Facts About Your Planet

• In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.
• About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.
• A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.
• Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.
• Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park , USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.
• Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.
• Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.
• The Ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut.
• The world's windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antartica.
• In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.
• American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.
• The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk.
• The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah' . It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk. The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.
• The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.
• The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricity.
• The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.
• Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.
• Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.
• Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.
• The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.
• There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea. The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.
• The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.
• Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane.

World's Tallest Tower

The the worlds newest tallest building is about to be completed, lookx amazing, should be safer than going to space to get a better view of Earth.
SPECIFICATIONS - BURJ DUBAI (DUBAI TOWER) AND DUBAI MALL, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Key Data
Order year : 2003
Construction start : 2004
Project type : Mall, residential and retail facilities and world's tallest skyscraper
Location : Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Estimated investment : Dh800 million (mall, residential and retail facilities); Dh3.9 billion (tower)
Completion 2006 (mall); 2007 (tower)
Retail space : 5 million square ft²Shops : 1,000
Car parking : 16,000 spaces Key Players
Sponsor : EMAAR Properties PJSC
Lead contractors, designers, architects and engineers : DC Architects PTE Limited, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, Bauer Spezialtiefbau, Middle East Foundations, Turner Construction Corporation, Grocon, Lerch, Bates and Associates Incorporated



This image is from BBC comparing the biggest buildings. You can't say they don't have a vision. Remarkably, the inspiration for the tower comes from - a flower. The Hymenocallis is a plant widely cultivated in Dubai , India and around the region. It's harmonious structure is one of the organizing principles for the design.

Little Roby

Little Roby's Test

A first-grade teacher was having trouble with one of her students.
The teacher asked, "Roby what is your problem?" Roby answered, "I'm too smart for the first-grade. My sister is in the third -grade and I'm smarter than she is! I think I should be in the third-grade too!"
The teacher had had enough.
She took Roby to the principal's office.
While Roby waited in the outer office, the teacher explained to the principal what the situation was.
The principal told the teacher he would give the boy a test and if he failed to answer any of his questions he was to go back to the first-grade and behave.
The teacher agreed.
Roby was brought in and the conditions were explained to him and he agreed to take the test.
Principal: "What is 3 x 3?"
Roby: "9".
Principal: "What is 6 x 6?"
Roby: "36".
And so it went with every question the principal thought a third-grade should know.
The principal looks at the teacher and tells her, "I think Roby can go to the third-grade."
The teacher says to the principal, "Let me ask him some questions?"
The principal and Roby both agree.
The teacher asks, "What does a cow have four of that I have only two of?"
Roby, after a moment, "Legs."
Teacher: "What is in your pants that you have but I do not have?"
The principal wondered, why does she ask such a question!
Roby replied, "Pockets."
Teacher: "What does a dog do that a man steps into?"
Roby: "Pants"
Teacher: What's starts with a C and ends with a T, is hairy, oval, delicious and contains thin whitish liquid?
Roby: Coconut
The principal's eyes open really wide and before he could stop the answer,
Roby was taking charge.
Teacher: What goes in hard and pink then comes out soft and sticky?
Roby: Bubblegum
Teacher: What does a man do standing up, a woman do sitting down and a dog do on three legs?
The principal's eyes open really wide and before he could stop the answer.
Roby: Shake hands
Teacher: Now I will ask some "Who am I" sort of questions, okay?
Roby: Yep.
Teacher: You stick your poles inside me. You tie me down to get me up. I get wet before you do.
Roby: Tent
Teacher: A finger goes in me. You fiddle with me when you're bored. The best man always has me first.
Principal was looking restless and bit tense.
Roby: Wedding Ring
Teacher: I come in many sizes. When I'm not well, I drip. When you blow me, you feel good.
Roby: Nose
Teacher: I have a stiff shaft. My tip penetrates. I come with a quiver.
Roby: Arrow
Teacher: What word starts with an 'F' and ends in 'K' that means a lot of excitement?
Roby: Firetruck
The principal breathed a sigh of relief and told the teacher, "Put Roby in the fifth-grade, I missed the last ten questions myself."

Shrek the Third

Gift for JRD Tata

Here are two pics of an amazing piece of art. Location: Tata Museum ,Jamshedpur . In the first pic, you can see a painting. This was a gift to JRD Tata on his Birthday by a street artist. Nobody was able to understand his art. Unfortunately, only the painting was given to JRD and the artist had promised to reveal the secret shortly . However, JRD was no more when the secret was actually revealed .


Here's the secret revealed. When you place a steel rod at the circle in the first pic you saw, you will see the image of the JRD Tata as a reflection on the steel rod as seen in the second pic below. Isn't it incredible!!

Pontiac Solstice Roadster

Bringing the popular concept car to life, GM announced production of the Pontiac Solstice roadster as a 2006 model. The vehicle is expected in dealer showrooms in fall 2005.First shown as a concept at the 2002 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, the Solstice immediately gained a huge following, both inside and outside of General Motors. Designed from the ground up in less than four months, the 2002 Solstice concept car promised thrilling, open-air driving freedom in the spirit of the great roadsters of the past. Built on GM’s new Kappa architecture, the production model remains true to the original Solstice concept, including rear-wheel drive, two-passenger seating and a reverse hinged clamshell hood that opens to reveal a sophisticated double overhead cam variable-valve four-cylinder engine.“True to the thinking behind the original concept, the production Solstice is all about being a ‘back-to-basics’ roadster with gorgeous lines and fun-to-drive characteristics,” said Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman of product development and chairman of GM North America. “The key enabler of Solstice is the new Kappa rear-wheel-drive architecture and component set, which allows us to rapidly and efficiently develop an appealing family of compact and affordable sports cars.”

Origins of United States

You know the names of all 50 states…but do you know where any of them come from? Here’s the best information we could find on the origin of each.

• ALABAMA: Possibly from the Creek Indian word alibamo, meaning "we stay here."
• ALASKA: From the Aleutian word alakshak, which means "great lands," or "land that is not an island."
• ARIZONA: Taken either from the pima Indian words ali shonak, meaning "little spring," or from the Aztec word arizuma, meaning "silver-bearing."
• ARKANSAS: The French somehow coined it from the name of the Siouan Quapaw tribe.
• CALIFORNIA: According to one theory, Spanish settlers names it after a utopian society described in a popular 16th-century novel called Serged de Esplandian.
• COLORADO: Means "red" in Spanish. The name was originally applied to the Colorado River, whose waters are reddish with canyon clay.
• CONNECTICUT: Taken from the Mohican word kuenihtekot, which means "long river place."
• DELAWARE: Named after Lord De La Warr, a governor of Virginia. Originally used only to name the Delaware River.
• FLORIDA: Explorer Ponce de Leon named the state Pascua Florida - "flowery Easter"—on Easter Sunday in 1513.
• GEORGIA: Named after King George II of England, who charted the colony in 1732.
• HAWAII: An English adaptation of the native word owhyhee, which means "homeland."
  IDAHO: Possibly taken from the Kiowa Apache word for the Comanche Indians.
• ILLINOIS: The French bastardization of the Algonquin word illini, which means "men."
• INDIANA: Named by English-speaking settlers because the territory was full of Indians.
• IOWA: The Sioux word for "beautiful land," or "one who puts to sleep."
• KANSAS: Taken from the Sioux word for "south wind people," their name for anyone who lived south of Sioux territory.
• KENTUCKY: Possibly derived from the Indian word kan-tuk-kee, meaning "dark and bloody ground." Or kan-tuc-kec, "land of green reeds", or ken-take, meaning "meadowland."
• LOUISIANA: Named after French King Louis XIV.
  MAINE: The Old French word for "province."
• MARYLAND: Named after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of English King George I.
• MASSACHUSETTS: Named after the Massachusetts Indian tribe. Means "large hill place."
• MICHIGAN: Most likely from the Chippewa word for "great water." micigama.
• MINNESOTA: From the Sioux word for "sky tinted" or "muddy water."
• MISSISSIPPI: Most likely taken from the Chippewa words mici ("great") and zibi ("river").
• MISSOURI: From the Algonquin word for "muddy water."
• MONTANA: Taken from the Latin word for "mountainous."
• NEBRASKA: From the Otos Indian word for "broad water."
• NEVADA: Means "snow-clad" in Spanish.
• NEW HAMPSHIRE: Capt. John Mason, one of the original colonists, named it after his English home county of Hampshire.
• NEW JERSEY: Named after the English Isle of Jersey.
• NEW MEXICO: The Spanish name for the territory north of the Rio Grande.
• NEW YORK: Named after the Duke of York and Albany.
• NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA: From the Latin name Carolus; named in honor of King Charles I of England.
• NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA: Taken from the Sioux word for "friend," or "ally."
• OHIO: Means "great," "fine," or "good river" in Iriquois.
• OKLAHOMA. The Choctaw word for "red man."
• OREGON: Possibly derived from Ouaricon-sint, the French name for the Wisconsin River.
• PENNSYLVANIA: Named after William Penn, Sr., the father of the colony’s founder, William Penn. Means "Penn’s woods."
• RHODE ISLAND: Named "Roode Eylandt" (Red Island) because of its red clay.
• TENNESSEE: Named after the Cherokee tanasi villages along the banks of the Little Tennessee River.
• TEXAS: Derived from the Caddo Indian word for "friend," or "ally."
• UTAH: Means "upper," or "higher," and was originally the name that Navajos called the Shoshone tribe.
• VERMONT: A combination of the French words vert ("green") and mont ("mountain").
• VIRGINIA AND WEST VIRGINIA: Named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, the "virgin" queen, by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.
• WASHINGTON: Named after George Washington.
• WISCONSIN: Taken from the Chippewa word for "grassy place."
• WYOMING: Derived from the Algonquin word for "large prairie place."