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The Credit Card Of The Future

Published on 6:55 PM Category: Gadgets, Misc, Technology

I prefer using my bank card over physical cash and here’s why. With a card, I can’t view real-time data on my account usage. In a way I feel I can keep shopping all willy nilly without a care in the world and not feel guilty since I can’t see what it’s doing to my checking account – no doubt bleeding from my frivolous shopping trips.
Designer Jacob Palmborg’s solve for shopaholics like me is an RFID card linked to every account you have. A small interface indicates your own economic situation and forecasts what effects your purchases might have on your future economic status. The whole thing works wirelessly so no actual date is stored on the card. The card also has biometric security so only you can access it. This opens up the possibility of it being your driver’s license, student ID, passport, etc. Now if it only had customizable wallpapers, I’m sold!

Porsche Design Smartphone For Your Cellphone Wet Dreams!

Published on 6:49 PM Category: Gadgets, Misc, Technology

Conceptual plans are awesome especially if they promise you the moon! Here is what André luring you with, a Porsche Design Smartphone that is in slick aluminum, and a huge clean multi touch screen. The speaker is hidden out of sight between the glass and the aluminum body, to increase its aesthetic appeal and sound enhancement. The line at the bottom is the home and navigation button and the aluminum volume controls are housed to the left side.

A Quick video access button is hosted at the right side of the phone, giving you easy access to making great home videos. The back sports a dual camera system. You can use only one of the cams to take 5Mp photos and shoot 720p HD video with stereo sound quality, plus use the dual camera system to record 3D video and pictures. And of course, for low light situations there is a LED flash included!
Other specs include Android based system with custom apps developed by André. A 3,5mm audio jack and a sleep button on the top, and on the bottom there’s the battery charger and USB connecter as well.
All good on paper…like I said, a wet dream for the techie-lover in you!

Porsche Design Smartphone Concept by André Duarte Silva

Top 10 World’s Largest Sports Stadiums

Published on 10:00 PM Category: Misc, Sports, Top Ten

1. Rungnado May Day Stadium

Rungnado May Day Stadium or May Day Stadium, is largest stadium of the world. Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, completed on May 1, 1989. The stadium was constructed as a main stadium for the 13th edition of World Festival of Youth and Students in 1989. It is currently used for football matches, a few athletics matches, but most often for Arirang performances (also known as the Mass Games). The stadium can seat 150,000, which is the largest non-auto racing stadium capacity in the world. Its name comes from Rungra Island in the Taedong River, upon which it is situated, and May Day, the international day celebrating labour and particularly celebrated among communists. Its scalloped roof features 16 arches arranged in a ring, and it is said to resemble a parachute or a magnolia blossom.

This post features top ten largest sports stadiums of the world.

2. Salt Lake Stadium

Salt Lake Stadium The stadium is the second largest non-auto racing stadium in the world and the largest in the Indian sub-continent. It is currently used for football matches and athletics. The stadium was built in 1984 and holds 120,000 people in a three-tier configuration. It is situated approximately 10 km from the heart of the city. It is elliptical in shape. The roof is made of metal tubes and aluminum sheets and concrete. There are two electronic score boards and control rooms. The lighting is uniformly distributed to facilitate nocturnal sports. The stadium covers an area of 76.40 acres. It was inaugurated in January, 1984. The salient features of the stadium are unique synthetic track for athletic meets, electronic scoreboard, main football arena measuring 105m x 70m, elevators, VIP enclosures, peripheral floodlighting arrangement from the roof-top, air conditioned VIP rest room and Conference Hall.

3. Estadio Azteca Stadium

Estadio Azteca is a stadium in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the official home stadium of the Mexico national football team and the Mexican team Club América. Estadio Azteca was the primary venue for association football at the 1968 Summer Olympics and is the only stadium ever to host two FIFA World Cup final matches, in 1970 and 1986. It also hosted the 1986 quarter-final between Argentina and England in which Diego Maradona scored both the “Hand of God goal” and the “Goal of the Century”. The stadium also hosted the “Game of the Century”, when Italy defeated Germany with scores of 4-3 in extra time. Estadio Azteca Stadium is third largest in the world.

4. Michigan Stadium

Michigan Stadium nicknamed The Big House, is the football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Michigan Stadium has often been called “The Carnegie Hall of all Sports” and is also known as “the House that Yost built. It was built in 1927, at a cost of $950,000 and had an original capacity of 72,000. Before playing football at the stadium, the Wolverines played on Ferry Field. Today, Michigan Stadium has an official capacity of 106,201, due to renovations for the 2008 season. The stadium previously had a capacity of 107,501 spectators. The football game attendance often exceeds 111,000 when band members, stadium staff, and others are added. Michigan is 4th largest in stadium in the world.

5. Beaver Stadium

Beaver Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania, on the campus of The Pennsylvania State University. It is home to the Penn State Nittany Lions of the Big Ten Conference. Beaver Stadium has an official seating capacity of 107,282, making it currently the largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere and the 5th largest in the world.

6. Jornalista Mario Filho

Jornalista Mario Filho is an open-air stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Owned by the Rio de Janeiro State Government, it is named after the Maracanã neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro. It was opened in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup. Since then, it has mainly been used for football matches between the major football clubs in Rio de Janeiro, including Botafogo, Flamengo, Fluminense and Vasco da Gama. It has also hosted a number of concerts and other sporting events. Although the paid attendance at the final game of the 1950 FIFA World Cup was 199,854, the stadium currently seats 82,238 spectators. It is the largest stadium in South America and 6th largest stadium of the world. It is due to host the World Cup Final in the 2014 World Cup, becoming the second stadium to host football’s most important match twice after the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. The stadium will also be the centrepiece of the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics as the site of ceremonies and the football finals, besides the FIFA World Cup in 2014.

7. Ohio Stadium

Ohio Stadium is the home of the Buckeyes football team at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The stadium was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service on March 22, 1974. Ohio Stadium also provided a home to the Columbus Crew of the MLS from the league’s inception in 1996 until soccer-specific Columbus Crew Stadium opened in 1999. With a capacity of 102,329, it is the third largest stadium in the NCAA and the 7th largest non-racing stadium in the world. Ohio Stadium is also a concert venue; U2, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and Metallica are among the many acts who have played at Ohio Stadium.

8. Neyland Stadium

Neyland Stadium is a sports stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee. It serves primarily as the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several NFL exhibition games with the last between the Washington Redskins and Houston Oilers during the Oilers transition to Nashville in 1998. After 79 years and 16 expansion projects, Neyland Stadium peaked at an official maximum capacity of 104,079 seats. Capacity was reduced to 102,037 with the addition of the new East Club seats in 2006. Due to the addition of the new West Club seats in 2009, the capacity currently stands at 100,011. Neyland stadium is 8th largest stadium of the world.

9. National Stadium Bukit Jalil

National Stadium Bukit Jalil in Bukit Jalil, located in the National Sports Complex to the south of the capital city of Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, is a 87,411 capacity all-seater, multi-purpose stadium that was built in 1998 to host the 1998 Commonwealth Games. The stadium is considered the best stadium in Malaysia and is the home of the Malaysian football team. Initially built for the Commonwealth Games, the stadium is now used for a variety of events, most recently being one of the venues for the AFC Asian Cup 2007. National Stadium Bukit Jalil is 9th largest stadium of the world.

10. Melbourne Cricket Ground

Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park in inner Melbourne, home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the largest stadium in Australia, and holds the world record for the highest light towers at any sporting venue. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre, and is serviced by Richmond and Jolimont train stations. It is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct. Internationally, the MCG is remembered as the centrepiece stadium of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The open-air stadium is also one of the world’s most famous cricket venues, with the well-attended Boxing Day Test match commencing on Boxing Day every year. Throughout the winter, it serves as the home of Australian rules football, with at least one game (though usually more) held there each round. The Melbourne stadium is 10th largest stadium of the world.

source: wikipedia

Top Ten Largest Deserts in the World

Published on 9:58 PM Category: Misc, Top Ten, Travel

10. Kara-Kum Desert, Uzbekistan / Turkmenistan

The Karakum Desert, also spelled Kara-Kum and Gara Gum is a desert in Central Asia. It occupies about 70 percent, or 350,000 km², of the area of Turkmenistan. Covering much of present day Turkmenistan, the Karakum Desert lies east of the Caspian Sea, with the Aral Sea to the north and the Amu Darya river and the Kyzyl Kum desert to the northeast. In modern times, with the shrinking of the Aral Sea, the extended “Aral Karakum” has appeared on the former seabed, with an estimated area of 15,440 sq. The sands of the Aral Karakum are made up of a salt-marsh consisting of finely-dispersed evaporites and remnants of alkaline mineral deposits, washed into the basin from irrigated fields. The dusts blown on a powerful east-west airstream carry pesticide residues that have been found in the blood of penguins in Antarctica.

Image Credit: Marius Arnesen
Lets read about top ten world’s largest deserts.

9. Great Sandy Desert, Australia

The Great Sandy Desert is a 360,000 km2 (140,000 sq mi) expanse in northwestern Australia. Roughly the same size as Japan, it forms part of a larger desert area known as the Western Desert. The vast region of Western Australia is sparsely populated, without significant settlements. The Great Sandy Desert is a flat area between the rocky ranges of the Pilbara and the Kimberley. To the southeast is the Gibson Desert and to the east is the Tanami Desert. The Rudall River National Park and Lake Dora are located in the southwest while Lake Mackay is located in the southeast.

Image credit: yaruman5
8. Chihuahuan Desert, Mexico

The Chihuahuan Desert is a desert that straddles the U.S.-Mexico border in the central and northern portions of the Mexican Plateau, bordered on the west by the extensive Sierra Madre Occidental range, and overlaying northern portions of the east range, the Sierra Madre Oriental. On the U.S. side it occupies the valleys and basins of central and southern New Mexico, Texas west of the Pecos River and southeastern Arizona; south of the border, it covers the northern half of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, most of Coahuila, north-east portion of Durango, extreme northern portion of Zacatecas and small western portions of Nuevo León. It has an area of about 140,000 square miles. It is the third largest desert of the Western Hemisphere and is second largest in North America, after the Great Basin Desert.

Via: wikipedia
7. Great Basin Desert, USA

The Great Basin is the largest watershed of North America which does not drain to an ocean. Water within the Great Basin evaporates since outward flow is blocked. The basin extends into Mexico and covers most of Nevada and over half of Utah, as well as parts of California, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming. The majority of the watershed is in the North American Desert ecoregion, but includes areas of the Forested Mountain and Mediterranean California ecoregions. The Great Basin includes several metropolitan areas and Shoshone Great Basin tribes. A wide variety of animals can be found in great basin desert. Look to the rocky slopes around the desert mountain ranges, you may spot a very rare desert bighorn sheep. Other mammals of the desert include kit fox, coyote, skunk, black-tailed jackrabbit, ground squirrels, kangaroo rat and many species of mice. Bird species are very diverse in desert oases.

Via: wikipedia
6. Great Victoria Desert, Australia

The Great Victoria Desert is a barren, arid, and sparsely populated desert ecoregion in southern Australia. It falls inside the states of South Australia and Western Australia and consists of many small sandhills, grasslands and salt lakes. It is over 700 kilometres (430 mi) wide (from west to east) and covers an area of 424,400 square kilometres (163,900 sq mi). The Western Australia Mallee shrub ecoregion lies to the west, the Little Sandy Desert to the northwest, the Gibson Desert and the Central Ranges xeric shrublands to the north, the Tirari and Sturt Stony deserts to the east, and the Nullarbor Plain to the south separates it from the Southern Ocean.

Image credit: Travel Collective
5. Patagonia Desert, Argentina

The Patagonian Desert, also known as the Patagonia Desert or the Patagonian Steppe, is the largest desert in America and is the 7th largest desert in the world by area, occupying 260,000 square miles (673,000 km). It is located primarily in Argentina with small parts in Chile and is bounded by the Andes, to its west, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east, in the region of Patagonia, southern Argentina. The Patagonian Desert is the largest continental landmass of the 40° parallel and is a large cold winter desert, where the temperature rarely exceeds 12°C and averages just 3°C. The region experiences about seven months of winter and five months of summer.

Image credit: Melissa Toledo
4. Kalahari Desert, Southern Africa

The Kalahari Desert is a large arid to semi-arid sandy area in Southern Africa extending 900,000 square kilometers (350,000 sq), covering much of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, as semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains. The Kalahari Desert is the southern part of Africa, and the geography is a portion of desert and a plateau. The Kalahari supports some animals and plants because most of it is not a true desert. There are small amounts of rainfall and the summer temperature is very high. It usually receives 3–7.5 inches (76–190 mm) of rain per year. The surrounding Kalahari Basin covers over 2,500,000 square kilometers (970,000 sq mi) extending farther into Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, and encroaching into parts of Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The only permanent river, the Okavango, flows into a delta in the northwest, forming marshes that are rich in wildlife.

Via: wikipedia
3. Gobi Desert, Mongolia / N.E China

The Gobi is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the southwest, and by the North China Plain to the southeast. The Gobi is made up of several distinct ecological and geographic regions based on variations in climate and topography. This desert is the fifth largest in the world. The Gobi is most notable in history as part of the great Mongol Empire, and as the location of several important cities along the Silk Road.

Image Credit: PnP
2. Arabian Desert, peninsula

Arabian Desert or Eastern Desert, c.86,000 sq mi (222,740 sq km), E Egypt, bordered by the Nile valley in the west and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez in the east. It extends along most of Egypt’s eastern border and merges into the Nubian Desert in the south. The Arabian Desert is sparsely populated; most of its inhabitants are based around wells and springs. Today most of the desert can be accessed by roads. Since ancient times Egypt has used the porphyry, granite, limestone, and sandstone found in the desert mountains as building materials. Oil is produced in the north. The name Arabian Desert is also commonly applied to the desert of the Arabian Peninsula.

Image Credit: Nick Leonard
1. Sahara Desert, North Africa

The Sahara is the world’s largest desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometers (3,500,000 sq mi), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe. The desert stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean. To the south, it is delimited by the Sahel: a belt of semi-arid tropical savanna that comprises the northern region of central and western Sub-Saharan Africa.

Via: wikipedia

The 14 Worst Travel Destinations of the World

Published on 9:57 PM Category: Misc, Top Ten, Travel

1. Republic of Sierra Leone

This West African country has been plagued by foreign invaders, deep-seeded corruption and years of civil war.

Flipside: cheap diamonds, great football team and cool national flag?

Here is the list of world’s worst destinations. We advice you to think twice if you are going to travel through these.

2. Belarus

Seventy percent of the radiation fallout from the Chernobyl disaster in neighbouring Ukraine spilled over into Belarus, leaving a fifth of its total land unsafe.

Flipside: ancient castles and churches, mysterious beauty and value for the Belarusian rouble?

3. Republic of Iraq

Iraq is dubbed ‘the world’s second most unstable country’ (after Sudan). Flipside: amazing history and not a lot of other tourists?

4. Republic of Haiti

Succession dictators and dishonest politicos have ensured this place is the least developed country in the Americas.

Flipside: voodoo priestesses, colonial-era hotels and a tropical paradise?

5. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Brutal civil wars have torn the nation to pieces since the late ’70s and currently two-thirds of the population live on less than US$2 a day.

Flipside: natural beauty, friendly people and spring equinox festival?

6. The Chechen Republic

Widespread lawlessness and ethnic cleansing should be enough to keep you away from Chechnya.

Flipside: eerie backdrop and a sense of Renaissance?

7. Republic of the Congo
Hotels and the international airport are some of the most dangerous places in all of the Congo.
Flipside: gorilla spotting, balmy weather and lack of expats?

8. Central African Republic
Though it is one of the poorest countries in the world, you’ll have to budget substantially for bribes when holidaying in the CAR.
Flipside: pristine forests and tropical climate?

9. Georgia
Georgia might best be avoided just about now. About 68,000 ethnic Georgians are believed to have fled from their homes in August 2008 alone.
Flipside: stunning mountain scenery, ancient villages and a hotchpotch of cultures?

10. Union of Myanmar (Burma)

Burma has borne quite a burden in recent years. The crippling hands of a military junta has squashed political dissenters arguing for freedom, and Mother Nature has been just as harsh on the Burmese, throwing cyclones and tsunamis their way as well.

Flipside: lovely locals, temples of Bagan and dilapidated colonial seaside resorts?

11. Newark, New Jersey, USA

Dubbed ‘the most dangerous city in America’ for two years running in the ’90s, it’s estimated that the murder rate has dropped in recent years due to the thick haze of pollution keeping would-be attackers indoors.
Flipside: gateway to NYC and tax-free shopping?

12. Republic of Niger
If you’re looking for a temperate climate and ocean breezes, steer clear of Niger. Most of the country has been subsumed into the inhospitable Sahara Desert.

Flipside: awesome sand dunes, combination of French colonial and Islamic cultures and desert oases?

13. Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea

North Korea has the worst human rights record of any nation — about one in 100 North Koreans have reported torture, starvation, rape, medical experimentation, forced labour and forced abortions in detention camps.
Flipside: mass games and Kim Jong Il cult worship?

14. Timber Creek, Northern Territory, Australia

Timber Creek bears a striking resemblance to Wolf Creek; you won’t want to spend a night here, let alone an entire week!
Flipside: proximity to Victoria River?