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Category Archives: Interesting & Surprising
Tallest Soldier of Pakistan Army
Tallest Soldier of Pakistan Army
World’s Longest Cat Dies in Nevada
World’s longest cat dies in Nevada
RENO: Stewie the Cat, the longest domestic cat in the world at more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) long from nose to tail, has died.
Stewie was surrounded by family when he succumbed to a yearlong battle with cancer Monday evening at his Reno home, owner Robin Hendrickson said Tuesday. He was 8.
Guinness World Records declared Stewie the record-holder in August 2010, measuring 48.5 inches (1.23 meters) from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail.
Hundreds of fans flooded Stewie’s Facebook site with memories and condolences Tuesday. The Maine Coon cat was a certified therapy animal that frequently visited a Reno senior center and helped promote animal welfare awareness with the Nevada Humane Society.
‘Stewie was always very social and loved meeting new people,’ Hendrickson said. ‘He has touched many lives, and for that I am grateful.;’
Stewie’s full name was Mymains Stewart Gilligan. Hendrickson bought him from a breeder in Hermiston, Oregon, in 2005. Last month, he attended the International Cat Show in Portland, Oregon.
‘He did really well at the show, even though he wasn’t feeling totally perfect,’ said Valerie Horton, the show’s entry clerk.
‘He loved being there because he loved the public. He always did.’
Officials for Guinness World Records did not immediately respond to inquiries about a successor to Stewie’s record. The previous record-holder, Leo, a 48-inch (1.21-meter)-long Maine Coon owned by Frieda Ireland of Chicago, died several years ago.
Stewie was diagnosed in early 2012 with Lymphosarcoma, a malignant disease of the lymphoid tissues. He responded successfully to chemotherapy and was declared cancer-free, but the remission period was brief and a vet recently found another, more aggressive tumor on his kidneys, Hendrickson said.
‘I knew that although we could fight it, the end was near and so I wanted to simply make him comfortable and let him enjoy the time he did have,’ she said.
Rainbow Book : Artist Creates Rainbow Book Of 3,632 Pages
Rainbow Book : Artist Creates Rainbow Book Of 3,632 Pages
Artist Creates Rainbow Book Of 3,632 Pages, To Illustrate RGB Color Scheme
US-based artist Tauba Auerbach created a 8x8x8-inch hard cover book that illustrates the RGB color scheme page-by-page.
Titled ‘RGB Colorspace Atlas’, the 3,632-page case-bound book has digital offset printed pages, and an airbrushed cloth cover and page edges.
GOOGLE AMAZING OFFICE DATA CENTER PICS
GOOGLE AMAZING OFFICE DATA CENTER PICS, live view of Google data center secret buildings: click here
‘Very few people have stepped inside Google’s data centers, and for good reason: our first priority is the privacy and security of your data, and we go to great lengths to protect it, keeping our sites under close guard,’ the firm said.
‘While we’ve shared many of our designs and best practices, and we’ve been publishing our efficiency data since 2008, only a small set of employees have access to the server floor itself.
‘Today, for the first time, you can see inside our data centers and pay them a virtual visit.
‘On Where the Internet lives, our new site featuring beautiful photographs by Connie Zhou, you’ll get a never-before-seen look at the technology, the people and the places that keep Google running.
Amazing Facts: Famous Personalities of the World in Their Past.
Amazing Facts: Famous Personalities of the World in Their Past.
Decorated Lip Art New Trends & Styles
Most Expensive Pencil Made of 24K Gold
Even though the price of gold is the highest ever Korean designer, Dausing Kim, has mad a golden pencil, made of 99% of 24k gold. This hand – crafted pencil becomes more a piece of art than a writing device.
Would a normal, ordinary man spend his money on this pencil? And, I’m wondering, how would he sharpen it?
China To Build Tallest Building ‘In 90 Days’
China To Build Tallest Building ‘In 90 Days’
When completed by the end of next March, Sky City in Changsha will be the tallest skyscraper in the world, standing at 2,749ft (838m) high, over 220 floors. And remarkably, they’ve not started building it yet.
It took Dubai more than five years to build the world’s tallest building, the 828mBurj Khalifa, but architects and engineers at Broad Sustainable Building (BSB), a unit of the air conditioning maker Broad Group, are confident they can beat that record.
Critics have pointed out that BSB’s construction company has never built anything taller than 30 storeys before, but the builders seem unworried.
BSB senior vice-president Juliet Jiang told Construction Week Online that the company’s plan to construct the skyscraper “will go on as planned with the completion of five storeys a day.”
Designed by engineers who worked on the Burj Khalifa, Sky City will achieve the target by assembling BSB’s 95 per cent prefabricated modular technology at a breakneck construction pace. Nine of the world’s newest tallest 20 buildings are being built in China.
Adrian Smith, the Chicago-based designer of the Burj Khalifa who is working on the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, said at a meeting of the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in Shanghai last month that rapid urbanisation in China would fuel major expansion in tall buildings.
“There are 179,000 people moving into urban areas every week. Do they go into a horizontal or a vertical city? It’s a question of economics,” said Mr Smith. BSB, currently responsible for 20 modular structures in China, demonstrated the construction method to a wider audience in January, when it constructed a 30-storey hotel in 15 days.
Foundation work is due to start at the end of the month, once local authorities approve the project. The slowing economy in China has led to some skyscraper plans being shelved, but the economy is still expanding at rates unheard of in the West. In China there is still considerable interest in building skyscrapers that show the rest of the world that your city or your company has truly arrived.
Changsha is probably best known as the hometown of Chairman Mao Zedong. Sky City’s projected cost is four billion yuan (£400m). Builders will use 220,000 tons of steel, and the structure will be able to house 31,400 people.
The company says the residential area will use 83 per cent of the building, while the rest will be offices, schools, hospitals, shops and restaurants. People will travel up and down using 104 high-speed elevators.
Sky City will consume a fifth of the energy required by a conventional building due to what BSB says is its unique construction methods, such as quadruple glazing and 15cm-thick exterior walls for thermal insulation.When it is finished it will be taller than the Shanghai Tower, which was supposed to be China’s tallest building, at 632m, when completed in 2014.
There are 239 buildings taller than 200m being built in the country,. At the end of last year, there were only 61 buildings taller than 300m in the world, but in five years, China will have more than 60.via
750-Leg Millipede Sets World Record, Stuns Researchers With Complexity
750-Leg Millipede Sets World Record, Stuns Researchers With Complexity
A recent study has named the Illacme plenipes millipede the leggiest critter on Earth, with 750 legs packed onto its tiny 1-inch body.
Thought to be extinct until rediscovered just outside California’s Silicon Valley in 2005, this very rare, very leggy arthropod’s name literally translates to “the pinnacle of plentiful feet.” Millipedes possess the most legs of any animal group, with four legs to each body segment instead of two, enhancing their burrowing skills. The Illacme plenipes also has claws for climbing the requisite sandstone boulders in its native habitat and can spin silk. It has no eyes, relying on a pair of antennae for navigation, and no mouth, instead using a piercing and sucking apparatus to feed on vegetation.
Because these burrowing arthropods live deep underground, their legs have adapted to include claws. Marek and other researchers hypothesize that these talons may help Illacme plenipes cling to subterranean rocks.
Other surprising anatomical features include massive antennae (relative to the scale of its body), which the millipede uses to feel its way through the dark; a jagged and translucent exoskeleton; and body hairs that produce a sort of silk that may help Illacme plenipes adhere to the undersides of boulders. And unlike in other millipedes, the mouth of this species is specifically structured for piercing and sucking plant tissues.
LOVE LADDERS in CHINA – A TRUE LOVE STORY
LOVE LADDERS in CHINA – A TRUE LOVE STORY
A Chinese couple eloped and lived in a secluded cave for over 50 years.
An incredible love story has come out of China recently and managed to touch the world.
It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace for over half a century.
The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which has been the couple’s home for the last 50 years.
Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang a 19 year-old boy, fell in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin.
In a twist worthy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticized the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children.
At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities, the couple decided to elope and lived in a cave in Jiangjin County in Southern ChongQing Municipality.
In the beginning, life was harsh as hey had nothing, no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a kerosene lamp that they used to light up their lives.
Xu felt that she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him, ‘Are you regretful? Liu always replied, ‘As long as we are industrious, life will improve.’
In the second year of living in the mountain, Liu began and continued for over 50 years, to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily.
Half a century later in 2001, a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved steps. Liu MingSheng, one of their seven children said, ‘My parents loved each other so much, they have lived in seclusion for over 50 years and never been apart a single day. He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s convenience, although she doesn’t go down the mountain that much.’
The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until last week. Liu, now 72 years, returned from his daily farm work and collapsed.. Xu sat and prayed with her husband as he passed away in her arms. So in love with Xu, was Liu, that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife’s hand even after he had passed away.
‘You promised me you’ll take care of me, you’ll always be with me until the day I died, now you left before me, how am I going to live without you?’
Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband’s black coffin with tears rolling down her cheeks.
In 2006, their story became one of the top 10 love stories from China, collected by the Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladder and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever. via: snopes.com
In 1956, 20-year-old farmer Liu Guojiang fell in love with Xu Zhaoqing, a widow 10 years his senior, in Jiangjin county nearly 100 kilometers north of Southwest China’s Chongqing city. Their romance was considered taboo by locals, leading them to run away and settle on a 1,500-meter mountain.
Liu spent the next 50 years carving more than 6,000 steps into the mountain to make it easier for Xu to ascend and descend. Dubbed the “love ladder,” the stairway and Liu’s love for Xu was the subject of a movie last year. Xu died at the age of 87 on October 30, while Liu died in 2007 aged 72. The local government has since announced a 2.6-billion yuan ($416.31-million) project to convert the mountain into a scenic spot for tourists, which has caused debate online. via: globaltimes.cn
A DISTRICT government in Chongqing plans to invest 2.6 billion yuan (US$412.4 million) to develop a tourist attraction featuring the city’s well-known “love ladder” — more than 6,000 stairs cut into a cliff, a site seen as a testament to love between two locals.
About 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang met and fell in love with Xu Chaoqing, who was 10 years older than him. The two later got married and moved to a mountainous area at an elevation of 1,500 meters, to stay away from rumors surrounding them. Liu then started carving a ladder into the cliff to facilitate his wife’s daily climbs.
Xu died Oct. 30 at age 87, five years after the death of her husband. But their “love ladder” has lived on and is gaining an increasing profile in the country. Xu’s funeral was held yesterday and hundreds of people paid their last tribute to her.
According to development plans, rails will be built on the sides of the ladder and the home of the deceased pair will be kept unchanged. The pair’s relics will be collected and displayed at a planned venue.
The ladder is 96 kilometers from downtown Chongqing and the only road leading there is still under construction. The 16-kilometer road will connect the ladder with the town of Zhongshan.
The district has held an annual love-themed festival since 2008, trying to label the site as “a place worshipping love.” (Martin Li)
Duplicate of Egyptian Pyramids Build in Dubai
Duplicate of Egyptian Pyramids Build in Dubai
The Pyramid will comprise offices and a museum which will speak of UAE and the world civilization
The Pyramids of Egypt will be adorning the Dubai skyline in the next 30 months, if all goes well.
At the cost of Dh120-million, Falconcity of Wonders, the master developer, will be building an 11-storey -high Pyramid, which will house offices and a museum. It expects to complete the monument in 24 to 30 months after it receives clearance from the authorities.
“We are building a ‘small’ Pyramid and we are waiting to get the building permit from Dubai Municipality. The Pyramid will contain offices and a museum which will speak of the UAE and the world civilizations,” Salem Al Moosa, Chairman, Falconcity of Wonders, told ‘Emirates24|7’.
“It will be a good educational aid to our generations. Once ready, we will have special buses to bring students who can understand about
their country and the other civilizations.”
Although the mega project was hit by financial crisis with regards to sub-developers not commencing their projects, Falconcity, Al Moosa said, kept working on developing the infrastructure of the $12 billion Falconcity.
“We have been working all these times to get the infrastructure done the sewerage, potable water, irrigation water, piping, telephone lines, etc. By the way, we have also created an underground sewerage treatment plant that deals with 15,000 cubic metres of sewerage daily.”
Future Projects:
Falconcity is planning to have an Eiffel Tower, the Grand Pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Great Wall of China, the canals New York City and Town of Venice. via: emirates247.com
