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Ksenia, Russia, by Claudio Oliverio.

via Portrait★Faces

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• Most bloggers are 21-35 years old
• 51% of all blog posts are written by females
• USA contributes to a third of all blog posts, followed by the UK
• Japan accounts for the third-most bloggers (4.9%), followed by Brazil (4.2%), Canada (3.9%), Germany (3.3%), Italy (3.2%), Spain (3.1%), France (2.9%) and Russia (2.3%).
• California had the highest share of bloggers in the US
• Ontario was the top province in Canada

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China has had a significant drop in the amount of spam originating from that country, falling out of the top twelve and coming in at 15th place for relaying just 1.9 percent of the world’s spam.

The top twelve spam relaying countries for January to March 2010

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"All eyes aren’t so much on which countries are on the list, but the one which isn’t. China has earned itself a bad reputation in many countries’ eyes for being the launch pad of targeted attacks against foreign companies and government networks, but at least in the last 12 months they have demonstrated that the proportion of spam relayed by their computers has steadily declined," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"South Korea, Brazil, India and the United States account for more than 30% of all the spam relayed by hacked computers around the globe."

Spam accounts for a  97% of all email received by business email servers, putting both a strain on resources and accounting for a huge amount of time to lost productivity.
 

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Before the era of globalized entertainment made movie posters look the same in every country, Polish artists were creating their own versions for the internal market. What resulted was a whole school of artists trained in the art of the poster. This article presents a short historical look at how this movement was born and how it developed, form its art-related beginnings at the end of the 19th Century to the golden era of the film posters throughout the 20th Century.

The Beginnings

Toward the end of the 19th Century Poland was still absent from the maps. Its territory was split and controlled by Russia, Austria and Prussia. While Warsaw, then under Russian rule, was the biggest economic, trade and industrial center of the non-existent country, Krakow, under the less oppressive Austria, soon established itself as a cradle for artistic, cultural, scientific, political and religious life, becoming the ideal capital of the nation.

Krakow was populated by writers, poets and artists who had travelled Europe and had come in contact with the modernist cultural trends of the time. The poster had just been born in France at the hand of Jules Chéret following the invention of color lithography. Influenced by the achievements of the French masters of this new art form, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec above all, these Polish artists chose the poster as the new medium of expression. They were well respected, connected with the Academy Of Fine Arts and members of the Society of Polish Artists “Sztuka” (Art). The poster thus became acceptable as a form of art.

The first Polish posters appeared in the 1890’s at the hand of outstanding painters like Jozef Mehoffer, Stanislaw Wyspianski, Karol Frycz, Kazimierz Sichulski and Wojciech Weiss. Influenced by the Jugendstil and the Secessionist movements, understandably they painted posters that were art-related, announcing exhibitions, theater and ballet performances. Their work was vastly popular, which led to the first International Exposition of the Poster being held in Krakow in 1898.

Jugendstil, Secession, Japanism and modernist styles like Cubism were mixed with traditional elements of symbolism and national folklore. What set the Polish posters apart from their European counterparts was the emphasis placed on the highly artistic quality of the project, an attitude that will continue to characterize the Polish poster throughout the 20th century.

Jozef Mehoffer – Furniture Lottery for Matejko’s House (1899)

Edward Trojanowski – Print Exhibition (1904)

Jozef Czajkowski – 1st Exhibition of the Polish Company of Applied Art (1902)

Karol Frycz – Rolling papers advertisement (1908)

Wojciech Jastrzebowski – Swoszowice Health resort near Krakow (1907). A fine example of Japanism.

Jozef Mehoffer – Contemporary Art Exhibition (1910)

Kazimierz Sichulski – Contemporary Polish Exhibition of Architecture, Sculpture and Painting (1910)

Jan Bulas – Symphonic Concert (1910). A poster inspired by Expressionism.

Henryk Kunzek – Forward (1910)

Jozef Czajkowski – Interior architecture exhibition (1912)

Jan Rembowski – First Spring Salon (1914)

Jan Wdowiszewski from 1891 to 1904 was the director of the Technical Industrial Museum in Krakow. He was the organizer of the International Poster Exhibition in 1898, for which he wrote two essays, the first of their kind, entirely devoted to the art of the poster. He immediately recognized the power of the poster to act like a mirror for society’s physical and mental way of life. This was especially true of the exhibition posters, which promptly reflected every trend and influence coming from the West. The strong drive to promote the national style, as a means to a true political independence, was also faithfully recorded in the street art.

Stefan Norblin and the Touristic Poster

The period between the two World Wars sees Poland finally reappearing on the maps. The twenty years of independence are marked by a stunning growth in all industries. Tourism, especially, is at its height. Stefan Norblin is appointed to create a series of posters with the intent of promoting Poland as a tourist resort.

First and foremost a painter rooted in the school of realistic representation, Norblin approaches the poster the way he approaches the canvas. He makes use of obvious imagery to secure immediate reading from the viewer. Although characterized by recognizable forms and silhouettes, his works remain stunning for the stark choice of “neon” colors. They are not of an Expressionist nature but they create an irreal atmosphere around familiar objects. This and the minimalist style confer his posters a timeless quality.

Sale for the poor (1916)

Polska (Poland), 1925

Gdynia, 1925

Lwow (Lviv), 1928

Wilno (Vilnius), 1928

Poland – Divine Service at Lowicz (1925)

“Peasants!!! Support the national contemporary exhibition!!!” (1929)

Toy (1933)

Tadeusz Gronowski: Father of the Polish Poster

After the First World War Poland finally gained independence (1918). With it came a rapid process of industrialization and development of trade. The market was suddently saturated with different products hence the need for powerful advertising. The poster became its medium of choice. The advertising poster of the 1920’s and 1930’s differs from its highly elaborated artistic predecessors in that it utilises a simpler, more direct visual language to communicate with the viewer.

This was a requirement of the market made possible by Cubism, a style that forever freed art from beauty and ugliness, from the necessity to imitate nature. Architects, especially students from Warsaw University, were the most receptive creators of posters during this period. They were not weighed down by the academic ballast as were the painters of the previous generation. They were naturally inclined to apply the rules of geometry to commercial uses. It is among these students that we find the figure of Tadeusz Gronowski.

A gifted student, Gronowski was the first to specialize in poster art. Influenced by European art movements (he was well connected in Paris in the Twenties) he singlehandedly created the art of the Polish poster. Catering to the new necessities with which graphic art was confronted, advertising, he took advantage of the full spectrum of techniques available to the artist at the time to create the most striking advertisements of the period. His work shows a transition to the newest tool, the airbrush, resulting in softer lines and backgrounds. His advertising posters remain a milestone in the development of what came to be known as the School of the Polish poster.

In contrast to Stefan Norblin, Gronowski, himself an accomplished painter, approaches the poster as a medium unto itself. Instead of merely adapting his painterly style to the poster format, he sees in it the opportunity to create something new, indeed a new form of artistic expression. He is one of the first artists to consciously integrate the typography with the illustration and instead of choosing the obvious he offers the viewer a different look into the subject, often displaying a penchant for the light and the humorous which endeared him to the viewers.

The next image portrays one of his earliest works. Even though the text is not incorporated in the image, the composition is clear. The cat and the artist’s faint smile add his trademark touch of humor to the painting.

Artistic Lithography (1920)

A true master of the advertising poster, Gronowski blends the mundane with the artistic in a seamless composition.

Tire (1923)

Tire (1923)

S.A. Staporkow (1924). The radiator as architecture on a modern industrial background.

Ceres Lard “To die for…” (1926)

Gronowski founded his own studio in Warsaw and aptly named it Plakat, i.e. Poster.

Poster for his own studio “Plakat” (1925)

The next poster is particularly important in Gronowski’s production. An advertisement for a washing product named Radion, its slogan reads “It washes by itself.” The artwork is minimalistic and to the point: a black cat enters a bucket full of Radion and jumps out all white. A clear message amplified by the stark chromatic contrast and the essential lines.

Radion “It washes by itself” (1926)

The next pieces exemplify the evolution towards integrated designs. The typography is part of the composition.

Literary News (1925)

Oaza Restaurant Dancing (1926)

KAGR – Circle of Advertising Graphic Artists (1936)

Marine Baths in Gdynia (1938). Gronowski’s rendition of the touristic poster.

1st Polish Peace Congress (1950)

The Warsaw Architects

Gronowski’s work was continued into the Thirties by a group of architects educated in Warsaw under professors Zygmunt Kaminski and Edmund Bartlomiejczyk. At the University they learned to master the techniques of applied graphics. Architecture was seen as the Gesamtkunstwerk, the total artwork, the summation of all arts applied to a specific, practical function. Their hands-on approach lent itself beautifully in their transition from architects to graphic artists.

Responsible for this transition were economic reasons but also the will to work for contemporary society, which poster art was capable of immortalizing faithfully. Incidentally, these are the same reasons that today drive budding architects to graphic design: creating applied art with fast job turnarounds and satisfying economic turnover.

These architects turned graphic artists took Tadeusz Gronowski’s approach forward, combining it with a sense of composition and proportion naturally derived from their architectural background. Not only did they incorporate three-dimensionality in their works, they also adapted their style to the subject of the given poster, for example using a precise linework for posters depicting mechnical parts, humorous figures for posters depicting ballets and festive occasions and striking, dynamic compositions to illustrate sports events. Their work marks the transition of the Polish poster from narrative medium of the 19th century to modern advertising device of the 20th century.

Jan Mucharski – Dorm Week (1927)

Jerzy Hryniewiecki, Andrzej Stypinski – Eastern Trade Fair (1930)

Maciej Nowicki, Stanislawa Sandecka – Everyone Fight Against Tuberculosis (1934)

Maciej Nowicki, Stanislawa Sandecka – 2nd Meeting of Polish Youth from Abroad (1935)

Stefan Osiecki – The Lopek Dancing(1935)

The Propaganda Posters

After World War II Poland found itself under Communist rule. The new government needed to spread the new aesthetics and make the new institutions acceptable to the public. With that goal in mind the Propaganda Poster Studio was established in the city of Lublin.

Wlodzimerz Zakrzewski was a talented landscape painter and active member of the Communist Party who had studied painting in Moscow in 1940 and had designed posters for the Soviet Propaganda. He was therefore the perfect candidate to run the Studio. The military introduced patterns of representation borrowed from the Soviet poster tradition, propaganda graphics connected with the TASS, the Telegraphic Agency of the Soviet Union. Zakrzewski was given a list of catchphrases assigned to the propaganda. His task was to devise graphical rules to create a working method for propaganda posters.

Zakrzewski aimed to introduce a new visual language by basing his colorful images on verified patterns borrowed from the stylizations learned in Russia. He also acted as mentor to a number of what were, in fact, unprofessional poster artists. This experience marks the first time poster art was institutionalized in Poland, giving birth to the proper phenomenon that followed, the “Polish Poster School.”

The Propaganda Poster Workshop in Lublin. Wlodzimierz Zakrzewski sitting left. (1944)

Mieczyslaw Tomkiewicz – Poster designs for the workshop (1945)

Wlodzimierz Zakrzewski – “What the soldier wins by fighting the peasant will plow” (1944)

Wlodzimierz Zakrzewski – “Where Hitler sets foot the earth dies…” (1945)

Wlodzimierz Zakrzewski – The giant and the disgusting reactionary dwarf (1946)

Wlodzimierz Zakrzewski – Party (1955)

The 50’s and the 60’s: The Golden Age

The Fifties and the early Sixties mark the Golden Age of the Polish poster. Like everything else, the film industry was controlled by the state. There were two main institutions responsible for commissioning poster designs: Film Polski (Polish Film) and Centrala Wynajmu Filmow – CWF (Movie Rentals Central). They commissioned not graphic designers but artists and as such each one of them brought an individual voice to the designs.

The School of the Polish Poster is therefore not unified but rather diverse in terms of style. It wasn’t until the Mid-Fifities, though, that the school flourished. The fierce Stalinist rule had been lifted, once again leaving room for artistic expression. The classic works were created in the next ten years. Three important remarks must be made. First, at the time the poster was basically the only allowed form of individual artistic expression.

Second, the state wasn’t concerned much with how the posters looked. Third, the fact that the industry was state-controlled turned out to be a blessing in disguise: working outside the commercial constraints of a capitalist economy, the artists could fully express their potential. They had no other choice but to become professional poster designers and that’s why they devoted themselves so thoroughly to this art.

The Polish film poster is artist-driven, not studio-driven. It is more akin to fine art than commercial art. It is painterly rather than graphic. What sets the Polish poster apart from what we’re used to see in the West is a general disregard for the demands of the big studios. The artists requested and received complete artistic freedom and created powerful imagery inspired by the movies without actually showing them: no star headshots, no movie stills, no necessary direct connection to the title.

They are in this regard similar to the work of Saul Bass, a rare example of a Hollywood artist who enjoyed total freedom from the studios. Next to a typical Hollywood film poster with the giant headshots of the latest movie star and the title set in, you guessed it, Trajan Pro, the Polish film poster still looks fresh and inspiring today.

Without further analyzing a history that is best told in pictures let’s take a look at some of the many classic works created by the likes of Wiktor Gorka, Eryk Lipinski, Marek Mosinski, Jan Lenica, Jerzy Flisak and others.

Witkor Gorka

1966 – “Kaidan”, Japan 1964. Directed by Masaki Kobayashi.

1967 – “Cat Ballou”, US 1965. Directed by Elliot Silverstein.

1968 – “The Professionals”, US 1966. Directed by Richard Brooks.

1969 – “Deadlier Than the Male”, UK 1966. Directed by Ralph Thomas.

Jerzy Flisak

1958 – “Three Men in the Snow”, Austria 1955. Directed by Kurt Hoffmann.

1958 – “Pane, amore e..”, Italy 1955. Directed by Dino Risi.

1959 – “Rancho Texas”, Poland 1959. Directed by Wadim Berestowski. The first Polish western!

1959 – “Roman Holiday”, US 1953. Directed by William Wyler.

1962 – “The Hitman”, Italy 1960. Directed by Damiano Damiani.

1965 – “Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation”, US 1962. Directed by Henry Koster.

1967 – “Zwariowana Noc”, Poland 1967. Directed by Zbigniew Kuzminski.

1968 – “The Firemen’s Ball”, Czechoslovakia 1967. Directed by Milos Forman.

Jan Lenica

1957 – “Kanal”, Poland 1956. Directed by Andrzej Wajda.

1957 – “Il Bidone”, Italy 1955. Directed by Federico Fellini.

1958 – “The Deadly Invention”, Czechoslovakia 1958. Directed by Karel Zeman.

1962 – “Knife in the Water”, Poland. Directed by Roman Polanski.

1962 – “L’Avventura”, Italy – France 1960. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.

1965 – “The Visit”, Germany 1964. Directed by Bernhard Wicki.

Eryk Lipinski

1948 – “Uliczna Graniczna”, Poland. Directed by Aleksander Ford.

1955 – “One Sunday Morning”, Poland 1953. Directed by Andrzej Munk.

1958 – “Le Notti di Cabiria”, Italy 1957. Directed by Federico Fellini.

1961 – “Me and the Colonel”, US 1958. Directed by Peter Glenville.

1966 – “Le Soldatesse”, Italy/Yugoslavia/West Germany 1965. Directed by Valerio Zurlini.

Marek Mosinski

1968 – “Les Tontons flingueurs”, France 1963. Directed by Georges Lautner.

1968 – “King Kong Escapes”, Japan 1967. Directed by Inoshiro Honda.

1972 – “Infanzia, vocazione e primo esperienze di Giacomo Casanova, veneziano”, Italy 1969. Directed by Luigi Comencini

Other artists

Hubert Hilscher, 1957 – “The Man with the Golden Key”, France 1956. Directed by Leo Joannon.

Leszek Holdanowicz, 1966 – “Bariera”, Poland. Directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.

Waldemar Swierzy, 1957 – “Sunset Boulevard”, US 1950. Directed by Billy Wilder.

Wojciech Wenzel, 1959 – “Shane”, US 1953. Directed by George Stevens.

Maciej Hibner, 1962 – “Pickpocket”, France 1959. Directed by Robert Bresson.

Maciej Hibner, 1963 – “Two Way Stretch”, US 1960. Directed by Robert Day.

Bronislaw Zelek, 1965 – “The Birds”, US 1963. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Franciszek Starowieyski, 1967 – “A Woman Is a Woman”, France 1961. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard.

Bohdan Butenko, 1968 – “One Million Years B.C.”, UK 1966. Directed by Don Chaffey.

The 70’s and the 80’s: Decadence and Death

The School had its peak in the Mid-Sixties and during the following decade declined, much like art and advertising in the rest of the world. A few examples of posters from the Seventies follow.

Witkor Gorka

1973 – “2001 : A Space Odyssey”, US 1968. Directed by Stanley Kubrick.

1973 – “Cabaret”, US 1972. Directed by Bob Fosse.

1976 – “We Were So in Love”, Italy 1974. Directed by Ettore Scola.

1977 – “Marathon Man”, US 1976. Directed by John Schlesinger.

Jerzy Flisak

1971 – “Playtime”, France 1967. Directed by Jacques Tati.

1972 – “Sacco e Vanzetti”, Italy 1971. Directed by Giuliano Montaldo.

1973 – “El Dorado”, US 1967. Directed by Howard Hawks.

1973 – “Morgiana”, Czechoslovakia 1972. Directed by Juraj Herz.

1978 – “Brutti, sporchi e cattivi”, Italy 1976. Directed by Ettore Scola.

Eryk Lipinski

1970 – “Nie ma powrotu Johnny”, North Vietnam/Poland. Directed by Kaveh Pur Rahnama.

1970 – “Az Ido Ablakai”, Hungary 1969. Directed by Tamas Fejer.

1972 – “Sea in the fire”, Soviet Union 1971. Directed by Leon Saakow.

1975 – “The Day of the Jackal”, UK 1973. Directed by Fred Zinnemann.

The Eighties were marked by society’s strong opposition to the increasingly oppressive Communist rule, exemplified by the Solidarnosc movement. Poster art quietly dwindled through the decade. After 1989, when film distribution was privatized, it died.

Nowadays alternative film posters are created by numerous artists as exercise and showcase of their abilities. Such posters are typically printed in small runs and viewed and sold exclusively in art galleries.

Conclusion

Posters are very important in the Polish culture. During the Communist regime they were probably the only colorful things one would see in the streets.

A small but dedicated market for Polish posters has emerged over the years. Driven by more than just nostalgia, its aim is the preservation of what is both testament of a cultural heritage largely unknown outside its borders and an immense source of inspiration for today’s young artists. These collectibles are not available in huge numbers but, due to their being relatively unknown, don’t command high prices yet.

Further Resources

Here’s a list of online sources to browse and even buy Polish posters. The stores are not listed for advertising purposes but rather because they provide picture galleries with details for each item.

• Wilanow Poster Museum
  The first Poster Museum in the world, opened in 1968 as a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw.
• Krakow Poster Gallery
  A small gallery located in downtown Krakow. Despite its size it has an impressive collection of originals and reprints.
• The Art of Poster
  Poster gallery located in Warsaw.
• Poster Gallery at Antykwariat Rara Avis
  Poster gallery from a recent auction. It features some well known and rare pieces.
• Classic Polish Film Posters
  Probably the biggest online collection of film posters. The gallery is well organized and includes very detailed information about each artwork. Invaluable resource. Most of the images and film data in the article come from this site.
• Polish Poster Shop
  A very thorough catalog with many artists.
• Cine-Images Gallery – Movie Posters
  A decent collection of posters, mostly from the ’70s.
• Film posters typeset in Trajan
  For comparison purposes. A collection of movie posters in the Hollywood studio tradition: big star headshots, predictable composition and typography. This type of poster has replaced the artistic output of the past decades.
• Rene Wanner’s Poster Page
  This gallery contains various collections og graphic design artists, among them are also Polish artists and designers.

A few bibliographical references.

• Piotr Rudzinski, curator “Pierwsze polwiecze polskiego plakatu 1900-1950″ (2009) A collection of essays by various authors about the development of the Polish poster. The emphasis is on the first half of the 20th Century. The essays are veru well researched and read like master’s degree papers. Includes many of the posters presented in this article.
• Anna Agnieszka Szablowska “Tadeusz Gronowski – sztuka plakatu i reklamy” (2005) A monography of the master. Includes 189 eproduction of his works.
• Krzysztof and Agnieszka Dydo “PL21, The Polish Poster of the 21st Century” (2008) A book about the contemporary poster scene. Created by the owners of the Krakow Poster Gallery.

About the author

Andrea Austoni is an Italian freelance designer currently living in Krakow, Poland. He specializes in icon design and illustration. He runs Cute Little Factory, his personal portfolio and blog.

© Andrea Austoni for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 44 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
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One of the most venerable classic games just got a clever remake with an interesting twist. In First-Person Tetris, the simple act of rotating a block actually rotates the entire screen, shifting your perspective 90 degrees and adding a whole new dimension of challenge to the 1984 puzzler by Russian engineer Alexey Pajitnov.

The game is free to play and all you need is a web browser to take up the new challenge. The simplicity of the concept and style fit very well with the minimalist aesthetic of the original game, yet cleverly extends it to present a whole new take on the classic.

And if your mind isn’t scrambled enough by the regular First-Person version, check out the even tougher “Night Mode” and let us know how long you can keep playing. Because in Soviet Russia, Tetris rotates you!

[via BuzzFeed]

Tags: browser games, games, online games, Tetris, video games

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Opera Mini has garnered more than 41.7 million users worldwide showing a 5.3 percent jump compared to the previous month, according to the report. The number of page views in November went up 9.5% and data consumption increased 8.3% compared to October.

In Africa, Facebook has taken a strong lead and ranks as the most popular site in six out of the top 10 countries, Opera says. The company highlights the following global trends:

- In November 2009, more than 41.7 million people used Opera Mini, a 5.3% increase from October 2009 and more than 154% compared to November 2008.

- The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage (in order): Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Vietnam and Poland.

Opera also highlights the following trends for Africa:

- The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in Africa are (in order): South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Tanzania and Namibia.

- Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets are extremely popular in Africa, but Samsung is a significant exception, boasting the most popular phone used by Opera Mini users in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia.

"It is heartening to know that Opera Mini continues to grow consistently in all regions and categories — specially in continents like Africa where mobile phones are more likely the only way for people to access the Web," said Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. "At Opera, we are striving to bring the most innovative and affordable way for people to access the mobile Web and expect 2010 will prove just as successful for us as the case has been in previous years."

Related Articles:

> Opera Turbo Sees 60% User Growth in One Month

> 40 Million Reasons You Need a Mobile Web Presence

> Opera Releases Latest Version of Popular Mobile Browser

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The two deals are taking place in the same space, since, like AppJet, DocVerse is focused on allowing people to collaborate on documents in real-time.  The trick is that, while AppJet has its own software (EtherPad), DocVerse would provide Google more of a link to existing Microsoft products.

DocVerse was founded by two Microsoft veterans, and as explained in an "About Us" section, "combines the benefits of web-based collaboration tools like Google Docs and Zoho with the power and familiarity of the world’s most popular productivity application, Microsoft Office.  DocVerse offers the first ever product to truly enable real-time sharing and editing of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files."

So Google’s acquisition of DocVerse could greatly increase the appeal of Google Docs and/or Google Wave (depending on what the search giant decides to do with the technology), bringing it into equal footing with a competitor.

Anyway, Michael Arrington puts DocVerse’s price at "around $25 million," and there’s no word on when the deal might officially close.

Related Articles:

> Google Adds Relevance Option To Docs Search

> Google Acquires AppJet

> Google Ready To Advance In Russia With New Search Deal

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Opera Turbo saw an increase of 60% in user growth in a single month, from October to November. "This rapidly increasing usage rate denotes a distinct market need for Opera‚s turbo-charged technology, and reflects the universal burden of slow surfing speeds," Opera says.

"The numbers have spoken. Opera Turbo is resolving the universal discontent with slow browsing. This is not an issue particular to one country or one type of device; it is an issue that affects us all at one time or another," says Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. "Now, no matter where in the world Opera 10 users find themselves, they know that Opera Turbo is available to assure quick and efficient Web surfing."

The five million Opera Turbo users viewed about 1.5 billion compressed pages in November. That’s a 36.6% increase in page views since October. Opera Turbo served more than 72 terabytes of data to users in November.

In November 2009, Opera Turbo served more than 72 terabytes of data to users. The average compression rate for Opera Turbo in November was 63.6 percent, meaning that those users would have received 199 terabytes of uncompressed data if they were not using Opera Turbo. Since October 2009, data traffic has increased by 38 percent.

"The average compression rate for Opera Turbo in November was 63.6 percent, meaning that those users would have received 199 terabytes of uncompressed data if they were not using Opera Turbo. Since October 2009, data traffic has increased by 38 percent," the company says. The top five countries in terms of unique users of Opera Turbo were: Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, and the United States.

Users can activate Opera Turbo by clicking the Opera Turbo icon in the lower, left-hand corner of the Opera 10 browser.
 

Related Articles:

> 40 Million Reasons You Need a Mobile Web Presence

> Opera Turns Your Computer Into a Server

> Opera Releases Latest Version of Popular Mobile Browser

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If it is showing up for you, it is located between Groups and Knol on Google’s "More Google Products" page:

According to Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land, Google Guru is a product that was launched in Russia back in 2007. While here in the U.S., the link pointing to Google Guru goes nowhere, the Russian link Schwartz provides goes to something that looks like this:

It’s basically a question and answers site. "What is interesting is that Google closed down their Google Answers site back in November 2006, yes over three years ago," says Schwartz. "Is Google Guru their way of getting back into the social Q&A space? Yahoo is dominate right now with Yahoo Answers, maybe Google feels they can make a run at that as well?"

Apparently not everyone is seeing the link to Google Guru at this point, and Google hasn’t at this time made any announcements about it that we are aware of. I expect that will change soon enough. Are you seeing the link?

Related Articles:

> Google Reportedly Considering Yelp Acquisition

> Google’s Blogger Adds Amazon Affiliate Monetization Option

> Google Puts Universal Search in Suggestions, Launches Quick Scroll

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TechCrunch is reporting that ICQ, which was purchased by AOL back in the Roaring 90’s (I am not even sure that term makes any sense but I am sticking with it) is getting attention from Google and DST (Digital Sky Technologies) whose biggest splash in ’09 was giving more money to Facebook.

ICQ, which AOL acquired in 1998 for $400 million, has 33 million worldwide monthly users, according to Comscore. But 8.3 million of those are in Russia, where it hold the no. 1 spot for instant messaging. That explains DST’s interest. It also explains some of Google’s interest as they struggle to get a proper foothold in that market.

We concentrate heavily on the Internet marketing world for the English speaking world but the growth for companies like Google etc are in the large international audiences. Consider that Google has introduced 38 new search products over the last 70 days and language translation is heavily featured. Of course there would be significant interest in acquiring a ‘ready made’ audience in Russia.

Is DST thinking the same way for Facebook? Why not, especially when the rumored price for ICQ and its users was somewhere north of $250 million but not likely anywhere near its price of 11 years ago. It could be a true bargain.
.
As with many business activities timing is an important part of the measure of success or failure. Since AOL is in a position to move ICQ and please its shareholders the timing may be right for a little showdown at the Siberian Corral between DST and Google. Interesting: yes or nyet?

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"We are excited to make the Kindle for iPhone App available to iPhone and iPod touch users in more than 60 countries, allowing them to access the vast selection of the most popular books, all available wirelessly from the Kindle Store," said Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle. "The Kindle for iPhone App is the perfect companion for customers who own a Kindle or Kindle DX, and a great way for customers around the world to download and read books even if they don’t yet have a Kindle."

Amazon says that with the app, customers in over 60 countries will be able to: 

- Purchase, download and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store.

- Read the beginning of books for free before they buy them.

- Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read.

- Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free.

- Choose from six different font sizes and adjust words per line.

- Add and view notes and highlights marked on Kindle and Kindle DX.

- Read books in full color including children’s books, cookbooks, travel books, textbooks and graphic novels.

Countries where the app is available include: The United States, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finaland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Germany, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Malta, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Amazon says that in the coming months, they will be releasing Kindle for Mac and Kindle for Blackberry. Amazon’s Kindle reached record sales in the month of November.
 

Related Articles:

> Amazon Working on Accessibility Features for Kindle

> Amazon’s Kindle Breaks Sales Record in November

> Amazon Rolls Out Kindle For PC

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In return for a little money, Promoted Videos allows advertisers to have their clips stuck at the top of YouTube’s "Related Videos" lists.  The clips get a yellow background to help them stand out, too.

YouTube hasn’t shared any specifics, but it’s easy to believe that the Promoted Videos program is successful.  Following a period of time during which it was only available to advertisers in the U.S., it became available in seven more countries on October 14th and in another two on October 27th.

Now, the total’s at 16, which would be pretty impressive even without the fast expansion.  What’s more, Jay Akkad, a product manager, wrote on the YouTube Biz Blog, "We hope to roll out Promoted Videos to additional countries early next year."

Promoted Videos may not take YouTube to profitability all on its own, but it looks like the program is at least helping it bring in some revenue and cozy up to advertisers.

Related Articles:

> YouTube Cofounder Discusses Site’s Future

> YouTube Unveils Video Targeting Tool

> YouTube May Expand Into TV Show Biz

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With well over $3 billion in sales so far and with millions of users playing on Steam servers everyday, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 seems to do very well with securing the ‘best video game ever’ title although it got some bad press as of late because of its highly aggressive stance. Speaking of stirring the controversy, you may already know that the game has been censored in Russia last month, what you didn’t know is that the game has been censored in Japan, too.

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• Related Blogs on Modern Warfare 2 Censored in Japan, Too ["No Russia" Scene in Modern Warfare 2 Censored, Takes Fun Away]

Yandex, the dominant search engine in Russia, has been Mail.ru’s default search provider since January of 2006.  However, that deal will soon expire, and apparently Google convinced Yandex that it provides a better search experience.  (Or if you’re the cynical type, it just offered Yandex more money.)

Yakov Sadchikov recently wrote, "Russia’s leading online portal Mail.ru is going to replace its default web search engine and contextual advertising provider Yandex with Google from the beginning of 2010, according to Russian internet industry sources."

Mail.ru’s share of the Russian search market is 10 percent, according to LiveInternet.ru, so this promises to be a significant arrangement for Google.  Google’s share of the Russian search market is only 23.3 percent, by the way, and Yandex’s share is along the lines of 58.7 percent.

Sadchikov also provided one more hint about what’s at stake by writing, "In 2009, the Russian contextual advertising market shall reach $400 million."

Related Articles:

> Google Russia Loses CTO To Mail.ru

> Russian President Establishes YouTube Presence

> Social Media Outages Tied To Russian-Georgian Animosity

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Inspiration

65 Stunning Dual-Monitor Wallpapers

The Dual-Screen (Multi-Monitor) is known as the use of multiple output devices to display programs that are running on single computer. The output devices can be a computer monitor, television and projectors. This post includes amazing dual-screen wallpapers to download and share.

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70 Absolutely Stunning Portfolio Designs

A huge collection of portfolio sites for your inspiration.

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40 Beautiful Examples of Bokeh Photography

I’m sure most of you have heard of the term bokeh. Basically it is referring to the aesthetic quality of the blur produced from a shot with shallow depth of field. Determining factors of bokeh are things like lens aberrations and shape of lens aperture.

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28 Creative Tech Advertising

This showcase is an inspiration dose for creative designers and copywriters. Each advertisement is creatively molded to make an impact and also give the message is it supposed to. No doubt creative works like these involve hell of brain storming and sometimes great research work but it’s worth when are able to pull off work like this.

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25 Print Ads Featuring Excellent Use Of Typography

Today we’re showcasing 25 excellent print ads that feature great typography. What most of these ads have in common is that they use typography in a very interesting manner in order to get their message across. Of course typography alone is great, but here we’re featuring some ads that combine type and images to convey a strong and influencing message.

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Interviews

An Interview With Grace Smith

Today WebM.ag is speaking with Grace Smith, Grace is A freelance web designer from Northern Ireland where she runs her own successful design studio. Grace has been talked about as one of the most influential female designers in the world and a role model for new designers.

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Interview with Brad Colbow

Brad Colbow is a web designer, illustrator, and comic creator from Cleveland, Ohio. He’s known for creating vector style illustrations and working this style into his web design. He talks about information style comics, networking, and numerous other awesome topics in this interview. Let’s take a step into Brad’s brain!

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Design Interview: Vladimir Tomin

Born in Russia, Vladimir Tomin is the true definition of a graphic illustrator and designer. He has worked professionally with the likes of MTV Worldwide, Reebok, and Adidas, to name a few. From motion graphics to digital art, he does it all!

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Interview with Awesome Graphic Designer and Photoshopper Mhark De Guzman

Mhark De Guzman, an awesome graphic designer I came arcoss while browsing on Flickr. I was really amazed about the design of the works and the creativity behind them, not to mention the awesome effects in those works.

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Design

An Overview of Brushes In Illustrator

I’ve found that there’s a bit of confusion and uncertainty when it comes to the use of brushes in Illustrator. I think that a lot of this confusion probably stems from the fact that the same name is used for a completely different sort of tool in Photoshop.

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The death of the boring blog post?

Barring the text and images, each one generally has the exact same layout. We see little originality from one post to the next. Of course, consistency and branding are extremely important to consider when designing a website or blog, but what about individuality?

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Development

10 Must Have Hacks For WordPress Development

Building your own wordpress themes will open your eyes to a lot of things, mainly the fact that you’ll be retyping a lot of code over and over and over again. So in this post I am going to show you ten wordpress code hacks that you can add to your arsenal that will not only save you a lot of time, but they will also set your themes apart from others who don’t come pre built with these types of features.

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5 Damn Easy Ways To Improve User Experience

It’s no secret that in order to build a successful website or web community you have to design with the users in mind. Of course you can’t forget about optimizing for search engines, but let’s focus on the visitors since they’re the ones who are using your site and interacting with it.

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Freelancing

Quick Guide for Freelancers to do Well in Recession

During the current recession, many of people may find themselves out of the game and lose their jobs any time, especially with the big recession when companies are losing clients and looking for reducing employees. This article tries to give a solution to find another better way to get more money and more clients, and gives tips to start your freelance career and give resources sites that can help you get more jobs and clients.

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Competing Against The Agency – The Freelancer’s Epic Battle

As a ‘noob’ to the freelance design industry, I found myself confronted with one monumental competitor that seemed like Goliath; leaving me feeling like David (without his slingshot).. However, I soon found that the structure of the powerhouses that are graphic/web/media studios and agencies, actually makes my life somewhat easier.

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Fuel Your Creativity 2009 cc (creative commons license)

A Month In The Creative Community: A November Roundup

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Well, in Russia you can find a baker that can make you say that anytime. Her name is Zhanna, she’s from St. Petersburg, and she manages to make incredible cakes. What I’m really curios is what is the price for such a cake?
Maybe I’ll get a comment with a list of prices…

Anyway the artistic side of this baker really shocked me. I kept looking at her cake photos and just imagine how it would feel to cut the first piece from such a cake? From my point of you cannot name Zhanna as a baker but as a truthful artist.  What is the most interesting part of her work is that everything you will see is backed with 100% eatable ingredients. So no help from plastic parts of anything else. You can just eat everything from them until the last little piece.

Here below I have a few examples of her work. For more on that you can just visit the official place where this were all presented and you can see 50+ examples of tasty pictures( maybe not the one with the fishes but …)

Start playing….or eating…depends if you take a really good look at this cake or not

With this cake you can experience how is it to eat a microscope.

I would really like to see this in a bank an hidden camera the customers.. that would be a very funny video.

I keep this to the end as I think this is the only masterpiece that I think I won’t have the courage to eat, but still a masterpiece.

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We start with a U.S. based project called  Selbyville’‘: “The Quiet Uproar” is a wonderful acoustic track  released on a new netlabel called No Source. We then fly to Germany to meet the work of Julia Kotowski a.k.a. Entertainment for the Brain Dead (and featured on the cover art for this edition designed by Andrea La Valleur) that mixes simple but amazing songs with different approaches: on the featured track,  “Paper“,  you can listen to paper being ripped as part of the percussion section: Brilliant!.

Up north we go to Sweden to meet the work of Nina-me and her track “After seven years of love“. Nina-me’s voice is as enchanting as disturbing and she puts all her feelings in to her work. A must listen!  We continue to Norway to meet the sonic post rock of the The Manipulated Living that have recently published their new work on the Ucranian netlabel Nocharizma. Reminescent of the early works by Sonic Youth, but with a darker and  powerful nordic touch,  “Platypus” is a furious track full of stories to tell but not for everyone’s ears, I agree.

So nothing better than to move down south and meet the happy pop from Spanish singer Jenifer Avila and her song “El Tranvia” (The cable car) that takes us immediately to a certain Madrid of the 80s, Almodovar and la movida. Next track takes us to Manchester in the U.K.  and to the Keyboard Rebel project. Fun, light and with a social conscience I think we will be hearing from them much more in the future.

Back to the U.S. and to a track by Derrick Art, “You’re winning so I quit” from his just released EP on 12rec, “Songs from A Cross (The Sea)“: This is gentle pop, well built with fine textures and taste. The final track I just could not resist and include what was a surprise to me: Listen to Mari!Mari!’s “Get You!” and if you had any doubts about the universality of music this band is a great example: Brit Pop at his best, well structured and with that naivety that only teens can bring into a song coming to you directly from Moscow, in Russia. Take a listen for yourself!

Rebel Music Volume 02 by Bit Rebels Download a Zip File with this release (including Cover Art): [BRM002]

I hope you enjoy this 2nd edition of the Rebel Music series and that you leave us some comments:what track you liked the best? what kind of music would you like to see on future compilations?  If you are a artist or netlabel releasing under a Creative Commons License please send us your links.

Netlabels featured on this Rebel Music Volume 02: No Source, aaahh records, 23 Seconds, Nocharizma and 12rec.

Thanks go to Thomas Raukamp for the friendly tips and to Moritz Sauer, from Phlow Magazine, for all the hard work for the Creative Commons netlabel scene.

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This design collection was inspired by the Smashing Magazine’s "Global Web Design" series (they already have a showcase for Russia and Ireland; you should check theirs out after).

1. My Lane

2. A better tomorrow

3. AT.LANT.IS

4. kontoblick

5. aka-aki

6. Amazee

7. Zootool

8. hobnox

9. Mail Mops

10. Werkstatt42

11. Tanner + Tailor

12. DRIFT NORDSTROM

13. Photocase

14. Webdemar

15. Clever Elements

16. Pixelgraphix

17. Kinder-Aktuell.de

18. Bauersart

19. 12designer

20. JOBMIXER

21. ESTUGO

22. MeetingPuzzle

23. Mein Gutscheincode

24. Qiro

25. creativestgyle

26. CodePitch

27. Webdesign Daniel Ditgens

28. eBiene

29. Figurenschneider

30. chocri Schokolade

31. Albumdruck

32. Gertis PC Tipps

33. DaWanda

34. XING

35. MindMeister

36. globalzoo.de

37. fruux

38. Donuts World

39. brands4friends

40. MAGROUND

41. allmyTea

42. Blockhaus Westerhoff

43. Smoothieland

44. tolingo.de

45. Camperado.de

46. Quassum

47. etracker

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About the Author

Sergej Müller is a professional web developer from Germany with over 8 years of experience. He also develops the new and effective Antispam Bee WordPress plugin. You can stay in touch with Sergej by following him on Twitter.

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Earlier this month some smart thieves managed to get their hands on 3,000 to 4,000 unlocked iPhones from a Belgian store. You might ask what’s so special about Belgian phones for robbers to steal that many units. Well in case you didn’t know it already, Belgian iPhones are required by law to be unlocked before customers get their hands on them.
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About 40 million people used Opera Mini in October, according to the company. That’s an 11.3% increase from September 2009 and more than 155% compared to October 2008. page-views and data transfers increased at an even more impressive rate. Opera says that because of this, consumers can save 9.4 billion USD per year just by using Opera Mini. If you want to know how this translates to you personally, Opera has a cost calculator in its new State of the Mobile Web report.

"Because Opera Mini compresses data by up to 90%, people everywhere can reduce the amount they pay each month for mobile data," says Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. "By making the Web accessible and affordable on mobile devices, we can usher in a communications revolution on an unprecedented scale. Opera Mini is helping to spur this change — potentially affecting the lives of billions — not just by making mobile browsing possible, but by making it affordable, as well."

The 39.6 million people using Opera Mini in October viewed 17.2 billion pages.

From September, page-views increased 14.8%. From October 2008, they increased 238%. A few more interesting stats from Opera’s report include: 

- Opera Mini users generated more than 263 million MB of data for operators worldwide in October 2009.

- Since September, the data consumed went up by 16%.

- Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%, meaning Opera Mini servers processed up to 2.5 petabytes of data this month.

- Since October 2008, data traffic increased 233%.

The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage are (in order) are Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Poland and Vietnam. This is exactly the same as it was in September.

As mobile web use is clearly growing rapidly, it is important that your site has not only a good, usable mobile presence, but it is also essential that your site be visible in mobile search. We recently looked at some advice from Google on making sure you’re indexed in Google’s mobile web search, and how to handle the two different versions of you site (mobile/desktop). Read more here.
 

Related Articles:

> Ensuring Your Site is Indexed in Google’s Mobile Search

> Smartphone Sales Up 12% In Q3

> Usage of Mobile Web and Apps Doubles in 2 Years

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The report found that politically motivated cyberattacks have increased and five countries, including the United States, Russia, France, Israel and China, are now armed with cyberweapons.

"McAfee began to warn of the global cyberarms race more than two years ago, but now we’re seeing increasing evidence that it’s become real," said Dave DeWalt, McAfee president and CEO.

"Now several nations around the world are actively engaged in cyberwar-like preparations and attacks. Today, the weapons are not nuclear, but virtual, and everyone must adapt to these threats."

Attackers are building both cyberdefenses and cyberoffenses, to target infrastructure such as power grids, transportation, telecommunication, finance and water supplies, because damage can be done quickly and with little effort. In most developed countries, critical infrastructure is connected to the Internet and lacks proper security, leaving them open to attacks.

Critical infrastructure is privately-owned in many developed countries, making it a huge target for cyberwarfare. The private sector relies heavily on the government to prevent cyberattacks. If cyberwarfare breaks out, governments, corporations and private citizens may get caught in the crossfire. Without insight into the government’s cyberdefense strategy, the private sector is not able to be proactive and take proper precautions.

"Over the next 20 to 30 years, cyberattacks will increasingly become a component of war," said William Crowell, a former Deputy Director of the U.S. National Security Agency.

"What I can’t foresee is whether networks will be so pervasive and unprotected that cyber war operations will stand alone."

Related Articles: 

> Spam Is Getting More Malicious

>Stealth Phishing Attack Looks Like Internal Email

>Security A Concern For Online Holiday Shoppers

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Biggest entertainment launch in history, surpassing its predecessor Grand Theft Auto IV, the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has managed to sell 4.7 million copies in the US and the UK only in the first 24 hours, accounting for the most profitable games of all times. But as good as the reviews may seem, there has been some bad press surrounding the new Modern Warfare 2, when word got out that Russia banned the console version.

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See: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Not Banned in Russia, But Censored [Russian Version of Modern Warfare 2 to Lose the Moscow Airport Scene]

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To most people, making a paper plane could be one of the simplest thing to do. It’s the simplest and easiest form of paper art, for this case a flying art. However, there’s a special minority who takes thing to the next level. They can turn the basic form of origami – which is folding a paper in half – together with a little cutting, folding, bending, shaping, and more paper folding, into an utmost creative artwork you have ever seen.

Credit: Sculpture by Simon Schubert

In this post, we will attempt to show how these minority, creative minded folks turn a very thin slice of wood – paper – into wonders, and bringing paper art to the next level. Without further ado, here’s an impressive showcase of paper art and paper sculptures by some the best paper artistes in the world. Full list after the jump.

Jen Stark

Jen Stark is a contemporary artist whose majority of work involves creating paper sculptures. She also works with drawing and animation. Her work draws inspiration from microscopic patterns in nature, wormholes, and sliced anatomy.

Over and out

Reciprocal

Enchant

Coriolis Effect

Simon Schubert

Cologne, Germany based artis, Simon Schuberts works imagine architectonical settings, common situations and objects, whereas the material he uses are either simple or sophisticated – white paper folded or mixed media arrangements.

Emma Van Leest

Daniel Grein

A trained designer for digital and print media from University of Applied Sciences Schwäbisch Gmünd Germany.

Elodole

Helen Musselwhite

Helen Musselwhite creates highly individual and visually appealing framed paper sculptures.Each piece combines intricate hand cut layers of coloured paper and strong graphic images arranged to make interesting and intriguing scenes in box frames.

Carlos N. Monila

Olafur Eliasson

Jolis Paons

Paper dress sculpture made from pages of telephone book.

Aoyama Hina

"I don’t follow traditional but I am trying to create a mixture of the traditional and modern styles and to produce my own world through this super fine lacy-paper-cuttings technique" Aoyama

Sher Christopher

Sher graduated with a very distinctive sculptural style, working with clay moulds and paper, from the University of Wolverhampton with a BA (Hons) in Three Dimensional Design and a successful end of year show at Covent Garden in 1992.

Yulia Brodskaya

Yulia Brodskaya was born in Russia (Moscow); prior to moving to the UK in 2004 she was interested in diverse creative practices ranging from Textile Painting, Origami and Collage to more traditional Fine Art practices.

Peter Callesen

Born in the year of 1967, Danish artist Peter Callesen takes the most commonly consumed media – A4 papers and turn them into wonders.

Little Erected Ruin

On The Other Side

Looking back

The Short Distance Between Time and Shadow

Ingrid Siliakus

Inspired by master of origami paper artwork Prof. Masahiro Chatani, Ingrid studied his work for years and is now a master of her own.

Jennifer Khoshbin

Khoshbin was exposed to art at an early age. Both her grandfather and uncle are master carpenters; her mother is a ceramic artist; her brother is a film maker and curator; and her sister is a new media artist. It seems meant to be. (via jen11show)

David Brownings

An illustrator from Bristol UK; currently majoring illustration in UWE.

Su Blackwell

Independent Arts and Crafts professional from London, United Kingdom.

Chatsworth, Derbyshure ‘A Guide to’

The Story of Peter Pan: The Pirate Ship

Alice: Through the Looking Glass

The Old House

Bert Simons

One of Bert’s most impressive portfolio would have to be his 3 dimensional pseudo realistic paper portraits and sculptures. They are so realistic that some might find it eerie.

Harry Hamelink (2007)

Mr. Ivo Opstelten

Bert Simons himself

A couple more..

The Lifespan of Paper-Marriage
via ppt-ping

White Shadows
via hellofromthemoon

Serial Cut
Madrid based studio, established in 1999 by Sergio del Puerto.

Origami Koi
via Richi89

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Having already announced the Samsung Galaxy Spica (Galaxy I5700) in Russia, Samsung have seen fit to officially announce their Galaxy Spica (also known as the I5700) once again what with it now having hit Europe, CIS and currently pending release in both the Middle East and Africa.
(more…)

See: Samsung Galaxy Spica (Galaxy I5700) Re-Announced [Samsung Galaxy Spica Android Touchscreen, Social Network Friendly Smartphone]

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The 16-count indictment alleges the group used sophisticated hacking techniques to compromise data encryption used by RBS WorldPay to protect customer data on payroll debit cards. Payroll debit cards are used by some companies to pay their employees.

The hacking ring allegedly raised the account limits on compromised accounts, and then provided a network of "cashers" with 44 counterfeit payroll debit cards, which were used to withdraw more than $9 million from more than 2,100 ATMs in at least 289 cites worldwide, including cities in the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan and Canada. The $9 million loss occurred within less than 12 hours.

The hackers then attempted to destroy data on the card processing network to hide their hacking activity. The indictment alleges that the "cashers" were allowed to keep 30 to 50 percent of the money, but sent the rest back to the leaders of the hacking ring.

"The charges brought against this highly sophisticated international hacking ring were possible only because of unprecedented international cooperation with our law enforcement partners, particularly between the United States and Estonia," said Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer.

"Through our close cooperation, both nations have demonstrated our commitment to identifying sophisticated attacks on U.S. financial networks that are directed and operated from overseas and our commitment to bringing the perpetrators to justice."

Some of the hackers if convicted in the U.S. could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
 

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>PartyGaming Founder To Give U.S. $300 Million

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A promise of a full-fledged personal computer in the body of a cellphone is always exciting. We all want it; we’re not quite sure what to do with it, but if someone could pull it off, it’d be a geek’s dream come true.

Nokia has been trying to do just that ever since they launched their Communicator series, but with Nokia N900 they’re taking a slightly different approach, choosing Maemo 5 – a customized Debian distribution – to be the operating system.

There’s no doubt that Nokia N900 can do a lot; it sports the powerful ARM Cortex A8 processor, 256 MB of dedicated RAM, 32 GB of storage (which can be further expanded via microSD memory cards), a 3.5 inch resistive touchscreen with a 800 × 480 pixel resolution and a 5 megapixel camera. But will it all be wrapped in an easy-to-use package, or will the end product only be interested to the hardcore tech crowd?

Well, we’re about to find out, as Nokia N900 begins shipping. The first batch of devices goes to preorder buyers, but we should see it on store shelves in Europe, the Middle-East, Russia and North America soon, for the price of about 500 Euros SIM-free (about 750 dollars).

Tags: N900, Nokia

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Every week we’re going to post about architects that make or have made history influencing many. Nothing better to start us off than with a great Brazilian architect who has been referred to worldwide for having turned architecture into a popular subject in his country, and even today at almost 102 years of age, still continues to gift us with his work.

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Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida de Niemeyer Soares Filho was born in Rio de Janeiro on December 15th, 1907. As a child he was always outlining imaginary buildings in the air with his finger and at times even correcting himself, already searching for the perfection that makes his work today.

He married young at 21 years of age, and with this new responsibility he started to work and went back to school. In 1934 he received his Architecture and Engineering diploma at the School of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro.

Influences

Right after having graduated, Neimeyer, who didn’t appreciate commercial architecture of the time, looked for an office where he could work with a new type of architecture, one that fit more his ideas. Without pay, he started working at the office of Lúcio Costa and Carlos Leão. In Brazil at the time, it was few who dared to reach modernism.

“Well, there were groups, three or four, I don’t know, that already worked with those influences… in the line of Corbusier. We took it seriously, like a catechism. But still we hadn’t “felt” the essence of his art. For me, the real influence came from talking to him… When he told me: “Architecture is invention!”. That word… well… it was something very important for me.”

He met Le Corbusier when he was integrated in the commission formed to define the plans of the headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Health in Rio de Janeiro where the master of modernism supervised.

Works

His first work individually executed was the building “Obra do Berço” in Rio de Janeiro. The building was designed in reinforced concrete structure, containing the fundamental elements of modern architecture: free structure, free plan, free facade, stilts and patio.

After projects executed by the office of Lucio Costa, Niemeyer met, in 1940, the mayor of Belo Horizonte, Juscelino Kubitschek, who had an interest in developing an area north of the city. Niemeyer is responsible for designing the “Pampulha architectural complex”. With a daring and controversial project at the time, show up clearly in these works, his appreciation for the arts. p>

“My concern, since the first project I did, was the integration with the arts. I think the architecture and the arts should come together” VBS TV

This project brought about an international repercussion to his name, and established an important bond with Juscelino designing his home and building the future capital of his country. But before the project of Brasilia, there were a series of outstanding works such as the headquarters of Banco Boavista, Odessa College, Copan Joint and the UN headquarters in New York, a joint project with Corbusier, among others.

“When I make a building, I am not satisfied until I know that it inspires awe, that it inspires feeling.”

The Challenge of Constructing a Capital

Building a powerful city with a short execution time, was how Niemeyer and Lucio Costa, his former boss started the project. With the modernist concepts of the city, the stage was being built with Niemeyer’s artworks being implemented. Taking full advantage possible from using concrete, he created works known to the world and they transformed the city into a one of a kind experience.

“…who goes to Brasilia, may or may not like the palaces, but either way can not say they’ve seen something like that before. And architecture is this – invention.” Oscar Niemeyer

Around the World

Niemeyer went around the world with his projects. Germany, Cuba, Lebanon, United States, Israel, Portugal, Congo, France, Algeria, Italy, Mexico, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Bolivia, Libya, United Arab Emirates, Nicaragua, Cape Verde, Senegal, Uruguay, Norway, Russia , Spain, Chile and Venezuela, are places where you can contemplate the works of this great master of architecture.

About the author

My name is Marcelo Seferin, I’m an architect from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I’m the chief architect at Seferin Arquitetura, an office that works with architecture, interior design and sustainability projects. You can check our work at http://www.seferinarquitetura.com.br and you can follow me at twiiter http://www.twitter.com/mseferin.

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A perfect layout, A Good Design and Nice Resource can produce a creative output. Layout, textures, typography and patterns are used more often than one may think but the outcome of different combination can result verity of excellent designs. Professionalism is built upon knowledge and experience. However, When it comes to selection of right resources you need to be very careful and specific about needs.

In this round-up, you’ll find number of top resources, tutorials, freebies which left deep impression on web design community, as the month of October had a lot of interesting articles produces by different sources.

The more time and effort you dedicate for useful and creative resources, the higher are your chances for getting better results.

You may be interested in the following related articles as well.

• Top Articles On The Web Design Billboard In September’09
• Top Articles On The Web Design Billboard In August’09
• Top Articles On The Web Design Billboard In July’09
• Corporate Website Designs For Design Inspiration – Part I, Part II
• Single Page Website Designs For Design Inspiration – Part I, Part – II

Please feel free to join us and you are always welcome to share your thoughts even if you have more reference links that our readers may like.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS-feed and follow us on Twitter — for recent updates.

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Isn’t it a bit funny how new mobile phones these days debut either in the US, Europe or China? Well it looks like Samsung sees money in other markets, hence why they’ve officially announced the new Samsung Galaxy Spica in Russia — which is faster than our previous reports that the handset will release in early 2010.

(more…)

See: Samsung Galaxy Spica Android Phone Debuts in Russia [Samsung i5700 Galaxy Spica With 3.2" Display, 800MHz CPU, WiFi & Bluetooth]

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The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.

To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot

Showcase of Web Design in Russia: http://bit.ly/17kz1q

Fancy LEGO Styled Kitchen (via @abduzeedo): http://bit.ly/17vJdP

50 Brilliant Bird’s-Eye Photos: http://bit.ly/4sJdM3

10 Quick Tips to Boost Your Blogging Skills: http://bit.ly/33lfuI

7 Things Web Designers Hate Hearing from Clients: http://bit.ly/1aoVzm

Awesome! Star trails: http://bit.ly/1nmysy

Check out http://www.notableapp.com for feedback on your website designs. Follow them @notableapp

5 Rules To Write More Readable CSS Files: http://bit.ly/1CKOzH

Landscape photo of the year 2009: http://bit.ly/IEwF0

Top 10 Must Have iPhone Apps for Bloggers: http://bit.ly/e6m2C

10 High Fives: http://bit.ly/2AeqFe

What Every Graphic Designer Should Do Right Now: http://bit.ly/JbKKJ

Impossible drawing! http://bit.ly/4ERnlP

New ads for Windows 7 are out: “I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea”: http://bit.ly/2foi5e

Inside Apple’s new multitouch Magic Mouse: http://bit.ly/2Om0Bm

Upside Down House in Germany: http://bit.ly/1QtOsn

Apple iMac Review: 27 Inches and Less Chin: http://bit.ly/3sKQWg

The Myth of Usability Testing: http://bit.ly/DOiWF

60 Awesome Mac Apps Websites: http://bit.ly/2w1M6E

The World of Tomorrow (If The Internet Disappeared Today): http://bit.ly/1gVPC

Unusual and Creative Bookends: http://bit.ly/3HA0TS

How to deal with design ripoff: http://bit.ly/gLKr7

Thousands Protest Global Warming: http://bit.ly/3ucBEy

Six Creative Solutions in Online Advertising: http://bit.ly/1RLETE

Want more? No problem! Keep track of all our tweets by following us @DesignerDepot

If you find an exclusive RSS freebie on this feed or on the live WDD website, please use the following code to download it: Y0TU8Z

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Magomed Dovjenko is a graphic designer and illustrator from Russia but based in Cologne, Germany. Despite his young age he has done some incredible works for respectful companies such as Reebok, Adidas, Diesel, and many more. Dovjenko, also is member of an important collective, the KDU – The Keystone Design Union.

As usual we highly recommend that you check out Magomed portfolio at Behance (http://www.behance.net/aureax). But we selected some images for you to take a look first

My name is Magomed Dovjenko. i’m a young-yet experienced freelance illustrator, residing in Germany/Cologne,
originally from Russia, Chechnya.

I love graphic design, illustration, typography .

I’m also part of the select multi-disciplinary collective the Kdu – The Keystone Design Union.

I’m self-taught.

About the author

My name is Fabio Sasso, I’m a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I’m the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.

Sponsored Links:

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Take a moment and have a look at each Lego building and monument below, and then take a step back and think about this: How did they do it? The sheer size, precise detail and the in-depth planning of each creation is mind blowing. This is Lego architecture at its best, when Lego ceases to be a simple kids toy and becomes a modern day sculpture.
In this post we have collected our favorite Lego buildings and monuments from around the World, built by Lego professionals and passionate aficionados. You will find the obvious buildings, like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty to lesser known buildings, like the Tower of Belém (our favorite) and the Dome of the Rock. We are sure you will all agree, these buildings are amazing.
For this article to be fully complete we need more buildings from South America, Australia and especially Africa. If anyone knows of any Lego creations from these continents, send us an email here: Contact.

Around the World with 35 Famous Lego Monuments and Buildings

Leaning Tower of Pisa (Europe, Italy)

Leaning Tower of Pisa on Wikipedia »

The Colosseum (Europe, Italy)

The Colosseum on Wikipedia »

The Tower of London (Europe, UK)

The Tower of London on Wikipedia »

Big Ben (Europe, UK)

Big Ben on Wikipedia »

Westminster Abbey (Europe, UK)

Westminster Abbey on Wikipedia »

The Eiffel Tower (Europe, France)

Eiffel Tower on Wikipedia »

The Arc de Triomphe (Europe, France)

The Arc de Triomphe on Wikipedia »

The Acropolis of Athens (Europe, Greece)

Acropolis of Athens on Wikipedia »

The Parthenon (Europe, Greece)

The Parthenon on Wikipedia »

Frauenkirche Dresden (Europe, Germany)

Frauenkirche Dresden on Wikipedia »

Atomium (Europe, Belgium)

Atomium on Wikipedia »

Tower of Belém (Europe, Portugal)

Tower of Belém Tower on Wikipedia »

The Kremlin (Europe, Russia)

The Kremlin on Wikipedia »

St. Peter's Cathedral (Europe, Vatican City

St. Peter's Cathedral on Wikipedia »

The Great Pyramid of Giza (Africa, Egypt)

The Great Pyramid of Giza on Wikipedia »

The White House (North America, USA)

The White House on Wikipedia »

The Statue of Liberty (North America, USA)

The Statue of Liberty on Wikipedia »

The Empire State Building (North America, USA)

The Empire State Building on Wikipedia »

Flatiron Building (North America, USA)

Flatiron Building on Wikipedia »

Yankee Stadium (North America, USA)

Yankee Stadium – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia »

The Chrysler Building (North America, USA)

Chrysler Building on Wikipedia »

John Hancock Center (North America, USA)

John Hancock Center on Wikipedia »

Detroit Public Library (North America, USA)

Detroit Public Library – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia »

Chichen Itza (Central America, Mexico)

Chichen Itza on Wikipedia »

Rapa Nui National Park (South America, Chile)

Rapa Nui National Park on Wikipedia »

Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora Aparecida (South America, Brazil)

Cathedral of Brasília on Wikipedia »

Sydney Opera House (Australia)

Sydney Opera House on Wikipedia »

Dome of the Rock (Asia, Israel)

Dome of the Rock on Wikipedia »

Torii Gates (Asia, Japan)

Torii on Wikipedia »

Ancient Kyoto (Asia, Japan)

Ancient Kyoto on Wikipedia »

Hall of Supreme Harmony (Asia, China)

Hall of Supreme Harmony on Wikipedia »

Macau Tower (Asia, China)

Macau Tower on Wikipedia »

The Great Wall of China (Asia, China)

Great Wall of China on Wikipedia »

The Taj Mahal (Asia, India)

Taj Mahal on Wikipedia »

You might also like…

30 Classic Music Albums Recreated With Lego »
24 Lego Stop Motion Films Mimicking Cool Movies Scenes »
21 Amazing Movie Posters Recreated with Lego »
48 of the Coolest, Stylish and Creative Lego Creations »
39 Creative Lego Advertisements – Creativty without bricks »
Amazing Lego Stop Motion Tutorials, Resources, Tools and Showcases »
42 Amazing Sources of Lego Inspiration and Creativity (and a touch of wit) »
Legos Artistic Impression – 30+ Examples of Lego Art »

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Indulge in the following showcase of Vitaly S Alexius’s ’Dreaminism’!

Modern Magic

Modern Magic was a design done for the cover of the New Yorker magazine where we see Vitaly’s love for looming architecture take form. The piece offers a contrast whereas a large metropolis brimming with polluted clouds of air is pitted against a serene cottage resting atop one of the massive structures being bathed cleanly in a vast ray of sunlight.

~There’s no place like home.

Machinery of the Stars

Machinery of the Stars is a dazzling digital display born of a simple concept. ‘Perhaps there is another you, looking up in the sky, across the universe?’ From this simple ponderance, Vitaly turned to his love of the celestial, painting a breathtaking explosion of astral machinery above an expansive cityscape, and a lone person taking it all in lost in the question that inspired the piece.

‘What do you see,
when you look onto the stars,
In the darkest hour of night?’

Symphony of Darkness

Symphony of Darkness is so aptly named it is almost as frightening as the piece itself. This brilliant blend of the macabre and surreal creates a scene of beautiful horror that will stick in your mind for days. There is not much else to say about this work that it does not say for itself, not to mention the aid of the verse the artist attached to it.

‘There ain’t nothing to fear,
But the living fear itself,
And the sound of metallic footsteps
In pitch black darkness,
Where pure despair collects it toll.
Don’t blink or close thy eyes,
Or thou may see it too.’

Consonance

Consonance is a piece that grew from the idea that ‘music is about harmony, like a growing tree’. This inspiring illustration was created as for a school assignment based on the theme ‘Classical Music’, and the monotone creation with subtle flecks of color grant it that ageless flow that create the harmony it reaches for.

Collision of Worlds

Collision of Worlds is another amazing digital masterpiece with a nod to the stellar wonders that fascinated Vitaly as a child. With potent imagination and stunning astral imagery this vibrant creation explodes across the digital canvas coming to life with remarkable ease. No doubt about it, this is what’s like when worlds collide!

‘Falling, falling, falling…
My world was crashing down.’

Starcatchers

Starcatchers is by far the most colorful and rich piece that we have gathered from Vitaly’s gallery. Both in depth and scope, this surrealistic extravaganza delivers the truest essence of art. The artist’s included verse eloquently aids the piece so we shall let them say their part.

‘No certain future in sight

Nothing but darkness in the immeasurable depths of space
Between the horizons of distant stars

No other options upon this path,
But to evolve, and to adapt to the undying laws
That shaped the universe itself.

And even go beyond,
To catch the stars themselves,
In a tight grip of metal
To harness their energy
for our bidding…’

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It’s time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we’ve selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what’s going on out there!

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We want to give a big thanks to our sponsors:
Wix, DreamTemplate, ShutterStock, W3-Markup, P2H.COM, Harvest, VectorStock™, FreshBooks, Reflex Stock and SiteGrinder. A special mention to Media Temple for the excellent service and support with Abduzeedo!

You can send me your suggestions via Twitter twitter.com/FabianoMe or twitter.com/abduzeedo, and include #abdz_best in the message.

Saturday 10/17

Showcase of Web Design in Russia

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s Squirrel project revealed… as the Square iPhone Payment System

Adidas x Toy2R: Holiday Qee

V23K18 / Pasel.Kuenze

First Website with audiovisual navigation

Facebook Redesign

Artworks by Tyson McAdoo

Sketch Motel Illustrators unveil new site!

Friday 10/16

Google Street view coming to a street near you: on a bike…

Keep Your Friends Organized: Twitter Expands Lists Beta

Jean Nouvele’s 100 11th Ave in NY

Preparing and Planning for a Redesign

2009 State Of The Blogosphere: The Full BlogWorld Presentation

Georgia Jagger for Hudson

Andy Awesome

2010 Olympic Medals

How to Make a Creative Blog Layout

YouTube Launches Real-Time Discussion Search and Tracking

Videos: Google Wave Acts Out Pulp Fiction And Good Will Hunting

777 copies of Windows 7 for Seven Houses, Netherlands, says Microsoft seven times fast

Tycho – Coastal Brake Preview

Thursday 10/15

Couple Steals 23 Million From Cisco

Make Unlimited Free Calls on Your Cellphone with Google Voice [Saving Money]

15 Basics of Insanely Useful Blogwriting

Fancy LEGO Styled Kitchen by Simon Pillard and Philippe Rosetti

iDriver: iPhone remote controlled car

Facebook Headquarters in California

Google to Launch E-Book Store in Early 2010 [Ebooks]

Do You Tweet Straight After Sex? Apparently 36% Of You Do

Graphic Designer Vs. Client

CSS Differences in Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8

The Inevitable Future of Captcha

Wednesday 10/14

Your question to Adrian Frutiger …

Slaying Writer Dragons: Epic Skill #3, Physical Prowess

its sad by tariqdesign

Nokia N900 can ride the Google Wave

Cleaning Up The Stream: Twitter Kills Duplicate Tweets

Sir Paul Mccartney and The Beatles Join Twitter

Gorgeous Body Painting Art

Pumpkin Carving Paradise

Página do Google Chrome no Brasil deixa vazar screenshot de suposta nova interface do Orkut

Wall Illustration

Firefox 3.6 will support accelerometers, make the internet seasick (video)

Veronica Hebard – Fall Fashion ‘09 illustration spread

Container Icon Set R3

Bpay : Almost too Easy

The Polaroid is Back. No really.

Tuesday 10/13

The Michelle Obama Action Figure

Early Adopters: Check Out Gist’s iPhone App

Le Cube – O making of da loja da Apple 5th Avenue em NY

Pepsi Natural :: premio Clear Choice Award

Frog Queen in Austria by SPLITTERWERK

HTC Tattoo cover designs

Comment Form Styling: Examples and Best Practices

Monday 10/12

New Adamo XPS image takes a stand

Aluminum in Modern Architecture

Vertical Village / Graft Lab

Tweact.com: ¡u?op ?p?sdn s????? ??

Harley Davidson Circa 2020

About the author

I’m from Brazil, co-founder of Zee with Fabio. Nowadays I like to play with Fireworks, Photoshop and improve my skills in CSS. If you wanna request some posts, please feel free to contact me or follow on Twitter.

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Born in Russia, Vladimir Tomin is the true definition of a graphic illustrator and designer. He has worked professionally with the likes of MTV Worldwide, Reebok, and Adidas, to name a few. From motion graphics to digital art, he does it all! That?s why we?re featuring him here on Abduzeedo. Enough said, we know his work will inspire you!

For more information we highly recommend that you visit Tomin’s portfolio at tp://www.space-jump.com/

Hi, my name is Tomin Vladimir, but Internet knows me as Myaka. I’m 26, I have diploma of IT specialist, but those 5 IT years was so hard I basically hate computers so after I finished my education I decided to go different way.
I had a dream: making motion graphics. So I came to local TV station and told them what I want. They took me in, but of course first time I was working for nothing because I had to learn from almost zero. In a few months I handled After Effects well enough to make intro for one of sport programs. In 1 year I became head designer, and after 2 years of work here I leave for world of advert in peppers studio. So now I have 4.5 years of Motion Graphics

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In the world of fashion photography proper use of lighting is the key to producing a professional looking image. As the lines between Digital Media, illustration and photography blur there seem to be a lot of creative experimenting going on. Amazing and inventive lighting techniques, colours pushed to the brim and digital effects give these experimental fashion photos a surreal and extra magical or urban reminiscent look and feel. Below is a compilation of the most creative lighting in fashion photography I spotted on the web. Enjoy!

Steven Meisel

Steven Meisel is an American photographer who obtained popular acclaim with his work in US and Italian Vogue and his photographs of friend Madonna in her 1992 book Sex. He is now considered one of the most successful fashion photographers in the industry, shooting regularly for both US and Italian Vogue and lately W.

• Steven Meisel bio on Wikipedia

Michael Muller

Michael Muller is an American photographer known for his celebrity and advertising photos. He has photographed portraits of a wide range of actors, musicians, and artists. Michael has shot movie posters and promotional photos for many big-budget Hollywood movies such as Iron Man and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

• Homepage
• Michael Muller bio on Wikipedia

Julia Pogodina

New York based Julia Pogadina is originally from St.Petersburg, Russia. Her passion for photography was kindled at the age of just 5 when she watched her father print black and white images in his darkroom. By the age of eight she got her first camera which eventually led to Julia abandoning her career in law for one in photography.

• Homepage

Jaques Dequeker

Jacques Dequeker, born 1970 in Southern Brazil, has lived in São Paulo since 1998. Self-taught, he started to photograph in 1997 influenced by friends such as photographer Pedro Flores and make-up artist Duda Molinos. In 2002 Jaques won the Brazilian Association of Textile Industry award for best fashion photographer in Brazil which lead to all kinds of opportunities for him.

• Homepage

James Meakin

James has established himself as a lighting expert after assisting photographers like Laurie Bartley and Kevin Mackintosh around the world and working on shoots for big campains and brands like Vogue,Sony and Gucci. “I often reference horror movies for lighting. That ambience and chill factor is where I’d like to be. I want to shoot in a style that can be identified as my own which is fantasy based, dark glamour and always slightly surreal.”

• Homepage

Richard Burbidge

Richard’s inventive editorial work appears in leading fashion magazines like Italian Vogue, i-D, Another Magazine, V and Self-Service. His still life and beauty photography can be seen in in the elegant and experimental campains for MAC.Givenchy,Chaumet, Hermes and Louis vuitton Eyewear.

• Hintmag interview

Bruno Dayan

Bruno Dayan was born in London but grew up in France where he went to study Fine Arts in Montreal. After starting his profession in Toronto and ten years of being deported in japan he finally returned to his roots in France at the end of the 90’s. The world of Bruno Dayan is definitely one of glamour and sopistication, the two main characteristics of his work are sensuality and intricate use of light.

• Homepage

Andreas Stavrinides

Andreas studied sociology and history yet realized at the age of 24 that has true passion lay in the expression that photography enables. Andreas believes the key to understanding light comes from the quality of the shadow it creates, it’s this relation Andreas aspires to master and understand.

• Homepage
• Behance

Andrey Yakovlev & Lili Aleeva

Andrey and Lili are a team of creative photographers from moscow. I wish I could tell you more about them but unfortunately their Behance profile has no biography and their homepage is in Russian.

• Homepage
• Behance

Michael Raveney

Michael Raveney is a versatile photographer from Miami, Florida in the United States. Micheal does a lot of fashion work but his portfolio is also well represented as far commercial and advertising pieces go.

• Homepage
• Behance

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Iv Orlov is an illustrator from Murmansk, Russia. His work has been featured in several magazines including Men’s Health, Inflight Review, AirUnion, Glamour, Harvard Business Review, and many more. Here are some examples of his illustrations, I love his style.

You can see more of Iv Orlov’s work at Behance and Flickr.

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Last year Google launched its Flu Trends tool in the United States, and has now taken the opportunity to expand it into 16 additional countries. The site is also now available in 37 different languages.

"By tracking the popularity of certain Google search queries, we are able to estimate the level of flu, in near real-time," says Google. "While some traditional flu surveillance systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google search queries can be counted immediately. Google Flu Trends provides an additional surveillance tool that may help public health officials and the public make more informed decisions about preparing for the flu season."

"In the past year, we’ve expanded our coverage to include Mexico, New Zealand and Australia and have continued to see a good correspondence between our estimates and official flu activity data. In fact, our analysis of last season shows that Google Flu Trends had a close 0.92 correlation with official U.S. flu data," the company adds.

Countries where Flu Trends is now available include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the US.

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When one speaks of retro art, images of art styles derived from advertising and propaganda posters from 1930s to 1960s usually flood the mind. The simple graphics made from oil paints reflect the less advanced technology of that time. This period is also a time of significant turbulence in our modern history, when major events such as the rise of communism and World Wars were taking ground. It is then not surprising that many posters serve as propaganda tools for the ruling governments. These propaganda images eventually contributed to the development of different retro art styles.

Many of the following retro art pieces that you will see are actual posters produced during those time. We’ve searched a couple of sources to compile a great list of retro art styles comprising not only of propaganda art pieces, but also a few other kind such as advertising posters. In addition, we have separated these pieces into two main categories, Western and Chinese retro art. Full list after jump.

The West: Retro Posters from the West

Here we have Soviet posters during the rise of communism as well as propaganda posters during World War II. There are also some miscellaneous ones like film and product ads, along with some retro-inspired art.

This is the Enemy

Guns of Russia

We’ve Beaten Them Before

Eyes of the Home Skies

Unwilling Volunteers

We Can Do It

Here They Come!

The Soviet Regime

The Power of Propaganda: Wartime Posters

Syd Mead Concept Design for US Steel

Say Yes! to Analog Design

Soviet Flag Over the Reichstag

Retro Never Dies

Reach Out and Touch Someone

Jantzen Swimsuit 1949

Le Facteur ATC

Kultura

Gorbachev

Glory To Our Army

I Wake Up Screaming 1941

Lenin

You Behave!

People and Army are One!

We Will Not Allow This to Happen Again!

Smoke Cigarettes

Great Stalin is A Flag of the USSR’s Friendship

Everything for the Victory – Women of USSR for the Front

Motherland is Calling!

To Defend USSR

Liberated woman – Build Up Socialism!

Fortunello

Beatles Badge

Hotdog

1953 Advertising Calendar for Hotpoint Appliances

Birds!

1924 Lenin Poster

Lenin

1940 Stalin

The East: The Chinese Art of Propaganda

As a result of over 5,000 years of China’s history and culture, Chinese art has always been uniquely different from the West. Here you will see how traditonal Chinese art evolved into retro art that still maintains its distinct culture while incorporating Western art elements to spread communism.

Propaganda

Mao is Always Right

Revolutionary Committees are Good

The Working Class is the Main Force in the Campaign

Win Honor for Our Great Leader Chairman Mao

Sharpening the Knife

Down with the Capitalist

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army

Learn from the Spirit of Daqing

We’ll Definitely Beat the World Record

Communism

Chairman Mao

Develop New Mountain Areas

An Eye for an Eye

Our Victory is Certain

Down with American and Soviet

The Chinese People are Not Easily Humiliated

The Revolutionary Movement

Smash the Old World; Establish the New World

Great Victory

Gutian Conference

Endless Production

Brilliant Light of the Red Sun

Chairman Hua

Chairman Mao

Double Happiness

Learn Science From Young

I Love the Blue Sky of Motherland

Military Spirit

Film Poster: Home

Film Poster: Beyond the Sea

Art Comes From Life’s Struggles

United As One People

These propaganda artworks were collected from Life.com, Flickr, Crestock, kaladarshan, Chinese Poster Online and other websites.

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