Just for fun post a non-porn pic.

[wit_afrika]

Last Sunday morning I had breakfast with a friend at Sandton Mall before moving outdoors for a drink at one of the restaurants on Nelson Mandela Square. Unfortunately there was not much time for exploring the entire area and taking pics. I had to eventually make my way to the airport to return home.

The wealthiest spot on the African continent...Sandton lies in northern Johannesburg and has become the new financial centre of South Africa.

The 6-metre bronze statue of the former president Nelson Mandela. A small orchestra plays on the balcony in the background.

One of the many new highrisers in the area is the Michelangelo Towers. A local newspaper reports that the top-selling penthouse apartment was sold for R28 million (around $5 million)

 

[buttons]

As you've mentioned before, the Chinese really seem to have a "thing" for the vibrant red of the lanterns--- that makes me wonder if the tower was originally that color and faded, with succeeding generations preserving the faded, rather than the original, color.

I don't know if there is an architectural term for it, but I love the drama of great buildings that you really can't see as you approach them--- then suddenly you round a corner, pass through a gate or come to the end of a narrow street, and there they are, laid out all at once in their full glory. The Taj Mahal and St. Peter's basilica come to mind.

Funny that red in China and especially the lanterns. I don't like lanterns like that when I see them here but they look so natural there and I love the way they guided us towards the tower.

I'll let you know some more of the history of the tower sometime soon. It originated in the year 223 AD and was originally an military outpost, over the centuries it has undergone a number of changes in appearance (5 to be exact) and has been destroed and rebuilt just as often.

Surprisingly the tower you see here is only 26 years old. The previous version was destroyed in 1884 and it 100 years to rebuild it. There were many times when Wuhan's rulers planned to do so but social unrest and lack of funds meant it took untill 1955, when Chairman Mao Zedong came to Wuhan asking what happened to Yellow Crane and why hasn't it been rebuilt yet? before some more headway was made.

But then it was postponed once more because of social unrest (The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution) till finally in 1981 the money was there, the Chairman had already given his blessing and it was rebuilt using modern materials but in the same manner as the craftsmen of ancient times.
While they were at it they made it bigger and taller as well, adding another floor.

For some reason Yellow Crane Tower has lived in the hearts of the Chinese for those 100 years and their cries for a rebuild were finally rewarded.

As far as I can tell it has been yelllow since it got the name Yellow Crane Tower (more on that story later).

 

[buzzj]

Some great faces...

A nun reacts outside a monastery near Sukhumi, the capital of the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia

A participant pulls a face during the Gay Pride Parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Colombian police officer José Garcia cries during his final training in Facatativa, near Bogota

A Wayuu woman smiles in a beauty contest during the Festival of the Wayuu Culture in Uribia, Colombia

 

[wit_afrika]

10 stadiums (either renovated or brand new) will be hosting FIFA World Cup games in 2010.
Even though it's just under 3 years to the event, all is apparently on track.

The site of the new stadium in Durban

The site of the new stadium in Cape Town

 

[tx_doc]

Say hello to my little friend. This guy was sitting on the stairs outside of my place when I came home from work.

 

[wit_afrika]

^ Hello little friend

 

[D-Base]

"Raiskoto praskalo" waterfall in Stara Planina mountain (Bulgaria)

 

[buzzj]

Say hello to my little friend. This guy was sitting on the stairs outside of my place when I came home from work.

That's a great picture docinaustin! Hello, birdie!!

 

[buzzj]

A traditional Chinese architectural dragon head stands against the sky as the moon rises in the Jiayuguan Pass Town, China.

A night view of Shenyang Stadium, one of the five football venues for the 2008 Olympic Games

A chef hangs slaughtered ducks at a restaurant in Kunming, China

A boy poses for a photo in front of graffiti featuring Chinese sport stars Liu
Xiang and Yao Ming in Changchun, China

 

[cisco_teen]

All of the pictures presented here are very remarkable and facinating in their own, special way.

Some depict foreign landscapes, strange places that reflect the cultural diversity of the human race, past and present.

Others remind us of the simple things in life, and how something so commonplace can also be beautiful.

For my post here, i submit something a little different from your average photograph. These images were not taken by a camera and film, in fact, no visible light was used at all.

These images are 3-dimensional reconstructions of CT scans. Using x-rays, these images of the human body were made without even a scratch on the patient. Here we see the complexity of the ordinary, for all of us viewing these have the same things inside of us:

Here we can view the heart of a patient following a coronary artery bypass (note surgical clips)

Lateral reconstruction of the vasculature of the torso

Thin-slab slice of the lungs w/ contrast

 

[JerryBoyz]

some EPIC windsurfers. Someday I hope to be as good as them....

 

[tx_doc]

I loved this shirt when I saw it at the Gay Pride Parade in downtown Austin

 

[D-Base]

Proof that old and new can go together hand in hand:

 

[just_mills]

Toronto.

CN Tower, from the bottom:

Mid-point, looking down on Glass flooring:

From the Sky-dome (The top):

 

[just_mills]

Toronto Skyline/CN Tower, From Casa Loma:

&

 

[just_mills]

Montréal.

From Mount Royal:

A Church just on the border of the Gay Village:

Traffic in Montréal:

 

[just_mills]

Montréal continued..:

From the Roof-decking of our Appartment:

Being a nosey Neighbour :

Spiral-Staircase up to our Back Door:

Cheesey Pose of Me at Mount Royal :

 

[JOHN B]

Thanks Mills for those Toronto pics. I try to visit there once a year. I miss it.

 

[just_mills]

Thanks Mills for those Toronto pics. I try to visit there once a year. I miss it.

No worries .
I'll upload more, when I get them all onto my computer.
It's an amazing place, innit!

 

[buttons]

Toronto.

Mid-point, looking down on Glass flooring:

You horrible man! You posted that just to make me feel dizzy!