This Is What The Next World's Tallest Building Will Look Like...

This is the next world's tallest building.
It's the Broad Sustainable Building in yes of course, China who is committed to leading the world in everything.
It's called Sky City because that's what the insane 838 metre high building will be.
A city complete with thirty thousand Chinese citizens, four thousand families who will no doubt be coerced into living there on its two hundred and twenty floors that will contain, apart from residences, offices, schools, shopping complexes, a hospital, gardens and recreational facilities. All in one grossly ugly and expensive building that boasts eleven million square feet and will cost one and a half billion dollars.
It's due to be completed in April next year and they've just started digging the foundations.
The newest tallest building in the world, being built in Chansha, the capital of Hunan Province will be ten metres taller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Just imagine the Emirates' spending all those dollars to find they're ten metres short of a mammoth.
Whether the residents of this city in the sky can sleep soundly in their beds at night might depend if they care about a large earthquake or the fact that China's best firefighting equipment and technology can do nothing for anyone above the seventieth floor.
But it's just what China needs.
Evidently... 

How Is It That Amsterdam Has So Many Cyclists And So Few Cycling Fatalities...

Amsterdam is the cycling capital of the world with over eight hundred thousand people owning and riding nine hundred thousand bikes of all shapes and sizes.
Ninety nine percent of the city's cyclists don't wear a helmet and yet the rate of fatalities is incredibly low.
You can almost count the number of cycling related deaths on the fingers of one hand.
And sixteen million Netherlanders own eighteen million bicycles. Nationally, there's around two hundred cycling fatalities annually.
In Britain in 2012, where there's around five million cyclists the deaths caused by accidents with motor vehicles totaled one hundred and twenty two.
Fourteen deaths were recorded in London.
America, it's said, is the most dangerous place on earth to be a cyclist but there are fifty seven million of them, many risking their lives on a daily basis. Six hundred and seventy seven died in 2011, down from 850 in 1995.
But getting back to the question, how does the cycling capital of the world have such a low fatality rate?
Could it be attitude. You know, tolerance and respect for other human beings...

The Exbury Egg. A Self Sustaining, Cholestrol Free Floating Home And Workspace...

Artist Stephen Turner's Exbury Egg is an art and architecture project designed to address the impact on a Beaulieu River estuary in the UK at a time of evidently, great environmental change.
The egg is a collaboration between the UK based PAD Studio and The SPUD Group and was built locally using proven boatbuilding methods.
Stephen will be living and working in the egg over the next twelve months.
He's assuming the role of guardian, to examine the implications for people, wildlife and flora and provide a voice for nature, to speak for the tides and the terns of a landscape in a state of flux.
You can follow Stephen's Egg project here and see how it fares as it faces its three hundred and sixty five days in the elements and floats through its seven hundred and thirty tides as they as we know, wait for no one...

Delightfully Simple Graphic Images By Malaysian Artist Tang Chiew Ling...

Tang Chiew Ling is a freelance graphic artist living in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur.
His delightful mixed media illustrations are created by using inconspicuous little leaves combined with simply drawn silhouettes of people in everyday situations.
He too believes that less is more...

Some Of This Year's Top Pictures Of The Day From Twisted Sifter...

Twisted Sifter is another wonderful site
definitely worth a visit.
Each quarter they choose twenty five stunning images from photographers around the world.
Here's some of their selection this year.
There's more to enjoy here.
My favourite is the top one with the two gorgeous Indonesian children sheltering from the rain under a banana leaf...

This Visiting Mammal Gives Freedom Camping At Tokerau Beach The Seal Of Approval...

It's not often a seal pays a visit to Tokerau Beach so when one does, it's quite an event.
My friend Harvey interviewed and photographed this unusual visitor.
My name's Sydney said the seal and I left home in the Southern Ocean a few weeks ago.
I'd heard about the beauty of New Zealand's Far North and the wonderful fishing here in Doubtless Bay, so I've stopped off for a feed and some freedom camping.
Then I'm off to Melbourne Australia for a nephew's barmitzvah.
Harvey was impressed but personally I don't believe a word Sydney said... 

A Delightful Floating Umbrella Art Installation Brings Joy To Portugal's City Of Agueda...

Once again the art festival Agitagueda held in the shopping streets of Agueda in Portugal is bringing delight and joy to the visitors and residents of that city with an art installation designed by Studio Ivotavares that has hundreds of coloured umbrellas floating somehow magically in the air.
These gaily coloured floating umbrellas are nothing like an umbrella a bank manager might lend you when the sun is shining and who'll ask for it back when it rains...

A Magical Sunrise To Wake To...

Yesterday was one of those magical mornings at Tokerau Beach in New Zealand's Far North.
You know, the sort of morning you're so relieved you didn't wake ten minutes later.
It would've been another day in paradise but you might've had the feeling that you missed something but didn't know what...