Do Tomatoes Grow On Trees ?

Tomato tree became a real find for those gardeners who love to experiment. This is a very unusual hybrid with great energy of growth, and it is not a simple tomato, but a tomato tree. That tree can grow, if you cultivate a tomato for a long time - up to 1.5 years.

How the Earth looks from space

How the Earth looks from space

Some awe-inspiring aerial shots of Earth taken by NASA 

astronauts on board the International Space Station. 

Can you recognize any of the following features?

 

1: The bright lights of Russia's capital city Moscow are seen beneath the colourful rays of the aurora borealis. 

The image was recently captured by astronauts on board the International Space Station flying at 

an altitude of approximately 240 miles.

 

2: An amazing image released by Nasa shows the UK and Ireland below the stunning greens and purples lights of the Aurora Borealis. 

The photo was taken on 28 March by the Expedition 30 crew onboard the International Space Station flying at an altitude of about 240 miles over the eastern North Atlantic.

 

3: Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers snapped a huge, copper-toned rock formation in Mauritania, West Africa, from the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA

Hong Yi Creates Portraits with 750 Pairs of Socks

Last time we saw Shanghai-based artist Hong Yi, aka Red, she was painting a portrait of Asian pop star Jay Chou with rings of coffee stains. The artist known for her unconventional painting materials and methods is back with a portrait of famous Chinese film director Yimou Zhang made of socks. The large-scale monochromatic sock portrait is held together with pins and propped up with bamboo sticks. Using 750 pairs of socks, adding shadow and depth with a black, white, and gray scheme, the artist reproduces the face of one of her favorite directors over the course of three tireless weeks. 11 more images after the break...

Red attributes the reasons for her medium of choice (this time around) to the inspiration she found from a tiny alleyway she came across when she first settled in Shanghai. There were clotheslines made of bamboo sticks hanging various articles of clothing above this fairly narrow path. It surprised her to see such a traditional slice of life in a big and bustling city.

Through her medium inspiration she found a connection to Zhang, who is known to incorporate bamboo sticks into his period films (Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower) as well as the Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony. Rather than creating the portrait with t-shirts to echo the hanging laundry, she opted to use socks because they were smaller and more cost effective. We're constantly amazed by Red's innovative expressions and can't wait to see what she has coming up!

Clay Miniature Food Models

Now that's what you call finger food! Artists creates mouthwatering miniature meals (but it's a shame you can't eat them) By Maysa Rawi With portions small enough for fashionistas, calorie counters and A-list celebrities, these miniature meals look like the ultimate in cocktail party canapes. But the bite-size food pictured is actually completely inedible - and made of clay. Artist Shay Aaron created the veritable banquet as part of a range of collectibles. British classics: An artist has created a range of miniature collectibles made of clay including British classic dishes like a Full Enligsh and roast lamb and mash

Fish Eye Lens Photography

Who needs Instagram? Extraordinary landscapes of America captured with good old fish-eye lens By Tom Gardner These stunning images should certainly give you a new perspective on the world. Photographer Randy Scott Slavin spent months taking hundreds of shots from some of the most iconic and beautiful parts of the U.S. to create his amazing collection of landscape pictures. The 34-year-old New Yorker used hi-tech computer software to stitch a series of snaps taken with a super wide angle 'fisheye' lens into one jaw-dropping 360 degree image to make. Curved: Photographer Randy Scott Slavin captured this stunning picture of the Empire State building in New York with a fisheye lens which enables him to get all 360 degrees of the city into view Topsy turvy: This amazing photographs shows Battery Park in New York as it's never been seen before with the ground warped around the sky His post-production work can take from a full day up to a couple of weeks to finish, but resulted in the stunning Alternate Perspective series which will be exhibited in July. Randy explains: 'In my music videos, I've continually tried to take concepts to the next level, to push the ideas to be more engaging, moving and stimulating-and I approach photography with the same philosophy. 'When I began shooting landscapes, I was compelled to push the perspective. After experimenting heavily with panoramic photography, I developed a technique that could realise my desire to turn the real into the surreal. The result is something rebellious, beautiful and provocative. My 'Alternative Perspectives' series is a collection of the works culled from these photographic explorations.' Randy - a cutting edge filmmaker and music video director for bands including Foo Fighters - travelled across America to seek out landscapes for his work, taking in views ranging from California to Florida. He says that the calming nature of the work is an antidote to his fast-paced New York lifestyle. Creative: Snapper Randy Scott Slavin not only used his technique to photograph iconic landmarks across the U.S. he also captured other picturesque locations, including this dock in Westport, Connecticut

Glass roof tiles let a little sunshine in to cut heating bills

Glass roof tiles let a little sunshine in to cut heating bills

Swedish company, Soltech Energy, recently received the gold medal for this year’s hottest new material at the
Nordbygg 2010  trade fair in Stockholm, Sweden. The award was fitting because it was for the company’s home heating
system that features roof tiles made out of glass. The tiles, which are made from ordinary glass, weigh about the same
as the clay roof tiles they replace but allow the sun to heat air that is then used to heat the house and cut energy bills.

Thankfully, although the tiles themselves are transparent, they are backed by a special black absorption fabric
so sticky beaks won’t be able to sit on the roof and watch what’s going on inside. This fabric absorbs the sun’s rays, which heats the air underneath, with the air formed into columns by beams within the roof to ensure it is heated sufficiently.



The most common way to connect the system to a house’s existing heating system would be to a water based heating
system via an accumulation tank but the system is also designed to be integrated with both air and water based systems,
 such as a ground source heat pump, air heat pump, pellet boiler or electric boiler â€" the only
requirement is some form of central heating system.

This setup allows the system to heat the house during winter and transfer the heat absorbed in

summer to a ground heating system through a heat convector and a fluid based system to help achieve a cooling effect.

Depending on factors such as climate, roof angle and house direction, the system should generate around

350 kWh heat per square meter (10.76 square ft).

Photos ~ artistic: ? Kissable Lips? ...

Everything but trout pouts: Gobsmacking animal designs good enough to kiss

Artist Paige Thompson had a foxy idea when she puckered up in front of the mirror and started to paint these amazing animal designs - on her own lips.

Now her unique take on face-painting has become an Internet sensation, attracting thousands of followers to her website and sparking demand for new creations.

The 21-year-old was feeling bored when she stumbled across some Halloween make-up she had as a child and began to paint colourful and cute animals on her mouth before photographing them.

A red crab: Paige takes half an hour in front of a mirror to paint each creation

A red fox: An early creation and one of Paige's favourites

A bumble bee: The first of Paige's 'Animal-ipstick' creations

Huge Piranha

Stand back, he bites: British fisherman grapples with ferocious 'giant piranha'... which has been known to eat CROCODILES By Richard James British angler Jeremy Wade looks understandably anxious as he grapples with this ferocious-looking 'giant piranha'. The 52-year-old caught the aptly-named goliath tigerfish during a fishing expedition up the Congo River in Africa. The brave fisherman was forced to hold the fish at arms-length for fear of being bitten by its razor-sharp teeth while posing with it for the camera. Careful: Jeremy Wade bravely poses with the 5ft long goliath tigerfish caught during an expedition up the River Congo in Africa The goliath tigerfish is one of the most fearsome freshwater fish in the world and said to be a much bigger and deadlier version of the piranha. The giant fish has 32 teeth that are of similar size to those of a great white shark and has been known to attack humans and even crocodiles. It has only ever been caught by a handful of fishermen due to the danger it poses and the fact its habitat is notoriously hard to reach. Wade, the host of ITV's River Monsters show, said he took extra care when reeling in this specimen, which weighed more than 100lbs and was 5ft long. The TV programme looks into mythical reports from around the world of humans being attacked by unknown monsters from the deep before the British host sets out to find and catch the suspect. Commenting on the goliath tigerfish, Wade said: 'This fish is no tench. It is, for all intents and purposes, a giant piranha. It is quite a beast. Open wide: The ferocious 'giant piranha' was caught during the filiming of ITV's River Monsters Wade spent eight days trying to land the fish and said he returned it to the river soon afterwards 'The teeth on it are incredibly sharp and are about the same length as a great white shark. 'It also has an extremely powerful bite and has been known to consume prey the same size as itself, attack people and take pieces out of crocodiles. 'It is thought that these fish attack in a reflex response to a sudden movement or splash. 'It is very rare to catch one, especially by an outsider because they are found in such a remote and difficult location to get to. There are no guides or lodges on that part of the Congo River.'  Wade revealed he used a sizable catfish as bait for the tigerfish and a 200lbs rod and line. He said he also took care to stand back from it until it was safely in his landing net. 'It is a very dangerous fish to handle. If you aren't careful it could easily take your finger off or worse,' he added. Wade, who spent eight days trying to land the fish, said he returned it to the river soon afterwards.

Girl Who Does not Age

Brooke Greenberg is 17 years old right now. And she still looks like a toddler. The strangest thing is that she has never been diagnosed with any known genetic syndrome or chromosomal abnormality that would help explain why. Her brain isn't developing either. Just see photos of Brooke through the years. 1 year old 3 years old

Photos: Perfectly Times Animal Action Photos II

Perfectly Timed Animal Photos II Animal photography requires a great deal of time, patience, and some say luck…and this is where the debate starts. What part does luck play in photography? We offer some examples of perfectly timed animal photos which seem like pure luck. Most of these shots are so incredible that if you blinked you would have missed it! But as a popular saying goes: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.� What about you? What part does luck play in your photography? P.S: we’ve tried our best to credit each and every photographer, but just couldn’t track some of them. Please leave a comment if you know the missing authors. Photo by Eigil Rasmussen Image author: unknown Photo by Rick Ehrenberg

Photos: Perfectly Timed "Animal" Action Photos

Perfectly Timed Animal Photos Animal photography requires a great deal of time, patience, and some say luck…and this is where the debate starts. What part does luck play in photography? We rounded up examples of perfectly timed animal photos which seem like pure luck. Most of these shots are so incredible that if you blinked you would have missed it! But as a popular saying goes: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.� What about you? What part does luck play in your photography? P.S: we’ve tried our best to credit each and every photographer, but just couldn’t track some of them. Image credits: buzzfeed Image credits: buzzfeed Photo by David Maitland

Modern Technology

Gadgets are more unusual and more clever than normal technological objects and that makes them gain popularity. These wonderful gizmos ease our daily routine and keep us in contact with the innovative movement, making sure we don't get stuck in the past. But of course, in the world of gadgets there are also some devices that take it a little bit far, making us gaze at them with hope that we will get our hands on them sooner. Window phone concept Is it a window, is it a phone? No. Actually, it's Window phone and this is the part where you are saying "Whaaat? What are you talking about?". The phone is actually a concept with extraordinary features. Surely if this could be actually put into production, it would set a new standard for the term "cool".

BOOK SCULPTURES OF SU BLACKWELL

BOOK SCULPTURES OF
SU BLACKWELL

By separating and reworking the physical pages
of fairy tales books, cutting and pasting them
together, the artist designs enchanting
miniature installations atop
a laid open-faced book.

She assembles each piece entirely out of books,
occasionally encasing the sculptures in
wooden display boxes or glass domes
to add an interesting effect.
While placing the piece in a wooden
box gives the appearance of a painting
or perhaps a puppet show, the glass-domed
encasement adds snow globe effect.

The Unpleasant Truth: 90 Percent of Indians Are Fools

Bangalore: "Speak the truth, speak the pleasant, but do not speak the unpleasant truth," former judge of the Supreme Court and the Chairman of the Press Council, Markandey Katju quoted shastras before revealing the unpleasant truth that 90 percent Indians are fools. "The country's situation today requires that we say "Bruyat satyam apriyam", i.e. "Speak the unpleasant truth" he wrote in The Indian Express which said, "The truth is that the minds of 90 percent Indians are full of casteism, communalism, superstition."



Katju has been judgmental about a variety of aspect in the society and their many failings, and has been into many controversies in the recent times for his remarks on media, corruption etc. However, unlike his usual targets of criticism, this time Katju has attacked his best supporters, the middle class TV viewing public – when he said 90 percent Indians are fools.

Katju's first point of justification is that – "when our people go to vote in elections, 90 percent vote on the basis of caste or community, not the merits of the candidate." So are people such as Phoolan Devi with criminal backgrounds gets elected to the Parliament. However, his precise number of 90 percent seems quite vague as there are no concrete data to suggest that 90 percent vote based on their caste and community. In fact, the recent UP elections show the number is incorrect as the figures suggest that all communities were divided between many political parties.

"90 percent Indians believe in astrology, which is pure superstition and humbug," he further writes. "Even a little common sense tells us that the movements of stars and planets have nothing to do with our lives. Yet, TV channels showing astrology have high TRP ratings," he justifies. In a reply to Katju's article, R Jagannathan of Firstpost writes, "If belief in the unscientific is proof of foolishness, half the world is a fool. In a world where people clutch at all kinds of straws to make some sense of the madness around them, astrology is hardly the defining factor for foolishness."



The media hype for cricket and Bollywood has always been Katju's pet topic and this time and he came down very hard on Indian media's obsession with the above mentioned and said, "cricket has been turned into a religion by our corporatised media, and most people lap it up like opium." He says the real problems are the socio-economic issues such as unemployment, education, price rise, housing, poverty, malnourishment, lack of healthcare etc. that 80 percent of the population in the country faces. He laments over the media hypocrisy as it minimizes or sidelines these issues and gives greater importance for on the lives of film starts, cricket, fashion etc. He condemned the way how Indian media depicted events such as Sachin's 100th century and Dravid's retirement as the most important events of the country while facts like a quarter of a million farmers' suicides and 47 percent Indian children being malnourished were severely sidelined.

The former SC judge then went on to comment on the media hype given to Anna Hazare's anti-corruption agitation and said the media promoted the agitation as a solution to the problem of corruption. He says the Lokpal Bill will create a parallel bureaucracy.



Quoting different sections of the suggested Lokpal Bill, Katju says "There are about 55 lakh government employees (13 lakh in the Railways alone) and there will be several lakhs more in other categories coming under the definition of public servant according to the Prevention of Corruption Act. This will necessitate the appointment of thousands of Lokpals, maybe 50,000 or more, to supervise and decide on the millions of complaints that will pour in against the lakhs of public servants. "Considering the low level of morality prevailing in India, we can be fairly certain that most of them will become blackmailers," he says. "It will create a parallel bureaucracy, which in one stroke, will double the corruption in the country." He said the movement was not rationally analysed and termed it as a hysterical mob that gathered in Jantar Mantar and Ramlila grounds in Delhi thinking that corruption would be ended by shouting "Bharat Mata ki Jai" and "Inquilab Zindabad".

Finally, Katju clarifies his stands and justifies why he calls the 90 percent fools. "When I called 90 percent of them fools my intention was not to harm them, rather it was just the contrary. I want to see Indians prosper, I want poverty and unemployment abolished, I want the standard of living of the 80 percent poor Indians to rise so that they get decent lives."

The only way out for this to happen, the Indian minds have to come out of communalism, casteism and superstition and should start thinking scientific and modern. "Having a modern mind means a rational mind, a logical mind, a questioning mind, a scientific mind," Katju writes.

Portraits On Floppy Disk

British artist Nick Gentry has recently decided to please us interesting and original works.

Portraits that he painted, made entirely from old floppy disks...

Top 10 Animal Workaholics

This may surprise you, but ants have more of a purpose than putting a damper on your picnic. These industrious animals have workloads that may put your own to shame. In fact, many creatures work long days and nights just to survive in the wild, and if you think your 9-to-5 job is rough, a lot of these animals perform tasks that are very similar to jobs people do — though they may have completely different reasons for doing them and unique tools for getting the jobs done. Why do some birds, for example, work as interior decorators? And how do beavers construct giant lodges by chewing on tree bark? Find out what a regular workday is like in the animal kingdom for 10 of the most dedicated workers around.

10. Factory Workers: Ants

If you've ever had an ant farm, then you know an ant colony runs like a factory with well-defined roles and responsibilities. The queen ant's only role is to reproduce, making her the sole producer of all ants born in a colony. A male ant's only job is to mate with the queen, and unlike the queen, who lives for 15 to 20 years, males die shortly after mating. All of the other ants in the colony have specific jobs to keep it running smoothly. Worker ants are responsible for feeding and caring for the larvae produced by the queen, as well as keeping the colony clean, digging new tunnels and a variety of other tasks. Foraging ants are responsible for finding food and bringing their finds back to the colony. In addition to these roles, some ants act as security guards, scouting locations for the foragers and guarding the colony. While ants might appear to be nature's nuisance, these tiny bugs eat dead insects and their underground tunnels help aerate soil, making them a vital part of any ecosystem.

09. The Builders: Beavers 

The saying "busy as a beaver" might take on an entirely new meaning when you consider how active beavers truly are. Considered nature's engineers, these long-toothed mammals are very adept at and diligent about building dams in rivers or streams to create ponds suitable for their lodging needs. Beginning in late summer and into the fall, beavers begin preparing their homes for winter. They gather wood by using their tails to prop them up while they chip away at tree trunks with their teeth. Once a tree has broken off from the trunk, the beaver breaks it down into smaller pieces that are more manageable to carry back to the location they plan to build on. Laying the sticks into the mud, they stack layers of wood until the dam is built. But a beaver's job isn't done once the dam is complete. It also works to dig out its living quarters, called a lodge, and stockpiles wood to eat during the long winter months. Although beaver dams are a headache for property owners that don't want running streams blocked, the beaver does provide a useful service to other creatures like ducks and moose, which use the ponds as a water source.

08. The Hunters: Female Lions