Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Magical Tap
You can admire these incredible fountain that seems a Magical Tap floating in the sky while delivering an endless supply of water.
It seems a Photoshopped picture but it's not. It is real, just a clever idea that makes possible this optical illusion. Actually there is a hidden pipe inside of the water jet that functions both as a support for the whole structure and to supply the water.
It seems a Photoshopped picture but it's not. It is real, just a clever idea that makes possible this optical illusion. Actually there is a hidden pipe inside of the water jet that functions both as a support for the whole structure and to supply the water.
"Aqualand" near Cadiz and Technorama Science Park in Zurich
Did You Know.......
Marbled Icebergs
Normally an iceberg appears White as a result of the tiny bubbles trapped within which scatter light in every direction. Blue stripes are created when a crevice in the ice sheet fills up with meltwater and freezes so quickly that no bubbles form. When an iceberg falls into the sea, a layer of salty seawater can freeze to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a Green stripe. Brown lines are caused by sediment, picked up when the ice sheet grinds downhill towards the sea
So there is nothing very strange about those colored stripes except the fact that it's an incredibly rare coincidence that all those phenomenon have occurred in a relatively small piece of ice
Another striped iceberg with a striking diagonal blue line through it, which towered about 30 meters above the ocean surface, was spotted a few days later
Another unusual ice formation
In the News
Man ringing Salvation Army kettle gets a diamond
A volunteer ringing the bell at a Harrisburg, Pa. Salvation Army kettle in south-central Pennsylvania got an unusual donation: a diamond ring. The ring was handed to August Memmi, who volunteered for the Salvation Army in Harrisburg during his lunch hour Tuesday.
The young man told Memmi that he'd bought the ring for his mother using money he'd earned mowing lawns, but she died this year and he wanted to put it to good use.
The ring's value was unclear Tuesday; the Salvation Army planned to have it appraised.
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Drive More Than Takes Care Of Man's $3K Water Bill
Drive To Help 84-year-old Wis. Man With A $3,000 Water Bill Brings Outpouring Of Help
An 84-year-old man hit with a $3,000 quarterly water bill won't have to pay a dime. In one week, a drive to help Norman Beckman raised $4,027 as of Tuesday. Organizers stopped accepting the contributions that were still coming in. "The donations ranged from $5 to $500," said Bryan Kassube, who started the drive. "I'm just floored we reached our goal in one week."The big bill was for the period from Jan. 1 to March 31. Beckman was not able to live in his home at the time, and in his absence water pipes froze, causing three leaks that allowed 44,700 cubic feet of water to go through the meter. Despite the large volume of water, no damage to the house was reported. Kassube said he was mailing a check for $3,006 to the city water utility to cover the bill plus interest on the unpaid balance. The rest goes to Beckman, who said he has plans for it. "I want to give it to the Salvation Army," Beckman said, "but I'm going to wait until Dec. 5 when Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has promised to match donations to the Army's Red Kettle campaign." Thrivent, an Appleton-based financial services organization, has announced it will match the red kettle donations made Dec. 5 in Wisconsin's Fox Valley, up to a total of $125,000. Beckman said he felt humbled by the response to his problem."It tells me there are many ways we can be proud of this community," he said.
A volunteer ringing the bell at a Harrisburg, Pa. Salvation Army kettle in south-central Pennsylvania got an unusual donation: a diamond ring. The ring was handed to August Memmi, who volunteered for the Salvation Army in Harrisburg during his lunch hour Tuesday.
The young man told Memmi that he'd bought the ring for his mother using money he'd earned mowing lawns, but she died this year and he wanted to put it to good use.
The ring's value was unclear Tuesday; the Salvation Army planned to have it appraised.
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Drive More Than Takes Care Of Man's $3K Water Bill
Drive To Help 84-year-old Wis. Man With A $3,000 Water Bill Brings Outpouring Of Help
An 84-year-old man hit with a $3,000 quarterly water bill won't have to pay a dime. In one week, a drive to help Norman Beckman raised $4,027 as of Tuesday. Organizers stopped accepting the contributions that were still coming in. "The donations ranged from $5 to $500," said Bryan Kassube, who started the drive. "I'm just floored we reached our goal in one week."The big bill was for the period from Jan. 1 to March 31. Beckman was not able to live in his home at the time, and in his absence water pipes froze, causing three leaks that allowed 44,700 cubic feet of water to go through the meter. Despite the large volume of water, no damage to the house was reported. Kassube said he was mailing a check for $3,006 to the city water utility to cover the bill plus interest on the unpaid balance. The rest goes to Beckman, who said he has plans for it. "I want to give it to the Salvation Army," Beckman said, "but I'm going to wait until Dec. 5 when Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has promised to match donations to the Army's Red Kettle campaign." Thrivent, an Appleton-based financial services organization, has announced it will match the red kettle donations made Dec. 5 in Wisconsin's Fox Valley, up to a total of $125,000. Beckman said he felt humbled by the response to his problem."It tells me there are many ways we can be proud of this community," he said.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Creative Drainpipes
Drainpipes are a really boring and dull part of the urban landscape.
But here can see some interesting drainpipes
Flower Pots
In the News
Here's a feel-good story to start your week off.
Trucker hauls butterfly to Florida after its wing is fixedA woman named Jeannette Brandt found an injured butterfly near her home in upstate New York recently.
She and Mike Parwana fed the butterfly from fruit and honey they produce on their Lake Luzerne property
They used shreds of cardboard as a splint to fix its broken wing.
After about a week, the monarch was able to fly again but in need of warmer weather.
They put the butterfly in a shoebox and headed to a truck stop.
A trucker from Alabama who was headed to Florida agreed to transport it.
The trucker called the couple last week to say the butterfly had been set free in Florida, where tens of millions of other monarchs are making their winter migration to Mexico.
All together now, aawwwwwwww.
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Scrub-a-dub...whoops!
An elderly Pensacola woman was trapped in her own bathtub for three days
But miraculously, she survived by drinking the water.
Harriet Patterson, 82, was about to take a bath when she fell in the tub and broke her arm and dislocated her pelvic bone.
Patterson said she tried to get help by banging on the door, but remained hopeful as the days went on.
Patterson's neighbor eventually came to her rescue. She is now undergoing rehabilitation treatment for her injuries.
You gotta love this woman's attitude.
Says Patterson: "The first thing I did was I laughed at myself and thought, "Honey, you got yourself in quite the predicament right now."
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Man wins 2 vehicles in 10 days
In a span of 10 days, a man learned he won two automobiles in separate contests. Michel Horton from Topeka Kansas picked up his newest ride on Friday, a 2008 "Bon Jovi Special Edition" Saturn Outlook, at a dealership in Topeka. He was notified of the win on Oct. 15.
The entry also netted him a guitar and gold-plated Bon Jovi records.
But that was his second free vehicle. Horton was notified Oct. 5 he had won a Mitsubishi Lancer in a contest sponsored by Bic lighter.
As if that weren't enough, he also won tickets to a recent Kansas City Chiefs game in another drawing.
Horton said rather than collecting the Lancer, he opted to take the cash-in value of $28,800 for the car. He said that will help pay taxes on his winnings.
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UFOs, aliens and ghosts are believed in more than God
Believers in UFOs, aliens and ghosts outnumber those who follow mainstream religions, a survey has found. While 54 per cent of people believe in God, 58 per cent believe in the supernatural.
Researchers found women were more likely to believe in the supernatural than men, and were more likely to visit a medium.
Nearly a quarter of the 3,000 questioned by researchers claimed they had an encounter with the paranormal.
Some 37 per cent said aliens and ghosts were the basis of their belief system.
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It’s Just A Billion Dollars
The U.N.'s Palace of Nations is falling apart.
The Palais des Nations is the U.N.'s European headquarters, flanked by the Swiss Alps to the west and Lake Geneva to the east. Peacocks roam freely on the grounds of the pristine, 111-acre Ariana Park that surrounds it.
But on the inside, the onetime home to the League of Nations is plagued by 70-year-old wiring, fire hazards and miles of rusty pipes that have flooded the archives repeatedly. Asbestos lines some of the walls, and the roof is in danger of caving in. The palace is in need of a major facelift.
The tab: one billion dollars, says Director General Sergei Ordzhonikidze, who heads the U.N. Office at Geneva.
But critics say it's not worth a cool billion to preserve a diplomatic palace. They say new offices could be built for less, and the money could be spent to heal the sick and feed the hungry.
For $1 billion, a firm could build 407,244 square meters of office space in Geneva. That's one and a half times the size of the Empire State Building, and five times the size of the main building at the Palais des Nations.
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Council harassed "BLIND MAN" for £571 parking fine
A blind student was hounded by bailiffs for a parking fine on a car that did not belong to him. Mark White, 39, from Welling, was sent bailiff letters demanding him to pay £571.76 resulting from a parking fine on a car he never owned. Despite being registered blind with Bexley council for four years and giving up his driving licence 15 years ago, the engineering student had to contact the DVLA and the police himself to prove the car was not his.
He proved his identity was stolen and someone had registered the Escort with the registration L508 XAE in his name two years ago. Despite this, he was told by a council worker last Wednesday that he still could not be removed from their enquiries. Mr White, a student at Greenwich University said: "They don't seem to see me being blind as not being able to drive a car. I have been registered blind with them since 2004 but they think I still own a car. I drive a guide dog!" He said: "I am on the Bexley council blind list. Some alarm bells should have been going." A spokesperson for Bexley council said: "Bexley has cancelled this ticket and halted any action by bailiffs."
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