Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Basic facts 1. Burj Khalifa is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). 2. It’s 828 metres tall (2,717 feet). 3. The exact height was not revealed until final stages of the construction. 4. It was officially opened on Jan 4, 2010. 5. It was previously known as Burj Dubai. 6. Burj means Tower in Arabic language. 7. It’s renamed after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi. World records 8. Tallest building – previously Taiwan’s Taipei 101 (509m). 9. Tallest free-standing structure – previously Canada’s CN Tower (555m). 10. Tallest man-made structure – previously USA’s KVLY-TV Mast (629m). 11. Tallest man-made structure ever – previously Poland’s Warsaw Radio Mast (647m). 12. Building with most floors (160) – previously USA’s World Trade Center (110). 13. Highest elevator installation. 14. Highest outdoor observation deck (~440m) 15. Highest mosque at 158th floor. 16. Highest (insert here) which requires another long list to be completed ;p 17. Fastest elevators at speed of 64km/h, or 18m/s. 18. It would take just a minute to reach from ground level to top floor. Architecture facts 19. Burj Dubai has more than 162 floors. 20. It has 49 office floors. 21. It houses 1044 residential apartments. 22. It has a floor area of 334,000 square metres. 23. There’s 57 lifts in the tower. 24. There’s 28,261 of glass-panels on the exterior of the tower. 25. Its top spire can be seen from 95km afar. 26. The architecture features a triple-lobed footprint, an abstraction of the Hymenocallis flower. 27. The Y-shaped floor plan aims to maximize views of the Gulf. 28. Over 1,000 pieces of art from prominent Middle Eastern and international artists will adorn the tower and the surrounding Emaar Boulevard. Environmental facts 29. The tower’s peak electricity demand is estimated at 50MVA, equivalent to roughly 500,000 100-watt light bulbs. 30. It’s expected to use an average of 946,000 litres of water each day. 31. During peak cooling conditions, the tower will require around 12,500 tons of cooling, equivalent to the cooling capacity of about 10,000 tons of melting ice. Construction facts 32. Construction began in September 2004. 33. The tower’s architect and engineer is Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (Chicago). 34. The main constructor is Emaar Properties, a joint venture by Korea’s Samsung C&T, Belgium’s Besix and UAE’s Arabtec. 35. The construction project manager is Turner Construction Company. 36. Bill Baker is the chief structural engineer. 37. Adrian Smith is consulting design partner. 38. It took some 22 million man-hours to be completed. 39. On downside, foreign construction workers were pay as little as $4 per day. 40. Over 45,000 cubic-metres of concrete, weighing more than 110,000 tonnes, were used. 41. Concrete used was enough to lay a 2,065km-long pavement; and equivalent to the weight of 100,000 elephants. 42. Total weight of aluminium used is equivalent to that of five A380 aircraft. 43. Total length of stainless steel bull nose fins used is equal to 293 times the height of France’s Eiffel Tower. 44. The foundations were dug to depths of 50m. Financial figures 45. Total cost estimated at US$1.5 billion. 46. The price for the offices spaces reached as high as US$4,000 per sq ft. 47. Residential spaces as high as US$3,500 per sq ft. 48. The building is part of the a 490-acre flagship development called Downtown Burj Khalifa. Random stuff 49. Burj Khalifa is about twice the height of Empire State Building (443m). 50. It’s taller than Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak (552m). 51. It’s the first world’s tallest structure in history to include residential space. 52. It will feature the world’s first Armani Hotel, which occupies 15 of the lower 39 floors. 53. The exterior temperature at the top of will be 6°C cooler than its base (some say 10°C). 54. Jan 4, its opening date, was the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton. 55. Around 12,000 people are expected to live and work in the tower when it’s fully occupied.
- 1 in every 13 people on Earth is on Facebook
- 35+ demographic represents more than 30% of the entire user base
- 71.2 % of all USA internet users are on Facebook
- In 20 minutes 1,000,000 links are shared on Facebook
- In 20 minutes 1,484,000 event invites are posted
- In 20 minutes 1,323,000 photos are tagged
- In 20 minutes 1,851,000 status updates are entered
- In 20 minutes 1.972 million friend requests are accepted
- In 20 minutes 2,716,000 photos are uploaded
- In 20 minutes 2,716,000 messages are sent
- In 20 minutes 10.2 million comments are posted
- In 20 minutes 1,587,000 wall posts are written
- 750 million photos were uploaded to Facebook over New Year’s weekend
- 48% of young Americans said they found out about news through Facebook
- 48% of 18 to 34 year olds check Facebook right when they wake up
- 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- Average user has 130 friends
- People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
- There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
- Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
- Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
- More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
- More than 70 translations available on the site
- About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
- Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
- Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
- People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day
- Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
- Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day
- More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites
- There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices
- People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
- There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
- Al Pacino’s face was on the original Facebook homepage
- One early Facebook function was a file sharing service
- The first “Work Networks” as well as the original educational networks included Apple and Microsoft
- The meaning of the term poke has never been defined
- There is an ‘App’ to see what’s on the Facebook cafe menu
- Mark Zuckerburg (CEO of Facebook) calls himself a “Harvard Graduate” when in fact he didn’t graduate (apparently his reply is that “there isn’t a setting for dropout”)
- Australian’s spend more time per month on Facebook than any other country at over 7 hours on average
- A Facebook employee hoodie sold for $4,000 on eBay
- Facebook was initially bank-rolled by Peter Thiel the co-founder of PayPal for $500,000
- It is the second biggest website by traffic behind Google (at the moment)
- Facebook is now valued at approximately $80 billion
- Facebook makes money through advertising and virtual products
- Facebook was almost shut down by a lawsuit by ConnectU who claimed that Zuckerburg stole the idea and Technology for Facebook (the issue was settled out of court)
- The USA has the largest Facebook user base with 155 million people which represents 23.6% of Facebook’s total users
- There is over 16,000,000 Facebook fan pages
- Texas Hold’em Poker is the most popular Facebook page with over 41 million fans
- More than 650 million active users
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
A strong heart is a result of healthy lifestyle choices. Be active and stress-free
Today's fast-paced life and workplace pressures escalate stress levels, taking a toll on one's heart. We must realise that the healing power of the body decreases when under stress, leading to many complications like hypertension and poor immunity. Today, even youngsters are prone to heart ailments. So, it's very important to stay healthy and manage your stress levels by understanding the risk factors - high cholesterol levels, stressful lifestyle, smoking, and lack of exercise - following simple changes in lifestyle.
Avoid smoking
Smoking reduces life expectancy by 15-25 years. If you are a smoker, you are twice more likely to have a heart attack than a non-smoker. The moment you stop smoking, the risk of heart attack begins to reduce.
Cut down on salt
Too much salt can cause high blood pressure, which increases the risk of developing coronary heart disease.
Watch your diet
Try to have a balanced diet. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, starch foods such as wholegrain bread and rice.
Monitor your alcohol
Too much alcohol can damage the heart muscle, increase blood pressure and also lead to weight gain. Avoid intake of alcohol or at least limit it to one to two units a day, gradually decreasing the consumption.
Get active
At least aim for 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day. Keeping yourself fit not only benefits the heart but also improves mental health and well-being.
Monitor your BP, blood sugar and cholesterol levels
Routine medical check-ups will ring an alarm, if you need medical help.
Manage your waist
Cholesterol deposition in blood vessels begins in the first decade of life. Carrying a lot of extra weight as fat can greatly affect your health. Make small but healthy changes in your diet.
Manage your stress level
If you find things are getting on top of you, you may fail to eat properly, smoke and drink too much. This may increase your risk of a heart attack. Practice yoga/meditation. Take a vacation.
Check your family history
If a close relative is at risk of developing coronary heart disease from smoking, high BP, high cholesterol, lack of physical activity, obesity and diabetes, then you could be at risk too.
Laughter is the best therapy
Laughter anytime will work wonders for you. It is an instant way to unleash the pressure and it makes you feel light.
When we talk about internet, there is first thing comes in mind- “that is Browser”. Internet browsers plays the main role in internet world. Now a days, so many browsers are available on internet, but few has good rating on internet and among internet users. So today we come with some best browsers, these are getting popularity every day listed below. Every browser has its unique quality that make it popular among internet users.
Google Chrome is second most popular browser around the world. Some are getting more lovers every day like safari, opera, internet explorer, etc.
Few days ago we had been provide best antivirus of 2011 and Tumblr themes of 2011. Firefox is most popular browser among internet geeks because it has a big collection of Add-ons and has security, easy browsing, high performance, etc. Add-ons always play the main role in browsers popularity. Visit these list and find your best one for surfing the web easily. You can share your thought in our comment section below.
Thanks to readers for appreciate our previous articles and share their views about these. Also visit our last article and share your views.
1. Mozilla Firefox 4:
This browser is known for its better surfing speed, security, smarter look and one standout feature known as private browsing. This also provide open audio and video mode, built in spell checker feature add popularity among users. One more thing that make Firefox so lovable is customization, we can change Firefox looks according to our needs.
2. Google Chrome:
Google chrome is popular among internet users because of its dynamic features that provided by it like seed, security, simplicity and many more built in functions.
Here are some features that make chrome so popular
1. Speed: speed is factor that we look in every browser, chrome provides a good browsing speed that we looking for, chrome uses powerful java script engine for speed lighting. Chrome provides Omnibox chromes combined search and address bar, using this it is fast to search and navigate on web.
2. Security: chrome has built in malware and phishing protection, chrome uses safe browsing and sandboxing technologies to keep you safe on web. Chrome also has an auto update function that checks updates regularly to keep you up-to-date with latest security features.
3. Privacy: chrome manages privacy by using a feature Incognito mode, this mode delete all your visited websites and download histories and cookies.
These are the basic differences that make chrome unique among all other browsers. Many more features you enjoy when you use this browser.
3. Internet Explorer 9i :
This is the browser widely used all around the world ,it has increased performance and speed due to improved script engine than other older versions this feature no doubt most useful and noticeable to users, one more thing that attract attention of users towards IE9 is its stability, in older versions if one site or add on crashes it will close entire browser but in IE9 only the affected tab gets down rather than entire browser. This has a unique feature color coded tab grouping, this lets you see that which tab opened from link of which tab.
4. Opera11.50:
Opera11.50 introduce feature like interactive voice this is the unique feature that opera offers to users ,thumbnail previews also make attractive this browser among users, you can customize your browser by adding removing buttons and toolbars and also customize own keyboard shortcuts, you can easily look inside a tab when you put mouse pointer over a tab, opera has built in Bit Torrent so no separate application is needed for download, Opera11.50 have fast JavaScript engine this make opera fastest browser.
5. Safari
Developed by Apple, Safari browser provides you at-a-glance feature that provides you a preview of your favorite site this is an exclusive feature that safari has, you can also create your reading list that contain list of web pages through which you can read your articles, watch or browse whenever you are free , safari have Safari Reader facility that remove all those flashing nonsense ads that distract you from your matter. Security is a feature that every internet user wants in prioty; Safari is highly secure web browser.
6. Maxthon:
Maxthon is known for its rich features, it is a china based browser having customizable and user friendly interface with having cool look, it has a button for menu bar, you will definitely enjoy surfing with this browser, Maxthon has a feature “Drag and Drop” by using this feature you can easily drag a web address from any word file and from any email, use Anti Freezing technology and you can navigate from one webpage to other through the movement of your mouse. One thing that affect its popularity is security and speed it is not so fast and secure browser.
7. Avant :
Avant is Internaet explorer based browser having tabbed browsing and zoom functionality upto 500%.thishas a feature that allows you to enter your screen in full screen mode, when you minimize its window this will remove window and seen only a button at right toolbar.
8. DeepNet Explorer 1.5:
this mainly focuses on RSS feeds and have each tab secure.
9. Phaseout:
This is better known for its looks, has attractive and easy customizable skins, and flash based browser, easy browsing and user friendly.
10. SeaMonkey:
SeaMonkey is an All-in-one application suite.
The most recent will definitely be Ian Bell’s LBW decision of the India VS England match. The home camp – including the fans, thought that it should have been out. Guess what, even Hawk-Eye said so. But anyways, keeping controversies aside, let’s see the different aspects of Hawk-Eye.
What is Hawk-Eye?
This question is strictly aimed at those born yesterday! Well not exactly, but there are scenarios where you’ve heard about it so much, but not really known what it actually meant. So do you know that Hawk-Eye has been bought by Sony and that it’s not officially used by the ICC? Yeah, it’s quite surprising, but that’s exactly what the official Hawk-Eye website says. Anyways, Hawk-Eye is a technology used in cricket which gives you a virtual understanding of the angle and distance of where a ball travels once it pitches. One very common use of Hawk-Eye are the LBW decisions, where the viewers can see the virtual future path of the ball after it’s being pitched and in conclusion get an idea of whether the batsman should actually have been adjudged LBW or not.
How does it work?
The whole setup involves six high speed vision processing cameras along with two broadcast cameras. When a deliver is bowled, the position of the ball recorded in each camera is combined to form a “virtual” 3D positioning of the ball after its being delivered. The whole process of the delivery is broken into two parts, delivery to bounce and bounce to impact. Multiple frames of the ball position are measured and through this, you can calculate the direction, speed, swing and dip of that specific delivery.
That’s how it functions
Different Features of Hawk-Eye
Now that we’ve read about Hawk-Eye and its’ working, there are some other features that this technology brings along with the standard LBW appeals.
Wagon Wheels
So when you see Yusuf Pathan blast his way to a quick fire 50, it’s also exciting to see the various directions on which he must have sent every bowler packing! The Wagon Wheel gives you an idea of the different areas where the batsman has been targeting to score singles, doubles, boundaries or sixes. Plus, looking at the trajectories of the shots you easily know why Dhoni is one of the most feared batsman in cricket!
Now where did that six go?
DeSpin
Only if we could see the angle of deviation of the ball of the century! Yeah we’re talking about Shane Warne’s leg-break delivery that left Mike Gatting spellbound! But let’s not deviate from the topic here, it’s still about a virtual system of checking the angle of turn or deviation of a ball after it has pitched. The blue trajectory shows the actual deliver had it not spun or seamed and the red trajectory shows the actual delivery.
Lemme despin that for you
Pitch Maps
This consists of a virtual map of the various areas of the pitch where the bowler has bowled a delivery. It shows you how consistent a bowler is, in terms of line and length. There’s a split-screen format where you can see a particular bowler bowling to left and right-handed batsman. Last but not the least, it also clearly indicates why although being extremely fast, Shoaib Akhtar might just not be the best choice for a bowler in comparison to Glenn McGrath!
