Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation

(Source: The Atlantic)
Park Jaesang is an unlikely poster boy for South Korea's youth-obsessed, highly lucrative, and famously vacuous pop music. Park, who performs as Psy (short for psycho), is a relatively ancient 34, has been busted for marijuana and for avoiding the country's mandatory military service, and is not particularly good-looking. His first album got him fined for "inappropriate content" and the second was banned. He's mainstream in the way that South Korea's monolithically corporate media demands of its stars, who typically appear regularly on TV variety and even game shows, but as a harlequin, a performer known for his parodies, outrageous costumes, and jokey concerts. Still, there's a long history of fools and court jesters as society's most cutting social critics, and he might be one of them. More..
Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation - The Atlantic

SLICE : A Freaky Visual Journey Through a Human Body

After a series of medical tests, Christopher Powers, a software engineer and filmmaker, decided to transform the resulting series of 2-D and 3-D scans of his body into an experimental film -- an eerie anatomical self-portrait.

Slice II from Christopher Powers on Vimeo.

Belarus Teddybear Airdrop - Video

Belarus has finally confirmed that an airplane "invaded" its territory earlier in July to drop a payload of teddy bears holding signs promoting free speech, infuriating a regime often known as "Europe's last dictatorship".
Chartered by Studio Total, which bills itself as "northern Scandinavia's most notorious ad agency", the single-engine aircraft - piloted by a co-founder of Studio Total - crossed over the Lithuanian border on July 4, dropping 876 teddy bears on the capital Minsk and the small town of Ivyanets.

Kanaksi Khimji : The only Hindu Sheikh of Arab World

The world’s only Hindu sheikh happens to be an uncompromising vegetarian, his devotion is anchored to Lord Shreenathji, and though his admired entrepreneurship branches out across the globe, his roots lie in Gujarat. If that isn't enough, the Sultan of Oman offered his yacht Lo'Lo' to this NRI for developing tourism business in the Sultanate.

Kanaksi Khimji, the head of Khimji Ramdas Group of Companies, was conferred the title of sheikh by the Sultan of Oman. Khimji Ramdas and M/s V. Ships Leisure have also been appointed the ship managers of the yacht. Khimji, a practising Gujarati Vaishnav, was born in 1936 in Muscat; and he completed his matriculation in Mumbai. Later, he became one of the very few Indians to be offered Omani citizenship.

Generations ago, Khimji's grandfather, Ramdas Thackersey, had set sail for Oman from Mandvi, in Kutch. Today, dressed in a flowing full-length robe and wearing the kaffiyeh, the cloth that covers the head, Khimji easily passes off as an Omani. When he married in 1960, Khimji was presented with a silver jug by Sultan Said Taimur Bin Faisal. The queen mother, Bibi Mahezun, had given him two of her photographs, a privilege accorded to only a few.

The former president of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma, had called Khimji 'the real ambassador of India to the Gulf countries'. Chandrakant Chothani, one of the founding members of the Muscat Gujarati Samaj said, "Kanaksibhai has not only earned the respect of the Indian community but also of the citizens of Oman." Khimji was one of the NRIs to receive the Centre's Bhartiya Pravasi Award, in 2003.

Indeed, Khimji's 'Bhartiya' persona is reflected in his spiritual practices. He has an idol of Lord Shreenathji installed in a temple at his home. He does not touch non-vegetarian food; his office kitchen serves delicacies like rotla and chaas that keep everybody's palate satisfied with wholesome, and vegetarian, Gujarati delicacies. Khimji has contributed considerably to the public sphere in Oman as well as in India. In 1975, under Khimji's leadership, the Indian merchants’ body in Oman established the first-ever English medium school in Muscat.

Source: http://sawaibhatia.blogspot.in/2010/08/kanaksinh-khimji-only-hindu-sheikh-of.html

London Double-Decker Bus doing Push Ups for Olympics - Video

A Czech artist has re-modelled a traditional London double-decker bus into a mechanical sculpture of an athlete doing push-ups to celebrate the Olympic Games opening in the British capital on Friday. David Cerny, whose past works have enraged European politicians and sought to poke fun at rival artists, has installed the bus outside the Czech Olympic House in London's Islington neighbourhood. Cerny bought the 1957 bus from an owner in the Netherlands, attached two huge arms, an electrical engine and a lot of wiring and suspension tools to make it into a piece of art named "London Boosted".

New Egyptian TV Channel operated exclusively by veiled women - Video

A new satellite TV channel is being launched in Egypt, but unlike other channels the female presenters will all be wearing the niqab, the traditional Muslim face-covering. The TV channel is called Maraya after one of the prophet Mohammad's wives who was a freed Egyptian Coptic slave and is set to start broadcasting on 20 July, coinciding with the start of Ramadan - the Islamic month of fasting. The programme aims to teach Muslim women more about religion.

Singapore develops stunning structure to fill its skyline- SUPERTREES - Video

What is new in Singapore's modern skyline are super trees --- high tech organic shapes that stretch way up into the sky. The super trees are built to mimic real trees. And, they provide shade during the day, plants grow and crawl up the sides and their branches reach out, cross over and form intricate canopies.

Scientists generate electricity with a virus