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What a cool place to hang out: Zlata the contortionist gets herself into… A FRIDGE

ivana — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 20:46:30 +0000

At the age of four Zlata discovered she had an amazing talent – and she has been bending over backwards ever since to make the most of it. The Russian-born former gymnast, 24, is one of the world’s most extreme contortionists. At 5ft 9ins and weighing just eight and a half stone, Zlata spends most of her day working out and training for shows around the world.

In one of her favourite acts she bends herself backwards at a perfect 90 degree angle – virtually cutting herself in half so the back of her hands touch her heels. And she thinks nothing of casually pulling her legs up behind her and hooking them over her shoulders to land on the floor beside her hands. She can even squeeze herself into boxes just 50cms squared.

Zlata said: ‘Doing these poses just feels very natural to me. Sometimes it can get a bit uncomfortable if I have to hold a pose for a long time in photo shoots. But I think that’s like anyone who sits down for a long time – their muscles get stiff. ‘I don’t really diet but I have to train very hard to keep my muscles in shape and to be as flexible as possible.’

Zlata has a rare condition that makes all her tendons extremely pliable, allowing her to adopt seemingly back-breaking positions. But Zlata, who now lives in Germany, wasn’t always applauded for her contortionist ability. She first started experimenting with her talent after her pre-school teacher asked her to create a bridge – where you stand on your hands and feet with your back arched – and she outshone her classmates. She admits other girls her age were jealous of her and would pick on her at school. ‘In Russia being flexible is a very good thing to be because everyone is really into gymnastics,’ she explained. ‘Some of the other girls didn’t like how good I was.’

Zlata turned her back on gymnastics and joined an after school circus instead where she learnt the art of contortionism. She added: ‘As soon as I started doing it I was addicted and I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.’

Really Cool Illustrations Of Pirates

ivana — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:40:02 +0000

Another day we posted a really nice collection of zombies. Then Fabio and I started to talk about it, and we realized how cool it would be to have a pirate collection. Then after lots of research, I managed to find 20 illustrations worth of showing you guys.I’m not saying that there are only 20 cool pirate illustrations out there, but during my research at DeviantART, I realized how much people are bizarre. If you look for the word “pirate”, you’ll find all sorts of crazy, crazy stuff.

South Park Characters In Real Life

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:26:35 +0000

The South Park adventures of Stan, Kyle, Eric and Kenny becomes real life in these great art work portraits. It’s a brilliant art work than you’ve ever seen them in your video screen Normally, cartoon-to-reality makeovers don’t give as fine results, but for these, it’s a real transformation such that you can easily recognize all the characters if you are a real fan of South Park.

The group “humanish” depiction of what the characters of South Park would look like in real life is awesome; especially when the four brats and their parents appear together. In spite of many people out there complaining on how the characters give a picture of spoilt brats, the rendition here is adorable and real. You wouldn’t call these sketches or colors slapped on to make an artistic statement. No, it’s the real South Park gang saying something to the real world.

The coolest Aqua Forest aquarium with healthy plants and happy fish

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:58:22 +0000

Aquascaping styles

Dutch style aquascapes

The Dutch aquarium follows an orderly, often symmetrical arrangement, in which multiple types of plants having diverse leaf colors, sizes and textures are displayed much as terrestrial plants are shown in a flower garden. This style was developed in the Netherlands starting in the 1930’s, as freshwater aquarium equipment became commercially available. It emphasizes plants located on terraces of different heights, and frequently omits rocks and driftwood. Linear rows of plants running left-to-right are referred to as “Dutch streets.” Tall growing plants that cover the back glass originally served the purpose of hiding bulky equipment in the tank.

Nature style aquascapes

A contrasting approach is the nature or Japanese style, introduced in the 1990’s by Takashi Amano. Amano’s three-volume series, Nature Aquarium World, sparked a wave of interest in aquarium gardening, and he has been regarded as quite possibly the most influential aquascaper in the world. Amano’s compositions draw on Japanese gardening techniques that attempt to mimic natural landscapes by the asymmetrical arrangement of masses of relatively few species of plants, and carefully selected stones or driftwood. The objective is to evoke a landscape in miniature, rather than a colorful garden. This style draws particularly from the Japanese aesthetic concepts of Wabi-sabi, which focuses on transience and minimalism, and Iwagumi, which governs rock placement. Plants with small leaves are usually emphasized, with more limited colors than in the Dutch style, and fish or freshwater shrimp are usually selected to complement the plants and control algae.

Biotopes

The styles above often combine plant and animal species based on the desired visual impact, without regard to geographic origin. Biotope aquascapes are designed instead to replicate exactly a particular aquatic habitat at a particular geographic location, and not necessarily to provide a garden-like display. Plants and fish need not be present, but if they are, they as well as any gravel and hardscape must match what would be found in nature in the habitat being represented.

Paludariums

In a paludarium, part of the aquarium is underwater, and part is above water. This allows plants to grow emersed, with their roots underwater but their tops in the air, as well as completely submersed.

Saltwater reefs

Dutch and nature style aquascapes are traditionally freshwater systems. In contrast, relatively few ornamental plants can be grown in a saltwater aquarium. Saltwater aquascaping typically centers on mimicking a reef. An arrangement of live rock forms the main structure of this aquascape, and it is populated by corals and other marine invertebrates as well as coralline algae, which together serve much the same aesthetic role as freshwater plants.