Recent Comments:
Video of the day: Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque projections {Gadling}
Jan 27th 2012 7:54PM Is this a house of worship or a show on the Las Vegas Strip? Seems more like the latter.
Oldest cave art in UK discovered and vandalized {Gadling}
Aug 31st 2011 12:08PM Words fail me.
Five places to see shrunken heads {Gadling}
Jun 17th 2011 1:32PM For more than 50 years and up just until the 1980s, the Museum of the American Indian in New York (back when it was at 155th street) exhibited not shrunken heads but two entire shrunken bodies. One was of a white man (described as a Spaniard) and he looked positively in pain. The other was of an Ecuatorian Indian and he looked like he was smiling. The description said that the bodies were shrunken by an Indian tribe in order to show their mastery of the process. Even though, the bodies tended to be the main attraction in the museum, when political correctness entered into our culture, many people decried the exhibit.
The museum would have continued to show the bodies but an investigation (wonderfully detailed in Outside magazine) revealed that the bodies were not shrunken by an Indian tribe but by a German doctor working in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Ecuador at the beginning of the 20th century. He did it as a hobby and he had lots of bodies to practice with.
The Museum of the American Indian moved to the Old Customs House in Downtown Manhattan because, supposedly, it would get more visitors there. Well, it is now a politically correct institution concerned mostly with exhibits about victimization and guilt. The American Museum of Natural History on 81st street has better anthropological information.
Las Vegas to get a London Eye-like Ferris wheel & amusement park {Gadling}
Mar 6th 2011 12:45PM By the way, didn't the concept of Las Vegas as a family destination fail? The amusement park behind the MGM Grand closed and the Treasure Island Pirate Battle show became one of show girls gyrating on the boats. Families just didn't gamble enough. That's why the present ad campaign is the very adult "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas".
Also, if you go by CSI, Las Vegas is the world capital of the most unspeakably gruesome gothic murders.
Las Vegas to get a London Eye-like Ferris wheel & amusement park {Gadling}
Mar 6th 2011 12:34PM When Ferris invented his eponymous wheel way back in 1892 it was to to show that American engineers could outdo Eiffel and his tower. Our World's fair attraction didn't just stand there, it moved!
That first wheel was huge but then all the following copies just became tiny amusement park rides. It took the bestselling book, "Devil in the White City", to remind people how incredible the original was, and a historically knowledgeable individual in London to bring back the Ferris Wheel as Ferris envisioned it. I'm glad to see that.
I'm also looking forward to the movie of the Devil in the White City where I'm sure the original wheel will be prominently shown.
Chinese get serious about tallest hotel - plan to clone Dubai Burj Khalifa {Gadling}
Jan 7th 2011 2:32PM The Chinese should realize that the Burj was designed by an American firm. The skyscrapers in China have all been designed by European or American Architect-Engineering firms. The North Koreans tried building a skyscraper of their own and, even with a simpler and sturdier design (pyramid) they failed miserably.
The food and wine of Extremadura, Spain {Gadling}
Jan 4th 2011 1:23PM On Extremadura, I must point out that just about all of the Conquistadores came from Extremadura! From, Cortez to Pizarro to Orellana to Balboa (you get the picture).
Extremadura is short for "Extremely Hard Land" and the people there had been in constant warfare with the Moors for the full 800 years that the Reconquista lasted. Extremadura is also one of only two areas in Europe where wild wolves still roam the woods.
Great Falls, Virginia, Estate of the Day {Luxist}
Nov 21st 2010 9:52PM There's one thing about big houses that I always feel odd about. How many couches does one family need? It seems that when you make a 20,000 square foot home, all you are doing is adding places to seat. A formal, an informal and an outdoor seating space would seem enough for most everybody but this house just has dozens, most of which are copies of each other.
W.E. Martin House, Estate of the Day {Luxist}
Nov 10th 2010 2:25PM The furnishings don't really do justice to the FLW spirit but the immense potential is there. Really looks very livable and comfortable.
River House, Estate of the Day {Luxist}
Oct 10th 2010 1:55PM The last bedroom has no bathroom of its own and must share with the staff. Odd.
