Happy and Prosperous New Leap Year 2012

First off, I wish all the readers and viewers of my blog a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
As another year is about to close its doors. And once again, time has come to welcome glorious new year 2012. May the New Year bring loads of positive surprises, precious experience, success, happiness, and good health for you and your loved ones - from day 1 through day 366!

let's Enjoy the Leap Year 2012!!!

World Largest Flower Carpet 2011

 

The city of Tel Aviva continued its year-long centennial celebration on Wednesday (December 16), with the installation of a sweeping carpet of flowers in the city's Rabin Square, received as a gift from the city of Brussels.

The half-million flowers used to compose the colorful carpet arrived from Belgium on Wednesday morning, after being held-up in the airport overnight due to aircraft problems and bureaucracy.

Annette Katz works for the mayor's office in Brussels, and helps oversee a flower carpet they produce in Belgium every couple of years. She traveled to Tel Aviva help install the floral display.

"It was a little complicated, you know, over the rules of bringing flowers. And first we start with Israeli flowers because - it will be much interesting, but they couldn't have enough flowers at the same time. They don't have enough flowers, and they don't have begonias, which is a flower which can stay in the heat for one or two days without water," Katz said.

More than a 100 volunteers, under the supervision of a special team of experts from Brussels, helped to place hundreds of thousands of daliah and begonia flowers.

The carpet's design is a homage to the history of Tel Aviva and is inspired by the classic tiles and murals found in the homes of the city's founders. "This design is very special, by an artist by the name of Adi Yekutieli, and it's a kind of the old tiles they used to build the old houses of the city of Tel Aviva," Tel Aviva's mayor Ron Huldai said.

"I think it's a great thing. The colors are great. And the motifs of the Middle East - like camels that I see here, Tel Aviva motifs, some other things - it's nice. It's special," Eyal Cohen, a Tel Aviva resident said.

"It's very beautiful, this flower carpet. I want to thank very much, to the Brussels municipality, for the present to Tel Aviva for hundredth birthday. It's really beautiful," Varda Biran, another Israeli visitor to Rabin Square said.

Tel Aviva municipality's website says the city was founded in April 1909 by a group of Jewish residents of the nearby Arab city of Jaffa. They were tired of their harsh living conditions under Ottoman Turkish rule so sixty families signed up for the new neighborhood, that was set to be independent of Jaffa city.

The website adds that land was purchased and the plan was to build a wide and green city, unlike the urban density they knew in Jaffa. The land was divided to 60 plots.

About 2 million people live in the greater Tel Aviva area - about 30 percent of all Israelis. Of these, 380,000 live in the city of Tel Aviva, which now incorporates the ancient port of Jaffa.

Tel Aviva is largely a secular city and Israel's business capital. The area is home to the Jewish state's main international airport and stock exchange, as well as many of its biggest companies.

Also dubbed the "White City", Tel Avie boasts many 1930s Modernist-style buildings inspired by Germany's Bauhaus school and was declared a World Cultural Heritage site by UNESCO.

Most Expensive Accident in History

Throughout history, humans have always been prone to accidents. Some, such as the exotic car crashes seen on this page, can be very expensive. But that's trivial compared to the truly expensive accidents. An accident is defined as "an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss". Our aim is to list the top 10 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars.

This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involve casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms. Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.

10) Titanic - $150 Million

The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today's dollars).

9) Tanker Truck vs Bridge - $358 Million

On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany . The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.

8) MetroLink Crash - $500 Million

On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles . It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in losses for Metrolink.

7) B-2 Bomber Crash - $1.4 Billion

Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we're only #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety.

6) Exxon Valdez - $2.5 Billion

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world's biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.

5) Piper Alpha Oil Rig - $3.4 Billion

The world's worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world's single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000 barrels of oil per day. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, the technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PM that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world's most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion.

Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.

4) Challenger Explosion - $5.5 Billion

The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today's dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today's dollars).

3) Prestige Oil Spill - $12 Billion

On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia , Spain . Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually took its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea.

According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 billion.

2) Space Shuttle Columbia - $13 Billion

The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of the wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today's dollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 million.

In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

1) Chernobyl - $200 Billion

On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl , including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. The total costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.

Biggest Burger Ever 2011

The Britain Biggest Burger Every now and again, we all like to treat ourselves to a nice juicy burger with fries and a milkshake.

But this lunchtime snack might take you until supper time to finish.

The Over De Flames burger, which could be the whopper to end all whoppers, contains more than 13,000 calories - almost the amount an average man should consume in a week.

Standing at around 30cm in diameter and containing a staggering 40 slices of cheese, the burger poses a gut-busting challenge for even the hungriest of customers.

Equivalent to more than 26 quarter-pounders, the monolithic meat feast contains three kilos of beef (6.5lb), dwarfing its competitors in the race to be named Britain's biggest - and most calorific - burger.

The brainchild of restaurateur Sudeep De, the burger is only available at the Over De Flames restaurant within Norwich venue The Basement.

The burger, which is served with fries and a milkshake, boasts lashings of relish, ketchup and mayonnaise, plus two whole onions, three tomatoes and an entire head of lettuce.

Mr De is offering £200 to anyone who manages to finish the lot within two hours.

And if they don't, they must pay the menu price of £30.

So far, out of the 26 people who have stepped up to the plate, no one has managed to clean it up.

Father-of-two Mr De, who took over the restaurant in September last year, was inspired to create the monster meal after watching US television show Man v Food.

Mr De, 32, said: 'When I was developing the burger, I tried it out on my family and between me, my wife, our two kids and my in-laws, we were still unable to finish one.

'I first got the idea for the burger from watching Man v Food and when I took over the restaurant I wanted to give it something that would make it stand out.

'All the ones I had seen in the past were just normal-sized burgers stacked on top of each other and anyone can do that.

'I wanted to make one which would be to scale. So I convinced a local bakery to make me the bun, which took about six or seven attempts to get the shape right, and then I set about making the patties.

Each of the patties is 1.5 kilos of beef and there's two of them. So altogether that's three kilos of beef in a single burger.'

A previous contender for the title of Britain's Biggest Burger was rather aptly named the Titanic burger.

Tipping the scales at 2.5lb, the eye-watering mega burger contains two 1lb beef patties (equivalent to 1kg), six rashers of bacon, two chicken breasts, two potato waffles, four onion rings, cheese and - it’s not all bad - a tomato.

The mighty mouthful was prepared by Oscar’s Diner, an American-themed burger bar in Telford, Shropshire.

Hungry customers must eat the entire burger, a large portion of chips, a pot of coleslaw, washing it all down with the ice cream milkshake, within 45 minutes.

And the prize? A free meal, a celebratory photograph and a commemorative T-shirt, presumably in extra large.

Alcoholic Monkey

BANNO loves beer, she guzzles at least three to four bottles everyday. And if she doesn't get her quota, she can even turn violent. In fact, Banno has been hooked on the drink for the last decade or so, even as her peers favour bananas. For Banno is a female monkey in Nawabganj locality of Unnao.
For over a decade now, Banno has been living on a tree near a beer shop in Nawabganj. Over the years, she has become the local star, as visitors flock to the area to see the monkey drinking beer.
According to Ram Nath, a local vendor, Banno developed the "addiction" after some taxi drivers gave her some beer on a hot summer day many years back. "Since then, drivers who pass by have been providing her with half or quarter bottles of beer," he says.
And now, the monkey apparently cannot do without the drink, even going to the extent of attacking people. "She injures people and snatches their beer bottles," adds Ram Nath.