400000 Black Balls Save L.A. Reservoir From Carcinogen

The Department of Water and Power workers in Los Angeles, as well as local officials and community activists opened a white tub from where they poured 400,000 black colored balls into the water. So, the question is: was this an artwork, some kind of statement or attempt to pollute the water? The answer on all fronts is no – absolutely and categorically no. In fact, it is an action intended to protect the quality of L.A. drinking water and preventing it from becoming a health hazard. The water needs to be protected and in the shade because of its composition of bromate and chlorine – if exposed to large amounts of sunlight, it could cause a chemical reaction and in high levels can cause cancer. Last year, abnormally high levels of bromide were signaled, but specialists claimed that danger levels were low because people had to drink the water for a lifetime - even so, the chances of contracting cancer were minimal. 

After the discovery of bromate, officials began to search for a method to shade the Ivanhoe and Elysian Reservoirs, but all suggested options would need time and a helluva lot of money. Instead, local government followed the advice of a DWP biologist who came with the idea to use these black plastic balls you see in the pictures.

Top 10 Most Amazing Temples of World

 These temples are from Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Taoism. These religious people worship in temples, which are architecturally as diverse as the religions are different from each other.

01. Wat Rong Khun

 Wat Rong Khun: – Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai, Thailand is all white temple which is highly ornated with mosaic mirrors to shine. Wat Rong Khun temple is still under construction and is expected to take another 90 years making it a wonder of coming years.

02. Shwedagon Pagoda

Shwedagon Pagoda: – Believed to be built between 6th – 10th century, Shwedagon Paya (or Pagoda) in Myanmar, is termed as “golden temple” which mean that the structure is golden in color. Buddhist people save for years to buy small packets of gold leafs to stick to the temple walls. The spire of the stupa or dome is covered with over 5,000 diamonds and 2,000 rubies. Shwedagon Pagoda housed one of the holiest relics in Buddhism: eight strands of Buddha’s hair.

 03. Tiger’s Nest Monastery

Tiger’s Nest Monastery: – Tiger’s Nest Monastery (Taktshang Goemba), is situated on the edge of a 3,000-feet-high cliff in Paro Valley, is one of the holiest places in Bhutan. Legend has it that Guru Rinpoche, the second Buddha, flew onto the cliff on the back of a tigress, and then meditated in a cave which now exists within the monastery walls. Now the entrance is restricted to practicing Buddhists only.

04. Prambanan

Prambanan: – Built in 850 CE, Prambanan is a Hindu temple in Central Java, Indonesia. The temple is composed of 8 main shrines and 250 surrounding smaller ones. It has walls which narrate stories of Vishnu’s incarnations, adventures of Hanuman (the Monkey King), the Ramayana epic and other legends.

05. Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven: – Built in 14th century, The Temple of Heaven is a Taoist temple in Beijing, the capital of China. Everything in the temple, which represents Heaven, is circular whereas the ground levels, which represent the Earth, are square.

06. Borobudur

Borobudur: – In the 19th century, Dutch occupiers of Indonesia found a massive ancient ruin deep in the jungles of Java. What they discovered was the complex of Borobudur, a gigantic structure built with nearly 2 million cubic feet (55,000 m³) of stones. The temple has nearly 2,700 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. Until today, no one knows for sure when and why it was built, nor the reason for its complete abandonment hundreds of years ago. Some scholars believe that Borobudur is actually a giant textbook of Buddhism, as its bas reliefs tell the story of the life of Buddha and the principles of his teachings. To “read,” a pilgrim must make his way through nine platforms and walk a distance of over 2 miles.

07. Chion-in Temple

Chion-in Temple: – Built in 1234 CE Chion-in Temple is most famous temples in Japan. Visitors to the Chion-in Temple must first pass through the largest gate in Japan: the two-story San-mon Gate. The temple bell is also a record setter: it weighs 74 tons and needs 17 monks to ring it during the New Year celebrations. Chion-in Temple has the “singing” floor of the Assembly Hall which is called a uguisu-bari or nightingale floor. These wooden planks were designed to creak at every footstep to alert the monks of intruders! 

08. Golden Temple

Golden Temple: – The Harmandir Sahib (meaning The Abode of God) or simply the Golden Temple in Punjab, India is the most sacred shrine of Sikhism. For the Sikhs, the Golden Temple symbolizes infinite freedom and spiritual independence. The site of the Temple began with a small lake that was so peaceful that even Buddha came there to meditate. Thousands of years later, Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism also lived and meditate by the lake. Construction of the Golden Temple began in the 1500s, when the fourth Guru of Sikhism enlarged the lake that became Amritsar or Pool of the Nectar of Immortality, around which the temple and the city grew. The Temple itself is decorated with marble sculptures, gilded in gold, and covered in precious stones.

09. Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Bayon

Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Bayon: – Angkor Wat was built in the early 12th century in what is now Cambodia. The world famous temple was first a Hindu one, dedicated to Vishnu. In the 14th or 15th century, as Buddhism swept across Asia, it became a Buddhist temple. The Western world’s got a glimpse of Angkor Wat when a 16th century Portuguese monk visited the temple and eloquently described it as “of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of.” His words still rang true today. Tourists visiting Angkor Wat usually also visit the nearby ruins of Angkor Thom and Bayon, two fantastic temples that serve as the ancient capital of Khmer empire.

10. Vishnu Temple of Srirangam

Vishnu Temple of Srirangam: – The Temple of Srirangam (Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple), in the Indian city of Tiruchirapalli (or Trichy), is the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world. Legend has it that a long time ago, a sage rested and put down a statue of Vishnu reclining on a great serpent. When he was ready to resume his journey, he discovered that the statue couldn’t be moved, so a small temple was built over it. Over centuries, the temple “grew” as larger ones were built over the existing buildings. The temple complex is massive: it encompasses an area of over 150 acres (63 hectares) with seven concentric walls, the outermost being about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) long! The walls demarcate enclosures within enclosures, each more sacred than the next, with the inner-most enclosure is forbidden to non-Hindus.

Now A Transparent Glass Phone

Window Phone - concept phone On one hand, clear conceptual phones already, so this is not just the first, but on the other, the so-called Window Phone has one impressive feature - its transparent housing varies depending on the weather! Thus, in the sunny days, the screen will be completely transparent, on a rainy day it will appear «virtual» drop, but it is covered with frost frost. Ie translucent screen will look like as well as present a window into a variety of weather. I do not know how it will be practical, but at least, very original! :)

Top 10 MBA Universities in the World

01. University of Chicago

  

       

The American Baptist Education Society and a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller on land donated by Marshall Field. The University of Chicago also maintains facilities apart from its main campus. The University’s Booth School of Business maintains campuses in Singapore, London, and the downtown Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago. The Center in Paris, a campus located on the left bank of the Seine in Paris, hosts various undergraduate and graduate study programs.

02. Harvard University

 Harvard University is an American private Ivy League research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country.   Harvard has an intense athletic rivalry with Yale University traditionally culminating in The Game, although the Harvard–Yale Regatta predates the football game. This rivalry, though, is put aside every two years when the Harvard and Yale Track and Field teams come together to compete against a combined Oxford University and Cambridge University team, a competition that is the oldest continuous international amateur competition in the world.

03. Northwestern University

Northwestern has one of the top ten university endowments in the United States. One of only 62 institutions elected to the Association of American Universities, Northwestern was awarded more than $500 million in research grants in 2010–2011, placing it in the first tier of the top research universities in the United States by the Center for Measuring University Performance. In Fall 2008, Northwestern opened a campus in Education City, Doha, Qatar, joining five other American universities: Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Georgetown University, Texas A&M University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

04. University of Pennsylvania

    

    

The University of Pennsylvania  is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and considers itself to be the first university in the United States with both undergraduate and graduate studies.  Penn is consistently included among the top five research universities in the US, and among the top research universities in the world, both in terms of quality and quantity of research.

05. University of Michigan

  

  

The University of Michigan  is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state’s oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan. U-M also has satellite campuses in Flint and Dearborn. Michigan has one of the world’s largest living alumni groups at 460,000 in 2007. U-M owns the University of Michigan Health System and has one of the largest research expenditures of any American university, passing the $1.24 billion mark during the 2010-2011 academic year.

06. Stanford University

Stanford University or Stanford, is an American private research university located in Stanford, California on an 8,180-acre  campus near Palo Alto, California, United States. The university is organized into seven schools including academic schools of Humanities and Sciences and Earth Sciences as well as professional schools of Business, Education, Engineering, Law, and Medicine. Stanford has a student body of approximately 6,988 undergraduate and 8,400 graduate students.

07. Columbia University

The university was founded in 1754 as King’s College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain. After the American Revolutionary War King’s College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. The University now operates under a 1787 charter that places the institution under a private board of trustees, and in 1896 it was further renamed Columbia University.  The university is one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities, and was the first school in the United States to grant the M.D. degree.

08. Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892.In its 2012 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the university’s undergraduate program 10th among national universities, while ranking the medical, law, public policy, nursing, and business graduate programs among the top 12 in the United States.

09. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also known as MIT, is an American private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. MIT was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1934. Researchers were involved in efforts to develop computers, radar, and inertial guidance in connection with defense research during World War II and the Cold War. Post-war defense research contributed to the rapid expansion of the faculty and campus under James Killian. MIT has a strong entrepreneurial culture. The aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would rank as the eleventh-largest economy in the world.

10. University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, USA.  Berkeley has been charged with providing both “classical” and “practical” education for the state’s people and is generally considered to be the flagship institution in the University of California system. Berkeley student-athletes have won over 100 Olympic medals. Known as the California Golden Bears, the athletic teams are members of both the Pacific-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation in the NCAA.

Natasha's Long Hairs

A twelve-year-old girl who has been dubbed the real-lifeRapunzel after refusing to cut her hair for her 

whole life is to cut it all off - and plans the 5ft 2in mane of hair for £3,500 to be 

made into extensions.

 Natasha Moraes de Andrade, 12, says her 5ft 2in hair makes her life a misery - and she plans to cut it off to sell for extensions 

Natasha Moraes de Andrade, who lives in an impoverished shanty town in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, has never had a haircut. At 5ft 3in, she is just one inch taller than the length of her wavy chestnut hair - and the maintenance it requires sees her use a full bottle of shampoo every week....

 Natasha, who has to hold her hair up when she walks, hopes to make up to £3,500 from the sale of her hair, which she says she will put towards a 'better life'

 Natasha spends an hour and a half every day brushing her mane

Natasha spends four hours per week washing her hair and up to an hour-and-a-half brushing it each day. She has to carry it around when she walks, and fold it onto her lap when she sits down.

Despite Rio's 40-degree heat Natasha's family cannot switch on a fan in the house because her hair gets caught in it.

And children often stand outside her house and shout 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.'

Her mother Catarina Moraes de Andrade, 42, said admirers told her never to cut her daughter's beautiful hair as it was so thick and long.

Children in her local neighbourhood chant 'Rapunzel, let down your hair' at her window, and passersby frequently take photographs 

 Natasha's mother Catarina Moraes de Andrade implored her daughter to cut her hair so that she could join in with the other children

 'At the moment she is like a prisoner. She just goes from school to home again,' Mrs Moraes de Andrade said.

But now she's urging her girl to chop it off because it's interfering with her life.

Mrs Moreas de Andrade said: 'At the moment she is like a prisoner. She just goes from school to home again.

'She can't do anything else, like sports, because her hair gets in the way. The school told me she should get it cut so she can have her freedom like other girls her age.

'People stare. Sometimes, they call out at Natasha in the street and try to touch her hair.

'We spend about about £400 a year on shampoo, which is a lot of money for us.

Natasha, who has to hold her hair up when she walks, hopes to make up to £3,500 from the sale of her hair, which she says she will put towards a 'better life'

'I've let her keep it this way because she likes having such long hair, but the time has come to get it cut.

Natasha has been offered £1,750 for her hair once it has been lopped off but hopes to make more.

She said: 'I love my long hair and I'll be sad when it's gone. But it's a pain looking after it.

'I can't do a lot of things, like P.E. lessons at school.

'I hope to sell it for £3,500 and refurbish my bedroom. I hope it can give me a new life.'

Natasha plans to cut it into a bob before she starts the next term of school.

Although she lives close to one of the city's beaches, she can't go swimming because sea water damages her hair and takes hours to clean out.

Natasha, who hopes to be an illustrator when she is older, has drawn a picture of the fairy tale princess Rapunzel, which is on the front door of the house.

The Guinness World Record for the world's longest hair belongs to China's Xie Qiuping whose hair measures 5.63 metres.

10 Most Fantastic Places on the Planet

In science fiction films can often be seen unbelievable scenes, such as islands, flying in the sky or a house elf, built in the trees. But a world in which we live, too, is full of fantastic places and strange natural formations that amaze. And although people have changed the world beyond recognition, not all of the unique natural places have been lost. Beautiful mountains, turquoise water, amazing islands - our planet is truly rich in places that are breathtaking. 10 of the most fantastic places on the planet after the break...

01. Phi Phi Island, Thailand

 Phi Phi Island in Thailand, located between the large island of Phuket and the western coast of the Andaman Sea. Most of these islands - it is not just sharp rocks, rising from the ocean. The clear turquoise waters and lush tropical greenery make this place a paradise on earth.

02. The crater of Nyiragongo, Congo

Volcano Nyiragongo - is a unique volcano with steep slopes, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Inside the crater of this volcano lava lake was formed, which is constantly bubbling and foam, filling the night sky with a supernatural glow red. It inflicts heavy losses on the nearby villages and towns, both because of volcanic eruptions, and the poisonous gases and other lethal forms of seismic activity.

03. Arch Berry Head, Newfoundland, Canada

 This beautiful arch is on the route Spurvink (Spurwink Trail) along the East Coast Trail in the Canadian province of Newfoundland. Arch looks pretty impressive with its massiveness, and it is so large that it has grown over the whole grove of trees. Be careful when you get to the arch, as the trail itself to her skirts steep cliffs.

04. Pamukkale, Turkey

Water flowing from the hot springs, and calcium carbonate deposits on the large terraces of Pamukkale give a spectacular view, and on clear days, a reflection of the sky adds a wonderful blue color of water. As a result, this place is a bit like an enchanted ice palace, although the temperature is quite comfortable.

05. Pura Tanah Lot, Bali

 Pura Tanah Lot - the temple is situated on a rocky formation, jutting from the island of Bali. This is an amazing place, the silhouette of which, when viewed from certain angles, like a fabulous ship. To reach the temple only through a narrow isthmus. According to legend, it was a holy place, built by a Hindu Brahmin, which is guarded by a huge snake, a scarf created from Brahman.

06. Tyantszu Mountains, China

 These mountains are a giant towering spiers, the height of several hundred meters, decorated with lush vegetation. They seem to defy the laws of gravity, resembling floating monoliths of the film Avatar. Mountains National Park, located in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province in the north, being recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Balancing elongated mountains are the result of years of erosion, which has arisen due to the expansion of ice in the winter.

07. Hamilton Pool Preserve, Texas, USA

 Hamilton Pool Reserve - is a natural pool, formed thousands of years ago in a major erosion. The pool itself is filled with amazing emerald water, framed by limestone rocks covered with lush ferns and moss. On the outcrop down the 15-meter waterfall that never completely dries up, even during the dry periods.

08. Las Kanadas, Tenerife, Canary Islands

 Caldera Las Kanadas - a series of volcanoes, which are amazing volcanic wasteland. Desert rocky ground radiates heat, and dotted with fumaroles - cracks and holes, spewing toxic fumes. Uneven terrain and rocky outcrops provide sharp true Martian form.

09. Machu Picchu, Peru

 There are many interesting ruins around the world, but Machu Picchu is in this respect, a cult place. Located high in the mountains of Peru, a tropical forest, this place is simply amazing with its beauty. Once he was a most impressive creation of the Inca Empire, its giant walls, terraces and rampady seem to have been carved in a natural way of the endless rocky ledges. Prior to 1911 this site and did not know until Hiram Bingham an American historian, did not find it.

10. Meteora, Greece

Meteors are a monastic complex in central Greece, which is located on the tops of the cliffs, which reach heights of up to 600 m above sea level. These monasteries were built in impossible conditions, virtually no roads, being the present state of the art and a shining example of the architectural changes in the perfect place of solitude, meditation and prayer.