Racing Look Blog: 2011

Sunday, April 24, 2011

tsunami aceh

tsunami jepang

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Most Extremely Miraculous Survivors

In our life we come across some miraculous and incredible survival stories which leave us in awe and admiration. All such stories teach us one thing that struggle for survival requires will of high magnitude; a desire to live and go back to family. This strong will has miraculously brought people back from death against all odds.

10. A Model Whose Body is Held Together with 11 Metal Rods

Telegraph

The charming and beautiful model, Katrina Burgess survived a fatal car accident which had broken her neck, back and ribs, injured her pelvis and punctured her lungs along with and a number of other injuries. She was driving at 70mph when her car left the M5 and crashed into a ditch. She today is a famous model with 11 metal rods and countless pins and screws in her body. The doctors had to insert rod from her hip to her knee in her left leg the day after she was admitted to hospital. It was secured inside with four titanium pins. A week later, they sliced open her back and inserted six more horizontal rods up the length of her back to support her spine. A week after that, they inserted a titanium screw to the top of her spine to support the break in her neck. She struggled for 5 months before she could live without taking pain killers.

9. Aron Ralston’s Survival

KevinMoloney

Aron Lee Ralston (born October 27, 1975) a mechanical engineer and an American Mountaineer was forced to amputate his lower right arm to free himself after his arm became trapped by a boulder when he was mountaineering in Utah.

On April 2003, Aron Ralston was climbing in Canyonlands National Park in southeaster Utah when a 800 pound boulder fell on him and pinned his right arm. Ralston had not told anyone of his hiking plans and knew no one would be searching for him. Aron lay pinned for nearly four days before he ran out of water. He was trapped and couldn’t move. He then started drinking his own urine. He carved his name, date of birth and presumed date of death into the sandstone canyon wall, and recorded his last goodbyes to his family in his camera in his video camera. When he was about to die he decided to struggle. He forcibly levered his forearm against a chockstone until both the radius and ulna bones broke. He cut his arm with his dull knife. He then hiked down a 65 foot wall. While hiking out, he encountered a family. The family gave him water and two Oreo cookies. They then alerted the authorities. He was finally rescued by a helicopter search team. The rescue team retrieved his arm, which was cremated later.

In his book, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” he describes his experiences. The 33-year-old doesn’t fear climbing and continues climbing. His climbing ventures include a 2008 expedition to climb Ojos del Salado and Monte Pissis and all of Colorado’s 55 peaks higher than 14,000 feet. He is also a motivational speaker. He is living a normal life, is married and father of a child. English film director Danny Boyle is currently working on the film 127 Hours about the true story of Ralston.

8. Wenseslao Moguel Survived 9 Bullets in Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution was a 7 years long major armed struggle that started in 1910 led by Francisco I. Madero against Porfirio Diaz. On March 18, 1915 a soldier Wenseslao Moguel was captured while fighting in the revolution. He was sentenced to death without any trial. A firing squad shot him 9 times including a close ranged bullet fired through his head and face shot by an officer to ensure his death. The executers left him there assuming him to be dead. He miraculously managed to escape and lived a lively and energetic life. The above photo shows Moguel in 1937 pointing at his scar on the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not radio show.

7. Woman Gave Birth to Child during Brain Surgery – Both Survived

Yulia Shumakova, a 24 year old Russian girl from the city of Yekaterinburg was brought to the hospital in extremely critical condition when she went unconscious after returning from work one day. She was 32 weeks pregnant at that time. Examination surfaced a dangerous seizure in her brain. Doctors told her husband that 96% of such patients die on their way to the hospital.

“Honestly speaking, I didn’t believe at that point that she would survive,” her husband Aleksandr confessed.

“I spoke to the doctors – they said such diagnosis led to death in 96 per cent of cases. People die in the ambulance, and almost never make it to the hospital”.

Doctors decided to do a brain surgery along with a Caesarian Section. Chances were minute but the mother the child and the doctor’s struggle successfully defeated death. May be it was a mother’s love for her child which gave her the energy and will to struggle death and come back to life to hold her son in her arms. Baby was born prematurely but he survived.

6. Frank Selak Encountered Eight Deadliest Accidents in His Life

Gazeta

Frank Selak a Croatian music teacher can be considered the luckiest man on earth. He can’t travel in a plane, bus, train because he survived many accidents including train derailment into icy waters, a bus crash, the door blowing off a plane he was on, two cars catching fire while he was driving and if that’s not enough, he drove off a mountain road and landed in a tree while he watched his car continue down and explode 300 feet below. He won a million dollars lottery.

5. A Man Nearly Cut in Two after Falling From a Train

The accident took place in June 2006 when Truman Duncan, a railroad switchman was working at his job in the rail yards of Cleburne, Texas. He slipped and fell onto the tracks while riding on the front of a train car that was moving toward a repair dock. He tried not to be run over by the train but got caught in the undercarriage, and was run over by steel wheels supporting 20,000 pounds of dead weight. The train dragged him 75 Feet and he got entangled in the wheels. His body was nearly cut in half. The accident took his right leg as well as his left leg, pelvis and kidney. He called 911, waited for 45 minutes and survived 23 surgeries. He is living a lively and cheerful life.

4. Juliane Koepcke Who Survived Lightning and Plane Crash

Balas

If asked what would you find more dangerous; being struck by lightning or being in a plane which crashed or being thrown out of a flying plane? Juliane Koepcke a high school student survived all three of these in the crash of LANSA Flight 508 in the Peruvian rainforest when the plane was struck by lightning on December 24 1971. She was blown out of the plane still strapped to her seat. She was the only survivor among the 93 passengers. She landed 2 miles away with an eye injury, a broken collarbone and cuts and bruises. Her father was a biologist and he had once told her that what flows downstream and where there is water, there is life. She remembered this and starting following the flow of water. She had to trek for 9 days with her injuries and no food till she found a small cabin where she cleaned her wounds and waited till help reached her. Later she became a zoologist. Her survival story became the subject of two films, the first being the 1974 Giuseppe Maria Scotese film Miracoli accadono ancora (Miracles Still Happen) and Wings of Hope by Werner Herzog.

3. Earthquake Survivor Remained Buried for 27 Days

Vosizneias

Khaleed Hussain, a 20 year old farm worker was recovered alive from the debris of his house after the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan. He was buried under his house pinned in painful position beneath a wooden beam and rocks. He was totally trapped and could only move his arms slightly. The perpetual digging motion of his hands even after his rescue shows the pain and the horror he had endured. Miraculously he was rescued alive on November the 10^th by a young man. His right leg was broken at several places.

2. Baby with Rare Tumor Born Twice

FoxNews

Keri McCartney was four months pregnant when the doctors found a dangerous tumor of the size of a grapefruit on baby’s body. This tumor was stopping the blood flow and weakening her heart. Doctors decided to make an attempt to save the child. Surgeons at Texas Children’s Fetal Center cut into McCartney’s abdomen and pulled half of the body of the baby out to remove the life-threatening mass. The procedure was done quickly and then the baby was put back in the womb. Miraculously the baby survived and there were no complications for the next 10 weeks after which the baby was welcomed into the world for the second time. She was named Macie Hope McCartney as she survived a fatal tumor which affects 1 in 35,000 babies.

1. 72 Days Survival after a Plane Crash

Mlive

Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, also known as the Andes flight disaster, and in South America as Miracle in the Andes crashed in Andes on October 13, 1972. It was carrying 45 people including a rugby team and their friends and family. The painful struggle against survival continued for 72 days and only 16 managed to win the fight against death. They were rescued on December 23, 1972. Around 10 passengers died in the crash. Food supply was short and weather conditions were extreme. Many died due to cold. Another eight were killed by an avalanche that swept over their shelter in the wreckage.

The survivors had little food and no source of heat in the harsh conditions, at over 3,600 meters (11,800 ft). They were willing to struggle even after hearing the radio news reports that the search for them had been abandoned. The survivors had no choice but to eat the dead passengers who had been preserved in the snow. Two passengers Nando Parrado and Robert Canessa travelled for 12 days and found a Chilean huaso. He alerted the authorities about the existence of the the survivors. Later a book was written and a movie was filmed on account of the survivors.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Most Beautiful Buildings in The World

These are the world’s most beautiful buildings? Are you kidding?

A hundred years ago, naming the world’s most beautiful buildings was easy: the Parthenon. Sure. The Taj Mahal. Absolutely. Hagia Sophia. No argument. But now, in part because the whole notion was chewed up and spit out by those troublemaking Modernists, we’re just learning to think about architecture in terms of beauty again. It’s open season.

Certain themes are evident in our choices of the world’s most beautiful buildings. We love buildings surrounded by water; the interaction between water and daylight is always magical. (Why do you think the Lincoln Memorial has a reflecting pool at its doorstep?) And we are head over heels for flamboyant uses of pattern and color. The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, for example, is positively psychedelic.

So are we consistent? Nope. But however capricious our choices may seem, we don’t take beauty lightly. After all, the ongoing search for beauty is what travel is all about. It’s certainly the best reason we know to leave the house.

ICMC at Brandenburg Technical University
Cottbus, Germany

While many architects prefer the smoothest, clearest glass, Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron specializes in texture. This technologically sophisticated university library, in an obscure corner of Eastern Germany, is clad in frosted glass—and embossed with letters from the world’s alphabets. Shaped like an amoeba, with its central spiral staircase in bright magenta and green, the seven-story building looks like a carnival ride.
Relativity Theory: The free-form building looks especially impressive because it’s surrounded by long, dull, rectilinear buildings of the sort the East Germans were known for.

Sagrada Família
Barcelona

Visionary Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí spent more than 40 years of his life on this glorious, chaotically complex, and still unfinished Gothic-Art Nouveau cathedral. After his untimely death in 1926 (he was hit by a streetcar), his associates continued his sculptural masterwork, and despite the fact that the original drawings were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, construction continues today. Completion is scheduled for sometime between 2017 and 2026.

Authenticity Alert: The east-facing Nativity façade was the only one completed by Gaudí himself.

Burj Al Arab
Dubai, UAE

This 60-story sail-shaped hotel, which sits on its own private island, was designed to be a national icon. But the interior is where the beauty lies: a nearly 600-foot-tall atrium—the world’s tallest. The undersides of tier after tier of semicircular balconies reveal a spectrum of colors. And the tower’s powerful diagonal braces, like the flying buttresses of the past, inspire awe.
Insider Tip: Non-guests can gain access to the Burj Al Arab’s private island by booking a meal at one of its restaurants; try afternoon tea at the Skyview Bar or a buffet lunch at Junsui.

Institute for Sound and Vision
Hilversum, The Netherlands

The work of Jaap Drupsteen, the graphic artist responsible for the building-size media collage, used to be everywhere in the Netherlands. This building is his comeback. Along with architecture firm Neutelings Riedijk, he covered the façade of the massive media archive and museum with images from Dutch television, abstracted into a giant four-sided mural and baked directly onto cast glass. The effect is stunning inside and out.
Experiential Beauty: Tour the history of Dutch broadcasting, or simply gaze up at the stained glass from a table at the atrium’s Grand Café.

The Golden Temple
Amritsar, India

This most sacred Sikh shrine sits in the middle of what was once a wooded lake. The Buddha came here to meditate, and so did Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh faith, some 2,000 years later. The Harimandir, or “Temple of God,” was built and destroyed many times before the current version was erected in the late 1700s. The radiance of this gilded building, a mixture of Hindu and Muslim architectural styles, is amplified by reflections in the surrounding water and the devotional music that emanates from the temple day and night.
Night Owls Welcome: The temple is open 20 hours a day, from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, and is illuminated (and especially lovely) at night.

National Congress Hall
Brasilia, Brazil

Brasilia probably works better as a Modernist sculpture garden than as a city, but if there is one piece of it that best represents the whole, it’s Congress Hall. Architect Oscar Niemeyer’s colonnaded marvel, with its grand sci-fi entrance ramp, skinny twin towers, and two bowl-shaped meeting halls (one for the Chamber of Deputies and one for the Federal Senate), treats the business of government as a monumental work of art.

Not Just Skin Deep: Go inside and check out the Green Hall (named for the color of the carpet and the Brazilian flag), with its collection of paintings, sculptures, and decorative screens by renowned Brazilian artists.

The Guggenheim
Bilbao, Spain

The Frank Gehry–designed, titanium-clad phenomenon that upstaged the Guggenheim’s Frank Lloyd Wright transformed the way the world understands architecture, art museums, and the strategies for reviving depressed industrial cities. Today, the shiny undulating museum doesn’t look as shocking as it once did, but it does embody a certain kind of late 20th-century thinking—the thrill of formal complexity and high art.

Small Is Beautiful: Alternatively, we could make a case for Frank Gehry’s first major building, the diminutive white Vitra Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.

The Chrysler Building
New York City

Designed by architect William van Alen, the Chrysler’s shiny, filigreed Art Deco spire is the most indispensable piece of the New York City skyline, perfectly balancing the primal thrust of the classic American skyscraper with the desire for a little bling. (It was the world’s tallest for less than a year in 1931 before that zeppelin-masted tower eight blocks south took the spotlight.) Day or night, its stainless-steel crown still dazzles like nothing else.

Icon Alert: This is possibly the only building in the world that is decorated with automotive hood ornaments: the big eagles on the 61st floor were copied from a 1929 Chrysler.

Mont St. Michel
Normandy, France

Though not as lavish as some landlocked cathedrals, this abbey is certainly the most dramatically situated, enjoying prime real estate just off the coast of Normandy. The first abbey was built in 709, with construction continuing for hundreds of years. Spurning the safety of the causeway (built in 1879 and currently being reconstructed), pilgrims still scamper across the sands at low tide to reach the Mont, and risk being overtaken by fast-moving waters.

Dining Tip: Try the agneau de pré-salé, a local specialty made from meat from the lambs that graze on the nearby salt meadows.

Nelson-Atkins Museum’s Bloch Building
Kansas City, MO

Unlike many modern additions to historic museums, Steven Holl’s 21st-century companion doesn’t overwhelm the 1933 Beaux Arts original. His string of iridescent frosted-glass boxes pop out of the grassy lawn—they are absolutely magical at dusk when they begin to glow—and filter sunlight into a series of dramatic underground galleries.

Special Attraction: Check out the Noguchi Sculpture Court, a minimalist space created by the famed Japanese-American artist that cleverly blurs the line between indoors and out.

Friday, February 25, 2011

10 Most Eccentric Millionaires

Here is the list of Most Eccentric Millionaires in the world.The millionaire who was accused of defecating on the sidewalk in front of cafes

For years they wondered who was behind the unique calling card .To unmask the shopping strip's midnight-to-dawn caller, a North Ryde restaurateur who had borne the brunt of the deposits took the matter into his own hands. Someone was leaving behind human faeces on his pavement.

The restaurateur installed a surveillance camera and the footage led police to charge 71-year-old millionaire property owner Salvatore ''Sam'' Cerreto with willful and obscene exposure and offensive behaviour. Mr Cerreto, from Marsfield, is alleged to have personally dropped off the package. He was allegedly captured on camera walking to the tenant's restaurant with a ream of toilet paper, pulling his pants down, squatting and defecating. Mr Cerreto's property portfolio includes a building that is home to 13 street-front businesses.

For four years food outlets complained to police of similar discoveries. The affected tenants - who were relieved at the arrest - include operators of restaurants, cafes, delis, a hairdressing salon and a pathology centre. Police said officers had received complaints from cafe owners and restaurateurs in the commercial centre about someone defecating intermittently on their doorsteps, or on the pavement outside their premises. The deposits included excrement wrapped in paper, which was left on door handles or in flower beds near outdoor seating.

(Link)

The millionaire who opened a Nobel Prize sperm bank to create a master race

In 1980, millionaire optometrist Robert Clark Graham opened a sperm bank stocked with "donations" from the world's smartest men. The Repository for Germinal Choice, located in an underground bunker in San Diego, aimed to collect sperms from Nobel Laureates, which earned it the nickname "Nobel Prize Sperm Bank". But the scarcity of donors and the low viability of their sperm (because of age) forced Graham to develop a looser set of criteria. These criteria were numerous and exacting: for example, sperm recipients were required to be married, and male donors were required to have extremely high IQs, though the bank later softened this policy so it could recruit athletes for donors as well as scholars.

By 1983, Graham's sperm bank was reputed to have 19 repeat genius donors, including William Bradford Shockley (1956 Nobel Prize in Physics and proponent of eugenics) and two anonymous Nobel Prize winners in science.

When the Repository for Germinal Choice closed after Graham's death 1999, there were 229 babies none of which was fathered by Nobel Prize winners. So far, none of these kids had grown up to win the Nobel Prize either.

(Link 1 | Link 2 | Via)

The first Second Life (virtual) millionaire

Millionaires usually make their money in banking, playing the stock market or in big business. Ailin Graef has changed all that. The former Chinese language teacher has just joined the millionaire's club – but is the first person to do so thanks to profits from a virtual world. Ms Graef has built up a massive property empire in Second Life, an online 3D world where users live and socialise as they would in reality.

Her online equivalent (known as an avatar), Anshe Chung, buys large blocks of lands, improves them by adding housing and then sells them to other users for a handsome profit.

Since joining the game in 2004 she has amassed a fortune of almost 300 million Linden dollars (the game's currency). Uniquely, these dollars can be exchanged into real US dollars at online currency exchanges. With the rate at around L$275 to US$1, she has become a millionaire. Although she lives near Frankfurt in Germany, Ms Graef has set up an office in Wuhan, China, employing ten programmers to help 'develop' the online land she later sells to other users.

(Link | Via)

The millionaire who decided to give away his entire fortune because he was unhappy

Karl Rabeder grew up poor and thought that life would be wonderful if he had money. But when he got rich, Karl discovered that he was unhappy, so he decided to give away every penny of his £3 million fortune: "My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he said. "Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come."

On the block, or already sold, is his luxury villa with a lake in the Alps, his 42-acre estate in France, his six gliders, and the interior furnishings and accessories business that got him rich in the first place. Instead, he will move out of his luxury Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple bedsit in Innsbruck. His entire proceeds are going to charities he set up in Central and Latin America, but he will not even take a salary from these.

(Link | Via)

The millionaire dog who was a trust fund of over $300 millions

Sure, there will always be people who have more money than you, but did you realize that some pets do, too? Meet Gunther IV, the German Shepherd, world's richest dog. This dog actually received his inheritance from his father, Gunther III, a German Shepherd who received an inheritance from Karlotta Liebenstein, a German countess. Gunther IV has bought a Miami villa from Madonna and won a rare white truffle in an auction. He's worth about $372 million right now, thanks to his growing trust fund.

(Link | Via)

The British millionaire who changed his mansion for mud after being adopted by tribe in Kenya

Most people return from Kenya with photos of giraffes and lions, and tales of their time on safari. But one millionaire has come back with the title of elder of a Masai tribe. Graham Pendrill is the first white person to gain such an honour from the group after solving a potentially violent inter-tribal dispute while on a month-long trip to the East African country last year.

During the official ceremony, Mr Pendrill had to drink bull's urine and had a cow sacrificed in his honour. Since returning, he has worn his Masai clothes while going about his business in his home town of Almondsbury, near Bristol, UK. The 57-year-old bachelor, who was given the tribal name Siparo meaning 'brave one', often wanders down his local High Street wearing nothing but a robe and sandals. 'People can call me eccentric - it doesn't bother me,' he said. 'When I got home my ordinary clothes just felt odd. 'I've had some sideways looks and a difficult moment in a Bristol pub, but most people are polite,' he added. Mr Pendrill, an antiques dealer, has given his suits to Oxfam and plans to sell his £1.2million mansion so he can move to Kenya to live in a mud hut with the Masai later this year. 'I've developed a huge respect and affection for the people there. It's a real honour to be an elder,' he said.

(Link)

The millionaire who decided to buy his own town

Fast cars and flash jewellery are the usual perks of the millionaire. But Scott Alexander has just splashed out on the ultimate status symbol – his own town. The 31-year-old lifestyle and property tycoon is turning a Bulgarian coastal town into a holiday hotspot for British tourists – and naming it after himself. 'The name is really hard to pronounce. I've decided to call it Alexander, which I suppose is quite cheeky.' Mr Alexander – who is single and lives in a penthouse apartment in Manchester – bought the town from a Bulgarian entrepreneur for £3 million. The identity of the place is being kept a secret until the deal is completed.

Mr Alexander's company, Ultimate Lifestyle Group Incorporated, has a staff of 60, offers personal training and arranges cosmetic surgery, property and cars for celebrities. Past clients include Tom Cruise, who Mr Alexander helped train for his role in Mission Impossible III. He was featured in Britain's TV Show ‘Biggest Spenders' and often quoted as being "the most vain man in Britain".

(Link)

The nurse who became a millionaire but decided not to quit her job

A nurse who won £1 million live on TV said she would not give up her £25,000 job. The money will change my lifestyle but it won't change me. Coronary care nurse Karen Shand, 40, will carry on working at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, despite winning the jackpot on ITV1's The Vault. Ms Shand won the cash after ringing the show 'on the spur of the moment' and answering six questions correctly. It was the largest amount ever won on live TV at that time.

(Link)

The homeless billionaire

Meet Nicholas Berggruen, a homeless billionaire. You read that right. Nicholas is worth billions but doesn't even own a home (he stays in hotels) because he's lost all interest in acquiring things. After making his billions, Mr. Berggruen, 46, lost interest in acquiring things: They didn't satisfy him, and in fact had become something of a burden. So he started paring down his material life, selling off his condo in New York, his mansion in Florida and his only car. He hatched plans to leave his fortune to charity and his art collection to a new museum in Berlin.

For him, wealth is about lasting impact, not stuff. Forbes magazine estimated Berggruen's net worth at $2.2 billion as of 2010.

(Link 1 | Link 2 | Via)

The millionaire whose daughter works at McDonald's to learn the value of money

The Thai prime minister sent his daughter to work at McDonald's. The billionaire even turned up to buy burgers from his 17-year-old daughter Paethongtan, the youngest of his three children, on her first day as a part-time employee after taking her university entrance examinations.

Her first task was to learn how to operate the cash register, but she will also learn to flip burgers. 'In developed countries, children usually work while they study to gain experience and to appreciate the value of money and how to spend it,' Thaksin said.' Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra himself worked at KFC fastfood outlet while studying in the US.

Dej Bulsuk, president of McThai who operates the McDonald's fastfood outlets in Thailand, said: "The prime minister came to me to personally ask if I could give his daughter a part-time job during the school holidays, the Premier asked me specifically to treat his daughter just like any other employee" Thaksin even said to me: "And let her sweep the floor like the others."

(Link)