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World’s Only Skyscraper With Built-In Wind Turbines
A new feature of London’s skyline is the first building in the world with built in wind turbines. It has been named the razor for this reason. It stands at 148 meters tall and has a set of three turbines that can generate enough energy to meet eight percent of the building’s needs. True, while eight percent may not sound like a lot to the untrained eye, this sets a very important precendent in archtecture and green energy for future construction. 8% over the course of 12 months comes out to an almost entire month of “free” energy for building owners and tenants.
There have been other skyscrapers built with wind turbines in the past, but this is the only one to have them built into the façade. This building, called the Strata was contracted and developed by Brookfield Europe, and was a difficult engineering feat.
The skyscraper raises forty-two stories into the air and is tall enough to block out light to the surrounding buildings. This means it can take advantage and generate power from the thirty-five mile an hour winds that are to be found on the London skyline. The building has been built with the Venturi effect in mind. This outcome occurs due to structures nearby, which then push wind into the turbines very powerfully. This has the effect of producing a yearly output of 50MWh of electricity.
Each of the building’s 19 kilowatt wind turbines has five blades instead of three, which will reduce noise while they are in use. It is also interesting to note that a five-ton base with dampers for the vibrations, will ensure the tower is secure and will not be swayed or uplifted from the ground. This was a very important consideration made by the engineers.
The skyscraper also comes with a number of other strategies for green construction. For example, the tower uses only natural ventilation, high-efficiency glazing, and similar energy efficiency techniques. All of these measures will ensure the power use in the building stays below 6% of the current requirements for the building. The cost of the Strata tower was £113 million and brings a new concept of how to use green energy in the construction of future tall buildings.
The benefits of this building are almost immeasurable. It goes to show architects and building owners that green energy, when included in designs up front, can save business owners millions of dollars over the lifetime of the building. At the same time, it can help save the Earth and allow human beings to inhabit the planet just a little while longer. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Pat Lindle utilizes cutting edge architecture and green technology and utilizes both extensively in his metal deck / steel deck company. While built-in wind turbines are not in his future, Pat does give priority to customers and vendors who choose to “go green”.
Biggest Ice Hotel On Earth
Over thousand kilometers in the north of the Swedish Capital Stockholm, the world’s largest ice hotel resides in a small town called ‘Jukkasjarvi’ in the city of Kiruna, made entirely by ice. The first in the world of its own kind, tens of thousands of visitors stay in the hotel every year. Although it looks like a hotel but more like a waking dream, everything is made of ice the bar, glasses, tables and chairs, build by using ice blocks with special steel frames.
It takes around a month to make this incredible ice palace, it’s built up in November every year with always different architecture by a team of designers from around the world. The snow and ice used to build this ice hotel is taken from the nearby River Torne, and around 30,000 cubic feet of snow and 5,000 tons of ice is required in building it. The hotel completely melts in April with the change of climate, so it is open for four months, from December to March, throughout the winter every year.
The large state of the art hotel building covers around 5,500 square meters of floor space, having 60 bedrooms and suites, each room is uniquely fascinating and created by a nice sculpture. It is one of the most beautiful art work examples of the world, the ice disc used to form columns cemented with hot water, snow and cold water sprayed on to the metal frames to make walls and ceilings. The hotel temperature inside maintains to minus 5 degrees Celsius while outside temperature usually remains extremely low to minus 30 degrees.
The ice hotel contains an ice bar; everything made by ice even the serving glasses are made of ice, definitely no need to add ice cubes to cool your drink. Not only this, but the hotel also offers many joyous activities, like skiing, dog and reindeer sledding, wild parties, and snowmobile safaris are among the popular activities. One of the prime experiences here is the phenomenal light show called the Aurora Borialis. Icehotel also has an ice church, and thousands of wedding couples wed locked in the hotel’s ice church.
It is now one of the most captivating sights for tourists in Sweden. If you adore cold winter climate, then it is the best place to plan your excursion. The artistically crafted Icehotel awaits you to visit, stay and live on ice.
The everlasting coolest experience of your life!
Bookitnow.com is a prime travel blog, offers enchanted journeys with its diverse range of cheap holiday deals and packages.
Unusual Armchair Designs
The familiar armchair is one of the most comforting items in the home and often provides a haven of peace and quiet away from the stresses and hustle of life.
Although armchairs are essentially just chairs with arm rests there have been some crazy and original designs over the years for the humble item of furniture.
Seatub
The seatub was designed by London based Baek-Ki Kim and is a bathtub up turned on one end and steadied with two organic looking metal legs. The occupant resides within the walls of the bath tub and is offered a high level of privacy from other people sitting nearby. This armchair is great for getting some peace and quiet and partaking in a spot of solitary reading.
Splash Chair
The splash chair was inspired by high speed photography of milk drops and is made from sanded down fibreglass, the occupant is cradled in an alcove of smooth fibreglass in a lounging relaxing seating position. This is an ideal chair for lounge by the side of a pool or sunbathing.
Zero Gravity Chair
The zero gravity chair by Stokke looks extremely precarious and focuses around a swinging mechanism which means you can sit on the armchair in a number of positions depending on what you are getting up to. This one is definitely for the more adventurous amongst us as you could find yourself falling flat on the fall during you afternoon snooze.
Teddy Bear Armchair
Artist Matti Klenell has created a giant teddy bear armchair which is bright green and lets children rest in the comfort of the bears lap. The bear itself is coated in luxurious velvet material which offers a high level of comfort for the child lucky enough to be lounging in bear’s giant arms.
Eero Saarinen Office Chair
There have been a few concept ideas for reimagining’s of classic chairs and armchairs. Such as the rethinking of Eero Saarinen’s well known office chair to feature monsters faces within the back rest. The conceptual chair hacks Eero’s original idea to feature a grotesque aspect which might be appealing to braver children out there.
Pharrell Williams' TankChair
Anyone can re-imagine a classic design like the armchair and even world famous rapper Pharrell Williams came up with an original design for the humble armchair. Pharrell’s version of the armchair features tank like treads as the legs and focuses upon the theme of war!
So there you have it armchairs can take on a surprising amount of shapes and forms and previous examples have included resting spots inspired by tank, teddy bears, bath tubs and even drops of milk! Kicking back and relaxing in an armchair is one of people’s favourites past times as it lets you slow the world down and ponder the more important things in life.
Jonathan is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about furniture design.
How Many People Can You Fit in a…
Humans have a tendency to take regular items and abuse them until they break. We push technologies to the limit, we ruin manufacturer’s designs and we use our brain to wonder what stupid things we can try next. It’s this form of intellect that makes us the dominant force in the world, but it is also this intellect that makes us think about really stupid and irrelevant stuff – like how many people can you fit in a car. Our vast amounts of brain power can’t make up for our love of the dumb stuff, so sit back and enjoy.
How many people can you fit in a Mini?
The quintessentially British Mini has been used for so many escapades: The Italian Job, bombing down a ski-slope with rockets on the back and representing all what’s good about Britain for over four decades. But now, the daddy of all accolades has been thrust upon it – the world record for how many people you can fit in one.
That’s right; we’ve managed to ruin the identity of the Mini by shoving several people into one. They shared sweat, body odour, breath molecules and anal smells, but they managed to get as cram loads of enthusiastic people into Alec Issigonis’ great design.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj8rWWeE4eA
How many people can you fit in a Limo?
Asking such a speculative question is quite a vast subject as there a lots of limos out there. From massive Hummers to god-awful American saloons that have been converted, there’s a limo for everyone. But what if you need to take a bunch of hungry football players to Pizza Hut in style? Just how many could you fit in one?
Well, for basic usage, they say a Hummer limo could fit up to 20 people, but that’s for plenty of breathing space and lots of leg room; in reality, if you really wanted to push the boat out, you could easily squash 35/40 people in there. Get a bit intimate, you know, get to know people better. It’s the way the Hummer limo was designed to work.
How many people can you fit in a Jeep Wrangler?
This brilliant video shows a group of young ens doing what they do best – nothing! It’s the typical “hey, I wonder how cramped we can all get inside this Jeep Wrangler” video, and it demonstrates all that is good with mankind. That’s some aspirational group of kids’ right there, people!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Y1HS-RDQo
How many people can you fit in a Smart car?
The Smart car is loved by some, hated by many, but one feature of its vast amounts of talent has rarely been exploited: its size! Yep, that’s right; one of the smallest cars on the planet has been subjected to the usual rigmarole of lots of young people trying to fit inside. In this world record attempt, 13 cheerleaders manage to squeeze inside the tiny city car – let’s just hope nobody releases any bodily gases.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg94FtrHzgw
How many people can you fit in an elevator?
Wow, that doesn’t half look cramped, does it? Just imagine the load and the strain that elevator cable is going through just to carry all those people – who were too lazy to walk – up the stairs. The body heat, sexual tension and urge to fart must be biblical.
Let’s just hope nothing sinister came from such an event, as let’s be honest, there are a lot of oddballs out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nj4MqDLtXU
Whether you are looking for a Mini, Jeep Wrangler or Smart Car be sure to take a look at Netcars.com the used cars search engine in the UK.
Sustainable Homes Built Underground: More Than Science Fiction
There are many people who believe that the key to eco architecture is to build taller buildings and preserve space on the ground, but there are also those who have chosen the opposite route. In other words, they advocate building underground. There are now some incredible examples that show naturally sustainable construction hidden under the ground. Here are some very nice examples of what you can expect to see more of in the future.
A buried house in Switzerland
While some people build homes to be seen, this house is the exact opposite. This home in Vais, Switzerland was designed to be hidden on all sides except for one. In doing so, this house is able to remove the need for all heating and cooling in the winter and summer months.
Iranian cave homes
There are some seven-hundred year old cave homes in Iran. They are carved from natural rock formations that make them very low energy, and these places are available for people to buy and rent.
Earth house in grass
There is a home in a Swiss estate that was made inside a small curved hill. In fact, it looks like something from a fairytale, but this project has actually created a form of insulation that protects its owners from the rain, the wind, natural abrasion and low temperatures. This results in less energy needed and saves them money in the long run.
Modern home inside a cave
A 15,000 square foot modern home built right into a sheer cliff face is not what you expect to see in Festus, Missouri. However this underground home is built to include many examples of energy efficient architecture, such as geothermal heating and a passive design. This allows the home to stay comfortable during all months without the need for extra heating or air conditioning.
Underground eco cottages
These cottages were built by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright and are beautiful. They are built into the landscape and allow for eco friendly energy usage. They also give their owners incredible light, with the huge class face and wide en exterior.
As you can see from the examples above, there are now many homes that have been built into the earth, or even partially underground. This is a trend that might become more popular as more people want to save money on energy and take on a greener lifestyle.
Pat Lindle is a metal deck and steel deck fabricator who lives in Phoenix AZ with his family. Pat has a passion for Earth sustainability and is constantly looking for ways to improve his carbon footprint in the world, especially when it comes to his business.
Loss of Investor’s Money Leads to Shocking Suicide
The high stakes game of real estate and investments recently led to the tragic death of 61-year old Wayne Boswell. On April 1, 2011, after arriving at work, a secretary discovered a disturbing note left on her desk. According to the Seattle Police Department, the note contained detailed instructions on where to find his body. Boswell was found in his car in the parking garage of the condo he shared with his wife overlooking Seattle’s waterfront. The medical examiner ruled the death a suicide after two self-inflicted bullet wounds were found in his chest.
The Rise of the Stratford Group
As President of the Stratford Group Ltd. in Seattle, Wayne Boswell built a winning formula for investors who were starting out small with the hope of earning big bucks in the future. For nearly three decades, the Stratford Group delivered consistent growth while brokering the sale of commercial buildings, apartments and strip malls throughout the Pacific Northwest. Boswell was an ambitious man who would manage each of the properties for a fee. After collecting the rent and paying the mortgage, he would send investors a statement and a check for money left over. Many of the investors were impressed at Boswell’s ability to find lucrative properties in a declining real estate market. Following the collapse of the Stratford Group, only $500 remained in the company’s bank account and over one million dollars was missing.
Collapse of Seattle Real Estate Market
According to a recent forecast report from Goldman Sachs, they estimate that Seattle home prices will decline twice as much over the next couple of years than in any other city, except for Portland. Seattle home prices are currently overvalued and homeowners are being forced to look at alternatives. Homeowners are trying to get lenders to take a short sale and accept less money than what is currently owed on the loan. Lenders may agree to this option rather than going through the expensive process of foreclosing. The New York Times reported in February 2011 that the housing market in Seattle had a bigger decline than Las Vegas and was down roughly 31 percent from the peak in 2007. Few people believed the housing market in Seattle would ever collapse because the area was so prosperous. Many homeowners are renting out their houses and finding a cheaper rental to live in rather than sell at a drastically reduced price. While the foreclosure rate continues to increase in Seattle, some homeowners are choosing to just walk away and mail the keys back to the lender.
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How to Find Inner Peace Daily
Energy vibrations pass through our bodies and minds every second of every day. We are vessels that absorb and deflect this energy according to our own vibration. Think of yourself as a tuning fork, the thick metal device that when struck on a hard surface emits the vibration of a particular musical note. You walk through life releasing your vibration according to how you are struck. Unfortunately, many of us have been struck down one too many times and automatically take on a daily vibration of fear and anger. It is not until we are awakened by an epiphany, tragic or otherwise, that our tuning fork receives the opportunity to change its vibration. Finding inner peace as an underlying energy is something all of us are capable of as it just takes a little intuition, attention and a few new strikes to our tuning fork.
Duck and Deflect
Humans have always been attracted to negativity. From public hangings to car wrecks, people naturally rubber neck toward the macabre. Unfortunately, much of what influences us has grasped onto this attraction resulting in sensationalistic television programs, movies, news, politics and religion. Feed your inner peace by evading everything from fear mongering media, negative wording and verbal toxicity. After a while you will see the transparency of fear inducing vibrations and be able to avoid them at all costs, leaving only the positive for you to indulge.
Recognize Your Position in Life
“Most folks are about as happy as they want to be.” -Abraham Lincoln
You have problems. Real, depressing, deep, lonely problems that make you want to run for the hills. Inner peace cannot compete with a screaming ego that constantly reminds us of our misfortune. That is why it is always astonishing and sometimes annoying to meet people that walk around in a fairly stress-free state. Yet, it is usually someone else that informs us of some unthinkable personal struggle that that very person is going through. This is inner peace winning. Not allowing that voice in our heads to pound its chest and tell us that we are unlucky, unloved, victims of the barrage of problems bestowed upon us. When you can do something about it, do it, when you cannot, breathe and smile.
Giving Fuels Inner Peace
The Dali Lama said, “Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease.” This is the fuel for inner peace. Letting go of the ego and flowing into the energetic void with positivity and compassion will bring truckloads of strong feelings of happiness and contentment in return. The key here is to not want anything in return for your time or energy and to always remember that, wherever you go, there you are.
Never give up your search. Although inner peace may sound like a childish New Age label to some, think of this, what is the alternative?
About the Author: Matt is a writer, blogger, and massage therapist. He enjoys writing about wellness, education, and personal finance and can often be found contributing to CreditLoan.com.
A History of the End of the World
During 2010 there were a plethora of books and movies dealing with “end of the world” stories. From vampires (The Strain, The Passage) through to desolation and emptiness with no explanation of how it happened (Book of Eli, The Road) we were offered quite a selection. But this isn’t new, we have always had tails of the end times and the only thing which changes is our ingenuity to dream up new ways to kill off civilisation. So here is a history of the end of the world in 10 chapters.
1. Viruses. By the turn of the 19th century we knew that there were organisms smaller than bacteria and the world of viruses started to unravel. They have proven to be a fruitful source of doom with Stephen King’s “The Stand” being the major work. Other works include the Bruce Willis film “12 monkeys” and Margaret Atwood’s book “Oryx and Crake”.
2. Nuclear war. This was understandably popular during the cold war and the Nevil Shute book “On the beach” which was published in 1957 is arguably the best tale on this theme. It was filmed in 1959 with Gregory Peck. There was a remake for TV in 2000.
3. Natural disaster and climate change. The two recent films, “Day after tomorrow” and “2012″ deal with this with varying degrees of success. Both these were directed and written by Roland Emmerich who has since announced that he will not make any more disaster movies!
4. Floods. The original biblical story has been reworked by Stephen Baxter in his book “Flood”. For films Kevin Costner’s “Waterworld” tries to portray this new world.
5. Vampires. Very popular during 2010 with “The Strain” and “The Passage” both hitting the best seller list. Both treat vampirism as a viral infection but with different histories. “The Strain” talks about an ancient evil whilst “The Passage” is a modern military virus.
6. Science.”The Quiet Earth”, a 1985 New Zealand Sci-Fi film from Sam Pillsbury is a great example of this. The exact mechanics of the science remains unclear but essentially this is a military project gone dramatically wrong. The people and animals are literally wiped away and all who remain are the few who were dieing at the moment the change took place.
7. Plants. John Wyndhams classic novel “The Day of the Triffids” defines this category. It is worth mentioning that Brian Aldiss categorised this book as one of the cosy catastrophe novels where a small group of survivors enjoy a relatively comfortable existence.
8. Undefined catastrophes. Cormac McCarthy’s novel “The Road” is typical of this genre. The mechanism of the disaster is not important and instead the story concentrates on the despair and harsh reality which follows. Brian Aldiss would probably call this a hard catastrophe novel.
9. Financial meltdown and the collapse of order in society. The novel “Patriots: A novel of survival in the coming collapse” tells this grim story. The book, first published as “The grey nineties” and released as shareware downloads in 1995 is basically a survivalist’s story with much useful “how to” information.
10. Christian end times. These stories are represented by the writings of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins with their “Left behind” series. They take the biblical end time prophecies and turn it into a modern day thriller. This is the world of the Anti Christ and retribution.
There are of course an infinite number of ways that this world could end. Which would you chose?
This article was written by Mike Holly. He lives and works in the North of Engalnd where he has been exploring cottages around Northumberland.He is not expecting the world to end during 2011.
Strange medical conditions
We like to think that we live in a world where most medical conditions can be cure, or at least managed in one way or another. If all else fails, we hope that there is a House MD-like genius that will find what is ailing us when everyone else fails and provides a simple, yet effectively miraculous, cure. But unfortunately the world that we live in is still full of mysterious diseases that doctors and medical researchers can’t find a cure for. We’ll be looking at some of those now.
1. Inability to keep your eyes open
Imagine that you would wake up one day and were unable to open your eyes. Surely a lot of us felt that way after a sleepless night, but this is an actual physical inability to open your eyes and keep them that way. It goes away after a few days, but then it returns. There is no explanation, there isn’t even a lot of documentation on cases of this disease – so much so that it doesn’t even have a name yet. Medical professionals are not even sure whether this condition is truly physiological or psychological – perhaps even a mixture of both. But this comes as no relief to someone who suffers from it.
2. Extreme resistance to cold
I’m not sure if this is a disease, but it’s definitely a condition that has no explanation. There are people who are simply unable to experience being cold. Wim Hof, a 49 year old man from Holland, has extreme resistance to cold. He is able to spend hours immersed in ice, has the Guinness world record for swimming under the ice, ran a half marathon in the Artic circle in his bare feet and scaled Mount Everest wearing nothing but shorts. It’s not clear whether he has great control over his body temperature or just a different metabolism, but it is clear that this in an amazing man. And there are others like him too.
3. PSAS
PSAS stands for Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome. Already you are smirking, but it’s not at all a case to laugh about. Someone who suffers from this is constantly on the brink of orgasm. Constantly, without exception. It’s uncontrollable and undesirable. It’s also painful and frustrating, to the point that the only thing that somewhat alleviates the condition – an orgasm – ceases to be something that brings you pleasure and becomes a mere relief. And intercourse in no way helps this condition, in fact, it may bring a person that suffers from PSAS even more pain.
4. Chronic hiccupping
We have all experienced hiccupping in the past. It’s something that is considered natural. Many people even have their own personal remedy for hiccupping: drinking water, holding one’s breath, getting startled. But what if the hiccups simply refused to go away? Hiccupping is caused by an involuntary contraction of the diaphragm. There is no explanation for constant, chronic hiccupping, but it does happen. And if we, after 5 our 6 hiccups start to feel annoyed by them, and they can actually start hurting, imagine hiccupping for 14 hours non-stop.
This post was authored by Holly Adams, who writes for Coupon Croc.