source site - Dark Roasted Blend: Hilarious & Crazy Signage, Part 12

We all hope that New Year will bring us good tidings - as we routinely look around for signs to either confirm or dampen our hopes.

Most of the signs around us are uniformly boring, but then a gem comes along: spawned by the burst of local idiocy, or perhaps, by the glimmer of unintentional brilliance!

many times you wish that signs tell you something useful like the correct directions, warnings etc... but from time to time, a witty sign is what you may need in one of those long boring drives.

source site - 10 Most Unique Lakes of our World - Oddee.com (largest lakes, beautiful lakes...)

Crater Lake (USA)

The Plitvice Lakes are a series of sixteen lakes interconnected by spectacular waterfalls, set in a deep woodland and populated by deers, bears, wolves, boars and rare bird species. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the lakes are renowned for their distinctive colours, ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colours change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle of sunlight.

Plitvice Lakes (Croatia)

these are some of the most amazing sceneries on the planet. what a wonderful world we live in.

source site - Dark Roasted Blend: Astounding Japanese Highways, Bridges and Interchanges

Japan saw most of its infrastructure bombed back to the stone age in the final years of World War II, which makes the country's post-war rejuvenation all the more astounding. Huge, complex public works projects saw a concrete & steel web of highways, bridges and interchanges blossom from the wreckage of war.

Today, shaped by the demands of restrictive space and economic boom & bust, Japan's hardened transportation arteries display artistic forms that go far beyond their functions.

Japan - because of the high population and limited land area - has some of the world's most amazing sights when i comes to road systems. their roads tends to go upwards and will often stack upon each other. i wonder if middle ring road 2 issues are commonplace there.

check this out.

source site - Digg - Who in their right mind lives here? (zoom out)

they have an online newspaper website here: http://www.tristantimes.com/

a bit more about what tristan da cunha is about....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_da_Cunha

Tristan da Cunha (pronounced /ˈtrɪstən də ˈkuːnə/) is a remote volcanic group of islands in the south Atlantic Ocean, 2,816 km (1,750 miles) from South Africa and 3,360 km (2,088 miles) from South America. It is a dependency of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, 2,430 km (1,510 miles) to the north.

The territory consists of the main island, Tristan da Cunha (area: 98 km², 38 sq mi), as well as several uninhabited islands: Inaccessible Island and the Nightingale Islands. Gough Island (area: 91 km², 35 sq mi), situated 395 km (245 mi) southeast of the main island, is also considered part of the territory.

Tristan da Cunha is the most remote archipelago in the world.

and where to find it on google maps.... zoom out for great effect...

source site - Kung Fu Panda is a Remake of Star Wars | AlwaysWatching.org

Apparently there's a Kung Fu Panda sequel currently in the works. I'm very curious to see where the story can possibly go from here, seeing as how Kung Fu Panda was essentially an extremely condensed version of Episodes I-VI of the Star Wars series. Don't believe me? See for yourself.

really? but then again, any mystical martial arts film has some form of common story plot. they all somehow would involve an inexperienced outsider who through some twist of fate needs to acquire some skills pronto. they tend to always tutor with a wise master who is trying to make amends for training another protege who went to the "dark side"...

what do you think?

source site - Study: Facebook generation learning skills - UPI.com

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Dec. 26 (UPI) -- Some parents worry children waste time online, texting or playing video games but a U.S. researcher found these activities provide social skills and learning.

Florida State University's Lisa Tripp, a member of a team of researchers who completed an extensive qualitative study on U.S. youth media use, supervised research and data collection at several Los Angeles middle schools that serve primarily low-income Latino youth.

The researchers found that most young people associate with people they already know in their offline lives through school or sports, but cell phones, instant messaging and social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook allow them to be in nearly constant touch.

A smaller number of young people also use the online world to find information they may not have access to and to connect with people who share specialized interests in activities, such as online gaming, creative writing, video editing or other artistic endeavors.

whatever your views on social networks, the internet and the likes of facebook and myspace - good or bad - one thing's for sure is that our lives in the future will certainly be very different from what it is now.

source site - Wear your seatbelts, or face a summons

PETALING JAYA: The Road Transport Department (JPJ) and police will start issuing summons from Jan 1 to all passengers not wearing their seatbelts.

JPJ director-general Datuk Solah Mat Hassan said vehicle owners and passengers would be given a six-month grace period where they would only be issued a fine of RM300 for not wearing their belts.

From July 1, drivers and passengers caught not using their seatbelts would be issued a summons where they have to pay a fine of up to RM2,000, serve up to one year’s jail or both under the Road Transport Act 1987, Solah said.

so folks - buckle up! but there will be challenge for large families.... so Hyundai Starex - here we come!

source site - Trouble in paradise

Terengganu’s Perhentian Islands are “arguably the most beautiful islands in Malaysia,” so says the Lonely Planet guide. Though the islands have dodged major developments so far, they are starting to creak under the strain of burgeoning tourist arrivals.

Though repeat visitors to Perhentian like the Addingtons think the islands haven’t changed dramatically compared to destinations like Redang and Tioman, they are starting to notice the effects from the increasing tourist arrivals and new resorts.

it would be very sad if polution and environmental damage happens in perhentian. i found the place extremely beautiful but starting to become overused. i do hope that something is done very quickly to address the issues there.

what do you think?

source site - Men enjoy computer games 'because of basic urge to conquer' - Telegraph

Playing on computer consoles activates parts of the male brain which are linked to rewarding feelings and addiction, scans have shown. The more opponents they vanquish and points they score, the more stimulated this region becomes.

In contrast, these parts of women's brains are much less likely to be triggered by sessions on the Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii or Xbox.

Professor Allan Reiss of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research at Stanford University, California, who led the research, said that women understood computer games just as well as men but did not have the same neurological drive to win.

hmmm... i always thought it was for the fun of bashing things in mindlessly.

source site - The picture perfect storm: Photographs capture the terrifying beauty of clouds gathering over Greenland | Mail Online

These incredible photographs look more like a scene from the end of the world than a winter sunrise.

The dramatic pictures were taken in north west Greenland by British Arctic photographers Bryan and Cherry Alexander and show a storm brewing over an Inuit community.

these pictures are must see in their awesomeness. the rolling clouds look almost like thick blankets covering the world... like a portent for doom.