November 26, 2013, 4:52 am
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants. The former capital of the state Hesse-Kassel has many palaces and parks, one of them the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kassel is also known for the documenta exhibitions of contemporary art.
The bombing raids of 1943 destroyed 90% of the city centre. The city was almost completely rebuilt during the 1950s and is a combination of renovated or reconstructed old buildings and architecture of the 1950s. Outside of the city centre, the suburbs are dominated by 19th-century architecture. The oldest monument is the Druselturm; the Brüderkirche and the Church of St. Martin are also, in part, of medieval origin. The towers of St. Martin are from the 1950s.
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November 26, 2013, 5:16 am
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country.
The area of the whole city amounts to more than 13,840 hectares, including 1,075 hectares off the coast, at Zeebrugge. The historic city centre is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It is oval-shaped and about 430 hectares in size. The city's total population is 117,073 (1 January 2008), of which around 20,000 live in the city centre. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 616 km2 (238 sq mi) and has a total of 255,844 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008.
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November 26, 2013, 5:18 am
Cancun Underwater Museum is a series of sculptures by Jason deCaires Taylor placed underwater off the coast of Isla de Mujeres and Cancún, Mexico. The project began in November 2009 with placement of a hundred statues in shallow waters of the Cancún National Marine Park, which had been previously damaged by storms.
The sculptures are created with pH-neutral marine concrete and are made to resemble members of the local community. The artist planned for the sculptures to become artificial reefs. Some corals (such as fire coral) was planted on and near the initial sculptures. The statues themselves however will also become covered with coral over time, due to the natural propogation of corals allready present in the vicinity. A total of 400 sculptures were planned, to be installed by the end of 2010.
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November 26, 2013, 5:19 am
Skagit County is a county in the State of Washington. It is named after the Skagit Indian tribe that has lived in the area since long before European-American settlement. As of the 2010 census, the population was 116,901. It is included in the Mount Vernon-Anacortes, Washington, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county seat is Mount Vernon, which is the county's largest city.
Skagit County was organized and taken from Whatcom County on November 28, 1883, before Washington was admitted as a state.According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,920 square miles (5,000 km2), of which 1,735 square miles (4,490 km2) is land and 185 square miles (480 km2) (9.65%) is water. It is noted for its broad, fertile valley of the Skagit River, a center for cultivation of tulips and strawberries.
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November 26, 2013, 5:20 am
The Bosphorus Bridge, also called the First Bosphorus Bridge or simply the First Bridge is one of two suspension bridges spanning the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul, Turkey; thus connecting Europe and Asia (the other one is the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge, which is called the Second Bosphorus Bridge.) The bridge is located between Ortaköy (on the European side) and Beylerbeyi (on the Asian side).
It is a gravity anchored suspension bridge with steel towers and inclined hangers. The aerodynamic deck hangs on zigzag steel cables. It is 1,560 m (5,118 ft) long with a deck width of 33.40 m (110 ft). The distance between the towers (main span) is 1,074 m (3,524 ft) and the total height of the towers is 165 m (541 ft). The clearance of the bridge from sea level is 64 m (210 ft).
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November 26, 2013, 5:22 am
Jame'asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque - This mosque is the largest mosque in Brunei. It was built to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the sultan's reign. It is locally known as the Kiarong mosque.
Bandar Seri Begawan with an estimated population of 140,000 (as of 2010), is the capital and largest city of the Sultanate of Brunei. Seri Begawan was named after the Sultan's late father Omar Ali Saifuddien on 5 October 1970, its original name being Bandar Brunei or Brunei Town. Begawan is a name given to Bruneian monarchs who have abdicated, originally coming from the Sanskrit word for "god": भगवान bhagavān. Seri also comes from the honorific Sanskrit word Sri. Bandar, comes from Persian بندر via Indian languages and originally means "port" or "haven". In Malay bandar has taken on the meaning of "town".
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November 26, 2013, 5:22 am
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Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona (most of it, along with Rainbow Bridge, is in Utah). It is a major vacation spot that around 2 million people visit every year. It is the second largest man-made reservoir, by maximum water capacity, in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing 24,322,000 acre feet (3.0001×1010 m3) of water when full. Lake Powell was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the controversial Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a popular summer destination. The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell, a one-armed American Civil War veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869. In 1972, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was established. It is public land managed by the National Park Service, and available to the public for recreational purposes. It lies in parts of Garfield, Kane, and San Juan counties in southern Utah, and Coconino County in northern Arizona. The northern limits of the lake extend at least as far as the Hite Crossing Bridge. A map centered at the confluence of the Escalante River 37°17′22″N 110°52′20″W with the Colorado River gives a good view of the extent of the lake.
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November 26, 2013, 5:24 am
Lilium (members of which are true lilies) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are native to the temperate northern hemisphere, though their range extends into the northern subtropics. Many other plants have "lily" in their common name but are not related to true lilies.
Many species are widely grown in the garden in temperate and sub-tropical regions. They may also be grown as potted plants. Numerous ornamental hybrids have been developed. They can be used in herbaceous borders, woodland and shrub plantings, and as patio plants. Some lilies, especially Lilium longiflorum, form important cut flower crops. These may be forced for particular markets; for instance, L. longiflorum for the Easter trade, when it may be called the Easter lily.
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November 26, 2013, 5:25 am
The Lion Monument, or the Lion of Lucerne, is a sculpture in Lucerne, Switzerland, designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen and hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn. It commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when revolutionaries stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris, France. Mark Twain praised the sculpture of a mortally-wounded lion as "the most mournful and moving piece of stone in the world."
The initiative to create the monument was taken by Karl Pfyffer von Altishofen, an officer of the Guards who had been on leave in Lucerne at that time of the fight. He began collecting money in 1818. The monument was designed by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, and finally hewn in 1820–21 by Lukas Ahorn, in a former sandstone quarry near Lucerne. Carved into the cliff face, the monument measures a staggering ten meters in length and six meters in height.
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November 26, 2013, 5:26 am
The Dynamic Tower (also known as Dynamic Architecture Building or the Da Vinci Tower) is a planned 420-metre (1,378 ft), 80-floor moving skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, designed by architect David Fisher.
Similar to the Suite Vollard completed in 2001 in Brazil, each floor will be able to rotate independently. This will result in a constantly changing shape of the tower. Each floor will rotate a maximum of 6 metres (20 ft) per minute, or one full rotation in 90 minutes.
The entire tower will be powered from wind turbines and solar panels. Enough surplus electricity should be produced to power five other similar sized buildings in the vicinity. The turbines will be located between each of the rotating floors. They could generate up to 1,200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy. The solar panels will be located on the roof and the top of each floor.
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November 26, 2013, 5:27 am
Loch Goil is a small sea loch in Scotland. It is an arm of Loch Long. The village of Lochgoilhead stands at its head.
Located in the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park, Lochgoilhead sits at the head of Loch Goil, a fjord type sea loch. Only an hour from the Erskine Bridge, Glasgow Airport the M8 and Glasgow. The village is accessed from the Rest & Be Thankful pass by way of a 6 miles (10 km) single-track road. The area is surrounded by hills and mountains, with loch views, and a range of accommodation, leisure activities and entertainment. Carrick Castle lies on the west shore 4 miles (6.4 km) south of Lochgoilhead.
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November 26, 2013, 5:28 am
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The tulip is a perennial, bulbous plant with showy flowers in the genus Tulipa, of which around 75 wild species are currently accepted and which belongs to the family Liliaceae. The genus's native range extends west to the Iberian Peninsula, through North Africa to Greece, the Balkans, Turkey, throughout the Levant (Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan) and Iran, North to the Ukraine, southern Siberia and Mongolia, and east to the Northwest of China. The tulip's centre of diversity is in the Pamir, Hindu Kush, and Tien Shan mountains. It is a typical element of steppe and winter-rain Mediterranean vegetation. A number of species and many hybrid cultivars are grown in gardens, as potted plants, or to be displayed as fresh-cut flowers. Tulip cultivars have usually several species in their direct background, but most have been derived from Tulipa suaveolens, often erroneously listed as Tulipa schrenkii. Tulipa gesneriana is in itself an early hybrid of complex origin and is not the same taxon as was described by Conrad Gesner in the 16th century.
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November 26, 2013, 5:29 am
The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Bath, commonly known as Bath Abbey, is an Anglican parish church and a former Benedictine monastery in Bath, Somerset, England. Founded in the 7th century, Bath Abbey was reorganised in the 10th century and rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries; major restoration work was carried out by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s. It is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture in the West Country.
The church is cruciform in plan, and is able to seat 1200. An active place of worship, with hundreds of congregation members and hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, it is used for religious services, secular civic ceremonies, concerts and lectures. The choir performs in the abbey and elsewhere. There is a heritage museum in the vaults.
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November 26, 2013, 5:30 am
Farafra has an estimated 5,000 inhabitants (2002) mainly living in the town of Farafra and is mostly inhabited by the local Bedouins. Parts of the town have complete quarters of traditional architecture, simple, smooth, unadorned, all in mud colour. Local pride has also secured endeavours to secure local culture. Also located near Farafra are the hot springs at Bir Sitta and the El-Mufid lake.
A main geographic attraction of Farafra is its White Desert (known as Sahara el Beyda, with the word sahara meaning a desert). The White Desert of Egypt is located 45 km (28 mi) north of the town of Farafra. The desert has a white, cream color and has massive chalk rock formations that have been created as a result of occasional sandstorm in the area. The Farafra desert is a typical place visited by some schools in Egypt, as a location for camping trips. The Desert was also the featured location in the music video for "Echoes" by the Klaxons.
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November 27, 2013, 5:01 am
Ko Samui, often simply Samui as it is referred to by locals, is an island off the east coast of the Kra Isthmus in Thailand. It is located close to the mainland town of Surat Thani in Surat Thani Province. It is Thailand's second largest island after Phuket, with an area of 228.7 km2 and a population of over 63,000 attracting 1.5 million tourists per year. Ko Samui has abundant natural resources, white sandy beaches, coral reefs and coconut trees. It is part of Mu Ko Samui.
The island was probably first inhabited about 15 centuries ago, settled by fishermen from the Malay Peninsula and Southern China. It appears on Chinese maps dating back to 1687, under the name Pulo Cornam. The name Samui is mysterious in itself. Perhaps it is an extension of the name of one of the native trees, mui, or from the Malay word Saboey, meaning "safe haven". Ko is the Thai word for "island".
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October 30, 2013, 4:21 am
The Cherry River is a tributary of the Gauley River in southeastern West Virginia, USA. Via the Gauley, Kanawha and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. The Cherry River drains mostly rural and forested areas and flows for much of its length through the Monongahela National Forest. Throughout its entire length the Cherry goes over a series of whitewater rapids in a mountainous setting.
The upper headwaters of the Cherry begin as two separate creeks, the North Fork Cherry River and the South Fork of Cherry River, each of which rises in southeastern Pocahontas County and flows generally west-northwestwardly across northern Greenbrier County before converging in Nicholas County at the city of Richwood.
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November 27, 2013, 5:01 am
Ko Samui, often simply Samui as it is referred to by locals, is an island off the east coast of the Kra Isthmus in Thailand. It is located close to the mainland town of Surat Thani in Surat Thani Province. It is Thailand's second largest island after Phuket, with an area of 228.7 km2 and a population of over 63,000 attracting 1.5 million tourists per year. Ko Samui has abundant natural resources, white sandy beaches, coral reefs and coconut trees. It is part of Mu Ko Samui.
The island was probably first inhabited about 15 centuries ago, settled by fishermen from the Malay Peninsula and Southern China. It appears on Chinese maps dating back to 1687, under the name Pulo Cornam. The name Samui is mysterious in itself. Perhaps it is an extension of the name of one of the native trees, mui, or from the Malay word Saboey, meaning "safe haven". Ko is the Thai word for "island".
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November 27, 2013, 7:37 am
Trolltunga is a piece of rock "hanging" horizontally out of the mountain about 700 meters above the Ringedalsvatnet in Skjeggedal close to Tyssedal by the Sørfjorden of the Hardanger Fjord in the municipality of Odda, Norway. The name translated to English is The Troll's tongue.
The cliff is part of the precambrian bedrock and was formed during the ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago, when the edges of the glacier reached the cliff. The water from the glacier froze in the crevices of the mountain and eventually broke off large, angular blocks, which were later carried away with the glacier. Along the cliff itself, a gneiss, there continues to be deep cracks. The 11 kilometer trip to Trolltunga also passes through the bedrock, and the clean washed slippery hillsides in the background also testify about gray ancient gneiss.
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November 30, 2013, 5:53 am
Melissani Cave or Melissani Lake, also Melisani is a cave located on the island of Kefalonia, northwest of Sami, about 5 km SE of Agia Efthymia, NE of Argostoli and NW of Poros. The Ionian Sea lies to the east with the Strait of Ithaca. Forests surrounds the cave and the mountain slope is to the west. Near the cave is the entry to the cave with parking lots and is passed almost in the middle of the main road linking Sami and Agia Efimia especially to the northern part of the island.
Melissani cave is a typical feature of karst environment in coastal carbonate aquifer. It forms a kind of "cenote" as described in the Yucatan peninsula (Mexico). The vertical shaft gives access to the water table . This groundwater is brackish, mixing between fresh water recharge inland and sea water intruded in depth in the island. Huge karst conduits have been explored by speleo-divers. The bay of Sami has many cenotes, with impressive shafts, that have been inventoried in a GIS Database. The brackish water flowing through the cenotes outflows along the sea shore, forming brackish coastal and submarine springs. The groundwater of Melissani cave outflows at the "Fridi" beach. This brackish water is part of a famous hydro-geological phenomena : seawater is sucked in the west part of the island of Kefalonia, near Argotoli, and expelled in the bay of Sami.In Argostoli, the seawater flows into sinkholes, named katavothres, where water mill turns.
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November 30, 2013, 6:33 am
The Riverside Museum is a new development for the Glasgow Museum of Transport, completed on 20 June 2011, at Pointhouse Quay in the Glasgow Harbour regeneration district of Glasgow, Scotland. The next day it opened to the public.On 18th May 2013, the museum was announced as the Winner of the 2013 European Museum of the Year Award,
The Riverside Museum building was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and engineers Buro Happold. The internal exhibitions and displays were designed by Event Communications. Replacing facilities at the city's Kelvin Hall, the new purpose-built museum is the first to be opened in the city since the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art in 1993 and is expected to attract up to 1 million visitors a year. Although containing approximately the same floorspace as the previous museum facility at 7,500 sq m, it creates a more environmentally stable home for Glasgow's significant Transport Technology collections. The building also houses a workshop and office space for the Clyde Maritime Trust.
The location of the museum is on the site of the former A. & J. Inglis Shipyard within Glasgow Harbour, on the north bank of the River Clyde and adjacent to its confluence point with the River Kelvin. This site enables the Clyde Maritime Trust's SV Glenlee and other visiting craft to berth alongside the museum.
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