The World's Largest Building Opens in China, Complete With Fake Mediterranean Village

China is so good at creating big things from wind farms and rubber ducks to gigantic batteries. The newest super-sized project to spring up in the nation is the largest free standing building in the world the New Century Global Center. The latest super-building is 100 meters high, 500 meters long and 400 meters wide, with a floor space of 1.7 million square meters. That’s a big enough to construct 20 Sydney Opera Houses, or three times larger than The Pentagon.

The latest Century Global Center is situated in Chengdu, which is the capital of the Sichuan province in southwestern China. The attractive building, which opened this week, will play host to a wide range of business offices, theaters, shopping malls, hotels, and a faux Mediterranean village and family-themed attractions such as a water park called Paradise Island. The lovely building is designed to be the crown jewel of a newly rejuvenated area of Chengdu called Tainfu New District. Chengdu’s subway line is being expanded to serve the new district, and a new airport is likely to be constructed by th end of 2020, transforming the area into the new economic and cultural capital of western China.

Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest broadcasting tower and second tallest man-made structure after the Dubai's Burj Khalifa.

Tokyo is now home to the Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest broadcasting tower and second tallest man-made structure after the Dubai's Burj Khalifa and Rising 2,080-feet into the sky. Tokyo Skytree has two main objects; one is to relay TV and radio signals that the Tokyo Tower can no longer do reliably and 2^nd is to act as a tourism hotspot with two observation decks and a restaurant that will draw up to 32 million visitors annually. Construction on the Skytree first started nearly four years ago on July 14, 2008 although the entirety of the structure was completed on February 29, 2012. It is also built to be even more earthquake-proof than any previous structure in Japan and is capable of absorbing 50 % of a quake's energy. Moreover the tower can glow blue and purple thanks to built-in LEDs. Flickr user hiropismo has a nice timelapse of the Tokyo Skytree changing colors that is worth a look. We have compiled some of our favorite Tokyo Skytree photos we have seen in the gallery below. If you can't fly over to Japan and check it out in person, this is the next best thing. The gigantic Skytree was designed by architects at Nikken Sekkai and developed by Tobu Railway and NHK, Japan's national broadcasting organization.

The Earthquake Rose

When a magnitude 6.8 earthquake shook Olympia in 2001, Jason Ward (A shop Owner) discovered that a sand-tracing pendulum had recorded the vibrations in the picture. Seismologists speak that the “flower” at the center reflects the higher-frequency waves that arrived first, the outer, larger-amplitude oscillations record the lower-frequency waves that arrived later. You never think about an earthquake as being artistic, it’s violent and destructive. But in the middle of all that chaos, this fine, delicate artwork was created. The following two images are close-ups of the design made by the quake. The second is contrast enhanced to help you see more detail. Is it possible that there is beauty in the midst chaos and destruction? You be the judge.

Wubbo Ockels Superbus

In the Netherlands registered a bus that can travel at speeds up to 250 km / h The ceremony was attended issuing registration numbers and Minister of Infrastructure of the Netherlands Melanie Schultz van Hogen Maas Geesteranus. Melanie then swept behind the wheel Wubbo Superbus. It is assumed that these “buses” will run between the major cities of the country by a dedicated lanes are built next to the existing highways. Wubbo Ockels Superbus boasts of having 16 doors and is capable of carrying up to 23 passengers with an exceptional level of comfort.

Daredevil Nik Wallenda Completes tightrope walk near Grand Canyon

Daredevil Nik Wallenda completed a record-breaking 1,400-feet-long tightrope high wire walk over a portion of the Little Colorado River Gorge in Northeastern Arizona on Sunday 23 June, 2013 without a safety net or harness. The walk, which was live streamed by Discovery Channel, was 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge near the Grand Canyon. Using the same 2-inch-thick steel cable he used to cross the Niagara Falls last year. Nik Wallenda performed the stunt on a 2-inch-thick steel cable, 1,500 feet above the river on the Navajo Nation near the Grand Canyon. He took just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the rope swayed.  Winds blowing across the gorge had been expected to be around 30 mph. Nik great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, fell during a performance in Puerto Rico and died at the age of 73 and many other family members, including a cousin and an uncle, have perished while performing wire walking stunts. He was performing with his family and has dreamed of crossing the Grand Canyon when he was a teenager. Sunday's stunt comes a year after he traversed Niagara Falls earning a seventh Guinness world record.

A Wild Idea

My colleague said that when they had dreams of a floating house just as the one appeared in Pixar movie “Up”. But a team from National Geographic has built a real “Up” using 300 helium-filled weather balloons and managed to get the house 10,000 feet up into the air. National Geographic Channel and a team of scientists, engineers and two world class balloon pilots effectively launched a house measuring 16 feet by 16 feet and 18 feet high, using 300 eight-foot colored weather balloons from a private airfield east of Los Angeles. The launch is inspired by the Pixar film “Up” set a new world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted.  The house and balloons measured more than 10 storey’s high and reached an altitude of over 10,000 feet, flying for roughly one hour.  The record will be part of a new National Geographic Channel TV series has made a record of this experiment and you’ll find it in “How Hard Can it Be” series.

First Double Decker cable car in Mount Stanserhorn in Switzerland.

A new cable car system lets guests enjoy fresh air and great scenic views around Mount Stanserhorn in Switzerland. It seems that double-decker cable car has an open upper deck and riding to the top of the 1,900-meter Mount Stanserhorn with the fast wind in your hair, the stunning blue sky above you and a fantastic 360° panorama. That is the novel concept of the new cable car to replace the one from Kälti to Stanserhorn. I am sure it must be a crazy idea? Perhaps today we can see that it was a thoroughly viable one and so-called “CabriO” cable car is the world’s first cable car with a roofless upper deck. The very comfortable double-decker is the very newest in cable car technology. The lower level has space for 60 peoples, and an elegant staircase leads up to the sun deck, which has room for about 30 peoples. The riders can enjoy 360° panoramic views and fresh mountain air. The cable car moves on two side-mounted support cables a latest technological innovation of Garaventa AG, a central Swiss cable car company.

The latest cable car vision is to enhance the experience during the journey and offering the guests a new dimension in the new kind of cable car, and off course it was a great challenge for engineers, architects and builders and fact that the project was almost completely Swiss made from the initial idea down to the last screw. The investment volume for the new cable car project amounts to 28.1 million Swiss francs. Launched in 2010, the recapitalization was so successful that it was oversubscribed within a short time and some seven million francs mainly from locals flowed into the project.  The ride up to Stanserhorn is also a journey through local history. One witness is the old-timer funicular from Stans to Kälti. When it opened in 1893, it broke the record for the world’s longest funicular. Indeed, pioneers have enjoyed an affinity with Stanserhorn for some 120 years.

The new CabriO cable car in figures:

Length:                                2,320 meters

Base station:                     711 meters above sea level

Mountain station:             1,850 meters above sea level

Capacity:                             60 people

Conveying capacity:       465 guests per hour

Speed:                                 8 meters per second

Journey time:                    6 minutes, 24 seconds

Investment:                        CHF 28.1 million



No Exams till Grade Four

In Japanese schools, the students don't get any Exams until they reach grade four (the age of 10) because the goal for the first 3 years of schools is not to judge the child's knowledge or learning, but to establish good manners and to develop their character.  These are beautiful little children and there is nothing wrong with this kind of schooling. Learning manners (which you have not) and building their character (which, again, you are lacking) Our world would be a better place with learning these 2 basic principles. Should be introduce in every school around the world.

Desert Rose

It is the name given to rosette formations of the minerals gypsum and barite with sand inclusions. The 'petals' are crystals flattened, fanning open along characteristic gypsum cleavage planes. The rosette crystal habit tends to occur when the crystals form in arid sandy conditions, such as the evaporation of a shallow salt basin.Desert roses are mineral formations that are found on the surface and are awesome examples of the natural power of the shaping forces of wind, water and pressure in dry, arid regions.Desert roses are only found in deserts, which is how they got the name.

 

The Man Who Doesn't Sleep For 33 Years

Thai Ngoc or Hai Ngoc is born 1942 a Vietnamese insomniac. According to Vietnamese news, he is known for his claim of being awake for 33 years. Thanh Nien also claimed that Ngoc acquired the ability to go without sleep after a bout of fever in 1973, there was no apparent cause. I don't know whether the insomnia has impacted my health or not. But I am still living healthy life and running farm normally like others. Proving his health, the elderly resident of Que Trung commune, Que Son district said he can carry two 50kg bags of fertilizer down 4 kilometers of road to return home every day. His wife said, "My husband used to sleep well, but these days, even liquor cannot put him down. When Ngoc went to Da Nang for a medical examination; doctors gave him a clean bill of health, apart from a minor decline in liver function. Ngoc currently busy with farming and taking care of chickens all day. His 6 children live at their house in Que Trung. Hai Ngoc often does extra farm work or guards his farm at night to prevent theft, he is also busy in three months of sleepless nights to dig two large ponds to raise fish farm.