Perspective by Stuart Knight

A good friend of mine shared this video with me a while back and I found its message to be very insightful.

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Are You really Getting Arab Money?

Mercedez Benz SLR McLaren dipped in Chrome from the UAE
This SLR was spotted parked outside the mall of the Emirates( a huge shopping center in Dubai). Sure the SLR McLaren in stock form is already quite the sight to behold, but for $642,000 you get a version with all its body panels covered in chrome. Now obviously we wont be affording this anytime soon but hard work and dedication to whatever you want to excel in may get you something a little similar to this.

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Farms of the Future

Living in a time where over-population and limited farmland have become a very serious concern, scientists around the world have been designing blueprints for revolutionary farms to try and resolve this sticky situation. Since lack of natural space is the obvious problem scientists have been creating concept ideas called “vertical farms”. So instead of using more land space scientists have been thinking of using air space. To the uneducated in this field (me) this seems like a flawless idea; build a building full of farms simple, right?

Wrong, many scientists have doubts about this idea of “vertical farming,” explaining that this is much more complicated and complex than the average person looking in may think. A persisting problem seems to be how to stack the farms or greenhouses in a unique way that natural sun light is shared evenly throughout the layer of crops and then of course many doubters believe that this idea is simply just too expensive.

We can only hope that scientists can discover an idea which works efficiently, environmentally friendly, and isn’t so expensive so it’s affordable worldwide. If one day these concepts are turned into reality they can be built in food scarce countries around the world and especially in African countries where usable land for farming is rare due to desertification.


Here are some visuals followed by a short description of the concept ideas for the “vertical farms” which I found from news.nationalgeographic.com:

Gordon Graff at the University of Waterloo in Ontario thinks his 59-story Skyfarm concept clears what some critics deem an insurmountable hurdle to vertical farms--generating enough electricity to replicate the sun's output at a reasonable cost.

Although the hydroponic farm would consume an estimated 82 million kilowatt hours a year, according to the Toronto Star, an onsite biogas plant burning methane from farm waste would provide about 50 percent of that energy. The rest of the needed fuel could come from city waste.

Conitune reading for more concept designs for "vertical farming"...




Architect Chris Jacobs collaborated with Columbia University's Dickson Despommier to create one of the first vertical farm designs. Reminiscent of the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles, the concept above includes a giant rooftop solar panel that moves with the sun to capture full light.

The building's windows are treated with a chemical that blocks pollutants and prevents water from beading, which maximizes the light getting in to help crops grow, according to New York magazine.




"A vertical farm has to be adapted for a specific place," Augustin Rosenstiehl of Atelier SOA Architects in Paris told the New York Times in July 2008. For example, it would be a waste to build a vertical farm in the city only for growing wheat if the grain grows particularly well in the surrounding countryside.

Rosenstiehl has therefore drawn up several concepts for growing different foods in urban environments, including the one above outfitted with rooftop wind turbines to generate electricity.




New York-based Architect Blake Kurasek designed the Living Skyscraper while he was a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The concept places urban farms on the outer fringes of residential apartments.

Some floors are enclosed for year-round production of greenhouse crops, while others include terraces for seasonal items such as orchards. The ground floor would contain a farmers' market where residents could sell to one another and the general public.




The Eco-Laboratory, created by Seattle, Washington-based architectural firm Weber Thompson, is a 12-story high-rise complex that would mix residences with gardens that produce food for the local neighborhood.

The firm estimates that sales of tomatoes and lettuces grown in the high-rise's hydroponic gardens could total about a million U.S. dollars a year, based on revenue minus the base production costs.

The economic feasibility of the design makes a real version plausible within a few years, the team notes.




Knowing that different types of plants have different growth requirements, Oliver Foster of Queensland University of Technology designed the Vertical Farm-Type O concept.

Heavy orchards grow atop carparks (foreground), which are linked to the main vertical farm via a skybridge. The bridge is encased in a skeletal-like structure for growing vines and for connecting services such as electricity.

Reflective surfaces inside the 12-story building bounce sunlight to the back of the growing space.




The Seawater Vertical Farm concept by Italian architects Cristiana Favretto and Antonio Girardi attempts to address increased demand for irrigation in an era of dwindling freshwater sources.

The pair's solution uses seawater to cool and humidify greenhouses. Some of the water vapor in the air is then converted into freshwater to irrigate the crops, the team explains on the Web site www.studiomobile.com.

The concept is set in Dubai, where both freshwater and local veggies are scarce.




The Pyramid Farm, designed by vertical farming guru Dickson Despommier at New York's Columbia University and Eric Ellingsen of the Illinois Institute of Technology, is one way to address the needs of a swelling population on a planet with finite farmland.

Design teams around the world have been rolling out concepts for futuristic skyscrapers that house farms instead of--or in addition to--people as a means of feeding city dwellers with locally-grown crops.

In addition to growing fruits and vegetables, the Pyramid Farm includes a heating and pressurization system that converts sewage into water and carbon to fuel machinery and lighting, according to Inhabitat.com

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New Zealand Goons...

Random greezy-ness:



Just came across this video, it shows the New Zealand Rugby team performing their famous Haka dance to intimidate there opposition.
Word I'mma start doing that dance before I hit the club and shit...
lol.

These guys are so cheesed.

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The original Haka tradition performed by some real New Zealand OG's.. lol



Haka commercial, still greezy...




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Local Talent: Christian Kaws

For more info click continue reading



As the flyer says...Need flyers,logos and business cards done professionally by a dope graphic designer? You may want to hit up my boy Christian Kaws @ christian kaws@facebook.com and you can follow him on twitter @ www.twitter.com/christiankaws. I promise you won't be disappointed by this dude's work. He also helped bring life to our blog and gave it a more appealing look. You can also check out his blog @ http://anunlikely.blogspot.com/.



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All Canadians Stand Up....

HAPPY CANADA DAY

We are all blessed to live in such a great country

&

Truly blessed to be a Canadian

..............................................................................................

Conitinue reading to view what's open and what's closed today in Toronto as reported by citynews.ca

Canada Day: What's Open, What's Closed?

Closed

Most grocery stores and supermarkets
LCBO and Beer stores
Government offices
Banks
Libraries
Canada Post

Open

TTC and Go Transit are running on a holiday schedule

Most downtown retailers in the Downtown Yonge Street area (from Richmond Street north to Grosvenor, and from Bay just east of Yonge) will be open, including the Eaton Centre, which will be open from 10am to 6pm.

While most shopping malls are closed, Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre will be open from 10am to 7pm, as well as the Pacific Mall at 4300 Steeles Ave. E. in Markham.

Loblaws, Sobeys and Wal-Mart and Metro stores will be closed for the holiday in Toronto and the GTA, but some Sobeys stores in cottage country will be open. All Rabba stores continue to be open 24/7.

And even though it will be a rainy Canada Day, if you're inclined to do some gardening, Home Depot Garden Centres throughout most of the GTA will remain open from 8am-5pm, but the stores themselves will be shut down.

July 1 Fireworks and Events

The strike means no fireworks at Ashbridges Bay. But plenty of other places will be having a blast to celebrate Canada's birthday.

They include:

Downsview Park
Canada's Wonderland
Mississauga Civic Centre
Brampton's Chinguacousy Park
Kinsmen Park in Pickering
Milne Park in Markham
Green Park in Richmond Hill
Centennial Park in Etobicoke
Waterfront Heritage Park, Bronte, Oakville

All those fireworks are at approximately 10:00pm.

And at 10:30pm, Ontario Place's Festival of Fire lights up the Toronto waterfront.

If you're planning on holding your own fireworks display, click here for some important safety tips.

The big Toronto July 1 tradition -- the CHIN Picnic -- will go ahead. The fun starts at Exhibition Place Wednesday at noon. And don't forget about the TD Canada Trust Toronto Jazz Festival happening at Nathan Phillips Square.

You can also find Canada Day celebrations at:

Downsview Park
Queen's Park
Harbourfront
Yonge-Dundas Square

The cancelled events include:

Amesbury Canada Day, Amesbury Park
Ashbridges Bay Fireworks
Canada Day Event, Earlscourt Park
Canada Day Events at Nathan Phillips Square
Canada Day Events at Metro Square
Somali-Canada Day, Earl Bales Park
Ontario Australian Football Championships, Colonel Samuel Smith Park
Peanut Town Festival, Oriole Park - North
East York Toronto Canada Day, Stan Wadlow Park
East York Canada Day Parade
MPP Canada Day Event - Don Valley West MPP, Flemingdon Park
Shomoy Mela, Detonia Park
Canada Day Celebrations, Thompson Memorial Park/ Miliken District Park
Canada Day Celebration, St.James Park
New Country Canada Day Jam, Woodbine Park
16th Annual Neighbours Together, Riverdale Park East
Canada Day Festival, Kew Gardens
Canada Day, Mel Lastman Square

-From citynews.ca

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More Police placed in Toronto High Schools

"I think you'd have to be pretty stupid to commit a crime when there's a police officer present."

- Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair

Continue reading for my personal thoughts...


To be completely real, I know when I was a teen I would of hated the idea of uniformed police walking around the halls of my high school. I guess growing up I never grew to trust in the Toronto Police system, to this very day even when I’m completely innocent I feel unease and uncomfortable when I know police are around me. It’s funny that the people that make me feel uncomfortable are the ones hired to serve and protect. My uneasiness around the boys in blue throughout my life is probably due to a few reasons that I can think off the top of my head;

- Growing up my peers, rap songs, and many different movies depicted police as being crooked, not trust worthy, or racist.
- Throughout my adolescence to ‘’like’’ the police was never socially acceptable and you would probably be labelled a snitch.
- Personal encounters with the Toronto police during my adolescence definitely had a big influence on my views towards them, more negative than positive which only supported the belief that police were assholes.
- In high school most police I encountered or seen were Caucasian and for some reason or another I felt as if most of them didn’t like dealing with black youths.
- And one specific situation comes to thought; in my third year of high school a friend of mine was wrongfully shot and killed by a Toronto police officer, it always weighed on my mind.


Now that I have grown up a bit I have definitely had much more positive encounters with the Toronto Police, don’t get me wrong I still believe that many officers get corrupted through job experiences and take advantage of the power given to them but I must say I have met many good and reliable police officers. I believe that inserting uniformed officers in Toronto high schools will definitely decrease the level of violence and crimes within the schools. But I think that these officers that are being placed within the high school environment should be specially trained to deal with teens and young adults; they should be equipped with a unique sense of understanding and dealing with high schools students. Their goal should not only be to prevent violence and crime or to even protect but they should focus on growing relationships with students especially the ones that tend to cause more trouble than good. I thinki it's important for police to learn to understand today's youth and the youth need to learn to understand today's police. This will help demolish negative sterotypes and help mend a bad relationship between police and the cities youth.

Now thinking about it maybe if my high school had officers inserted within the educational environment and I was able to grow to know the people behind the uniform maybe I wouldn’t be so uncomfortable and unease around them today.

Word.

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Kid Cudi's 1st Paparazzi Encounter

This video is jokes... Found over at www.kidcudi.com/news/

"Who am I with right now?"
"Yo what the fuck is this for son?"
-Kid Cudi

Definitely a real dude... I rate him...

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Tornados in Toronto?

Several funnel clouds were spotted today in areas east of Toronto. No funnels clouds actually touched down but what the hell is going on?






Only in the past couple summers now that funnel clouds have been appearing in the skies around the city, because I definitely don't remember any Tornado warnings more than three years ago... Just imagine if a toronado's actually landed and hit the downtown core, its pretty much impossible but that would be pretty messed up.

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A few WTF topics..

Oh Sheeiit, North Korea threatens to "Wipe Out" the United States... WTF?



Click continue reading for more WTF's...

United States beats Europe's soccer giant's, SPAIN (massive upset)... WTF?



Shaq traded to Cavs... WTF?



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Scam of the Century?

In what many call the Scam of the Century, Bernie Madoff, a once highly respected man in the finance community confessed to misleading his investors and in the process cheating them out of an estimated $50 billion. To put his operation in perspective, Madoff managed to wipe out around the same amount of capital for his investors as the Enron mega-scandal that so many of us are aware of. What's more, he managed to go largely undetected by financial regulators for decades presenting himself as a pillar in his community by "lending his investment expertise" to various charitable foundations and initiatives.

Madoff used a method called a Ponzi Scheme in which investors are paid with the incoming cash that new investors contribute. His variation was slightly more involved but the same basic concept holds true.

(click the continue reading link)


There is really much to be said about the kind of man that can knowingly cheat individuals out of their hard earned money. To take it even further one can also question the type of society that indirectly encourages this type of behaviour. Recently the trend of financial scandals added the whole mortgage mess has done a lot to throw a wrench in the credibility of the financial system. The performance based culture we all live may be in some ways partially responsible, from CEOs playing with accounting records to meet profit targets to professional athletes using performance enhancing drugs to get or maintain an edge, the fact is that we as a society venerate winners and discard losers. This in no way attempts to find an excuse for Madoff's reprehensible actions but rather attempts to find an ounce of cause for what I to refer to as a crisis in credibility we as a society face. Sparing a more in-depth analysis I would just say although his untruthful ways are much to blame for what he did there were also other societal factors that also did their part too.

As I prepare to enter into the corporate world I hope that my ambition does not lead me into the situations similar to the ones mentioned. I have always admired individuals who count on their own hard work to propel them forward and in my experience such accomplishments are always sweeter victories.

If you're interested in learning more about the story behind the scandalclick here for a very good documentary explaining the Madoff affair . Highly recommended.



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Clever

via scaryideas.com



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The history of Weed Video

I came across this video while I was on vimeo... pretty educational lol...
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Some Killer Abs....

Melanie Brown (aka Mel B aka Scary Spice) is currently 34 with 2 kids... WTF? She's a freak human, like Lebron... lol.

PS. I personally believe its not a "turn on" when your girl is physically more fit than yourself: at least when its more than obvious...
But damn it takes some serious time in the gym to get muscle definition like that...
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Congratulations! You are now one of the proud owners of GM!

Monday marked the historical demise of the former North American industry giant. Following much anticipation, the troubled auto maker sought bankruptcy court protection with hopes of subsequently emerging a more "leaner and meaner" force in the intensely competitive market for automobiles.

GM's decline wasn't a sudden fall, in fact, the automaker had long been suffering from a shrinking market share and a shift in consumer preferences to more fuel efficient cars brought on by the recent spike in energy prices. The credit crisis and the recession that followed sealed the company's fate. To prevent the collapse of the company and the catastrophic chain reaction it would have caused, the Canadian and American governments invested capital that would see them own approximately 72% of the company. In return for a 12% stake, Ontario and the Federal government provided about $9.5 billion in relief of which an estimated $7.8 is expected to be forgiven. Industry experts calculate that for the governments to recover their investments the company would need to be worth about $69 billion, a valuation which is a long way from where they are at currently.

I'm always all for a genuine success story where the underdog triumphs against adversity and comes out victorious at the end. The prospects for this one to me, however, don't seem too promising for a number of reasons. Despite my pessimistic viewpoints, I truly hope the management succeeds in turning the company around, after all, since we as taxpayers now have an ownership stake I'm certain we'd all like to see some kind of return on our investment.

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When money stopped the world from going around...

Since it became headline worthy the Credit Crisis is a term that we have been bombarded with from every imaginable media outlet. Even though the problem originated and is mostly felt in the States, the global nature of our economy prevented us from being immune to its effects. The complexity of the whole process left many of us clueless as to how it actually happened and what, if any, implications it would have on us. The video below does an amazing job of clearly explaining the events that lead up to and the culprits responsible for the mess. Hopefully our leadership succeeds in rescuing the economy from this disaster and prevents anything of this magnitude from happening again.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

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Caught my Attention

Unique version of the Knight Rider theme song...

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Greed is Good

One of my favourite scenes from one of my favourite movies of all time. Wall Street.
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"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

Salvador Dali

Aside from sports, fashion, reading and music… art has become one of my most recent interests. I’m well aware of more than a handful of Salvador’s works and his abstract imagination and influences from Freudian psychology have certainly sparked my eagerness to start understanding his works. What puzzles me is that this man was actually still alive in our recent history. Usually, with a man of his stature and brilliance you would most likely be persuaded to believe he was a part of the Renaissance Era with the likes of Donatello, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael (think, “Ninja Turtles”, that’s how I remember them).

Born in Spain, in 1904, this surrealist artist is probably most well-known for his work, The Persistence of Memory (1931). He passed in 1989 from heart failure.

The Persistence of Memory, 1931

A few of my personal favs include:

The Three Sphinxes of Bikini, 1947

“The experimental atomic explosions on the atoll of Bikini, as well as the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki inspired this Dalí work. Two human heads and a tree become hallucinatory double images of the mushroom cloud produced by a nuclear explosion.” (Explanation from: dali-gallery.com)

Ballerina in a Death's-Head, 1939

Living Still Life, 1956

Perfect irony created in this painting. Using the minds subconscious perception of gravity to create a sense of movement in what would traditionally be a still life portrait.

Metamorphosis of Narcissuss, 1937

And here is a short video displaying some of his works as well. The music in the video is from Clint Mansell - Requiem for a Dream, which is coincidentally my favourite music for basketball player highlight compilations (I’m sure you’ll recognize it).

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