Coffee Break

The world's first refrigerated beach is to be built at a luxury hotel in Dubai so the filthy rich holidaymakers don't burn their feet on the scalding hot sand.

The revolutionary beach will sit next to the new Palazzo Versace hotel and will include a system of heat-absorbing pipes built under the sand and giant wind blowers, designed to keep tourists cool in the searing 40-50C heat.

The hotel, which is due to open late next year or early 2010, will be controlled by thermostats linked up to computers and feature a cooled swimming pool.


However, the plans have been criticised by campaigners who are infuriated by the potential impact on climate change.

Rachel Noble, of Tourism Concern, said: 'Dubai is like a bubble world where the things that are worrying the rest of the world, like climate change, are simply ignored so people can continue destructive lifestyles.'

The lavish project will enhance Dubai's appeal to the celebrity jet-set and increase competition to a region that already houses the world's first seven-star hotel, the Burj Al Arab.

Luxury: The first Palazzo Versace hotel in Australia. The second luxury hotel is set to open in Dubai late next year

However, the city's continued expansion will also add to its huge carbon footprint. Each person living in Dubai has a carbon footprint of more than 44 tons of CO2 a year.

Despite the environmental fears, Versace says the beach will be environmentally sustainable.

Soheil Abedian, president of Palazzo Versace, said: 'We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on. This is the kind of luxury that top people want.'

A source added: 'The super rich want pure luxury. They don't want to walk on scalding sand.'

A British firm, Hyder Consulting will oversee the project, and it is hoped the 10-storey hotel will help attract some of the 800,000 Brits who visit Dubai each year.

There is already one Palazzo Versace hotel, operating on Australia's Gold Coast, which has attracted the rich and famous. Fifteen more hotels are in the pipeline.

source >> [Daily Mail Reporter]

The replica has been built by a Bangladeshi filmmaker.

Ahsanullah Moni said he wanted his countrymen to experience the beauty of the Indian monument even if they were too poor to travel to see the original.

The 17th Century Taj was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his beloved queen, Mumtaz Mahal.

The emperor is buried next to his queen in the monument in the northern Indian city of Agra, which is visited by millions every year.

The $58m (£39m) replica has been built in Sonargaon, a small town in the Bangladeshi countryside.

'Marble and diamonds'

Mr Moni, who is a successful director of Bangladeshi films, says he hopes his replica, which has been built an hour's drive from the capital Dhaka, will also attract foreign visitors.

It took 20 years and 20,000 workers to build the original Taj.

Thanks to modern technology, construction of Mr Moni's Taj has taken five years and fewer people.

But it has been neither easy nor cheap.

Mr Moni says he has imported marble and granite from Italy and diamonds from Belgium.

Architects were sent to India to copy the dimensions of the original.

Work on the surrounding grounds and ponds has still not been completed.

Only then will Bangladeshis be able to judge whether Mr Moni has truly copied the beauty and purity of the original Taj Mahal.

source [BBC news]

This is the world’s first and only digital camera and swim mask in one. Designed for underwater photography, it is safely attached to your swim mask. The scheme enables you to swim freely while you take pictures underwater.

The camera boasts a 5-megapixel lens and it can take pictures up to a depth of 15 feet (4.6 meters). The camera is capable of taking both still images and videos. This camera swim mask is perfect for summer snorkels and ordinary swimming pool day.

Durable tempered glass makes up the camera swim mask’s eyes piece. It also has crosshairs that serve as the camera’s viewfinder. The only thing that the underwater photographer needs to do is to look and shoot. It is even easier than taking pictures in land as through this camera, you don’t have to worry about camera shakes other photography rules and standards.

There is also an LED indicator inside the mask informs you if you are in video or picture mode. Images can be downloaded to your PC or Mac thru the USB port. It has a 16 MB (expandable) storage that can store up to 30 high resolution images or equivalent to a 52-second video. The Digital Camera Swim Mask needs two AAA batteries to operate.

source [The China Post]

(CNN) -- Zimbabwe's troubled central bank introduced $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy. The bills officially come into circulation Monday, although they were on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday.

As high as they are, though, the bills still aren't enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can buy only four oranges.

The new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar

Kipnis' outer limits theater, or what $6 million will buy.

When it comes to home theaters, I thought I'd seen it all. But nothing's come close to this. First, I'm going to try to describe the sheer magnitude of Jeremy Kipnis' theater. His Stewart Snowmatte laboratory-grade screen is the biggest I've ever seen in a home, and in the back of the theater, there's a Sony ultra-high-resolution (4,096-by-2,160) SRX-S110 digital projector. I'm looking everywhere, jotting down questions, and Kipnis sounds almost giddy talking about his theater's capabilities. He refers to his baby, the Kipnis Studio Standard (KSS), as "The Greatest Show on Earth." And from the looks of it, he may be right.

Partial Equipment List for the Kipnis Studio Standard Beta CinE:

Picture Elements:
Sony SRX-S110 Professional Video Projector
Stewart 18-by-10-foot Snowmatte 1.0 Gain Laboratory-Grade Motion Picture Screen

Players and Sources:
Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray Player
Sony PlayStation 3 Gaming Console
Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD Player
JVC HMDH-5U D-VHS Recorder
SATA Drive (72 HDTV Hours Total)
Mark Levinson N° 51 DVD/CD Media Player
Pioneer HLD-X0 Hi-Vision HDTV MUSE Laserdisc Player

Surround Processing and Decoding:
Theta Digital Generation VIII 32-bit 8x Oversampling Dual Processors (13)

Amplification:
Mark Levinson N° 33h Amplifiers (2)
McIntosh MC-2102 Amplifiers (30)
Crown Macro Reference Gold Amplifiers (3)

Speakers:
Snell 1800 THX Music & Cinema Reference Subwoofers (16)
Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference Towers (8)
MuRata ES103A Super Tweeters (10)
Snell THX Music & Cinema Reference LCR-2800 Center-Channel Speakers (3)

for a full review and more photos...
source [Link]