Angelina jolie gifts waterfall to brad

“Khawab hotey hain dekhney ke liye

In main ja ker magar raha na karo ! ”

A poet said the above verse in urdu language but he may not know that “money” can buy dreams and Angelina Jolie’s gift on Brad Pitt’s birthday is an example of that! Remember those days when men used to promise impossible gifts like stars for their loved ones but todays’ lovers do have the monetary power to bring such dreams to reality. This time its not a man who has given an unconventional gift but a lady!

Angelina Jolie, the actress-director, 36, purchased a waterfall and surrounding land in California as Pitt’s combined Christmas and 48th birthday present, in order to provide him with the property for his dream home.

A source told the New York Post newspaper: “Brad has always loved Fallingwater and his first trip there was unforgettable. Angelina wanted to get him something incredibly special and, because she knows how much he loves architecture, she thought this would be perfect.

“She hopes this will be a hideaway for the family. Brad has dreamed of a home with the sound of a waterfall cascading under the house.

“Brad has always wanted to design his own house. He wants to pull all aspects of nature, light, glass and varying levels into the concept. This is the present to top all presents.”

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9/11 Memorial on Ground Zero

Where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood now lies two granite pools in its footprints with waterfalls cascading 30 feet below. They one-acre size pools sprawl out across the World Trade Center plaza – one to signify each fallen tower. They are bordered by bronze panels inscribed by the names of all those who perished at the hands of terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, at the Pentagon, in New York and in Pennsylvania.

9/11 Ground Zero Memorial to open on 10th anniversery

The memorial’s designer, Michael Arad, was a young, little-known architect whose plan was selected out of 5,200 proposals. He told CBS: ‘These two acre-sized voids are like a moment of silence and what we do with that moment of silence depends on us. We just want to make sure everything is done very carefully. We’re building for the ages.’

30 feet fall at 9/11 Memorial on Ground Zero

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courtesy: Daily Mail

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fasting in Burj khalifa

Here is an interesting Fatwa for the people living on the higher floors will have delay their iftar by a few minutes. They can always go down to break their fast if they feeling hungry!!!

DUBAI: Muslims living in the world’s tallest tower will have to wait even longer to break their fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

In a fatwa released over the weekend, the Grand Mufti of Dubai called upon Muslims living in skyscrapers, particularly those in the world’s tallest tower, to adjust their fasting and prayer times according to what floor they call home.

Dr Ahmed Al Haddad, who is also the head of the Ifta centre at the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department, said the Burj Khalifa, at more than 828 metres tall with 160 storeys, must be divided into three different times for iftar, or the breaking of the fast. He said the three segments are based on when the actual sun set is “visible” to a tenant.

“Regardless of where you are, you need to pay attention to the actual sun set,” Dr Al Haddad said. “You are not to break your fast until the sun sets, and you can actually see that sun set.”

Those living on the lower floors of the Burj Khalifa, 80 and below, are to break their fast at the same time as everyone else — when the call for Maghreb prayers at sunset is broadcast across the Dubai mosques on TV, or can be heard from the nearest mosque in the neighbourhood.

For those living on floors between 80 and 150, starting at about 414 metres high, the iftar time is delayed two minutes after the muezzin calls for Maghreb prayer. These residents are also to start praying the following Esha prayer two minutes after the call for that prayer, and two minutes before the call for Fajr prayers at dawn.

For those living on floor 150 and above, or from 800 metres and above, residents must delay their iftar by three minutes, as well as their Esha prayer. The rule applies to Fajr prayers also, which are to begin three minutes earlier than the call for prayers.

These rules should also be a guide during Suhoor time, when Muslims stay up at night to pray, and when they eat their last meals before they start their Imsak, withholding, and begin their fast with sun rise.

The ruling is based on the basic premise that the higher you are, the longer it takes for you to see the sun set because your field of vision is farther the higher you go.

The religious edict also applies to locations even higher up than any built structures. “Even if you are on a plane, you should break the fast according to when the actual sun sets over the area you are flying,” said Dr Al Haddad. “You shouldn’t break it if the sun is shining brightly where you are and hasn’t set.”

Mohammed Badr, who lives on the 61st floor of the Burj Khalifa, said he was “surprised” that elevation made a difference. “It would never cross my mind that where someone lives in a high-rise building would make a difference in fasting,” said the 37-year-old from Egypt. Since he lives below the 80th floor, he will break his fast with everyone else.

“The last two minutes before breaking a fast are tough, so I do feel bad for those living higher up,” he said.

Read More.

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Hamad, the Rainbow Sheikh

Billionaire sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi carves his name in desert so big that if he goes to space then he can see it from there !

His name is etched on to an island he owns called Al Futaisi. The name is two miles across — with letters a kilometre high. It is so huge that the “H”, the first “A” and part of the “M” have been made into waterways. Now he better go to space and see his name otherwise whats the use!

And rather than allow the writing to be washed away by the ocean, the letters actually form waterways that absorb the encroaching tide.The ruler’s name is even visible on Google’s map service.

Hamad, also known as the ‘Rainbow Sheikh’, is a member of the Abu Dhabi Ruling Family.

Dodge Power Wagon

The Arab sheikh has a taste for doing things on a large scale. He built the world’s largest truck – eight times the size of the Dodge Power Wagon, with  four bedrooms inside the cabin.

Hamad constructed a motor home in the shape of a giant globe which is exactly 1 millionth the size of the actual earth.

Alongside his lavish displays of wealth he has become a well-known philanthropist in medicine and supplied a complete kidney stone operating theatre to a public hospital in Morocco where he continues to fund its staff.

His fleet of more than 200 cars — including seven Mercedes 500 SELs painted in different colours of the rainbow — is housed in a custom-built pyramid. Have a look at his car collection.

Have fun “Ya Sheikh!” but you can make millions smile with a little of your wealth by helping them….do not give them food instead invest in such a way that they become productive and generate their own income!

Emirates National Auto Museum

The Emirates National Auto Museum
The museum is free and, while often appearing closed, is actually open seven days a week (9am-6pm; closed 1pm-2pm). If the pyramid building is shut, just find an attendant to open it. The complex is home to three shops and cafés (including one inside a two-storey, Land Rover-shaped building). Ask in any of these to find an attendant. The drive to the museum is about 45 minutes from the centre of Abu Dhabi. Take the road toward the airport, and turn off on to the Tarif road (a massive strait that runs right through to Saudi Arabia). Turn off at Junction 306 and head towards Hameem. Pass the giant rainbow gate on the left and the museum will be sign-posted.

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airconditioned jacket

It works by helping the body’s own cooling system. Normally, sweat is produced and evaporates, causing a cooling effect – but clothes interfere with this process by trapping the droplets.

But the jacket, invented by former Sony technician Hiroshi Ichigaya, produces a layer of circulating air which enhances sweat evaporation. Two fans at the back pump fresh air around the wearer and out through the neck and sleeve ends. Moisture can also pass through the cloth.

The fans – four inches in diameter – are powered by AA batteries, which last for several hours, or by plugging into a computer using a USB cable.

The electrical parts can be removed for washing. The only drawback is the balloon effect caused by the air flow. Do you mind that ? When there is no electricity!

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google+

Are you a member of Google+? Well I am !

We have a chance to start all over again and complete our circle of friends by becoming a member of Google+. Some of my friends who were hurt by the decisions of the Facebook authorities in the past can join us. People who were scared and felt threatened by the privacy issues on facebook can also join in to enjoy the benfits of “social networking”.

Social networking (Facebook) has brought us all closer in more then one ways. People who do not get to see or meet each other for ages are now closer because they share each others’ day to day life! Every statues or pictures shared makes us all aware of happenings in our friend and family’s lives.

Mark Zuckerberg on Google+

Even  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined Google+ in an effort to explain us yet again that we’re all sharing more and more things with more and more people because we need to spread more and more of our love around the world.

And wasn’t it mere days ago that he became the most followed human being on Google+? Now he suddenly seems to have closed off his Google+ account from public eyes and disappeared from the Google+ popularity charts!

Anyway Google+ looks different yet familiar and easy to use. If you are a facebook user you do not have to make an effort to get used to this. Google+ is similar to Facebook, allowing people to add profile pictures and connect with friends, but it also connects with Google staple websites like its search engine and Gmail.

But the main difference is that a user’s friends or contacts are grouped into ‘circles’ – rather than just having a giant pool of friends like on Facebook. The layout of the Circles is pretty cute; removing a contact from a Circle blasts them into a puff of smoke, to which you are free to add your own laser noises.

Google+ is already giving Facebook a run for its money! According to a researcher, Google+ could be on the verge of hitting the 10 million users mark inits first two weeks.Paul Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com, has estimated that Google+ is just a step away from hitting its 10-millionth member, if it hasn’t already, Telegraph reported. However, Google+ has a long way to go to cause any kind of upset to Facebook which has 750 million users and Twitter which has more than 300 million users.

facebook-vs-google-plus

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Total lunar eclipse on 15th june 2011

The first total  lunar eclipse of the year 2011 will happen on 15th June 2011. On the night of June 15, the sun, earth and moon will come in a straight line and the earth’s shadow will eclipse the full moon passing through it. As the moon slips into the earth’s dark shadow, it will slowly assume a coppery red colour, making it a not to be missed spectacle. The lunar eclipse will be visible for 50 minutes and it will be visible to many countries, including Pakistan.

Karachi University Institute of Space and Planetary Astrophysics Director Professor Dr Muhammad Shahid Qureshi said the eclipse will be a rare one because this time the moon will pass directly through the center of the earth’s shadow cone – an event that hasn’t happened in 11 years and won’t happen again until 2018.

This eclipse will be the darkest in 22 years. If you have never seen the summer Milky Way at its prime, you now have two very strong excuses for travelling to a dark sky site to observe this total lunar eclipse and the galactic center high in the sky. For the city people like us it will be a rare event because we hardly witness the brilliant network of starts because of the bright lights around.

Karachi Astronomers Society writes ” The eclipse occurs on 1^5th/16^th June when the Moon is at the ascending node in southern Ophiuchus, about 7° west of the Lagoon Nebula (M8). Perhaps you know that the Lagoon Nebula is an obvious naked-eye target from dark skies. The Moon plunges deep into Earth’s umbral shadow during this rather long event, with totality itself lasting 100 minutes. The last eclipse to exceed this duration was that of July 2000.

Fred Espenak, “Mr. Eclipse” of NASA, reflecting about a total lunar eclipse he witnessed in the same part of the sky nearly three decades ago writes, “I was amazed at how brilliantly the summer Milky Way glowed since it was all but invisible during the partial phases.”

15^TH June 2011 (Wednesday)

Penumbral Eclipse Begins:  22:24:34 PKT

Partial Eclipse Begins:    23:22:56 PKT

16^TH June 2011 (Thursday)

Total Eclipse Begins:      00:22:30 PKT

Greatest Eclipse:          01:12:37 PKT

Total Eclipse Ends:        02:02:42 PKT

Partial Eclipse Ends:      03:02:15 PKT

Penumbral Eclipse Ends:    04:00:45 PKT

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X-ray projected on the skin

The AnatOnMe is a hand-held device that is made up of a projector, digital camera and infrared camera along with a laser pointer.

The projector can display stock images of six types of injury directly on to the patient’s skin or a model to help them understand the impact it has had on their body.

They added that volunteers who reviewed the handheld projections delivered a more engaging and informative experience than a traditional consultation.

Amy Karlson from Microsoft Research Redmond, said: ‘This is an interesting new space because, despite the prevalence of technology in many settings, technology has been relatively absent from face-to-face communication and education opportunities between doctors and patients.

‘The coolest part was hearing positive reactions from study participants when we projected medical imagery directly onto their arms and legs.

‘We got, “Wow!” “Cool!” and “I feel like I’m looking directly through my skin!”

‘There seems to be something quite compelling and unique about viewing medical imagery on one’s own body.’

The AnatOnMe device and paper was presented this week in Vancouver at CHI 2011, the Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Courtesy: Daily mail

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Newton's apple tree

The 400 year old tree is at the 17th century in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, where Newton was born and where he later returned for several years after studying at Cambridge University.

An official of The National Trust, which owns the small manor house where Newton was born in 1642, said the tree – which re-rooted itself in 1820 after being blown down in a storm and grew back in an ‘inverted S-shape’ – was already difficult to get close to because of its shape.

A piece of Newton’s apple tree is now bound to leave gravity behind.Flying aboard space shuttle Atlantis next week will be a 4-inch (10-centimeter) sliver of the tree from which an apple fell nearly 350 years ago and inspired Newton to discover the law of gravity. British-born astronaut Piers Sellers is flying the piece of wood for The Royal Society of London. 

“I’ll take it up into orbit and let it float around a bit, which will confuse Isaac,” Sellers said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week.

Piers Sellers further says “I am flying a chip of wood from Isaac Newton’s apple tree. How about that?” Sellers told SPACE.com in an interview last week. “It’s even got a little 17th century scrawl on it that says, ‘I. Newton.’ I don’t know if he wrote it or someone else wrote it, but anyway, it’s a very old piece of apple tree.”

Newton was a physicist, mathematician and astronomer, among other things. He was born in 1643 in Lincolnshire, England said to be the site of the famous apple tree. In 1687, he published his book “Principia” in which he described his theory of gravity and the laws of motion. He died in 1727.

Newton’s first law of motion, one of three, states that an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. It also holds for an object in motion, which would stay in motion unless also confronted by an external force.

Newton’s second law of motion describes the relationship between an object’s force and its mass and acceleration, while the third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Ahhh…enjoyed reading these laws

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Osama's Compound

The World’s most wanted terrorist was killed by US forces on sunday in a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan. When he died he had no weapons  in his house and was unarmed himself too! What a terrorist! Who was a threat to the world peace!

Osama’s life was a big mystery but his death happened with a bigger drama. His life always raised numerous questions but his death has left uncountable questions unanswered. By throwing his dead body in the sea, Americans have made his death questionable for ever! (Seeing is believing)

They found him alive and unarmed and did not capture him alive? WHY? He had no weapons in his compound!

“White House press secretary Jay Carney acknowledged that Bin Laden did not have a weaponeven though administration officials have said that the terror leader resisted during the raid. Carney said resistance does not require a firearm. Mr Carney also confirmed Bin Laden was shot in the head and in the chest.” Read more

Sorry, but I do not buy this story. After looking for him for past ten years and in this process they destroyed two countries (Afghanistan and Pakistan). They killed thousands of people (human beings who were once alive and did not kill anyone one on earth) and when they found him(Osama)….they killed him!!! Why was he not taken into custody to stand trial?

Lets believe Osama Bin Laden is dead and this chapter of our lives is closed forever. Mr Obama says that World has become a safe place after Osama’s death but is it true for the people of Pakistan too? Will we have a safe future for our kids too? After sacrificing thousands of innocent lives in this war on terror. We are still facing terror, unumployment, inflation, a sinking economy,a social and cultural anarchy plus a blame of protecting and hosting terrorists.

This blaming tone is very unjust  indeed after telling the world  how much we have lost… and suffered. Which is exactly the truth. Even then the media tries to convince people that OBL is some kind of hero in Pakistan, which is why he managed to live in a “mansion” in Abbottabad.

Take a closer look at the picture above. Is this how a mansion looks like? You all must have seen homes of rich people before.

Anyway, basic question is:

Who was the man killed in Abbottabad? He was an ‘arab’ we all know by now but all arabs are not ‘Osama Bin Laden’!!

Why was he killed and not tested in a court of law?

If killed then why was the body thrown in the sea in a hurry?

We all have this feeling that he was not Osama otherwise Americans would have proudly shown his dead body to the world like the bodies of Saddam and his sons were shown. Osama may have died years ago in an unknown place in Afghanistan. He gave the chance to Americans to enter Afghanistan after 9/11 and Afghans paid the price along with Pakistani soldiers and citizens.

Now after his ‘death drama’ Pakistanis are looked upon with doubt again. No one is asking how he entered Pakistan in the presence of huge NATO forces equipped with the best available warfare technology?????

I wish this post 9/11 world is a nightmare and we will get back to old times ….I do not want my children to grow up in this world.

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http://www.osamabinladenlives.com/

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