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Nakheel has kept the tower’s height a closely guarded secret as it waits for its more advanced rival, being developed by Emaar Properties, to reach its final height later this year. However, meed.com has confirmed that design plans show the tower to be more than 1 kilometre tall, at 1,050 metres.
Designs for the Tall Tower show 228 floors, a four-level basement and one service sub-level – a total built-up area of 1.49 million square metres with 492,000 square metres of useable space. It will house offices, apartments and hotels. The top habitable floor will be at 850 metres, topped by a 200-metre central spire with a three-level function area and three service floors.
The two images below show a comparison of the proposed Al Burj Tower against the Burj Dubai tower and how the Al Burj will look like at night when completed.
There is speculation Bugatti Automobiles is developing a second model of the Bugatti Veyron supercar that is estimated to cost a whopping 3 million US Dollars! I even saw some referring this new Bugatti Veyron as the most expensive car in the world. But is it really the most expensive car in the world? If not which car is the world's most expensive car?
The giant Indian bus and lorry manufacturer, the Tata motor company has made a low cost economic mini car which Tata claim to be the cheapest car in the World (Priced at just 1000US$ or 100,000 Indian Rupees it is at least world's cheapest brand new car.) Named as Tata Nano this new Tata cars looks more like a three-wheeler taxi you see a lot in India and South Asia but with doors, more glass and a aerodynamic look added.
Already called as Tata People's car it is priced at 1 lakh Indian Rupees (about 2,500 US$). In other words you can buy 1200 Nano Tata cars for the price of one Bugati Veyron or 7,500 Nano Tata cars instead of the most expensive car in the world.
The Tata Nano car is 3 metres long and seats four people comfortably and does 65mph. It has a aluminium shell and a rear-mounted 33bhp two-cylinder petrol engine. The Nano Tata cars weight is about half a tonne. Tata Nano has a Fuel consumption 50 miles per gallon.
According claims, the Tata Nano car, at its standard version, is roughly half the price of the cheapest car available in the world today. China’s QQ3Y Chery and another Indian car the Maruti 800 are both about US $5000.
The standard version Tata Nano car comes with the vital features: brakes, a four-gear manual transmission, seat belts, locking, wind-down windows and a steering wheel. The small boot could store a duffel bag. It doesn't have a passenger-side mirror and has one windscreen wiper.This deluxe version Nano Tata car has air-conditioning and extra features such as a radio and an airbag could be added.
Tata Motors has created Tata Nano car after five years of research and input from across the world, including the masters of car designs Italy and Germany. But the car was designed and made in India, defying expectations that Tata motors company best known for its huge buses and lorries could manufacture a cutting-edge passenger car. A team of 500 engineers had worked on the Tata Nano car, and it was made in a plant in West Bengal.
Because of Nano Tata Car's size, it uses less sheet metal, has a smaller and lighter engine than other cars, smaller tube-less tyres and a no-frills interior. Tata motor company has cut costs of the Nano car by minimising components, specially steel, and taking advantage of India’s low production costs. Tata motor company has applied for 34 patents to cover its innovations in Tata Nano.
Tata hopes to produce 250,000 Tata Nano cars for the Indian market annually. Then they expect to make it available in Latin America, SouthEast Asia and Africa though its not likely to be in Europe or the US. There are fears that a car so cheap could not be safe. Tata company says it has passed a full-frontal car crash test in India and is designed to sustain further impact testing under European standards. So the Tata Nano could need many enhancements to meet higher standards of Developed world and that would raise the price considerably.
But for India and other poorer markets where the public mode of traveling is limited to over crowded buses, dangerous trains, flimsy tree-wheeler taxis and even motorcycles with 4 or 5 pillion riders, the Tata Nano car is a vast improvement in safety and traveling.A news report plagiarised wholesale from a British newspaper and posted with no mention of the newspaper in a forum I frequent had this to say about the Tata Nano and the Nano Tata cars unveiling event. (why don't forum Admin's educate members about how to properly quote a story?)
The “People’s Car” as the Tata Nano car is called, is also the cheapest in the world at 100,000 rupees ($2,500) – the same price as the DVD player in a Lexus.But not all are happy with cheap Tata cars becoming available for the general Indian public. The idea of millions of Nano Tata cars on Indian roads has alarmed Indian environmentalists. Indian Rajendra Pachauri, the chief UN climate scientist has claimed he's “having nightmares” with millions of tiny Nano Tata cars.
The Tata Nano, from Tata motor company, the Indian conglomerate bidding for Jaguar and Land Rover, was unveiled at the Delhi Auto Expo yesterday to music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ratan Tata, the Tata company chairman, harked back to the first flight by the Wright Brothers and the Moon landing as he revealed the cute, snub-nosed hatchback that will allow millions in India’s emerging middle classes to buy a car for the first time.
“I hope this changes the way people travel in rural India. We are a country of a billion and most are denied connectivity,” Ratan Tata said. “This is a car that is affordable and provides all-weather transport for the family.”
Here is a very rare photograph of a phenomenon known as a 'blue sun,' It is one of only a few ever documented occurrences of a blue sun. This one had occurred near the giant pyramids in Giza, Egypt on December 14th 2006.
According to CoastToCoastam.com, the other most recent widely accepted documentation of a blue sun had occurred way back in September 1950 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Tom Hartlove, a friend of PyramidCam.com, a website that captures a live image of the pyramids every 30 seconds, had luckily saved this one. However, Tom had run across it again in his photo archives only last month and then sent it to an expert in atmospheric physics to examination. The experts reply had been:
"A very rare phenomenon known as a 'blue sun.' These have been observed from time to time around the world. The most recent widely accepted documentation of a blue sun occurred in September 1950 in Edinburgh, Scotland. A discussion of that event appears in Craig Bohren's book, 'Clouds in a Glass of Beer,' on page 91."But the cause of it turns out to be a rather simple explanation. Smoke in the atmosphere! Smoke from farmers burning brush between the camera location and the pyramids rises to camera level and is captured in the webcam of PyramidCam website, particularly in winter when farmers burn something called stubble in the fields in the Delta and around Cairo.
Here are some great pictures and details about the 3 gigantic palm tree shaped islands known as theDubai Palm islands which are being built on the coast of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I did a little Google search and found these awesome Dubai Palm Islands pictures and would like to share them with you at Planet Apex.
Believe it or not, in Japan's Tokyo Bay, there are being made large garbage islands with airports and skyscrapers on them! AND in the Pacific Ocean there is a floating garbage island that's twice the size of Texas!
Garbage Islands with Airport
These photos show the construction of the giant artificial island using garbage in Tokyo for an airport.
There are more pictures of this island at Archibase Architecture News.
Update: I have made a mistake. This island is not in Tokyo Bay but in a bay called Ise in Tokoname City in central Japan. This airport is called Chūbu Centrair International Airport and according to Wikipedia's article on this island it is Japan's 8 busiest airport.
This island airport is Japan's third off-shore airport, after Nagasaki Airport and Kansai International Airport, and second airport on a man-made island. Also according to wikipedia there are currently 5 offshore airports in Japan!
Floating Garbage Island Twice The Size of Texas!
(image credit: mindfully.org)
I came across many articles in various sites about this garbage island that's twice the size of Texas that's floating somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii! However it is not an island in the solid sense. Here is an excerpt about this "island" from a blogger who had got it the Popular Science Blog.
"A heap of trash that's twice the size of Texas is floating somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as it's called, is 80 percent plastic, and weighs in at 3.5 million tons. Trapped in a circular course by winds and currents, it's been around since the 1950s, and has been growing tenfold every decade. It's not a dumping ground in the sense that people are flying or boating by and throwing their refuse into the heap. Instead, it's picking up trash that originates onshore, and has since made its way out into the Pacific."But who knows, if we keep on polluting we may actually one day make it.
I really enjoy pictures of beautiful sceneries and landscapes. They are so lovely and heart fulfilling, that you get a feeling of joy and satisfaction when you look at them. So I was very happy when I received this superb email with the following collection of pictures of some unbelievably beautiful sceneries. (I think that email forward must be one of the most beautiful emails in the world too!)
Here are those beautiful sceneries pictures someone had put together in a email. It contains 25 very beautiful natural and man-made sceneries from around the world. These pictures are certainly some of the best scenery pictures I've seen. They make me want to get out for a trip to the real place. I wish I can visit these places one day!
Enjoy!