Top 10 Architectural Wonders of the World

10. Empire State Building, New York City, NY

This art deco skyscraper stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years and now it's 12th. The empire state building is one of the world’s most recognizable skyscrapers. Empire state building is one of the popular attraction in New York city. The tower has 102 storeys and was built in the 30s. There are two observatories, one is on the 86th floor, where you can see a breath-taking 360-degree view of the city. There is also a much smaller observation deck on the 102nd floor.

9. Kogod Courtyard, Washington D.C.

The courtyard was designed to make visitors feel like they’re outside, without having to deal with cold and rain. Thus, a roof was necessary to making the space truly useful, and the architects decided upon a wavy glass and steel structure, with glass panels set in a grid and supported by columns. There are several pools of water, which are only a quarter inch deep. They reflect the courtyard and can also be turned off to accommodate more people in the space. Adorning the courtyard are two 32-foot ficus trees and 16 black olive trees, which are filled in with a variety of shrubs and ferns. The space is 28,000 square feet, and will feature free wireless internet access. it was Designed by Norman Foster, this elegant glass canopy was built as an addition to the museum and houses part of the Smithsonian's art gallery. It won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1999. It's over 28,000 square feet of glass and gives the impression of a floating ceiling.

8. Panama Canal, Panama

Panama canal is a man-made canal was. It remains as one of the most difficult and impressive engineering feats of our time. Panama Canal links the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Tt was built as a travel port and has had an enormous impact on shipping between the east and west. Each year over 14,000 vessels pass through its concrete tunneled walls. The canal has been enormously successful, and continues to be a key conduit for international maritime trade. The canal can accommodate vessels from small private yachts up to large commercial vessels.

7. Red Ribbon, Qinhuangdao, China

In Qinhuangdao, China the Tanghe River Park features a new installation of a red steel bench that runs for half a kilometre through the park. The Red Ribbon project is th winner of American Society of Landscape Architects award and was also selected by readers of Conde Nast Traveller magazine as one of the seven new wonders of the architecture world. This knee-high red steel bench acts as a viewing place for the area's lush vegetation and diverse species. The challenge of this project is to protect the good ecological condition of the site and to ensure safety hygiene accessiblity and attractiveness, allowing people touse the site as an urban park. This "red ribbon" provides seating, environmental interpretation, lighting and displaying of native plants.

6. Hoover Dam, Border of Arizona and Nevada

Hoover Dam, originally known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. Hoover Dam is one of the world's largest hydro-electric generating stations. Hoover Dam is one of the most jaw-dropping sites in the US. The dam is named after America's 31st president, Herbert Hoover, who played a large role in bringing the nearby states into agreement about water allocations, settling a 25-year controversy. One more great thing about this dam is it was completed ahead of schedule. Construction began in 1931 and finished in 1936. Two years ahead of schedule and well under budget.

5. The Channel Tunnel aka The Chunnel, Europe

The Channel Tunnel, also known as the Chunnel,is a 50.5-kilometre undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in England with Coquelles, near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. The Channel actually consists of three tunnels bored in the rock below the seabed of the Channel. Two of the tubes are full sized and accommodate rail traffic. In between the two train tunnels is a smaller service tunnel that serves as an emergency escape route. There are also several cross-over passages that allow trains to switch from one track to another.Today, trains roar through the tunnel at speeds up to 100 miles per hour and it's possible to get from one end to the other in only 20 minutes!

4. CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The CN Tower is the world's tallest building as well as Canada's most recognizable icon. The tower is the centre of tourism in Toronto. From the top of the tower you can view the breathtaking view of downtown Toronto. Things to do in the tower include walking on glass floor, eating over 1000 ft above ground at the revolving 360 Restaurant, watching a movie about the construction of the CN tower and of course enjoying the view. It is also a centre for telecommunications in Toronto.

3.The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art. It was designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry and built by Ferrovial. The museum is located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The exhibitions in the museum itself change often, the museum hosts thematic exhibitions, centered for example on Chinese or Russian art. The museum features permanent and visiting exhibits of works by Spanish and international artists. The circular body is signature to the architect and was built to showcase the museum's pieces in a unique way. It stands alongside Spain's magnificent Nervion River.

2. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA

Arching over the Pacific ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge links San Francisco to Marin County . The Golden Gate Bridge is acclaimed as one of the world's most beautiful bridges and with its tremendous towers, sweeping main cables and great span, it is a sensory beauty featuring color, sound, and light. The Bridge can be a very busy place, particularly during the summer months. Pedestrians can walk the bridge to get sprawling views of San Francisco's harbor. Historically, it's also one of the most photographed bridges in the world.

1. Burj Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Burj Dubai is a supertall skyscraper under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the tallest man-made structure ever built. Construction began on 21 September 2004, and the tower is expected to be completed and ready for occupancy by September 2009. This structure will be the world's tallest building once it's completed. Although the height has been a well-kept secret, experts predict it will be over 2200 feet and tower plans suggest an outdoor swimming pool will be located on the 78th floor and the 124th floor will be an observation deck. It will also, reportedly, contain the world's fastest elevator.

Top 10 Technology Easter Eggs from Apple / Google

Technology Easter eggs are included in computer programs, websites, CDs, etc and are basically hidden messages or jokes. Let us look at some of these created by Google and Apple.

1. Recursion

Everybody is aware of the fact that if you type in a wrong spelling in the Google search engine, it will give you the right one with the help of the “did you mean” feature. However, if you type in this particular word with the correct spelling, Google will continuously suggest the exact same spelling again and again till you realize that the joke is on you!

2. Talk to a Martian

With the help of a certain application created by Google Earth 5, users were told that they could speak to Martians on Mars by entering “Meliza” in the search engine. While you will chat with something, it will not be a Martian but Eliza- an application with artificial intelligence. Eliza is not very interesting to speak to.

3. The Meaning of Life

If you are to enter the following phrase- “answer to life, the universe and everything” in the search engine, the first result you will see is “42” and a small calculator will be made next to it. There are other phrases that will confuse you just the same and probably make the engineers laugh. These include “once in a blue moon” which will give “1.16699016 × 10^-8 hertz” as the answer and “number of horns on a unicorn” will give “1” as the answer.

4. Ascii Art

ASCII Art is a term used to describe any image that is created with the help of keyboard characters. Even though this style is quite obsolete, it is still as popular. Google engineers are quite fond of this art as the doodle alters when the phrase is searched for.

5. Swim the Atlantic

When Google Maps were new and somebody was to ask for directions between locations and areas that had water bodies in between them, the user would be asked to travel a bit and then ‘start swimming for 3,500 miles’. This Easter egg has been removed.

6. Google Gulp

This fictitious drink was created by Google 5 years back and it was said that it had the power to enhance the user’s intelligence and allow him to use the search engine more effectively. The user’s DNA would be analyzed and certain adjustments would then be carried out in the brain. It came in flavors like Sugar-Free Radical and Glutamate Grape.

7. Scratch and Sniff

On April Fools Day in 2009, Google told its users that they would be able to scratch and sniff the e-books. They were asked to press their noses up against their monitors and press enter.

8. Weather for Nowhere

This Easter Egg is found in Mac OS X Tiger. After opening the dashboard, clicking on the Weather Widget and pressing the Alt and command key together, if the user was to ask for the current weather, he would find that his location has been changed to “Nowhere”.

9. Text Game

If a Mac user is to click on Terminal and press enter after typing in the following phrase- emacs-batch-1 dunnet, a text game will start loading which is extremely addictive and will be the sole reason for your unproductively.

10. Knock Knock

If you own a Mac OS X and you wish to laugh, go to the Speech Recognition option and click on “Apple Speakable Items”. Hysterically enough, if you ask your computer to tell you a joke, it will do just that. Usually it comes up with not-so-funny knock knock jokes.

Top 10 Google killers: Search Engines of the Future

1. Cuil

Cui is a search engine developed by a team of ex-Googlers and other top notch people from institutions such as IBM and Altavista. Cuil which is said to be a Google killer was launched on 28th July, 2008 and is said to be the world’s largest search engine, indexing ten times as many pages as Microsoft and three times as many pages as Google.

2. Twitter

Twitter is also considered to be a Google killer, but there are just too many “bugs” to get worked out for this to be a Google killer, at least in the short term. However it is a great tool for seo but is not worth anything witout google.

3. Yahoo

Yahoo is seen rolling out a series of changes to their search technology. On the usability side, this search engine helps users to perform the search query while educating them for getting relevant results. As far as the findability side is concerned, Yahoo is now offering Flickr integration, embedded video and other universal search result features which according to Yahoo’s Tim Mayer is the most significant change Yahoo has made to their search business.

4. Wolfram Alpha

It is in everyone’s minds whether Wolfram Alpha will supplant Google? Not in the short term. Google is synonymous to search, as Xerox is for copying. Wolfram appears to be a largely scientific endeavor, but with the right kind of innovation, promotion and funding, it could find an audience in the near future.

5. Facebook

Facebook and Google are two of the fastest growing and largest companies on the internet, and so far Facebook’s popularity has really helped Google to see an increased earnings share. Facebook is complementary and positive for Google so far, but that could change if /when social media such as FaceBook finds a business model and attract ad dollars from other online media.

6. Microsoft’s Bing

Bing is likely to provide direct answers to questions as it makes use of a system similar to the new Wolfram Alpha. They will also concentrate on factors such as local interests, weather and health.

7. Mahalo

This is a web directory launched in May 2007 by Jason Calacanis. This search engine differentiates from the others such as Google and Ask.com by tracking and building hand crafted result sets for many of the presently popular search terms.

8. Quintura

This is a specialized search engine which provides a visual semantic map and is much ahead the other search engines in terms of offering higher quantum of search results in one go. By extracting keywords from the search results it builds a word cloud. Users can refine their entry by clicking words in the cloud and in this way users can narrow the search and find the relevant information faster. “Quintura for kids” is an interesting section available for kids.

9. Powerset

This is a company based in San Francisco, California that is developing a natural language search engine for the internet. This unique search engine can help users find targeted answers to user questions.

10. Clusty

This is a metasearch engine developed by Vivismo that can offer groups of results. Vivísimo is a company built on Web search technology developed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers. Clusty adds new interface and features to the previous Vivisimo clustering web metasearch. There are also several tabs that offer metasearches for jobs, news, blogs and U.S. government info.

World’s Top 20 Largest Mosques

20. Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem

Al-Aqsa Mosque also known as al-Aqsa, is an Islamic holy place in the Old City of Jerusalem. The site that includes the mosque (along with the Dome of the Rock) is also referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif or “Sacred Noble Sanctuary”, a site also known as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, the place where the First and Second Temples are generally accepted to have stood. Widely considered as the third holiest site in Islam, Muslims believe that the prophet Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey. Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the seventeenth month after the emigration, when God ordered him to turn towards the Ka’aba. Al-Aqsa is comes as twentieth largest mosque of the world. A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, Masjid. The mosque serves as a place where Muslims can come together for prayer as well as a center for information, education and dispute settlement. This post features top 20 largest mosques of the world, hope you will like our effort. read more after the break...20 photos..

19. Masjid e Tooba (Gol Masjid), Karachi, Pakistan

Masjid e Tooba or Tooba Mosque is located in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. Locally, it is also known as the Gol Masjid. Masjid e Tooba was built in 1969 in Defense Housing Society, Karachi is nineteenth largest mosque in the world. It is located just off main Korangi Road. Masjid e Tooba is often claimed to be the largest single dome mosque in the world. It is also major tourist attraction in Karachi. Masjid e Tooba is built with pure white marble. The dome of the Masjid e Tooba is 72 meters (236 feet) in diameter, and is balanced on a low surrounding wall with no central pillars. Masjid e Tooba has a single minaret standing 70 meters high. The central prayer hall has a capacity of 5,000 people. It has been built keeping acoustics in mind. A person speaking inside one end of the dome can be heard at the other end. This mosque was designed by Pakistani architect Dr Babar Hamid Chauhan.

18. Al Fateh Mosque (Bahrain Grand Mosque)

The Al-Fateh Mosque also known as Al-Fateh Islamic Center & Al Fateh Grand Mosque is eighteenth of the largest mosques in the world, capable of accommodating over 7,000 worshippers at a time. he mosque is the largest place of worship in Bahrain. It is located next to the King Faisal Highway in Juffair, which is a town located in the capital city of Manama. The mosque very close to the Royal Bahraini Palace, the residence of the king of Bahrain Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah. The huge dome built on top of the Al-Fatih Mosque is made of pure fiberglass.

17. Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Istanbul

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is a historical mosque in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey and the capital of the Ottoman Empire (from 1453 to 1923). The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. It was built between 1609 and 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I. Like many other mosques, it also comprises a tomb of the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. While still used as a mosque, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque has also become a popular tourist attraction. Sultan Ahmed Mosque is known as seventeenth largest mosque in the world.

16. Grozny Central Dome Mosque

Akhmad Kadyrov Grozny Central Dome Mosque is located in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, and bears the name of Akhmad Kadyrov. The mosque design is based on the Blue Mosque in I.stanbul. On October 16, 2008, the mosque was officially opened in a ceremony in which Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov spoke and was with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. This mosque is one of the biggest in Europe. In this mosque ten thousand Muslims can pray at a time and its minarets reach 60m high and is sixteenth largest mosque in the world.

15. Baitul Futuh Mosque

The Bait’ul Futuh Mosque is the largest mosque in Western Europe and fifteenth largest in the world with an area of 5.2 acres (21,000 m2), the mosque complex can accommodate up to 10,000 worshippers. Built in 2003 at a cost of approximately £5.5 million, entirely from donations of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, it is located in the south-west London suburb of Morden, next to Morden South railway station, 150 yards from the Morden Underground.

14. Masjid-e-Aqsa Rabwah, Pakistan

Masjid-e-Aqsa is the greatest mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The foundation stone was laid in 1966 and the building’s inauguration took place on March 31, 1972. The mosque is the main mosque of the Ahmadiyya in Rabwah for 12,000 worshipers. The design came from the mosque, Abdul Rashid, at the request of Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad should occur in one Central Mosque Rabwah. The blueprint was already established during his tenure, but because of the Caliph was not affected, the foundation will be laid. On 28 October 1966 Mirza Nasir Ahmad laid the foundation for the Masjid-e-Aqsa. The Friday Sermon the third Caliph 31 The mosque was opened in March 1972. Masjid-e-Aqsa is fourteenth largest mosque in the world.

13. Masjid Negara, Malaysia

The Masjid Negara is the national mosque of Malaysia, located in Kuala Lumpur. It has a capacity of 15,000 people and is situated among 13 acres (53,000 m2) of beautiful gardens. The original structure was designed by a three-person team from the Public Works Department – UK architect Howard Ashley, and Malaysians Hisham Albakri and Baharuddin Kassim. Originally built in 1965, it is a bold and modern approach in reinforced concrete, symbolic of the aspirations of a then newly-independent Malaysia. Its key features are a 73-metre-high minaret and an 18-pointed star concrete main roof. The umbrella, synonymous with the tropics, is featured conspicuously – the main roof is reminiscent of an open umbrella, the minaret’s cap a folded one. The folded plates of the concrete main roof is a creative solution to achieving the larger spans required in the main gathering hall. Reflecting pools and fountains spread throughout the compound. Masjid Negara known as thirteenth largest mosque in the world.

12. Id Kah Mosque, China

The Id Kah Mosque is a mosque located in Kashgar, Xinjiang, in the western People’s Republic of China. It is the largest mosque in China and twelfth largest mosque in the world . Every Friday, it houses nearly 10,000 worshippers and may accommodate up to 20,000. The mosque was built by Saqsiz Mirza in ca. 1442 (although it incorporated older structures dating back to 996) and covers 16,800 square meters.

11. Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Oman

In 1992 Sultan Qaboos directed that his country of Oman should have a Grand Mosque. A competition for its design took place in 1993 and after a site was chosen at Bausher construction commenced in 1995. Building work, which was undertaken by Carillion Alawi LLC took six years and four months. The Mosque is built from 300,000 tonnes of Indian sandstone and eleventh largest mosque in the world. The main musalla (prayer hall) is square (external dimensions 74.4 x 74.4 metres) with a central dome rising to a height of fifty metres above the floor. The dome and the main minaret (90 metres) and four flanking minarets (45.5 metres) are the mosque’s chief visual features.

10. Baitul Mukarram, Bangladesh

Baitul Mukarram is the national mosque of Bangladesh. Located at the heart of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, the mosque was founded during the 1960s. The mosque has a capacity of 30,000, giving it the respectable position of being the 10th biggest mosque in the world. However the mosque is constantly getting overcrowded. This especially occurs during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which has resulted in the Bangladeshi government having to add extensions to the mosque, thus increasing the capacity to at least 40,000.

9. Jama Masjid, Delhi, India

Jama Masjid, commonly known as the Jama Masjid of Delhi, is the principal mosque of Old Delhi in India. Commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, and completed in the year 1656 AD, it is the largest and best-known mosque in India and ninth largest mosque in the world. It lies at the origin of a very busy central street of Old Delhi, Chandni Chowk. The later name, Jama Masjid, is a reference to the weekly Friday noon congregation prayers of Muslims, Jummah, which are usually done at a mosque, the “congregational mosque”. The courtyard of the mosque can hold up to twenty-five thousand worshipers.

8. Sheikh Zayed Mosque

Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi is the largest mosque in the United Arab Emirates and the eighth largest mosque in the world. It is named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder and the first President of the United Arab Emirates, who is also buried there. The mosque was officially opened in the Islamic month of Ramadan in 2007.

7. Badshahi Mosque, Lahore, Pakistan

The Badshahi Mosque or the ‘Emperor’s Mosque’ in Lahore is the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the seventh largest mosque in the world. Epitomising the beauty, passion and grandeur of the Mughal era, it is Lahore’s most famous landmark and a major tourist attraction. Capable of accommodating 10,000 worshippers in its main prayer hall and a further 100,000 in its courtyard and porticoes, it remained the largest mosque in the world from 1673 to 1986 (a period of 313 years), when overtaken in size by the completion of the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. Today, it remains the second largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the fifth largest mosque in the world.

6. Faisal Mosque, Islamabad, Pakistan

The Faisal Mosque in Islamabad is the largest mosque in Pakistan and South Asia and the sixth largest mosque in the world. It was the largest mosque in the world from 1986 to 1993 when overtaken in size by the completion of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. Subsequent expansions of the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) of Mecca and the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (Prophet’s Mosque) in Medina, Saudi Arabia during the 1990s relegated Faisal Mosque to fourth place in terms of size. Faisal Mosque is conceived as the National Mosque of Pakistan. It has a covered area of 5,000 m2 (54,000 sq ft) and has a capacity to accommodate approximately 300,000 worshippers (100,000 in its main prayer hall, courtyard and porticoes and another 200,000 in its adjoining grounds).

5. The Hassan II Mosque

Located in Casablanca is the largest mosque in Morocco and the fifth largest mosque in the world. Designed by the French architect Michel Pinseau and built by Bouygues.[1] It stands on a promontory looking out to the Atlantic, which can be seen through a gigantic glass floor with room for 25,000 worshippers. A further 80,000 can be accommodated in the mosque’s adjoining grounds for a total of 105,000 worshippers present at any given time at the Hassan II mosque. Its minaret is the world’s tallest at 210 m (689 ft).

4. Istiqlal Mosque

Istiqlal Mosque, or Masjid Istiqlal, in Jakarta, Indonesia is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia in term of capacity to accommodate people. However in term of building structure and land coverage, Istiqlal is the largest in Southeast Asia and fourth largest in the world. This national mosque of Indonesia was build to commemorate Indonesian independence, as nation’s gratitude for God’s blessings; the independence of Indonesia. Therefore the national mosque of Indonesia was named “Istiqlal”, an Arabic word for “Independence”.

3. Imam Reza Shrine

Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad, Iran is a complex which contains the mausoleum of Ima-m Ridha, the eighth Imam of Twelver Shi’ites and known as third largest mosque of the world. Also contained within the complex include: the Goharshad Mosque, a museum, a library, four seminaries, a cemetery, the Razavi University of Islamic Sciences, a dining hall for pilgrims, vast prayer halls, and other buildings.

2. Al-Masjid al-Nabawi

Al-Masjid al-Nabawi “Mosque of the Prophet”), often called the Prophet’s Mosque, is a mosque situated in the city of Medina. As the final resting place of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, it is considered the second holiest site in Islam by both Shia and Sunni Muslims (the first being the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca) and is the second largest mosque in the world.

1. Masjid al-Haram, Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Masjid al-Haram is the largest mosque in the world. Located in the city of Mecca, it surrounds the Kaaba, the place which Muslims worldwide turn towards while offering daily prayers and is Islam’s holiest place. The mosque is also known as the Grand Mosque. The current structure covers an area of 4,008,020 square metres (990.40 acres) including the outdoor and indoor praying spaces and can accommodate up to four million Muslim worshippers during the Hajj period, one of the largest annual gatherings of people in the world.