Money Facts

• The word millionaire was first used by Benjamin Disraeli in his 1826 novel Vivian Grey.
• If you stack one million US$1 bills, it would be 110m (361 ft) high and weight exactly 1 ton.
• A million dollars' worth of $100 bills weighs only 10 kg (22 lb).
• One million dollars' worth of once-cent coins (100 million coins) weigh 246 tons.
• TIP is the acronym for "To Insure Promptness."
• The term "Blue Chip" comes from the colour of the poker chip with the highest value, blue.
• Nessie, the Loch Ness monster is protected by the 1912 Protection of Animals Acts of Scotland. With good reason - Nessie is worth $40 million annually to Scottish tourism.
• Of the more than $50 billion worth of diet products sold every year, almost $20 billion are spent on imitation fats and sugar substitutes.
• Annual global spending on education is $80 billion.
• US and European expenditure on pet food is $17 billion per year.
• The global expenditure on healthcare and nutrition is $13 billion.
• Money notes are not made from paper, it is made mostly from a special blend of cotton and linen.
• In 1932, when a shortage of cash occurred in Tenino, Washington, USA, notes were made out of wood for a brief period. The wood notes came in $1, $5 and $10 values.
• The world's largest coins, in size and standard value, were copper plates used in Alaska around 1850. They were about a metre (3 ft) long, half-a-metre (about 2 ft) wide, weighed 40 kg (90 lb), and were worth $2,500.
• The first credit card was issued by American Express in 1951.
• About 30% of consumers use their credit card as their main means of buying Christmas goodies, 70% do not save to buy Christmas gifts and 86% of consumers do their Christmas shopping during December.
• Excessive use of credit is cited as a major cause of non-business b@nkruptcy, second only to unemployment.
• Statistics show that people with high, medium and low income groups spend about the same amount on Christmas gifts.
• In the 1400s, global income rose only 0,1% per year; today it often tops 5%.
• The average age of Forbes's 400 wealthiest individuals is 63.
• In 1955 the richest woman in the world was Mrs Hetty Green Wilks, who left an estate of $95 million in a will that was found in a tin box with four pieces of soap.
• In 2001 the richest woman was Liliane Bettencourt, the daughter of L'Oreal's founder. She has a net worth of $14 billion (depending on how the stock market did today).
• In 2000, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is the second wealthiest woman, with $5,2 billion.
• Queen Elizabeth II is one of the 10th wealthiest women in the world.
• The $ sign was designed in 1788 by Oliver Pollock.
• The term "smart money" refers to g@mblers who have inside information or have arranged a fix, the g@mbling term for insuring the outcome of an event by illegal methods.
• Small-time g@mblers who place small bet in order to prolong the excitement of a game are called "dead fish" by game operators because the longer the playing time, the greater the chances of losing.
• In g@mbling language, for a g@mbling house a "sure-thing" is a wager that a player has little chance of winning; "easy money" is their profit from an inexperienced bettor, an unlucky player is called a "stiff."
• Australians are the heaviest g@mblers in the world; an estimated 82% of Australians bet. That is twice as much per capita as Europeans or Americans. Yet, Australia, with less than 1% of the world population, has 20% of the world's poker machines.
• There are more than 7 million millionaires in the world.
• 80% of millionaires drive second-hand cars.
• In 1900, the price of gold was less than $40 per ounce. It reached $600 in 1930, now struggling to reach $400 per ounce.
• If Los Angeles County was a country, it would be the 19th largest economy in the world.
• If California was a country, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world.
• Tobacc0 is a $200 billion industry, producing six trillion cig@rettes a year - about 1,000 cig@rettes for each person on earth.

• In 1965, CEOs earned on average 44 times more than factory workers. In 1998, CEOs earned on average 326 times more than factory workers and in 1999, they earned 419 times more than factory workers.
• The income gap between the richest fifth of the world's people and the poorest measured by average national income per head increased from 30 to one in 1960, to 74 to one in 1998.
• A third of the world's people live on less than $2 a day, with 1,2 billion people living on less than $1 a day.
• In the 17th century, wool fabrics accounted for about two-thirds of England's foreign trade. Today, the leading wool producers are Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and China.
• The NASDAQ stock exchange was totally disabled in on day in December 1987 when a squirrel burrowed through a telephone line.
• In 1990, the word "recession" appeared in 1,583 articles in The Wall Street Journal.
• Global sales of pre-recorded music total more than $40 billion.
• Tourism is the world's biggest industry, affecting 240 million jobs.
• In 1865, Frederik Idestam founded a wood-pulp mill in southern Finland, naming it Nokia. It rapidly gained worldwide recognition, attracting a large number of workforce and the town Nokia was born. In 1898, the Finnish Rubber Works company opened in Nokia, taking on the town name in the 1920s. After WWII, the rubber company took a majority shareholding in the Finnish Cable Work. In 1967, the companies consolidated to become the Nokia Group. The recession of the 1990s led the group to focus on the mobile phone market.

Amazing facts about India

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The official Sanskrit name for India is Bharat.  INDIA has been called Bharat even in Satya yuga ( Golden Age ) More INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT India : - 

• The name `India’ is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.
• The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name `Hindustan’ combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus.
• The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero. More facts after the break...

• Sanskrit is considered as the mother of all higher languages. This is because it is the most precise, and therefore suitable language for computer software. ( a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987 ).
• Chess was invented in India.
• Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies which originated in India.
• The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were developed in 100 BC in India.
• The first six Mogul Emperor's of India ruled in an unbroken succession from father to son for two hundred years, from 1526 to 1707.
• The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara temple at Tanjavur in Tamil Nadu. The shikhara is made from a single ' 80-tonne ' piece of granite. Also, this magnificient temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola.
• India is.......the Largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest country in the world AND one of the most ancient and living civilizations (at least 10, 000 years old).
• The game of snakes & ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat.' The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. Later through time, the game underwent several modifications but the meaning is the same i.e good deeds take us to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.
• The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.
• India has the most post offices in the world !
• The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system, employing over a million people !.
• The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
• Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The father of medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
• Although modern images & descriptions of India often show poverty, India was one of the richest countries till the time of British in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus was attracted by India's wealth and was looking for route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
• The art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh 6000 over years ago. The very word 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.
• Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. His calculations was - Time taken by earth to orbit the sun: ( 5th century ) 365.258756484 days.
• The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, which was long before the European mathematicians.
• Algebra, trigonometry and calculus also orignated from India. Quadratic equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 ( i.e 10 to the power of 53 ) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera: 10*12( 10 to the power of 12 ).
• Until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world. ( Source . Gemological Institute of America )
• The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.
• Sushruta is regarded as the father of surgery. Over 2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones and also plastic surgery and brain surgeries.
• Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.

Interesting Facts

• The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
• The military salute originated during the medieval times. Knights in armor used to raise their visors to reveal their identity, and the motion later evolved into the modern-day salute.
• The Mills Brothers have recorded the most songs of any artist: about 2,250.
• The minarets ofthe Taj Mahal in India are angled at 88 degrees outwards so that they would not collapse into the structure should an earthquake occur. Read more after the break...

• The minimum number of darts that need to be thrown to complete a single in, double out game of 501 is nine.
• The Miss America Contest was created in Atlantic City in 1921 with the purpose of extending the tourist season beyond Labor Day.
• The model of King Kong used in the original movie was only 18 inches tall.
• The modern Olympic Games were held in the first time in 1896 at Athens and were then followed by the 1900 Paris games. The winter games were added in 1924.
• The mola mola or ocean sunfish lays up to 5,000,000 eggs at one time.
• The Mona Lisa, by daVinci, is 2'6" by 1'9".
• The Mona-Lisa, now hanging in the Louvre museum in Paris, is valued today at $100,000,000.
• The monastic hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline.
• The Montreal Canadians of the mid-1950s are the only team to win five straight Stanley Cup championships.
• The Monty Python movie "The Life of Brian" was banned in Scotland.
• The moon actually has mirrors on it. They were left there by astronauts who wanted to bounce laser beams off them, so that the distance to the moon can be measured.
• The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust is aluminum.
• The most collect calls are made on father's day.
• The most common blood type in the world is Type O. The rarest, Type A-H, has been found in less than a dozen people since the type was discovered.
• The most common disease in the world is tooth - decay.
• The most common injury in bowling is a sore thumb.
• The most common street name in the United States is Second Street. First Street isn't first because many times the designation is replaced with the name Main Street.
• The most expensive book or manuscript ever sold at an auction was The Codex Hammer, a notebook belonging to Leonardo da Vinci. It sold for $30.8 million.
• The most expensive movie memorabilia ever sold at an auction was Clark Gable's Academy Award for It Happened One Night. It sold for$607,500 on December 15, 1996.
• The most expensive painting ever sold at auction was Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent van Gogh. On May 15, 1990, Ryoei Saito paid $75 million for it. He followed up that spending spree by paying the second-highest price ever, $71 million for Au Moulin de la Galette by PierreAuguste Renoir, just two days later.
• The most frequently seen birds at feeders across North America last winter were the Dark-eyed Junco, House Finch and American goldfinch, along with downy woodpeckers, blue jays, mourning doves, black-capped chickadees, house sparrows, northern cardinals and european starlings. 
• The most searched thing on yahoo.com every year is p0rn.
• The most snow accumulation in a one-day period was 75.8 inches at Silver Lake, Colorado, in April 1921.
• The most used line in the movies is "Lets get out of here."
• The most widely accepted legend associated to the discovery of coffee is of the goatherder named Kaldi of Ethiopia. Around the year 800-850 A.D., Kaldi was amazed as he noticed his goats behaving in a frisky manner after eating the leaves and berries of a coffee shrub. And, of course, he had to try them!
• The most widely culticated fruit in the world is the Apple.The second is the Pear.
• The motto for the Olympic Games is Citius Altius Fortius. Translated, it means Faster Higher Stronger.
• The mouse is the most common mammal in the US.
• The movie As Good As It Gets is called Mr. Cat Poop in China.
• The movie Quo Vadis had 30,000 extras.
• The Museum of Modern Art in New York City hung Matisse's 'Le Bateau' upside-down for 47 days before an art student noticed the error.
• The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.
• The nail of our middle finger grows the fastest and the nail of our thumb grows slowest.
• The name "Uncle Sam" for the U.S. came from a person known as Uncle Sam Wilson of Troy, NY, who supplied food for the U.S. army in the war of 1812.
• The name for Oz in the Wizard of Oz was thought up when the creator Frank Baum looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z.
• The name for the middle part of the nose (the part that separates the nostrils) is called a chaffanu.
• The name 'Intel' stems from the company's former name, 'Integrated Electronics'.
• The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
• The name of the dog from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is Max.
• The name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box is Bingo.
• The name of the first airplane flown at Kitty Hawk by the Wright Brothers, on December 17, 1903, was Bird of Prey.
• The name of the Russian space station, Mir, means "peace."
• The name Santa Claus is a corruption of the Dutch dialect name for Saint Nicholas Sint Klass.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan". There was never a recorded Wendy before.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book 'Peter Pan'. It came from the author's friends, whom he called his "fwendy" (friend)
• The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before it.
• The nation of Monaco on the French Riviera, is smaller than Central Park in New York. Monaco is 370 acres and Central Park is 840 acres.
• The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.
• The national dish of Scotland, haggis, is made of the heart, liver, lungs and small intestines of a calf. It's then boiled in the stomach of the animal, and seasoned with salt, pepper and onions. Oh, and don't forget to add the suet and oatmeal.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in 1978 that it would alternate men's and women's names in the naming of hurricanes. It was seen as an attempt at fair play. Hurricanes had been named for women for years, until NOAA succumbed to pressure from women's groups who were demanding that Atlantic storms be given unisex names.
• The national sport of Nauru, a small Pacific island, is lassoing flying birds.
• The Navy SEALs were formed in 1962.
• The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is.
• The nearest relative of the hippopotamus is the common pig.
• The Netherlands is the lowest country in the world. An estimated 40% of its land is below sea level.
• The New York City Chamber of Commerce is the oldest chamber of commerce in the United States. King George III granted a royal charter for it in 1770.
• The New York phone book had 22 Hitlers listed before World War II .. and none after.
• The New York Yankees have won the most champoinships (26 times) in their respected sport (MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL) for any professional sports team.
• The Nile catfish swim upside down.
• The number 111,111,111 multiplied by itself will result in the number 12,345,678,987,654,321.
• The number 2,520 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 without having a fractional leftover.
• The number 37 will wholly divide (no decimals) into 111, 222, 333, 444, 555, 666, 777, 888, and 999.
• The number of atoms in a pound of iron is nearly five trillion trillion: 4,891,500,000,000,000,000,000,000.
• The number of cricket chirps you count in a fifteen-second span, plus 37, will tell you the approximate current air temperature.
• The number of possible ways of playing just the first four moves on each side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
• The number of times a drowning person will rise to the surface depends on how much air is in his lungs. He could rise once, twice, or five times. Or not at all. Obese people will stay afloat longer than skinny people because fat contains air molecules.
• The number of triplets born in the US in 1994 (4,594) was more than triple the number born in 1971 (1,034), an increase attributed to older age of the mothers and the use of fertility-enhancing drugs and techniques.
• The number of VCRs in the United States grew from 52,565,000 in 1987 to 86,825,000 in 1997, a 39.5% increase.
• The numbers "172" can be found on the back of a US $5 bill, in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln memorial.
• The numbers 111 222 333 444 555 666 777 888 999 are all multiples of 37.
• The numbers on opposite sides of a die always add up to seven.
• The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosy is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores ("Ring around the rosy..."), these sores would smell very badly so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously), so that it would cover the smell of the sores ("...a pocket full of posies..."), People who died from the plague would be burned so as to reduce the possible spread of the disease ("...ashes, ashes, we all fall down!")
• The Oblivion ride at Alton Towers has a G-force of 5. Thats higher than the G-force of an average NASA take-off!
• The occupations of the three men in a tub were butcher, baker, and candlestick maker.
• The odds against a royal flush in poker are exactly 649,739 to 1.
• The odds of being born male are about 51.2%, according to census.
• The official definition of a desert is any land that where more water evaporates than is acquired through precipitation.
• The official name of the St. Louis Gateway Arch is "The Jefferson National Expansion Monument." The Gateway Arch looks taller than it is wider, but it is exactly 630 feet by 630 feet.
• The official sport for the State of Maryland is jousting.
• The official state song of Georgia since 1922 has been "Georgia on My Mind".
• The Ohio river forms at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela.
• The oiuja board was invented by Isaac and William Fuld, and was patented July 1, 1892.
• The oldest "cricket" match was played between the USA and Canada in 1844.
• The oldest continuous comic strip still in existence is The Katzenjammer Kids. It first appeared in newspapers in 1897.
• The oldest exposed surface on earth is New Zealand's south island.
• The oldest goldfish lived for 14,795 days.
• The oldest living thing in existence is not a giant redwood, but a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California, dated to be aged 4,600 years old.
• The oldest man-made building of any kind still existing is the central edifice of the 4,600-year-old mastaba (a tomb for kings) built at Sakkara, Egypt. It was created to honor King Zoser, the first ruler of the Third Dynasty.
• The oldest musical instrument is probably the flute. It's been discovered that primitive cave dwellers made an instrument from bamboo or some other small hollow wood.
• The oldest person to live was Jeanne Louise Calment, she lived for a whopping 122 years until she died of sm0king related complications. Don't Sm0ke! 
• The oldest recorded document on paper made from fibrous material was a deed of King Roger of Sicily, in the year 1102.
• The oldest tennis court in the world is the one built at Hampton Court in 1530 for Henry VIII.
• The oldest works of art are pictures of animals found in caves in Spain and France. They have been dates as far back as 18,000 years ago.
• The olive branch in the eagle's right talon has 13 leaves.
• The Olympic Games were held in St. Louis, MO. In 1904, the first time that the games were held in the United States. 
• The Olympic was the sister ship of the Titanic, and she provided twenty-five years of service.
• The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable"!
• The only animals that can naturally sleep on their backs are humans. No other animal actually does--apes usually sleep sitting up and leaning on something.
• The only big cat that doesn't roar is a Jaguar.
• The only bird that can fly backwards is the hummingbird.
• The only bird that cannot fly is the penguin.
• The only bone in the human body not connected to another is the hyoid, a V-shaped bone located at the base of the tongue between the mandible and the voice box. Its function is to support the tongue and its muscles.
• The only bone not broken so far during any ski accident is one located in the inner ear.
• The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.
• The only countries in the world with one syllable in their names are Chad, France, Greece, and Spain.
• The only difference between brown eyes and every other colored eyes is that brown eyes have more pigment.
• The only dog to ever appear in a Shakespearean play was Crab in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
• The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.
• The only father and son to hit back-to-back home runs in a major league baseball game: Ken Griffey, Jr., and his father, Ken Griffey, Sr., both of the Seattle Mariners in a game against the California Angels on September 14th, 1990.
• The only food cockroaches won't eat are cucumbers.
• The only jointless bone in your body is the hyoid bone in your throat.
• The only loss Packers' coach Vince Lombardi ever suffered in the postseason was to the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-13, in the 1960 NFL championship game.
• The only member of the British House of Commons who is not allowed to speak is the man called the Speaker of the House.
• The only MLB team to have both its city's name and its team name in a foreign language is the San Diego Padres.
• The only mobile national monuments in the United States are the cable cars in San Francisco.
• The only one of his sculptures that Michelangelo signed was the "The Pieta," completed in 1500.
• The only painting by Leonardo da Vinci on permanent display in the United States hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. It's a portrait of Ginevra di Benci, the wife of a politician in Florence.
• The only president buried in Washington, D.C. proper: Woodrow Wilson, who was laid to rest in the National Cathedral.
• The only president buried on the grounds of a state capitol: James Polk in Nashville, Tenn.
• The only President in office to weigh less than 100 pounds was James Madison.
• The only President to be head of a labor union was Ronald Reagan.
• The only presidents buried together: John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams are in a basement crypt in Quincy, Mass.
• The only real person to be a PEZ head was Betsy Ross.
• The only repealed amendment to the US Constitution deals with the prohibition of alcohol.
• The only rock that floats in water is pumice.
• The only state allowed to fly its flag at the same height as the U.S. flag is Texas.
• The only three non-Presidents pictured on U.S. paper money are: Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill, Benjamin Franklin on the $100 bill, and Salmon Chase on the $10,000 bill.
• The only time the human population declined was in the years following 1347, the start of the epidemic of the plague 'Black Death' in Europe.(I dont know these are really true or not, i got this mail in my Mail Box, Just enjoy)

World's 10 Most Powerful Brands

The barely 10-year-old Google is the world's most powerful brand, followed by General Electric and Microsoft, according to a survey conducted by Millward Brown's BrandZ index. The survey assigned values to various brands based on their financial strength and consumer sentiment.

1. Google

A sign outside of the Google headquarters in Mountain View , California

Google, with a brand value of $66.434 billion, is the world's most powerful brand. The global search engine giant was started as a research project in January 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D students at Stanford University , California . Google Inc was incorporated on September 7, 1998, at a friend's garage in Menlo Park , California . The company, known for its innovations and stupendous growth rate, went public on August 19, 2004. Page and Brin's search engine was originally called BackRub. The name 'Google' originated from 'googol,' which refers to the number represented by a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros. Eric E. Schmidt is the CEO of Google, while co-founder Sergey Brin and Larry page are Technology President and Products President, respectively. The company is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol GOOG. 'Google' is now a verb, having found its way into the dictionary. It means 'to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet.'

2. GE

General Electric chairman Jeffrey R Immelt.

General Electric's brand value has been estimated at $61.880 billion, making it the world's second most powerful brand. GE is a giant US multinational, with headquarters in Fairfield , Connecticut , engaged in technology and services industries. It is the world's second largest company in terms of market capitalisation. The famous inventor Thomas Alva Edison opened a new laboratory in Menlo Park , New Jersey in 1876, where the incandescent electric lamp was invented. By 1890, Edison formed the Edison General Electric Company. In 1879, Elihu Thomson and Edwin J. Houston formed the Thomson-Houston Electric Company to rival Edison 's firm. However, in 1892, both the companies merged to give birth to the General Electric Company. GE slowly began to diversify its operations. Today its businesses span information technology, financial services, industrial technology, aviation, healthcare, oil and gas, films and entertainment, theme parks, locomotives, insurance, etc. In India , too, GE's enjoys widespread presence. Jeffrey Immelt is GE's chairman & CEO; while Keith Sherin is the CFO, and Robert Wright is GE vice chairman.

3. Microsoft

The Microsoft logo at the company's office in Herndon , Virginia.

Microsoft Corporation is the world's largest software company, with global annual revenue of over $44.28 billion. With a brand value of $54.951 billion, it also is the planet's third most powerful brand. Bill Gates, the world's richest man, is the executive chairman of the software giant which he co-founded along with Paul Allen in 1975. On June 25, 1981, the company was incorporated. On August 12, 1981, IBM introduced its personal computer with Microsoft's 16-bit operating system, MS-DOS 1.0. On Feb 26, 1986, Microsoft moved to corporate campus in Redmond , Washington , and on March 13, 1986, Microsoft stock went public. On May 22, 1990, Microsoft launched Windows 3.0. On November 20, 1985, Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system. Gates is equally admired for his insight and criticised for his business tactics. Steve Ballmer is the company's CEO, while Ray Ozzie is chief software architect. Microsoft employs 76,000 people across 102 countries.

4. Coca-Cola

The outside of Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta , Georgia .Coca-Cola's brand value has been estimated at $44.134 billion, making it the world's foruth most powerful brand. Coca-Cola, a carbonated soft drink, was intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in 1885 by Dr. John Stith Pemberton in Covington , Georgia . It was then called Pemberton's French Wine Coca. Pemberton's partner and bookkeeper, Frank M Robinson, suggested the name and penned the now famous trademark 'Coca-Cola' in his unique script. Coca-Cola was bought over by businessman Asa Griggs Candler in 1887 and incorporated it as the Coca Cola Company in 1892. Griggs made the brand a force to reckon with through his marketing strategies. Coca-Cola was sold in bottles for the first time on March 12, 1894. In 1919, a group of investors headed by Ernest Woodruff and W C Bradley purchased The Coca-Cola Company for $25 million. Coca-Cola is also the world's best known brand. E Neville Isdell is the company's chairman and chief executive officer.

5. China Mobile

Two men walk past a logo of China Mobile in Chengdu , in China 's southwestern province of Sichuan.China Mobile is the world's 5th most powerful brand with a value of $41.214 billion. China Mobile Communications Corporation, also known as China Mobile or CMCC, is China 's largest mobile phone operator. It is the world's largest mobile phone operator ranked by number of subscribers, with over 296 million customers. By turnover it is second to Vodafone, which owns 3.3% of the China Mobile. A state-owned enterprise, it was spun off from former monopoly China Telecom in 2000, and now has a 65% share of the highly competitive Chinese mobile market. China Mobile is the largest company registered in Hong Kong . Wang Jianzhou is the telecom major's chairman and CEO.

6. Marlboro

Altria CEO & chairman is Louis Camilleri.
Marlboro's brand value has been estimated at $39.166 billion, making it the 6th most powerful brand. Marlboro, made by Altria, is the world's best selling cig@rette brand. It is famous for its billboard advertisements and magazine ads of the Marlboro Man. Philip Morris, a London-based cig@rette manufacturer, created a New York subsidiary in 1902 to sell several of its cig@rette brands, including Marlboro.
Marlboro then suddenly faltered badly in the market till the 1950s, when it made a rollicking comeback following the introduction of a new cowboy image for the brand. Sales skyrocketed by 5,000%. Marlboro with a filtered tip was launched in 1955. The brand is named after Great Marlborough Street , the location of its original London factory. Richmond , Virginia , is now the location of the largest Marlboro cig@rette manufacturing plant.

7. Wal-Mart

A customer leaving a Wal-Mart store in Clinton , Maryland .

The world's 7th most powerful brand, Wal-Mart, is estimated to be worth $36.880 billion. Wal-Mart Stores is an American public corporation and the world's largest retailer. It is the largest private employer, the largest grocery retailer, and the largest toy seller in the United States . It was founded by Sam Walton, who opened his first Wal-Mart discount store in Rogers , Arkansas , in 1962. The company was incorporated on October 31, 1969, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Sam Walton died on April 5, 1992 at the age of 74. His widow Helen R Walton, daughter Alice L Walton, and sons Jim C Walton, John T Walton and S Robson Walton, each with a personal wealth of $20.5 billion, have all been ranked among the richest Americans by Forbes. H Lee Scott is Wal-Mart CEO, while S Robson Walton, is the retail giant's chairman.

8. Citi

Charles Prince is the company's chairman & CEO.
Citi is the world's 8th most powerful brand with an estimated value of $33.706 billion. Citigroup Inc was formed following the $140 billion merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group on April 7, 1998 to create the world's largest financial services organisation. The company employs almost 300,000 people around the world. Travelers was founded in 1864 in Hartford , Connecticut . It dealt in insurance and is noted for many industry firsts: the first automobile policy, the first commercial airline policy, and the first policy for space travel. In the 1990s, it went through a series of mergers and acquisitions. It was bought by Primerica in 1993, but the resulting company retained the Travelers name. In 1995, it became The Travelers Group. It bought Aetna 's property and casualty business in 1996. Citicorp was the descendant of First National City Bank, founded in New York City . It was one of the oldest banks in the United States (founded in 1812), and had the largest international branch presence of any United States headquartered bank. In the 1960s and 1970s, chairman Walter Wriston led the bank into sovereign debt and loan syndication. It was Writsen who led the technology of ATM cards before the the banks. He also spearheaded the name change to Citibank in the late 1970s. Charles Prince, chief executive and chairman of Citigroup, during an unveiling ceremony for the group's new logo in Seoul

9. IBM

The IBM logo in front of the company's headquarters in Seoul , South Korea .
International Business Machines Corporation, also called IBM or 'Big Blue', is a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Armonk , New York , USA . Till 2006 it was the world's largest computer company, but has now ceded the top spot to Hewlett-Packard. With over 350,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest information technology employer in the world. The company which became IBM was founded in 1888 as Herman Hollerith and the Tabulating Machine Company. It was incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) on June 15, 1911, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916. IBM adopted its current name in 1924, where it became a Fortune 500 company. Samuel J Palmisano is IBM chairman & CEO.

10. Toyota

The corporate logo of the Toyota car company at the annual motor show in Paris .
Toyota with an estimated brand value of $33.427 billion is the 10th most powerful brand in the world. Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation and the world's largest auto company that manufactures automobiles, trucks, buses, and robots. The headquarters of Toyota are located in Toyota , Aichi , Japan . It is the world's eighth largest company by revenue of $179 billion as of 2006.
The company was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda as a spinoff from his father's company Toyota Industries to create automobiles. It created, first as a department of Toyota Industries, its first product Type A engine in 1934 and its first passenger car in 1936. Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent company in 1937. Although the founding family name is Toyoda, the company name was changed in order to signify the separation of the founders' work life from home life, to simplify the pronunciation, and to give the company a happy beginning. Toyota is considered luckier than Toyoda in Japan . Katsuaki Watanabe is Toyota 's president and CEO, while Fujio Cho is chairman. Shoichiro Toyoda is the company's honorary chairman; Hiroshi Okuda is senior advisor; and Katsuhiro Nakagawa is vice chairman.

Mind Blowing Facts

1. Turtles have no teeth.


2. Prehistoric turtles may have weighed as much as 5,000 pounds.


3. Only one out of a thousand baby sea turtles survives after hatching.


4. Sea turtles absorb a lot of salt from the sea water in which they live. They excrete excess salt from their eyes, so it often looks as though they're crying.


5. Helium is a colourless, odourless, tasteless inert gas at room temperature and makes up about 0.0005% of the air we breathe.


6. Helium Balloon Gas makes balloons float. Helium is lighter than air and just as the heaviest things will tend to fall to the bottom, the lightest things will rise to the top.


7. Helium Balloon Gas makes balloons float. Helium is lighter than air and just as the heaviest things will tend to fall to the bottom, the lightest things will rise to the top.


8. Camels can spit.


9. An ostrich can run 43 miles per hour (70 kilometers per hour).


10. Pigs are the fourth most intelligent animal in the world.


11. Dinosaurs didn't eat grass? There was no grass in the days of the dinosaurs.


12. Dolphins can swim 37 miles per hour (60 kilometers per hour).


13. A crocodile's tongue is attached to the roof of its mouth? It cannot move. It cannot chew but its Digestive juices are so strong that it can digest a steel nail, Glass pieces, etc


14. Sharks are immune to disease i.e they do not suffer from any Disease.


15. Animals are either right- or left-handed? Polar bears are always left-handed, and so is Kermit the Frog.


16. Paris, France has more dogs than people.


17. New Zealand is home to 70 million sheep and only 40 million people.


18. Male polar bears weigh 1400 pounds and females only weight 550 pounds, on average.


19. Bison are excellent swimmers? Their head, hump and tail never go below the surface of the water.


20. There are 6 to 14 frogs species in the world that have no tongues. One of these is the African dwarf frog.


21. A frog named Santjie, who was in a frog derby in South Africa jumped 33 feet 5.5 inches.


22. The longest life span of a frog was 40 years


23. The eyes of a frog flatten down when it swallows its prey


24. The name `India' is derived from the River Indus


25. The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name `Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus.


26. Chess was invented in India.


27. The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were developed in 100 BC in India.


28. The game of snakes & ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat.' The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices.


29. India has the most post offices in the world


30. 'Navigation' is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH


31. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.


32. Until 1896, India was the only source for diamonds to the world


33. The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were developed in 100 BC in India.


34. A snail can sleep for 3 years.


35. The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start


36. Twenty-Four-Karat Gold is not pure gold since there is a small amount of copper in it. Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with the hands.


37. Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire.


38. The first bicycle that was made in 1817 by Baron von Drais didn't have any pedals? People walked it along


39. The first steam powered train was invented by Robert Stephenson. It was called the Rocket.


40. A cheetah does not roar like a lion - it purrs like a cat (meow).


41. The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'


42. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.


43. Ants don't sleep.


44. Dolphins usually live up to about twenty years, but have been known to live for about forty.


45. Dolphins sleep in a semi-alert state by resting one side of their brain at a time


46. A dolphin can hold its breath for 5 to 8 minutes at a time


47. Bats can detect warmth of an animal from about 16 cm away using its "nose-leaf".


48. Bats can also find food up to 18 ft. away and get information about the type of insect using their sense of echolocation.


49. The eyes of the chameleon can move independently & can see in two different directions at the same time.


50. Cockroach: Can detect movement as small as 2,000 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom.


51. Dragonfly: Eye contains 30,000 lenses.


52. Pig's Tongue contains 15,000 taste buds. For comparison, the human tongue has 9,000 taste buds.


53. The number system was invented by India. Aryabhatta was the scientist who invented the digit zero.


54. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.


55. Earth weighs 5,972,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons


56. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.


57. A duck's quack doesn't echo anywhere


58. Man is the only animal who'll eat with an enemy


59. The average woman uses about her height in lipstick every five years.


60. The first Christmas was celebrated on December 25,


61. AD 336 in Rome.


62. A Cockroach will live nine days without its head, before it starves to death.


63. A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't


64. A rat can last longer without water than a camel can


65. About 10% of the world's population is left-handed


66. Dolphins sleep with one eye open


67. Snakes have no external ears. Therefore, they do not hear the music of a "snake charmer". Instead, they are probably responding to the movements of the snake charmer and the flute. However, sound waves may travel through bones in their heads to the middle ear.


68. Many spiders have eight eyes.


69. The tongue of snakes has no taste buds. Instead, the tongue is used to bring smells and tastes into the mouth. Smells and tastes are then detected in two pits, called "Jacobson's organs", on the roof of their mouths. Receptors in the pits then transmit smell and taste information to the brain.


70. Birds don't sweat


71. The highest kangaroo leap recorded is 10 ft and the longest is 42 ft


72. Flamingo tongues were eaten common at Roman feasts


73. The smallest bird in the world is the Hummingbird. It weighs 1oz


74. The bird that can fly the fastest is called a White it can fly up to 95 miles per hour.


75. The oldest living thing on earth is 12,000 years old. It is the flowering shrubs called creosote bushes in the Mojave Desert


76. Tea is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water.


77. A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water.


If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you'll feel thirsty.


If it's reduced by 10%, you'll die.


78. Along with its length neck, the giraffe has a very long tongue -- more than a foot and a half long. A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue


79. Ostriches can kick with tremendous force, but only forward. Don't Mess with them


80. An elephant can smell water three miles away


81. If you were to remove your skin, it would weigh as much as 5 pounds


82. A hippopotamus can run faster than a man


83. India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history


84. The world's known tallest man is Robert Pershing Wadlow. The giraffe is 5.49m (18 ft.), the man is 2.55m (8ft. 11.1 in.).


85. The world's tallest woman is Sandy Allen. She is 2.35m (7 ft. 7 in.).


86. The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning its head are the rabbit and the parrot.


87. The blue whale is the largest animal on earth. The heart of a blue whale is as big as a car, and its tongue is as long as an elephant.


88. The largest bird egg in the world today is that of the ostrich. Ostrich eggs are from 6 to 8 inches long. Because of their size and the thickness of their shells, they take 40 minutes to hard-boil. The average adult male ostrich, the world's largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds.


89. Every dolphin has its own signature whistle to distinguish it from other dolphins, much like a human fingerprint


90. The world's largest mammal, the blue whale, weighs 50 tons i.e. 50000 Kg at birth. Fully grown, it weighs as much as 150 tons i.e. 150000 Kg.


91. 90 % of all the ice in the world in on Antarctica


92. Antarctica is DRIEST continent. Antarctica is a desert


93. Antarctica is COLDEST continent, averaging minus 76 degrees in the winter


94. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and it doesn't have a moon. Its atmosphere is so thin that during the day the temperature reaches 750 degrees, but at night it gets down to -300 degrees.


95. Jupiter is the largest planet. If Jupiter were hollow, you could fit 1000 earths inside! It is made up of gas and is not solid. The most famous feature on Jupiter is its Red Spot, which is actually an enormous hurricane that has been raging on Jupiter for hundreds of years! Sixteen moons orbit Jupiter.


96. Saturn is a very windy place! Winds can reach up to 1,100 miles per hour. Saturn is also made of gas. If you could find an ocean large enough, it would float. This planet is famous for its beautiful rings, and has at least 18 moons.


97. Uranus is the third largest planet, and is also made of gas. It's tilted on its side and spins north-south rather than east-west. Uranus has 15 moons.


98. Neptune takes 165 Earth years to get around the sun. It appears blue because it is made of methane gas. Neptune also has a big Spot like Jupiter. Winds on Neptune get up to 1,200 mile per hour! Neptune has 8 moons.


99. Pluto is the farthest planet from the sun... usually. It has such an unusual orbit that it is occasionally closer to the sun than Neptune. Pluto is made of rock and ice.


100. Just about everyone listens to the radio! 99% of homes in the United States have a least one radio. Most families have several radios.


101. Sound is sent from the radio station through the air to your radio by means of electromagnetic waves. News, music, Bible teaching, baseball games, plays, advertisements- these sounds are all converted into electromagnetic waves (radio waves) before they reach your radio and your ears.


102. At the radio station, the announcer speaks into a microphone. The microphone changes the sound of his voice into an electrical signal. This signal is weak and can't travel very far, so it's sent to a transmitter. The transmitter mixes the signal with some strong radio signals called carrier waves. These waves are then sent out through a special antenna at the speed of light! They reach the antenna of your radio. Your antenna "catches" the signal, and the radio's amplifier strengthens the signal and sends it to the speakers. The speakers vibrate, and your ears pick up the vibrations and your brain translates them into the voice of the radio announcer back at the station. When you consider all the places the announcer's voice travels


103. Every radio station has its own frequency. When you turn the tuning knob on your radio, you are choosing which frequency you want your antenna to "catch."


104. Mountain lions are known by more than 100 names, including panther, catamount, cougar, painter and puma. It's scientific name is Felis concolor, which means "cat of one color." At one time, mountain lions were very common!


105. The large cats of the world are divided into two groups- those that roar, like tigers and African lions, and those that purr. Mountain lions purr, hiss, scream, and snarl, but they cannot roar.


106. They can jump a distance of 30 feet, and jump as high as 15 feet. It would take quite a fence to keep a mountain lion out!


107. Their favorite food is deer, but they'll eat other critters as well. They hunt alone, not in packs like wolves. They sneak up on their prey just like a house cat sneaks up on a bird or toy- one slow step at a time. A lion can eat ten pounds of meat at one time! That's equivalent to 40 quarter-pounder hamburgers!


108. Queen ants can live to be 30 years old


109. Dragonflies can flap their wings 28 times per second and they can fly up to 60 miles per hour


110. As fast as dragonflies can flap their wings, bees are even faster... they can flap their wings 435 times per second


111. Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.


112. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath


113. Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day


114. Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people


115. The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump!


116. Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails!


117. Women blink nearly twice as much as men


118. Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible


119. Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren't added to it.


120. More people are allergic to cow's milk than any other food.


121. Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand


122. Earth is the only planet not named after a god.


123. It's against the law to burp, or sneeze in a church in Nebraska, USA.


124. Some worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food!


125. It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open


126. Queen Elizabeth I regarded herself as a paragon of cleanliness. She declared that she bathed once every three months, whether she needed it or not


127. Slugs have 4 noses.


128. Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue.


129. Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end


130. More than 1,000 different languages are spoken on the continent of Africa.


131. There was once an undersea post office in the Bahamas.


132. Abraham Lincoln's mother died when she drank the milk of a cow that grazed on poisonous snakeroot


133. After the death of Albert Einstein his brain was removed by a pathologist and put in a jar for future study.


134. Penguins are not found in the North Pole


135. A dentist invented the Electric Chair.


136. A whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound


137. Alexander Graham Bell's wife and mother were both deaf


138. Cockroaches break wind every 15 minutes.


139. Fish scales are an ingredient in most lipsticks


140. Canada" is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".


141. 259200 people die every day.


142. 11% of the world is left-handed


143. 1.7 litres of saliva is produced each day


144. The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old!


145. The largest beetle in the Americas is the Hercules beetle, which can be 4 to 6 inches in length. That's bigger than your hand!


146. A full-grown male mountain lion may be 9 feet long, including his tail!


147. There are two kinds of radio stations: AM and FM. That's why there are two dials on your radio. AM is used mostly for stations that specialize in talking, such as Christian stations that have Bible stories and sermons; sports stations that broadcast live baseball and football games; and stations that specialize in news programs and "talk shows," where listeners call the station and discuss various topics. FM is used mostly for stations that specialize in music.


148. The average lead pencil can draw a line that is almost 35 miles long or you can write almost 50,000 words in English with just one pencil


149. The Wright Brothers invented one of the first airplanes. It was called the Kitty Hawk.


150. The worst industrial disaster in India, occurred in 1984 in Bhopal the capital of Madhya Pradesh. A deadly chemical, methly isocyanate leaked out of the Union Carbide factory killing more than 2500 and leaving thousands sick. In fact the effects of this gas tragedy is being felt even today.


151. Mars is nicknamed the "Red Planet," because it looks reddish in the night sky. Mars has 2 moons.


152. Venus is nicknamed the "Jewel of the Sky." Because of the greenhouse effect, it is hotter than Mercury, even though it's not as close to the sun. Venus does not have a moon but it does have clouds of sulfuric acid! If you're gonna visit Venus, pack your gas mask!


153. Tens of thousands of participants come from all over the world, fight in a harmless battle where more than one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes are thrown in the streets.

Amazing Painting

Amazing Painting

More images after the break...

10 Wonders of the New China

10 Wonders of the New China It's a hotbed of innovative architecture, from diaphanous theaters to buildings heated and cooled by water
China 's current building boom is doing more than sucking up the world's supply of steel -- it's creating a stage for some of today's boldest architecture and engineering. Take a tour of the 10 of the most intriguing examples.
1. The Commune, Beijing First phase completed 2002, expansion scheduled for completion in 2010
China 's current building boom is doing more than sucking up the world's supply of steel -- it's creating a stage for some of today's boldest architecture and engineering. Take a tour of the 10 of the most intriguing examples.
Even if the Commune didn't sit beside that wonder of the ancient world, the Great Wall of China , it would still qualify as a wonder. The complex includes houses by 12 of Asia 's leading architects. It was conceived by married real-estate developers Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi, who gave each architect a $1 million budget. Shigeru Ban, the Japanese architect most famous for the paper houses he designed for refugees of the Kobe earthquake, designed the Furniture House, featuring the laminated plywood typically used for modular furniture, and China's Yung Ho Chang created the Split House, which takes the idea of a boxy dwelling, slices it in half, and spreads it out like a fan.
The Commune is now operated as a boutique hotel by the Germany luxury hotel group Kempinski, which is responsible for an upcoming expansion, which will feature 21 homes (including replications of the originals). One element will remain untouched in the new development: the Commune's private pedestrian trails, which trace untouched sections of the Great Wall.
2. Beijing International Airport , Beijing Foster & Partners. Under construction, to be completed in late 2007

According to the U.S. Embassy to China, the country will be building 108 new airports between 2004 and 2009 -- including what will be the world's largest: the Beijing International Airport, designed by Foster & Partners. Set to open at the end of 2007, in time for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the airport terminal will cover more than 1 million square meters, giving it a bigger footprint than the Pentagon.
It's designed to handle 43 million passengers a year initially and 55 million by 2015, figures that will probably push the new facility into the ranks of the top 10 busiest airports, going by the 2004 numbers from the Airports Council International. Given the scale and traffic, Foster & Partners focused on the traveler's experience, making sure that walking distances are short, for instance.
Building on Foster's experience designing Hong Kong 's new mega-airport, the massive Chek Lap Kok, the sprawling Beijing terminal is housed under a single roof. To help passengers distinguish between different sections of the vast space, skylights cast different shades of yellow and red light across walls -- a subtle but innovative navigational aid. The architects also kept sustainability in mind: An environmental-control system reduces carbon emissions, and skylights situated on a south-east axis lessen solar heat, keeping the building cool.
3. Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects. Under construction, completion scheduled for 2008
Rising in the Lujiazhui financial district in Pudong, the Shanghai World Financial Center is a tower among towers. The elegant 101-story skyscraper will be (for a moment, at least) the world's tallest when completed in early 2008.
One of the biggest challenges of building tall is creating a structure that can withstand high winds. The architects devised an innovation solution to alleviate wind pressure by adding a rectangular cut-out at the building's apex. Not only does the open area help reduce the building's sway but it also will be home to the world's highest outdoor observation deck -- a 100th-floor vista that will take vertigo to new heights.
4. National Swimming Center , Beijing PTW and Ove Arup. Under construction, completion scheduled for 2008
The striking exterior of the National Swimming Center , being constructed for the 2008 Olympic Games and nicknamed, the "Water Cube," is made from panels of a lightweight form of Teflon that transforms the building into an energy-efficient greenhouse-like environment. Solar energy will also be used to heat the swimming pools, which are designed to reuse double-filtered, backwashed pool water that's usually dumped as waste.
Excess rainwater will also be collected and stored in subterranean tanks and used to fill the pools. The complex engineering system of curvy steel frames that form the structure of the bubble-like skin are based on research into the structural properties of soap bubbles by two physicists at Dublin 's Trinity College . The unique structure is designed to help the building withstand nearly any seismic disruptions.
5. Central Chinese Television CCTV, Beijing OMA/Ole Scheeren and Rem Koolhaas. Under construction, scheduled for completion in 2008
The design of the new Central Chinese Television (CCTV) headquarters defies the popular conception of a skyscraper -- and it broke Beijing's building codes and required approval by a special review panel. The standard systems for engineering gravity and lateral loads in buildings didn't apply to the CCTV building, which is formed by two leaning towers, each bent 90 degrees at the top and bottom to form a continuous loop.
The engineer's solution is to create a structural "tube" of diagonal supports. The irregular pattern of this "diagrid" system reflects the distribution of forces across the tube's surface. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren and engineered by Ove Arup, the new CCTV tower rethinks what a skyscraper can be.
6. Linked Hybrid, Beijing Steven Holl Architects; Li Hu, lead architect. Groundbreaking on December 28, 2005 , scheduled for completion in 2008
Linked Hybrid, which will house 2,500 people in 700 apartments covering 1.6 million square feet, is a model for large-scale sustainable residential architecture. The site will feature one of the world's largest geothermal cooling and heating systems, which will stabilize the temperature within the complex of eight buildings, all linked at the 20th floor by a "ring" of service establishments, like cafés and dry cleaners. A set of dual pipes pumps water from 100 meters below ground, circulating the liquid between the buildings' concrete floors.
The result: The water-circulation system serves as a giant radiator in the winter and cooling system in the summer. It has no boilers to supply heat, no electric air conditioners to supply cool. The apartments also feature gray-water recycling -- a process that's just starting to catch on in Beijing in much smaller buildings -- to filter waste water from kitchen sinks and wash basins back into toilets.
7. Dongtan Eco City, Dongtan Masterplan by Arup, for the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corp. In planning stages, first phase to be completed in 2010
Developed by the Shanghai Industrial investment Corp., Dongtan Eco City , roughly the size of Manhattan , will be the world's first fully sustainable cosmopolis when completed in 2040. Like Manhattan , it's situated on an island -- the third-largest in China . Located on the Yangtze River, Dongtan is within close proximity of the bustle of Shanghai .
By the time the Shanghai Expo trade fair opens in 2010, the city's first phase should be completed, and 50,000 residents will call Dongtan home-sweet-sustainable-home. The goals to be accomplished in the next five years: systems for water purification, waste management, and renewable energy. An infrastructure of roads will connect the former agricultural land with Shanghai .
8. Olympic Stadium, Beijing Herzog & de Meuron. Under construction, to be completed in 2008
Sports stadiums have long followed the enduring design of one of the original wonders of the world, Rome 's Coliseum. Herzog & de Meuron's National Stadium in Beijing is an attempt to rethink the classic sports-arena layout for more ecologically correct times.
The Swiss architects (of Tate Modern fame) wanted to provide natural ventilation for the 91,000-seat structure -- perhaps the largest "eco-friendly" sports stadium designed to date. To achieve this, they set out to create a building that could function without a strictly enclosed shell, yet also provide constant shelter for the audience and athletes alike.
To solve these design problems, they looked to nature for inspiration. The stadium's outer grid resembles a bird's nest constructed of delicately placed branches and twigs. Each discrete space within the facility, from restrooms to restaurants, is constructed as an independent unit within the outer lattice -- making it possible to encase the entire complex with an open grid that allows for natural air circulation. The architects also incorporated a layer of translucent membrane to fill any gaps in the lacy exterior.
9. Donghai Bridge , Shanghai/Yangshan Island China Zhongtie Major Bridge Engineering Group, Shanghai # 2 Engineering Co., Shanghai Urban Construction Group. Officially opened in December, 2005

A key phase in the development of the world's largest deep-sea port was completed when China 's first cross-sea bridge -- the 20-mile, six-lane DonghaiBridge -- was officially opened in December, 2005. Stretching across the East China Sea , the graceful cable-stay structure connects Shanghai to Yangshan Island , set to become China 's first free-trade port (and the world's largest container port) upon its completion in 2010.
To provide a safer driving route in the typhoons and high waves known to hit the region, Donghai Bridge is designed in an S-shape. The structure, reported by Shanghai Daily to have cost $1.2 billion, will hold its title of China's -- and one of the world's -- longest over-sea bridge for only a couple of years, though. In 2008, the nearby 22-mile Hangzhou Bay Transoceanic Bridge, which also begins (or ends, depending on your journey) in Shanghai , will earn the superlative.
10. National Grand Theater, Beijing Paul Andreu and ADP. Under construction, to be completed in 2008
Located near Tiananmen Square , the 490,485-square-foot glass-and-titanium National Grand Theater, scheduled to open in 2008, seems to float above a man-made lake. Intended to stand out amid the Chinese capital's bustling streets and ancient buildings, the structure has garnered criticism among Bejing's citizens for clashing with classic landmarks like the Monument to the People's Heroes (dedicated to revolutionary martyrs), the vast home of the National People's Congress, or Tiananmen Gate itself (the Gate of Heavenly Peace).
French architect Paul Andreu is no stranger to controversy -- or to innovative forms. A generation ago, in 1974, his untraditional design for Terminal 1 of Paris 's Charles de Gaulle airport was criticized for its unusual curves, yet Andreu's groundbreaking, futuristic building later was seen to distinguish de Gaulle from more generic European and international air hubs. (The same airport's Terminal 2E, also designed by Andreu, gained attention in 2004 when it collapsed, tragically killing four people.)
Beijing 's daring National Grand Theater is as much a spectacle as the productions that will be staged inside in the 2,416-seat opera house, the 2,017-seat concert hall, and the 1,040-seat theater. At night, the semi-transparent skin will give passersby a glimpse at the performance inside one of three auditoriums, a feature that highlights the building's public nature.

Funny Pictures