Agata Szewioła crowned Miss Polski 2010

Agata Szewioła was crowned Miss Polski 2010 or Miss Poland World 2010 at the finale held yesterday August 29th. She will represent Poland in Miss World 2010 later this year in China. Agata Szewioła is 21 year old and stands 1.74m.

The road less travelled: 5 great alternative travel spots

While in Donegal, Ireland a few years back, my friends and I heard from locals about some impressive cliffs near the fishing port of Killybegs going by the strange name Slieve League, so we decided to take a look.

Slieve League turned out to be spectacular. A curving, colourful cliff face, it’s essentially a mountain cleaved in half with a sheer drop from the peak 600 metres to the churning Atlantic Ocean below. For the brave, the aptly named ‘One Man’s Track’ leads to the top of the cliff - and amazing views.

So why do Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher get all the fame (and guidebook covers) while Slieve League exists in relative anonymity? Hard to say, but there’s a take-home lesson: sometimes lesser-known destinations can be just as rewarding as their more famous counterparts. With that in mind, here are a few more great ‘alternative travel sights’:

Split vs Dubrovnik, Croatia
Behind Dubrovnik’s beautiful white marble walls and under its terracotta rooftops, you’ll find the usual tourist mash of Irish bars, bland restaurants, souvenir shops and tour groups. A few hours up the coast, Split’s UNESCO-listed old town is built on the remains of Roman Emperor Diocletian’s enormous retirement palace, and buzzes with the authentic sounds of day-to-day Dalmatian life.

Bulgaria vs any other European country
Is there a conspiracy to hide the delights of Bulgaria from the rest of the world? Consider: the ancient Black Sea coastal resorts of Nesebar and Sozopol with their ruins and beaches, Veliko Tarnovo’s dramatic riverside setting and ancient hilltop palace ruins, idyllic Koprivshtitsa’s traditional grand mansions and pristine streetscapes. Heard of them? If not, take a look.

Dingle Peninsula vs Ring of Kerry, Ireland
It’s hardly unknown, but it’s amazing how many travellers skip Dingle and make do with the coach-choked roads of the Ring of Kerry instead. There’s plenty to see in Dingle town, with its idiosyncratic pubs and Funghi the dolphin, while ancient standing stones dot the roadside out of town. If you find Dingle too mainstream, try the lonely but impressively stark Beara Peninsula further south.

Matsumoto Castle vs Himeji Castle, Japan
One is a delicate, elegant beauty known as the White Egret. The other is dark, brooding and nicknamed the Crow. While there’s no denying stunning Himeji-jo is a highlight of any trip to Japan, Matsumoto-jo’s setting really, well, sets it apart. Surrounded by lush parkland and using the Japan Alps as borrowed scenery, its black and white façade is photogenic from any angle. And unlike gritty Himeji city, sophisticated Matsumoto is well worth a visit as well. (For more info, check out the Thorn Tree community’s discussion of Japan’s castle options).

Ningaloo Reef vs The Great Barrier Reef, Australia

The Great Barrier Reef stretches for 2,000km along the island continent’s northeast coast – so chances are you’ll only manage to visit a small section from one of the crowded access points near Cairns. On Australia’s west coast, the smaller Ningaloo is more remote and not easy to get to, but is quieter and more pristine. And it has one attraction you won’t find on the east coast – whale sharks!

Hwang Mi Hee – Black Cutoff Halter Top

Hwang Mi Hee's profile :
* Birthdays: 1982-01-21
* Height / weight: 174 /?
* Body size: 35-24-35
* Blood type: Five brother
* Hobbies: Movies, music, reading, exercise
* Motto: Practice makes perfect
* Favorite Car: Porsche, Bentley, Polo

Ultimate party cities

Belgrade, Serbia
Back in 1999, Belgraders held outdoor concerts while undergoing NATO bombardment, a feat that bewildered many outsiders. The long years of bad press that kept Serbia and its energetic capital off the map have now passed, and foreigners are now realising what locals always knew – that Belgrade really rocks. With an exuberant population and its legacy as an intellectual hangout, Belgrade offers intriguingly varied nightlife, ranging from eclectic watering holes for those in the know, to the busy restaurants and bars of the Skadarlija district and the summer clubs in heaving barges on the Sava and Danube Rivers. Major international musicians hit Belgrade’s Sava Center, and the summertime EXIT Festival, held an hour north in Novi Sad, is one of Europe’s best.

Montréal, Canada
Not only underage drinkers from New England are descending on the dynamic francophone capital of Québec these days. Easygoing Montréal is increasingly popular with other foreign travellers, who enjoy the joie de vivre of a place with bilingual ambience and good local beer. Montréal’s irrepressible student population and atmospheric old quarter give the city a light-hearted, Bohemian air. There are Old World cafes, cool jazz clubs, packed discos and titillating late bars to choose from, plus a popular comedy festival each July.

Buenos Aires, Argentina
With its unique mix of European and South American cultures, and a native passion for dance (tango, baby!), the Argentine capital provides fertile ground for lively nightlife. There’s an emphasis on fashion and a diverse range of entertainment in Buenos Aires‘ barrios (districts). Relax at a swingin’ jazz club or dance all night by the waterfront; some clubs and cultural centres offer classes so you can learn to tango or salsa like (and with) a local. Variety is huge – there’s everything from Irish pubs and local folk to industrial-strength house parties. Come in October for both the world tango festival and the international guitar festival.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates
For those who can afford it, the world capital of conspicuous consumption is unbeatable. Dubai’s extravagance is way over the top, with ultraluxury hotels on artificial islands, slick modern malls and tonnes of precious metals glittering in shops. Yet Dubai is also a surprisingly cosmopolitan place, with workers coming from all over the globe. So if you’re not invited to party on board the private yacht of a celebrity, you can always mingle with people from around the world in the swank bars and clubs of the Middle East’s most decadent desert getaway.

Thessaloniki, Greece
Greece’s second city has style, with plenty of fashionable shops and salons and a 1-million-strong population fleshed out by a big university (80,000-plus students). Thessaloniki boasts great nightlife during those long months when more famous Greek destinations are deep in hibernation, from arty cafes to Latin bars; from discos pumping out house music to salacious bouzoukia (clubs featuring twangy, Eastern-flavoured Greek folk-pop). That’s plenty to keep you occupied after you’ve traversed the city’s sublime Byzantine churches, museums and scattered ruins. It’s not cheap, but no Greek city save Athens compares.

La Paz, Bolivia
Don’t forget that liquor goes to the head quickly in the Bolivian capital, which well over 3000m above sea level. Get hot and sweaty on a chilly Andean night in one of many slick nightclubs, which cater to chic locals and the foreign contingent. The natives are friendly and, with a steady stream of travellers, it’s a town of many tongues. World-class bars, swank cafes and restaurants serenading with traditional Bolivian music round out the offerings. Buy traditional Aymara herbs at the Witches’ Market (Mercado de Brujas) to ward off hangovers and bothersome spirits.

Cape Town, South Africa
With the 2010 World Cup bringing a global audience to South Africa, the partying will only get harder as travellers converge on a city already well known for nightlife. Luxuriate on some of the world’s best beaches by day and kick back under the moonlight at suave cocktail bars by night. Two hours east, in the Indian Ocean, lies the elegant beach village of Mossel Bay, with more great beaches and chic flair. Visitors must try some of the wines crafted by South Africa’s world-renowned vintners, either at a Cape Town bar or at one of several wineries nearby.

Baku, Azerbaijan
Since the 1990s, when it started taking off as a hub for Caspian Sea oil and gas, Baku has been transformed. It’s left its former existence as communist backwater to become a buzzing hive of Western capitalism – all without forsaking the indigenous delights of its Turkic traditions. And this newfound economic stimulation hasn’t failed to influence urban nightlife. The cash injection from energy projects, enhanced by the presence of thousands of international oil workers and wealthy consultants, has turned Baku into an oasis of excess in an otherwise fairly traditional Muslim country. You’ll find the best bars, clubs and restaurants around Fountain Square.

Auckland, New Zealand
Myriad cafes, bars and dinner clubs cater to a hip young clientele. Try the glittering waterfront for smart bars, and hit the happening clubs (some stay open 24 hours). There are plenty of live shows on offer too, from folk in Devonport to louder sounds at Mt Eden. If you don’t get drunk, you can always walk off the Sky Tower – the southern hemisphere’s tallest structure – a 328m cable-controlled drop in which jumpers reach a speed of 85kmh.

Tel Aviv, Israel
Like elsewhere in the greater Mediterranean, Israel’s capital of fun gets going late. The endless bars, pubs and cocktail venues start to fill up by midnight, from which point the nightclubs get revved up with dancing till dawn. Nowadays an international crowd joins native Israelis for a mixed bag of funk, pop, house and techno (in addition to live shows small and large) at the city’s dozens of entertainment hotspots. Tel Aviv has a relaxed, hedonistic air, and prides itself on being gay-friendly and outgoing.

Jimena Navarrete the Road to Miss Universe 2010

Jimena Navarrete Rosete was born on February 22, 1988 in Guadalajara, Jalisco. Navarrete studied nutrition prior to her participation in beauty pageants. Jimena was crowned Nuestra Belleza Jalisco on July 16, 2009 and Nuestra Belleza México on September 20, 2009 in Mérida, Yucatán.
Check out the photo collection of Jimena Navarrete which is name: :The Road to Miss Universe 2010″.

Seadrift Residence

Based on what you have seen and read about this project, how would you grade it? Use the stars below to indicate your assessment, five stars being the highest rating.
Those of us from Northern California can attest to the fact that one of the most beautiful beaches in the world is located about 20 miles north of San Francisco—Stinson Beach. It’s a little wilder than most—windy and often foggy. It’s the kind of place where you want to have bonfires, or surf, or sit by the fireplace in your beach house with the floor-to-ceiling glass doors flung open wide, taking in the sights and sounds.
That’s almost what San Francisco-based architect Cass Calder Smith, AIA’s, client does when she’s at her home in Seadrift, the small community located at Stinson’s northern tip. Her house isn’t on the ocean, but at the mouth of Bolinas Lagoon. Still, the water is there, and it shimmers and laps—just a bit calmer than it might on Stinson Beach proper. And the Fireorb fireplace in the living room of her 1,900-square-foot beach house can be turned to face the deck or the sitting area inside. Smith, whose firm CCS Architecture is known for designing a number of San Francisco’s hottest dining spots, created the net-zero energy consumption house as a getaway to accommodate his client’s three-generation family. The client, who lives in San Francisco, bought the plot of land with its original house (according to Smith, “a tired little one-story built in the 60s that didn’t take advantage of the site”) in 2004, as a weekend retreat for herself and her two sons, both of whom live in the Bay Area and have small children. “What was great about this client was that she knew exactly what kind of house should be there,” says Smith. “She knew the potential of the site.” The site, with the lagoon on one side and views of Mount Tamalpais on the other, hardly needed to be ocean-side to make it worthy of a refined yet casual retreat.
The result of the client’s vision and architect’s hand does the site justice. Local building codes require new construction to be at least three feet above grade in anticipation of rising sea levels. Smith and his team approached the design by thinking of the project as one large dock, with a house in the middle. “Like a pier, the decks on the water side step down to the water with bleacher-like stairs,” says Smith. “My client’s family can sit on the steps and watch the water or the kids swimming. On the street side there’s another deck, and there’s no formal entry. This is a casual beach house. But the connection to the outdoors was crucial. You can see right through from the front to the back.” The glass fence around the lagoon-side deck amplifies connections to the water.
The house itself is an inverted, almost L shape, with public areas—kitchen, living, dining, on one side, and the bedroom wing on the other. Cedar siding treated with a bleaching oil clads the exterior, and the flat roof is rimmed in 316 stainless steel, a product that resists rust and is often used in marine building. Decks are Ipe.
The architect used durable, simple materials throughout the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house’s interior. “We tried to make it all functionally smart,” says Smith. Floors are concrete, the ceiling is paneled with cedar, and custom furnishings designed by CCS, such as walnut bookshelves, a white oak dining table, a white oak island with ample storage in the kitchen, and bunk beds in the kids’ bedroom add to the coherence of the house. Articulated skylights on both sides of the kitchen bring in patterned sunlight throughout the day. Storage areas under the waterside decks provide places to put beach gear and small boats.
On top of it all, the house has zero energy bills. An absence of air conditioning, photovoltaics on the roof that support the split-system heat pump and all electricity, two 4-foot by 8-foot hot water panels for the solar water system, and a xeriscaped landscape with deciduous trees support the Platinum rating, given by Marin County’s point-rating system, which is similar to LEED. Smith admits that it’s easier for a home that’s not used seven days a week to have no energy bills. “For a grid-tied house, every day you’re not there you feed more energy into the grid.” Smith’s clients use the house each weekend, so there are many days during the year to feed that hungry grid, and a lot of free energy ends up flowing back.

And speaking of getting energy back, Smith says he’s lucky enough to have a fairly open invitation to the house whenever he can take the time to enjoy it. “And they cook for me!” he says, modestly.

A Frozen Flower Film poster

A Frozen Flower (Hangul: 쌍화점; RR: Ssanghwajeom) is a 2008 South Korean film directed by Yu Ha. The particularly controversial story is about the characters’ violation of royal family protocol and their pursuit of love. The film is set in Goryeo Dynasty Korea and stars Jo In-sung, Ju Jin-mo and Song Ji-hyo.

A Frozen Flower is based on a true story from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) Korea, and takes its title from a song of that era which described the sexual relationships between men and women. It is the fifth feature film by director Yoo Ha, who wanted to make a change from his previous works by doing a historical film, saying, "I always felt uncomfortable with the genre but I felt I should try to overcome those feelings. It is also a new challenge for me to focus on a melodrama". He also stated that the film was "a love story between men".

Jo In-sung was on board from the beginning of the project, and having turned down other acting roles to make A Frozen Flower his last work before enlisting for military service. He chose to appear in the film without knowing the exact details and having faith in the director following their earlier collaboration in 2005 on A Dirty Carnival. Jo began training for the role in August 2007, learning martial arts, fencing, horse riding and geomungo. The casting of Ju Jin-mo as the king was announced in December 2007.

The budget for A Frozen Flower was $10 million,[6] and the film went into production on 16 April 2008. It was the first film to shoot at the newly built Jeonju Cinema Studio.

The king of Goryeo Dynasty Korea attempts to shake off the dominance of Yuan Dynasty China and establish an autonomous state. He forms a palace guard composed of thirty six young soldiers, led by military commander Hong-rim.

The only way for the King to be able to protect his throne and establish an autonomous state is if he would have a son through his wife, the Queen. However, he is unable to make love to the queen from Yuan because he is in love with his bodyguard, Hong Lim. As the threats to his throne arise, he is forced to send Hong Lim to make love to his queen. This sexual contact formulates a forbidden love between Hong Lim and the Queen.

They continue their relationship through their meeting up at midnight in the library. Their love is so strong that it even led Hong Lim to not follow the King's orders. The King begins to have suspicions of Hong Lim's infidelity. Hong Lim, in turn, asks the Queen to stay away from him, after which he goes to the King to beg for forgiveness. Meanwhile, the Queen attempts to kill herself by slitting her wrists but fails. The King forgives him after learning that Hong Lim's involvement with the Queen was purely lust. He decides to overlook the everything that had happened and instead send Hong Lim away for a while to have him cool his mind.

The night before Hong Lim's departure, the Queen's personal maid secretly informs him that the Queen wishes to meet him for one last time. She also bears news that the Queen has finally conceived. Hong Lim sneaks out of the King's bedside to meet the Queen in the library. They end up making love in the library, and the King catches them in act. When the two lovers attempt to save the other by begging the King to "kill me instead," the King realizes how strong their love for each other is. In a fit of jealousy, he has Hong Lim castrated and sent to prison. The queen finds a way for Hong Lim to escape with the aid of Hong Lim's dearest subordinates.

Upon finding that Hong Lim had escaped, the King demands to know where he is from the Queen, who refuses to answer. In response, he kills her personal maid. The King is aware that the Queen is with child and by this time, everyone who was aware that the Queen's child was not the King's was exterminated.

Meanwhile Hong Lim, upon realizing that the Queen is still in the palace and not on the run as his subordinates told him in order to quickly escape, heads towards the palace on horseback despite his subordinate's protests. However, he stops in his journey when he realizes how futiles it would be. He returns to the refuge where his subordinates took him to but find that they have been captured. At the palace, the King tortures subordinates to find the whereabouts of Hong Lim, and when they remain silent, beheads them. Their heads are put up in posts on the palace gates along with the queen's personal maid. But the female head has the queen's necklace leading Hong Lim to believe the queen was also killed; an act to entice him to return to enact revenge. When Hong Lim sees this, he is enraged and goes to the King to kill him. An intense sword fight ensues. However, the King manages to stab Hong Lim at the shoulder, and while he is pinned, he asks Hong Lim a last question; whether or not Hong Lim had ever felt real love for the King. Hong Lim replies that he had never felt love for him. At this the King is shocked, giving Hong Lim time to throw a lethal stab of his own sword through the King. One of the royal guards, having watched part of the battle, now intervenes by fatally stabbing Hong Lim. The queen comes upon the scene with the guards and calls out for Hong Lim, however he turns his head from her and faces the dead king as he dies, implying that he may have loved both the King and the Queen but always the King until the end. The last few seconds of the film shows a flashback to when the King showed young Hong Lim the view of the city and asked if Hong Lim wished to live together, to which the young Hong Lim replied yes. The film ends on a montage of the King and Hong Lim happily hunting together.