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A Day in the Life of a Polar Bear Family.........

2010-05-19T05:33:00.001-07:00

The habitat of polar bears is the Arctic Circle where the world’s largest carnivores (on land) find what they need to survive: chilling temperatures and seals, the main part of their diet Their Latin name Ursus maritimus or maritime bear refers to the fact that polar bears, though born on land, spend most of their lives at sea – swimming or hunting across the sea where they wait for unsuspecting seals.

Together with the Kodiak bear, polar bears are the largest land animal. Adult males usually weigh between 350 kg and 680 kg (780–1,500 lb) and reach a length of 2.5 m to 3 m (7.9–9.8 ft). Adult females are roughly half that size and weigh between 150 kg and 250 kg (330–550 lb), measuring 1.8 m to 2.5 m (5.9–7.9 ft) in length. Pregnant females, however, can weigh as much as 500 kg (1,100 lb).

They are huge – adult polar bear males can be up to 3 m (9.8 ft) tall!

Polar bears have an exceptional sense of smell and can make out the odour of a seal from a mile (1.6 km) away – even if the seal should be buried under three feet (almost 1 m) of snow.

Mama, do you also smell breakfast?

Though polar bears have a reputation for being aggressive, they are actually cautious in confrontation and often choose flight rather than fight. In contrast to their close relative, the grizzly bear, they are not territorial. Needless to say though that their reaction to a particular situation also depends on if their stomachs are full or not.

During mating season, adult polar bear males fight in earnest for the right to mate with a female. The rest of the year, they can often be observed engaged in play fights to test their strength in a good-natured way.

Two polar bears sparring:

Polar bear cubs are especially playful and first play with their siblings and mother when very young but soon imitate the adult males’ play fighting. No doubt a good way for young males to practice their fighting skills before the final test: their first mating season.

Two cubs play fighting:

Female polar bears begin to breed at the age of four; in some areas at the age of five. Male polar bears start mating at the age of six, if competition is fierce even later at age eight or ten. Courtship and mating takes place in April and May on the sea ice and in areas where seals are abundant.

With the fertilised egg in a suspended state, the polar bear female tries to gain as much weight as possible in the four months until August or September, at least 200 kg (400 lb) or often doubling her body weight. The breaking of the ice floes in the fall indicates the end of hunting season and the pregnant females will then dig a maternity den – a snow cave with a narrow entrance.

There, each female spends the next few months in a dormant state similar to hibernation until November or February when the cubs are born. Each female typically gives birth to two cubs. They are born helpless and blind and will nurse for two and a half years.

Two cubs in the den – where’s Mama?

Despite the mother’s hard work, protection and fat-rich milk, survival rates are quite low: Only 42% of all cubs will survive beyond the first year; the rate is down from 65% just 15 years ago. Starvation is one reason for the death of cubs, accidents another but also the fact that adult males sometimes hunt and kill cubs for food.

The mother and her cubs remain in the den until mid February or mid April – an involuntary fast for the mother who is living off her fat reserves while also fattening her kids from barely 1 kg (around 2 lb) at birth to 10-15 kg (22-33 lb). The first two weeks after emerging from the den, the mother and her cubs stay in the vicinity while the cubs get used to walking around and the mother grazes on the vegetation.

Ah, finally out of the den!

Then, they start the long trek out to the sea ice where the mother can start hunting and have her first proper meal after fasting for six or seven months. The mother will continue nursing her cubs until they are two and a half and will teach them everything from swimming, hiding and hunting until they can survive on their own.

Polar bears are excellent swimmers:

The aww-inspiring image below of the polar bear mother with her two cubs nicely demonstrates just how white the fur of young polar bears is and how much of a yellow tinge it takes on as the polar bear ages.

Mama, do we have to go out into the world?

After the mother leaves (read: chases the cubs away or abandons them when they are old enough to make it on their own) siblings have been observed living and travelling together for weeks or even months.

Adult male polar bears usually lead solitary lives though they play with each other for hours and seem to develop friendships.

Nothing like chilling with the mates:

The maximum age of polar bears is usually around 25 years though exceptions prove the rule; the oldest wild bear lived to see 32 years of age and the oldest bear in captivity died at the age of 43.

The current conservation status of polar bears is classified as vulnerable with 5 of their 19 subpopulations declining due to unrestricted hunting for decades. Plus, their natural habitat is shrinking and threatened by global warming. It is estimated that only 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears exist today worldwide. Arctic drilling interferes far more than previously thought as it disturbs the polar bears’ denning habitat and might cause mothers to abandon their cubs early.

Nuclear polar bear family – small but tough:

The polar bear habitat stretches over the territories of only the following five nations: Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Norway (Svalbard), Russia and usa (Alaska) that signed an agreement for polar bear conservation already in 1973. But that doesn’t mean the well-being of these Arctic giants should only be the responsibility of those five; surely the support of the international community is needed as some scientists predict that they may be extinct within the next 100 years

5 Deepest CAVE of the WORLD..

2010-03-09T03:34:00.001-08:00

Mammoth Cave (52,835 acres)

World’s largest cave is located in Kentucky, USA. It is assumed that 52,835 acres long cave was discovered by Frank Houchin who used to live nearby the cave. The cave is also famous for The Kentucky Cave Wars; it was a period of competition between local cave owners for tourist money. Private Citizens formed the Mammoth Cave National Park Association in 1926 which was later dedicated to National Park in 1941.

Jewel Cave (1,273.51 acres)

An estimated 109,000 people visit world’s second largest cave each year. Approximately 1,273.51 acres long cave is located in Custer County, South Dakota, USA. It was discovered in 1900; become national monument on 7th Feb, 1908. The Cave administration offers three different types of tour packages.

Optymistychna Cave (214 kilometers)

World’s third largest cave is located in village of Korolivka, Borschiv Raion, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. World longest gypsum cave was discovered in 1966 by a speleological club called Cyclope. The Ozernaya cave (eleventh longest cave in the world) is also located near to optymistychna.

Wind Cave (28,295 acres)

Likewise Jewel Cave, Wind Cave is also located in Custer County, South Dakota, USA. World’s forth largest cave was discovered by two brothers in 1881. Several roads run through the park and there are 30 miles (48 km) of hiking trails, so almost the entire park is accessible. The park had 591,049 visitors in 2006

Lechuguilla Cave (203 kilometers)

World’s fifth largest cave is 203 km long. It is located in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico. The cave contains a large amount of gypsum, lemon-yellow sulfur, speleothems, soda straws, hydromagnesite balloons, cave pearls, subaqueous helictites, rusticles, U-loops and J-loops.

Aam Admi to Save up to Rs 50,000

2010-02-26T21:31:00.001-08:00

INCOME TAX SLABE

"This budget belongs to Aam Admi." Thus spoke the Finance Minister earlier this morning. And to his credit this bears out in the broad reduction in tax slabs that he announced. As a result, the common man can save up to approximately Rs 50,000 per annum. Additionally, the Budget 2010 also offers an annual deduction of Rs 20,000 towards an investment in long-term infrastructure bonds, on top of whatever 80C deduction a taxpayer might have taken.

If you earn up to Rs 3 lakhs per annum, then there will be no change in your tax liability. If you earn between Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs, you can now save up to Rs 20,000 per annum. And, if you earn between Rs 5 lakhs to Rs 8 lakhs, you can now save between Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000.

The above amounts are substantial enough, and are expected to help promote higher consumption which will further boost our economy. Whether these savings are used to buy big ticket items such as electronics or white goods, or spent towards daily consumption, or used for investing towards meeting financial goals, the common man will find many ways to take advantage of this tax break.

The following are the new tax slabs according to your gender and age that might be applicable to you.

For Men

New Income Tax Slab

Tax Rate
Old Slab Rates

Up to Rs 1,60,000
Nil
Up to Rs 1,60,000

From Rs 1,60,001 to Rs 5,00,000
10%
From Rs 1,60,001 to Rs 3,00,000

From Rs 5,00,001 to Rs 8,00,000
20%
From Rs 3,00,001 to Rs 5,00,000

Above Rs 8,00,001
30%
Above Rs 5,00,001

For Women

New Income Tax Slab

Tax Rate
Old Slab Rates

Up to Rs 1,90,000
Nil
Up to Rs 1,90,000

From Rs 1,90,001 to Rs 5,00,000
10%
From Rs 1,90,001 to Rs 3,00,000

From Rs 5,00,001 to Rs 8,00,000
20%
From Rs 3,00,001 to Rs 5,00,000

Above Rs 8,00,001
30%
Above Rs 5,00,001

For Senior Citizens

New Income Tax Slab

Tax Rate
Old Slab Rates

Up to Rs 2,40,000
Nil
Up to Rs. 2,40,000

From Rs 2,40,001 to Rs 5,00,000
10%
From Rs 2,40,001 to Rs 3,00,000

From Rs 5,00,001 to Rs 8,00,000
20%
From Rs 3,00,001 to Rs 5,00,000

To show you an actual example of the scope of savings, lets look at the hypothetical case of Mr Mukherji, an individual tax payer. His salary income is Rs 10 lakhs and he takes full benefit of the 80C deduction available to individuals. The table below compares Mr Mukherji’s tax liability under the old slabs (pre-budget) and new slabs (post-budget), and demonstrates the savings that he can achieve under the new rules announced in Budget 2010.

Particulars

Pre-Budget
Post-Budget
Savings

Mr. Mukherji’s Salary Income for the Year
Rs 10,00,000
Rs 10,00,000

Investments under section 80C
Rs 1,00,000
Rs 1,00,000

Additional Investments in Long-term Infrastructure Bonds
Rs 20,000
Rs 20,000

Computation of Taxable Income

Salary Income
Rs 10,00,000
Rs 10,00,000

Less: Deductions for:

- Savings under Section 80C
Rs 1,00,000
Rs 1,00,000

- Investment in Long Term Infrastructure Bonds
Nil
Rs 20,000

Net Taxable Income
Rs 9,00,000
Rs 880,000

Computation of Tax Liability

Tax Liability on:

- Rs 0 to Rs 160,000
Nil
Nil
Nil

- Rs 160,001 to Rs 300,000
Rs 14,000
Rs 14,000
Nil

- Rs 300,001 to Rs 500,000
Rs 40,000
Rs 20,000
Rs 20,000

- Rs 500,001 to Rs 800,000
Rs 90,000
Rs 60,000
Rs 30,000

- above Rs 800,001
Rs 30,000
Rs 24,000
Rs 6,000

Total Income Tax
Rs 1,74,000
Rs 1,18,000
Rs 56,000

Add : Education Cess
Rs 5,220
Rs 3,540
Rs 1,680

Total Tax Liability
Rs 1,79,220
Rs 1,21,540
Rs 57,680

Haridwar – Gateway to God

2010-02-15T21:43:00.001-08:00

Haridwar (हरिद्वार), also spelled Hardwar, is a city in the state of Uttarakhand. Haridwar, literally Gateway to God, is one of the Hindu holy places in India and a center of Hindu religion and mysticism for centuries. Located on the banks of River Ganges (Ganga), at the point where the Ganges descends from the hills to the North Indian plains, Haridwar attracts a large number of Hindu pilgrims from all over the world.

Festivals

Haridwar is the site of many religious festivals. Most notably, once every twelve years it is the venue for the Kumbh Mela, humanity’s largest festival, which drew a record 70 million in 2003. (The festival rotates between Haridwar and Allahabad, Ujjain and Nashik.) The Ardh Mela, or “half mela”, is held every six years. Both will be held in Haridwar for the next time in 2010.

Other yearly festivals include:

Baisakhi, April.
Kanwar Mela, July. The largest yearly festival, drawing up to 300,000 visitors.
Somwati Amavasya, July. Almost as large as the Kanwar Mela.
Kartik Purnima, held 15 days after Diwali on the first night of the full moon in November.

See the Haridwar city website for a complete listing. While the festivals are colorful and fascinating, they also strain the town’s limited infrastructure to the breaking point and sometimes beyond. Book rooms and tickets well in advance, and avoid travel by road as the traffic jams can be horrendous.

Get inHaridwar is about 200 kms from Delhi, the capital of India and is well connected by road and rail network from all parts of India. It is better to avoid travelling to Haridwar during the hindu month of sawan (around july) since there is a heavy crowd and all important roads are blocked and most of the hotels/busses/trains are crowded.

By plane

Dehradun’s Jolly Grant airport, with twice daily service to Delhi on Air Deccan , is 20 km from Haridwar.

By train

Haridwar Junction (IR station code : HW) is well-connected by train. The railway station is located on the south side of the town, within walking distance of most hotels.

By bus

Haridwar’s bus station, a stone’s throw from the train station, is chaotic and has no signage whatsoever in English. There are regular bus services from Delhi (4-5 hours), Rishikesh (1 hour) and other important towns of North India to Haridwar. Though they claim they reach New Delhi in 4-5 hours they take at least 6-7 hours. Due to the traffic jams in the roads leading in and out of Delhi it can even take 7-8 hours. Before booking the bus check the bus condition. Always go for cushioned and push-back seats. The long and bumpy ride will take a toll on your mood and body.

Get around

Central Haridwar can be reasonably comfortably covered on foot. Cyclerickshaws abound, and most trips in town should not cost more than Rs. 20. Taxis and autorickshaws congregate at the train and bus stations.

See

Hari-ki-Pairi (or Har-ki-Pairi). To the north of the center, this is Haridwar’s focal point, where devotees gather to bathe and worship on the Ganges. According to legend, this is where a drop of nectar fell from the churning of the oceans when the world was created, and a stone wall has Vishnu’s footprint. Each evening around 7 PM, thousands gather and worship the river Goddess by putting diyas (floating lamps) in the river. You may be asked to make a donation if you linger near the ghats. Beware of con artists posing as officials. If you would like to make a donation there are boxes at the center of the ghats around the light poles.
Maya Devi Mandir , located on upper road. This temple is one of the 51 “shakti peeths” and its the presiding deity of Haridwar. It is from this temple Haridwar derives its other name Mayapur.
Mansa Devi Mandir, atop a hill near the center of town. Can be reached by cable car (Rs 48 for a return ticket) or by a road that gently winds uphill (about 2 km), starting from Railway Rd. The temple is aesthetically not particularly noteworthy, but the views are grand. Expect to queue to board the cable car and once more to enter the temple: despite some rudimentary attempts at crowd control, the crowds of jostling devotees can make this a pretty intense experience.
Bharat Mata Mandir, 5 km north of the center. Dedicated to Mother India, this is half temple, half nation building exercise, with seven floors stacked with deities, saints, and secular heroes of all Indian faiths. Some signage in English.
Chandidevi Mandir,8-9KM from railway station, you get the combi package to see both the temples by AC bus including bus and ropeway charges
Daksh mandir,7-8 km from railway station,you get rickshaw or you can hire a auto,near also many mandirs to see at kankhal.
Bilkeshwar Mahadev Mandir , Shiva temple located on a hill.
Vaishno Devi Mandir
Ma Anandamayee Ashram, Located at Kankhal. The samadhi of Shree Shree Ma Anandamayee is located here and is also the Head Office of the revered organisation. It is a must see. Devotees included late Mrs Indira Gandhi (ex Prime Minister of India). Attend the evening aarti near Ma’s samadhi and have a soul cleansing experience.

Do

Divya Yog Mandir Trust University, 16 km from Haridvar. Founded by Baba Ramdev.

Buy

Haridwar, the holy city is one of the most renowned pilgrimage centers in India. Pilgrims from all over the world flock to this sacred city to take a dip in the holy waters of River Ganga.Being a destination for pilgrimage tourism, shopping in Haridwar is not on the itinerary of the tourist.

However shops in Haridwar have some interesting things to offer to the tourist. The main shopping centers are Moti bazaar, Upper Road, Jwalapur and Kankhal. You can also check out the Government Handloom and Handicrafts Emporiums and the Gandhi Ashram. Here you will find a range of handicraft decorative pieces. If you are interested in jewellery, then you can choose from a variety of imitation ones which make good fashion accessory.

In Haridwar, you will find neatly and intricately carved stone idols, which make unique souvenirs. It is fascinating that these stones have traversed with Ganga all along and they are eventually deposited in Rishikesh as the river enters the plains. This gives the stones amazing shapes and a natural polish. Besides idols, there are kitchen set toys made from stone, which are interesting buys.

World's Largest Vegetables and Fruits

2010-02-08T22:05:00.001-08:00

World's Largest Vegetables and Fruits

Check out 10 of the largest fruits and vegetables! These people have managed to grow humongous varieties of potatoes, cabbages, jackfruits and more!

World's Biggest Sweet Potato (24.9 Lbs or 11.2 Kg)

Lebanese farmer Khalil Semhat, from the southern city of Tyre, couldn't believe his peeled eyes when he discovered he had grown a massive potato weighing 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds), setting a record for the world's largest potato.
Worlds Largest Marrow (113 Lbs or 65 Kg)

Grown by Ken Dade in Norfolk, the 65kg (113lbs) vegetable needed two men to carry it to a stand at the National Amateur Gardening Show in Somerset. The voluptuous vegetable has entered the Guinness World Records book, beating the previous world title holder by 3kg.
World’s Heaviest Jackfruit (76 Lbs or 34.4 Kg)

The sweet tasting fruit weighed 34.6kg (76lb 4.4oz), measured 57.46 cm (22.625in) long and had a circumference of 121.28 cm on 8 August 2003. It was grown by George and Margaret Schattauer of Captai Cook, Hawaii, USA. Native to Western India, the fruit spread throughout South East Asia and first came to Hawaii in 1888.
World's Largest Green Cabbage (76 Lbs or 34.4 Kg)

John Evans, a mechanical designer who lives 40 miles north of Anchorage in Palmer, Alaska, holds seven world records for giant vegetables. One of them is this Green Cabbage, who weighted over 76 lb, making it a world record in 1998.
World's Largest Watermelon (268.8 Lbs or 122 Kg)

Weighting 268.8 pounds, this watermelon made the cut as the world's largest watermelon. Grown at the Hope Farm Store by Lloyd Bright, his family has a long history with watermelons: they set world records in melon size in 1979 with a 200 pound melon and again in 1985 with one that weighed 260 pounds.
World's Heaviest Carrot (18.9 Lbs or 8.5 Kg)

Presented by John Evans in 1998, this 18.985 pound (8.61 kg) carrot is the heaviest ever.
World’s Largest Pumpkin (1689 Lbs or 766 Kg)

Grown in Rhode Island, the world’s biggest pumpkin was shown at the Topsfield Fair of Massachusetts in 2007, weighing 1689 lbs.

World’s Longest Cucumber (36.1 in or 0.9 mts)

The 36.1in cucumber was grown by Alf Cobb who beat his own record of 35.1in at the National Amateur Gardening Show, from the Bath and West Showground in south-west England.

World's Largest Cauliflower (31.25 Lbs or 14.1 Kg)

Also grown by Evans, this Cauliflower weighted 31.25 lb, making it Alaska's largest one in 1997.
World's Heaviest Broccoli (35 Lbs or 15.8 Kg)

In what was John Evans' first World record in 1993, this Broccoli weighted over 35 lb, making it a world record.

How Many Countries In The World?

2010-02-05T04:38:00.001-08:00

How Many Countries In The World?

Now that is a question that's somewhat difficult to answer, as there is no one right answer. Many sources offer different answers, and depending on the source, there are 189, 191, 192, 193, 194 or 195 independent countries in the world today.

As of May 1, 2008, the United Nations has 192 members (including Montenegro and Serbia - the two newest nations). That number does not include the Vatican, and it doesn't (yet) include Kosovo

Regarding England, Scotland and Wales, though all are widely considered individual countries, they are all still a part of the United Kingdom (UK), a recognized European country by the United Nations, United States, and others, and therefore included within the United Kingdom on our country list below.

The US State Department recognizes 194 independent countries around the world, but that list of countries reflects the political agenda of the United States of America. As an example, it includes but does not include Taiwan, as China claims that Taiwan (the ROC) is simply a province of China.

Most of the current World Almanacs use 193 countries, which is probably the best answer, but what about Kosovo? Palestine? Greenland? Western Sahara?

A note regarding Greenland: It voted in favor of increased self-rule in November 2008 and acquired complete responsibility for internal affairs in June 2009. Denmark, however, continues to exercise control of Greenland's foreign affairs, security, and financial policy in consultation with Greenland's Home Rule Government. In that regard, Greenland is still a part of Denmark, and not recognized as an official independent country. In fact, it's a constituent country; a country that is part of another entity, such as a sovereign state. In this case, the country of Denmark.

The political world is constantly changing and our list of independent nations is shown below. Note that we don't say that our list is the ONLY answer, just that it's our answer.

Country in the world

A complete list of Countries by Continent

A complete list of Dependencies and Territories of the world

(A)
Afghanistan (Kabul) (AS)
Albania (Tirane) (EU)
Algeria (Algers) (AF)
Andorra (Andorra la Vella) (EU)
Angola (Luanda) (AF)
Antigua and Barbuda (St. John's) (NA)
Argentina (Buenos Aires) (SA)
Armenia (Yerevan) (EU)
Australia (Canberra) (AU)
Austria (Vienna) (EU)
Azerbaijan (Baku) (AS)

(B)
Bahamas (Nassau) (NA)
Bahrain (Manama) (AS)
Bangladesh (Dhaka) (AS)
Barbados (Bridgetown) (NA)
Belarus (Minsk) (EU)
Belgium (Brussels) (EU)
Belize (Belmopan) (NA)
Benin (Port-Novo) (AF)
Bhutan (Thimphu) (AS)
Bolivia (Sucre) (SA)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo) (EU)
Botswana (Gaborone) (AF)
Brazil (Brasilia) (SA)
Brunei (Bander Seri Begawan) (AS)
Bulgaria (Sofia) (EU)
Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou) (AF)
Burma/Myanmar (Yangon) (AS)
Burundi (Bujumbura) (AF)

(C)
Cambodia (Phnom Penh) (AS)
Cameroon (Yaounde) (AF)
Canada (Ottawa) (NA)
Cape Verde (Praia) (EU - Portugal)
Central African Republic (Bangui) (AF)
Chad (N'Djamena) (AF)
Chile (Santiago) (SA)
China (Beijing) (AS)
Colombia (Bogota) (SA)
Comoros (Moroni) (AF)
Congo (Brazzaville) (AF)
Congo, Democratic Republic of (Kinshasa) (AF)
Costa Rica (San Jose) (NA)
Cote d'Ivoire/Ivory Coast (Yamoussoukro) (AF)
Croatia (Zagreb) (EU)
Cuba (Havana) (NA)
Cyprus (Nicosia) (AS) and/or (EU)
Czech Republic (Prague) (EU)

(D)
Denmark (Copenhagen) (EU)
Djibouti (Djibouti) (AF)
Dominica (Roseau) (NA)
Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo) (NA)

(E)
East Timor (Dili) (AS)
Ecuador (Quito) (SA)
Egypt (Cairo) (AF)
El Salvador (San Salvador) (NA)
Equatorial Guinea (Malabo) (AF)
Eritrea (Asmara) (AF)
Estonia (Tallinn) (EU)
Ethiopia (Addis Ababa) (AF)

(F)
Fiji (Suva) (AU - Oceania)
Finland (Helsinki) (EU)
France (Paris) (EU)

(G)
Gabon (Liberville) (AF)
Gambia (Banjul) (AF)
Georgia (Tbilisi) (EU)
Germany (Berlin) (EU)
Ghana (Accra) (AF)
Greece (Athens) (EU)
Grenada (St. George's) (NA)
Guatemala (Guatemala City) (NA)
Guinea (Conakry) (AF)
Guinea-Bissau (Bissau) (AF)
Guyana (Georgetown) (SA)

(H)
Haiti (Port-au-Prince) (NA)
Honduras (Tegucigalpa) (NA)
Hungary (Budapest) (EU)

(I)
Iceland (Reykjavik) (EU)
India (New Delhi) (AS)
Indonesia (Jakarta) (AS)
Iran (Tehran) (AS)
Iraq (Baghdad) (AS)
Ireland (Dublin) (EU)
Israel (Jerusalem) (AS)
Italy (Rome) (EU)

(J)
Jamaica (Kingston) (NA)
Japan (Tokyo) (AS)
Jordan (Amman) (AS)

(K)
Kazakstan (Astana) (AS)
Kenya (Nairobi) (AF)
Kiribati (Bairiki) (AU - Oceania)
Korea, North (Pyongyang) (AS)
Korea, South (Seoul) (AS)
Kuwait (Kuwait City) (AS)
Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek) (AS)

(L)
Laos (Vientiane) (AS)
Latvia (Riga) (EU)
Lebanon (Beirut) (AS)
Lesotho (Maseru) (AF)
Liberia (Monrovia) (AF)
Libya (Tripoli) (AF)
Liechtenstein (Vaduz) (EU)
Lithuania (Vilnius) (EU)
Luxembourg (Luxembourg) (EU)

(M)
Macedonia (Skopje) (EU)
Madagascar (Antananarivo) (AF)
Malawi (Lilongwe) (AF)
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) (AS)
Maldives (Male) (AS)
Mali (Bamako) (AF)
Malta (Valletta) (EU)
Marshall Islands (Majuro) (AU - Oceania)
Mauritania (Nouakchott) (AF)
Mauritius (Port Louis) (AF)
Mexico (Mexico City) (NA)
Micronesia (Palikir) (AU - Oceania)
Moldova (Chisinau) (EU)
Monaco (Monaco) (EU)
Mongolia (Ulan Bator) (AS)
Montenegro (Podgorica) (EU)
Morocco (Rabat) (AF) (including Western Sahara)
Mozambique (Maputo) (AF)

(N)
Namibia (Windhoek) (AF)
Nauru (no official capital) (AU - Oceania)
Nepal (Kathmandu) (AS)
Netherlands (Amsterdam, The Hague) (EU)
New Zealand (Wellington) (AU)
Nicaragua (Managua) (NA)
Niger (Niamey) (AF)
Nigeria (Abuja) (AF)
Norway (Oslo) (EU)

(O)
Oman (Muscat) (AS)

(P)
Pakistan (Islamabad) (AS)
Palau (Koror) (AU - Oceania)
Panama (Panama City) (NA)
Papua New Guinea (Port Moresby) (AU)
Paraguay (Asuncion) (SA)
Peru (Lima) (SA)
Philippines (Manila) (AS)
Poland (Warsaw) (EU)
Portugal (Lisbon) (EU)

(Q)
Qatar (Doha) (AS)

(R)
Romania (Bucharest) (EU)
Russian Federation (Moscow) (AS)
Rwanda (Kigali) (AF)

(S)
Saint Kitts and Nevis (Basseterre) (NA)
Saint Lucia (Castries) (NA)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (Kingstown) (NA)
Samoa (Apia) (AU - Oceania)
San Marino (San Marino) (EU)
Sao Tome and Principe (Sao Tome) (AF)
Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) (AS)
Senegal (Dakar) (AF)
Serbia (Belgrade) (EU)
Seychelles (Victoria) (AF)
Sierra Leone (Freetown) (AF)
Singapore (Singapore City) (AS)
Slovakia (Bratislava) (EU)
Slovenia (Ljubljana) (EU)
Solomon Islands (Honiara) (AU - Oceania)
Somalia (Mogadishu) (AF)
South Africa (Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein) (AF)
Spain (Madrid) (EU)
Sri Lanka (Colombo) (AS)
Sudan (Khartoum) (AF)
Suriname (Paramaribo) (SA)
Swaziland (Mbabane) (AF)
Sweden (Stockholm) (EU)
Switzerland (Bern) (EU)
Syria (Damascus) (AS)

(T)
Tajikistan (Dushanbe) (AS)
Tanzania (Dodoma) (AF)
Thailand (Bangkok) (AS)
Togo (Lome) (AF)
Tonga (Nuku'alofa) (AU - Oceania)
Trinidad and Tobago (Port-of-Spain) (NA)
Tunisia (Tunis) (AF)
Turkey (Ankara) (AS) & (EU)
Turkmenistan (Ashgabat) (AS)
Tuvalu (Funafuti) (AU - Oceania)

(U)
Uganda (Kampala) (AF)
Ukraine (Kiev) (EU)
United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi) (AS)
United Kingdom (London) (EU)
United States (Washington D.C.) (NA)
Uruguay (Montevideo) (SA)
Uzbekistan (Tashkent) (AS)

(V)
Vanuatu (Port-Vila) (AU - Oceania)
Vatican City (na) (EU)
Venezuela (Caracas) (SA)
Vietnam (Hanoi) (AS)

(Y)
Yemen (Sana) (AS)

(Z)
Zambia (Lusaka) (AF)
Zimbabwe (Harare) (AF)

The most Expensive things in the world

2010-02-02T01:51:00.001-08:00

Good things in life don't come cheap. Here, a list of some 'most expensive' things available in the market. Bizarrely exorbitant

Most expensive cocktail: 15,250 pounds a pop

The world's most expensive cocktail contains a diamond ring instead of an olive! The drink, created by Harvey Nichols in Manchester, has to be escorted to diner's tables flanked by security guards. The dazzle cocktail contains a six and a half carrot pink tourmaline and diamond ring set in 18-carrot white gold. The drink was the brainchild of senior bartender Jay Malik, 24, who was asked to devise a drink to fit with the restaurant's Pink Dinners month. A special safe has been brought in for the bar to keep the rings in and customers can choose any ring they want from the range - the most expensive being a 27,000 pounds sterling two-carrot engagement ring.

Most expensive shoes: 1 million pounds

Would you feel like a princess or what when you wear something worth 1m pounds? The most expensive shoes in the world were on sale at Harrods in London. After a photo-call for the press, the shoes were locked away in a bullet-proof case where they will be guarded round-the-clock. The shoes, inspired by the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, were woven from platinum thread and set with 642 rubies. They were designed by Stuart Weitzman.

Most expensive hair cut: 1,925 pounds

If you want London stylist Lee Stafford to cut your hair, make sure you are extra loaded. He calls it a "couture cut". And the only place where you can get one is his house. Champagne, hors d'oeuvres and a follow-up trim as part of the package.

Most expensive house: 70 million pounds

This one is hardly a secret: The infamously lavish new estate in England known as Updown Court in Windlesham, north Surrey. 103 rooms, 58 acres, a private helipad, five swimming pools. Forbes.com put the mansion at the top of its list of "the priciest residences on the planet" which are for sale.

Most expensive tea bag: 7,500 pounds

To celebrate PG Tips 75th birthday, Boodles jewelers produced this tea bag. It took three months to make and has been hand-crafted using 280 diamonds. Pete Harbour, spokesman for PG Tips has been quoted: "As it's our 75th birthday, we wanted to do something special to remind people just how much they love the great British cup of tea."

Most expensive jeans: Over $ 4,000

They wanted to be "the Mercedes-Benz, the Maybach of the denim industry". And APO jeans have done just that with a pair costing as much as $ 4,000 or more. They offer mens and ladies jeans with Silver Buttons and Rivets at $1,000, 14k White or Yellow Gold Button and Rivets at $1,500, Platinum Button and Rivets at $3,250, and the Diamond Button and Rivets start at $4,000. All Jeans will come with Authenticity Number as well as an Appraisal Sheet from a top Jeweler in the NY diamond district. Of course, you could buy the economy version: they run only $1,000 a pair. APO jeans are constructed from denim woven in India that costs $40 a yard, compared with the $2- to $3-per-yard cost of materials for most designer denim. Buttons and rivets are made with precious metals or, if a customer is willing to shell out $4,000 or more, up to a dozen white diamonds on the main button.

Most expensive watch: $11 million

One of the most complicated watches ever made, it also became the most expensive watch ever sold when it was hammered down for $11 million at Sotheby's.

The gold pocket watch features 24 complications, (Complications are mechanical functions of the watch other than the hours, minutes and seconds.)

The most expensive things in the world - 2

Most expensive phone: 28, 000 pounds

Peter Aloisson, who makes phones covered in gold and diamonds for affluent clients, is the man responsible for making the most expensive phone ever. It costs more than a BMW 3-series convertible, or a Jaguar S-Type. A Motorola covered in 1200 diamonds and featuring a keyboard soaked in 18-carat gold, the phone is priced at 28, 000 pound sterling. The new phone beat the previous record held by another Aloisson 'Diamante' phone - an identical model featuring a paltry 950 diamonds laid into the gold bodywork. That phone retailed for 23, 000 pound sterling. "The people who buy my phones don't have to worry about security - they all have bodyguards," he told UK tabloid The Sun.

Most expensive nail polish: $250

How special could you feel by wearing sheer nail polish that has platinum dust in it? And how many people would be mad enough to do that? Many! The 'I Do' polish, the most expensive in the world, is a collaboration by Allure magazine, platinum supplier Johnson Matthey, PGI and Essie Cosmetics. The polish costs $250 per bottle. However, the first bottle was displayed in special bottle made with a platinum top and base that is valued at $55,000.

Most expensive tie: 1 crore

When fully dressed Salman Khan paraded on a red ramp displaying the most expensive tie in the world, the picture was splashed all over the globe. The tie, studded with 261 diamonds of 77 carat each and made of pure silk with 150 grams of gold, is priced at a whopping Rs 1 crore. It is designed by Satya Paul and the Suashish Diamond group.

Most expensive perfume: 47,500 pounds

At 47,500 pound sterling, it is the world's most expensive perfume. Indeed, the best things come in small packages. The fragrance, created by renowned British perfumer Arthur Burnham, is held in a 4 in bottle made with platinum, 24 carat gold, rubies and diamonds.

Encasing the bottle is a very special box constructed by Rolls-Royce coach builders, locked with a gold and jewel-studded key. Inspired by the Rolls-Royce Phantom Six, it is called Parfum VI. Who pays pounds 47,500 for a bottle of perfume? Michael Jackson has ordered two and Mike Tyson three. Only 173 are being made.

Most expensive pen: $265,000

Swiss company Caran d'Ache made 'La Modernista Diamonds' a pen that was sold in Harrods, London, for $265,000. Created in memory of architect Antonio Gaudi, the rhodium-coated solid silver pen has an 18-karat gold pen point and is pave-set with 5,072 diamonds and 96 half-cut rubies.

Most expensive work of art: $104 million

A masterpiece by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1905 when he was just 24 years old, became the most expensive piece of art ever sold when it went under the hammer at Sotheby's in New York for $104m. The painting, Garcon a la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe) is one of the most important early works by the artist ever to appear on the market.

Most expensive truffle: 28,000 pounds for 1.88 lbs

An expensive little Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge, Zafferano bought the most expensive truffle in the world. For how much? Just take a deep breath! Zefferano paid 28,000 for just 1.88 lbs of Italian white truffle during a charity auction in Tuscany.

10 Most Extreme Places on Earth

2010-01-18T21:05:00.001-08:00

10 Most Extreme Places on Earth

Here is a list of the most extreme places on Earth! From the hottest to the coldest place, from the highest to the lowest and many more!

Lut Desert (Iran): hottest place on Earth at 159 °F (71 °C)

There is a big discussion about the hottest spot on Earth. Many believe it is in Al Azizyah, Libya, with a recorded temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 Celsius), and the second hottest place being in Death Valley, California, USA, where it got up to 134 Fahrenheit in 1913. But according to other sites, a NASA satellite recorded surface temperatures as high as 71 °C (159 °F) in the Lut desert of Iran, supposedly the hottest temperature ever recorded on the surface of Earth. This region, which covers an area of about 480 kilometers, is called Gandom Beriyan (the toasted wheat).
Mt. Chimborazo (Ecuador): highest point above Earht's center at 20,703 feet (6,310 m) above sea level

Almost everyone knows that Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Climbers from everywhere travel to Everest hoping to earn the distinction of climbing the "World's Highest". The peak of Mount Everest is 8,848 meters (29,028 feet) above sea level. This high elevation gives Mount Everest the distinction of being the mountain with the highest altitude.
But not many people know about Mt Chimborazo in Ecuador with an altitude of 6,310 meters (20,703 feet), which is less than Mount Everest; however, Chimborazo has the distinction of being the highest mountain above Earth's center. This is because Earth is not a sphere - it is an oblate spheroid. As an oblate spheroid, Earth is widest at its equator. Chimborazo is just one degree south of Earth's equator and at that location it is 6,384 kilometers from Earth's center or about 2 kilometers farther from Earth's center than Mount Everest.
Ecuadorians find pride in this interesting fact. Nonetheless, Chimborazo cannot compare in difficulty, lack of oxygen, nor in fame, to Mount Everest. (Link | Photo)
Tristan de Cunha (UK): most remote inhabited archipelago on Earth at 2,000 miles from the nearest continent

The most remote inhabited island group in the world, Tristan de Cunha in the southern Atlantic Ocean, is so tiny its main island has no airstrip. Home to 272 people sharing just 8 surnames, inhabitants suffer from hereditary complaints like asthma and glaucoma. Annexed by the United Kingdom in the 1800s, the island's inhabitants have a British postal code and, while they can order things online, it takes a very long time for their orders to arrive. But then, that's the trade off for having your own island settlement some 2,000 miles from the nearest continent. (Link | Photo)
Angels Falls (Venezuela): Earth's highest waterfall with 3230 feet (984 m) in height

Angel Falls (Salto Ángel) in Venezuela is the highest waterfall in the world. The falls are 3230 feet in height with an uninterrupted drop of 2647 feet. Angel Falls are located on a tributary of the Rio Caroni. The falls are formed when the tributary stream falls from the top of Auyantepui (a tepui is a flat-topped structure surrounded by cliffs - similar to a mesa).
Oymyakon (Russia): coldest inhabited place on Earth at −96.2 °F (−71.2 °C)

Oymyakon is a village in Oymyakonsky Ulus of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located along the Indigirka River, 30 kilometers (20 mi) northwest of Tomtor on the Kolyma Highway. The population is 800 people. Oymyakon is known as one of the candidates for the Northern Pole of Cold, because on January 26, 1926, a temperature of −71.2 °C (−96.2 °F) was recorded there. This is the lowest recorded temperature for any permanently inhabited location on Earth. It is also the lowest temperature recorded in the Northern hemisphere.
The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -129 °F in 1983, at the Russian Base Vostok in Antarctica.
The Dry Valleys (Antarctica): driest place on Earth

One interior region of the Antarctic is known as The Dry Valleys. These valleys have not seen rainfall in over two million years. With the exception of one valley, whose lakes are briefly filled with water by inland flowing rivers during the summer, the Dry Valleys contain no moisture (water, ice, or snow). The reasons why the Dry Valleys exist are the 200 mph Katabatic down winds which evaporate all moisture. The dry valleys are strange: except for a few steep rocks they are the only continental part of Antarctica devoid of ice. Located in the Trans-Antarctic Range, they correspond to a mountain area where evaporation (or rather, sublimation) is more important than snowfall, thus all the ice disappears, leaving dry barren land.
Another driest place is the Atacama Desert in Chile, some parts of which have received absolutely zero precipitation in centuries. Parts of the Atacama Desert may actually exceed the dryness of most of Antarctica, though data from the latter is insufficient to tell.
Marianas Trench (Indonesia and Japan): lowest point on Earth at 35,840 feet (10,924 m) below sea level

Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (or Marianas Trench) is the deepest point in Earth's oceans. The bottom there is 10,924 meters (35,840 feet) below sea level. If Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, were placed at this location it would be covered by over one mile of water. The only people to have ever explored this trench were Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh. At the bottom they were seven miles down and all around them eight tons of pressure. They observed fish, shrimp and other creatures living on the bottom of the sea floor. (Link | Photo)
Cherrapunji (India): wettest place on Earth

Cherrapunji, North-Eastern India is thought for many years to be the wettest place in the world. Here 10,820mm rain falls on average in a year. Unlike Colombia where the rain falls throughout the whole year, Cherrapunji gets most of its rain during the 'south-west monsoon', or wet season, between June and August. Cherrapunji does hold the record for the wettest month on record, recording 9,296mm in July 1861. Actually, between 1860 and 1862 Cherrapunji was incredibly wet; between August 1st 1860 and July 31st 1861 (which overlaps parts of 2 wet seasons) 26,467mm rain fell. In the calendar year 1861 22,987mm rain fell, of which 22,454 fell between April and September.
Mount Thor (Canada): Earth's greatest vertical drop

Mount Thor, in Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada, presents a 4,100 foot pure vertical drop. Mt. Thor is Canada's most famous peak, and it's made of pure granite. It's a favorite of thrill seekers and climbers. Mount Thor was first climbed in 1953 by an Arctic Institute of North America team. There have been a few recent rappel expeditions, with one fatality in 2006. (Link)
Dead Sea (Jordan): Earth's lowest elevation at 1,385 ft (422 mt) below sea level

The Dead Sea is the lowest elevation on Earth's surface on dry land, its surface and shores are 422 meters (1,385 ft) below sea level. On the border of Jordan and Israel, the road around the Dead Sea also happens to be the lowest road on Earth. Famous for its salinity (over ten times that of the Mediterranean Sea), the Dead Sea is said to be home of the first health retreat. Because of the extreme salt content, no life can survive in the sea, hence the name.

Haiti earthquake survivors blockade roads with piles of corpses in protest at lack of aid

2010-01-15T21:39:00.001-08:00

Hundreds of criminals on the streets after prison collapses
7,000 corpses are dumped in Haiti's first mass grave
Aid workers pour on to island as emergency fund launched
Fears for British woman Ann Barnes who worked in collapsed building
Britain pledges £10m in aid as Brown describes 'tragedy beyond imagination'

Desperate Haitians have set up roadblocks with corpses in Port-au-Prince to protest at the delay in emergency aid reaching them after the devastating earthquake.

Thousands of injured people spent a third night twisted in pain, lying on pavements waiting for help as their despair turned to anger.

'We've been out here waiting for three days and three nights but nothing has been done for us, not even a word of encouragement from the president,' said Pierre Jackson, nursing his mother and sister who lay whimpering with crushed legs.

'What should we do?'

Bodies fill the front yard of the morgue in Port-au-Prince. Angry survivors have started using corpses as road blocks

Despair: Shocked crowds throng the ruined streets, many homeless, many simply afraid to go into any building

An aerial view shows a ruined cathedral after Tuesday's earthquake. Troops and planeloads of food and medicine streamed into Haiti to aid a traumatised nation

Desperate Haitians blocked streets with corpses in one part of Port-au-Prince to demand quicker relief efforts following Tuesday's catastrophic quake, which flattened buildings and killed tens of thousands, leaving countless others homeless.

Bodies lay all around the hilly city, and people covered their noses with cloth to block the stench of death.

Corpses were piled on pickup trucks and delivered to the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where hospital director Guy LaRoche estimated the bodies piled outside the morgue numbered 1,500.

The first British search and rescue workers to enter earthquake-ravaged Haiti were beginning to scour the rubble for survivors today as logistical problems continued to hamper the massive international relief effort.

Supplies and aid workers - including 64 search and rescue staff from UK fire services - were held up yesterday as Port-au-Prince' s airport struggled to handle the influx of flights.

Enlarge

Survivors gathered around bodies in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince photographed during a joint Red Cross Red Crescent/ECHO (European Community Humanitarian Organization) aerial assessment mission

Thousands of homeless people have set up tent cities as they wait for aid to arrive

People gather around a petrol pump seeking fuel. Petrol shortage is causing long queues and angry customers

Shanty towns on the outskirts of the Haitian capital were flattened by the earthquake - the worst to strike the island nation in 200 years

More than 48 hours after disaster struck, masses of people demanded food and water, as well as help in digging out relatives still missing under the rubble.

Shaul Schwarz, a photographer for TIME magazine, said he saw at least two roadblocks formed with bodies of earthquake victims and rocks.

'They are starting to block the roads with bodies. It's getting ugly out there. People are fed up with getting no help,' he said.

Angry survivors staged the protest as international aid committed by 30 countries began arriving in Port-au-Prince in dozens of planes that clogged the city's small airport.

The Haitian Red Cross said it believed 45,000 to 50,000 people had died and 3 million more - one third of Haiti's population - were injured or left homeless by the major 7.0 magnitude quake that hit its impoverished capital on Tuesday.

'We have already buried 7,000 in a mass grave,' President Rene Preval said.

The Haitian Red Cross said it had run out of body bags.

James Girly, 64, of the US is brought out of a destroyed building of the Montana Hotel where he was trapped for 50 hours in Port-au-Prince

Richard Santos, 47, of Washington, DC, speaks to a journalist in Port-au-Prince as he is attended to by a French military rescuer from the Securite Civile after being brought out of the Montana Hotel. French rescuers pulled seven Americans and one Haitian survivor

Doctors in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, were ill-equipped to treat the injured.

Relief workers warned that many more people will die if the injured, many with broken bones and serious loss of blood, do not get first aid in the next day or so.

'The next 24 hours will be critical,' said U.S. Coast Guard officer Paul Cormier, 54, a qualified emergency worker who has triaged 300 people since Tuesday.

Planes full of supplies and search and rescue equipment began to arrive at Port-au-Prince airport on Thursday faster than ground crews could unload them, jamming the limited ramp space and forcing arriving aircraft to circle for up to two hours before landing.

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged an initial $100 million for Haiti quake relief on Thursday and enlisted former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to help raise more, vowing to the Haitian people: 'You will not be forsaken.'

The United States was sending 3,500 soldiers, 300 medical personnel, several ships and 2,200 Marines to Haiti.

Enlarge

An injured man in a wheelchair looks at the collapsed Haitian Governmental taxation building

A Spanish rescuer carries two-year-old Redjeson Hausteen after he was rescued from a collapsed home

Enlarge

Gladys Loiuis Jeune is pulled alive from the rubble of her home in Port-au-Prince nearly 43 hours after Tuesday's earthquake

The U.S. Navy said its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson will arrive on Friday to serve as a 'floating airport' for relief operations by its 19 helicopters.

The United States pledged long-term help for the crippled Haitian government. The presidential palace, the parliament, the cathedral and many government buildings collapsed.

The main prison also fell, allowing dangerous criminals to escape.

Nations around the world pitched in to send rescue teams with search dogs and heavy equipment, helicopters, tents, water purification units, food, doctors and telecoms teams.

But aid distribution was hampered because roads were blocked by rubble and smashed cars and normal communications were cut off.

Relief agencies' offices were damaged and their staff dead or missing. The port was too badly damaged to handle cargo.

Many hospitals were too battered to use, and doctors struggled to treat crushed limbs, head wounds and broken bones at makeshift facilities where medical supplies were scarce.

Sarlah Chand ,65, smiles as search and rescue workers tend to her after they rescued her from under the rubble of what is left of the Hotel Montana more than 50 hours after the massive earthquake

Ppolice officers from the Philippines search for colleagues who may be trapped in the rubble of the UN Police Headquarters in Port-au-Prince

Makeshift tents were strung everywhere and Haitians at one informal camp approached journalists shouting 'water, water.'

'Please do anything you can. These people have no water, no food, no medicine, nobody is helping us,' said Valery Louis, who organised one of the camps.

Haitians clawed at chunks of concrete with bare hands and hammers, trying to free those buried alive.

From time to time, aftershocks shook the city, sending panicked people running away from buildings.

A 35-year-old Estonian, Tarmo Joveer, was freed from the rubble of the United Nations' five-story headquarters early Thursday, and told journalists he was fine.

The U.N. said at least 36 members of its 9,000-strong peacekeeping mission had been killed and scores remained missing.

Brazil said 14 of its soldiers were among the dead.

Fourteen people were pulled alive on Thursday from the landmark Montana Hotel, which was largely flattened.

Chilean Army Major Rodrigo Vazquez, who was directing the rescue, said: 'We estimate 70 more inside. This is devastating. '

THE GOOGLE IMAGES THAT SHOW SCALE OF DISASTER

Google have also released satellite images of the devastation caused in Haiti, after being asked by relief organisations and users to provide up to date images of the country.

The pictures show the amount of damage caused to building in the Port-au-Prince, as well as thedestruction caused to the national palace.

Before (left) and after satellite images released by Google Maps and GeoEye after the earthquake

Satellite images show the damage caused to a large section of the National Palace in the 7.0 quake

In a blog post, Dylan Lorimer and Jessica Pfund of the Google Map Maker team wrote: 'We hope that Google Map Maker can also play a role in disaster relief efforts.

'Today, we have made this Map Maker data for Haiti available to the UN in its raw form for the earthquake relief efforts.'

These before and after pictures of the Sylvio Cator Stadium in Haiti show the earthquake has destroyed part of the building and left the ground strewn with debris

Villagers build railway station without Govt support

2010-01-15T04:30:00.001-08:00

Gurgaon: After the project was discarded by the government for 25 years, residents of Tajnagar village near Gurgaon built a railway station in the village on their own by spending Rs.21 lakh. On January 5, 2010, the station started its operations with seven local trains being scheduled to stop, reports Economic Times.
A villager said, "We have hired a vehicle to spread the message that the station is getting functional. It's no less than a festival for us and we are organizing a puja at the station. All passengers will get prasad."

It all started two years back when the Panchayat passed a resolution saying that since the Railways was not able to build a station for them, they would do it themselves. Soon, an 11-member 'gram seva samiti' was constituted and it started collecting money from villagers. Most of the people in this village are agriculturists, but everybody came forward and contributed according to their capacity. Ranjeet Singh, Former Village Sarpanch said, "Ranging from Rs.3,000 to Rs.75,000 they donated money for the station and we started construction in January, 2008."
After the final draft was laid, the Panchayat asked the railway if it would agree to stop a few trains at the station if they constructed a station with their own resources. To their surprise, the Railways agreed to make seven passenger trains (in both directions) halt at the station if it was built according to its specifications. Anant Swaroop, Northern Railways Spokesperson said, "The Railways decided to make it a halt station because a number of people would benefit from it. Financially too, the idea looked viable."
The station has two platforms. It has a kachcha platform, water, electricity and a ticket counter. It would be inaugurated by Gurgaon MP, Rao Inderjeet Singh. Villagers are requesting the government to help in making a concrete platform, a waiting room and an overhead shed.

Best Hotels (Breathtaking Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas)

2010-01-15T03:06:00.001-08:00

Breathtaking Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas

The Fountains of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas (USA) are a vast, choreographed water fountains with performances set to light and music. The performances are visible from numerous vantage points on the Strip, both from the street and from neighboring structures. The fountain's show takes place every 30 minutes in the afternoons and early evenings, and every 15 minutes from 8 PM to midnight. The Fountains are set in a nine-acre man-made lake. The fountain display is choreographed to various pieces of music; current pieces include "Fly Me To The Moon" (Frank Sinatra), "Time to Say Goodbye" (Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli) and "My Heart Will Go On" (Celine Dion).

Earthquake in Haiti

2010-01-15T02:25:00.001-08:00

Tuesday afternoon, January 12th, the worst earthquake in 200 years - 7.0 in magnitude - struck less than ten miles from the Caribbean city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The initial quake was later followed by twelve aftershocks greater than magnitude 5.0. Structures of all kinds were damaged or collapsed, from shantytown homes to national landmarks. It is still very early in the recovery effort, but millions are likely displaced, and thousands are feared dead as rescue teams from all over the world are now descending on Haiti to help where they are able. As this is a developing subject, I will be adding photos to this entry over the next few days, but at the moment, here is a collection of photos from Haiti over the past 24 hours. (40 photos total)

A Haitian woman is covered in rubble on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince after a huge earthquake rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti, toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said. A tsunami alert was immediately issued for the Caribbean region after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT. (DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images)

People seek safety in the aftermath of a severe earthquake on rue Capois in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on January 12th, 2010. (Tequila Minsky for The New York Times) #

A body lies amid rubble on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince after a huge earthquake. (DAVID MOREL/AFP/Getty Images) #

A fire breaks out near a building, which was damaged after a major earthquake struck, in Port-au-Prince in this January 12, 2010 video grab. (REUTERS/Reuters TV) #

This photo provided by Carel Pedre shows people running past rubble of a damaged building in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. The largest earthquake ever recorded in the area shook Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help. (AP Photo/Carel Pedre) #

Buildings are seen damaged in the neighborhood of Petionville, Port-Au-Prince shortly after an earthquake hit Haiti, January 12, 2010. The 7.0 magnitude quake rocked Haiti, killing possibly thousands of people as it toppled the presidential palace and hillside shanties alike and leaving the poor Caribbean nation appealing for international help. (REUTERS/Nabil Hijjawi via Your View) #

Anthony Guarino, a seismic analyst at the Caltech Seismological Laboratory, shows the 7.0 earthquake peak from the Haiti earthquake at the laboratory in Pasadena, California on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) #

A quake-destroyed building in the streets of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti on January 12th, 2010. (Tequila Minsky for The New York Times) #

A man calls for help while being trapped at the Port-au-Prince University, after a major earthquake struck, in Port-au-Prince in this January 13, 2010 video grab. (REUTERS/Reuters TV) #

Haitians walk past damaged buildings on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince Haiti after a huge earthquake. (LISANDRO SUERO/AFP/Getty Images) #

People walk along a street lined with buildings, which were destroyed after a major earthquake struck, in Port-au-Prince in this January 12, 2010 video grab. (REUTERS/Reuters TV) #

Criss-cross cracking and other damage to a building is seen on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti after a huge earthquake. (Clarens Renois/AFP/Getty Images) #

A view of the badly damaged presidential palace - the center portion formerly 3 stories tall - after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 13, 2009. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz) #

A Haitian woman is helped from the rubble of a damaged building on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince after a massive earthquake struck the Caribbean nation. (DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images) #

A woman is helped to safety after being trapped in rubble on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (DANIEL MOREL/AFP/Getty Images) #

A person sits on the ground in front of a destroyed building in Port-au-Prince after a huge earthquake on January 12, 2010. (LISANDRO SUERO/AFP/Getty Images) #

Residents wait for medical treatment after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince January 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Kena Betancur) #

A injured child receives medical treatment after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince January 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz) #

People come to the aid of a wounded man on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images) #

Residents search for victims after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince January 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz) #

This Jan. 12, 2010 photo shows an injured person being tended to at Hotel Villa Creole in Port-au-Prince, Haiti after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Caribbean nation. (AP Photo/Montreal La Presse, Ivanoh Demers) #

Injured women wait on the floor at the emergency clinic of Petionville on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images) #

Residents sleep in the street after the earthquake in Port-au-Prince January 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz) #

Displaced people carry a wounded man out of a clinic as aftershocks occur, following a major earthquake on January 13, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images) #

A man with two broken legs sits in the street amongst other wounded people, following a major earthquake on January 13, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images) #

People search for survivors amongst the ruins of the children's hospital, following a major earthquake on January 13, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images) #

Earthquake survivors sit on a bloody floor in an emergency clinic in Petionville on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images) #

A woman faints in the arms of a medic in an emergency clinic in Petionville on January 12, 2010 in earthquake-stricken Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images) #

People search for survivors amongst the rubble of the Caribbean Super Market in Delmas on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images) #

Elie Isaac, left, and Caleb Roseme, both of Norwich, Connecticut, pray for the people of the Caribbean Islands, at the First Haitian Baptist Church of Norwich, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. Both men have family and friends in Haiti, one of the countries hit by the largest earthquake to ever hit the Caribbean Islands. (AP Photo/The Day, Abigail Pheiffer) #

A father carries his duaghter after a major earthquake on January 12, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images) #

An injured person is seen in the street after an earthquake hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Jorge Cruz) #

Venezuelan rescuers load medical equipment onto a plane heading to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 13, 2010 at the Simon Bolivar international airport in Caracas, following a huge quake which rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation, toppling buildings and leaving hundreds of people missing and feared dead. (JUAN BARRETO/AFP/ Getty Images) #

British Search and Rescue teams prepare to leave Gatwick airport, West Sussex to provide assistance to relief and rescue teams in Haiti, on January 13, 2010. (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images) #

Taiwan rescue teams stand by at the fire department in Taipei on January 13, 2010 as they prepare to head to Haiti to help with the rescue effort following an earthquake. (SAM YEH/AFP/Getty Images) #

Los Angeles County Fire Department urban search and rescue team load equipment in the Pacoima area of Los Angeles January 12, 2010. The team will travel to Haiti to help with rescue efforts after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit the capital Port-au-Prince. (REUTERS/Gus Ruelas) #

1st Update, 11:55 am

A view of a damaged neighborhood in the Canape-Vert area on January 13, 2010, after an earthquake the day before in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz) #

A girl reacts in the street shortly after a large earthquake struck in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 12th, 2010 (Tequila Minsky for The New York Times) #

Residents search for survivors among the debris after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince January 13, 2010. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz) #

Hawaii Volcanoes

2010-01-14T23:27:00.001-08:00

Fire Walking With the Lava Junkies

"We took a helicopter to the rim and hiked about a mile [1.6 kilometers] into the steaming cauldron of Kilauea's Pu'u 'O'o crater to this skylight. Geologists call the skylight the Cookie Monster because it really looks like the shape of the character on Sesame Street."

Plumes of gas escaping from vents as lava meets air

From the helicopter, we saw lava splashing and frothing 50 feet [15 meters] below the surface in these 75- to 100-foot-wide [23- to 30-meter-wide] pools.

Lava breaks out of its shell of hardened, black rock

This is a breakout, or a live surface flow of molten rock. The magma was oozing under the skin of cooled black rock—it's hotter than hell up there. Eventually a buildup of pressure under a certain place will crack the surface over it, and the lava will break out.

The Highcastle lava bench (new land that is formed as lava cools)

This was our final quest—the ocean entry at Highcastle, the holy grail for lava photographers. The lava was coming over the last cliff before entering the ocean.

A lava breakout from newly cooled rock

If I stepped on the gray rock in this photo, it would feel like stepping into a fire. You can pass over it if you move really quickly. You just dance along.

Lava spiraling down a slope

This is wild. As the drops break out down the slope, the pressure moving the lava, pushing on the cooling skin above it, twists the skin into ropes. This is classic pahoehoe lava. Even where I was standing, the temperature underfoot was a few hundred degrees [approximately 150°C] at least, and there are radiant rocks above me.

The deceptive calm of an extremely hot flow

This shot may look like a dreamy day on the side of a volcano, but it was really wicked. I am standing downwind of an a'a flow, which is notorious for emitting an exceptional amount of radiant heat. It was really, truly ferociously hot.

Top 10 Transparent Animals!

2010-01-11T22:45:00.003-08:00

Transparent Frog

Native to Venezuela, the Glass Frogs belong to the amphibian family Centrolenidae (order Anura). While the general background coloration of most glass frogs is primarily lime green, the abdominal skin of some members of this family is transparent, so that the heart, liver, and digestive tract are visible through their translucent skin. (Photo by Heidi and Hans-Jurgen Koch)
Transparent Head Fish

This bizarre deep-water fish called the Barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) has a transparent head and tubular eyes. It has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within his transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head, while the fish's tubular eyes, well inside the head, are capped by bright green lenses. The eyes point upward (as shown here) when the fish is looking for food overhead. They point forward when the fish is feeding. The two spots above the fish's mouth are not eyes: those are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils. (Photo by MBARI)
Transparent Butterfly

Found in Central America, from Mexico to Panama, the Glasswing Butterfly (Greta Oto) is a brush-footed butterfly where its wings are transparent. The tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass. (Photo by Hemmy)
Transparent Squid

Found on the southern hemisphere's oceans, the Glass Squid (Teuthowenia pellucida) has light organs on its eyes and possesses the ability to roll into a ball, like an aquatic hedgehog. It is prey of many deep-sea fish (eg goblin sharks) as well as whales and oceanic seabirds. (Photo by Peter Batson)
Transparent Zebrafish created by scientists

This see-through zebrafish was created in 2008 by scientists so they can study disease processes, including the spread of cancer. The transparent fish are allowing researchers at Children's Hospital Boston to directly view fish's internal organs and observe processes such as tumor growth in real-time in living organisms. (Photo by LS)
Transparent Icefish

Fund in the cold waters around Antarctica and southern South America, the crocodile icefish (Channichthyidae) feed on krill, copepods, and other fish. Their blood is transparent because they have no hemoglobin and/or only defunct erythrocytes. Their metabolism relies only on the oxygen dissolved in the liquid blood, which is believed to be absorbed directly through the skin from the water. This works because water can dissolve the most oxygen when it is coldest. In five species, the gene for myoglobin in the muscles has also vanished, leaving them with white instead of pink hearts. (Photo by uwe kils)
Transparent Amphipod

Called Phronima, this unusual animal is one of the many strange species recently found on an expedition to a deep-sea mountain range in the North Atlantic. In an ironic strategy for survival, this tiny shrimplike creature shows everything it has, inside and out, in an attempt to disappear. Many other small deep-sea creatures are transparent as well, or nearly so, to better camouflage themselves in their murky surroundings, scientists say. (Photo by David Shale)
Transparent Larval Shrimp

Found in the in the waters around Hawaii, this transparent larval shrimp piggybacks on an equally see-through jellyfish. (Photo by Chris Newbert/Minden Pictures)
Transparent Salp

This jellyfish-like animals known as Salps feed on small plants in the water called phytoplankton (marine algae). They are transparent, barrel-shaped animals that can range from one to 10cm in length. (Photo by DM)
Transparent Jellyfish

Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. They are found in every ocean, from the surface to the deep sea. Many jellies are so transparent that they are almost impossible to see. The one above is from the Arctapodema genus, with a size of an inch-long (2.5-centimeter-long). (Photo by Bill Curtsinger)

Astounding Japanese Highways, Bridges & Interchanges

2010-01-11T22:12:00.001-08:00

Astounding Japanese Highways, Bridges & Interchanges

Japan saw most of its infrastructure bombed back to the stone age in the final years of World War II, which makes the country's post-war rejuvenation all the more astounding. Huge, complex public works projects saw a concrete & steel web of highways, bridges and interchanges blossom from the wreckage of war.
Today, shaped by the demands of restrictive space and economic boom & bust, Japan's hardened transportation arteries display artistic forms that go far beyond their functions.

(images credit: Ken Ohyama)
Above left is the Hakozaki Junction, part of the Metropolitan Expressway in Tokyo, and at right is the Hokko Junction in Osaka... These images illustrate the solution engineers used when building multi-lane highway interchanges in some of the world's most crowded cities in Japan: go vertical!

(images credit: Ken Ohyama)
Ken Ohyama has made it his mission to chronicle some of the more striking Japanese roadworks in a Flickr series called Interchange and a book of his photos available from Amazon. One of the more outstanding examples is The Hokko Junction shown above - a part of the Hanshin Expressway near Japan's second city, Osaka.

Also in Osaka is the Higashiosaka (East Osaka) Loop of the Hanshin Expressway. The photographer's technique gives the sweeping curve of the roadway an almost tubular appearance:

(images credit: Ken Ohyama)
When engineers have space to work with, they take full advantage. This wide field view of the Higashiosaka interchange shows the almost organic complexity of a busy cloverleaf, resembling a living creature's circulatory system with the vehicles acting as blood cells.

(image credit: zvkk)
Highways upon highways... without any end in sight:

(images credit: Andrew Yamaguchi, Sergei Mingazhev, Stassia)
One interesting feature of Japanese elevated highways: they often run above rivers or sea channels, using the available space above the water. Here are some of these "highways on the sea" -

(images credit: takasuuuui, kokix)
The incredible Japanese road infrastructure really took off in the 1960s - check out the vintage photo on the right:

(left image credit: FotoOleg)
Such "Bladerunner" sights are commonplace now, brimming with urban energy -

(images credit: kokix)
By the way, for the tricky "urban density" photography, head over to this page... and see if you can spot something wrong with the image there.
Slipping Sideways
Some sections of the Hanshin Expressway suffered severe damage during the 7.2 magnitude Great Hanshin Earthquake which hit the Kobe, Japan area in January of 1995, killing over 5,500 people and costing over $200 billion.

(image credit: AFP / Jiji Press)
On the bright side, the affected sections of the highway did not "pancake", as happened in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake, but instead slipped sideways and tumbled over. Either way, one doesn't want to be driving through a highway interchange or junction when a big quake hits!
Recession, what recession?
Public works spending has long been the Japanese government's preferred way to spend budget surpluses, boost employment, keep the ruling party's supporters in the construction industry loyal, or all of the above. The highway depicted below is one of those projects, steadily overtaking a quiet city street like Godzilla in slow motion.

(images credit: Cisco's Japan Blog and Snegura)
Which came first, the highway or the building? The question is moot as both have learned to accommodate one another. The Hanshin Expressway takes a shortcut through the 5th to 7th floors of Fukushima's Gate Tower building, also known as the Bee Hive.

(images via)
The story goes that the original building's owner wanted to knock it down and rebuild, but was told by city planners that the space was being allocated to a newly planned exit of the expressway. Both sides refused to budge, and the compromise was completed in 1992.

(image via)
Tokyo residents can easily avoid using the highways and expressways which crisscross the city, thanks to one of the world's largest and most efficient subway systems, but when traffic is light they can be a pleasure to drive. The view can be pretty intense, as in the time-lapse photo below:

(image credit: Vladimir Zakharov)
Urban density in Tokyo is simply astounding:

(image credit: Sam Graf)
The Rainbow Bridge and the longest suspension bridge
Dark Roasted Blend has been covering some rather fascinating bridges before. Here are a few more - a spectacular sample from Japan. The 570 meter (1,870 ft) long Rainbow Bridge spans the northern (inner) part of Tokyo Bay and has been a city landmark since it opened in 1993. Two roadways, a transit line and pedestrian walkways all use the bridge, resulting in a seemingly chaotic tangle from certain angles.

(images credit: Uncharted Futures and lmkuzya)
It's at night, however, that the Rainbow Bridge comes alive with signature color! Spotlights mounted at strategic locations bathe the bridge's superstructure in prismatic glory. Best of all, the lighting is solar powered with energy stored during the day powering the light show at night:

(image credit: Gussisaurio)
Announced in 1969, the massive Kobe-Naruto highway route project stretches 81 kilometers to connect Japan's main island of Honshu with the much smaller island of Shikoku to the south. The jewel in the crown is the 4-kilometer long Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, which cost $3.6 billion to build over the ten year period between 1988 and 1998:

(image credit: Aurelio Asiain)
Of course, any discussion of Japanese highways wouldn't be complete without mention of Mount Fuji. The mountain's iconic snowy peak is visible from Tokyo - on clear days, at least - but though it's certainly possible to reach the dormant volcano's doorstep via highway, taking the Shinkansen bullet train is a better bet.

(image credit: fui)

BomB Finder__Rat

2010-01-10T22:34:00.001-08:00

Staff at Porfell Wildlife Park and Sanctuary near Liskeard, Cornwall, have been teaching Gambian poached rat Kofi to alert handlers when he detects a mine.

Kofi is too small to set off the booby-traps but his acute sense of smell can pick up the scent of the bomb casing.

Rats have been trained in Africa to hunt for land mines but Kofi is the first to undergo the program in Britain.

Handler Wendy Winstanley now plans to contact the Army and the police anti-terror unit to offer her rats' services for use both home and abroad.

She said: "Kofi is amazing, his sniff ability is really incredible. People think of rats as vermin but they are highly intelligent creatures.

"They have a more heightened sense of smell than dogs and because they are so much lighter they have less chance of setting off an explosive.

"Obviously we don't have land mines in this country but I'm so happy with his development that I would be happy to send him to the Gambia if he was required.

"In this country these rats would be excellent at sniffing out bombs. If the anti-terror police wanted me to I would interested and more than happy to train them."

The bomb sniffing training process begins when rats are five weeks old and are weaned from their mothers.

Trainers begin socialising the young rats to the sights, sounds, and textures of the world by walking them on wet grass, going for a ride in a lorry and interacting with humans.

Then the sniffer rats are taught to recognise the smell of metal land mine casings in return for a food reward.

Thirty sniffer rats are already being used in Mozambique, Africa, and have proved incredibly successful for the detection and removal of land mines.

The rodents are fitted to a leash before scrambling their way over a piece of ground, sniffing out any explosives.

A trained rat can clear 100 metres square in 30 minutes, equivalent to two days work for a manual de-miner.

The rats are about 75 cm long (30 inches) and weigh about 1.35 kilograms (3 lbs) which means they can scamper across a minefield without detonating the charges.

7 Unique Natural Phenomena

2010-01-10T21:52:00.001-08:00

Here are 7 Unique natural phenomena that you have probably never seen before! From Morocco's tree climing goats to honduras's rain of fishes, Kerala's red rain and many more!

Morocco's Climbing Goats

Goats on trees are found mostly only in Morocco. The goats climb them because they like to eat the fruit of the argan tree, which is similar to an olive. Farmers actually follow the herds of goats as they move from tree to tree. Not because it is so strange to see goats in trees and the farmers like to point and stare, but because the fruit of the tree has a nut inside, which the goats can't digest, so they spit it up or excrete it which the farmers collect. The nut contains 1-3 kernels, which can be ground to make argan oil used in cooking and cosmetics. This oil has been collected by the people of the region for hundreds of years, but like many wild and useful things these days, the argan tree is slowly disappearing due to over-harvesting for the tree's wood and overgrazing by goats.
Venezuela's Everlasting Storm

The mysterious "Relámpago del Catatumbo" (Catatumbo lightning) is a unique natural phenomenon in the world. Located on the mouth of the Catatumbo river at Lake Maracaibo (Venezuela), the phenomenon is a cloud-to-cloud lightning that forms a voltage arc more than five kilometre high during 140 to 160 nights a year, 10 hours a night, and as many as 280 times an hour. This almost permanent storm occurs over the marshlands where the Catatumbo River feeds into Lake Maracaibo and it is considered the greatest single generator of ozone in the planet, judging from the intensity of the cloud-to-cloud discharge and great frequency.
Honduras' Rain of Fishes

The Rain of Fish is common in Honduran Folklore. It occurs in the Departamento de Yoro, between the months of May and July. Witnesses of this phenomenon state that it begins with a dark cloud in the sky followed by lightning, thunder, strong winds and heavy rain for 2 to 3 hours. Once the rain has stopped, hundreds of living fish are found on the ground. People take the fish home to cook and eat them. Since 1998 a festival known as "Festival de la Lluvia de Peces" (Rain of Fish Festival) is celebrated every year in the city of Yoro, Departamento de Yoro, Honduras.
Kerala's (extraterrestrial?) Red Rain

From 25 July to 23 September 2001, red rain sporadically fell on the southern Indian state of Kerala. Heavy downpours occurred in which the rain was coloured red, staining clothes with an appearance similar to that of blood. Yellow, green, and black rain was also reported.
Brazilian's longest wave on the Earth

Twice a year, between the months of February and March, the Atlantic Ocean waters roll up the Amazon river, in Brazil, generating the longest wave on the Earth. The phenomenon, known as the Pororoca, is caused by the tides of the Atlantic Ocean wich meet the mouth of the river. This tidal bore generates waves up to 12 feet high which can last for over half an hour.

The wave has become popular with surfers. Since 1999, an annual championship has been held in São Domingos do Capim. However, surfing the Pororoca is especially dangerous, as the water contains a significant amount of debris from the margins of the river (often, entire trees). The record that we could find for surfing the longest distance on the Pororoca was set by Picuruta Salazar, a brazilian surfer who, in 2003, managed to ride the wave for 37 minutes and travel 12.5 kilometers. A surfer's dream: riding an almost never-ending wave.
Denmark's Black Sun

During spring in Denmark, at approximately one half an hour before sunset, flocks of more than a million European starlings (sturnus vulgaris) gather from all corners to join in the incredible formations shown above. This phenomenon is called Black Sun (in Denmark), and can be witnessed in early spring throughout the marshlands of western Denmark, from March through to the middle of April. The starlings migrate from the south and spend the day in the meadows gathering food, sleeping in the reeds during the night.
Idaho's Fire Rainbow

The atmospheric phenomenon known as a circumhorizon(tal) arc, or "Fire rainbow", appears when the sun is high in the sky (i.e., higher than 58° above the horizon), and its light passes through diaphanous, high-altitude cirrus clouds made up of hexagonal plate crystals. Sunlight entering the crystals' vertical side faces and leaving through their bottom faces is refracted (as through a prism) and separated into an array of visible colors. When the plate crystals in cirrus clouds are aligned optimally (i.e., with their faces parallel to the ground), the resulting display is a brilliant spectrum of colors reminiscent of a rainbow. The example shown above was captured on camera as it hung for about an hour across a several-hundred square mile area of sky above northern Idaho (near the Washington border) on 3 June 2006.

Travelling Root Bridges in India

2009-12-18T22:08:00.001-08:00

In the depths of northeastern India , in one of the wettest places on earth, bridges aren't built -- they're grown.

Grown from the roots of a rubber tree, the Khasis people of Cherapunjee use betel-tree trunks, sliced down the middle and hollowed out, to create "root-guidance systems." When they reach the other side of the river, they're allowed to take root in the soil. Given enough time a sturdy, living bridge is produced.

The root bridges, some of which are over a hundred feet long, take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional, but they're extraordinarily strong. Some can support the weight of 50 or more people at once.
One of the most unique root structures of Cherrapunjee is known as the " Umshiang Double-Decker Root Bridge ." It consists of two bridges stacked one over the other!

Because the bridges are alive and still growing, they actually gain strength over time, and some of the ancient root bridges used daily by the people of the villages around Cherrapunjee may be well over 500 years old.

But these are not the only bridges built from growing plants. Japan too, has its own form of living bridges.

These are The Vine Bridges of Iya Valley .......

One of Japan 's three "hidden" valleys, West Iya is home to the kind of misty gorges, clear rivers, and thatched roofs one imagines in the Japan of centuries ago. To get across the Iya River that runs through the rough valley terrain, bandits, warriors and refugees created a very special - if slightly unsteady - bridge made of vines.

This is a picture from the 1880s of one of the original vine bridges.

First, two Wisteria vines -- one of the strongest vines known -- were grown to extraordinary lengths from either side of the river. Once the vines had reached a sufficient length they were woven together with planking to create a pliable, durable and, most importantly, living piece of botanical engineering.

The bridges had no sides, and a Japanese historical source relates that the original vine bridges were so unstable, those attempting to cross them for the first time would often freeze in place, unable to go any farther.
Three of those vine bridges remain in Iya Valley . While some (though apparently not all) of the bridges have been reinforced with wire and side rails, they are still harrowing to cross. More than 140 feet long, with planks set six to eight inches apart and a drop of four-and-a-half stories down to the water, they are not for acrophobes.

Some people believe the existing vine bridges were first grown in the 12th century, which would make

them some of the oldest known examples of living architecture in the world.

collection of the most expensive and most worthless items in the world

2009-12-15T04:09:00.001-08:00

A new blog, Publishes pictures of ridiculously expensive products. Describing itself as “a collection of the most expensive and most worthless items in the world” it is proof that some people really do have more money than sense.

Among the items on show is this Ginza Tanaka handbag, covered in platinum and diamond studs, retailing for $1.63 million

The DualTow watch by Christophe Claret retails for $300,000, but it only displays the time to the nearest five minutes. As the people behind the blog say: “So you’re paying for a, seemingly, needlessly complicated watch that doesn’t actually tell you the correct time”

The iCarta+ Stereo Dock and toilet paper holder. Yours for $90

The Brigg umbrella, which comes fitted with a screw-in glass flask, retails for about $725. The people who run the blog say: “The umbrella says, ‘Man of taste’, while the flask says, ‘There’s a good chance I’ll pass out in a ditch somewhere tonight’. Two great looks married together in one convenient package”

DEOS Group’s diamond earbuds retail at between $1,200 and $15,000 for a pair

Here’s the Leman Rose Gold Limited Edition Pen by Caran D’Ache, retailing at $15,800. Well, it is 18-carat gold and covered in up to 34 diamonds or stones

The Diesel DZ9044 Sideview watch is a snip at a mere $365. Your osteopath’s bill will be more than that once you’ve twisted your arm around a few times to check the time

Here’s a chocolate truffle for $240. Yes, for one truffle. That’s $2,600 per pound. But it’s a truffle with a black truffle inside, you see. Lovely.

Here’s the Apple iPhone 3G Kings Button, retailing for about $2.4 million. And now rendered obsolete by the Apple iPhone 3GS

The $2,800 Pizza Royale 007, created by Chef Domenico Crolla, is topped with tomato pizza sauce, smoked salmon, venison medallions, cognac-marinated lobster and champagne-soaked caviar. Oh, and 24-carat gold leaf.

And finally, there’s the Anita Bling-kini by Pistol Panties, which cost £2,000 (about $3,000). But then they are covered in more than 5,000 Swarovski crystals.

EMBRIO - One-Wheeled Motorcycle!

2009-12-11T20:36:00.001-08:00

The EMBRIO Advanced Concept is a one-wheeled recreational and commuting vehicle for the year 2025, designed by the Canadian company Bombardier Recreational Products. Although the riding position is similar to that of a motorcycle, the vehicle uses sensors and gyroscopes to balance up to two passengers on a large single wheel whilst driving. Specifications and pictures of this weird motorcycle are showed below:

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

MODEL NAME: EMBRIO Advanced Concept
DEVELOPED BY:Bombardier Recreational Products
STATUS: Concept
YEAR: 2003
DRIVE SYSTEM: Fuel cell electric
FUEL: Hydrogen
LENGTH: 1,240 mm (48.8 in)
WIDTH: 700 mm (27.5 in)
HEIGHT: 1,200 mm (47.5 in)
WEIGHT: 164 kg (360 lbs)
SEATING CAPACITY: 2

Although the vehicle will also remain stable when motionless, with two small front wheels deployed at speeds below 20 kilometres per hour (12.5 mph). To move forward, the rider activates a trigger on the left handlebar. At a speed of 20 kilometres per hour (12.5 mph) the front wheels or “landing gear” retracts so the rider is balancing on the large single wheel. To turn the rider leans to the left or right. The brake is activated by a trigger on the right handlebar. Fuel cells running on hydrogen provide electricity for the electric motor which drives the single wheel.

11-digit mobile numbers from January 2010.

2009-12-03T21:59:00.001-08:00

Come January'10 and all mobile phone users will have 11-digit mobile numbers instead of their 10-digit numbers currently.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has amended the National Numbering Plan 2003 for migration to an 11-digit numbering plan in mobile services by prefixing the number ‘9’ to the existing two-digit PLMN Access Code.

A PLMN is identified by the Mobile Country Code (MCC) and the Mobile Network Code (MNC). Every service provider has its own PLMN, which interconnects with other PLMNs and public switched telephone networks (PSTNs) for telephone communications, or with internet service providers for data and internet access.

The proposed migration from the existing 10-digit number to an 11-digit numbering plan is likely to be implemented from January 1, 2010, according to an internal DoT note.

A new numbering plan was required because India’s mobile subscriber base has grown at a faster pace than expected. The numbering plan that is applicable now was formulated in 2003 on a forecast of 50 per cent teledensity by 2030.

This allowed for 750 million telephone connections, comprising an anticipated 300 million basic and 450 million cellular mobile connections.

With India adding over 10-14 million mobile subscribers each month, the wireless subscriber base has already crossed 500 million, a year ahead of the target. Therefore, DoT has to re-examine plans to accommodate more subscribers.

This is not the first time phone numbers will be modified. A few years ago, the government had prefixed the number ‘2’ to all BSNL and MTNL fixed-line phones across the country to accommodate more connections.

Worlds tallest vehicular bridge

2009-11-27T21:34:00.001-08:00

Millau Viaduct

Worlds tallest vehicular bridge

The Millau Viaduct (French: le Viaduc de Millau) is a cable stayed road bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France. It was formally opened on 14 December 2004 and opened to traffic on 16 December 2004. Designed by British master-architect Lord Foster in collaboration with French bridge engineer Michel Virlogeux, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one piers summit at 1,118 ft (341 metres), slightly higher than the Eiffel Tower and only 132 ft (40 m) shorter than the Empire State Building.

Design

The Millau Viaduct consists of an eight-span steel roadway supported by seven concrete piers. The roadway weighs 36,000 metric tons and is 2,460 m (8,071 ft) long, measuring 32 m (105 ft) wide by 4.2 m (13.8 ft) deep. The six central spans each measure 342 m (1,122 ft) with the two outer spans measuring 204 m (670 ft). The roadway has a slight slope of 3% descending from south to north, and curves in plan section on a 20 km (12.4 mile) radius to give drivers better visibility. It carries two lanes of traffic in each direction.

Panoramic view of the Millau Viaduct, as seen from the south.

5 heaviest people in the history

2009-11-24T22:05:00.001-08:00

Carol Yager (peak weight 727 kg/ 1,600 lbs)

Her peak weight reached up to 727 kg (16, 00 lbs). She was also famous for losing most weight by natural means. Carol Yager lost 521 lbs weight in just three months. Her skin was breaking down due to a bacterial infection that’s why she was admitted in Hurley Medical Center. She spent terrible time till her death. Carol Yager was unable to stand or walk because of her muscles were not strong enough. She died in a young of 34. Main causes of her death were kidney failure, multiple organ failure and morbid obesity.

Jon Brower Minnoch (peak weight 635 kg / 1400 lbs)

Likewise Carol Yager, Job Brower was also fat in his childhood. In the age of 12 his weight was 132 kg (292 lbs). He married to Jeannette, a woman of normal weight and had two sons. Minnoch was admitted to hospital for 16 months where he lost 419 kg but after being discharged, his weight double. He couldn’t improve any better and died on September 10, 1983, at age 42.

Manuel Uribe (597 kg / 1,316 lb)

Like other heavy people, Manuel Uribe is also living a hard life. He spends 9 years in bed from 2001 to 2009. Even he got married in bed with Claudia on October 26, 2008. On his wedding, he spoke loud and clear to all dishearten people saying “I am proof you can find love in any circumstances. It’s all a question of faith. I have a wife and will form a new family and live a happy life”.

Walter Hudson (544 kg / 1,200 lb)

World’s fourth heaviest power house was born in Brooklyn, New York. Walter came into lime light when he was trapped inside of his room’s door. Recue team had to break the wall to take him out. He loved to eat as once he said and I quote “”I just ate and enjoyed it”. Although he announced his wedding plans but that remains a dream for his. He died few weeks later.

Rosalie Bradford (544 kg / 1,200 lb)

Rosalie Bradford was Foodaholic since her childhood. Like all other weight giants, she gained weight in young age. At the age of 14 her weight was 92 kg and 140 kg at the age of 15. Rosalie married and had one son. After her marriage, she mostly spent her time at home and gain more weight. All that depressed her much and she tried to kill her using painkillers. Her weight eventually reduced to 136 kg (300 lb). She died on November 29, 2006 in the age of 63.

!~!~! Large Hadron Collider ready to restart !~!~!

2009-11-24T21:57:00.001-08:00

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) says it expects to restart the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by this weekend after more than a year of repairs. The 27 km (17 mi) particle accelerator was launched last year, but suffered a failure from a faulty electrical connection, damaging 53 of the smasher's 9,300 superconducting magnets. Repairs are now completed, and the plan is to begin injecting protons into the LHC this weekend, on the path to search for particles such as predicted-yet- unobserved Higgs Boson. Collected below are some photographs of the repairs, and of the LHC and some of its experiments in various stages of construction.

Combining two major ATLAS inner detector components. The semiconductor tracker is inserted into the transition radiation tracker for the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. These make up two of the three major components of the inner detector. They will work together to measure the trajectories produced in the proton-proton collisions at the centre of the detector when the LHC is switched on. Photo taken on February 22nd, 2006. (Maximilien Brice, © CERN)

Views of two step of an ultrasound and induction welding to interconnection between two LHC magnet at sector 3-4 during repair operation on March 26th, 2009.

Visible damage to the LHC magnets in sector 3-4 of the LHC on November 12th, 2008. On September 19th, 2008, as the LHC was being switched on, a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets caused a large helium leak, which violently vented 6 tons of helium into the tunnel. The resulting temperature rise damaged some 53 magnets.

Detail of some of the damage done to the LHC magnets in sector 3-4 on September 19th, 2008.

Moving and placement of a quadrupole at sector 3-4 in the LHC tunnel on April 30th, 2009.

A replacement magnet for LHC sector 3-4 being lowered in the tunnel on January 19th, 2009.

Moving and placement of a quadrupole at sector 3-4 in the LHC tunnel on April 30th, 2009

Transporting a quadrupole through sector 3-4 in the LHC tunnel on April 30th, 2009.

Installation of a new dipole in the LHC tunnel at sector 3-4 on April 6th, 2009.

Detail of one of the LHC's 18-kW 4.5-K refrigerator units, part of the larger cryogenic system used to maintain superfluid helium temperatures of about 1.9k (-271.25° Celsius or -456.25° Fahrenheit). Photograph taken on April 28th, 2008.

The silicon strip tracker of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) nears completion. Shown here are three concentric cylinders, each comprised of many silicon strip detetectors (the bronze-coloured rectangular devices, similar to the CCDs used in digital cameras). These surround the region where the protons collide.

An automated magnetic tape vault at CERN computer center, seen on September 15th, 2008. The tapes are used to store the complete LHC data set, from which a fraction of the data is copied to overlying disk caches for fast and widespread access. The handling of the magnetic tape cartridges is now fully automated, as they are racked in vaults where they are moved between the storage shelves and the tape drives by robotic arms.

Final work is done on the detectors inside the L3 magnet of the ALICE experiment on July 10th, 2008.

View of the CMS Detector before closure on August 17th, 2008.

Portrait of Lyn Evans, LHC project Leader, on December 3rd, 2008.

Shielding of the L3 magnet, ALICE experiment on July 10th, 2008

Final preparations on a replacement magnet ready to be lowered into sector 3-4 on November 27th, 2008.

A tunnel with part of one of the beam dumps of the LHC at point 6. Beam dumps are absorption mechanisms where the powerful beams can be extracted completely from the LHC, consisting of a 7m segmented carbon cylinder, 700mm in diameter, contained in a water-cooled steel cylinder, surrounded by about 750 tons of concrete and iron shielding. The sign at top warns of the presence of helium, argon and/or nitrogen in nearby pipes - gases that (if they leaked out) could displace oxygen and cause unconsciousness.

Insertion of a Time Of Flight (TOF) module in the upper part of the spaceframe for the ALICE experiment. Charged particles in the intermediate momentum range are identified in ALICE by the TOF detector. The time measurement, in conjunction with the momentum and track length measured by the tracking detectors is used to calculate the particle mass.

Detail of the LHCb Magnet, seen on September 5th, 2008.

A collimater for the LHC. The powerful LHC collimation system protects the accelerator against damage due to unavoidable regular and irregular beam loss.

View of the LHC machine in the tunnel at the junction part with the beam dump at point 6 on July 25th, 2008.

View of the CMS Detector before closure, on August 17th, 2008.

Last views of the L3 magnet before its closure on June 28th, 2008.

Closing of the 30-inch-thick, 430 ton L3 door on the I side, ALICE experiment, on June 11th, 2008.

A radiofrequency chamber of the LHC. Radiofrequency chambers give a kick to the protons once per circuit to increase their speed. Original here.

A fireman examines emergency exit signage in the LHC tunnel on February 21st, 2008, during an exercise with French, Swiss and CERN firemen.

Work on the ATLAS semiconductor tracker barrel. Precision work is performed on the semiconductor tracker barrel of the ATLAS experiment. The semiconductor tracker will be mounted in the barrel close to the heart of the ATLAS experiment to detect the path of particles produced in proton-proton collisions.

Integration of the three shells into the ATLAS pixel barrel, the innermost tracking device of the experiment.

Installing the ATLAS calorimeter in November of 2005. The eight torodial magnets can be seen on the huge ATLAS detector with the calorimeter before it is moved into the middle of the detector. This calorimeter will measure the energies of particles produced when protons collide in the centre of the detector.

®Trust God, he knows ur future. He may not reveal it to you but he will walk with you as the future unfolds. Don't trust the stars, trust the one who made them. Gud Day!.

Caves: The World Beneath the World!

2009-11-22T23:39:00.001-08:00

Caves: The World Beneath the World!

If you are stretched and squeezed by everyday life, then you might be in perfect shape to explore caves.
Enter a narrow natural passageway that may lead to simply mind-boggling underground world. Caves may lurk right under your feet: a fascinating and unexpected environment, which is often known only to spelunkers and dedicated Gollum-seekers.

Back to the Cave!

Gruta do Lago Azul, Bonito, Brazil. (photo by www.alexuchoa.com)
"Symphony of Stones" (how aptly named) -

Garni caves in Armenia. (photo by eco culture)
Fairyland Cave Formations
Caves are a fairyland of delight, from the burning hot enclaves to the glacial ice mazes. Thousands of years of dripping water, eroding stone and budding minerals create a silent world of mystery and beauty... Graceful arches, giant crystals... silent but for the sound of water dripping and bubbling through.

A "Wishing Well" at Luray Caverns in Virginia (photo by Declan McCullagh)
The most common type of caves form when slightly acidic rainwater trickles into the crevices of limestone and gradually widens the cracks as it dissolves the stone. Centuries of water, supersaturated with minerals, dripping from cave roofs cause stalagmites and stalactites to form (see here).

(image via)
One thing to keep in mind during cave exploration: though these structures are made of minerals, they are generally extremely thin and fragile, many of them are quite rare, and can be damaged or destroyed by touch alone. Calcite (the mineral which forms many cave structures), for example, is soft enough to be scratched by a fingernail.
Some of the cave and rock formations:
- Flowstone (also known as a Bacon formation)
- Cave Pearls
- Soda Straws
- Helictites
- Anthodites (or Aragonite)
- Bottlebrush formation

(image credit: Dave Bunnell)
Probably the most comprehensive cave-exploration site on the net is that of Dave Bunnell... You can spend hours there, wandering around pages, cataloging whimsical underground structures, oozing rock and dripping stone.

(Gruta do Mimoso, Brazil)
Largest Cave Systems
We mentioned the Jeita Grotto - the largest cave system in the Middle East- in our recent Lebanon article. The longest known stalactite in the world is found there at 8.2 meters long.
- The deepest known cave is Voronya Cave in Abkhazia, Georgia and has been explored to a depth of 2191 meters.
- The longest continuous cave system yet explored is Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, covering 591 kilometers.
Let's have a short world tour of the most interesting caves, why don't we? We'll start with North America -
Already mentioned Luray Caverns in Virginia are full of celebrated speleothems formations, calcite crystals of abnormal shapes - all formed when the chambers were completely filled with water, highly charged with acid. The acid began to eat away the softer material, resulting in ornate pinnacles and arches...

(image credit: Alejocrux)

(image credit: Declan McCullagh)
One of the deepest known cave pits, Fantastic Pit in Georgia's Ellison's Cave descends 586 feet (179 meters) in a straight tunnel:

(image credit: Michael Nichols, National Geographic)
Glacial Caves and Ice Caverns
Some ice caves must rather be called "glacier caves", which can simply astound with the intensity of ice color:

(image credit: Jenna and Tim Dickinson)
Here is a wonderful page of ice caves photography by Jason Gulley:

(images credit: Jason Gulley)
No sign of Superman or Megatron there yet:

Mount Kenya's Ice Cave Bobby Model, National Georgaphic)

Ice Cave in Matanuska Glacier, Alaska - photo by George F. Mobley, National Geographic
A lot of ice caves grow "hair" - ice extrusions, some are quite strange-looking:

(image credit: Ian Mckenzie)
Brazil: Crystalline Underground Waters
Mato Grosso do Sul region in Brazil (and especially the quiet town of Bonito) boasts many marvelous underground lakes: Gruta do Lago Azul, Gruta do Mimoso, Aquário Natural. Intricate limestone formations and grottos hide the intensely-colored pools and waterfalls (many adventure tours there feature diving, some pools are more than 100 meters deep):

(images via)
Limestone caves in the same region offer fantastic exploration:

(images via)
Venezuela: Cave of the Ghost
Cueva del Fantasma is big enough for two helicopters to fly into it, but it's not technically a cave - rather, a collapsed gorge. It does, however, sport a huge waterfall right inside of it:

(image via)
Iran: tremendous cave system
Katale Khor is a cave dating back to the Jurassic period. It's one of the "snow caves" in the Southwest Zanjan province and connects to other caves - a huge underground infra-structure which can hide who knows what (definitely anti-American... wink wink). See more pictures here

(images credit: Ali Majdfar)
Can't get enough images of Iran's natural beauty? See our previous articles... a country full of great sights and dubious politics.
Vietnam: Hang Thien Cung cave
There are plenty of caves in Vietnam, and just like in China, many are illuminated with garish colors. (see here). But sometimes even artificial light takes back stage to the incredible rock textures:

(image credit: Tai Vo)
Mexico: Giant Selenite Crystals!
In 2000, one of the most unusual and splendid caves was found in Mexico by miners. Located only a mile from an upthrust of magma, this cave is 112 degrees Farenheit and at 90-100% humidity, limiting greatly the amount of time explorers can spend in it. It is a spectacular cave, with gigantic crystal formations thought to be 600,000 years old.

(photos by Javier Trueba / Madrid Scientific Films, image via)
The crystals formed underwater; as water saturated with calcium sulfate heated in the cavern selenite molecules crystallized and grew, undisturbed, to giant proportions. The cave was drained (by unknowing miners) in the 1980's and stopped the process of growth. Who knows what we may find further on, in the heat and water?
A description of one photographer's attempt to document this cave is here.

(images credit: Richard Fisher)
"It is unquestionably magical that the cool white rays of moonlight can originate deep underground in a black chamber that is, at least in my perception, white hot." (Richard Fisher, photographer, comments on the huge selenite crystals.)
A Giant Geode
Geodes are normally formed by volcanic or sedimentary geologic activity - a cavity in the rock is formed, inside which crystals begin to grow, such as amethyst, quartz or a number of others. Most geodes are small enough to fit in your hand, but this one is large enough to climb inside. The crystals found here are gypsum. - More info.

(images credit: Javier Garcia-Guinea)
The largest Geode Cave in US is located in Ohio: Crystal Cave, check it out.
Ancient Cave Cities
Khosrov Caves in Armenia served as a shelter to ancient tribes - in a perfectly cinematic location:

(image credit: 18:18)

(photos by Raffi Kojian and eco culture)
We wrote about Cappadocia cave city in Turkey before. But you might not be aware that more modern establishment makes its home there - a luxury hotel!

Considering how hot it can get outside, it definitely provides a welcome coolness:

(images via)
This PC case mod would fit right there, in that cave hotel room:

(case mod by Mashie)
Then again, there's a wildly original Stockholm subway station, seemingly built inside a natural (in reality - blasted) cave :

"Metro on Mars":

10 Unique Laptops

2009-11-20T02:20:00.001-08:00

Here are 10 really unique and cool laptops. From a dual screen laptop, to a split keyboard laptop to even a million dollar laptop!

The Million Dollar Laptop

UK-based bespoke luxury goods creator Luvaglio has created the first million dollar laptop. That's what the first of their luxury laptops will sell for. Full details of the laptop have not been released at this point, but it is known that it incorporates a 17" wide LED lit screen with a specially designed anti-reflective glare coating for clear and brighter image, 128GB of Solid State Disk space and a slot loading Blue-Ray drive. There is an integrated screen cleaning device and a very rare coloured diamond piece of jewellery that doubles up as the power button when placed into the laptop, and also acts as security identification.
Orkin's Rolltop

The Orkin Design Rolltop would definitely be an item in the must-have list of most geeks, even if it is but a concept at point of publishing. Why do we say so? This "notebook" comes with a flexible OLED display which also handles multitouch for those who are head over heels with the iPhone. When fully rolled out, it ends up as a 17" flatscreen display but can also be folded into a 13" tablet when required. No idea on whether it will run on wireless power or not, but it seems as though the detachable stand will hold the tablet's stylus, power adapter and USB ports.
Datamancer's Steampunk Laptop

This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this intricately hand-crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop that runs both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux. It features an elaborate display of clockworks under glass, engraved brass accents, claw feet, an antiqued copper keyboard and mouse, leather wrist pads, and customized wireless network card. The machine turns on with an antique clock-winding key by way of a custom-built ratcheting switch made from old clock parts.

Thinkpad Reserve Edition

When IBM handed all of their laptop division to Lenovo, many feared that the classic Thinkpad design would lose its way, but with this improved design most of the people would be impressed by the laptop concept.
Ergonomic Dual Screen Split Keyboard Laptop

The sweetness of this amazing Ergonomic Dual Screen Split Keyboard Notebook Portable Personal Computer isn't only the fact that the keyboard splits open to give a computer user more room to fit their hands, but that it has a second LCD hidden underneath it. What a fantastic idea. The second screen works in concert with the first screen – giving the user a “drag and send” capability for open windows or programs, or act independently as a pen-based input screen for note taking, sketching, and just about anything else a user can do to write into the interface. This makes the EDSSKN of tremendous benefit to not only writers and word processors, but artists and designers as well.
HP Girly Laptop

Some girls want the extra attention not only from men but also from actual gadgets and even cool looking laptops, such as these HP concepts made especially for women. Each one of these designs by Nikita Buyanov has its own set of specific that would recognize special pampering that a girl wishes for; they are classy looking, stylish, trendy and even provide extra productivity for your personality. Unfortunately they have yet to be truly manufactured, but if enough would show interest, maybe next year's HP models would provide a different feminine look that is made just for women.
Canova's Dual-Screen Laptop

This Dual Touch Screen Laptop from Canova is an ultimate notebook design meant for the creative mind. The notebook features dual display with touch-sensitive screens, sketch pad, music score, graph paper, an electronic pen and a dedicated hardware for its smooth functioning. Unfortunately, it's only sold in Italy and Australia.
Fujitsu's DJ Laptop

Fujitsu DJ laptop, as it was called, has a 20-inch primary LCD display easily folded closed to enable the turntable function, which can be accessed via a touch-sensitive screen on the outside. The laptop lets you browse all your favorite tracks same as on a vinyl turntable.
TYPE-N01 Emergency Laptop

NEC has teamed up with Takara to create the presumably mad scientist-approved machine, which sports all the token stickers, labels, and even wallpapers that make this device so similar to those seen laying around Duke Nukem laboratories. Beneath the facade is a LaVie G type L laptop, 15.4-inch display. Flanked on the side is the very necessary "Emergency Button," which apparently shuts down the machine in case of unexpected intruders. Launched in 2006, only 300 units of the highly secretive TYPE-NO1 were made costing up to ¥174,510 ($1,476).
2015 Compenion Laptop

Felix Schmidberger design for a laptop for 2015 with OLED touch screen. The computer itself has an OLED touchscreen, where you can directly work on, much like with a umpc or pda. The whole screen is a slider, as it can be moved forward to reveal a secondOLED touchscreen underneath, where you can have a keyboard or working controls, similar to a setup with 2 monitors.

I was sold to Lashkar by my father: Mumbai attacker Kasab

2009-11-16T04:36:00.001-08:00

Washington, Nov 16 (IANS) Ajmal Amir Kasab, the sole surviving terrorist of the group of ten sent by the Pakistan based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba to attack Mumbai, says his father essentially sold him into the group.

Kasab, who was part of the pair that killed 50 and wounded more than 100 at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the city's main railway station, makes the suggestion in tapes included in a new documentary, 'Terror in Mumbai' airing on HBO Thursday.

Snatches of cellphone conversations - many never heard before - between the gunmen and their controllers in Pakistan, as well as video footage of the police with Kasab were aired Sunday in a preview of the documentary by narrator Fareed Zakaria in his GPS programme on CNN.

One of the tapes of Kasab's interrogation points to how he got involved with the LeT terror group:

Kasab: He said, 'These people make loads of money and so will you. (Inaudible) We'll have money, we won't be poor any more. Your brothers and sisters can get married. Look at these guys living the good life. You can be like them,' he said.

Unidentified Male: Your dad said this?

Kasab: Yes. So, I said, 'Fine, whatever.'

Unidentified Male: What does he do for a living?

Kasab: He used to sell yogurt and potato snacks in the street.

Unidentified Male: How much did they give you? Did they put it in your account?

Kasab: There is no account. They gave it to my dad.

Unidentified Male: How much did they give him?

Kasab: I don't know. Maybe (ph) a few hundred thousand.

In another tape, Kasab recalls how the terrorist group was trained.

Police: How long were you in training?

Kasab: Three months. There were 24 or 25 in our class.

Police: Where were the people from?

Kasab: They don't tell you. I only knew about one. He said he was from Lahore. He became my friend.

Police: Didn't they allow you to speak to each other?

Kasab: We were forbidden to speak to each other. It was very strict. The proper training where they say, 'This boy is ready now' - that only takes three months. That's it.

Police: Did you ever ask, 'Won't I feel pity for the people I'm killing?'

Kasab: I did, but he said you have to do these things if you're going to be a big man and get rewarded in heaven.

Police: So you came here for jihad? Is that right?

Kasab: (crying) What jihad?

Police: It's no use crying. Tell me the truth. Is that right or no?

Kasab: You wouldn't understand.

Locked in a bathroom at Mumbai's Trident Oberoi hotel, another young Pakistani terrorist named Fahadullah knew the end was near. He was out of food, water, energy and ammunition, and could hear the steady stream of police gunshots getting closer.

He and nine other terrorists were winding down from a gruesome, 36-hour killing spree through the city, and he was talking on the phone to a handler far away in Pakistan.

'You mustn't let them arrest you, remember that,' the controller insisted.

'Fahadullah, my brother, can't you just get out there and fight?'

Fahadullah could not. 'I am out of grenades,' he weakly offered.

'Be brave, brother. Don't panic. For your mission to end successfully, you must be killed. God is waiting for you in heaven.'

Some of the Beautiful Temples of the World!

2009-11-15T23:50:00.001-08:00

Here is a listing of some of the beautiful temples of the World! Includes the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Taktshang in Bhutan, Wat Rong Khun in Thailand, Prambanan in Indonesia, Shwedagon Pagoda in Burma, Temple of Heaven in Beijing, Chion-in in Japan, Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Tamil Nadu & the Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Taktshang

Taktshang is the most famous of monasteries in Bhutan. It hangs on a cliff at 3,120 metres (10,200 feet), some 700 meters (2,300 feet) above the bottom of Paro valley, some 10 km from the district town of Paro. Famous visitors include Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in the 17th century and Milarepa.
The name means "Tiger's nest", the legend being that Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) flew there on the back of a tiger. The monastery includes seven temples which can all be visited. The monastery suffered several blazes and is a recent restoration. Climbing to the monastery is on foot or mule.

Wat Rong Khun

Wat Rong Khun is a contemporary unconventional buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand. It was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat. Construction began in 1998 and is expected to end in 2008.
Wat Rong Khun is different from any other temple in Thailand, as its ubosot (Pali: uposatha; consecrated assembly hall) is designed in white color with some use of white glass. The white color stands for Lord Buddha’s purity; the white glass stands for Lord Buddha’s wisdom that "shines brightly all over the Earth and the Universe."

Prambanan

Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple compound in Central Java in Indonesia, located approximately 18 km east of Yogyakarta. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia. It is characterised by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and by the 47m high central building inside a large complex of individual temples.

Shwedagon Pagoda

The Shwedagon Pagoda also known as the Golden Pagoda, is a 98-metre (approx. 321.5 feet) gilded stupa located in Yangon, Burma. The pagoda lies to the west of Kandawgyi Lake, on Singuttara Hill, thus dominating the skyline of the city. It is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda for the Burmese with relics of the past four Buddhas enshrined within, namely the staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Konagamana, a piece of the robe of Kassapa and eight hairs of Gautama, the historical Buddha.

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.

Chion-in

Chion'in Temple in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan is the headquarters of the Jodo Shu (Pure Land Sect) founded by Honen (1133-1212), who proclaimed that sentient beings are reborn in Amida Buddha's Western Paradise (Pure Land) by reciting the nembutsu, Amida Buddha's name.
The vast compounds of Chion-in include the site where Honen settled to disseminate his teachings and the site where he died.

Harmandir Sahib

Sri Harmandir Sahib or Darbar Sahib, informally referred to as The Golden Temple or Temple of God, is culturally the most significant place of worship of the Sikhs and one of the oldest Sikh gurdwaras. It is located in the city of Amritsar, which was established by Guru Ram Das, the fourth guru of the Sikhs and the city that it was built in, is also due to the shrine, known as "Guru Di Nagri" meaning city of the Sikh Guru.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple

(Srirangam)

The temple occupies an area of 156 acres (6,31,000 m²) with a perimeter of 1,116m (10,710 feet) making it the largest temple in India and one of the largest religious complexes in the world. In fact, Srirangam temple can be easily termed as the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world (Angkor Wat being the largest non-functioning temple). The temple is enclosed by 7 concentric walls with a total length of 32,592 feet or over six miles. These walls are enclosed by 21 Gopurams (Towers). Among the marvels of the temple is a "hall of 1000 pillars" (actually 953).

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat), is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

Worlds Largest Passenger Cruise Ship - Royal Caribbean

2009-11-15T22:40:00.001-08:00

"Freedom of the Seas"

M/S Freedom of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean International cruise ship. The world's largest passenger vessel, she can accommodate over 4,300 passengers on her fifteen passenger decks, served by over 1300 crew.
She is about 229 ft. longer, about 108,000 gross tons larger, and can accommodate 2,147 more passengers than RMS Titanic. Her operating costs are $1 million per day. Rooms for the maiden voyage were priced from $1,900 to $22,000 for the week. As routine service continues, starting room rates are expected to descend as low as $700 for cruises scheduled in the autumn of 2007. The ship consumes approximately 28,000 gallons of fuel per hour.

Facilities -
The ship features three swimming areas; an interactive water park, a dedicated adult pool and the main pool. There are 2 whirlpools cantilevered out from the ship's sides. The Royal Promenade sports a coffee shop, Sorrento's Pizzeria, a Ben and Jerry's ice-cream shop, Vintage's winery, the Bull and Bear Irish pub, and many Duty-free shops. The 13th deck features a sports area with amenities such as a rock climbing wall, the FlowRider (an onboard wave generator for surfing), a miniature golf course and a full size basketball court. Other items include an ice skating rink, a casino, a Johnny Rockets, Wi-Fi capabilities throughout the ship, flat panel televisions in all staterooms, and cell phone connectivity.

2012: End-of-World Disaster Porn

2009-11-13T03:54:00.001-08:00

The ancient Mayans predicted that a world cataclysm would occur on the winter solstice in 2012, and so have enough conspiracy theorists to spur a swelling industry of doomsday books and TV shows. In the new thriller 2012, those lunar or just lunatic prophesies come true. "It's kind of galling," says a previously skeptical White House pooh-bah (Oliver Platt), "when you realize that the nutbags with the cardboard signs were right all along."

The nutbag with the $250 million budget is director and co-writer Roland Emmerich, who for all his deficiencies as a teller of stories and wrangler of actors can never be accused of thinking small. In Independence Day he had Martians attack Earth; in The Day After Tomorrow, global warming triggers an instant ice age. He is both the king of disaster porn and a sentimental élitist: his movies kill off billions of humans so that one family can get back together. Emmerich tinkers with Darwin's law so that it's the survival of the top-billed. (See flying saucers in film.)

Chugging laboriously on several parallel tracks, the movie starts with noted scientist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) trying to get news of the bleak 2012 scenario to higher-ups, including President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover, the first African-American actor to play a U.S. Commander in Chief since Barack Obama assumed the post). Several billionaires are asked to contribute their fortunes to some mysterious endeavor that will save the world, or possibly just themselves. Meanwhile, on a peak in Yelllowstone Park, a crazy radio prophet (Woody Harrelson) is warning of an imminent Armageddon. And failed novelist Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is reunited with his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and two kids while they barely avoid the catastrophes befalling virtually everyone else on the planet. You'll quickly glean that Jackson's job is to be an ordinary guy who evolves into an end-of-days Messiah. (Can it be a coincidence that both the actor and his character have the initials J.C.?)

2012 — and by the way, how is the title to be pronounced? Two thousand twelve (like A Space Odyssey)? Twenty-twelve? Two-zero-one-two? — is a dead-serious hoot. In some scenes, when folks are spouting dewy end-of-days sentiments as if they're contending for the Couldn't Be More Noble prize, you'll need to stitch your lips together to keep from laughing out loud. The movie dawdles when straining to make the cardboard characters become flesh and blood. Why bother? That's not what we're here for; we want to see what the end of the world looks like, in case we're not around for the real thing. (See TIME's photo-essay "The Fascinating World of J.J. Abrams.")

So when a California governor in the Schwarzenegger mold goes on TV to proclaim, "The worst is over," we'd be disappointed if the whole state didn't immediately collapse in a crazy quilt of fault lines. In a disaster movie of the 2012 stripe, lines of complacent dialogue are like song cues in a musical: heralds of gigantic production numbers. The only difference is that instead of dancing chorines, 2012 offers orgies of destruction, some of which blithely recall 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

If you can tamp down the "How dare they?" impulse, you'll find the movie's only scintillating scenes: the Curtis family's escape in a van through L.A. streets that cave in two seconds after Jackson careers over them, and a ride in a small plane that somehow flies between two downtown skyscrapers at the moment they collapse toward each other. Each boast effects work that is technically sophisticated, dramatically cheesy and kinetically irresistible. (These two thrillathon sequences can be found on Ain't It Cool News.) For all the logorrhea of the dialogue scenes, the movie can be brutally brisk when it wants to. Note how it dispenses with the complete works of Dan Brown in a few blunt strokes: the Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre, Vatican City is destroyed, Washington's masonry crumbles.

The closing credits announce that the movie was inspired in part by the book Footprints of the Gods, a pseudoscience tome that cites Charles Hapgood's 1958 theory of Earth Crust Displacement. (If you care, go to Wikipedia.) But the true inspirers of 2012 are the disaster movies — nearly all the disaster movies — that preceded it. There's the giant wall of water from The Poseidon Adventure, the apocalyptic ark from Evan Almighty, the panoramas of devastation and dad-and-son bonding from Spielberg's War of the Worlds and the notion of prominent people getting a ticket out of the disaster from both Dr. Strangelove and the 1951 film When Worlds Collide. That early sci-fi movie provides many of 2012's plot tropes, including the rioting of those meant to be left behind, the death of the richest, meanest man on earth and the ultimate salvation of cute kids and a pet pooch.

No, I didn't spill too much of the plot beans. Any sentient viewer will be able to predict every lumpy twist of this ludicrous, fitfully enjoyable movie. As for the original Mayan prediction, I have my suspicions that it's bogus, but I'm reluctant to blow off the whole idea. Get back to me on Dec. 22, 2012.

10 Awesome Grass Sculptures

2009-11-12T21:46:00.001-08:00

Here are 10 amazing sculptures made only of grass! Quite intricately sculpted, must see sculptures! Includes sculptures from elephants to giraffes to even unicorns!

Cool and creative Formula 1 car grass figure

Cow grass sculpture

This is an amazing elephant grass sculpture.

Giraffe grass sculpture found in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia during summer time.

In the grounds of a country house in Cornwall near the fishing village of Mevagissy the Victorian gardens have been restored to their former glory

Men grass sculpture at Museum Beelden aan Zee in Scheveningen by Wim Quist architects.

The sculpture, In the Garden of Dreams, was made by brother and sister team Sue and Pete Hill.This sculpture was created as a sister to the Mud Maid which can be found at the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall.

If you have ever visited an art gallery and felt assailed by the "don't touch" signs, then Lucy Strachan's work is for you. Her outdoor sculptures cry out to be touched - or even stroked and hugged, something the artist herself encourages. “Spinning Top” was Lucy's first grass work.

Unicorns United.

World's Oldest ANIMALS...

2009-11-09T21:02:00.001-08:00

Jonathan the tortoise and Mischief the cat may have hit the headlines for their longevity, but there are plenty of other creatures giving them a run for their money in the age stakes.

This photo of a tortoise was taken on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. The tortoise, named Jonathan, still lives there today. He may be the world’s oldest living animal.

A spokesman for the island’s tourist board said Jonathan is owned by the St Helena government and lives in the specially built plantation on the governor’s land.

He said: “Jonathan is the sole survivor of three tortoises that arrived on St Helena Island in 1882.

“He was already mature when he arrived and was at least 50-years-old.

“Therefore his minimum age is 176-years-old. He is the oldest inhabitant on St Helena and is claimed to be the oldest living tortoise in the world.

Icelandic scientists have found a 400-year-old clam, nearly twice as old as any other animal in history.
The clam — a qahog or, technically, Arctica islandica — spent those centuries in the frigid Atlantic waters off Iceland’s north coast.

As the press release notes, “When this animal was a juvenile, King James I replaced Queen Elizabeth I as English monarch, Shakespeare was writing his greatest plays Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth and Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for espousing the view that the Sun rather than the Earth was the centre of the universe.”

Rabbit: Fourteen-year- old George, from Tewksbury, Massachusetts in the US, was recognised as the oldest rabbit in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records earlier this year.

The average life expectancy of a rabbit is six to eight years, making George an estimated 160 years old in human terms. His owners met at college and fed their pet Doritos.

Cat: Spike, a ginger and white tom, died two months after his 31st birthday in July 2001 – making him the world’s oldest cat.

He was bought for two shillings and sixpence in London’s Brick Lane market in 1970 and nearly died at the age of 19 when he was attacked by a dog.

Spike’s owners, from Bridport in Devon, used to put aloe vera gel into his cat food.

Spider: The world’s oldest spider is thought to have been a female from the Theraphosidae family, which lived up to the age of 28. The bird-eating arachnid was captured in Mexico in 1935.

Dog: At 29, black Labrador Bella was thought to be the oldest dog in the UK until her death in September.
She was bought from an RSPCA sanctuary 26 years ago and lived out her long life in Derbyshire.

Guinea Pig: The average age for a guinea pig may be between five and eight years, but the official record is 14 years and 10 and a half months.

Monkey: Bueno, a black spider monkey, died in 2005 at the age of 53 and was thought to be the world’s eldest monkey.

She lived a “stress-free” life at the Japan Monkey Centre in Aichi, 150 miles west of Tokyo. The average black spider monkey lives for between 30 and 33 years.

Goldfish: Tish beat all the records by living to a ripe old age of 43 after being won a funfair in Doncaster in 1956.

As he aged, his scales faded from orange to silver but his owner Hilda Hand said the key to his longevity was not feeding him too much and placing him in the sun every now and then.

Oldest thingS on EARTH...

2009-11-09T04:46:00.001-08:00

World’s Oldest Yoga Instructor (83-year-old)
Yoga instructor Bette Calman may be 83, but she’s still bending over backwards to spread the benefits of the ancient Indian discipline. The nimble grandmother can really pull some shapes and with her set hair and pearl earrings she looks as glamorous as Greta Garbo in a pink jumpsuit. With 40 years of teaching under her belt, the Australian wonder is living proof that a lifetime’s dedication to yoga will keep you flexible as a rubber band.

World’s Oldest Mother (70-year-old)
Meet Rajo Devi Lohan, the Indian woman who, in November 2008, gave birth to her first child – at the age of 70. She said she had waited for more than 40 years for this child and that she plans to breastfeed her for at least three years. And, who knows, maybe she will.

World’s Oldest Conjoined Twins (57-year-old)
When Maureen Galyon gave birth in 1951, she had no idea she was expecting two babies – let alone conjoined twins. The tots, joined at the torso, were not expected to survive the night as baffled doctors tried to work out if they could be separated. Now, at 57, Ronnie and Donnie are the world’s oldest conjoined twins and have amazed the medic world by hanging onto life for so long. And, as their health declines and they near their dying days, the pair have opened their doors to a documentary team to reveal the secrets of their extraordinary life together. Although every day is a struggle as the men have to coordinate the simplest of tasks, they have a close, loving relationship and are able to live together in their own home in Dayton, Ohio

World’s Oldest Father (90-year-old)
The world’s oldest father has done it again recently, fathering a child for at least the 21st time, at the age of 90. Indian farmer Nanu Ram Jogi, who is married to his fourth wife, boasts he does not want to stop, and plans to continue producing children until he is 100. Mr Jogi admits he is not certain how many children his series of four wives have borne him – but counts at least 12 sons and nine daughters and 20 grandchildren

World’s Oldest Cat (29-year-old)
Until he passed away at the ripe old age of 31 in July 2001, the world’s oldest catwas chasing spiders without the equivalent of a feline walking cane. Spike, a British ginger and white tom, had been certified as the world’s oldest living cat by the Guinness Book of Records in 1999, when the sprightly kitty was just 29.

Measured in human years, Spike was an amazing 140 years old, though many veterinarians dispute the validity of such human/cat comparisons. (Perhaps it’s just jealousy; Spike retained all his original teeth and hair!) Either way, Spike beat the odds – domestic longhairs have a life span of about 15 years. His owner, Mo Elkington, an aromatherapist from Dorset, England, purchased Spike in 1970. She fed him a steady diet of fish and cat food, with a little aloe vera mixed in to protect him against arthritis and rheumatism.

World’s Oldest Model (80-year-old)
In an age obsessed with youth and beauty, Daphne Selfe is a welcome reminder that the two are not inextricably linked. The grandmother is in the 60th year of an extraordinary modelling career thanks to her graceful posture, striking cheekbones and her long, lustrous – and unashamedly grey – hair. At the age of 80, she is Britain’s oldest catwalk model, gracing runways for Dolce & Gabbana, Tata-Naka and Michiko Koshino

World’s Oldest Bottle of Champagne (184-year-old)
One tasted white truffles, another gingerbread. But the esteemed wine critics that gathered to taste the world’s oldest Champagne were at least agreed on one thing: that they were enjoying the opportunity of a lifetime. 12 of the wine industry’s top tasters had been given the rare chance to give their verdict on the world’s oldest bottle of Champagne. Only two bottles now remain of the Perrier-Jouet 1825 Vintage, recognised by The Guinness Book of Records as the oldest remaining Champagne in the world.

World’s Oldest Brand (124-year-old)
Lyle’s Golden Syrup has been named as Britain’s oldest brand, with its green and gold packaging having remained almost unchanged since 1885. The Guinness Book of Records gave the breakfast and teatime sweetener, whose tins bear the image of a lion and a biblical quotation, the prized honour.

World’s Oldest Sculpture (35,000-year- old)
Scientists have discovered the oldest piece of sculpture ever created – and it depicts a voluptuous ‘pin-up’ woman. The 35,000-year- old carving shows a woman with enormous breasts and other sexual characteristics like an enlarged stomach and large thighs. The six-centimetre carved mammoth tusk, which is thought to have been a symbol of fertility for early man, is known as ‘Venus’ and was discovered in several fragments which were then pieced together. Radiocarbon dating showed that the figurine, which was found in a German cave, is at least 35,000 years old, predating later similar finds by 5,000 years or more. The fragments were recovered along with stone, bone and ivory tools used by the first Home Sapien populations to settle in Europe.

World’s Oldest Working Microwave (40-year-old)
They are part and parcel of most kitchens now. But in the Swinging Sixties, microwave ovens were cutting-edge technology. Frederick Stephens was among the first in Britain to buy one and 150,000 meals later, it is still going strong. The 78-year-old believes it is the country’s oldest still in everyday use. He paid $300 – equivalent to more than $3,900 in today’s money – for the brown Panasonic NE-691 and has used it every day in the four decades since

World’s Oldest Flute (35,000-year- old)
discovered, according to archaeologists, offering the latest evidence that early modern humans in Europe had established a complex and creative culture. A team led by University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard assembled the flute from 12 pieces of griffon vulture bone scattered in a small plot of the Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany. Together, the pieces comprise a 8.6-inch instrument with five holes and a notched end. Conard said the flute was 35,000 years old

Top 5 World's Most Amazing Islands

2009-11-07T01:13:00.001-08:00

Top 5 World's Most Amazing Islands

Check out these interesting Islands, very interesting info! Includes the Alcatraz Island, Easter Island, Sealand, Surtsey & the Gunkanjima!

5. ALCATRAZ ISLAND (USA): home to the first lighthouse on the Pacific Coast

Alcatraz Island (sometimes informally referred to as simply Alcatraz or by its pop-culture name, The Rock) is a small island located in the middle of San Francisco Bay in California, United States. It served as a lighthouse, then a military fortification, then a military prison followed by a federal prison until 1963, when it became a national recreation area. The first European to discover the island was Juan de Ayala in 1775, who charted the San Francisco Bay and named the island "La Isla de los Alcatraces", which means "Island of the Pelicans".

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 brought thousands of ships to San Francisco Bay, creating an urgent need for a navigational lighthouse. In response, Alcatraz lighthouse #1 was erected and lit in the summer of 1853. Because of its natural isolation in the middle of a bay, surrounded by cold water and strong sea currents, Alcatraz was soon considered by the U.S. Army as an ideal location for holding captives. Alcatraz was the Army's first long-term prison, and it was already beginning to build its reputation as a tough detention facility by exposing inmates to harsh conditions and iron fisted discipline. Due to rising operational costs because of its location, the Military Department decided to close this famous prison in 1934, and it was subsequently taken over by the Department of Justice and later became the famous federal prision and finally a recreation area.

4. EASTER ISLAND (Polynesian triangle, Chile): world heritage site and one of the most isolated inhabited islands in history

Easter Island is one of the world's most isolated inhabited islands. It is 3,600 km (2,237 miles) west of continental Chile and 2,075 km (1,290 miles) east of Pitcairn. Nowdays, it is a Chilean-governed island, and is a world heritage site with much of the island protected by the Rapa Nui National Park.

First settled by a small party of Polynesians, Easter Island is one of the youngest inhabited territories on Earth, and for most of its history it was the most isolated inhabited territory on Earth. Its inhabitants the Rapanui have endured famines, epidemics, civil war, slave raids and colonialism; have seen their population crash on more than one occasion, and created a cultural legacy that has brought them fame out of all proportion to their numbers.

3. SEALAND (Principality): World's smallest island

The Principality of Sealand is an island and a micronation located on HM Fort Roughs, a former Maunsell Sea Fort located in the North Sea 10 km (six miles) off the coast of Suffolk, England, in what is claimed as territorial waters using a twelve-nautical-mile radius.

Since 1967, the installation has been occupied by associates and family of Paddy Roy Bates, a former radio broadcaster and former British Army Major, who claims that it is a sovereign and independent state. Critics, as well as court rulings in the United States and in Germany, have claimed that Roughs Tower has always remained the property of the United Kingdom, a view that is disputed by the Bates family. The population of the facility rarely exceeds ten, and its habitable area is 550 m2 (5920 sq ft).
Sealand's claims to sovereignty and legitimacy are not recognised by any country, yet it is sometimes cited in debates as an interesting case study of how various principles of international law can be applied to a territorial dispute.

2. SURTSEY (Iceland): The emerging island

Off the coast of Iceland on the morning of 14 November 1963, the crew of a lone fishing trawler spotted an alarming sight. Off to the southwest of the Ísleifur II, a column of dark smoke was rising from the water. Concerned that it could be another boat on fire, the captain directed his vessel towards the scene. Once there, however, they found not a boat but a series of violent explosions producing ash. This was an unmistakable indication of a volcanic eruption taking place underwater, close to the surface. Very aware of the potential danger but eager to watch, the crew kept their boat nearby. It was indeed a remarkable event that they would witness a small part of over the course of that morning: the formation of a brand-new island.

Although now quite visible, the eruption lasted for much, much longer than the Ísleifur II would have been able to watch. After several days, the volcano had broken the water's surface, forming an island over 500 meters long and 45 meters tall. Even though the rough tides of the North Atlantic might have soon eroded the new island away, it was named Surtsey, meaning 'Surtur's island' - Surtur (or Surtr) being a fire giant of Norse mythology. The island proved to be tenacious, however. The eruption was ongoing and Surtsey increased in size more quickly than the ocean could wear it down. In the meantime two other nearby volcanic eruptions produced the beginnings of islands, but neither lasted very long. By April 1964, though, the most violent parts of the eruption were over and Surtsey remained.

1. GUNKANJIMA (Japan): the Ghost (and forbidden) Island

Gunkanjima is one among 505 uninhabited islands in the Nagasaki Prefecture about 15 kilometers from Nagasaki itself. The island was populated from 1887 to 1974 as a coal mining facility. The island's most notable features are the abandoned concrete buildings and the sea wall surrounding it. It is known for its coal mines and their operation during the industrialization of Japan. Mitsubishi bought the island in 1890 and began the project, the aim of which was retrieving coal from the bottom of the sea. They built Japan's first large concrete building, a block of apartments in 1916 to accommodate their burgeoning ranks of workers, and to protect against typhoon destruction.
In 1959, its population density was 835 people per hectare for the whole island, or 1,391 per hectare for the residential district, one of the highest population density ever recorded worldwide. As petroleum replaced coal in Japan in the 1960s, coal mines began shutting down all over the country, and Hashima's mines were no exception. Mitsubishi officially announced the closing of the mine in 1974, and today it is empty and bare, which is why it's called the Ghost Island. Travel to Hashima is currently prohibited.

Now Kareena Kapoor promotes 'size zero' laptops

2009-11-04T04:34:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS) After promoting her size zero figure in India, actress Kareena Kapoor has chosen to endorse Sony's newly launched half-inch thin notebook VAIO X because the product goes well with her looks - 'thin and lightweight', the actress said Tuesday.

'The whole size zero thing in India has more to do with people being slim and lightweight. And I am slim and lightweight. And so is this laptop. I think this new laptop is very chic and sexy and people also often associate me with these qualities,' Kareena told reporters at a press conference here.

As part of the tie up, the actress will be a part of the brand campaign including TV commercials and print advertising.

The 29-year-old, who is awaiting the release of her film 'Kurbaan', says she feels

'privileged' to be associated with the company.

'I believe in Sony products and I am privileged that they have signed me. They believe in cutting edge technology and innovate a lot and I am glad to be their ambassador since I associate myself with quality,' added Kareena, who was hoping that the company spokesperson would gift her a VAIO X laptop.

Kareena says though she isn't very tech-savvy, she uses the Internet quite regularly.

'I use the Internet often and since I am a frequent traveller and I'm out of the country most of the time, I like to be connected through a laptop,' she said.

The new Sony VAIO X is 655 grams and has an 11.1 inch screen display. The range starts from Rs.64,990 and will be available at Sony Centre stores and retail partners across the country.

Johnson & Johnson to cut 8,000 jobs

2009-11-04T04:33:00.001-08:00

New York, Nov 4 (DPA) US consumer goods and pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday it would cut around 8,000 jobs in a bid to trim costs in the wake of the recession.

The lay-offs amount to some 6 percent to 7 percent of the company's employees.

They are designed to save some $1.7 billion by 2011, the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company said. One-time costs of up to $1.3 billion will fall in the current quarter.

Obama's brother emerges in China with novel

2009-11-04T04:32:00.001-08:00

Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo, a half-brother of U.S. President Barack Obama, introduces his first novel...

U.S. President Barack Obama's half-brother made a rare appearance on Wednesday in southern China, his home for seven years, to launch a novel he says draws on his painful childhood under an abusive father.

Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo -- who had the same, late, father as the U.S. President -- has kept a low public profile since reports surfaced last year that he was living and working in the southern Chinese capitalist and manufacturing haven of Shenzhen, around an hour's train ride from Hong Kong.

After repeatedly shunning media attention, Ndesandjo's first major public appearance to launch his debut novel comes less than two weeks before the U.S. president travels to China for the first time.

While he said his work, "Nairobi to Shenzhen" is a fictional account, it started off nearly 10 years ago as an autobiography and "reflects many experiences in my own life as a child brought up in Kenya" including a troubled relationship with his father.

"My mother used to say of my father, he's a brilliant man but a social failure," Ndesandjo told reporters at a press conference in Guangzhou, near his adopted city of Shenzhen.

"I remember times in my house when I would hear screams and I would hear my mother's pain." His American mother Ruth was his father's third wife.

"My skin had turned hard emotionally for so many years because of what I'd seen my mother go through," said Ndesandjo, who is slim and bears an appearance similar to the president.

Ndesandjo's book details how the protagonist, David, made an improbable journey to China in 2001 just after the September 11th attacks, inspired by his "growing love for a beautiful Chinese woman and a young orphan", and reflects Ndesandjo's own marriage to a young Chinese woman and his charitable work for Chinese orphans.

He was less forthright about his relationship with his famous brother, however, saying that they are in touch and an upcoming autobiography, for which he still hasn't found a publisher, would give a fuller account of their family background and ties.

"We're family, I love my family," said the crew-cut Ndesandjo, who wore a burgundy bandana and professes a love for the piano, Chinese calligraphy and classic works of Chinese literature.

"I was so proud of my brother Barack," he said of his sibling's becoming the first African-American U.S. president.

At a news conference in which he would only take five written questions drawn from a box, he avoided any mention of politics or U.S.-China relations but said Americans could learn from China's culture and deep-rooted family ties.

"China is about family ... there is a tremendous, wonderful sense of family here."

Ndesandjo gave a sense of his personality quirks and a latent flamboyant streak during the conference. He sprinkled his answers with references to Tolstoy and the Chinese literary classic "A Dream of the Red Mansion", also speaking of passion for music as a "universal language".

Reporters shown a video of a piano performance by the diamond-earring wearing Ndesandjo, in which he tickled the ivories for a catchy tune "Viper's Drag" by Fats Waller.

The book, whose cover depicts a dead tree against a red background, will donate 15 percent of its proceeds to charity.

"I wanted to be known as a writer, not for my relationship to the President," said Ndesandjo, who speaks with an American lilt.

25 Jet Airways foreign pilots on their way out?

2009-11-04T04:31:00.001-08:00

Mumbai, Nov. 4 -- On Tuesday, Jet Airways decided not to renew the contracts of 25 foreign pilots as part of its ongoing policy to phase-out expatriate pilots.

Also, around 100 trainee pilots with Kingfisher Airline claimed on Tuesday that Kingfisher had asked them to go on unpaid leave or resign. "It is a threat to out survival," said an affected trainee pilot, who requested anonymity.

Having joined Kingfisher two years ago, the trainee pilot claimed that he was grounded last October. "The airline paid us Rs 20,000 every month to sit at home.

Now that will also stop," he added. He alleged that Kingfisher had called them for a meeting on Wednesday but subsequently cancelled it.

Kingfisher Airlines, however, denied the claim. "There has been no official communication with trainee pilots on this issue," said Prakash Mirpuri, airline spokesperson.

Earlier this year, the Vijay Mallya-owned airline had decided to cut down pilot's salaries by 20 per cent. A Jet spokesperson, meanwhile, justified the non-renewal of contracts of 25 expat pilots saying, "Based on current requirement for cockpit crew of our Boeing 777 fleet, we have offered some expat pilots the option of having a claim on employment while being furloughed until further notice, in case the company requires their services at a future date.

" Jet's phase out began last November when the airline sacked 35 expat pilots after Indian pilots complained discrimination leading to the formation of the Indian Aviators' Guild - a pilot union. This subsequently led to a weeklong mass 'sick leave' protest by senior pilots in September, which caused severe losses to the airline.

India should not allow Saeed to hijack bilateral ties: Pakistani envoy

2009-11-04T04:29:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) India should not allow one individual, Hafiz Saeed, to hold the entire bilateral relationship hostage, says Pakistan's envoy to India, making a strong pitch for the resumption of the composite dialogue, days ahead of a crucial meeting between Indian and Pakistani leaders.

Despite the growing exasperation in India over the 'tardy pace of investigations' against the Mumbai terror accused, the envoy insisted that Pakistan had taken 'concrete action' against 26/11 perpetrators and underlined that the democratic regime in Islamabad offered a 'historic opportunity' to India to make peace.

'Why should one individual be allowed to hold hostage the entire India-Pakistan relationship? Hafiz Saeed can't be the touchstone,' Pakistan High Commissioner in India Shahid Malik said in an interview to IANS.

'The Pakistan government has gone in appeal (against a Lahore court's decision to free Saeed). That process is continuing,' Malik said when asked about India making action against Saeed the touchstone of Islamabad's sincerity in addressing its concerns over cross-border terror.

'The law of the jungle does not operate in Pakistan. The due process of law has to take course,' he emphasised.

A Lahore court freed Saeed, the founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba-turned Jammat-ud-Dawa who is suspected by India to be the mastermind of the Mumbai carnage, citing lack of evidence against him.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna was quick to slam Saeed's release as 'regrettable' and underlined that the move has 'put under a cloud' Pakistan's 'seriousness' to bring the 26/11 perpetrators to book.

'We have made repeated offers to restart dialogue. How do you define concrete action? We feel we are taking these steps; we have started taking action against terror suspects,' Malik said, when asked about the constant refrain in India's response that Pakistan has yet to take concrete action against the butchers of 26/11 and the larger anti-India terror on the Pakistani soil.

'On Oct 10, we started the trial of the seven accused. That was a big step forward. That should have gone well in India. In addition, 13 persons have been declared proclaimed offenders. We have requested the Interpol to trace them.'

Days before the leaders of India and Pakistan meet in the Trinidadian capital Port of Spain on the sidelines of the Commonwealth summit in yet another bid to thaw the bilateral freeze, the envoy struck an optimistic note about the resumption of the composite dialogue process - including every conceivable subject from trade to Kashmir in its ambit - that stalled after the Mumbai terror spree in November last year.

'The vibes are positive. For an Indian prime minister to make such remarks on three consecutive days sends a very positive signal. We lost no time in welcoming them,' Malik said, alluding to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh extending 'the hand of friendship' to Pakistan during his visit to Jammu and Kashmir last week.

The next day, at a press conference in Srinagar, the prime minister reinforced his peace offer, saying there are 'no preconditions' for resuming dialogue, but linked such a prospect to Islamabad's action against terror. On Oct 30, Manmohan Singh repeated the same point.

'Things are on hold. What gives me reason for optimism is a desire at the highest level of political leadership to improve relations,' Malik said, while indicating that efforts were afoot to resume the dialogue between the two estranged countries.

'There should be no doubt in anybody's mind about Pakistan's commitment to peace with India,' he added.

He exhorted the Indian leadership to engage with the democratic regime in Pakistan that, he stressed, offered the 'best hope' for durable peace between the two countries.

'The democratic dispensation in Pakistan offers the best hope to taking the relationship forward with India. India should take advantage of it. It offers a historic opportunity for making peace with India.'

When asked about a rethink among some sections in India about the form of the composite dialogue, which they feel has not addressed its central concern about cross-border terror, the envoy said: 'Composite dialogue in its current form is the only way forward.

'Composite dialogue covers an entire gamut of India-Pakistan relations. This is the best way forward.'

Making a strong case for invigorating people-to-people relations, the envoy said: 'People-to-people contacts, sporting links and composite dialogue have to move in tandem. The overall improvement in atmospherics and the India-Pakistan relations has to be seen in a holistic manner. Dialogue is the only way forward.'

Alluding to a track II meeting of the so-called Neemrana group between the Indian side led by M.K. Rasgotra, former foreign secretary, and the Pakistani side led by Inam-ul Haq, a former foreign minister and former foreign secretary, last month, the envoy said such initiatives showed that the conversation between the two countries had not ceased despite the atmosphere of suspicion and hostility following the 26/11 attacks.

'Students from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) visited India recently. Women journalists from India visited Pakistan under the SAFMA initiative. They all show the desire of people for peace and dialogue,' the envoy said.

Unaware of resolution against Vande Matram: Chidambaram

2009-11-04T04:28:00.003-08:00

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) Home Minister P. Chidambaram Wednesday clarified that he was not aware that a resolution had been passed against the national song 'Vande Mataram' by Muslim clerics at a gathering at Deoband attended by him.

'The minister was at the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Hind conference at Deoband Nov 3 between 10 a.m. and 12 noon. No resolution was passed during that period. When he spoke, he was not aware of any resolution relating to Vande Mataram or women's reservation or cinema and television,' Chidambaram's personal secretary M.A. Siddique said in a statement.

'Besides, Chidambaram was reading from a prepared text and there was no occasion to depart from that text,' Siddique added.

The minister's comments followed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi's criticism of Chidambaram for not speaking against the 'Vande Mataram' resolution.

Among the 25 resolutions passed at the convention was one reiterating the clerics' opposition to reciting 'Vande Mataram' due to its religious overtones.

Judge recuses from hearing Ambani dispute

2009-11-04T04:28:00.001-08:00

In a dramatic turn in the Ambani brothers' gas dispute case, Justice R V Raveendran, a senior Supreme Court judge on Wednesday withdrew from the Bench hearing it saying his daughter is associated with a solicitors firm advising Mukesh Ambani group on other global projects.

A new Bench will be constituted tomorrow to hear the high-voltage case between Mukesh Amabani's RIL and Anil Ambani's RNRL relating to pricing of gas from K G Basin.

"I am recusing myself from hearing this matter since I came to know only yesterday that my daughter is associated with a solicitors firm which is advising the Mukesh Ambani group in other matters relating to projects of Global acquisitions," Raveendran said when the matter came up.

The judge said that he came to know that law firm AZB partners in Bangalore with which his daughter is associated since September 1 this year is advising the Mukesh group in other projects.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan adjourned the matter and decided to hear the matter afresh by constituting another bench tomorrow.

RNRL is seeking gas from RIL at rates 44 per cent lower than Government-approved price. RIL says it cannot honour the commitment made in the 2005 family agreement due to Government's pricing and gas policies.

Justice Ravendran said, "The issue is my daughter is associated with a firm which is advising one of the parties in another project and I would not like to hear the matter".

"My conscience is clear and I feel that justice should not only be done but seems to be done. That is the tradition of this court," he said.

"I am sorry that six days of valuable time of this court has been wasted," he said adding, "I wish that somebody should have brought to our notice earlier about my daughter's association with the firm."

Justice Raveendran, while recusing himself, said "till now only RIL was advancing the arguments and RNRL has not started. So it is not late to dissociate myself from hearing the matter."

Senior counsel Harish Salve and Ram Jethmalani appearing for Mukesh Ambani group RIL and Anil Ambani's RNRL respectively persuaded justice Raveendran to continue hearing the matter but he declined to do so.

Both the advocates told the Chief Justice if Justice Raveendran recuses himself, then he along with Justice P Sathasivam can continue hearing the matter.

However, the CJI said, "In the beginning I had said that this matter should be heard by a three judge bench.

The court which decided to hear the matter afresh by constituting a bench tomorrow said that RIL would complete its arguments by November 12.

When the hearing had started on October 20, Justice Raveendran had offered to withdraw from the Bench, saying he had equal shares of both RIL and RNRL but the lawyers had said he should continue hearing the case.

India allowed perpetrators of terror attack to escape: Army chief

2009-11-04T04:26:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) India had repeatedly allowed the perpetrators of terror attacks to get away, Indian Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor said Wednesday while stressing that the country could not 'afford a repeat of 26/11'.

'The US has not allowed a second 9/11, Indonesia has not allowed a second Bali,' Kapoor said, adding that India had allowed those behind the '2001 parliament attack, Delhi blasts and Mumbai terror attack' to get away.

'India cannot afford a repeat of 26/11,' the army chief said while addressing a seminar on Network Centricity and National Security organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here.

He also underscored the significance of network centricity for better intelligence gathering and sharing.

'There has to be speedy flow of intelligence and updated data for speedy decision based on the geographical location and a swift action by nearest security agencies,' said Kapoor.

Endorsing his view, Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju said considering the 'fragile internal security scenario', there had to be new centres to facilitate rapid action across the country and better coordination among intelligence agencies and security forces.

15 of the World's Largest Objects!

2009-11-03T23:02:00.001-08:00

Here are 15 of the worlds largest objects, from swimming pools to motorcycles to football tables!

World's Largest Book

The award for largest published book goes to an author and scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michael Hawley. The 133-pound book is five by seven feet, 112 pages, needs a gallon of ink for printing, and costs $2,000 to produce. Its title? “Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Kingdom.”
World’s Largest Motorcycle

Officially recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, Gregory Dunham, from California's Stockton, built the world's largest motorcycle. Greg spent three years in his workshop crafting this 11 feet tall, 20 feet long monster bike which is powered by a 8.2 litre (V8 engine and has tyres that are 1.88 m tall. The 6,500-pound motorcycle with a pricetag of $300,000 is totally rideable.
World's Largest Bottle of Wine

It’s a 490 liter Grande Cuvee TBA NV No.7 2005 of Austrian wine maker Kracher, presented in Rehetobel Switzerland. The bottle itself has been certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s largest bottle of wine, holding the equivalent to 640 regular bottles of wine.
World’s Largest Revolver

You’re looking at what probably is the largest revolver in the world: a replica of Remington model 1859, by Mr. Ryszard Tobys. It’s 1.26 meter (4.13 ft.) long.
World's Largest Pencil

This mother-of-all writing utensils weighs in at 21,500 lbs and stretches to 76 feet long and it’s a version of the classic No. 2. The huge pencil was built in New York by Ashrita Furman and many talented craftsmen.
World’s Largest Pinata

Breaking the Guinness Record for the world's largest pinata, according to an onsite Guinness adjudicator, this giant mock donkey measured 28.5 meters long; 7.2 meters wide and 18 meters tall and was filled with 8,000 pounds (3,628 kilograms) of candy. A wrecking ball was used to help smash the pinata during a public event, where Carnival Cruise Lines was producing a television commercial.
World's Largest Crossword

The Ukrainian city of Lvov has recently installed what might just be the world's largest crossword (in physical size). The puzzle covers the entire side of a residential tower block that's approximately 30 meters tall. During the day the crossword appears empty - with the answers lighting up at night. The questions for the puzzle are located in different point of interests of the city: monuments, theatres, fountains etc. so people walking around the city can try to solve the puzzle and write down their answers. When night comes they can meet at this house and check how they did.
World's Largest Easter Egg

In 2005, a Belgian city entered the Guinness Book of Records creating the Largest Easter Egg ever. The Belgian chocolate producer Guylian made the chocolate egg with at least 50,000 bars. The egg measured 8.32 metres high, beating the previous record made in Kwazulu-Natal, South-Africa in 1996. Twenty-six craftsman worked altogether 525 hours to build the egg. They used 1950 kg (4300 lb) of chocolates.
World's Largest Burger

Weighing in at 123 pounds, this giant burger features an 80-pound beef patty, a 30-pound bun, 12 tomatoes and 160 slices of cheese. Made at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub, Pennsylvania restaurant, they also throw on a pound each of lettuce, ketchup, mustard and mayo -- and up to five onions. The menu price for the Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger comes at $379.
World's Largest Swimming Pool

This swimming pool is more than 1,000 yards long, covers 20 acres, had a 115ft deep end and holds 66 million gallons of water. Acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest swimming pool, it took five years to build, cost nearly £1billion and the annual maintenance bill will be £2million.
The man-made saltwater lagoon has been attracting huge crowds to the San Alfonso del Mar resort at Algarrobo, on Chile's southern coast. The saltwater pool contains 250,000 cubic metres of water and is even navigable in small boats.
World's Largest Chair

This is not Photoshopped —it's an actual photograph of the world's largest chair, in the piazza of Manzano, Italy, a city of chair makers where it was created.
World's Largest Birthday Cake

Made in 1962 for the Seattle World's Fair, the world's largest birthday cake weighted 25,000 pounds and stood 23 feet tall. The ingredients list includes the 10,500 pounds of flour needed for the cake.

World's Largest Cheese

Dutch gourmet cheese maker Beemster made a record-breaking cheese wheel. The giant cheese measures 6 feet wide and weighs 1,323 pounds.
World’s Largest Beer Can

Not much information on what could very well be the World’s Largest Beer Can.
World's Largest Football Table

Here’s the largest table football game in the world. In fact, Table Football XXL is so huge, two entire soccer teams — 22 players — could face off with it, settling their challenges without ever setting foos on a real field. This monster was built by Amsterdam brewer Amstel, a stunt that coincided with the European Champions League Finals. If this wanted to buy this one, you’d need six flight cases just to ship it to you.

Most Popular News

2009-11-03T01:24:00.001-08:00

Most Popular Highlight

Michael Jackson film dances to No. 1 worldwide

Reuters Sun, Nov 1

Michael Jackson's much-hyped concert movie reigned at the worldwide box office on Sunday, but its performance in North America was hardly a thriller.

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Blast near Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, 24 killed Y! India News - Mon, Nov 2

A powerful blast occurred outside a hotel in a high-security area near the Pakistan Army's headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi today, killing at least 10 people and injuring several others.
Braveheart Rukhsana appointed SPO in J&K police PTI - Mon, Nov 2

Jammu, Nov 2 (PTI) Rukhsana Kausar, who shot into limelight by killing a Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist, has been appointed as special police officer (SPO) along with her brother and uncle in Jammu and Kashmir Police, a police officer said today.
Dhoni, Harbhajan give slip to police PTI - Mon, Nov 2

Chandigarh, Nov 2 (PTI) Indian cricket captain M S Dhoni and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh gave some anxious moments to the police here when they left the team hotel without informing them.
Michael Jackson film dances to No. 1 worldwide Reuters - Sun, Nov 1

Michael Jackson's much-hyped concert movie reigned at the worldwide box office on Sunday, but its performance in North America was hardly a thriller.
Three out of 11 oil tanks still ablaze at IOC depot in Jaipur ANI - Sun, Nov 1

Jaipur, Nov. 1 (ANI): Indian Oil Corporation on Sunday confirmed that three out of 11 petrol tanks are still blazing at the Sitapura oil storage depot near Jaipur, while the rest are spewing smoke.
Don't provoke us, Chidambaram warns Pakistan IANS - Sun, Nov 1

Madurai, Nov 1 (IANS) Home Minister P. Chidambaram has warned Pakistan 'not to play with India' by covertly sponsoring terrorists.
Tharoor concerned about misuse of Indian business visas IANS - Sat, Oct 31

Kolkata, Oct 31 (IANS) With the number of business visas issued by India to Chinese surging to over 58,000 last year, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor Saturday expressed concern over some visa holders misusing the visas to work in India.
Why are Indian families shrinking? HT - Sat, Oct 31

New Delhi, Oct. 31 - Why is 'The Great Indian Family' shrinking? As one of four siblings, fashion designer Anjana Bhargav can't remember a time when her house wasn't "full of people".
I was apprehensive to work with Chopra: Aamir PTI - Fri, Oct 30

Mumbai, Oct 30 (PTI) Actor-filmmaker Aamir Khan today said that he had apprehensions about working with producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra before signing '3 Idiots', which is set to release on December 25.
Narendra Modi down with swine flu IANS - Fri, Oct 30

Gandhinagar, Oct 30 (IANS) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is down with swine flu two days after returning from Russia, doctors at a hospital said Friday.

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UK TV show to claim all whites' are racist ANI - Thu, Oct 29

London, Oct. 29 (ANI): A new television show will tonight claim that all white people are racist.
An American schoolteacher and anti-race campaigner will conduct an experiment for Channel 4 to prove how prejudiced Britain is, reports the Daily Star.
China to launch case against U.S. Big Three automakers Reuters - Thu, Oct 29

China has told the United States it is launching a trade investigation that could lead to new import duties on autos and sports utility vehicles made by Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, a U.S. industry official said on Wednesday.
TIMELINE - Pakistan suffers bloodiest militant attack in 2 years Reuters - Wed, Oct 28

REUTERS - Pakistan suffered its worst militant attack in two years on Wednesday when a car bomb killed more than 80 people in a crowded market in the city of Peshawar.
How an Android phone can change your life? Y! India News - Wed, Oct 28

In the past few months several mobile devices have en mass taken to Google's mobile operating system and launched Android-enabled handsets. In this season of heavy activity around Android phones, comes the big announcement of the launch of version 2.
Nokia-Apple row may last more than 1 year Reuters - Wed, Oct 28

A legal battle between Apple Inc and Nokia Corp over patent infringement is likely to last for more than a year, said Bill Merritt, the head of mobile licensing firm InterDigital.
To hit India, Lashkar looked to US man IE - Wed, Oct 28

Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) planned to use a US national to carry out a major terrorist attack in India, US investigating authorities said on Tuesday.
CBI arrests Income Tax commissioner, wife in DA case PTI - Sun, Oct 25

Mumbai, Oct 25 (PTI) CBI today arrested an Income Tax commissioner from Nagpur and his wife for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to their known source of income to the tune of Rs four crore.
Indian student accuses Scottish university of racial discrimination ANI - Sat, Oct 24

Aberdeen (Scotland), Oct. 24 (ANI): An Indian student has accused Scotland's Aberdeen University of racial discrimination.
US army accepts first Sikh recruit IANS - Sat, Oct 24

Washington, Oct 24 (IANS) In a major step to end the exclusion of Sikhs, the US Army has accepted a Sikh recruit who had declined to either remove his 'dastaar' (turban) or cut his hair as a condition for joining the military.
Peshawar bleeds with 10 more injured in car bomb blast ANI - Fri, Oct 23

Peshawar, Oct.23 (ANI) At least 10 persons were injured in a powerful bomb blast that rocked Peshawar's Hayatabad area at noon on Friday.

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Nose jobs, botox becoming popular in India PTI - Sun, Nov 1

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Tharoor concerned about misuse of Indian business visas IANS - Sat, Oct 31

Kolkata, Oct 31 (IANS) With the number of business visas issued by India to Chinese surging to over 58,000 last year, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor Saturday expressed concern over some visa holders misusing the visas to work in India.
Harvard brand takes a hit in tough times - study Reuters - Sat, Oct 31

Tough economic times have hurt Harvard University's public standing in the media over the past nine months, while schools perceived as a safer educational investment have benefited, a research firm said.
Narendra Modi down with swine flu IANS - Fri, Oct 30

Gandhinagar, Oct 30 (IANS) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is down with swine flu two days after returning from Russia, doctors at a hospital said Friday.
Soon, switch from arts to science HT - Fri, Oct 30

Students may soon get to change streams when they go from school to college. The HRD Ministry is keen on a national testing scheme that would allow students to sit for national-level exams in subjects of their choice after Class 12, giving them a second chance to pursue their area of interest.
Travel Picks: Top 10 ghost towns around the world Reuters - Fri, Oct 30

Travellers seeking a quiet place need look no further than the numerous towns around the world that have been abandoned for one reason or another.
Indian Oil fire: Deora says no option but to let fuel burn IANS - Fri, Oct 30

Jaipur, Oct 30 (IANS) Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said there is no option but to let all the fuel burn at the Indian Oil Corp depot here where containers and tankers went up in flames Thursday evening and claimed over 10 lives and injuring over 150.
Garden city Bangalore? 50,000 trees cut, more to go IANS - Fri, Oct 30

Bangalore, Oct 30 (IANS) Garden city could soon become concrete city. Bangalore has lost around 50,000 trees in recent years to infrastructure development and nearly 300 more will soon go for the Metro rail project.
CAT is here, brace up Y! India News - Thu, Oct 29

If you are planning to bell the online CAT this year on November 28 to December 7, here are some tips that could help you max the test.
Blame genetics for people with bad driving skills ANI - Thu, Oct 29

Washington, Oct 29 (ANI): Next time you encounter a rash driver on road, don't go berserk and start abusing - rather blame their genes for the bad driving skills, says a new study.

Top 10 High Tech Luxury Beds

2009-11-02T05:14:00.001-08:00

Top 10 High Tech Luxury Beds

Multimedia beds have succeeded in turning more than a few heads in the past. No doubt, these high-tech luxury beds will ask you for some huge bucks in exchange for a blissful sleep, but can you really put a price tag on a good night’s sleep? Multimedia beds have evolved into one of the most important pieces of furniture in any home and are here to stay as people are getting increasingly personal and fussy about their choices. Here, I have compiled a list of Top 10 high-tech luxury beds for geeks, like me, who think that living through the day with all the assistance from the gadgets is not just enough. Check out the fabulous beds after the jump.

1. Magnetic floating bed

The magnetically levitating bed by Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars is an upshot of six long years research work. The bed faces gravitation with magnets and it can support up to 900 kilos and is supported by four steel cables. The scale model of the bed was presented at the Millionaire Fair in June 2006 and the floating bed is estimated to be priced around 115,000 Euros for the scale model and for complete model expect to lay down around 1.2 million Euros.

2. Starry Night Sleep Technology Bed

The Starry Night Sleep TechnologyBed from Leggett Platt is a spellbinding combination of Technology and bedding that makes use of diagnostic tools to moderate temperature, monitor body movements and alleviate snoring. At $50,000, it’s not just another run-of-the-mill luxury bed. It touts anti-snore Technology to reduce snoring in mild to moderate cases by elevating your upper body a few degrees. Its dual programmable temperature control from 68 to 117 degrees Fahrenheit adjusts the temperature to your liking. The Sleep Diagnostic Center monitors body movement and breathing pattern throughout the night. If you are the one who can’t live without music, the bed comes with an iPod docking station and 2500-watt surround sound system with four 8-inch subwoofers. Other salient specs include Internetconnectivit y, wireless RF remote that connects to a 1.5TB media server with four gigs of RAM, and a 1080p projector.

3. Hollandia Platinum-Luxe Elite sleep system

I bet you would never want to get out of the Hollandia Platinum-Luxe Elite sleep system. It boasts loads of other luxury options besides a retractable 32-inch Sony Bravia HDTV integrated into the bed’s footboard. The TV sits 80 inches from the headboard, slightly exceeding the normal 1:3 ratio of screen size to viewer distance, and the brightness dynamically adjusts to the ambient light, to reduce eye strain. The Elite is also equipped with a Sony Bravia theater system that includes a five DVD/CD changer, a five speaker surround sound system, a subwoofer beneath the bed for a complete hi-end experience, and an iPod docking station. Last but not the least; the bed gently adjusts to a comfortable reclining position. And, the the most useful feature is the integrated massage system that features four powerful motors with a micro-computer that provides 12 individual massage programs, and a 30-minute automatic shutdown. It also has a 13-inch retractable back-sliding system and Hollandia’s telescopic head support. All the features are beautifully engineered into the bed, there are no unsightly wires visible in the room. The bed looks gorgeous design-wise too. The base is covered in Italian-designed fabric, which is a new, 100 percent synthetic fiber that protects the frame from pets. The Elite is available in white or gray to complement any bedroom decor.

4. Multimedia Bed with RUF Cinema

This magnificent multimedia bed looks like it is specially designed for a Hollywood movie. The bed has a home cinema rack fitted between the two-upholstered headboard bolsters with enough space for DVD player and game consoles. The RUF Cinema’s foot section has an aluminum cover that conceals the screen which can be easily assembled using the radio remote control. So, all it needs to make the screen stand-up and hide-out is a button on the remote control. Moreover, the padding on the headboards can be easily adjusted to suit your comfort.

5. Gravity Zero Groove bed

Hollandia International is quite known for producing extraordinary line of luxury sleep systems, mattresses, daybeds and bedding. The Gravity Zero Groove sleep system from the company comes with a 150-watt sound system to get your groove on. The two powerful sleep system motors and two massage systems with 12 massage programs make sure you never feel exhausted in the bed. The rhythmic lines and hip styling of this unique bed and mattress touts four-joint adjustability, back-sliding system, and a flexible shoulder comfort zone. The mattress is actually made from ventilated Talalay latex, which offers full comfort and support. No doubt, the Gravity Zero Groove sleep system will ask you for some huge bucks in exchange for a musical, blissful sleep.

6. Ultimate TV bed

Another cool entry onto the list is the Ultimate TV bed, the super-luxury bed with a single press of the wireless remote. The end of the bed opens silently to glide out a 22-inch flatscreen TV. The bed is delivered with in-built, electronic leveling. The price-tag is a complete knock-out for $32,375.

7. Histoire Do Be swivel bed

The Histoire Do Be is a rotating swivel bed run by remote control from Mobelform. The bed comes with built-in cabinetry with TV stand and orthopedic mattress. The bed is available in different color, sizes and wooden assortments. So folks! Give your bed-room a nice make-over with this gorgeous looking round-shaped remote-control bed.

8. Gustarle TV Bed

The Gustarle TV-Bed comes complete with Samsung flatscreen LCD TV with built in DVD player. This impressive waterbed comes with the latest top of the range Samsung 26-inch LCD TV and the Sony high definition DVD player. Several wood finishes are available for the bed, headboard and footboard, together with a superb choice of real leather fabrics for the inset panels on the headboard and each side of the footboard. This gorgeous TV Bed is also available with Visco Elastic memory foam mattress upon request. Available in various sizes, the 200cm model will set you back £6,950 (US $13,577).

9. Indestructible Bed

The Quantum Sleeper Unit is a high-level security system designed for maximum protection in various hostile environments. The high-tech bed folds up into a fire-resistant coffin-like box to keep you safe from any uneventful event. The bed is fitted with a high-level security system that protects you from destructive forces of nature, bio-chemical terrorist attack and kidnappers. Besides, the bed is not just about protection, it is also the ultimate in entertainment and communications as it also comes with a built-in CD player, DVD Screen with PC hookup, microwave and refrigerator along with cellular phones and radios to keep you connected to the outside world! The bed is designed to enable the person(s) inside the unit to see out and prevent those outside from seeing in. The bed, though not in production, costs an estimated $135,000.

10. Sonic Bed by Kaffe Matthews

Behold the big bed! The Sonic bed is a gigantic bed with 12-channel surround sound. It may resemble a wooden tank from the outside, but it touts enough speakers inside to make a perfect home theater set up. Designed by Kaffe Matthews as a museum exhibit, the bed runs on 220 volts of electricity and covers every inch of your body in sound. All you need to do is hook up a TV and you will never feel like leaving your bed.

5 days and still burning

2009-11-01T22:10:00.001-08:00

IOC estimates its losses are worth Rs 300 cr till now and officials say it'll take them at least 15-18 months to rebuild the facility.

Jaipur, Nov. 1 (ANI): Indian Oil Corporation on Sunday confirmed that three out of 11 petrol tanks are still blazing at the Sitapura oil storage depot near Jaipur, while the rest are spewing smoke.

"A factory adjacent to IOC factory caught fire; some bitumen fell on the top floor and it caught fire due to high temperature. After that police and fire fighting personnel had come to the site the fire is not now controlled. The digging of the trench is almost complete. Fire is still raging in three tanks. There are total 11 tanks in which 8 tanks it is mostly smoke," Kuldeep Ranka, Collector of Jaipur.

Earlier in the day, two more bodies were spotted at the burning Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) fuel depot near Jaipur, pushing the toll to ten.

"The unidentified charred bodies were noticed in the wee hours of the day near one of the blazing tanks, but was not possible to reach there because of the heat," said Inspector General of Police, B.L.Soni.

So far, nearly five lakh residents in the radius of five-kilometer area around the fire spot have been moved to safer locations after it was declared "danger zone".

Among those who were evacuated were all the patients, doctors and staff of a government hospital and engineering and medical students of 10 hostels.

According to IOC sources, a total loss of 300 crores has been estimated.

The IOC also said that it would take al least 15-18 months to rebuild the facility in Jaipur.

Earlier Petroleum Minister, Murli Deora had ordered a probe to ascertain the cause of fire. (ANI)

Over half of Mumbaikars are migrants, Uttar Pradesh tops list

2009-11-01T21:07:00.001-08:00

Mumbai, Oct 30 (IANS) Over 50 percent of those ,living in Mumbai are migrants, the largest numbers coming from Uttar Pradesh, a report released by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) Friday said.

The report says that between 1991-2001, Mumbai's population increased by 43.7 percent, all because of migration from all over India.

The 200-page 'Human Development Report' has analysed in detail the issues of poverty, education, health, sanitation, gender and other problems. It also confirmed that 50 percent of the city's population lives in slums.

The report, said to be the first for any city in India, has been compiled by a steering committee headed by Ratnakar Mahajan.

The study says a whopping 24.30 percent of the migrants are from Uttar Pradesh, followed by Gujaratis, who account for 9.6 percent.

Between 1961 and 2001, the increase in Mumbai's population was attributed largely to the influx of people from north Indian states, but migration of people from the southern states declined in the same period, the report said.

The report also noted that the migrants have contributed to the city's economy and development on a large scale.

'They are generally employed at works where there is no need for skilled labour, for which there is a large demand, thus indirectly contributing to the city's economy,' the report said.

'Migration is becoming major cause of concern taking into consideration the limited availability of resources to accommodate them. But there is no solution to curb the influx, at least in the near future,' it said.

The report observed that influx cannot be controlled as stopping migrants would be a violation of the provisions of the Indian Constitution.

Besides Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, the other large chunks of migrants come from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

It is worth noting that in the 1960s, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had initiated the campaign against the so-called 'outsiders,' specifically targeting Gujaratis and south Indians.

Nearly five decades later, his nephew Raj Thackeray, president of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), also launched a tirade in favour of sons-of-the-soil whose jobs were allegedly being taken away due to influx of people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Three out of 11 oil tanks still ablaze at IOC depot in Jaipur

2009-11-01T21:04:00.001-08:00

Jaipur, Nov. 1 (ANI): Indian Oil Corporation on Sunday confirmed that three out of 11 petrol tanks are still blazing at the Sitapura oil storage depot near Jaipur, while the rest are spewing smoke.

Earlier in the day, two more bodies were spotted at the burning Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) fuel depot near Jaipur, pushing the toll to ten.

So far, nearly five lakh residents in the radius of five-kilometer area around the fire spot have been moved to safer locations after it was declared "danger zone".

Among those who were evacuated were all the patients, doctors and staff of a government hospital and engineering and medical students of 10 hostels.

According to IOC sources, a total loss of 300 crores has been estimated.

The IOC also said that it would take al least 15-18 months to rebuild the facility in Jaipur.

Earlier Petroleum Minister, Murli Deora had ordered a probe to ascertain the cause of fire. (ANI)

Indian Oil: 1.4-1.5 bln rupees products burnt in fire

2009-10-30T22:47:00.001-07:00

Photo: Indian Oil: 1.4-1.5 bln rupees products burnt in fire

Friday October 30, 03:20 PM

Smoke and flames billow from Indian Oil Corporation's fuel depot in Sitapura industrial area, on the outskirts of Jaipur October 30, 2009. A huge fire broke out at an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) fuel depot on Thursday, killing five and injuring 150 people, the Press Trust of India reported. REUTERS/Stringer

Jaipur fire: Rs 500 crore goes up in flames

TNN

As Rs 500 crore worth of fuel burned through the second day of the Jaipur inferno, there were two questions no one had answered satisfactorily. How did it happen? And how many had died?

12 killed in Jaipur IOC depot fire, Army called

JAIPUR & NEW DELHI: A devastating fire swept through an Indian Oil fuel storage and distribution terminal on the outskirts of Jaipur on

Flames engulf a major oil depot in Jaipur. The blaze at the Indian Oil Corp facility in the desert state of Rajasthan swiftly spread out of control killing at least 12 people and injuring scores more, officials and emergency workers said. (AFP Photo)

Thursday, killing at least a dozen people and injuring more than 100. The toll is likely to go up as the blaze is still raging. At the time of going to press, all 12 tankers at the terminal were aflame.
Preliminary reports said the fire broke out after a pipeline valve failed when petrol was being transferred from the IoC terminal to Bharat Petroleum's storage nearby. D C Daga, director marketing of IoC, said the fire began with a leak in one of the tankers.
The Met department recorded a tremor measuring 2.3 on the Richter scale around the time the first explosion was heard at 7.36pm. Such was the impact of the explosions that windows of houses even 3km away were damaged. The capacity of the terminal is 80 lakh litres of fuel.
There were at least 40 IoC employees at the terminal, which is close to the Sanganer airport, and it isn't known how many of them have managed to escape. About 300 tourists from nearby Chowkidhani resorts were evacuated. Electricity lines in surrounding areas have snapped. Students living in nearby hostels have been taken to safer places.
All 31 fire tenders in Jaipur have been rushed to the spot and an expert from Mumbai has been contacted to fly down and help douse the fire. The terminal gets its supplies from IoC's Mathura refinery through pipeline and feeds part of the Rajasthan market.
The massive spillage of highly inflammable petrol being pumped at high pressure has resulted in heavy destruction. A team of IoC officials has rushed to Jaipur. Petroleum minister Murli Deora is expected to reach the spot on Friday morning. IoC officials said oil supply in the state would not be affected, and that another terminal at Jodhpur would be pressed into service.

Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

2009-10-30T22:32:00.001-07:00

Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

Throughout history, humans have always been prone to accidents. Our aim is to list the top 10 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars.

This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involve casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms. Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.

#10. Titanic

$150 Million

The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today's dollars).

#9. Tanker Truck vs Bridge

$358 Million

On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany. The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.

#8. MetroLink Crash

$500 Million

On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles. It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in losses for Metrolink.

#7. B-2 Bomber Crash

$1.4 Billion

Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we're only #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety.

#6. Exxon Valdez

$2.5 Billion

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world's biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.

#5. Piper Alpha Oil Rig

$3.4 Billion

The world's worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world's single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000 barrels of oil per day. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, the technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PM that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world's most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion.

Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.

#4. Challenger Explosion

$5.5 Billion

The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today's dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today's dollars).

#3. Prestige Oil Spill

$12 Billion

On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually took its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea.

According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 billion.

#2. Space Shuttle Columbia

$13 Billion

The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of the wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today's dollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 million.

In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

#1. Chernobyl

$200 Billion

On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl, including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. The total costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.

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Jaipur oil blaze rages on

2009-10-30T02:13:00.000-07:00

TODAY - 30 October, 2009

'Let all the fuel burn'

The Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said there was no other option but to let the blaze continue at Jaipur's IOC fuel depot.

Jaipur, Oct 30 (IANS) Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said there is no option but to let all the fuel burn at the Indian Oil Corp depot here where containers and tankers went up in flames Thursday evening and claimed over 10 lives and injuring over 150.

'This is unprecedented in India,' said Deora, who arrived early morning to take stock of the situation, even as experts were brought in both from the Mathura refinery of Indian Oil and the Bombay High oil wells, off the Mumbai shore.

'We will have to let all the fuel burn. Only then will experts be able to go anywhere near the site,' Deora told reporters here after a visit to the site with senior officials of the state-run company. 'We expect the fuel to burn out by evening.'

He said he will also order an inquiry into the matter but after due consultations with Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. The extent of damage was also being ascertained, he added.

The oil minister said the cause of fire was being ascertained but some eyewitnesses said the fire broke out after gas leaked from one of the tanks, which also caused a loud explosion. The flames could be seen from a distance of over 15 km.

The company has 11 huge tanks and all of them were seen burning. Around 25 fire tenders were pressed into service.

'The incident occurred at around 7.15 p.m. and we immediately pressed ambulances and fire tenders into service,' a district administration official told IANS, adding. 'As a precautionary measure we have evacuated the nearby villages.'

The injured have been admitted to the government-run SMS Hospital and the nearby Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, he said.

'I work in a factory very near the area. As soon as the fire broke out, we rushed out of our factory. We also heard a couple of loud explosions,' Ramkumar, a worker in a small factory, said.

Amit Agarwal, a student of a private engineering college around 2 km away from the site, said the glass panes of his building were shattered due to the explosions.