Amazing Sky Gardens Hotel in Singapore

This hotel is designed by WOHA Architects the Parkroyal on Pickering Hotel in Singapore. This hotel has unique features of six amazing sky gardens that are cantilevered at every fourth level between the blocks of guest rooms. Actually Parkroyal on Pickering is a hotel-in-a-garden idea that incorporates energy saving features throughout the property including the ‘zero-energy’ sky gardens. The sustainable project design and green energies have earned the hotel the BCA Green Mark Platinum, Singapore’s highest green rating, as well as the Solar Pioneer Award for its advanced solar energy system. The hotel newly celebrated its Ist year anniversary, and in that time the hotel has won over twelve prestigious awards for its architecture and sustainability, including: The President’s Design Award, “Best Hotel Architectural Design” title at the South East Asia Property Awards, FIABCI Singapore Property Award in the Hotel category and the 2013 HICAP Sustainable Hotel Award. The property was also named “Hotel of the Year” at the World Architecture News Awards. The 367 rooms hotel estimated project cost is $350 million to build and features 15,000 square meters of cascading greenery, dazzling pools, planter walls, waterfalls, and four story high solar powered sky gardens, constituting more than twice its land area.

Source: Charismatic Planet 

Greater Bird of Paradise

The Paradisaea apoda (Greater Bird-of-paradise) named by Carolus Linnaeus actually called is a Bird-of-paradise in the genus Paradisaea. Paradisaea apoda, or "legless bird-of-paradise", since early trade-skins to reach Europe were prepared without feet by natives; this led to the misconception that these birds were beautiful visitors from paradise that were kept aloft by their plumes and never touched the earth until death. The bird of paradise is closely related to the bowerbird and crow as spaniards in the 16th century coined the name bird of paradise when glorious bird skins were brought to Europe aboard Magellan's ship, Victoria.

The species is the largest member in the genus Paradisae. The male species measuring up to 17 inches excluding the long twin tail wires. The female is smaller, at only 14 inches. They have robust feet adapted for perching, and bills of numerous shapes. The trailing plumes, short velvet-like feathers and lovely collars are used by the male in their courtship dance. The females, in contrast, are very plain. The males have established territories where they dance for the females. The dances are as amazing as the birds. Perched on a branch, the birds sway and crouch or stand erect, tilt forward and backward, some even hang upside down. Each species has its own type of dance. The plumage of this species is also sexually dimorphic.

The male has an iridescent green face and a yellow glossed with silver iridescence crown, head and nape. The rest of the body plumage is maroon-brown. The flank plumes are yellow at the base, turning white and streaked with maroon. The female species has unbarred maroon brown plumage. In both sexes the iris is commonly yellow and the bills blue. Actually these are medium sized birds, maybe crow-sized, and are extraordinarily beautiful. Birds of paradise mainly live in forests and frequent the high treetops or lower scrub. The open nest is built in tree branches and sometimes in holes

The Greater Bird of paradise is found in Indonesia, to lowland and hill forests of southwest New Guinea and Aru Islands. Bird of Paradise diet is consists mostly of insects, fruits, and seeds. Moreover; a lesser population was introduced by Sir William Ingram in 1909-1912 to Little Tobago Island of West Indies in an effort to save the beautiful species from extinction due to overhunting for plume trades. The introduced populations survived until at least 1966 but most likely are extinct now, and are evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 Source: Charismatic Planet

 

Canadian Photographer Takes Silhouetted Selfies in Spectacular Landscapes

Paul Zizka a photographer belongs to Alberta Canada, has started on a new way to capture the really stunning natural environment that surrounds him in the Canadian Rockies. In its place of simply snapping shots of the environment, the photographer prepares his camera on its tripod, sets the timer, and quickly runs into the shot for a remarkable selfie. Distinct other typical selfies, often presenting low-quality pictures of someone with their extended arm holding onto the photographing device most probably with a phone. Paul Zizka snaps are first-rate images of man and nature. Paul shares the spotlight with the landscape, generally serving as a secondary subject himself to the majesty of the environment. His silhouette sits serenely below the Aurora Borealis, allowing its green and purple hues to hypnotize viewers. He says; I never get bored of shooting the aurora borealis, and a lot of my favorite self-portraits were taken during mainly intense northern lights displays. The aurora has an astonishing way to renew itself and show ever-different combinations of color and textures. I’m confidence that is through my photography people will revive the precious connection they can have with the wonders of our planet.

 Source: Charismatic Planet

Astronomical Watch Displays Our Solar System Orbiting the Sun

Van Cleef & Arpels in partnership with Dutch watchmaker Christian Van Der Klaauw, has developed innovative Midnight Planetarium watch design that permits you to wear a little piece of the Solar System on your wrist. The sophisticated concept replaces hands of a watch with six small planets orbiting around a central rose gold sun. The splendid unique device has an expensive price tag of $245,000 with semiprecious stones representing Mercury, Venue, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. All stones rotate separately and at the similar pace as the actual planets, like earth takes a full year to lap around the face of watch, while Venus requires 224 days and Mercury takes 88 days, Mars 687 days, Jupiter 12 years, and Saturn takes 29 years. A shooting star indicates minutes and hours and a "lucky day" feature permits the owners to choose a specific day of the year when the Earth will fall underneath the paint star on the face of the watch. The truly astonishing design is an elegant and captivating way to keep track of time without forgetting the larger universe around us.Source: Charismatic Planet