Celebrities Who Own Private Islands

Owning an island is the ultimate status symbol; apart from that, these private island kingdoms also afford privacy, peace and tranquility to celebrities who are always in the public eye.

Sir Richard Branson – undoubtly the "King of the Islands". He owns Necker and Moskito Islands, Caribbean Sea; Makepeace Island, Noosa River; Island of England, Dubai.






Talking of private islands, there is no doubt that Richard Branson is the king. Necker and Moskito in the Caribbean Sea belong to Virgin Atlantic owner Richard Branson, the most flamboyant business mogul in Britain. Both have been transformed into resorts of luxury and indulgence.

Necker Island is a 74-acre private paradise nestling in its incredible turquoise waters, with coral reefs and pristine white beaches. The island is often rented out whole by the privileged few. The 120-acre Caribbean island, Moskito is a more recent purchase and is just a mile and a half away from Necker, and cost $10 million.

He also bought Makepeace Island for the staff of Virgin which lies off Australia’s Queensland coast and the Island of England located in Dubai’s manmade world map.

Johnny Depp – Little Halls Pond Cay, Bahamas


This Pirate of the Caribbean fell in love with the Bahamas during the filming of “Pirates of the Caribbean and went ahead and bought his own real-life Caribbean paradise getaway for his family in the Bahamas – Little Hall’s Pond Cay. This 45-acre, one mile long isle is a private island and is part of the Exuma archipelago to the south of Bahamas. It costed him $3.6 million and boasts of the world’s most beautiful reefs, a private harbor, a palm-fringed lagoon and six pristine white sand beaches and is accessible only by a boat, helicopter or seaplane. Recent news that made headlines was that his island will be run on eco-friendly solar power.

Mel Gibson – Mago Island, Fiji


Australian natives find the tropical islands of Fiji a perfect vacation spot. Mel Gibson, himself an Australian, has joined the list of Fijian island owners with the purchase of Mago Island in 2005 for about $15 million. The island is 5,400 acres and is one of the largest private owned islands in the South Pacific. This island is almost completely secluded and uninhabited and the actor left it in its pristine state, except for building a modest residence for his personal use.

David Copperfield – Musha Cay, Bahamas




Magician David Copperfield owns four islands in southern Bahamas, for $50 million. While the 150-acre Musha Cay is where he has his most private resort, the three other islands are used as buffers to ensure maximum privacy. He rents out this island for $325,000 per week and celebrities such as John Travolta and Oprah Winfrey have stayed there. He calls the waters of his island the “fountain of youth,” where he says he has discovered that dead leaves or insects near death come alive. In spite of these claims being met with disbelief, the island is said to be out of this earth with breathtaking beauty.

Aristotle Onassis – Skorpios Island, Greece


Athena Onassis, the granddaughter and sole heir to the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis fortune now owns Skorpios, the beautiful Greek island. Aristotle and his wife Jackie-O had their wedding on this island in the Lonian Sea. They set the trend for private islands back in the 1960s. Aristotle and his children are buried on this island. Valued at more than $200 million, this most-famous island is not yet for sale, but if it is ever on the market, bidders will have to compete with Madonna who is interested in this.

Leonardo DiCaprio – Blackadore Cay, Belize


Eco advocate Leonardo DiCaprio purchased this sprawling 104-acre, 202 mile long Belizean island in 2005 for $1.75 million. This beautiful island with white sand beaches, coconut trees and rocky outcrops is located near the famous Barrier Reef. It is said that there is no other island in Belize that has the length to install an airstrip. Leonardo plans to turn his island into a small eco-friendly resort and has teamed up with a hotel resort chain, Four Seasons.

Shakira – Bonds Cay, Bahamas


Nothing less than the sprawling 700 acre island called Bonds Cay satisfies Shakira. This huge island costed $16 million and is a combined property of Shakira, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and Alejandro Sanz the Spanish pop star. They have plans on creating a hub for art and culture in the form of an artists’ retreat with a new-comers gallery and resident artists.

Nicholas Cage – Leaf Cay, Bahamas


It was in the year 2006 that Nicholas Cage purchased this Bahamian island for $3 million. He already owned a luxurious home on Paradise Island. Leaf Cay is part of the Exuma chain of islands and is close to close friend Johnny Depp’s private island as well as near an island that is owned by singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. With tropical palms, long sandy beaches and a freshwater pond, this 40-acres is nothing less than a paradise. Rumors are ripe that he is now planning on selling it for $7 million.

Eddie Murphy – Rooster Cay, Bahamas


Eddie Murphy is one of the highest paid actors, so it is only natural that he owns an unspoiled paradise, Rooster Cay, which is also known as Long Cay. He bought this little isle in 2007 for $15 million and it is just a few minutes away from Nassau. Speculation is rife as to whether the actor is going to turn this island into a business like many other celebrity island owners or keep it as his private retreat and a love nest for himself and his wife.

Celine Dion - Île Gagnon, Quebec


This one is nothing like other expensive tropical celebrity islands. This is a little island located in Celine Dion’s home province of Quebec. It is unpretentious, in spite of her being one of the highest paid female performers in history. Located in the Mille Île’s River, her huge French-style chateau is a famous tourist attraction; although, people can only get as close as a boat can take them to this heavily fenced mansion.

The list of celebrities who own private islands is huge. Malcolm Forbes of Forbes Magazine recently sold his 4.71 sq. miles Laucala island to the owner of Red Bull, Dietrich Mateschitz. Then there are others like Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie who bought an island in “The World,” Dubai (a man-made island). Tony Curtis, Claudia Schieffer, Faith Hill, Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Steven Spielberg are just a few in the long list of private island owners. Madonna and Richard Gere are said to be on the market looking for Greek islands.

What drives celebrities to buy these islands? Robin Leach of “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous has his own unique theory. He feels that since we are surrounded by water during our first nine months, we crave for this security throughout our lives and islands provide us that.

Porsche Museum

The new Porsche museum stands on a conspicuous junction just outside Porsche Headquarters in Zuffenhausen. The display area covers 5600 square meters featuring around 80 exhibits, many rare cars and a variety of historical models.

The museum was designed by the architects Delugan Meissl. The design concept is based on a model by HG Merz who was also involved in the building of the award winning Mercedes Benz museum.

Edelweiss PC Casemod

The Edelweiss PC by Million-Dollar-PC is one of the first computers we've come across that seamlessly combines art and function. All its wires and cables are hidden, but its components are suspended out there for all to see.

Peer inside its smoked glass cover, and you'll see its innards, intertwined with tubing for its liquid cooling system. Check out that graduated cylinder on the outside holding some of the coolant. Stunning.

Pandaphants

Elephants painted as pandas were seen at the Royal Elephant Kraal in Ayutthaya province, 80 km (50 miles) north of Bangkok. Five of the elephants were led on a walkabout to send a message to the Thai public not to ignore its elephants, the symbolic animal of Thailand, after a female panda and its newborn baby in the Chiang Mai zoo have captured the attention of the public.

WTF Were They Thinking Tattoos

Some of these the artist did a great job, but still have to wonder...wtf were they thinking??

There seem to be many people who enjoy having some unsuccessful tattoos on their bodies.

Creative Soap Designs

Would you like to use kind of soap? I wouldnt, i would create a huge collection of it because this isnt just soap its actually very beautiful and creative soap art!

Modern and creative soap designs from all over the world.

Art From Vinyl Records

This is what happens when old vinyl records are turned into creative works of art, the results are very impressive.

2009 Aerography Festival in Moscow

This festival is held each year in Moscow and gathers lots of people. This year is the 5th edition. Some cars are really well painted but I would not drive them. Not very discreet.

World’s Famous Leaders In Youth

You can see what famous politicians and dictators looked like in their youth and what they became when they grew up.

Tony Blair


George W. Bush


Fidel Castro


Che Guevara


Jacques Chirac


Winston Churchill


Ghandi


Adolph Hitler


John F. Kennedy


Khomeini


Kim Jong II


King Fahd


Nelson Mandela


Chairman Mao


Vladimir Putin


Ronald Reagan


Saddam Hussein


Joseph Stalin


Yassir Arafat

La Tomatina - Biggest Tomato Fight Festival in Colombia

What started as La Tomatina of Bunol, Spain, is now also a popular celebration in Sutamarchan, Colombia and even Dongguan, China.

On June 14, locals of Sutamarchan and many tourists gathered on an old football field to stage Colombia’s biggest food fight of the year. Around 15 tons of tomatoes were sacrificed in La Tomatina this year. The food fight, inspired by the much more famous Tomatina of Bunol, is part of a three day tomato celebration. A tomato-eating contest and a competition for the largest tomato, are also part of the celebration.

Living Shadows

It seems that with the right angle and the moment you can achieve an amazing shadow art. These shadow arts are called living shadows and it seems that name fits perfectly!

Beautiful US Army Girls

Street Dentists In Asia

If you thought that businesses were only run in four walled shops or corporate houses with big price tags and that if you needed a doctor you would have to look out for a clinic or hospital, think again! India and China have a different story to offer you, you could find dentists on streets too and they had all “tools” that your treatment would require!

We bring to you India and China doing some shocking “open” business below.

Two Year Old Snake Charmers From India

While other two-year-olds are just learning to walk and talk, the children of the nomad Vadi Tribe are introduced to the centuries-old art of snake charming.

All the children of the Vadi Tribe come face to face with a poisonous cobra at age two, and go through a ten-year ritual, in which they learn all the secrets of snake charming. Both boys and girls must learn to handle snakes. While men must be able to manipulate cobras by playing the flute, the women must know how to take care of the reptiles when their husbands or brothers are away.

The Vadi treat snakes like their own children, never keeping them away from their natural habitat for more than seven months. Any longer than that would be disrespectful to the snakes, according to Babanath Mithunath Madari, the 60-year-old Vadi chief-charmer. In fact, the only time a snake actually bit his charmer, was when he kept it for more than seven months.

Vadi snake-charmers don’t cut the fangs of their snakes, instead they feed them an herbal mixture which, they say, makes their deadly poison harmless.

Unfortunately, in 1991, the thousand-year-old tradition of snake-charming was banned in India, and the Vadi tribe are stripped of their snakes whenever they are confronted by the police. They never spend more than six months in the same place.














Source: telegraph

Giant Marionettes in France

The latest performance by the French mechanical marionette street theater company Royale De Luxe - with some remarkable pictures of their latest creation.

Nantes, the home town of Jules Verne, is situated in western France. Here, near the river Loire a giant deep-sea diver sleeps gently, waiting for his task to begin. Sadness marks his face even as he sleeps. He has been searching the world over for his missing niece and although he may not know it, the end of his search is coming. The diver or scaphandrier as he is known in French will be paraded through the streets of this historic city at the beginning of the Estuary 2009 arts festival. The biannual festival gives the French mechanical marionette street theater company Royale de Luxe the opportunity to unveil their latest creation.
































Source: flickr

Real Street Fighter Wannabe

A man smashes a car by hands. Everything was wrecked.

Unusual and Creative Packaging Designs

Packaging design has the primary goal to attract customers’ attention. For this purpose, package designs can not simply inform the customers, but also provoke feelings and communicate emotions. An effective packaging looks attractive, impresses with its creativity and is just nice to have on the shelf.

Check out 20 awesome packaging designs presented below.

Apple Birthday Cakes

I think it’s also time to celebrate the impact that Apple has made on our lives. Innovative, creative, suave computer and music player designs are synonymous with the brand. Here are 13 examples of how Apple has even affected our birthday cakes!

Photoshopped Eyes

National Geographic's International Photography Contest

This is an amazing collection of winner photos from The International Photography Contest organized by the National Geographic and held in September, 2008. This is just a short selection of few of the most impressive photos, but you can see more on the National Geographic web site. I hope you’ll like this great and stunning photos.

Sculptures On Buildings

Some of the faces carved into buildings are beautiful and peaceful. Others seem pained and distressed.

Amazing Illustrations by Tiago Hoisel

Tiago Hoisel is a mad scientist reanimating cartoon characters into living beings, or perhaps he is capturing the souls of living beings and injecting them into cartoon molds? Either way he is certainly mad.

Mr Afghanistan Body Building Competition 2009

Bodybuilders compete in the Mr Afghanistan competition in Kabul. Shukrullah Shakili from Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, one of the most dangerous parts of the country, was named Mr Afghanistan 2009.

Tire Shoes

Believe it or not, shoes can be a luxury item in poor countries. But we humans are resourceful creatures, so we rarely let lack of money stand in our way. Case and point, these guys in poor African and South-American countries use old tires to make their own slippers. Sure they may not make to a fashion presentation in Milan, but I’m sure they’re a lot more durable than what we buy from the shop.

35 Creative USB Flash Drives

USB drives are the new age of data storage devices also known as Flash Drives. USB drives have substituted ancient floppy disks and CD’s because of its micro mini size and ability to take it any where; you can take this highly storage size device in your pocket.

Today, I am sharing with you some of the most unusual and creative USB flash drive designs which you would really wish you could have.