Niagara Falls Light Show

Festival offers a special spectacle. In spring and summer, the colored lights shine for just three hours, but with less daylight in winter, curtains of color wash over the falls each night for up to seven hours.

Crowds gather along the sidewalk and railing on Niagara Parkway to see the show as colored mist rises from the falls in front of them. The display starts with patriotic themes - red, white and blue on the American Falls, red and white for the horseshoe-shaped Canadian Falls. The light beams emanate from a bank of 21 spotlights, each 30 inches in diameter, sitting atop a raised stone bunker across the road.

Lighting the Niagara Falls was first attempted more than 150 years ago, in 1860, to honor the visit by the Prince of Wales. About 200 coloured and white calcium, volcanic and torpedo lights were placed along the banks above and below the American Falls, on the road down the bank of the Canadian side of the gorge and behind the water of the Horseshoe Falls. The lights were ignited along with rockets, spinning wheels and other fireworks, creating a grand and magical effect.

Illumination of the Falls using electricity first occurred in January 1879, during a visit by the Marquis of Lorne, Governor-General of Canada. Colored lights appeared in 1907 when gelatin films were included in a 36-light system near the base of the gorge designed by General Electric Co. of Schenectady.

In 1925, a group of interested businessmen created the Niagara Falls Illumination Board, to finance, operate and maintain a new, permanent illumination system. Since then the Falls have been illuminated most nights except during World War II when the lights were turned off to conserve power and during subsequent years when generating facilities could not keep pace with electrical requirements of the construction boom. It was not until January 1950 that the Illumination Board was able to guarantee enough power to operate the lights on a regular basis.

Art Installation by LEANDRO ERLICH

 Currently on display at Le 104 in Paris, artist Leandro Erlich’s ‘Bâtiment’ (building) is an incredible an highly interactive art installation that is part of the In_Perceptions exhibition that is open until March 4, 2012.
The illusion is achieved by recreating an entire building facade on the ground and installing a gigantic mirror tilted 45 degrees; creating wonderful photo opportunities of people seemingly dangling from windows and ledges, or whatever else you can think of! It’s playful, interactive, and all kinds of awesome. Would be fantastic to see this installation using different scenes.

The Swimming Pool Illusion by Leandro Erlich

Swimming Pool by Leandro Erlich is an art installation with a permanent home at the 21st Century Museum of Art of Kanzawa, Japan. It has also had temporary installations at MoMAPS1 and the Venice Biennale.

Conceived in 1999, Swimming Pool allows visitors to look down into a seemingly full pool of water with fully clothed visitors walking around the bottom of the pool. From below, the blurry vision of looking up when underwater is recreated using a thin piece of glass with water running over top of it.

Complete with a climbing ladder, swimming pool is a fun and interactive installation that creates the illusion of being underwater whilst remaining completely dry.

Onam, God's Own Country's Festival.

 We all know Onam is a festival celebrated in gods own country Kerala. It is the popular festival in Kerela. The reason why the festival of Onam festival is celebrated in honour of the beloved King Mahabali as his return to his kingdom on earth.To say about Kerala it is equal to heaven, were ever we see it is full of greenery and with lot of water falls,lakes etc. To say about onam festival really it is a fantastic festival. People send onam greetings for friends and relatives and the greetings for onam may be as cases or ecards or by giving onam sweets they will share onam wishes. Onam pookalam is special of this festival really it is a stunning onam flower rangoli. Onam flower decorations are really stunning. During onam sandya the girls dance around the onam rangoli by keeping a big lamp in middle really it’s awesome to see. Still lots are there to say about Onam. Here you can see amazing photographs of Onam.

Hope you all had a Happy and Prosperous Onam.

The Incredible Mountain City of La Paz, Bolivia

La Paz whose full name is Nuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia and the second largest city in the country (in population) after Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Bolivia has two capitals - while the official capital of Bolivia is Sucre and it is the seat of Justice, La Paz has more government departments, hence the "de facto" capital of the country. At a elevation of roughly 3,650 m above sea level, Laz Paz is also the highest de facto capital city in the world.

La Paz is built in a canyon created by the Choqueyapu River (now mostly built over), which runs northwest to southeast. The city sits in a bowl-like depression surrounded by the high mountains of the altiplano. As the city continues to grow, it climbs over the hills, the buildings clinging impossibly to the mountain side. The sight from the air as one flies into La Paz is incredible. “First, one sees the sprawling shantytowns of El Alto, slowly giving way to the sight of La Paz itself, clinging tenuously to the sides of what looks like a large gash in the earth.

Overlooking the city is towering triple-peaked Illimani, which is always snow-covered and can be seen from several spots of the city, including from the neighbor city of El Alto.

The geography of La Paz, in particular the altitude, reflects society: the lower areas of the city are the more affluent areas. While many middle-class residents live in high-rise condos near the center, the houses of the truly affluent are located in the lower neighborhoods southwest of the Prado. And looking up from the center, the surrounding hills are plastered with makeshift brick houses of those less economically fortunate. The satellite city of El Alto, in which the airport is located, is spread over a broad area to the west of the canyon, on the Altiplano.

La Paz is an important cultural center of Bolivia. The city hosts several cathedrals belonging to the colonial times, such as the San Francisco Cathedral and the Metropolitan Cathedral, this last one located on Murillo Square, which is also home of the political and administrative power of the country. Hundreds of different museums can be found across the city, the most notable ones on Jaén Street, which street design has been preserved from the Spanish days and is home of 10 different museums. La Paz is renowned for its unique markets, very unusual topography, and traditional culture.