My Geographic Channel

Three Gorges Dam of China - World Largest Power Plant of Any Kind Share

2010-04-13T21:16:00.001-07:00

The Three Gorges Dam located in Yichang, is a hydroelctric river dam generating the largest electricity power of any power plant in the world at 100,000 GWh a year, more than double of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant which is the largest nuclear power plant to-date located in Japan.

The construction completed in 2006. It contains 32 main generators and 2 smaller generators (50MW each). The hydroelectric is the most environmental-friendly method to generate electricity power except solar and wind where there are less cost-to-power ratio.

However, the huge electricity power generated by the largest plant above can only support 3% of the total consumption in China.

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F-22 Raptor Program Cancelled by US Government

2010-04-13T21:15:00.001-07:00

The raptors are designed to fight against the USSR before it collapse in the year 1991. It is the most advanced and bullet-proof fighter jet in the air so far, however, there are currently 151 in total of the planned 187 and the program has been canceled by the US President, Barack Obama due to the following reasons:

1. Building of a plane involved contractors of 44 states which incurs a very high cost.

2. The cost of each plane has risen to USD142.6 million each.

3. Statistically, every 1 hour of flight requires 18-20 hours of maintenance.

4. Records showed 1 critical failure in every 1.7 hours of flying time.

5. Unable to communicate with other models of aircraft due to their unique communication and avionic technologies.

However, if the program has been canceled at this point of time with only 151 planes in the inventory instead of the 187 planned and the 243 required in the US air space, the cost of each plane become USD356 million each due to the design, research and development cost that has been invested by the Government. It might be a real technological failure program that leads to the cancellation.

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F-35 Lightning II

2010-04-09T01:36:00.001-07:00

Designed and built by the US Lockheed Martin, the F-35 is another 5th-generation fighter with lower specifications than the F-22 Raptors and much more cheaper. It is a single-engine stealth fighter that capable to take off and land vertically, which the Raptors are not designed to.

The product is the result from the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, which is a multi-national funding program, primarily by US, UK and some other European countries that sits as different level of partnerships.

It first flight was on 15 December 2006 and currently still under developing/testing stage. Various countries such as Japan and Singapore have showed interests to purchase this jet as a plan to replace the current outdated machines in their inventory.

The price tag is expected to be around USD50 million each in 2001, but has shot up to USD83 million to-date.

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Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA

2010-04-09T01:33:00.000-07:00

In response to the US F-22 Raptors and F-35 Lightning II, the financially difficult Russian has opt for Indian Government's commitment to jointly design and develop a new 5th-generation fighter jet. The Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA fighter jet is the outcome of the partnership and it was a prototype jet that made its maiden flight on 29 January 2010.

The T-50 fulfills what the so-called 5th-generation fighter requirements: Stealth, Supercruise, Super-agility and beyond-visibility target shooting.

This jet, however, is projected to replace the current 4th-generation fighters in the Russian inventory such as Mig-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker and it costs about USD100 million each, a big margin cheaper than the Raptors at USD137.5 million and most importantly, it is available worldwide in the military market.

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Bombardier Global Express XRS

2009-09-24T01:42:00.000-07:00

The Global Express XRS is an ultra long range and luxurious business jet product by Bombardier, a Canadian Aerospace and Railway manufacturer. It has a range comparable to the A380-800F freighter version at 11,390KM which allow it to fly Intercontinentally. Furthermore, the XRS can fly at 51,000ft in the sky, far more higher than any conventional commercial airliner is flying nowadays.

Its maiden flight was in the year of 1996 and entered into service in 2006. It has been modified for military use by British Royal Air Force as an airborne battlefield and ground surveillance aircraft called Raytheon Sentinel.

The 13 times richest man in the world, Bill Gates, has owned one of this series as his very own private jet that travels him all over the world.

The price tag is currently at USD45million each.

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Airbus A350 XWB

2009-09-07T02:06:00.000-07:00

Airbus A350 is a new concept of next-generation commercial airliner. It is a mid-size, light weight and long range aircraft that capable to carry up to 412 passengers in a 2-class configuration. The main concept: Fuel-saving that reduces the cost of the airline companies. It has a range of 17,600 km, slightly farther than the record breaker Boeing 777 at 17,370 km and is more fuel-efficient.

The A350 XWB will be built on the technologies developed for Airbus A380 and will have a similar cockpit and fly-by-wire systems layout. It is made out of 53% composites, 19% Al/Al-Li, 14% titanium, 6% steel and 8% miscellaneous.

It has the cabin pressurization as of 6,000ft compare to the widely designed 8,000ft. This means passengers could have a more comfortable pressure while flying on this airliner. Besides, this aircraft is also aimed to aquire the certification of 350 minutes ETOPS while entering service.

The comparable product from US rival, Boeing is the B787 which has been delayed 5 times due to complexity of the design.

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F-22 Raptor

2009-07-13T04:58:00.000-07:00

F-22 Raptor is a joint-partnership product by Lockheed Martin and Boeing. It is introduced in the year of 2005 and is the most-advanced stealth air superiority fighter currently. The price tag for each raptor is USD137.5 million and was one of the option for Singapore's RSAF in response to the Malaysian purchase of 18 Russian Superagility Fighters, the Su-30MKM. The F22 is currently not for sale.

It is capable to fly up to the maximum speed of Mach 2.25 and the maximum g-force of 9.0g. The F-22 has also been designed to disguise its infrared emissions to make it harder to detect by infrared homing ("heat seeking") surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles.

To-date, there are 141 raptors were built and operated by USAF.

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F-117 Nighthawk

2009-07-13T04:33:00.000-07:00

F-117 is a a stealth ground attack aircraft designed by Lockheed Martin. It was a black project by the US government before the 80's. However, due to the smaller inlet-outlet size, this aircraft can only opt for the non-afterburner engines with maximum speed of no more than subsonic. Its shape and the use of radar absorbent material as the paint makes it almost impossible to be detected by any radar on earth.

The F-117A was widely used during the Gulf War in 1991. There are 64 F-117s were built and now all of them have been retired and replaced by the latest and far more advanced F22 Raptors.

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A-10 Thunderbolt II - Close Air Support Aircraft

2009-07-13T04:21:00.000-07:00

A-10 Thunderbolt II is a single-seat ground attack aircraft operated by USAF. It is an highly maneuverability aircraft that designed exclusively for close air support to the ground forces by executing tanks and others. Some has called it "Warthog" or "Hog".

It has a very strong body that can survive direct hits from high explosive projectiles up to 23mm. Besides, it is also designed to fly with only 1 tail left or with half of the wing lost and landed without landing gear.

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Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier

2009-07-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Nimitz Class Aircraft Carriers are the largest in the world that operates by the US Navy as the moving airbase. They are equipped with most advanced weaponry and radar systems, has the length of 333 m which has got the space big enough to store up to 85 aircraft and about 6,000 crews. These carriers are powered by 2 A4W nuclear reactors, capable to sail the ship at about 30 knots (56 km/h).

It cost about USD4.5billion each and the annual operating cost is expected at USD160million. The beauty of these carriers is the capability of continuously operating for 20 years without refueling.

US has 10 carriers of this class in service and 1 Kitty Hawk which has been decommissioned recently.

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Aircraft Crosswind Landing

2009-07-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

Do not surprise if you are on an airliner that perform crosswind landing during the final approach. A crosswind, or sometimes abbreviated as X/WIND, is the component of wind that is blowing across the runway making a landing more difficult than if the wind were blowing straight down the runway (Headwind or Tailwind).

Pilots should not perform any take-off or landing approach when the crosswind has exceeded the limit of its aircraft.

There are several techniques to land on crosswind conditions and it depends on the choice of the pilots to execute. However, it is a risky manual approach and the Captain plays an important role to decide whether to continue landing the aircraft or abort on the final seconds.

There are De-crab, Crab and Sideslip techniques whereby majority of the pilots prefer De-crab or Sideslip to reduce the touch down impact that potentially wears the tyres and the landing gears.

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Air France Flight 4590 Supersonic Concorde

2009-07-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

It was an Air France Concorde flight from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris, France to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, New York. It crashed in Gonesse, France shortly after take-off on 25 July 2000, killing 109 people on board and 4 on the ground.

The crash was caused by a debris fell from a previous aircraft that took off, the Continental Airlines DC-10 Flight 55. It was a titanium strip of the thrust-reverser which punctured the Concorde's tyres and a piece of rubber hit the fuel tank and broke an electrical cable that caused the fire.

The crew shut down the Engine 2 in response to the surging Engine 1 but the landing gears failed to retract, causing the plane unable to climb and accelerate. The plane then bank to 100 degrees and the crews reduced the power on Engine 3 and 4 to balance it, but due to the minimal speed, the plane stalled and crashed on a hotel.

After the incident, all Concordes were grounded for the Kevlar (bullet-proof layer) upgrades on fuel tanks. Due to the high operatiing cost, the airline industry slow down and the 911 incidents, both Air France and British Airways have simultaneously announced the retirement of their Concorde aircrafts on 10 April 2003.

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Concorde - Supersonic Commercial Jetliner

2009-07-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

Unlike any other commercial aircrafts, the Supersonic Concorde is powered by 4 turbojet afterburner engines instead of the turbofans or turboprops. It has a maximum speed of Mach 2.2 (means more than twice the speed of sound), service ceiling at 60,000ft (more than half of the subsonic commercial airliners at about 40,000ft) and carries 120 passengers.

The Concorde has many different considerations in design from the conventional airliners. It consists of the extreme low air pressure and high radiation exposure at 60,000ft. Brakes and stronger landing gears due to high speed take-off and landing. Heating issue while accelerating to supersonic speed and many more.

A total of 20 Concordes were built and owned by Air France and British Airways. Braniff International Airways was an American airline that once owned the Concordes but have sold all of them back to British Airways and Air France due to dramatic losses.

It is an aircraft jointly developed by the British aviation company, BAC (now BAE Systems) and the French Aérospatiale (now EADS).

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Steam Catapult on Aircraft Carriers

2009-07-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

Steam Catapult or Aircraft Catapult is a device installed on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier to assist aircraft take off during its launch procedure. It is an invention of British and currently using by the Navies from US, UK and France. Besides, it makes heavier aircraft such as an AWACS to take off from an aircraft carrier possible.

Not all countries has the ability to build one on their aircraft carriers including Russia.

The Russian latest jet fighter, Su-33 (Flanker D) has the ability to take off without this device, with the conditions of reducing fuel and weapons on board.

It is speculated that China is currently building its own aircraft carriers similar to Russian's Admiral Kuznetsov Carrier (the only operational at present) with the Steam Catapult technology. This speculation is base on the fact that China has bought over the Varyag, the one and only sister-ship of Kuznetsov that ever been built by Russia and two other older class carriers for study.

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IBM Roadrunner - The fastest Supercomputer so far

2009-06-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

IBM Roadrunner is the fastest Supercomputer built by IBM for the National Nuclear Security Administration (US). The speed of its calculation is amazing. Lets say if 6 billion people on earth had a hand calculator and worked together on a calculation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would take 46 years to do what Roadrunner would do in just one day.

It cost them USD133M to build the 6,000sqf giant calculator that consist of 296 racks. It is a hybrid design with 12,960 IBM PowerXCell 8i, 6,480 AMD Opteron dual-core processors and 103.6 TeraBytes of Memory. The speed has reaches the mark of 1 petaflops at 1.71 petaflops. The operating system in use is Linux.

This giant system is located in Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA and it requires 2.35 MW of electricity power to operate. The purpose of building this giant calculator is to model the decay of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

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Ingvar Kamprad's Personal Car (World's No.5 Richest Man - Net Worth USD22b)

2009-06-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

You will be surprise when you get to know that the current 5th richest man in the world and the Founder of the Swedish furniture and home goods company, IKEA, is still driving his 13-year-old Volvo 240GL.

Besides, the cars driven by those Billionaires in the Top 10 of the 2006 Forbes list was even a shocking ones. You won’t find a Bugatti, Ferrari or BMW driven by these billionaires. These people prefer to live inconspicuously, avoiding the limelight at all costs as they need not prove their status to anyone afterall.

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Warren Buffet's Home (World's No.2 Richest Man - Net Worth USD37m)

2009-06-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

Do you believe that the current world's second-richest man still live in this 6,000sqf, five-bedroom home he bought in the year of 1958 for only USD31,500?

Warren Buffet is a Multi-Billionaire investor that owns Berkshire Harthaway Inc.

In 2007, an armed intruder tried to break into the ungated house but was stopped by security.

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Tomahawk Cruise Missile by Raytheon (US)

2009-06-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Tomahawk is a medium-to-long range subsonic cruise missile that operates in all-weather condition. It is capable to launch from a submerged submarine and flying low-altitude to avoid radar detection that allows enemy's interception.

The beauty of this cruise missile is the capability to use the data from multiple sensors through fighter jet, AWACS, satellites, foot soldiers, tanks and ships to search for its target. The target data will be uploaded to the computer on the missile prior to the launch. It then fly towards the target, compare the target image from its camera to the data uploaded before hitting it.

It is capable to be reprogrammed in-flight to alternative targets and controlled by the GPS coordinates for accurate flying route and target hitting. It has the intelligence to avoid obstacles while flying towards the target.

This weapon is currently operated by United States, United Kingdom and Spain.

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ETOPS (Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards)

2009-06-24T12:46:00.000-07:00

ETOPS is a standard of the flying duration with only one engine that mandated by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to all twin-engined commercial aircrafts. The minimum of 60 minutes ETOPS has been applied to smaller aircrafts such as Airbus A320 which AirAsia is flying.

Larger aircrafts such as Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 are fitted with a stricter ETOPS of 180 minutes. In 2007, United Airlines Boeing 777 from Auckland to San Francisco made a historical record of flying the plane with single engine for 192 minutes and landed safely after an engine failure that force the pilots to divert to the nearest airport which demanded more hours than the ETOPS suggested.

ETOPS may be replaced by a newer system, referred to as LROPS (Long Range Operational Performance Standards), which will affect all civil airliners, not just those with a twin-engine configuration.

Government-owned aircraft (including military) do not have to abide to the ETOPS. In 1980s, the term EROPS (extended range operations) was used before being superseded by ETOPS usage.

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Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)

2009-06-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

It is an aircraft collision avoidance system installed on the commercial plane's cockpit to avoid mid-air collision with an incoming airplane. This system must be installed on both colliding airplanes in order to trigger the alerts.

For example, when the TCAS on two airplanes that flying head-on to each other poses a potential collision, one of the airplane will be given an instruction of "PULL UP" and the second airplane will receive an instruction of "DESCEND" (TCAS II - the second generation and currently using by all airplanes).

The first generation of TCAS only warn the pilots with the message "TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC" and did not provide a suggested maneuver. It depends entirely on the pilots manual action to avoid the incoming airplane.

However, the next generation of TCAS III will give a 3-Dimensional avoidance instructions to the pilots such as "TURN RIGHT, CLIMB" and "TURN RIGHT, DESCEND" to both airplanes.

The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) has mandated all aircraft with MTOW (Maximum Take-Off Weight) over 5700 kg (12,586 lbs) or authorized to carry more than 19 passengers to be fitted with this system.

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SR-71 Blackbird - The fastest airspeed ever recorded on a manned machine

2009-05-31T23:44:00.000-07:00

SR-71 Blackbird - Introduced in 1966 by Lockheed Martin, called Mach 3 strategic reconnaissance aircraft. It was a Black Project by the US Government during that time, where the machine hit the speed of 1,807mph (2891.2kmh), more than twice the speed of sound at 343m/s or 1,236kmh.

When detected a surface-to-air missile, the only action is to accelerate and avoid being hit.

It made the record by flying from New York to London in just 1 hour and 54 minutes.

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Sukhoi Su-30MKM ("The Flanker") - Malaysian MultiRole Superagility Jet Fighter

2009-05-29T10:45:00.000-07:00

It is the latest fighter jet model from Sukhoi (Russian Manufacturer), the most fearful military machine currently. The beauty of this machine is the capability to perform modern maneuvers that other fighter jets in the entire world can't. Its super agility and new maneuvers allowed them to execute any F15 fighter jet without being aware and detected by their onboard radars.

Our neighbour country, Singapore, has felt the threat and in response, purchased 24 F15E Strike Eagles (the latest F15 version) from the US which is comparable to the Sukhois but not the special maneuvers.

Su-30MKM can fly up to 2.4 Mach (Supersonic) and it is also capable to perform in-flight refueling. The different between the Malaysian version (Su-30MKM) and the Indian version (Su-30MKI) are:

- Electronic countermeasures warfare
- Phased array radar able to track up to 15 and engage up to 4 targets simultaneously
- New OLS system with laser ranging system
- “Glass” cockpit

Su-30MKMs are equipped with other modern avionic systems such as the French head-up display, navigation systems, forward vision system and Damocles laser designation pod.

The missile emission and missile approach warning system was developed in Republic of South Africa.

The Malaysian government had paid USD900 Million for 18 Su-30MKMs and in return, the Russian government agreed to train and send a Malaysian astronaut to the International Space Station and purchase palm oil from Malaysia.

See how it flies here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_fbU8cf3i8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY0t_mPv6I4&feature=related

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Typhoon Submarine - Largest Submarine Ever Built

2009-05-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

It is a nuclear-powered submarine, carrying ballistic missiles onboard, deployed by the Soviet Navy in the 80's. It has a maximum displacement of 26,000 tonnes.

It is the largest class of submarine in history.

During its time, it was the most feared weapons of mass destruction ever made. It was ideally capable to attack North America by launching its nuclear missiles while submerged under the artic circle where no other attack submarines and anti-submarine forces can trace their position.

The cost of operations for the Typhoon submarines was so high that the Russian Navy retired all after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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Saturn V - Rocket used during Apollo and Skylab missions

2009-05-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

The Saturn V was in operation from 1967 until 1973. NASA had launched 13 of these rockets with no loss of payload on it. To date, it is still recorded as the largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever brought to operations from a height, weight and payload point of measurement.

It was widely used in Apollo missions, carrying cosmonauts for the lunar program. From 1964 until 1973, a total of US$6.5 billion was appropriated for the Saturn V, with the maximum being in 1966 with US$1.2 billion which equivalent to roughly $32-45 billion in today's money. It is an amortized cost of $2.4-3.5 billion per launch.

One of the main reasons for the cancellation of the Apollo program was the cost. In 1966, NASA received its highest budget of US$4.5 billion, about 0.5 percent of the GDP of the United States at that time.

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Colonel Vladimir Komarov - First man died on space mission

2009-05-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

Colonel Vladimir Mikhaylovich Komarov was a Soviet cosmonaut and was the first human to have been confirmed to die during space mission. His last mission was on a Soyuz 1 test flight, a Soviet new generation of space craft as the successor of the older and smaller Voskhod series.

Soyuz 1 was the first flight of its series, that carried Colonel Vladimir Komarov into the orbit on 23 April 1967. He was killed the next day during the return to the Earth when the parachute, which designed to slow the spacecraft capsule to a safety speed before it hit the ground, failed to deploy.

Just before the impact, Soviet premier Alexey Kosygin told Komarov his country was proud of him.

During that time, he was also the first Soviet cosmonaut to travel into space more than once with his first mission, the Voskhod 1 and the last, Soyuz 1 which he was killed.

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Laika - First living mammal to the space

2009-05-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

Laika was a Soviet space dog (1954–November 3, 1957) who became the first living mammal to orbit the Earth. During that time, scientists knew little about the possible impact on living things during space flight.

The decision has made to select a dog to do a demonstration flight to the space. Laika has been selected among the 3 dogs specially trained for this mission. She was launched on a Soviet spacecraft called Sputnik 2.

Unfortunately, she died a few hours after launch, presumably from stress and overheating, probably due to a malfunction in the thermal control system.

On April 11, 2008, Russian officials unveiled a monument to Laika in Moscow which prepared Laika's flight to space. It features a dog standing on top of a rocket.

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Airbus A300-600ST Super Transporter (Airbus Beluga)

2009-05-26T02:09:00.000-07:00

It is a version of the standard A300-600 wide-body airliner (above) modified to carry aircraft parts and over-sized cargo (below). A total of 5 Belugas have been built to cater for its own Airbus Industrie requirements to fly its airplane parts from various factories for assembly.

It was introduced in the year 1995 and was officially called Super Transporter at first, but the name Beluga became popular and has now been officially adopted.

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Red Hot Fantasy Bra - World Most Expensive Bra

2009-05-24T22:36:00.000-07:00

Red Hot Fantasy Bra is the world's most expensive bra costing at US$15 million. It was made with 1,300 precious stones, including 300 carats of Thai rubies, on red satin. The appearance of the set was kept secret until the grand opening of Manhattan’s new Victoria’s Secret store on Broadway and 67th Street. It was then modeled by Victoria’s Secret’s own Gisele Bundchen.

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Vielle Bon Secours - World Most Expensive Beer

2009-05-24T22:31:00.001-07:00

Vielle Bon Secours is the world most expensive beer at around £500 or RM2,771 per bottle. It is only available at a bar called Bierdrome in London.

The second expensive goes to Samuel Adams' Utopias which is $100 or RM348 per bottle and third to Tutankhamen Brew which is $52 or RM181 per bottle.

The alcohol content is 25%, making it the strongest beer in the world (listed in the Guinness Book of Records). The process of making this beverage can take up to 12 years, giving it the unique and rich flavors. It is said that the production was limited to 8,000 bottles per year.

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Burj Dubai - World tallest building

2009-05-21T22:40:00.000-07:00

The tower is expected to be completed and ready for occupancy by September 2009. It has a height of 818m, about 190m higher than the second tallest, Guyed Mast in Blanchard, N.D., US.

The total budget for the Burj Dubai project is about US$4.1 billion, and for the entire new "Downtown Dubai", US$20 billion.

The price of office space at Burj Dubai had reached $4,000 per sq ft (over $43,000 per square meter) and that the Armani Residences, also in Burj Dubai, were selling for US$3,500 per sq ft (over $37,500 per square meter).

The Malaysian Petronas Twin Tower is now ranked 9th tallest building in the world with 452m height.

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Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge - World longest suspension bridge

2009-05-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge (a.k.a Pearl Bridge), is the world's longest suspension bridge. It has the longest span (distance without ground support or above the water) of 1,991 meters and dominates the title of the longest suspension bridge since 1998.

It links the city of Kobe on the mainland of Honshū to Iwaya on Awaji Island by crossing the busy Akashi Strait.

The total cost is estimated at ¥500 billion (roughly US$5 billion), and is expected to be defrayed by charging commuters a toll to cross the bridge. The toll is ¥2,300 (about £11 or US$20.00) and is used by approximately 23,000 cars/day.

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Dongfeng 5 (DF-5) - World longest range Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

2009-05-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

DF-5 is a 3-stage Chinese Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). It has an estimated range of 13,000km to 15,000km, capable of hitting the US hoover dam in Black Canyon of the Colorado River, which powered almost the whole California, Nevada and Arizona.

The missile is capable to be installed with a nuclear warhead, and this become a threat and the most fearful weapon to US.

The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the laws of orbital mechanics and ballistics.

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Wayne Allwine who voiced Mickey Mouse for more than 30 years, has died.

2009-05-21T01:18:00.000-07:00

Wayne Allwine, the actor who voiced Mickey Mouse for more than 30 years, has died on 20 May 2009.

The Walt Disney Co. says Allwine died Monday of complications from diabetes, with Russi Taylor, his wife of 20 years and the voice of Minnie Mouse, by his side. He was 62.

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Salar de Uyuni - The World's Largest Salt Flat

2009-05-21T00:08:00.000-07:00

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at 10,582 km². It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, 3,650 meters high. The major minerals found in the salar are halite and gypsum.

Salar de Uyuni is estimated to contain 10 billion tons of salt, of which less than 25,000 tons is extracted annually.

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Harrier Jump Jet - Vertical or Short Takeoff and Landing Jet

2009-05-20T23:57:00.000-07:00

The Harrier Jump Jet, was the first successful vertical take off and landing jet via thrust vectoring that entered into service. It is a British military design fighter jet which introduced in the year 1969.

The Harrier family's special characteristics have led to them being featured in a number of films and flight simulator programs.

The jet appears in the James Bond movie The Living Daylights, in the science fiction film Battlefield Earth, and in the film True Lies, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger flies an AV-8B. According to the Internet Movie Database, while making True Lies, the filmmakers paid the U.S. government $100,736 (or about $2,400 an hour) for the use of three US Marine Corps Harriers and their pilots

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TauTona - The Deepest Gold Mine in the world

2009-05-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

TauTona means "great lion" in the Setswana language, is the deepest gold mine in the world located in South Africa. The current depth of this mine is 3.9KM, surpassing the 3.5KM depth East Rand Mine in Johannesburg.

The mine is so deep that temperatures in the mine can rise to dangerous levels. Air conditioning equipment is used to cool the mine from 55 °C down to a more tolerable 28 °C. The rock face temperature currently reaches 60 °C.

TauTona is owned by AngloGold Ashanti. This mine begin its operation in 1962.

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Tsar Bomba - Largest Nuclear Weapon Ever Detonated

2009-05-20T23:18:00.000-07:00

Tsar-bomb - the nickname for the RDS-220 hydrogen bomb (codenamed: Ivan). It is also the largest and most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. It weights 27 tonnes, 8 meters length and 2 meters diameter.

Developed by the Soviet Union, the bomb was originally designed to have a yield of about 100 megatons of TNT. It is then reduced by half, to 50 megatons, in order to limit the amount of nuclear fallout.

One bomb was built and tested on 30th October 1961, in the Novaya Zemlya archipelago and after the test, it never enter into service.

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Grand Canal of China

2009-05-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

Also known as Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, is the longest canal in the world. The total length of the canal is 1,770 km.

It is also the oldest canal ever built. Ships in Chinese canals did not have trouble reaching higher elevations after the pound lock was invented in the 10th century (during the Song Dynasty).

Its course is today divided into seven sections: Jiangnan Canal, the Li Canal, the Zhong Canal, the Lu Canal, the South Canal, the North Canal, and the Tonghui River.

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Apollo Program

2009-05-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Apollo Program was undertaken by NASA in the year 1961–1975. Its goal is to conduct manned moon landing missions.

This program cost was USD135 Billion and some rumors stated that the exact amount was more than a trillion dollar. The government decided to withdraw its Apollo 18 to Apollo 20 missions to make fund available for the Space Shuttle development.

The first astronaut who landed on the moon was Neil Amstrong, with the Apollo 11 mission on 20th July 1969.

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The Pacific Ring of Fire

2009-05-18T20:12:00.001-07:00

The Pacific Ring of Fire accommodates 452 volcanoes or 75% of the world's volcanoes. It is 40,000KM in distance and form a ring-shape around the Pacific Ocean.

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Airbus A330-300 of Air Asia X

2009-05-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

Air Asia X received its first A330-300 in October 2008 from the 25 ordered. This plane will be scheduled for long haul flights which is more than 4 hours to North Asia, the Middle East and Europe, complementing the existing network.

It is powered by 2 Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines which produced 72,000lbs of thrust each and can accommodate 383 passengers in two-class layout: 355 Economy and 28 XL Premium.

Current available destinations:

East Asia: Hangzhou, Tianjin, Taipei.
South Asia: Kuala Lumpur
Europe: London
Oceania: Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth

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Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant

2009-05-18T04:42:00.000-07:00

The largest nuclear power plant in the world by its electrical power rating. It was built in the year of 1977 on the coast of the Sea of Japan.

It has 7 active reactors and generates an average of 44,513 GWh per year to date. It has been shutdown for upgrades after it hit by a recent earthquake and identified a minor radioactive fuel leaking.

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Air Transat Flight 236

2009-05-18T01:28:00.001-07:00

The plane, an Airbus A330-243, scheduled to fly from Toronto to Lisbon, was ran out of fuel in the sky of Atlantic Ocean caused by a fuel leak in Engine 2 due to the wrong part installed in the hydraulic system. The pilot error was to be blamed for worsen the controllable situation.

But it is due to his skill, plus a very long runway at the emergency landing airport at Azores, to bring down the airplane safely after a powerless glide for an hour in the air. The plane only suffered minor structural damage and blown its tires.

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F1 Engine

2009-05-15T09:57:00.001-07:00

F1 Engine - In 2005, the average horsepower of an F1 car is 1,250hp, allowing them to accelerate the car from 0-100KMH in 1.7 sec.

The FIA has responded by introducing the new rule of changing the previous V10 3.0-litre engine to V8 2.4-litre to reduce the horsepower of this deadly machine to 700hp due to safety reason.

But the team has managed to make it to 1,000hp currently with the same engine configuration.

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F1 Aerodynamic

2009-05-15T09:56:00.001-07:00

F1 Aerodynamic - Do you know that, the F1 cars can drive upside down when it is at the speed of 160KMH?

This is due to its aerofoil shape of the front and rear wings (opposite shape of an aircraft) that generate downforce, enough to push the car plus its driver weighing 600KG down on the ground surface.

Aircraft uses this so-called Bernoulli's Principle the other way round to lift the plane into the air.

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Mariana Trench @ Pacific Ocean

2009-05-15T09:55:00.001-07:00

Mariana Trench - The deepest part of the ocean on earth. Located in the Pacific Ocean, the maximum depth is 10.9KM.

It can sink a Mount Everest with the height of 8.8KM and got an extra space of 2.1KM above it!!!

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Mega Tsunami @ Lituya Bay, Alaska

2009-05-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

Mega Tsunami @ Lituya Bay, Alaska - The biggest tsunami ever recorded by human which occurred in the year of 1958. They called this a Mega Tsunami simply because of its wave height of 524m, compared to 30m that happened in 2006 at India Ocean, Sumatra.

If this mega tsunami to be impacted the whole human built structure in the world, only 4 tallest skyscrapers would have been survived.

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Sarawak Chamber

2009-05-15T09:53:00.001-07:00

Sarawak Chamber - The World's Largest Chamber ever discovered by the human on earth. It was 3 times the size of Big Room in New Mexico, which is the largest before the Sarawak Chamber has been found.

It is measured 700m long, 400m wide and at least 70m high. The chamber can accommodate 10 Boeing 747-400s. It does required some swimming to reach.

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Mir (Soviet Space Research Station)

2009-05-15T09:52:00.001-07:00

Mir - The Soviet Space Research Station, was de-orbited in March 2001 by the Russian Government into the Pacific Ocean due to financial difficulties to maintain this old space station and its commitment to the current International Space Station Program.

The Mir modules were assembled in the orbit separately from 1986 to 1996.

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Millau Viaduct (le Viaduc de Millau)

2009-05-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

Millau Viaduct - Located in Southern France, the tallest bridge in the world with its highest mast at 343m, taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The total length is 2,460m and 32m wide.

Fog floating underneath the bridge is normal to its height. It connects the highway system from Paris to Barcelona and the construction took only 3 years to complete.

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Columbia (US Space Shuttle)

2009-05-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

Columbia (US Space Shuttle) - This was the last picture taken during the launch of its last mission, STS-107 which exploded during the re-entry into the earth atmosphere on 1 Feb 2003, taken away the lives of 7 crew members.

It was the result from the left-wing crack, caused by the debris strike during the launch and it failed to withstand the heat generated from the earth atmosphere's friction during re-entry.

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Boeing 777-200LR

2009-05-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

Boeing 777-200LR, named "Worldliner" as its capability of connecting almost any 2 airports on earth. It is the only plane in the world that abide the 180 minutes ETOPS requirements which it can fly with only 1 engine for at least 3 hours non-stop.

In 2007, United Airlines Boeing 777 from Auckland to San Francisco made a historical record of flying the plane with single engine for 192 minutes and landed safely.

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Spruce Goose

2009-05-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

Hughes H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose), the largest aircraft ever built in term of wingspan size followed by the Ukrainian Antonov-225 and Airbus A380.

It is almost 100% made of wood due to the wartime restriction on metals. The purpose of building this aircraft is to transport war materials across the Atlantic Ocean to replace the ships that suffering losses to the German U-Boats during WWII.

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GE90-115 by General Electric

2009-05-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

GE90-115B, the largest turbofan jet engine ever manufactured, mounted on all Boeing 777-300ER. It is capable to fly a Boeing 747 by itself, and produces higher thrust than all the 8 engines-combined on B-52 Bomber.

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Emergency Survival 2: How to avoid being struck by lightning

2008-03-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,

Have you ever realize that lightning causes many casualties every year? Please ensure you have all these knowledge to avoid being one of the casualties.

Thunderstorm generally moves from west to east and happen when humidity is highest.

How to know whether we are in a safe distance from the lightning position? You are considered safe from the lightning if the time-split between the lightning (flash) and the thunder (boom) is more than 30 seconds. Or else, locate a safer place immediately.

So where are the places as mentioned above?

Guess what? Inside an enclosed vehicle such as car, truck, etc with the windows rolled up are the safest shelters from lightning. But DO NOT ever contact with the metal or other conducting materials on the car.

And now, where are the places or structures that are dangerous and often become the target for lightning? Please see the list as follow:
1. High places
2. High metal structures
3. Open fields
4. Under a tree
5. Water bodies
6. Electronic Appliances

If you happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, where the lightning keeps striking close to you, please perform the following:
1. Kneel down
2. Keep your head low

Some videos to share with you on lightning cases.

Soccer field:

Qantas Airliner

Tree:

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Emergency Survival 1: How to land a plane

2008-03-23T02:11:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

Have you ever imagine if the pilots on the plane that you are traveling become unconscious? The plane is flying by its own without control, and now, what would you do?

Modern commercial airliners such as the Airbus A320 which the budget airline Air Asia is using, are almost impossible to crash by itself. It can continue flying for 60 minutes with only one engine (ETOPS).

The modern electronic system is capable to control the aircraft movements and engine thrusts automatically to avoid any potential accident that might happened. Commercial airplanes usually fly with Autopilot at most of the journey.

A320 airplane is the first to use a small joystick (sidestick) to control the airplane movements at the cockpit instead of the conventional yoke control.

If the situation as stated above happened, please stay calm and perform the following:

Find somebody with at least some flying experience; or You control the aircraft:

DO NOT hold the yoke/sidestick or press any button or step on the rudders yet. Stay Calm!
You might deactivate the Autopilot by controlling the yoke/sidestick manually. An aircraft can fly by its own with the Autopilot activated.
Never change the flight path unless it is going to hit a mountain or other obstacle. This will not happen with the modern aircrafts such as A320.
Get on the radio headset and press a button on the yoke/sidestick to start speaking to the nearby Air Traffic Control (ATC).
Say "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" and report your flight number.
If no response, try emergency channel by tuning the radio to 121.50. The tuner usually located in between of 2 pilot seats and displaying the frequency between 118.00 to 136.97.
Tune to 121.50 and repeat the word above. You should be able to get someone to talk to.
Report your flight number and inform them the situation and that you have no flying experience.
Stay calm and follow the instructions and you will be able to land a plane easily and safely. Modern airplane is capable to land automatically by pressing a few buttons in the cockpit.
You will be asked to read the Attitude Indicator, Altimeter, and Airspeed Indicator.

Try playing the Flight Simulator game on your PC and it could help you to acquire the basic knowledge of when to do what or the functions of the meters and buttons.

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Kimi Raikkonen

2008-03-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

Kimi Raikkonen was born on 17 October 1979 in Espoo, Finland.

He started karting since the age of 10. Went through various series of car racing including Formula Ford and Formula Renault before stepping into the Formula 1 Championship series.

Started the Formula 1 career with Sauber Petronas team in the year 2001 after the team owner, Peter Sauber, has given him an opportunity to race for his team. By the time Kimi has only 23 single-seater car race experience.

Dozen of drivers raised up concerns regarding this inexperienced driver and one of them was the great 1997 World Champion, Jacques Villeneuve. He warns everybody that this newly joint young driver shall potentially create unnecessary accidents and it increases the risk and safety to everyone on the track. Jacques was a great champion with a great big mouth too. He is the one who involved in an heavy accident with Ralf Schumacher in Melbourne that causes the death of a marshal during the first race of 2001.

However, without being affected by the criticisms at the pitlane, Kimi has sent a clear message to everyone that he is capable to fit into his seat by finishing the race with 1 point at 6th place.

This young and talented driver, without delay, has been grabbed up by the big player, Team McLaren Mercedes the following year as the replacement of the two times World Champion Mika Hakkinen. Some speculations stated that Sauber Petronas has earned tremendous profit out of Kimi which allows the team to build a new wind tunnel in Hinwill, Switzerland.

After arriving at McLaren Mercedes, his new team mate, David Coulthard has also stated that he will not share his experience to his new team mate equivalent to the quantity he receive the other way round. In fact, Kimi has outpaced his team mate in majority races and became the title contender since then.

David Coulthard's service has been discontinued by the team in 2005 to make way for Juan Pablo Montoya, the new rising star from team Williams to partner Kimi Raikkonen in the future races. However, Kimi is still very clear on his message by showing Juan Pablo that he has no way near him on the track.

Kimi was the fastest man on the track in year 2005 but suffered frequent reliability problems that saw him handed over the title to Fernando Alonso in Renault. Kimi spent 1 year cruising with his uncompetitive car in 2006 which saw Michael Schumacher as the main contender to Fernando before retiring after the end of the season.

After spending 5 years without achieving the Championship title at McLaren, Kimi has decided to give up the current team and accept the offer from Ferrari to replace the seven time World Champion Michael Schumacher in 2007, which he believes it can provide him the right car and the right package. It is also heavily speculated that Kimi is not only the successor for Michael in terms of the winning driver role, but also the wages. Kimi once again, has consistently beat his team mate, Felipe Massa in majority races.

The results has shown that the move from McLaren to the current team is the correct decision. Kimi has finally grabbed the Formula 1 Driver Championship title in 2007 by 1 point to Fernando Alonso and the new star Lewis Hamilton during his first year in Scuderia Ferrari team.

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