Messages

46

Common Forum / Re: The most beautiful bridge in the world.

« on: June 30, 2013, 10:27:53 AM »

Helix Bridge, Singapore



This bridge across the Singapore river is unique in how it was designed to look like the structure of DNA. Opened in 2010, the Helix Bridge is made mostly from steel and is illuminated at night by ribbons of LED lighting to compliment its unique design.

47

Common Forum / Re: The most beautiful bridge in the world.

« on: June 30, 2013, 10:26:33 AM »

Langkawi Sky Bridge, Malaysia



The Langkawi Sky Bridge can be accessed via cable car. The bridge is a 410 ft-long curved pedestrian bridge above Gunung Matchincang roughly 2,300 ft above sea level. Once you travel up the mountain via the the cable car, the bridge gives tourists the opportunity to view some of the most beautiful sights of the Malaysian mountains and rainforests.

48

Common Forum / Re: The most beautiful bridge in the world.

« on: June 30, 2013, 10:25:21 AM »

Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge, Japan



One of Japan’s greatest pieces of engineering, this bridge holds the record for bring the longest suspension bridge in the world with a total length of 3,911 m. It would take four Brooklyn Bridges to span the same distance! Opening in 1998, it took 12 years to build and it links the city of Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture to Iwaya in the Awaji Island. Funnily enough it was never built with the intention of being the longest suspension bridge in the world but in 1995 the Kobe Earthquake hit halfway during it’s construction and consequently added an extra 3 ft which gave the bridge its record. The length of the cables used in the bridge totals 300,000 km. That’s enough to circle the earth 7.5 times!

49

Common Forum / Re: The most beautiful bridge in the world.

« on: June 30, 2013, 10:23:55 AM »

Octavio Frias De Oliveira Bridge, Brazil



Opened in 2008 and found in the city of São Paulo, It took 5 years to build and 450 workers to build it. The bridge is unusual due to it’s X shaped structure in the middle. Another attribute to this bridge is how it has two levels of traffic crossing one another as they pass through the pylon. The bridge is also decorated in LED lights that create amazing views and on special occasions such as Christmas, the bridge can be lit up to look like a Christmas Tree.

50

Common Forum / Re: The most beautiful bridge in the world.

« on: June 30, 2013, 10:18:30 AM »

Siduhe Bridge, China



Opening in 2009, the Siduhe bridge is officially the worlds highest bridge; and probably the scariest for those who have a fear of heights! It is located an incredible 1,627 ft above ground to achieve this record. To get a scale of how high up this bridge is, it is higher than the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel tower, the Pyramids of Giza and the Big Ben. It sits quietly high above a river gorge in China’s Hubei Province surrounded by China’s mountains and greenery. Building this bridge was a challenge because of it’s location. It wasn’t possible to use cranes, boats or even get helicopters up there so the engineers came up with the interesting idea of using rockets instead. Over 1000 meters of tether was attached to the end of a rocket and shot all the way across the gorge to help set up foundations. It’s unique location and unique way of construction show that this bridge will probably remain the world’s highest bridge for years to come.

51

Common Forum / Re: The most beautiful bridge in the world.

« on: June 30, 2013, 10:15:50 AM »

2.Millau Viaduct, France



This bridge is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the tallest bridge in the world. It stands at an incredible 1,125ft tall to become an engineering masterpiece. The bridge gained international recognition as a major engineering feat and received the Outstanding Structure Award in 2006, one of the most prestigious prizes an architect can win. The New York Times described it as “a triumph of engineering” and the BBC called it “one of the engineering wonders of the 21st Century”. The president of France, Jacques Chirac, opened the bridge in 2004 which cost an estimated 394 million euros, or 524 million dollars. The bridge itself crosses over the Tarn River Valley in Millau and gives drivers some of the most stunning views in all of France, even rising above the clouds on some days!

52

Common Forum / The most beautiful bridge in the world.

« on: June 30, 2013, 10:13:19 AM »

Ever since the dawn of time man has been trying to cross things – oceans, mountains, deserts. It’s in our blood. Of course those are far bigger than anything we’ll see today. Crossing a river with a bridge can’t be all that exciting.

1.The Falkirk Wheel, Scotland



Their is more to this bridge than it’s very futuristic design. This is the worlds first and only boat lift! That’s right, the structure can actually rotate 180 degrees and is equipped with two locks which have 168 m long tunnels that emerge at the ends of the 2 wheels. Boats at the bottom sail into these tunnels, the structure then rotates, lifting the boats up to the top of the canal. The bridges unique way of connect the canals and transporting boats makes it an exceptional feat of modern engineering.

53

Public Health / Re: Spices to avoid cancer

« on: May 20, 2013, 10:23:14 AM »

Very informative post. Thank you for sharing the information.

54

Public Health / Re: What causes hair loss?

« on: May 20, 2013, 10:19:29 AM »

 2. Natural juices: You can rub your scalp with either garlic juice, onion juice or ginger juice. Leave it on overnight and wash it thoroughly in the morning.

3. Get a head massage: Massaging your scalp for a few minutes daily will help stimulate circulation. Good circulation in the scalp keeps hair follicles active. Circulation may be improved through massage by using a few drops of lavender or bay essential oil in an almond or sesame oil base.

4. Antioxidants: Apply warm green tea (two bags brewed in one cup of water) on your scalp and leave this mixture on for an hour and then rinse. Green tea contains antioxidants which prevent hair loss and boost hair growth.

5. Practice meditation: Believe it or not, most of the times, the root cause for hair loss is stress and tension. Meditation can help in reducing that and restore hormonal balance.

55

Public Health / Re: What causes hair loss?

« on: May 20, 2013, 10:18:52 AM »

 It's better to use natural products to stop hairfall than to go in for expensive parlour treatments, that may not help the problem.

Here are some  easy tips at home and see how effective they are in reducing hair loss.

1. Hot oil treatments: Take any natural oil - olive, coconut, canola - and heat it up so that it is warm, but not too hot. Massage it gently into your scalp. Put on a shower cap and leave it on for an hour, then shampoo your hair.

56

Be a Business man/woman / Re: 8 leson of Leadership of Nelson Mendela.

« on: May 20, 2013, 09:51:26 AM »

No 3
Lead from the back — and let others believe they are in front
Mandela loved to reminisce about his boyhood and his lazy afternoons herding cattle. "You know," he would say, "you can only lead them from behind." He would then raise his eyebrows to make sure I got the analogy.

As a boy, Mandela was greatly influenced by Jongintaba, the tribal king who raised him. When Jongintaba had meetings of his court, the men gathered in a circle, and only after all had spoken did the king begin to speak. The chief's job, Mandela said, was not to tell people what to do but to form a consensus. "Don't enter the debate too early," he used to say.

During the time I worked with Mandela, he often called meetings of his kitchen cabinet at his home in Houghton, a lovely old suburb of Johannesburg. He would gather half a dozen men, Ramaphosa, Thabo Mbeki (who is now the South African President) and others around the dining-room table or sometimes in a circle in his driveway. Some of his colleagues would shout at him — to move faster, to be more radical — and Mandela would simply listen. When he finally did speak at those meetings, he slowly and methodically summarized everyone's points of view and then unfurled his own thoughts, subtly steering the decision in the direction he wanted without imposing it. The trick of leadership is allowing yourself to be led too. "It is wise," he said, "to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea."

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Common Forum/Request/Suggestions / Re: Most Beautiful Flower in the world

« on: May 20, 2013, 09:48:50 AM »

Thanks to all.

58

Be a Business man/woman / Re: 8 leson of Leadership of Nelson Mendela.

« on: May 18, 2013, 11:02:08 AM »

No. 2
Lead from the front — but don't leave your base behind
Mandela is cagey. in 1985 he was operated on for an enlarged prostate. When he was returned to prison, he was separated from his colleagues and friends for the first time in 21 years. They protested. But as his longtime friend Ahmed Kathrada recalls, he said to them, "Wait a minute, chaps. Some good may come of this."

The good that came of it was that Mandela on his own launched negotiations with the apartheid government. This was anathema to the African National Congress (ANC). After decades of saying "prisoners cannot negotiate" and after advocating an armed struggle that would bring the government to its knees, he decided that the time was right to begin to talk to his oppressors.

When he initiated his negotiations with the government in 1985, there were many who thought he had lost it. "We thought he was selling out," says Cyril Ramaphosa, then the powerful and fiery leader of the National Union of Mineworkers. "I went to see him to tell him, What are you doing? It was an unbelievable initiative. He took a massive risk."

Mandela launched a campaign to persuade the ANC that his was the correct course. His reputation was on the line. He went to each of his comrades in prison, Kathrada remembers, and explained what he was doing. Slowly and deliberately, he brought them along. "You take your support base along with you," says Ramaphosa, who was secretary-general of the ANC and is now a business mogul. "Once you arrive at the beachhead, then you allow the people to move on. He's not a bubble-gum leader — chew it now and throw it away."

For Mandela, refusing to negotiate was about tactics, not principles. Throughout his life, he has always made that distinction. His unwavering principle — the overthrow of apartheid and the achievement of one man, one vote — was immutable, but almost anything that helped him get to that goal he regarded as a tactic. He is the most pragmatic of idealists.

"He's a historical man," says Ramaphosa. "He was thinking way ahead of us. He has posterity in mind: How will they view what we've done?" Prison gave him the ability to take the long view. It had to; there was no other view possible. He was thinking in terms of not days and weeks but decades. He knew history was on his side, that the result was inevitable; it was just a question of how soon and how it would be achieved. "Things will be better in the long run," he sometimes said. He always played for the long run.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1821659,00.html#ixzz2TcKMfWn3

59

Be a Business man/woman / Re: 8 leson of Leadership of Nelson Mendela.

« on: May 18, 2013, 11:01:25 AM »

No. 1
Courage is not the absence of fear — it's inspiring others to move beyond it
In 1994, during the presidential-election campaign, Mandela got on a tiny propeller plane to fly down to the killing fields of Natal and give a speech to his Zulu supporters. I agreed to meet him at the airport, where we would continue our work after his speech. When the plane was 20 minutes from landing, one of its engines failed. Some on the plane began to panic. The only thing that calmed them was looking at Mandela, who quietly read his newspaper as if he were a commuter on his morning train to the office. The airport prepared for an emergency landing, and the pilot managed to land the plane safely. When Mandela and I got in the backseat of his bulletproof BMW that would take us to the rally, he turned to me and said, "Man, I was terrified up there!"

Mandela was often afraid during his time underground, during the Rivonia trial that led to his imprisonment, during his time on Robben Island. "Of course I was afraid!" he would tell me later. It would have been irrational, he suggested, not to be. "I can't pretend that I'm brave and that I can beat the whole world." But as a leader, you cannot let people know. "You must put up a front."

And that's precisely what he learned to do: pretend and, through the act of appearing fearless, inspire others. It was a pantomime Mandela perfected on Robben Island, where there was much to fear. Prisoners who were with him said watching Mandela walk across the courtyard, upright and proud, was enough to keep them going for days. He knew that he was a model for others, and that gave him the strength to triumph over his own fear.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1821659,00.html#ixzz2TcKBYEn2

60

Be a Business man/woman / 8 leson of Leadership of Nelson Mendela.

« on: May 18, 2013, 11:00:41 AM »

Nelson Mandela has always felt most at ease around children, and in some ways his greatest deprivation was that he spent 27 years without hearing a baby cry or holding a child's hand. Last month, when I visited Mandela in Johannesburg — a frailer, foggier Mandela than the one I used to know — his first instinct was to spread his arms to my two boys. Within seconds they were hugging the friendly old man who asked them what sports they liked to play and what they'd had for breakfast. While we talked, he held my son Gabriel, whose complicated middle name is Rolihlahla, Nelson Mandela's real first name. He told Gabriel the story of that name, how in Xhosa it translates as "pulling down the branch of a tree" but that its real meaning is "troublemaker."