wheelchair ladies are beautiful, attractive, feminine, so there is no reason to consider them differently than healthy counterparts," the organizers said.
The pageant's jury took into account the contestants' personality, their overall look, vocation and communication skills before deciding on the winners.

Picked from NetEase

On February 18, over 50 couples competed in a kissing contest in Hefei, Anhui province, for a chance to win a one-karat diamond ring worth 50,000 yuan. During the process, several young women collapsed from hanging on for longer than their bodies can bear. Eventually, a young couple who locked lips for for 2 hours and 43 minutes won the prize.

Surprises Galore at the London Fashion Week 2012

London designers' innovative ideas and surprise presentations continued to galore at the London Fashion Week on Tuesday. Robyn Cole, the young Welsh milliner, chose a different platform to showcase the Autumn/Winter 2012 collection of hats. She chose nude models and pregnant beauties to present her creations.



Pregnant glamour model Sophia Cahill and other nude models, including a 50-year-old grey-haired, showcased the hats from Robyn's Autumn/ Winter 2012 collection at the White Rabbit Studio. Earlier, designer Stella McCartney used the flash mob concept in presenting the creations when her models suddenly appeared and started moving amidst a sit down dinner.

By Kim Jung Su, Yoon Ji Soo & Kim Dong Hwan

One of the reasons why my mother can never use the tub for a bath is that her acute arthritis and four lower limb joint replacements restrict her movement. With the Flume Tub I'm sure she will be able to just walk into the bath and use it confidently.


The tub works on the principles of a seesaw and is built keeping the safety of people with restricted movements in mind. Awesome!

RIP

Brazil Carnival 2012

Dazzling costumes and elaborate floats continued to mesmerise the onlookers as the dancers kept on performing on the second night of Rio's iconic Sambadrome on Monday.
Several Samba schools paraded their lavishly costumed dancers to get the top honour, the Carnival Champion title. Up to 13 Samba schools are competing for the title which is to be decided on Wednesday.




Major Samba schools such as Salgueiro, Mangueira and Unidos da Tijuca are among the contenders for the title at the Rio Carnival, termed as the "the greatest show on Earth".
The carnival is expected to create 250,000 jobs and revenues of $640 million for hotels, bars and restaurants, according to the government estimates.

EducAtion AgAin!!

Forget the YouTube videos. If you want a real dose of cute cat, book a flight with Taiwan airline EVA Air.
The carrier has recently launched three Hello Kitty-themed aircraft [Chinese language], on which everything from the fuselage to the
flight attendants to the food is kitted out in the kawaii cat brand's images.
Passengers have been purring with delight, according to Anna Wong, an EVA Air public relations officer in Hong Kong.

A gay couple celebrated Valentine's Day by breaking the world record for the longest ever kiss after managing to keep their lips locked together for an incredible 50 hours, 25 minutes and one seconds. Nontawat Jaroegenasornsin, 31, and his partner Thanakorn Sittiamthong, 28, beat the previous winners of the Guinness World Record longest continuous kisstoday by just over four hours.

They were one of just seven Thai couples to enter the annual Ripley's Believe It or Not longest kissing challenge in the resort town of Pattaya, Thailand, which started on Sunday.

Competing couples had to keep their lips locked throughout the contest - even during bathroom breaks, eating meals and drinking through a straw.
The toilet is off-limits for the first three hours of the contest but after that, lips still together, they must be accompanied by a referee for any bathroom breaks.

JERKKKKKK....

Red indiAn cAt!!

The native american teepee for fluffy little critters by loyal luxe, canada

Cute really...

Lets get high!!

The National Museum of Organized Crime & Law Enforcement, or the Mob Museum for short, opened to the public on Tuesday after five years of work, $42 million in public funding and generous donations of gangster artifacts -- some from people who prefer to remain anonymous.

In about 17,000 square feet of exhibits, including the brick wall that absorbed bullets aimed at seven mobsters in Chicago's infamous 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the museum attempts to tell "both sides of the story" of organized crime in America, and how it came to shape Las Vegas.
The stately downtown building that houses the museum was part of that story. A former federal courthouse, it was one of 14 sites for the 1950-51 Kefauver Committee hearings, a Senate investigation into the mob and its influence on the nation's economic, political and cultural life.

At the entrance to the repurposed site, a black and white photo half the size of a billboard hangs to the left. It's of a toe, with a white tag. The tag reads: "Homicide. Benjamin Siegel. 810 Linden. Beverly Hills."
That would be "Bugsy" Siegel, the gangster figure familiar to many through Warren Beatty's portrayal of him in the 1991 film, "Bugsy,"
about the mob's role in the birth of the Las Vegas Strip.
So begins the journey the Mob Museum takes visitors on, an arc from the 1930s to the 1980s, when organized crime was defined by family and ethnic affiliation, and law enforcement and the justice system evolved as institutions focused on curbing its influences.
Along the way are displays of Prohibition-era whiskey flasks and Kennedy-era FBI wiretaps. There is also a page from Meyer Lansky's accounting ledger and suits worn by fictional HBO mob boss Tony Soprano.
One section explains the "Web of Deceit" woven by the mob in its heyday, influencing U.S. national elections and Cuba's Fidel Castro.

The courtroom where the Kefauver hearings took place has been restored, complete with the original wooden benches from the hearing room and a film that takes visitors back to 1950.
Curator Kathleen Hickey Barrie and her husband, Dennis Barrie, developed the museum's exhibits. The two have long careers that include working on the International Spy Museum in Washington.
Hickey Barrie said locating the museum in Las Vegas was an obvious choice. "Having it here makes it more interesting than if it was in New York or Chicago, two places it easily could have been. Here is where you have this turn in history from bootlegging to mobsters creating places that people from all over the world wanted to come to," she said. "It is about Las Vegas, but I really think it's a national story," Hickey Barrie added.

The idea for the museum originated with Oscar Goodman, who made a national name for himself -- and a fortune -- as a defense attorney for Meyer Lansky, Tony Spilotro and other figures from the world of organized crime.
As mayor of Las Vegas from 1999 to 2011, Goodman often appeared at official events with a martini glass in one hand and a showgirl hanging off each arm. His City Hall office overlooked the former courthouse where he had once argued on behalf of his notorious clients.
Goodman, like the museum, and like Las Vegas itself, could easily be taken as a bizarre, sensational lark. But historian Michael Green, who served as a consultant on the project, says that would be a mistake.
"Ideally," he said, "the museum will help people understand better where Las Vegas comes from, and where they come from." At the same time, he allowed, "They'll also go away thinking, 'Only in Las Vegas could there be a museum like this.'"

The Japanese art of raising bonsai trees is a beautiful way to infuse greenery into indoor spaces. But artist Takanori Aiba takes the art to a new level with his incredibly intricate series of bonsai castles. The Japanese artist carves miniature masterpieces that weave in and out of the miniature trees, creating cohesive architectural marvels that burst forth with life!

Treating each tiny Bonsai as if it were a deep-rooted full-sized tree, Aiba creates incredible buildings that wind around the boughs and branches.

Using copper line, epoxy putty, plastic, resin and stone clay, he fashions detailed buildings, bridges, balconies and towers. Using the bonsai trees as the foundation, the dioramas are inspired by the unique shape of each tree, creating both vertical and horizontal landscapes and buildings.

Aiba's first few creations relied heavily on the function of the bonsai as a tree. The plants hold tree houses, and the leafy branches of the bonsai poke out of the tops and cascade to the floor. Each branch is adorned with patios, umbrellas, and tiny strings of lights, creating an incredible dwelling for a miniature Swiss Family Robinson.