April 2010

Friday, April 23, 2010

Whitsunday Island - The whitest beach in the world

The Whitsunday Islands are a group of 74 islands that lie off the coast of Queensland, Australia and form part of the Great Barrier Reef. The islands are one of the most popular Australian tourist destinations. The vast majority of islands are designated national parks and major attractions include access to coral reefs for snorkeling and diving, pristine beaches, especially Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island and clear aquamarine warm waters. They are well connected by two major airports on Hamilton Island and the mainland town of Proserpine. Over half a million visitors come to the Whitsundays each year.

Whitehaven Beach is a definite “must-see” in the Whitsundays. The crystal clear aqua waters and pristine silica sand of Whitehaven stretch over seven kilometres along Whitsunday Island , the largest of the 74 islands in the Whitsundays. It defines nature at its best and provides the greatest sense of relaxation and escape.

As soon as you arrive it’s easy to see why it is the most photographed beach in Australia and has been named ” Queensland ’s Most Beautiful Beach” by ‘Keep Australia Beautiful’, a title that has never before been bestowed upon a beach in Queensland , and may never be again.

The Whitsunday Islands are a collection of continental islands of various sizes off the central coast of Queensland, Australia, situated between just south of Bowen and to the north of Mackay, some 900 kilometres (560 mi) north of Brisbane. The island group is centred on Whitsunday Island, while the group's commercial centre is Hamilton Island.

Whitehaven beach,not only for its beautiful white sand, clear waters and serenity.The beach is so pristine and untouched that the sand just makes you want to lay in it all day. Definitely worth a trip to the whitsundays just to see this beach, dont let life go by without seeing it!

Some of the useful websites for Whitsundays Tourism are given below.

http://www.whitsundaytourism.com/
http://www.whitsundays.com.au/

http://www.daydreamisland.com/
http://wikitravel.org/en/Whitsunday_Islands
http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au/destinations/whitsundays/whitsundays_home.cfm

Here are some of the pics of Whitehaven beach..

Whitsunday Island - The whitest beach in the world

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Friday, April 16, 2010

Amazing Sculptures Made of Playing Cards -- Outstanding work by Bryan Berg

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Bryan Berg is a professional "cardstacker" who builds houses of cards on a very large scale. he born in 1975.He trained as an architect,He is the only known person to make a living building structures with freestanding playing cards.He uses no tape, glue, or tricks, and his method has been tested to support 660 lbs. per square foot.
His Official Website is http://www.cardstacker.com/

Berg earned a Professional Degree in Architecture from Iowa State University in 1997, and served on the design faculty there for three years.In 2004, Berg earned his Master of Design Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Berg has stacked cards for corporate special events, public relations campaigns, and science and children's museums in many U.S. cities, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Berg's clients have included Walt Disney World, a Lexus commercial, Procter & Gamble, American major league baseball and hockey, and the San Francisco Opera among others.

Amazing Sculptures Made of Playing Cards -- Outstanding work by Bryan Berg

Disney’s Cinderella Castle

In 2004, Berg created a 15-foot replica of Disney World's Cinderella Castle. Over the course of 30 days, he used 3,000 decks to build this Magical Kingdom of cards, which set the Guinness World Record for the World's Largest House of Freestanding Playing Cards.

New York City Skyline

In February 2005, Berg joined forces with “Decked Out in Times Square,” an on-air tsunami relief fundraiser, for which he spent 10 days at the ABC Studios in New York’s Times Square to build this structure. The piece, which is made up of 178,000 cards, features landmarks including the Flatiron Building, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building.

Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas

Though Berg doesn't typically use any "trickery" (adhesives), he did in 2006 to recreate this famous sign, which was commissioned by Loctite and displayed at the 2006 World Series of Poker. The materials he used include playing cards, dice, poker chips, wood and Loctite Control Gel Super Glue. The completed project weighed over 600 pounds.

Rhode Island State House

In 2007, Berg—who was introduced to "cardstacking" by his grandfather—created this piece in three days using 22,000 cards (that’s more than 407 decks). Watch this video to see Berg build the structure in fast-forward.

The Bravery

In 2007, Berg appeared with The Bravery in their music video for the song "Time Won't Let Me Go.” He built several freestanding elements of the "card world" featured in the clip.

Dallas Art Museum

In 2007, using 1,000 decks of cards, Berg broke his own Guinness World Record for The World's Tallest House of Freestanding Playing Cards by building this tower, which stands over 25 feet tall. See him in action here.

Beijing Olympic Village

In 2008, Berg—who uses a strategic four-card cell structure he calls "grids" to arrange his cards—built a replica of the Beijing Olympic Village in 20 days using 140,000 playing cards. Watch Berg build the village replica.

Keycard Hotel

In 2009, the Holiday Inn completed its twelve-hundredth hotel as part of a $1 billion relaunch. To celebrate, they commissioned Berg to construct a life-size hotel room, lobby and furniture, for which he used 200,000 cards. This was the second project of Berg's career for which he used glue. He was also featured in this Holiday Inn commercial.

Lexus City

In 2009, Lexus commissioned Berg to build an "any-city skyline" on the roof and surrounding a running Lexus ES to demonstrate the smoothness of the new model's engine. Berg worked on the project for three weeks and used 64,800 cards. Watch the commercial.

Venetian Macao

In 2010, this 33' x 10', 218,792-card replica of the Macao, China, luxury resort—which Berg built in 44 days—beat out his own Cinderella Castle as the World's Largest House of Freestanding Playing Cards.

Some videos of his work