Monday, November 24, 2008
Hotel Atlantis Lightshow Trial Run
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Rotating skyscraper set for Dubai
The "Dynamic Tower", a slender, shifting skyscraper of rotating luxury apartments, was presented in project-form Tuesday in New York by Italian architect David Fisher, before it goes up in Dubai.
The innovative, 420-metre building features 80 pre-fabricated apartments that spin 360 degrees, at voice command, around a central column by means of 79 power-generating wind turbines located between each floor.
"This building will have endless different shapes," Fisher told reporters.
As each floor rotates independently from the other, the Dynamic Tower will constantly change its profile, in a new architectural concept that is taking root around the world.
The Mirax group plans to build a similar, 70-story skyscraper in Moscow.
"We look forward to build a third one in New York and maybe in other cities," said Fisher.
"These buildings will open our vision all around, to a new life."
The apartments, ranging from 124 to 1,200 square metres will take between one and three hours to make a complete rotation, and at 30,000 dollars per square metre, will cost from $3.7 million to $36 million.
Fisher said the pre-fabricated components made in a plant in Altamura, southern Italy, will allow the skyscraper to go up in record time, one floor per week instead of the usual one-per-six-weeks for similar high rises, and slash building costs by 10 percent.
He said the skyscraper, which will be completely energy self sufficient and will cost an estimated $700 million dollars to build, should be operational in Dubai in 2010.
Labels: Design, Longest, Science, Technology, World Business
Read more!Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Uncontacted Brazil tribe
Labels: World Business
Read more!Saturday, May 24, 2008
INFLATION...highest in which country ??
Nations with highest inflation
The Indian people and the government are both quaking with fear with inflation hovering at around 8%. The people can barely make two ends meet with prices soaring, and the government knows that if prices don't fall, the government will.
But India is not the only nation grappling with rising inflation. The entire world is. So which are the nations with highest inflation rates? Read on. . .
. Zimbabwe: 355,000%!
The inflation in Zimbabwe for the month of March 2008 rose to 355,000%! Yes, 355,000 per cent! It more than doubled from the February figure of 165,000%.
Economists say that it is a miracle that the Zimbabwean economy is still surviving and prices have been rising to unprecedented proportions. Inflation surged between February and March following the sudden rise in money supply that flooded the economy to finance the 2008 elections. Apart from this food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to drive up inflation.
Almost 80% of the nation is unemployed. The Zimbabwean central bank has introduced $500 million bearer cheques (or currency notes) for the public, and $5 billion, $25 billion, $50 billion agro-cheques for farmers. Just last fortnight the nation had introduced $250 million bearer cheques.
A sausage sandwich sells for Zimbabwean $50 million. A 15-kg bag of potatoes cost Zimbabwean $260 million. But then, Zimbabwean $50 million is roughly equal to US$ 1!
Labels: World Business
Read more!Monday, May 05, 2008
Billion-Dollar Home of Mukesh Ambani
ukesh Ambani's Billion-Dollar Home picture
Indian Mukesh Ambani is the world's richest man
The currently-constructing architect in downtown Mumbai will cost around $2 billion and be 550 feet high with 400,000 square feet of interior space when it is finished in January, 2009. The future 27-story Ambani home named Antilla will host nine elevators, six floors of parking, a four-story vertical garden, and three rooftop helicopter landing pads. Undeniably, it will be the world's largest and most expensive home on the planet. Link
Labels: Celebrity, World Business
Read more!Saturday, May 03, 2008
China First World's Longest Trans-sea Bridge Opens up In China
Hangzhou Bay Trans-sea Bridge was opened to traffics on a trial basis on May 1. China inaugurated the longest's bridge in the country as part of its effort to boost economic integration and development in the Yangtze River Delta.
Presented as the "world's longest sea bridge", the 36-kilometre (22-mile) structure connects Jiaxing city near Shanghai to the port city of Ningbo in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
The 11.8 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) bridge cuts the length of the road trip from Shanghai to Ningbo by 120 kilometres. Link
HANGZHOU, June 8 (Xinhuanet) -- China started Sunday the construction of its first sea-crossing bridge, also said to be the longest in the world, at the Hangzhou Bay in east China.
With an estimated investment of 11.8 billion yuan (1.42 billionUS dollars), the 36-km-long Ningbo Hangzhou Bay Sea-crossing Bridge is much longer than the 25.23-km-long Chesapeke-Bay Bridge Tunnel in the United States and the 25-km-long Saudi Arabia Baharian Cause Way.
With a designed life span of 100 years, the bridge will have six lanes in two directions which allow for a driving speed of 100km per hour.
The Hangzhou Bay is a gulf in the East China Sea. Famous for the Qiantang River Tide, one of China's natural wonders, the bay is encircled by a group of economically booming cities including Shanghai, China's leading industrial and commercial hub, and Ningbo, one of China's leading port cities.
The Yangtze River delta, where the bay is located, accounts for two percent of China's total land space and 10 percent of its total population, but contributes to 22 percent of the national gross domestic product.
The S-shaped stayed-cable sea-crossing bridge, linking Cixi City on the southern bank of the bay and Jiaxing City on the northern bank, will be completed in 2008.
Upon completion, the bridge will shorten the distance between Shanghai and Ningbo by 120 km.
The bridge is a coastal routeway connecting the areas along theBohai Bay, the Yangtze River and Pearl River deltas. It is also the largest project of the planned 5,200-km-long national highway that runs through China from Tongjiang of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province to Sanya of south China's Hainan Province.
China's first self-designed and self-built bridge, the Qiantang River Bridge, about 200 km away from the new sea-crossing bridge, was completed in 1937. Up to now, China has constructed thousands of bridges on its rivers.
Construction of the new sea-crossing bridge is an indication of China's increasing economic power, and it is expected to boost economic development in the Yangtze River delta, said Jin Jianming,an official in charge of the bridge construction.
It shows that China now is capable of building world-class bridges, he noted.
Following the Hangzhou Bay bridge, a number of sea-crossing bridges at the Bohai Bay, Huangdao in Shandong Province and East China Sea will be constructed involving more than 100 billion yuan(12.09 billion US dollars), authoritative sources have disclosed.
In the early 20th century, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, forerunner of the democratic revolution of China, had initiated the construction of a Hangzhou Bay trans-sea bridge.
Preparations for constructing the bridge started 10 years ago, and more than 500 experts had spent eight years on designing the Hangzhou Bay bridge, which sets many records in China's history ofbridge construction.
Costing the biggest investment in building a single bridge in China, the bridge is the first State Council-approved large infrastructure project on China's mainland that invites private investment.
Seventeen private enterprises will invest 50.25 percent of the total funds needed to build the bridge. The remaining part of the investment will come from some state-owned enterprises.
Upon completion, daily traffic volume on the bridge is estimated to reach 45,000 vehicles during its first year of operation. The bridge is scheduled to open to traffic in 2009. source
Labels: amazing, Design, Technology, World Business
Read more!Friday, May 02, 2008
Www.CheDet.Com Is Malaysian Former PM Mahathir Mohamad's Blog
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Rachel Leigh Cook Mistakenly Believed as Bill Gates Daughter Jennifer Katharine (Pictures)
The pretty girl in the four pictures above is rumored to be Microsoft founder Bill Gates' daughter Jennifer Katharine. Apparently, she is not Jennifer Katharine (see pictures below) but romantic comedy “She’s All That” actress Rachel Leigh Cook. Born in 1996, Jennifer Katharine Gates is the eldest child of Bill Gates and Melinda French who got married in a lavish wedding ceremony held in Hawaii, 1994. Jennifer has a brother Rory John Gates, born in 1999 and a sister Phoebe Adele Gates, born in 2002. Link
Labels: Celebrity, World Business
Read more!Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Randi Goldklank Is Drunken Channel 7 General Manager (Pic)
Randi Goldklank, 40, is the Boston TV news station Channel 7 general manager. A drunken Randi Goldklank was arrested Sunday night in Boston's Logan Airport.
Channel 7 General Manager Randi Goldklank smelled of booze, assaulted a state police trooper, flirted with a police sergeant and unleashed a curse-filled tirade on troopers at Logan Airport Sunday night, screaming that she was a Boston “big shot” and “do you know who the ... I am?,” according to a shocking police report.
According to the report:
Troopers smelled a “very strong odor of an alcoholic beverage from her breath.”
Goldklank struck a trooper in the chest, breaking the glasses in his shirt pocket.
A trooper overheard Goldklank tell EMTs that she had “about three dozen drinks earlier’ and was taking Lexapro for depression.
She told a police sergeant, “you think I’m cute and I think your cute, just drive me home.”
Goldklank, 40, who is charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assault and battery on a police officer, told the Herald a male passenger had inappropriately touched her on a plane shortly after it left Philadelphia Sunday night. There is no mention of her being groped in the report.
“Leave me alone, do you know who the (expletive) I am?” Goldklank screamed at the troopers who were called to the gate after Delta Air Lines called to report an unruly passenger, according to the report.
“I’ll have a news crew down here in minutes and you will lose your (expletive) jobs you (expletives),” the report said. “I’m a bigshot in Boston and I’ll have your (expletive) jobs.”
It sounds Randi Goldklank would be fired from her position soon. Link
Labels: Celebrity, World Business
Read more!Saturday, April 05, 2008
The Largest in the World dinesh vora
Dinesh Vora
This man-made saltwater lagoon has been attracting huge crowds to
the San Alfonso del Mar resort at Algarrobo, on Chile's southern coast, since it opened last month.
It is more than 1,000 yards long, covers 20 acres, had a 115ft deep end and holds 66 million gallons of water.
Yesterday the Guinness Book of Records named the vast pool beside the sea in Chile as the biggest in the world.
This one 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, since it opened last month.
Its turquoise waters are so crystal clear that you can see the bottom even in the deep end.
It dwarfs the world's second biggest pool, the Orthlieb - nicknamed the Big Splash - in Morocco , which is a mere 150 yards long and 100 yards wide. An Olympicsize pool measures some 50 yards by 25 yards.
This dinosaur pool uses a computer- controlled suction and filtration system to keep fresh seawater in permanent circulation, drawing it in from the ocean at one end and pumping it out at the other.
The sun warms the water to 26 degree Centigrade, nine degrees warmer than the adjoining sea.
Chilean biochemist Fernando Fischmann, whose Crystal Lagoons Corporation designed the pool, said advanced engineering meant his company could build 'an impressive artificial paradise' even in inhospitable areas.
As long as we have access to unlimited seawater, we can make it work, and it causes no damage to the ocean.'
Labels: amazing, Design, World Business
Read more!Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Ford Says 'Tata' to Jaguar, Land Rover
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is selling its storied Jaguar and Land Rover brands to India's Tata Motors Ltd. in a deal that will net the U.S. automaker $1.7 billion — roughly a third of the price it paid for the two luxury brands.
The deal announced Wednesday will expand the Indian carmaker's reach around the globe and give Jaguar and Land Rover badly needed capital to update and expand their product lines.
The agreement had been in the works for months as cash-strapped Ford sought money to fund its turnaround plan.
Tata will pay $2.3 billion for the British brands, but Ford will pay about $600 million into the Jaguar-Land Rover pension fund when the deal closes, Tata's statement said.
Ford bought Jaguar for $2.5 billion in 1989 and Land Rover for $2.7 billion in 2000. But the Dearborn-based automaker has been struggling and wants to focus on its main brands.
Selling the companies at such a loss clearly shows buying them was a mistake for Ford, said Erich Merkle, vice president of auto industry forecasting for the consulting company IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids.
"How can you call it anything else?" he asked. "You have to cut your losses at some point. It's been draining them of cash and resources."
The net proceeds aren't enough to rescue Ford's finances, but the sale will allow the company to focus on its core Ford brands, Merkle said.
Tata should have the cash to rescue the brands and develop new products to better compete with luxury automakers such as BMW AG, Merkle said.
Tata said it expects no significant changes in the terms of employment for Jaguar and Land Rover's 16,000 workers. It said the transfer of the brands would take place at the end of the second quarter.
The sale raises the Tata conglomerate's profile on the world stage, said V.G. Ramakrishnan, the lead auto analyst with the consulting firm Frost and Sullivan India.
"It gives them a much better branding image in the global market," Ramakrishnan said. "This is another important landmark step of showcasing that Indian companies are arriving on the global landscape. Many people will see this deal as the future of things to come — you will see more companies out of India acquiring global companies. They want to be seen as major global players."
Tata Motors built the first fully Indian-designed car. In contrast to the high prices that Jaguars and Land Rovers sell for, Tata recently announced plans to build a $2,500 car later this year.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement that the British brands are leaving Ford in good shape.
"Now, it is time for Ford to concentrate on integrating the Ford brand globally, as we implement our plan to create a strong Ford Motor Company that delivers profitable growth for all."
Tata said in its statement Ford will continue to supply engines, transmissions and other components "for differing periods." Ford also will continue to provide environmental and other technologies as well as engineering support.
Tata Chairman Ratan N. Tata said his company will try to build on the brands' heritage, keeping their identities intact.
"We aim to support their growth, while holding true to our principles of allowing the management and employees to bring their experience and expertise to bear on the growth of the business," he said in a statement.
Roger Maddison, an official with Unite, Jaguar and Land Rover's main labor union, said the deal is good news for the automakers' employees as well as those who work for parts suppliers.
"Unite has secured written guarantees for all five UK plants on staffing levels, employee terms and conditions, including pensions, and sourcing agreements. The sale ensures our members futures and we look forward to working with Tata," Maddison said in a statement.
Mulally has said the company would invest the proceeds from the sale in quality and product development at Ford.
Ford named Tata as the preferred bidder for the British automakers in January, essentially dismissing two other bids.
Cash-hungry Ford, which lost $12.6 billion in 2006 and $2.7 billion last year, has been looking to sell Jaguar and Land Rover for months.
It has mortgaged assets to continue operations and expects to burn up $12 billion to $14 billion until 2009, when it plans to return to sustained profitability.
Jaguar and Land Rover are strained by unfavorable exchange rates and high production costs in Britain.
Tata Motors is part of Tata Group, India's oldest and largest conglomerate. The family business is owned mostly by Tata-funded charitable trusts. A substantial portion of the group's income is channeled into various philanthropies that have helped build some of the country's finest institutions, including India's first cancer hospital.
Tata companies are known for offering worker benefits that are rare in India, including pension and child care allowances.
Some experts believe the group still is too bloated. Ratan Tata concedes he has "not been very successful" at pruning the number of companies and downsizing staff, which currently totals about 290,000.
Among Tata's holdings are steel makers and a consulting service that does software engineering and other work for western firms.
Ford shares edged up a penny to $6.01 in morning trading Wednesday. They have traded in a 52-week range of $4.95 to $9.70.
___
Associated Press Writer Sam Dolnick in New Delhi contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
Ford Motor Co.: http://www.ford.com
Tata Group: http://www.tata.com
Labels: World Business
Read more!Monday, February 25, 2008
25 Most Powerful Businessmen
Labels: World Business
Read more!Sunday, January 27, 2008
Tourist Spaceship Design Unveiled
The presentation also included a model of WhiteKnightTwo, the four-engine airplane that will carry SpaceShipTwo into its midair launch position.
By:
David B. Caruso in New York
Associated Press
January 24, 2008
Within a few years a handful of rich tourists may be blasting into space in a craft that combines the aesthetics of the space shuttle and a corporate jet.
British billionaire Richard Branson and aerospace designer Burt Rutan unveiled a model Wednesday of SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle they hope will take passengers on suborbital joy rides.
"Breathtakingly beautiful," was Branson's assessment of the ship, which is now under construction at a hangar in the Mojave Desert and which may begin test flights as soon as this year.
Labels: Design, Science, World Business
Read more!Thursday, January 03, 2008
World's Most Unusual Hotels & Motels
Casablanca HotelEver wanted to live like Bogey? The 48-room Casablanca Hotel in Times Square features a Moroccan décor complemented by Rick's Café, named for the restaurant in the classic 1942 film featuring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
HydropalaceScheduled to open in 2009, the Hydropalace in Qingdao, China, will be anchored in the Yellow Sea in water that is 16 to 20 meters deep at low tide. Guests will arrive at the hotel by yacht, which will also stop at a planned land-based hydrotower, scheduled to open for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
Ice HotelThe Ice Hotel is created anew each year out of 15,000 pounds of snow and 500 pounds of ice. The 34-room hotel features an ice chapel, two art galleries and a host of outdoor activities. The temperature inside the hotel ranges from 23 to 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and the beds are carved from ice. You don't sleep directly on the ice, though--there's a wooden plank between the ice and a comfy mattress, plus you're insulated with a special sleeping bag that can withstand the harshest climes (-40 degrees Fahrenheit). Happily, the bathrooms are not frigid--the heated facilities are in the adjacent hotel.
Propeller Island City LodgeWould you rather sleep in a coffin or in a bed atop a castle? These are just a couple of options available when visiting the Propeller Island City Lodge, where each of the 31 rooms embrace a different theme. From the orange room to the symbol room--tiled entirely with wooden blocks painted with 300 different symbols--this gallery-esque spot gets those creative juices pumping.
Library HotelAppropriately located near the New York Public Library, the hotel has 60 rooms on 10 floors. Each floor is designed after one of the 10 categories of the Dewey Decimal System, such as Math and Science and Religion, and each room houses part of the hotel's collection of 6,000 books.
The Pitcher InnThe nine rooms and two suites at The Pitcher Inn are designed on themes such as "School," "Trout" and "Calvin Coolidge." We're not just talking variations in wallpaper--the "Stable" suite has a hay chute opening into it. Guests don't rough it, however. The inn is a Relais and Chateaux property, and it includes a spa and dining room that uses fresh local and regional ingredients.
Ariau Towers HotelNot for the acrophobic, this hotel lets you sleep in the treetops of the Amazon Rainforest. "Tarzan's house," for example, is perched on stilts 80 feet above the ground. Situated on the bank of the Negro River, Ariau's apartments, suites and tree houses are linked by a series of catwalks
Beckham Creek Cave HavenA "luxurious cave" may sound like the ultimate contradiction. This property, built into the Ozark Mountains, features natural rock walls and ceilings as well as Jacuzzi bathtubs and large windows for letting in light. Built as a Cold War bomb shelter by John Hay, founder of Celestial Seasonings tea, it's now a base from which to hike, bike and explore local springs.
WinvianAt Winvian, lodging options range from a helicopter to a log cabin. The hotel features 18 individually designed cottages and one suite located in the main house. Included in the rates are all meals and drinks (excluding a reserve wine list), Vespa scooters, horseback riding and other activities.
Jules Undersea LodgeThis former research lab is located underwater in a tropical mangrove habitat, and guests must scuba dive 21 feet to get to the main lobby. It can accommodate up to six guests, and each air-conditioned room features a 42-inch window in the water. The dining room has custom mermaid and "mer-man" tables. Our only question: Where's the pool?
Labels: Technology, World Business
Read more!Saturday, December 08, 2007
Huge Crowd Exhibition in China
Friday, September 21, 2007
WORLD'S RICHEST ROYALS
By Devon Pendleton and Tatiana Serafin Forbes.com
Published: September 16, 2007
Last year's movie sensation, The Queen, about Queen Elizabeth II, captured the monarch's lavish lifestyle with footage of her opulent castles and many servants. Not a bad life, but she comes in a mere 11th on our ranking of the world's richest royalty, worth an estimated $600 million. She can take some comfort in the fact that she's the world's wealthiest female ruler and just one of two women to make our list.
In the top spot is the Sultan of Brunei, worth $22 billion, 36 times more than the Queen of England. The Sultan who inherited the riches of an unbroken 600-year-old Muslim dynasty recently celebrated his 40th anniversary as ruler of the oil-rich land. The only other Asian monarch to make the cut is the world's longest-reigning living monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the deity-revered king of Thailand, who we estimate is worth $5 billion.
In Pictures: World's Richest Royals
More than a third of the rulers, six to be precise, preside over oil-rich territories in the Middle East including the Emir of Qatar who funded Al Jazeera, the King of Saudi Arabia who is building a $26 billion city named in his honor and the ruler of Dubai, whose government bought stakes in HSBC and Deutsche Bank this year. The region's richest is Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, ranked No. 2 overall, who rules over the tiny emirate of Abu Dhabi, home to one-tenth of the world's oil reserves.
We estimate his net worth to be $21 billion. He is promoting the territory as the cultural hub of the Middle East and plans to open a Frank Gehry-designed branch of the Guggenheim Museum in 2011. Seventy-eight-year-old Sheikh Sabah Al Sabah took over as emir of Kuwait last year after the crown prince was deemed too ill to ascend the throne; he wasted no time in voting for a significant raise in the royal family stipend.
In Pictures: World's Richest Royals
In Pictures: The World's Most Eligible Royals
In Pictures: Hottest Billionaire Heiresses
In Pictures: World's Billionaires 2007
In Pictures: Richest People You've Never Heard Of
The list's youngest member and the only one from sub-Saharan Africa is 39-year-old King Mswati III of Swaziland, with a net worth of $200 million. Almost every year, he chooses a new bride from among 20,000 naked bare-breasted virgins; so far, he has 13 wives and is building a palace for each. The list's only bachelor is Prince Albert II of Monaco. Best known as a playboy who fathered two children out of wedlock, he inherited the tiny principality that is just about the size of New York City's Central Park in 2005, after his father died.
Prince Albert's title, and much of his fortune, has been in his family for 700 years. But that's not unusual for these dynasties. Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein, for instance, resides over a $4.5 billion fortune that stretches back 900 years and encompasses a 400-year-old art collection with 1,600 paintings, including 33 Rubens, the largest such collection in private hands.
The collective worth of the list's 15 rulers is $95 billion, about the size of the gross domestic product of Chile or New Zealand. The only ruler who doesn't preside over a geographic territory is the Aga Kahn. Rather, he is the spiritual leader of the world's dispersed 15 million Ismaili Muslims. A suave businessman, he's been in the press recently because he is divorcing his second wife; his first ex-wife reportedly received a $20 million payout.
Keep in mind that the wealth of the royals is often shared with extended families and often represents money that is controlled by them in trust for their nation or territory. Therefore none of them would qualify for our list of the world's billionaires, regardless of their net worth.
Another note: While we have tracked the fortunes of a few high-profile royals like the Queen of England and Sultan of Brunei for years, this is the first time we scoured the globe in search of a truly definitive list. Monarchs of such countries as Spain and Japan failed to make the cut.
Labels: World Business
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