Saturday, June 03, 2006

That's some sucker!

Few celebrities have done the many good deeds that Angelina Jolie has taken the time to do. This is the primary reason ~ besides her hotness ~ that she is well-liked.

So it comes as no surprise that folks enjoy doing nice things for her. When Shiloh Nouvel, her and Brad's baby girl, was born in Namibia recently, the celebrity swag began to pour in.

It included a domain name in the child's honor (shilohjoliepitt.com), courtesy of Angelina's attorneys. Also, there was a custom-designed pacifier from itsmybinky.com, a company that specializes in just such things. This is a very special binky ~ 14K white gold and 3 carats of diamonds special ~ $17,000 special.

Angelina has been generous with the people of Africa, including donating hunderds of thousands of dollars for new hospitals, schools, etc. But the folks over at TMZ.com thought it would be clever to see what that $17,000 could buy in Africa:

283 girls to go to school for one year

708 school kits - with pen, pencil, slate, pencil sharpener, erasers, notebooks and transportation of the supplies to remote areas.

61,000 people to eat for a day or feed 400 families for a month.

77 families to start small poultry businesses. Each family would get 25 chickens, a hen house, feed, and vaccinations for the chickens.

1,000 families to receive a fishing kit (two packs of twine, one pack of hooks) so they can fish to feed themselves.

10,000 safe delivery kits to help women give birth in communities or in emergencies where there is no hospital or clinic. The kits contain soap, razor blades, plastic sheeting, string and instructions to help facilitate a clean, safe delivery.

Of course, that money could put one Florida kid through a four-year state college. But that's crazy talk.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Singapore for Hedonists

A cantilevered beach 50 stories in the air.
Palm trees growing amongst slot machines.
Who-knows-how-many square feet and en-suites.
All in the heart of Singapore.
As if there weren't enough reasons to visit the city already.
It isn't coming until 2009, but we should start packing now.







Visit The Gutter at Curbed.com for more pics and links to Moshe Safdie's other goofy but awe-inspiring projects. As always, the site has really cool info and pics of interesting architecture the world over.

Another look at NYC





This is a view of the Manhattan Bridge, as seen from Houston and Suffolk streets by Forgotten-NY.com, a Web site that chronicles the lost, forgotten or otherwise often unseen parts of NYC with a camera. Take a look: there's a lot of beauty (and filth) to see and history to learn ~ even for die-hard Gothamists.

My favorite place on Earth ~ Manhattan





This is Times Square, as seen on June 2 by ChuliPichuli, whose beautiful photos of the city can be found on Flickr.com.

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