Thursday, January 21, 2010

Animals Zoo Park

Animals Zoo Park


The Empire State Building Newyork Pictures and Information

Posted: 21 Jan 2010 08:55 AM PST

The Seven (7) Wonders of the Modern World : The Empire State Building Newyork Pictures and Information

In the waning days of World War II, Lieutenant Colonel William F. Smith, an Army Air Force pilot, was flying his B-25 bomber from Bedford, Massachusets to Newark, New Jersey. Smith had just visited his wife in Bedford when he was returning to Newark in the unarmed bomber. Visibility in Manhattan was poor that morning of July 28, 1945, with the fog level around the 80th floor. Flying over Manhattan that morning, Smith found himself dodging the tops of syscrapers when he came up to the Empire State Building at 200 miles an hour---and slammed into it. Tearing an 18x20 foot hole in the 79th floor, the airplane's gas tanks exploded in flames that scorched those inside the building. Besides the instant deaths of the pilot and his 2-man crew, 11 people at work in their offices were killed and 5 injured. Windows shattered all the way to the ground level, sending a rain of glass and debris to the street. One of the airplane's prop engines cut an elevator cable and sent the elevator plunging 1000 feet (the operator survived), while the other engine ripped through the building to come out the other side and fall through the roof of an artist's studio. All in all, a hell of a bout for the Empire State Building, which took the crash in stride. (Courtesy by leblog)

The Empire State Building PictureThe Empire State Building Picture

The Empire State Building New York PictureThe Empire State Building New York Picture

The Empire State Building In New YorkThe Empire State Building In New York

The Empire State Building PictureThe Empire State Building Picture


Who Designed the Empire State Building : Who Designed the Empire State Building? The building is located on No 350 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York. The structure was designed by the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and they had used the Art Deco style as their inspiration for the building.

The building had 102 floors and the name of the building came from the nickname of the city itself. The building stood as the world's tallest building from its completion in 1931 until the completion of Sears Tower in 1972. After the destruction of the World Trade Center in September 11, 2001, the building again became the tallest building in the city and the state. The building cost $40,948,900 in 1930 prices.

The building is noted for its use in many popular culture media, such as the film "King Kong" which featured the giant ape being bombarded by biplanes atop the building and eventually falls to its death. It is also featured in the movie "Love Affair" which is lover's agreement to meet at the observation deck of the building to be hampered by a car accident. This has also spawned comparisons in "Sleepless in Seattle" and the remake "An Affair to Remember". Courtesy By woodenspears

> The Empire State Building Information : 350 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10118, 212-736-3100,Written by Scott Messmore.
Even the name conjures images of the Big Apple with its Art Deco look and 200-foot tall radio antenna that Hollywood's King Kong held onto with one hand and Fay Ray with the other. Visitors to New York City will see some of the best views of downtown Manhattan, plus well into Connecticut and neighboring boroughs from the 102nd- and 86th-floor observatories. Everything about the Empire State Building, like New York City itself, is larger than life. Construction began during the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s with Top of Empire State Building at NightNew York Governor Alfred E. Smith laying the cornerstone.

> Empire State Building Has 6,000 Windows :
Completed in a year and 45 days, the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall with 102 stories. Built as a contest between General Motors founder John J. Raskob and Chrysler leader Walter Chrysler, the Empire State Building is supported by 60,000 tons of steel, has more than 6,000 windows and more than 500,000 square feet of marble and Indiana limestone encase one of the world's most famous skyscrapers. The base of the building alone is five stories above the city streets. The interior lobby is three floors high.

> Great Views of New York From the Empire State Building :
The Empire State Building has been the location of dozens of movies, the reception site of foreign dignitaries and even had a World War II bomber crash into the 79th floor in 1945. Millions of tourists and New Yorkers take in the views of Manhattan and beyond by making the trek to Top of Empire State Building at Night in the Fogone of the Empire State Building's two high-flying observatories.

> Best Views of the City :
Visitors can take one of the Empire State Building's high speed elevator to either the 86th-floor observatory or all the way to the top to the 102nd-floor observatory. To see the New York City skyline in airconditioned comfort, visitors should hop off the elevator on the 86th floor. High-powered binoculars will bring the city a little closer for a 360 degree look below. If the weather and wind is favorable, the truly adventurous can rise another 16 stories to the 102nd-floor observatory. Bring your camera and leave your hat behind for even more spectacular views from 1,250 feet above Manhattan. The 86th-floor observatory is open every day of the year from 9:30 a.m. to midnight, with the final tickets being sold at 11:25 p.m. The 102nd-floor observatory can often be closed to high traffic or severe weather. Visitors who want to Top of Empire State Building at Night in the Fogtake the trip to the top should call in advance or check with visitor information in the lobby. To visit the observatories it's $11 for adults, $10 for seniors, 62 and over, $10 for children 12 to 17, and $5 for children 6 to 11. Tickets are available at the Empire State Building in the concourse just below the ground floor. For more ticket information call 212-736-3100.

> Location :
The Empire State Building located at Fifth Avenue at 34th Street in Manhattan. Taxi's and the subway are most likely the simplest methods of getting to the Empire State Building. Visitors can walk to the Empire State Building from either Grand Central Station or Pennsylvania subway stops. Courtesy by The Empire State Building


The Empire State Building Newyork at the time of Construction
The Empire State Building Newyork in the night
The Empire State Building Newyork Picture in the night


> Construction Information :

Architects: Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates.
Builders: Starrett Brothers & Eken, Inc.

Height: 1,472 feet (448 meters) to top of antennae. 1,250 feet (391 meters) to 102nd floor observatory. 1,050 feet (320 meters) to 86th floor observatory.
Volume: 37 million cubic feet.

Area of Site: 83,860 square feet.

Cost including land: $40,948,900.

Cost of building alone: $24,718,000 (expected cost of $50 million
did not materialize due to the Great Depression)

Construction schedule:
Excavation: Begun January 22, 1930, before demolition of old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel completed.
Construction: Begun March 17, 1930. Framework rose at the rate of 4.5 stories per week.
Cornerstone: Laid by Alfred E. Smith, former governor of New York, September 17, 1930.

Masonry completed: November 13, 1930.

Official opening: May 1, 1931, by President Herbert Hoover, who pressed a button in Washington, D.C. to turn on the building's lights.

Total time: 7 million man hours, 1 year and 45 days work, including Sundays and holidays.

Work Force: 3,400 during peak periods.

Building Materials:
Exterior: Indiana limestone and granite, trimmed with aluminum and chrome-nickel steel from the 6th floor to the top.
Interior lobby: Ceiling high marble, imported from France, Italy, Belgium and Germany.

The CN Tower in Toronto Night Pictures and Info

Posted: 21 Jan 2010 08:30 AM PST

The Seven Wonders of the Modern World : The CN Tower in Toronto Night Pictures and Information

It is fitting that television, the technological wonder that profoundly changed life in the 20th century, spurred the building of the era's tallest freestanding structure. In the late 1960's, Toronto's soaring skyline began to play havoc with signals from conventional transmission towers. Signals bouncing off the city's skyscrapers produced a number of problems, including the annoying phenomenon of "ghosting" on television sets. Weaker signals competed with stronger ones, giving viewers the effects of watching two programs at once. To improve the situation, Canadian National Railways, or CN, proposed building a transmission tower that would stand head and shoulders - and then some - above Toronto's tallest buildings.

A Toronto firm prepared the initial design, enlisting the aid of engineering experts the world over. Their original plan showed three towers linked by structural bridges. Gradually the design evolved into a single 1,815.5-foot-tall tower comprised of three hollow "legs."

Foundation work began in 1973. Giant backhoes excavated more than 62,000 tons of earth and shale to a depth of 50 feet from a along the shore of Lake Ontario in Toronto harbour. Next, prestressed concrete and reinforced steel were arranged in a Y-shaped pattern 22 feet thick. Each hollow leg of the Y would carry its fair share of the tower's 130,000-ton burden.

The foundation took only four months to complete. The tower itself presented a challenge of height never before met by the technique of poured concrete. To meet that challenge, engineers designed a huge mold known as a slip form. Concrete was poured 24 hours a day, five days a week, and as it hardened, the mold moved upward by means of a ring of hydraulic jacks. The ascending slip form gradually decreased in girth to give the tower its tapering shape.

When the tower reached the 1,100-foot mark, the builders made preparations for the SkyPod, a seven-story structure housing two observation decks, a revolving restaurant, a nightclub, and broadcasting equipment. The SkyPod is anchored by 12 steel-and-wooden brackets that were slowly pushed up the tower by 45 hydraulic jacks. Concrete formed the SkyPod's "walls," and a doughnut-shaped ring, called a radome, was added to its base to protect the delicate microwave dishes receiving radio and television transmissions. The SkyPod is reached by four high-speed, glass-fronted elevators whose rapid rise simulates a jetliner's takeoff, unless weather conditions call for a much slower ascent.

The concrete tower continues above the SkyPod, ending at the Space Deck 1,465 feet up. The Space Deck receives support from cantilevers extending out of the concrete section beneath it. After a 58-second elevator ride from the SkyPod below, visitors can enjoy breathtaking vistas from a glass-enclosed balcony. On a clear day they might be able to glimpse sites 75 miles away.

For the last phase of construction, a Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter arrived to install the tower's 335-foot communications mast. One by one the helicopter lifted about 40 seven-ton sections of the mast to the top of the tower, where workers braved blustery March winds to receive them. When the sections were in place, they were secured by a total of 40,000 bolts. Afterward, the entire mast was covered by a fiberglass-reinforced sheathing to prevent icing.

Of interest to Torontonians since construction began, the CN tower gained additional fans with the arrival of the helicopter. Nicknamed Olga, its daily schedule was printed in newspapers, and changes were announced as breaking news on radio and television. With Olga, the mast assembly took a little longer than three weeks; without Olga, the job would have lasted six months.

Completed in 1975, the tower had cost $57 million to build, a bargain compared with other modern wonders. It also boasted incredible statistics of precision and safety. During construction, surveyors' transits up to a thousand feet away focused on optical plumbs mounted on the slip-form base. The constant surveillance kept the structure an incredible 1.1 inches within plumb.

Engineers established a wind-tolerance standard for the tower of 260 miles an hour, a level well above nature's most extreme demands. Counterweights on the antenna correct for wobble in high winds. Because the tower is an easy target for lightning, copper grounding wires were installed. As a result, visitors can safely view some 75 spectacular strikes a year.

The CN Tower is a work in progress. In recent years the tower gained two new elevators to accommodate an increase in visitors. To accomplish this, the 2,579-step metal staircase was moved to the interior of the structure. In addition, a glass floor was added to the SkyPod's observation deck. Brave visitors, the majority not surprisingly children, inch out over the visual void. More often than not the experience is pronounced, "Awesome!"

Almost twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower and more than three times the height of the Washington Monument, the CN Tower has taken proud ownership of Toronto's skyline, while exorcising the ghosts from its TV sets. Courtesy by wonderclub

Source: The Wonders of the World, National Geographic Society

The CN Tower in Toronto Picture

The CN Tower in Toronto Picture

CN Tower is one of Canada's greatest man-made wonders. It offers visitors a great view of all of Toronto during both the day and night. There are two different platforms that you can visit. One, the Look Out Level, is 346 m high, while the other, the Glass Floor, is 342 m. There are also several restaurants, the SkyPod, a film, and even a motion theatre ride for you to enjoy!

Heading out from your most Toronto hotels more than walking distance from the CN tower, you'll want to take the subway and get off at the Union Station. From there, you only have to follow the Skywalk to reach the CN Tower. Once you arrive, you'll have several ticket options. If you have a Citypass, you're in luck—you get a free ticket that includes a visit to the Look Out and Glass Floor levels and either the chance to watch The Height of Excellence film about the tower or go on the motion theatre ride. If you want to visit the SkyPod, which is the world's highest observation deck, you'll have to purchase an additional ticket.

CN Tower is open from 9 am to 10 pm, although the hours do change during some seasons, and the weather may require some of the higher decks to close. It's best to go before noon or in the later evenings since the tower is usually less crowded.

Once there, you can have a light meal at the Horizon's Café, or, if you have some extra money to spend, eat in the 360 Restaurant. As the name suggests, the restaurant actually revolves as you eat. It's quite the experience. The Glass Floor observation deck, likewise, is exactly like it sounds—you can actually walk across very thick and strong glass panes and look down at the rest of the tower below you. Quite the experience and one definitely not for those who are afraid of heights! information from Belgium Search

The CN Tower TorontoThe CN Tower Toronto Picture

The CN Tower at NightThe CN Tower at Night Picture

The CN Tower Toronto at NightThe CN Tower Toronto at Night Picture

The CN Tower at NightThe CN Tower at Night Picture

The Belize Barrier Reef Info Photos - Pictures

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 09:27 PM PST

The Belize Barrier Reef Photos and Pictures :




The Belize Barrier Reef Photo

The Belize Barrier Reef Picture

The Belize Barrier Reef Info:

The second largest barrier reef in the world rises from the seafloor off the coast of Belize. A diver's paradise, it is known for fascinating coral formations, myriad fish and invertebrates, and exceptional water clarity.

On the ocean side of this 160-mile-long reef is a popular tourist designation known as Lighthouse Reef. Here, crystal-clear waters fill the famous Blue Hole, a crater more than 1,000 feet across and just over 400 feet deep. At the surface, healthy coral formations rim this wonder within a wonder, but at a depth of 125 feet, neither corals nor fish can be found. Instead, a diver finds stalactites formed during the Ice Age, when the world sea level was much lower and the Blue Hole was a subterranean cavern. The hole formed when the cavern's roof collapsed.

To the south is Glover's Reef, surrounded by waters so clear that visibility even at night is quite good: The long shaft of a diver's torch can pierce the water to a distance of 15 feet. Because it is several miles from the mainland, this reef is not affected by silt and sediment runoff. At Glover's, the arrival of a diver startles bright red cardinalfish swimming in open water, they rely on organs called lateral lines running along both sides of their bodies. A combination of sonar and radar, a lateral line senses vibrations and movements in the water, allowing fish to detect predators and pray. It's also an early warning device. As a fish swims, it creates a sort of bow wake that bounces off solid objects. When another fish feels the wake, it moves to avoid a collision.

Glover's Reef is home to the Emerald Forest, a site named for magnificent elk horn coral "trees" having trunks a foot diameter and canopies more than ten feet high. Several kinds of exotic fish also live here, and at night, a camera-bearing diver can catch them asleep, tucked in against the reef, but still out in the open. Butterflyfish as colourful as backyard butterflies hover in the water. So do hogfish with pig like snouts, trumpetfish that look like two-foot-long musical instruments, and parrotfish, their beaklike mouths closed for the night.

Not all of the reef's creatures are lost in sleep, however. Manta rays and sharks prowl the darkness, seeking meals. Lobsters, crabs, shrimp, and nudibranchs (the beautiful slugs of the sea) search the reef for food and mates. A Nassau grouper gets its mouth "cleaned" by a tiny shrimp, which darts from side to side and from top to bottom to remove small parasites and dead flesh from the cooperative fish, its mouth frozen in a wide yawn. The shrimp gets a free meal, so to speak. Dr. Mary Wicksten, a marine biologist at Texas A&M University and a specialist in these so-called cleaning stations, says that fish seek out established stations on the reef because the activity is important for their health. Like several other reef fish, the Nassau grouper is remarkable for its ability to change sex as it gets older, increasing its chances for reproductive success when another grouper is met.

At a natural cut in Glover's Reef, where water surges during the changing of the tide, a diver can free-fall horizontally, whipped along by the strong current. But fish hover without obvious effort, their streamlined bodies designed by nature to keep them in place in such conditions. Jutting from the walls of the cut, like fingers on a huge hand, are lavender tube sponges that eat by filtering tiny plants and animals from the sea. Soft coral sea fans, also filter feeders, bend in the breeze like underwater current that brings them a constant supply of food. The dominant life-form here is the hard coral, which is capable of withstanding the force of very strong wave action.

Where the current exits this canyon, it stirs up sand from the floor of a lagoon, reducing visibility. Somewhere near the bottom, turtles and manatees leisurely feed on sea grasses, while small coral heads form mini-reefs alive with tiny fish.

Across the lagoon is the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, a small area off Ambergris Cay where the tangled roots of a mangrove forest reach into the water. Even here, small fish dart among the roots, looking for meals or protection from predators.

Hol Chan, which is Maya for "the cut," was established in 1987. It encompasses all three habitats of the barrier reef ecosystem: reef, lagoon, and mangroves. Although separate, each area depends on the others. Marine scientist Jacque Carter, who has long studied Belize's fish, writes: "The mangroves are a feeding and breeding ground for reef fishes; they also trap silt and sediment runoff before it reaches the reef. The lagoon is...a feeding ground for many reef fishes, and the sea grasses...trap reef-smothering particles [keeping them] from reaching the lagoon, mangroves and shore areas from destructive wave action. If one area is damaged, the others are also affected – which is why it is important to protect the entire system, and not just the beautiful coral reef."

Pinnacle reefs to the lea of the Belize Barrier Reef: Jim Ebanks photo
Pinnacle reefs to the lea of the Belize Barrier Reef: Jim Ebanks photo

Belize Blue Hole Lighthouse Reef.
Belize Blue Hole Lighthouse Reef.

Note reef platforms within the Belize Barrier Reef. Note the pinnacle reefs within the barrier rims to these patches.
Note reef platforms within the Belize Barrier Reef. Note the pinnacle reefs within the barrier rims to these patches.

Belize Barrier ReefAfter Noel James.Belize Barrier ReefAfter Noel James.

Photos From : USC Sequence Stratigraphy

The Galapagos Islands Info Pictures - Photos

Posted: 20 Jan 2010 08:32 PM PST

The Galapagos Islands Info Pictures - Photos

If you love animals and nature, where else can be ideal for you but Galapagos Islands?

The instant your feet will touch this fantastic land it will seem you to live in a great spectacular zoological natural park, surrounded by the most different flora and fauna you can ever imagine. If you look up and around you can see many species of birds (the famous and funny "Bobo", the "Mocking Bird" the "Frigate bird" and Hawks). A colorful show, but there are other types of animals : "Beach basking beasts" and the Land Iguana Diving in the splendid local sea we can swim near Penguins or incredible big Centurion Marine turtle; but pay attention: don't step over a Light foot Crab (it's of a light orange colour when it grows, but when it is small is almost black to hide on the sand and avoid to be predate so it's difficult to individuate). If you like a night time dive you can swim with the swallow tailed gulls that are hunting the night swimming marine life of the sea's water. For all it's natural species this islands inspired also Charles Darwin that after living there 5 weeks thought his Theory of evolution.One more time you travelled between history and natural wonders. by .Prontohotel





Rising from the Pacific 600 miles west of Ecuador are arid islands whose name, for obvious reasons, is a Spanish word for tortoises. Indeed, the Galapagos islands are famous for tortoises weighing hundreds of pounds. What many people don't know, though, is that fascinating creatures also live in an undersea realm offshore.

Describing the contrast between the islands and their underwater bounty in a the 1924 book of, Galapagos: World's End, William Beebe wrote: "Host of sally-lightfoots [tidal crabs] were the most brilliant spots of color above the water in the islands, putting to shame the dull, drab hues of the terrestrial organisms and hinting at the glories of colorful animal life beneath the surface of the sea. "

Four currents converge in Galapagos waters: the Peru or Humboldt to from the south, the Equatorial from the West, the North Equatorial, and the Panama. Fish and invertebrates from different oceans and habitat ride these currents and quickly make themselves at home along the rocky shores, on a sandy sea bottom, and in the mangrove forests of the Galapagos.

Among the most playful creatures here are the sea lions. Slicing through the water at dazzling speed, they sometimes perform an underwater ballet of sorts, twisting, turning, stretching, and arching their sleek bodies amid clouds of plankton. A sea lion will swim just inches from a diver's mask as if approaching for a kiss, or it will nibble at a swim fin or embrace the diver with its flippers, all the while maintaining eye contact-a technique that requires incredible flexibility and agility.

A sea monster the size of a school bus also lives in Galapagos waters: the whale shark. Largest fish in the sea, it eats plankton and fish strained from the water by its wide mouth. Although encounters with it are rare here, encounters with other sharks are not. Six- to eight-foot-long hammerhead sharks, with heads shaped like sledgea hammers, swim in schools of a hundred or more. White-tip, Galapagos, and bull sharks, most larger than a man, are seen by nearly every explorer who enters these waters. Getting pictures of them while diving is difficult, though, because a diver's bubbles seem to frighten them.

Among the more unlikely denizens of equatorial waters are Galapagos Penguins. Only here and along the Pacific coast of South America do Penguins live near the Equator. They ply these waters with great ease, chasing fish and avoiding sharks. Out of water, they may be seen waddling about on the islands' volcanic rocks.

Another unique animal is the marine iguana, a ferret-size lizard whose distinctly reptilian features are adaptations for its life in the Galapagos: it uses its blunt snout to scrape algae from submerged rocks, it's clawed feet to grip slippery rocks, its muscular body and tail to swim in strong tides, and its spines to defend against predators.

Although the archipelago holds many wonders, it does not have a coral reef. Instead, diver's find dramatic volcanic rock formations beneath the sea. Some of them are bare; others are covered by red algae, orange and costing sponges, orange cup corals, and bushes of black coral.

One reason for the low number of reef-building corals is a weather phenomenon called El Nino. Periodically, El Nino brings an incursion of water that is poor in nutrients and unusually warm; these conditions are unfavorable for corals and plankton. El Nino also causes rainfall to increase, and large amounts of freshwater added to seawater are detrimental to coral growth.

Conversely, these seas hold a high number of fish-300 species, of which 17 percent are endemic. Among them are the hieroglyphic hawkfish, a bottom-dweller that seems to have symbols etched on its body, and the red-lipped batfish, with fashion-model-red lips. Not surprisingly, the archipelago attracts many fishermen.

Although the area is protected by an 1986 presidential decree making it the Marine Resource Reserve, it is still the site of illegal fishing. Park rangers simply don't have the resources to patrol almost 30,000 square miles. Luckily, the conservation effort is strong, being led in part by the owner of live-aboard dive vessels, Herbert Frei, Jr., who says that a plan is in the works to provide fisherman with a livelihood, while not significantly affecting the underwater habitat.

Efforts are also under way to save the islands' terrestrial animals, especially the tortoises. Because their shells come in different sizes and shapes-domed, saddle-back, or somewhere in between-these gentle giants formerly were thought to be members of several species. In fact, there is only one species, and it was almost wiped out by hunting and habitat destruction. Today, scientists at the Charles Darwin Research Station are working to protect and, in some cases, reintroduce the giant tortoises to more remote areas of the archipelago.

Fortunately some 750,000 birds still can be found among the islands. Flycatchers, mockingbirds, yellow warblers, hawks, owls, and finches are common. So far 19 species of seabirds, including the blue-footed booby, red-footed booby, frigate bird, and the waved albatross.

When naturalized Charles Darwin first came to the Galapagos in 1835, he noticed that animals of the same species looked different on different islands. Years later, he developed a revolutionary theory of evolution and wrote On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. What might he have thought if he had also seen the remarkable creatures in the sea surrounding islands?
> Source: The Wonders of the World, National Geographic Society



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