Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Undulatus asperatus (or alternately, asperatus) is a rare, newly recognized cloud formation, that was proposed in 2009 as the first cloud formation added since cirrus intortus in 1951 to the International Cloud Atlas of the World Meteorological Organization. The name translates approximately as roughened or agitated waves.
Margaret LeMone, a cloud expert with the National Center for Atmospheric Research has taken photos of asperatus clouds for 30 years, and considers it a likely new cloud type. On June 20, 2006 Jane Wiggins took a picture of asperatus clouds from the window of a downtown office building in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In 2009 Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, came across the image and began working through the Royal Meteorological Society to promote the cloud type. Wiggins' photograph was posted on the National Geographic website on June 4, 2009.
The clouds are most closely related to undulatus clouds. Although they appear dark and storm-like, they tend to dissipate without a storm forming. The ominous-looking clouds have been particularly common in the Plains states of the United States, often during the morning or midday hours following convective thunderstorm activity. As of June, 2009 the Royal Meteorological Society is gathering evidence of the type of weather patterns in which undulus asperatus clouds appear, so as to study how they form and decide whether they are distinct from other undulatus clouds.
Whipped into fantastical shapes, these clouds hang over the darkening landscape like the harbingers of a mighty storm.
But despite their stunning and frequent appearances, the formations have yet to be officially recognised with a name.
They have been seen all over Britain in different forms - from Snowdonia to the Scottish Highlands - and in other parts of the world such as New Zealand, but usually break up without producing a storm.
Stunning but undefined: The clouds loom over the skies of New Zealand - but unfortunately words can't describe this dramatic vision from the heavens
And some experts believe the stormy weather phenomenon deserves its very own classification.
Experts at the Royal Meteorological Society are now attempting to make it official by naming it 'Asperatus' after the Latin word for 'rough'.
If they are successful, it would be the first variety of cloud formation to be given a new label in over half a century
'It is a bit like looking at the surface of a choppy sea from below,' said Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, who identified the cloud from photographs sent in by members.
Dramatic: The ribbons across the sky look like a 'choppy sea viewed from below'
We try to identify and classify all of the images of clouds we get in, but there were some that just didn't seem to fit in any of the other categories, so I began to think it might be a unique type of cloud.'
He added: 'The underside of the clouds are quite rough and choppy. It looks very stormy, but some of the reports we have been getting suggest that they tend to break up without actually turning into a storm.'
The Royal Meteorological Society is now gathering detailed information for the days and locations where the asperatus clouds have been seen in an attempt to understand exactly what is causing them.
Officials will then apply to the UN's World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva to have the new cloud type considered for addition into the International Cloud Atlas, the system used by meteorologists across the globe.
Professor Paul Hardaker, Chief Executive of the RMS, said: 'There would probably need to be quite a lot of heat around to produce the energy needed to generate such dramatic cloud formations.
'They are quite dark structures so there must be a lot of water vapour condensing in the cloud.'
Skies over Scotland: This scene from Perthshire could help confirm the new 'Asperatus' classification
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- Australia bizarre Rolling Cube Home
South Australia most bizarre Rolling Cube Home
SHANE Hendriks likes to think outside the square, but prefers to live inside a cube.
The Port Elliot house designer and builder is turning heads with his latest effort, based on a rolling cube.
"I decided on a cubism design element just to do something completely different," he said. Royal Australian Institute of Architects SA president Andrew Vorrasi said the design looked a "little bit odd".
"In fairness, though, it depends how it all comes together when it's completed," he said.
Mr Vorrasi said people were becoming more "design savvy" but this house was unique.
Not everyone is enamoured with the design, with one local describing it as a "plane crash", saying: "It's hard to judge now but you have to say it looks a little ugly."
The partly built three-bedroom home has energy-efficient features, including thermal walls made from hebel – a form of aerated concrete – and wall vents. "I wanted to take it to the extremes and really challenge myself from an engineering and conceptual point of view," Mr Hendriks said.
The architect, who has his own business, Advanced Building Constructions, started the project in July last year and spends his weekends working on the house.
He planned to finish the building by the end of the year and move in with his wife and children, who had been "very supportive and generous".
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- Crocosaurus Cove "The Cage of Death"
Crocosaurus Cove "The Cage of Death"
Without the cage you wouldn't stand a chance swimming with a massive saltwater crocodile.
But for brave punters who still want to get cosy with a feisty croc, a new Australian tourist attraction is offering the chance for a close encounter in the safety of a clear acrylic box dubbed the 'cage of death'.
Just 4cm of acrylic, a pair of goggles and a swimsuit, will separate thrill-seekers from the jaws of Choppa, a saltwater crocodile.
Close encounter: A tourist dives into a cage partially immersed in a crocodile pen at Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, Australia
The cage has no bars, unlike cages used in shark dives, which prevents the reptiles from gripping on but deep teeth scratches are visible on the sides, deterring some hesitant participants.
Top End tourists climb into the clear box before being lowered into Choppa's lair.
They then spend 15 minutes inside the 9ft high cage and watch Choppa, who lost both front feet while fighting other crocodiles, trying to take a bite out of them
Getting cosy: Choppa the crocodile looks like he's 'affectionately' trying to hug the dare-devil tourist
The attraction at Crocosaurus Cove in the heart of the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory has been given high marks by adrenaline-junkies.
'This is it!' said self-confessed thrill-seeker Mark Clayton from Darwin after spending 20 minutes face-to-face with the crocodiles.
'I dive with sharks, large rays, moray eels ... but it's not this close. It's exhilarating to get that close to a crocodile of that size.'
Face-to-face: The experience is made even more thrilling for tourists because the cage has no bars
Saltwater crocodiles, known locally as "salties," are the largest crocodile species, with the males growing up to 19.6ft long and weighing up to 2,204lbs.
They are found in across Southeast Asia but the highest numbers are found in northern Australia.
Michael Scott, who opened the attraction in July, said there was plenty of demand for the £35 thrill.
'In the Northern Territory, the saltwater crocodile is an icon and is part of our life. They are always in the news, either in someone's swimming pool or killing someone's favourite horse,' Mr Scott said.
Hunting for food: Up to two people are allowed in the cage at the one time
The most famous crocodile to be housed at the park is Burt, who starred as the beast that nearly ate Linda Koslowski’s character in Crocodile Dundee.
Although saltwater crocodiles are dangerous, fatal attacks on humans are rare in Australia with only one or two reported a year.
Warning signs are displayed at rivers, lake and beaches in areas inhabited by crocodiles.
Dicing with danger: Swimming face-to-face with a massive saltwater crocodile might not be everyone's idea of fun but thrill-seekers are snapping up Australia's newest tourist attraction
The most recent fatality was reported last month in Queensland when the suspected remains of a British man were found inside a crocodile.
Arthur Booker, 62, was last seen checking crab pots on a crocodile-infested river in the state's north.
Update:- View Crocosaurus Cove "The Cage of Death" Video
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- World's Most Flexible Women
World's Most Flexible Women
Here are some photos of extremely flexible and limber women. One wonders if they have any bones at all!
Some ways to improve flexibility are through Yoga, Pilates, Ballet, Tai Chi, martial arts and swimming. The people in the following pictures seem to be naturally gifted though!
Update:-View World's Most Flexible Women Video
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- Marble Caves of Rio Tranquilo, Chile
Most Impressive Attractions Marble Caves of Rio Tranquilo, Chile
Located in the Coyhaique province, Chile, the Marble Caves are some of the most impressive attractions of Patagonia.
Las Cavernas de Marmol, as the Spanish call them were created by the clear waters of Rio Tranquilo that dug into a giant limestone peninsula, creating an impressive labyrinth of caves. The peninsula is known as the Marble Cathedral and can be reached by boat, during a guided tour.
Update:- View Marble Caves of Rio Tranquilo, Chile Video
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- Knight created by Salvation Mountain
Leonard Knight created by Salvation Mountain colorful
Salvation Mountain is a colorful art installation covering much of a small hill north of Calipatria, California, near Slab City. It is made from adobe, straw, and thousands of gallons of paint. It was created by Leonard Knight to convey the message that "God Loves Everyone". Mr. Knight refused substantial donations of money and labor from supporters who wished to modify his message of universal love to favor or disfavor particular groups. Salvation Mountain is the second most visited tourist attraction in Imperial County.
Steps cut into the side of the hill lead to the summit which is topped by a cross. Salvation Mountain also features many large straw bale and adobe walls supported my a matrix of logs enclosing several cave-like spaces. Knight lives full-time at the site in a small cabin mounted on the rear of a 1930s-vintage Chevrolet two-ton truck. Like Salvation Mountain, Knight's Salvation Truck and a collection of other vehicles and machinery are entirely covered with paint and Biblical quotes. He estimates that more than 100,000 gallons of paint have gone into the creation of the mountain and that every California-based paint manufacturer has donated paint to the project.
Friendly and accessible, Knight welcomes visitors to Slab City and Salvation Mountain and gladly accepts donations of both labor and acrylic paint. Once labeled an environmental hazard, the hill was threatened with removal by Imperial County. In recent years, the furor seems to have died down and the project has been likened to an epic work of folk art comparable to the Watts Towers. Although the project is an unauthorized one on state land, Salvation Mountain was placed under protection in 2002 when Senator Barbara Boxer entered it into the Congressional Record as a national treasure.
Salvation Mountain was featured in the 2007 film Into the Wild, as well as several documentaries including Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, Desertopia, and Mountain.
It can also be seen on the back cover photographs of the Kyuss albums...And The Circus Leaves Town and Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss.
Update: View Leonard Knight created by Salvation Mountain Video
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- Beautiful Seashell Temple in Bangkok
Beautiful Seashell Temple in Bangkok
Beautiful Seashell Temple "Temple of the Dawn" in Bangkok. The seashells and bits of porcelain used to make the mosaic designs had previously been used as ballast by boats coming to Bangkok from China. The full name of the temple is Wat Arunratchawararam Ratchaworamahavihara.
Update:- View Beautiful Seashell Temple in Bangkok Video
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- Batmobile Replica Seen in Sweden
Batmobile Replica Seen in Sweden
So here’s the deal. Somebody in Stockholm, Sweden has spent over $1 million USD and 3.5 years of his life (roughly 20,000 hours) to rebuild the classic Batmobile vehicle seen in Tim Burton’s 1989 version of Batman.
The replica Batmobile is packed with gadgets and has built in satellite navigation, voice recognition, machine guns, reversing cameras, a DVD player, a Plasma TV and even height adjustable bodywork.
Update:- View Batmobile Replica Seen in Sweden Video
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- Upside Down House in Germany
Upside Down House in Germany
A house that is entirely upside-down opened its doors to the public on the northern German island of Usedom this week.
The family-sized house, designed by Polish partners Klausdiusz Golos and Sebastian Mikiciuk for the Edutainment exhibition company, is furnished with chairs, tables and carpets stuck to the ceiling.
"We didn't do it for a reason. We just wanted to do something different," Mikiciuk told Reuters .
Over 100 people have inspected the house since it was opened on Thursday.
Upon entering the construction, visitors have reported feeling dizzy and disorientated. Although the house is safe, Mikiciuk said nobody would inhabit it permanently and it was meant purely as an exhibit.
"It was very difficult to make, and we financed it ourselves without the help of sponsors," Mikiciuk says. They were inspired by a range of similar buildings in Spain and America, in which the exterior of the house is upside-down, but not the interior.
Update: View Upside Down House in Germany Video
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- Masatrigo Hill Nature’s Perfect Cone
Ok, so maybe it’s not exactly perfect, but Masatrigo Hill, or Cerro Masatrigo is as close as you can get to finding a natural cone-shaped landmark.
Cerro Masatrigo, or Masatrigo Hill, is a cone-shaped hill located in Badajoz province (Extremadura autonomous community) in western Spain. Geographically Masatrigo Hill also lies in the territory of La Siberia district, or comarca as it is called in Spain. La Siberia is a land of varying terrain. In the southern part of the district lies the foothills of the Sierra Morena mountain range which can be responsible for the Masatrigo Hill too. Two major rivers - The Guadiana River and The Zujar River - flow through the region, creating vast peneplains in the less mountainous areas. The region's inhabitants have created several reservoirs along the rivers, providing locals with ample water resources. The Hill is located on the La Serena reservoir, which is the largest in Spain and the second largest in Europe. La Serena alone holds 6% of the country's water. Because of all the reservoirs, La Siberia contains the longest inland coastline of any region of Spain. This reservoir has always been a summer tourist center.
Showing a perfect volcano shape Cerro Masatrigo has always been mistakenly called an extinct volcano and even given a name of “magic mountain”. And while there are still some dark spots in the hill’s geological history, it is all clear with its morphological history with Masatrigo meaning literally a “wheat dough”.
Update: View Masatrigo Hill Nature’s Perfect Cone video
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- Sipho Mabona art creating with a paper These are the incredible folded fauna and intricate insects made from paper that look just like the real thing.
The amazing paper pieces of art - each from a single sheet of paper - are the work of 29-year-old origami expert Sipho Mabona.
He started making paper planes when he was just five-years-old but his passion for paper meant he ran out of designs for the planes by the time he was 15.
The artist then turned his eye to other inspirations for his next artwork taking tips from nature and the environment.
Artist paper art creating himself Sipho Manbona
At first glance it looks like a praying mantis. However closer exmination reveals it to be a work of origami and only the leaf and stem are real
Koi blimey! A large version of the fish prepares to take a dive into the water
Origami expert Sipho Mabona started making paper planes when he was just five years old but his passion for paper meant he ran out of designs for the planes by the time he was 15. He then began to take inspiration from nature as this stunning stag beetle shows
His amazing insects, birds and folded fish are so detailed they are almost capable of fooling the naked eye into thinking they are real.
His incredibly intricate designs sell for more than £1,500 and are exhibited in galleries in Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Spain and France.
And he is now set to bring his art to the UK next year.
Each piece can take up to 20 hours to fold and take more than six months to design.
Sipho was the first-ever foreigner to be invited to the Japan Origami Academic Society (JOAS) Convention in 2008 and his work graced the cover of the official magazine.
Clever creations: A grasshopper
tiger are further examples of Sipho's art
A shoal of koi carp. A single piece of art from him can sell for up to £1,500
He said: 'I started folding paper planes as a child and then went on to do origami ten years ago.
The inspiration for me can be anything, from insects like the praying mantis, to fish, birds ,the weather and the landscape.
'The time it takes to make each piece differs from figure to figure.
'The quickest would probably be a Koi carp, but even that takes me around one hour to fold.
'On the other hand for things like the praying mantis I took 20 hours of solid folding.
'But designing the models is what takes quite some time usually. That can be anywhere from a day to six months of off and on work.
'I sell my work for prices for a single piece range anywhere from 300 to 2,500 swiss francs, or £1,500.
'All representational models are made from one single uncut square of paper. Some abstract models are folded from one uncut rectangle.'
Sipho, whose mother is Swiss and his father South African, was born and raised in Switzerland.
Nativity scene
Colourful cascade of carp descend across a white backdrop
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- Top 3 Various facial treatment 1) chocolate facial treatment
Facial treatment using organic chocolate, deeply nourishing for smooth skin.
A woman receives a massage and chocolate facial treatment at the Eurochocolate festival in Perugia, Italy, October 14, 2006.2) face plastic mask
A woman has her face covered with a plastic mask while receiving a facial treatment at a beauty fair in Bucharest March 1, 20073) Gold Facial Treatment
Restore your skin with the ultimate skin rejuvenating treatment, 24 Karat Gold. UMO, a Japanese beauty company, has introduced the gold facial as a new way of skin treatment by using a sheet of pure gold. The company claims that gold can lift and firm skin, reduce the appearanc of fine lines and wrinkles, lighten and brithen skin. The treatment costs 30,000 yen ($250).
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- Yahoo Office in Japan
Yahoo Office in Japan
Yahoo! was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 1, 1995.
On January 13, 2009, Yahoo! appointed Carol Bartz, former executive chairperson of Autodesk, as its new chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors.
Some photos of the inside of the Yahoo! Japan Office. It contain all the facilities need for the workers to work.
According to Web traffic analysis companies (including Compete.com, comScore,Alexa Internet, Netcraft, and Nielsen Ratings), the domain yahoo.com attracted at least 1.575 billion visitors annually by 2008. The global network of Yahoo! websites receives 3.4 billion page views per day on average as of October 2007. It is the second most visited website in the world in May 2009
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- Youtube Office in San Bruno California
Youtube Office in San Bruno California
YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google.
The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging and short original videos. Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, the BBC, UMG and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.
Unregistered users can watch the videos, while registered users are permitted to upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos that are considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users over the age of 18. The uploading of videos containing defamation, pornography, copyright violations, and material encouraging criminal conduct is prohibited by YouTube's terms of service. Accounts of registered users are called "channels".
YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal. Hurley studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
According to a story that has often been repeated in the media, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen developed the idea for YouTube during the early months of 2005, after they had experienced difficulty sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at Chen's apartment in San Francisco. Jawed Karim did not attend the party and denied that it had occurred, and Chad Hurley commented that the idea that YouTube was founded after a dinner party "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible."
YouTube began as a venture-funded technology startup, primarily from a US$11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006. YouTube's early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California. The domain name www.youtube.com was activated on February 15, 2005, and the website was developed over the subsequent months. The first YouTube video was entitled Me at the zoo, and shows founder Jawed Karim at San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23, 2005, and can still be viewed on the site.
YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005, six months before the official launch in November 2005. The site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. According to data published by market research company comScore, YouTube is the dominant provider of online video in the United States, with a market share of around 43 percent and more than six billion videos viewed in January 2009. It is estimated that 20 hours of new videos are uploaded to the site every minute, and that around three quarters of the material comes from outside the United States. It is also estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000. In March 2008, YouTube's bandwidth costs were estimated at approximately US$1 million a day. Alexa ranks YouTube as the fourth most visited website on the Internet, behind Google, Yahoo! and Facebook.
The choice of the name www.youtube.com led to problems for a similarly named website, www.utube.com. The owner of the site, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being overloaded on a regular basis by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to www.utubeonline.com.
In October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for US$1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13, 2006. Google does not provide detailed figures for YouTube's running costs, and YouTube's revenues in 2007 were noted as "not material" in a regulatory filing. In June 2008 a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at US$200 million, noting progress in advertising sales.
In November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment and CBS which will allow the companies to post full-length films and television shows on the site, accompanied by advertisements. The move is intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC, Fox, and Disney.
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- Birth of a Hummingbird
Birth of a Hummingbird
Incredible pictures of a hummingbird, from egg to leaving the nest. It is hard to imagine just how small they are from the pictures, so keep in mind the opening of the nest is about the size of a quarter!
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- Snake Eats Giant Lizard
Eyewitnesses say, that it took a total of 5 hours for the snake to finish off the goanna.
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- Hotel made up of 200,000 keycards If you’ve ever wondered what to do with unwanted hotel key cards, then think no more.
Because, providing you've somehow amassed 200,000 plastic slips, the solution is simple – use them to build your own guest house.
That, at least, is what one hotel chain decided to do.
Plastic palace: Bryan Berg sits in the hotel bedroom he made from key cards
Relaxing A woman takes a rest on a sofa in the hotel, and is if she plays her cards right she might get room-service
Holiday Inn’s Key Card Hotel, which opened yesterday in New York, includes a guest bedroom, bathroom and lobby, all fully equipped with life-sized furniture all made out of, yes, well, you get the point.
The 400 sq ft, two-ton construction in Manhattan , which will be in business until September 21, was built by world record-holding 'card-stacker' Bryan Berg.
He said: ‘This is my largest card-stacking challenge to date and the only card creation I have ever made at full human scale.’
During the five day event, Mr Berg will build a freestanding 9ft replica of New York’s Empire State Building in the lobby using Holiday Inn playing cards.
'You'll slot in nicely here': Manhattan's Key Card Hotel reception
'Your card, madam': The hotel is made from 200,000 cards weighing two tons
It marks the relaunch of the chains 1,200 hotels around the world.
Kevin Kowalski, senior vice president of global brand management at Holiday Inn, said:
‘The Key Card Hotel is a fun and interactive way to showcase the changes happening at our hotels and is the only structure of its kind to ever be created by a hotel brand.’
Mr Berg first broke the world record for World's Tallest House of Freestanding Playing Cards in 1992 at the age of 17, with a tower 14ft 6in.
Since then, he has been commissioned to break his own record ten times.
Key feature: A toilet showing how the cards are arranged using both sides
Cardstacker Bryan Berg tries out the flush on his toilet at the New York hotel
His most recent tallest record was a 25ft 9in inch tall tower built at the African-American Museum at Dallas, Texas.
For this record, he tried a new technique involving stacking cards vertically instead of horizontally, which reduced the number of cards needed by nearly half.
In 2004, Guinness created a new record category for World's Largest House of Freestanding Playing Cards to recognize a project Mr Berg built for a replica or Cinderella’s Castle for Walt Disney World in Florida.
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- eco-house made from Plastic Bottles
Interesting eco-house fascinates tourists in Argentina
Apart from the breathtaking Iguazu Falls, one of the most important tourist attractions in the Iguazu area is the House of Plastic Bottles, built out of plastic bottles and other recyclable materials.
Alfredo Alberto Santa Cruz got the idea of building a house from plastic bottles while he was creating a playhouse for his little daughter. After he finished it, he noticed the plastic the structure was pretty sturdy and realized he was on to something. That’s when he decided to build a one-bedroom cottage out of plastic bottles, for him and his family.
Mr. Santa Cruz’s bottle house features a bed, chairs, shelves and even a fake hanging plant, all made out of PET bottles. Practically everything inside the house is recyclable, apart from the wood framing and a few metal bolts. The walls are made from 2-liter plastic bottles, while the roof consists of hundreds of tetrapak cartons (the boxes you drink juice from). Alfredo has flattened them into shingles and turn them aluminum side up, to reflect the sun and keep the place cool. They would only last for 4-5 years, due to rains, but he covered them up with a layer of plastic, cut from bottles and says this combo could last even 20 years.
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The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held Thursday, May 16, 1929, at the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to honor outstanding film achievements of 1927 and 1928. It was hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. deMille. The 81st Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 2008, was held on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, with actor Hugh Jackman hosting the ceremony.
It may take decades for someone to win an Oscar, but creating Hollywood's golden object of desire takes but a few days.
It takes about a week-and-a-half to create each Academy Award at R.S. Owens, the Chicago-based manufacturer of the coveted gold statuette.
The figurines cost an estimated $18,000, but are "worth millions to the recipients," says Scott Siegel, president of R.S. Owens.
The process of making each 13-and-a-half-inch, 8-and-a-half-pound statuette begins with casting a mold. The mold is cast using a combination of tin, copper and antimony that's the highest grade of pewter available -- along with a few secret ingredients, according to Siegel.
Once cast, the statuette is sanded down and polished "until there are no flaws," Siegel says.
After roughly an hour of polishing, the statuette is electroplated with four different finishes: copper, nickel, silver and a heavy layer of 24-carat gold. The statuette is hand dipped into each of the plating materials.
Once the plating is completed, the Oscar figure is screwed onto its metal base. Each statuette also is numbered. The academy began numbering statuettes in 1949, starting with No. 501.
"We've been making about 50 to 60 each year," Siegel says.
No nameplates attached
According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, once the statuettes are completed, each award is individually packed into a plastic foam container slightly larger than a shoe box.
Eight of the containers are then placed in a cardboard box and shipped by air express to the Academy's offices in Beverly Hills, California. The boxes are shipped with no identifiable markings, according to the academy.
After the awards, R.S. Owens also engraves the plates with the names of the winners and sends the plates out to Hollywood to be affixed to the statuettes.
Any statuettes that don't meet strict quality-control standards are immediately cut in half and melted down, according to the academy.
Keeping it clean
R.S. Owens works a year ahead of schedule, so the statuettes that will be awarded on Sunday were made last year. That's partly because of the theft of 55 statuettes on March 10, 2000. They vanished while en route from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Fifty-two statuettes were recovered nine days later next to a trash bin in Los Angeles. They were discovered by salvage man Willie Fulgear, who attended the awards that year as a special guest.
R.S. Owens also works on its creations after the Oscars have been awarded. According to the academy, R.S. Owens has repaired more than 160 statuettes since 1995.
"Maybe somebody used chemicals on them to polish them and the chemicals rubbed right through the lacquer and into the gold," Siegel says. "Or maybe people stored them someplace where they corroded."
Should you ever win an Oscar, here's Siegel's advice: "If it gets dusty, simply wipe it with a soft, dry cloth."
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