Burj Khalifa

The US-headquartered architectural practice Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) has revealed the design for the Kingdom Tower, which is to be the world’s tallest building at 1 kilometre height.

It will be built in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The tower’s height will be at least 173 meters (568 feet) taller than the world’s current tallest building, Dubai’s 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

At over 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) and a total construction area of 530,000 square meters (5.7 million square feet), Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development on a 5.3 million-square-meter site in north Jeddah.
The developer, Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) selected the scheme after a lengthy competition process, which included SOM, Pickard Chilton, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pelli Clarke Pelli and Foster+Partners.

Design development of the tower is under way, with construction to begin imminently, said a statement from AS+GG. Foundation drawings are complete while the piling is currently being tendered. Kingdom Tower will cost approximately $1.2 billion to construct, while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be $20 billion.

AS+GG’s design is both highly technological and distinctly organic, said the practice.


“With its slender, subtly asymmetrical massing, the tower evokes a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground—a burst of new life that heralds more growth all around it,” said Smith in a statement. The sleek, streamlined form of the tower was inspired by the folded fronds of young desert plant growth. “The way the fronds sprout upward from the ground as a single form, then start separating from each other at the top, is an analogy of new growth fused with technology," added Gordon Gill.

In addition, each of the tower's three sides features a series of notches that create pockets of shadow that shield areas of the building from the sun and provide outdoor terraces with stunning views of Jeddah and the Red Sea. The complex will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of 10 meters per second in both directions.

AS+GG also designed the master plan for the 23-hectare Kingdom Tower Waterfront District, which surrounds the tower and which will include residential and commercial buildings, a shopping mall and other amenities. Kingdom Holding Company is a partner in Jeddah Economic Company along with Jeddah businessmen Samaual Bakhsh and Abdulrahman Hassan Sharbatly and Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). SBG is also the contractor for Kingdom Tower.
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Crop Circles

The prank-loving artists who create the giant, geometric crop circles around the world, which get more and more complex every year, don't give up their secrets, but that won't stop prank-loving physicists from trying to figure out how the circles are created.
First thought by many to have been created by aliens, pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley announced to the world in 1991 that they had been using ropes and planks of wood to stomp down crops since 1978.
But since that time, crop circles have gotten increasingly more complex, suggesting that more sophisticated tools are in use. According to a report in this month's issue of Physics World, crop circle creators may be turning to high-tech devices like GPS devices, lasers, and microwaves to create their intricate patterns.
The article was written by Richard Taylor, director of the Materials Science Institute at the University of Oregon, who calls crop circles "the most science-oriented art movement in history."
Taylor used mathematical analysis on crop circles to reveal patterns invisible to the naked eye. The construction lines, he says, are the key to creating the complex patterns. He says GPS systems may allow artists to be precise in their designs, while lasers help them keep their lines straight.
He also said that it appears crop circle artists are using a piece of a microwave oven known as a magnetron and a 12V battery, which causes corn stalks to bend and stay flat. This allows them to work quickly and get out before they are discovered.


The public may love crop circles, but farmers aren't fans. As the U.K.'s Daily Mailreports, "The price in ruined crops is particularly steep this year because of soaring fuel and fertilizer costs, and a 25 percent drop in wheat yields due to the drought."
Why would a physicist study crop circles? Matin Durrani, editor of Physics World, says Taylor is just being a good scientist, "examining the evidence for the design and construction of crop circles without getting carried away by the sideshow of UFOs, hoaxes and aliens."
Meanwhile, other theories abound. Like the one coming out of Australia that sayswallabies are getting stoned after eating opium poppies and wandering around in circles. The news came out in a parliamentary meeting about the security of poppy fields, since Australia grows 50% of the world's legal supply of Opium. "We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high," Tasmanian state attorney Lara Giddings said during the hearing.
Of course, crop circles could be the work of aliens. Since no one who creates them is talking, the answer is still a mystery.
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Belgian Malinois

Examiner.com reports that the witness is an employee of the training facility, and when Animal Control arrived on the scene, they found the Belgian Malinois in a small cage, acting timid when approached.
Matthews has denied the allegations, and according to the arrest affadavit, a veterinarian checked the dog and found no neurological or skeletal abnormalities. The Off Leash website writes that Matthews "served in the U.S. Army for six years and has been training police and working dogs since 2002."
Unfortunately these aren't the only dog cruelty allegations to make news recently.


Last month, a man in Montana was accused of killing over 50 dogs during a standoff with police, and earlier this year, a Colorado couple who owned a sled dog kennel faced felony charges when dozens of their dogs were found in poor condition.
The Belgian Malinois is one of four types of Belgian sheepherding dogs, according to the American Kennel Club. Some reports suggest that a Belgian Malinois was used during the SEAL team raid of Osama bin Laden's compound.
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Mehandi Designs For Hands

Mehandi Designs For Hands


























Mehandi Designs For Hands

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India Against Corruption

Gandhian Anna Hazare on Monday said police has not indicated whether or not he can hold a hunger strike against corruption at the Jantar Mantar here from Aug 16.
"We sent an application to the police commissioner seeking permission for the fast but have got no response. There has been no formal letter denying us permission, from anyone," Hazare told reporters here.
Hazare's team member and activist Arvind Kejriwal added: "Until now we have not got any rejection letter. They (police) asked for clarifications, we gave them. As of now we are going ahead with our fast."
Delhi Police Thursday said prohibitory orders banning any gathering of five or more people will be imposed in places of Delhi, including Jantar Mantar area, during the monsoon session of parliament that began Monday.
The curbs were Friday withdrawn from Jantar Mantar and India Gate areas.


"If they don't let us sit on fast, I will go to jail," Hazare said. "This is India's second struggle for freedom and I will fight against corruption till my last breath."
Dissatisfied with the government version of the anti-graft Lokpal bill, Hazare has decided to go on fast from Aug 16.
The anti-corruption crusader went on a 97-hour fast in April at Jantar Mantar demanding a strong anti-graft Lokpal bill.
He also sat on a one-day token fast June 8 at Rajghat, the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, to denounce the police crackdown on yoga guru Baba Ramdev's anti-corruption protest in June.
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Toddy Cat

Forest Department officials rescued a toddy cat from the Central Polytechnic College in Taramani on Monday.

A staff of the college, who spotted the cat, called up the officials, who reached the spot and seized the animal by its ears to avoid being bitten. The officials, after bringing the toddy cat, also known as the common palm civet, to their range office at Velachery, fed it with fruits after getting it treated at the Blue Cross. It is likely to be released in the forest soon.

“We got a call at 10 am from a staff of the college. We rescued the cat and brought it to our office. The cat could be two years old,” said Dr S David Raj, Forest Range Officer.

Forest officials said that the nocturnal greyish coloured mammal is highly adaptive and lives in thick forests, agricultural areas and gardens, and can even coexist with humans.

But it mostly lives in a place where fruit trees and fig trees grow.

“The cat sleeps in tree hollows during the day time and is active during the night, hunting for food. It is very defensive,” according to  David Raj.

The cat, besides eating fruits like chiku and mango, takes palm fruit sap that becomes toddy after fermentation. Hence it is named ‘toddy cat’. It also eats reptiles, eggs and insects, the officials said.



The toddy cat weighs approximately three kilograms and is 21-inches long, while its tail could more than half the size of its body.

The ‘toddy cat’ has black markings on its body, feet and ears, and claws that help it climb trees.
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Powder

Powder Dry
A couple of weeks ago, I took my nephew Jacob Barr with me to introduce him to black powder shooting. We set up some targets and got the muzzle loading musket out of its case. I explained each step to Jacob as we got ready to shoot. Pour the scoop of black powder down the barrel of the musket, then place the cloth patch under the lead musket ball and ram it snugly down the barrel with the wooden ramrod. Then you place the percussion cap on the nipple, cock the hammer, aim, squeeze the trigger and wait for the huge ‘Boom!’ and cloud of smoke. Both Jacob and I had on ear protectors to cushion our ears from the noise. Unfortunately, when the hammer fell, instead of a huge ‘Boom!’ of exploding powder, all we got was a wimpy ‘pop,’ sort of like a cap gun. For some reason, when the percussion cap ignited it failed to set off the main powder charge.

Embarrassed, I tried a second percussion cap, and got a wimpy ‘pop’ again. The third try got the same result. Now I had a loaded musket that wouldn’t fire. Great! We carefully put the musket back in its gun case and proceeded to do some plinking with a 22. It was fun, but not nearly as exciting as the roar of the musket and the cloud of smoke. After considerable thought, I finally figured out what went wrong. Periodically one or more of the ammunition manufacturers will market a fancy tin box with a hinged lid that’s filled with 22 ammo. After you’ve used the ammo, you still have a really cool decorated box to store stuff in. I thought to myself, “What a great storage box for black powder!” While it seemed like a good idea at the time, the box wasn’t airtight and the powder inside absorbed enough moisture from the humidity of the air to render the powder useless. Dang.

Upon arriving home I was faced with the problem of how to extract the 54 caliber musket ball from the musket barrel. I bought a special screw attachment that affixes to the end of your ramrod. Then you just screw the attachment into the musket ball and pull the ball out of the gun. Great idea, but it didn’t work. One of my buddies suggested removing the nipple with a wrench and blowing compressed air into the nipple hole to force the ball out the barrel. That didn’t work either. I consulted the guys at my friendly neighborhood gun shop and they suggested I disassemble the whole gun and then unscrew the barrel from the rest of the action. Another great idea until the steel barrel plug began to strip as I applied pressure with the wrench!

This was beginning to get frustrating. Back to the gun shop to seek more ideas. One of the customers at the shop suggested heating the gun barrel with a torch to expand the metal and free the breech plug. I figured heating a gun full of gunpowder and a musket ball might cause an explosion, so I rejected that idea. Finally, Old Larry suggested I soak the stuck barrel and breech plug with one of the penetrating oils like Liquid Wrench, for a week or 10 days so that it could really soak in and break the metal free. As we speak, the parts are soaking and hopefully I can salvage the gun. Otherwise I’ll just have to hang it on the wall as a reminder of why the Old Timers would regularly remind each other to “Keep Your Powder Dry”.

Yes, black powder shooting can be a lot of fun. It can remind us of our pioneer past and how lucky we are to have modern guns and ammo that will fire reliably under almost any conditions. It can remind us of how incredibly brave our ancestors were to face a charging Grizzly with a single shot black powder gun that may or may not shoot when you pulled the trigger. It can also remind me to never store my gunpowder in a container that’s not airtight. Henceforth I too will take great care to keep my powder dry.
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Anders Behring Breivik Latest News | Breivik Wiki | Norway Shooting Pictures

The killer behind Friday’s bloodletting in Norway is a boyishly handsome, blond-haired anti-Islamic nationalist interested in politics, violent video games and the T.V. show “Dexter”, NY Daily reports. Norwegian media report Anders Behring Breivik set up a Twitter account few days ago and posted, “One person with a belief is equal to 100,000 who have only interests.”

The 32-year-old Norwegian man Anders Behring Breivik was arrested on tiny Utoeya island outside Oslo, where police say he opened fire on teenagers. Despite the reports, Norwegian police would not confirm the identity of the suspect.

According to the Norwegian media report, Anders Behring Breivik expresses his sympathies for Winston Churchill, Geert Wilders and Norwegian anti-Nazi World War II hero Max Manus on his alleged Facebook profile. 
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Norway Shooting Pics, Anders Behring Breivik Pics

The killer behind Friday’s bloodletting in Norway is a boyishly handsome, blond-haired anti-Islamic nationalist interested in politics, violent video games and the T.V. show “Dexter”, NY Daily reports.

The 32-year-old Norwegian man Anders Behring Breivik was arrested on tiny Utoeya island outside Oslo, where police say he opened fire on teenagers. Despite the reports, Norwegian police would not confirm the identity of the suspect.



According to the Norwegian media report, Anders Behring Breivik expresses his sympathies for Winston Churchill, Geert Wilders[9] and Norwegian anti-Nazi World War II hero Max Manus on his alleged Facebook profile. Norwegian media report Anders Behring Breivik set up a Twitter account few days ago and posted, “One person with a belief is equal to 100,000 who have only interests.”
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