The highest point on land is the peak of Mount Everest at 29,028 feet (8,848 meters) above sea level (the level of the ocean”s surface). Mount Everest is in the Himalaya mountain range, on the border of Nepal and Tibet.

The lowest point on land is the Dead Sea at 1,312 feet (399 meters) below sea level. The Dead Sea lies between Israel and Jordan.

The lowest point on the Earth”s surface (including land and sea) is thought to be in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, extending from southeast of Guam to the east side of the Mariana Islands. The Mariana Trench reaches a depth of approximately 36,200 feet (11,034 meters) below sea level.

Source: enotes.com

10. Rat

Widely used in research, the lab rat has been known to find shortcuts, loopholes and escape routes in the laboratory experiments designed by the top scientific minds of our time. The rat has successfully colonized every continent on Earth except for Antarctica. And if history is any indication, they”ll be there too soon enough.

9. Octopus

This animal is still poorly understood, but scientists are constantly discovering new and impressive octopus abilities. They play, solve problems, navigate through mazes and have a respectable short-term memory.

8. Pigeon

Pigeons can recognize hundreds of images even after several years have passed. They can also identify themselves in a mirror, be taught to perform a sequence of movements and to discriminate subtle differences between two objects – pretty impressive for a mere pest.

7. Squirrel

This animal”s dogged persistence and impeccable memory have made it the nemesis of gardeners throughout its vast range. Most squirrels display an impressive array of tricks and strategies that help them survive. They are also able to store and cache food for leaner times, and then find their hidden morsels many months later. They may also pretend to hide food in order to confuse potential thieves, which researchers believe shows an advanced level of cunning and intellect.

6. Pig

Pigs seem to be at least as trainable as cats and dogs, and certain domestic pigs have become a favorite pet in the U.S. Pigs are also extremely flexible. Unlike most other ungulates, which are strictly herbivorous, pigs and their relatives are omnivores with a diet that sometimes includes worms and small vertebrates. Where they have been introduced around the world, pigs tend to out-compete the native species.

5. Crow

Crows living in urban areas are known to gather nuts from trees and then place them in the street for passing cars to crack open the shells. Then, after waiting patiently for the light to change, they return to the street to retrieve their nutty snack – an impressive example of animal innovation. Crows also communicate in elaborate population-specific dialects and play games and tricks on one another. Some scientists even believe that crows are more intelligent than primates.

4. Elephant

Elephants are quite elegant, cultured and curious. They have been known to clean their food and use tools in various ways in the wild, and they can also follow human commands in captivity. Elephants are also extremely caring and empathetic to other members of their group and to other species, which is considered a highly advanced form of intelligence.

3. Orangutan

The great apes are considered the smartest creatures after humans. Among them, orangutans stand out as being especially gifted in the brains department. They have a strong culture and system of communication, and many have been observed to use tools in the wild. Orangutans live in widely scattered communities and form strong social bonds, which may be the key to their advanced cognitive skills. Females remain with their young for many years, teaching them all they need to survive in the forest.

2. Dolphin

Dolphins are extremely social animals. Schools of dolphins can be observed in the world”s oceans surfing, racing, leaping, spinning, whistling and otherwise enjoying themselves. They also have a sophisticated “language,” though humans have only begun to unravel it. Dolphins use tools in their natural environment and can learn an impressive array of behavioral commands by human trainers. Like many of the most intelligent animals on Earth, dolphin females remain with their young for several years, teaching them all the tricks of the dolphin trade.

1. Chimpanzee

Topping our list of smartest animals is another great ape, the chimpanzee. The impressive intellectual abilities of this animal have long fascinated humans. They can make and use tools, hunt collectively, and are capable of advanced problem-solving. They are also able to learn sign language to communicate with humans and can remember the name sign for individuals they have not seen for several years. But perhaps the most amazing feature of the chimpanzee is its ability to use symbols for objects and combine the symbols in a sequence to convey a complex idea. Such intellectual gifts are probably central to maintaining this animal”s complex social groups, where they form strong bonds and observe elaborate hierarchical structure.

Source: discovery.com

One of the greatest things about the Internet is that nobody really owns it. It is a global collection of networks, both big and small. These networks connect together in many different ways to form the single entity that we know as the Internet.

Every computer that is connected to the Internet is part of a network, even the one in your home. For example, you may use a modem and dial a local number to connect to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). When you connect to your ISP, you become part of their network. The ISP may then connect to a larger network and become part of their network. The Internet is simply a network of networks.

Most large communications companies have their own dedicated backbones connecting various regions. In each region, the company has a Point of Presence (POP). The POP is a place for local users to access the company”s network, often through a local phone number or dedicated line. The amazing thing here is that there is no overall controlling network. Instead, there are several high-level networks connecting to each other through Network Access Points or NAPs. The Internet is a collection of huge corporate networks that agree to all intercommunicate with each other at the NAPs. In this way, every computer on the Internet connects to every other.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) created the first high-speed backbone in 1987. Called NSFNET, it was a T1 line that connected 170 smaller networks together and operated at 1.544 Mbps (million bits per second). IBM, MCI and Merit worked with NSF to create the backbone and developed a T3 (45 Mbps) backbone the following year.

When the Internet was in its infancy, it consisted of a small number of computers hooked together with modems and telephone lines. You could only make connections by providing the IP address of the computer you wanted to establish a link with. This was fine when there were only a few hosts out there, but it became unwieldy as more and more systems came online.

The first solution to the problem was a simple text file maintained by the Network Information Center that mapped names to IP addresses. Soon this text file became so large it was too cumbersome to manage. In 1983, the University of Wisconsin created the Domain Name System (DNS), which maps text names to IP addresses automatically.

Source: howstuffworks.com

Evolution means change. Evolution does not mean improvement, or progress, or anything like that, it just means change. If a species evolves, it changes, it doesn’t “improve” or become more “highly-evolved”, just different. Natural Selection is the process that causes most evolution. It requires three things in order to happen, variability, hereditability and a struggle for survival.

1. Variability means that individuals within a species must be different from each other. We come in different heights and shapes, we have different colour hair, skin and eyes, different personalities, different skills and so on.
2. Hereditability means that some of these differences must be passed-on from parents to their children. Your DNA is a combination of your parent’s DNA, thus you inherit much of what makes you unique from your parents.
3. The struggle for existence means that not all individuals in a species will have children, or as many children as others. The individuals who are best adapted to an environment, who can best find food, avoid predators and resist disease, are likely to survive for longer and have more children.

These three combine to make Natural Selection. Because individuals in a species are different, some will be more likely to have more children than others. And if the difference that makes them more successful is hereditable, then their children will be more likely to be more successful too. Over time, these more successful individuals will have more and more children and eventually will come to dominate the population.

Source: astrobioloblog.wordpress.com

There are several extremely expensive substances in the world, and all of them have to do with exotic physics. Historical contenders for the most expensive substance such as saffron, plutonium, gold, and diamond are like dirt in comparison to these. Three categories of material that compete for the most expensive substance are antimatter (especially antiatoms like antihydrogen), at $1,750 trillion US Dollars (USD) per ounce, followed by hafnium and tantalum isomers, at about $480 million USD per ounce, and assorted exotic particles such as bottom quarks, which are in the same league as antimatter.

Antimatter is worthy of the title of most expensive substance because it is also potentially one of the most useful substances in the universe. Antimatter has the theoretically greatest energy density out of any energy source. The energy in 1 kg of antimatter is equivalent to 47 megatons of TNT, similar to the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated, which had a mushroom cloud seven times taller than Mt. Everest and could have caused third-degree burns at a distance of 100 km (62 mi).

Source: wisegeek.com

Basically, because sand is heavier than water and sinks.
Sand is constantly being created by erosion – both by water and wind – of solid rock. It gets carried by turbulent water but it eventually settles to the bottom of all watercourses – rivers, lakes and seas.

Source: wiki.answers.com

1. MacDonalds

Reports differ about when Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant. Some would state that the Airdrome in Arcadia, California was the very first, opened in 1937. Others claim that it all began in 1940 with the McDonald”s Barbecue restaurant in San Bernardino, California. What is not in dispute, however, is that both of the above were false starts. They were both the kind of American restaurant where cars park around a central hub (where the food is prepared) and it is delivered to the waiting customers by ””car hops””.

In 1948 the brothers became disaffected by this style of restaurant, the pressures of a full menu, and the hassle of managing staff, and so decided to scale down the operation. They developed the idea of an ””assembly line”” whereby a reduced menu (consisting only of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, french fries and drinks) could be cooked cheaper and quicker, which would hopefully lead to a higher turnover of customers. And so it was, on 12 December, 1948, that the new revamped McDonald””s Restaurant opened, and Richard McDonald cooked the first McDonald”s hamburger.

2. Subway

Serving as a nuclear physicist for several companies from 1957 to 1978, Peter Buck loaned partner and family friend Fred De Luca $1,000 in 1965 and advised him to open a sandwich shop to help him pay for college at the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Connecticut. They named the restaurant after Buck, calling it “Pete”s Super Submarines”.Together Buck and De Luca formed Doctor””s Associates to oversee operations of the restaurants as the franchise expanded. Though neither the first nor the second restaurants were financial successes, they continued to expand their operations. By 1973, they had 16 locations throughout Connecticut and, in 1974, they began franchising out the restaurants. They also introduced Subway””s current logo and changed the name of their operation from what was then “Pete”s Subway” to “Subway Sandwiches”

3. Starbucks

The first Starbucks was in Seattle, Washington, on March 30, 1971 by three partners: English teacher Jerry Baldwin, history teacher Zev Siegl, and writer Gordon Bowker. The three were inspired by entrepreneur Alfred Peet (whom they knew personally) to sell high-quality coffee beans and equipment. The name is taken from Moby-Dick; after Pequod was rejected by one of the co-founders, the company was named after the chief mate on the Pequod, Starbuck.
From 1971–1976, the first Starbucks was at 2000 Western Avenue; it then was relocated to 1912 Pike Place, where it remains to this day. During their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee beans from Peet”s, then began buying directly from growers.

Sources: McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks

In 1786, average life expectancy was just 24 years. A hundred years later (1886) it doubled to 48. Right now a newborn can expect to live an average of 76 years. With recent discoveries in biology, many scientists predict that life expectancy will continue to triple-digits. In fact, if they are correct, humans shouldn”t have to die at all in the future.

As any cell gets older, it is under attack by oxides and free-radicals in the body and environment. We survive as living beings because our cells have the ability to duplicate and replace themselves before being killed by these natural causes. Each time our cells divide, the DNA molecule makes a new copy of itself. But the procedure is very complex and not perfect. Usually a small portion of the DNA molecule is lost, misaligned and not copied. Since errors are more frequent on the ends of the DNA molecule, this area, the telomere, does not contain any important DNA information and the effect is insignificant.

Scientists observe that the length of telomere chains becomes shorter as we grow older. Eventually the telomeres become so short that cell replication produces lethal errors or missing pieces in the DNA sequence, ending the cell”s ability to replace itself. This point, when the cell has lost vital DNA code and cannot reproduce, is called the Hayflick limit. It”s the measure of how many times a cell can copy itself before it dies.

You might be wondering why biologists don”t simply find a way to keep our body”s telomeres long. This would prevent replication errors and humans could live indefinitely. The big problem is cancer.

Usually, if a cell makes an error in copying itself, the error will prevent the cell from duplicating itself in the future. So the mistake is limited. But with cancer, cells with errors somehow “turn on” the production of telomerase and make the mutant cell immortal. Now, aberrant cells can reproduce unchecked and outlive normal cells. This is the process that creates tumors.

Since we all have mutant, pre-cancerous cells in our bodies, nature has decided to shut off the telomerase as we age, thus preventing these mutant cells from growing telomeres. It”s a kind of programmed death — a trade off to reduce our lifespan in order to save us from being riddled with tumors. Nevertheless, some pre-cancerous cells manage to re-activate their telomeres and this has caused the research to focus more on blocking telomere production rather than trying to extend it.

Is Long Life Inherited?

If your family has a history of living to an old age, it is likely that your telomeres are longer and therefore protect the critical DNA information when your cells make copies of themselves.

Environmental Factors?

Our cells are bombarded by environmental poisons that can cause the genetic codes to break, regardless of the telomere length. The more toxic the environment is, the greater the chance for “broken” cells to reproduce themselves and the more beneficial it would be to have shorter telomeres to limit this kind of mutation.

Can humans live forever?

So for humans to extend life we must do two things: first, eliminate the toxins in our environment that rust the cells. Remember the hayflick limit. A toxic environment can run through those allotted duplications at an accelerated rate.

Next we wait for a scientific breakthrough — perhaps some pharmaceutical that will re-activate telomere production in healthy cells only. Understanding and controlling telomeres in healthy and cancerous cells will lead to a cure or prevention of cancer. If mortality still eludes us, at least that will greatly extend our lives.

Source: viewzone.com

Up till now, it is still a mystery as to who invented the wheel and when the wheel was invented. According to archaeologists, it was probably invented in around 8,000 B.C. in Asia. The oldest wheel known however, was discovered in Mesopotamia and probably dates back to 3,500 B.C.

This wheel was believed to have been made by the Sumerians. It was made of planks of wood joined together. The picture below briefly describes the stages of development of the wheel.

Source: thinkquest.org

1. Mandarin Chinese

Native speakers: 1081.9 million

2nd language: 38.6 million

Total: 1120.5 million

It is the official spoken language of the People”s Republic of China (PRC), the official language of the Republic of China (R.O.C./Taiwan), and one of the four official languages of Singapore. It also functions as the language of instruction in the PRC and in Taiwan. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, under the name “Chinese”.

2. English

Native speakers: 355.1 million

2nd language: 198.8 million

Total: 553.9 million

It is widely learned as a second language and used as an official language of the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as in many world organisations. It is the third most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

3. Spanish

Native speakers: 298.7 million

2nd language: 49.4 million

Total: 348.1 million

Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and is used as an official language by the European Union and Mercosur.

4. Hindi

Native speakers: 288.6 million

2nd language: 39.2 million

Total: 327.8 million

At the state level, Hindi is the official language of the following states in India: Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi. Each of these states may also designate a “co-official language”; in Uttar Pradesh for instance, depending on the political formation in power, sometimes this language is Urdu. Similarly, Hindi is accorded the status of co-official language in several states.

5. Portuguese

Native speakers: 236.1 million

2nd language: 36.8 million

Total: 272.9 million

It is an official language of the European Union, the Organisation of American States, the African Union, and Lusophone countries. Portuguese is the third-most spoken language in the Western Hemisphere, and the most spoken in the Southern Hemisphere.

Source: frankherles.wordpress.com & http://en.wikipedia.org

The most extreme tornado in recorded history was the Tri-State Tornado, which roared through parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana on March 18, 1925. It was likely an F5, though tornadoes were not ranked on any scale in that era. It holds records for longest path length (219 miles, 352 km), longest duration (about 3.5 hours), and fastest forward speed for a significant tornado (73 mph, 117 km/h) anywhere on earth. In addition it is the deadliest single tornado in United States history (695 dead). It was also the second costliest tornado in history at the time, but has been surpassed by several others non-normalized. When costs are normalized for wealth and inflation, it still ranks third today.

The deadliest tornado in world history was the Daultipur-Salturia Tornado in Bangladesh on April 26, 1989, which killed approximately 1,300 people. Bangladesh has had at least 19 tornadoes in its history kill more than 100 people, almost half of the total in the rest of the world.

The most extensive tornado outbreak on record, in almost every category, was the Super Outbreak, which affected a large area of the central United States and extreme southern Ontario in Canada on April 3 and April 4, 1974. Not only did this outbreak feature an incredible 148 tornadoes in only 18 hours, but an unprecedented number of them were violent; 6 were of F5 intensity and 24 were F4. This outbreak had a staggering 16 tornadoes on the ground at the same time at the peak of the outbreak. More than 300 people, possibly as many as 330, were killed by tornadoes during this outbreak. However, this record was later broken during the 2011 Super Outbreak, which resulted in 340+ casualties and had more than 330 tornadoes touch down.

Source: wikipedia.org

1. Football / Soccer

Estimated Fans: 3.5 Billion
Regions: Europe, Africa, Asia, America

2. Cricket

Estimated Fans: 2.5 Billion
Regions: Asia, Australia, UK

3. Field Hockey

Estimated Fans: 2 Billion
Regions: Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia

4. Tennis

Estimated Fans: 1 Billion
Regions: Europe, Asia, America

5. Volleyball

Estimated Fans: 900 Million
Regions: Europe, Australia, Asia, America

6. Table Tennis

Estimated Fans: 850 Million
Regions: Europe, Africa, Asia, America

7. Baseball

Estimated Fans: 500 Million
Regions: America, Japan

8. Golf

Estimated Fans: 450 Million
Regions: Europe, Asia, America, Canada

9. Basketball

Estimated Fans: 400 Million
Regions: America

10. American Football

Estimated Fans: 400 Million
Regions: Europe, Africa, Asia, America, Australia

Source: topendsports.com

The biggest companies in 2011:

1. Wal-Mart Stores ( Previous rank: 1 )

Employees: 2,100,000
Revenues ($ millions): 421,849
Profits ($ millions): 16,389

Wal-Mart Stores maintains its perch atop the corporate ladder, taking the top spot on this year”s Fortune”s 500 and Global 500 lists, both for the second year in a row.

2. Royal Dutch Shell ( Previous rank: 2 )

Employees: 97,000
Revenues ($ millions): 378,152
Profits ($ millions): 20,127

Royal Dutch Shell”s earnings were up 61% in 2010 from the previous year, with $20.5 billion in income for the year. And its stock has performed well (it”s up 7.2% year-to-date).

3. Exxon Mobil ( Previous rank: 3 )

Employees: 103,700
Revenues ($ millions): 354,674
Profits ($ millions): 30,460

Like all of the oil majors, ExxonMobil has had to weather a highly volatile year. Nevertheless, Exxon continues to perform well: the company”s 2010 net earnings grew 57% from the previous year to $30.5 billion.

4. BP ( Previous rank: 4 )

Employees: 79,700
Revenues ($ millions): 308,928
Profits ($ millions): -3,719

Not even the past year”s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico can really sink BP. BP has said it would raise $30 billion to pay for the claims following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, and the company has shucked assets throughout the year to do so.

5. Sinopec Group ( Previous rank: 7 )

Employees: 640,535
Revenues ($ millions): 273,422
Profits ($ millions): 7,629

China”s largest oil producer and refiner continues to grow. Indeed, it”s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Sinopec (which is also known as China Petroleum and Chemical Corp.) and major multinational oil and gas companies.

6. China National Petroleum ( Previous rank: 10 )

Employees: 1,674,541
Revenues ($ millions): 240,192
Profits ($ millions): 14,367

China”s appetite for energy seems almost insatiable, and the nation”s largest oil company continues to rush to meet the country”s needs. China National Petroleum made a profit in 2010, and it claims that it was able to add new oil and gas reserves to its portfolio quickly enough to keep the company flush with fuel.

7. State Grid ( Previous rank: 8 )

Employees: 1,564,000
Revenues ($ millions): 226,294
Profits ($ millions): 4,556

China”s top power company is expanding along with the nation”s growing energy needs, moving up one spot to No. 7 from last year”s Global 500 list. Founded in 2002, the company claims it now supplies energy to over a billion people across 26 Chinese provinces.

8. Toyota Motor ( Previous rank: 5 )

Employees: 317,716
Revenues ($ millions): 221,760
Profits ($ millions): 4,766

Toyota recently put two years of record-level recalls behind it only to face yet another crisis. The automaker now has to cope with a slowdown in production due to massive factory damage caused by March”s devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

9. Japan Post Holdings ( Previous rank: 6 )

Employees: 233,000
Revenues ($ millions): 203,958
Profits ($ millions): 4,891

Japan Post Holdings made the Fortune Global 500 list for the first time two years ago and, in many ways, it is representative of Japan”s slow effort to pull itself out of economic decline. The postal service in Japan was privatized in 2005 and split into four companies with the goal of ultimately spinning off the four divisions by 2017. But a new government administration reversed course in 2010 and has blocked plans for the companies to file initial public offerings.

10. Chevron ( Previous rank: 11 )

Employees: 62,196
Revenues ($ millions): 196,337
Profits ($ millions): 19,024

This year, Chevron took steps to get a little less refined. The company sold its Pembroke refinery in Ireland and other downstream assets in Africa and the Caribbean, and it is trying to focus more on production. Its efforts have made the company cash-heavy, with a net cash position of $5.3 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2011.

Source: money.cnn.com

Easter Island

Area: 47 sq km
Population: 5,034 ( 2011 est.)

The name “Easter Island” was given by the island”s first recorded European visitor, the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who encountered it in 1722, on Easter Sunday. Easter Island is over 2,000 miles from the nearest population center, (Tahiti and Chile), making it one of the most isolated places on Earth. The island is approx 24.6 km (15.3 miles) long by 12.3 km (7.6 miles) at its widest point. It has an area of 163.6 km² (63 sq miles), and a maximum altitude of 507 metres.

You can fly direct from Tahiti to Easter Island.

Tristan da Cunha

Area: 201 sq km
Population: ~269

Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited island in the world — the nearest speck of land, St. Helena, is a whopping 2430 km away, and it”s over 2800 km to the nearest continent, Africa.

The entire population of some 270 inhabitants is concentrated on the only flat bit of this volcanic landmass, the hamlet of Edinburgh of the Seven Seas on the main island. There are a few other islands in the archipelago, all uninhabited: Inaccessible Island, Nightingale Island, Middle Island and Stoltenhoff Island. Gough Island, some 300 km away, hosts a weather and scientific research outpost.

There is no airstrip on Tristan da Cunha.

Travelling to Tristan da Cunha requires careful planning. It takes five to six days to travel the 2810 kilometers from Cape Town.

Pitcairn Island

Area: 47 sq km
Population: 48 (July 2007 est.)

The Pitcairn Islands are a loosely grouped handful of tiny islands in the remote South Pacific, farther from any continent than any other inhabited island.

The remoteness and ruggedness of Pitcairn”s geography, the insularity of its bureaucracy, and the scarcity of its resources conspire to make it a very difficult place to visit.

There is no airstrip in the islands, and it”s out of range of land-launched helicopters, so flying is not an option. (The largest flat area on Pitcairn would offer a very short runway, and level Henderson Island is both a UNESCO-listed bird sanctuary and inconveniently located.) The nearest airport is on Mangareva in the Gambier Islands, 330 miles away.

Source: explorra.com

1) The Mesopotamians invented beer (before there were Egyptians).
2) Alcohol is naturally occurring and was discovered rather than ”invented”.
3) There is archaeological evidence of winemaking dating back to circa 4000 B.C. (or about 6000 years ago). It is believed that less formal methods of alcohol production were in use before that time, but no particular evidence has been uncovered thus far.
4) Humans aren”t the only animal that use/enjoy alcohol. There are cases of other primates using fermented fruit in the wild to get drunk.

Source: answers.yahoo.com

1. Izmailovo Hotel ( Moscow )

7,500 rooms and 4 towers, Alpha, Beta, Vega, Gamma-Delta, 30-stories each

The Izmailovo Hotel is a group of hotels located near Izmailovo village in Izmaylovo District. The property consists of four buildings containing 7500 rooms, making it the world”s largest hotel by number of units.

2. The Venetian & The Palazzo ( Las Vegas )

7,117 rooms and 52, 37, and 14 floors (3 towers)

The Palazzo (pronounced /pəˈlɑːtsoʊ/) is a luxury hotel and casino resort situated between Wynn and The Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas. It is the tallest completed building in Nevada (although the Fontainebleau Resort Las Vegas, whose construction is currently stalled due to financial problems, is already taller).

3. MGM Grand Las Vegas ( Las Vegas )

6,582 rooms and includes Signature, Skylofts, and The Mansion

The MGM Grand Las Vegas is a hotel casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. The MGM Grand is the third largest hotel in the world and largest hotel resort complex in the United States in front of The Venetian.  The MGM Grand was the largest hotel in the world when it opened in 1993.

4. First World Hotel ( Genting Highlands )

6,118 rooms and 24 floors (Tower 1), 28 floors (Tower 2)

First World Hotel is the fourth largest hotel in the world by rooms. It comprises Tower 1 and Tower 2, each with 28 floors, and has a total of 6,118 rooms. It is one of the five hotels located in Genting Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia, along with Genting Hotel, Theme Park Hotel, Highlands Hotel and Resort Hotel. It was the largest hotel in the world until The Palazzo, an expansion of The Venetian in Las Vegas was opened in January 2008.

5. Sands Cotai Central ( Cotai Strip, Macau )

6,000 rooms and 4 hotel towers. Conrad Macau (600), Holiday Inn Macao Cotai Strip (1,400), Sheraton (2,000) and Sheraton Towers (2,000)

Sands Cotai Central is a casino resort on the Cotai Strip, Macau. On 5 August 2011, Sands China announced that the $4 billion property[1] long-referred to as parcels five and six is now officially been named Sands Cotai Central. It is scheduled to open in Spring 2012.

Source: wikipedia.org

The Moon landings were an expensive and dangerous political stunt. The technology has advanced but it hasn”t advanced that much, NASA has been starved for funds and wasted staggering amounts of money on the space shuttle, one of the most expensive boondoggles in history. We finally cancelled it and got back on the right path, then Obama cancelled that (The military needs even more weapons apparently.) People will eventually go back to the Moon, but likely they will be Chinese or Japanese, not Americans.

There also wasn”t any reason to go back to the Moon in a hurry, though the discovery of water there is likely going to change all that. And it was more than 40 years by the way between when men first set foot on the South Pole and when they returned. And the Moon is a vastly harsher and more difficult place to get to than the South Pole.

—

The Apollo program was cancelled in 1972 because it was expensive and the American government decided that it had other priorities. NASA”s energies went into the shuttle program and unmanned probes, neither of which require launch vehicles as large as the Apollo program did. Hence there are currently no launch vehicles capable of launching a manned lunar mission. Tooling up for such vehicles would be an extremely expensive operation.

—

There”s no current economic or political incentive.

The only real incentive in the ”60s was to keep a technological edge in space over the USSR. There was a real fear that if the USSR “owned” space, the US would be crippled in a conflict.

It”s not that we really lack the know-how to go back to the moon, it”s just that we”re no longer “tooled up” for it. The machines we built to build the Apollo program are no longer in service. We”d have to re-build or replicate their function, which we could do, but not at the drop-of-a-hat. It would take some time.

Another problem is the loss of practical experience. It”s one thing to reproduce something from blueprints, but sometimes there”s an unwritten art that only gets passed down from one set of experts to the next. Most of the engineers today were children at the time of the last moon walk, and have no practical experience with the missions.

Moon landing conspiracy theories

Different Moon landing conspiracy theories claim that some or all elements of the Apollo program and the associated Moon landings were hoaxes staged by NASA and members of other organizations. Various groups and individuals have made such conspiracy claims since the end of the Apollo program in 1975. The most notable claim is that the six manned landings (1969–1972) were faked and that the Apollo astronauts did not walk on the Moon. The conspiracy theorists (henceforth conspiracists) argue that NASA and others knowingly misled the public into believing the landings happened by manufacturing, destroying, or tampering with evidence; including photos, telemetry tapes, transmissions, rock samples, and even some key witnesses.

There is much third-party evidence for Apollo Moon landings and detailed rebuttals to the hoax claims. Polls taken in various locations have shown that between 6% and 28% of the people surveyed believed that the manned landings were faked.

Sources: answers.yahoo.com & wikipedia.org

The figures for Mercer’s Cost of Living and rental accommodation costs comparisons are derived from a survey conducted in March 2011. March 2011 exchange rates and Mercer’s international basket of goods and services have been used as basis measurements.

Source: mercer.com

If you want snow, but Mother Nature won”t cooperate, you can take matters into your own hands and make snow yourself! This is the homemade version of real water ice snow, just like the snow that falls from the sky except without the need for clouds.

What You Need to Make Snow

You need the same things found in nature: water and a cold temperature. You turn the water into snow by dispersing it into particles small enough to freeze in the cold air.

• water
• pressure nozzle

There is a handy snowmaking weather tool that will tell you whether you have the proper conditions for making snow. In some climates, the only way you”ll be able to make snow is if you chill a room indoors (or you can make fake snow), but much of the world can make snow at least a few days out of the year.

About the Pressure Nozzle for Making Snow

You have several options here:

• pressure washer (own or rent, use a fine mist nozzle or else use a nozzle specially designed for producing snow)
• snow cannon (not affordable to buy, but can be rented)
• garden hose with a snow attachment (make less snow per hour than the pressure washer or snow cannon, but still fun)

How to Make Snow

Basically, all you need to do is spray a fine mist of water into the air so that it cools down enough to freeze into water ice or snow. There”s a technique to this.

• You”ll get much better results if you point your water spray upward at a 45° angle rather than straight up. The amount of air you get mixed in with the water makes a difference, so you want to maximize this.
• You also want the water to be as cold as possible, so water from a cold stream will work better than, say, heated water from your home.
• The water from a stream or river also has the advantage of containing impurities which can act as nucleation sites to provide a surface on which snow crystals can grow. It”s also possible to add what is called a ”nucleating agent” to your water which will accomplish the same purpose, essentially allowing you to produce snow at slightly warmer temperatures. The nucleating agent typically is a non-toxic polymer.

You only need a few hours of cold to make a lot of snow. The snow will last longer if the temperature stays cold, but it will take a while to melt even if it warms up. Have fun!

Source: about.com