Caves have been natural attractions since prehistoric times. Prolific evidence of early man’s interest has been discovered in caves scattered throughout the world. Fragments of skeletons of some of the earliest manlike creatures (Australopithecines) have been discovered in cave deposits in South Africa, and the first evidence of primitive Neanderthal Man was found in a cave in the Neander Valley of Germany. Cro-Magnon Man created his remarkable murals on the walls of caves in southern France and northern Spain where he took refuge more than 1O,000 years ago during the chill of the ice age.

There are many types of caves including fissure, talus, solutional, granite, slate, erosional, man-made, rare emerged sea caves, sea caves, and sandstone caves.

Amongst the most famous caves in the world are the caves in Mulu National Park, Sarawak, which was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2001. Some of the caves there are world record holders, such as Gua Nasib Bagus which houses the world’s largest chamber – Sarawak Chamber. Clearwater Cave is the 10th longest in the world, at 110km. Deer Cave is one of the world’s largest passages. The Niah Caves, also in Sarawak, is a famous archaeological site. A 40,000 year old human skull has been found there, and the rock paintings have been dated at 1200 years. Near Kuching the caves of Bau can be visited.

Ice caves are very different from normal caves.
The term ice cave refers to any type of natural cave (most commonly lava tubes or limestone caves) that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) ice. At least a portion of the cave must have a temperature below 0 °C (32 °F) all year round, and water must have traveled into the cave’s cold zone.
The term ice cave is often used to describe a cavity formed within ice, which is properly called a glacier cave.

Before the Chinese Wedding Day

Before her wedding celebration, a Chinese bride traditionally goes into seclusion with her closest friends. This Chinese custom gives the bride-to-be some time to symbolically mourn the loss of her friends and family.
Some time before the couple are married, the groom’s family carries wedding gifts in red baskets and boxes to the bride’s house. One of the baskets will contain “uang susu” or ‘milk money’. Others will contain personal things for the bride, so that on her wedding day all of her personal belongings will be in the groom’s house. The bride takes the gifts to another room where they are sorted through. Three days before the wedding day, women from the bride’s family reciprocate, bearing gifts — including some ‘returns’– in red wrappings to the groom’s family.

Red is the Color of Weddings in China

Red is central to the wedding theme of China. It signifies love, joy and prosperity and is used in a variety of ways in Chinese wedding traditions. The bride’s wedding down is often red, as are the wedding invitations, and wedding gift boxes or envelopes for cash gifts. Even the bride and groom’s homes are decorated in red on the wedding day.

The Day of the Wedding Ceremony

Wedding anniversaries in China, are carefully chosen according to astrological signs. It is also customary for couples to be married on the half-hour or their wedding day rather than at the top of the hour. In this way, the couple begins their new lives together on an ‘upswing’, while the hands of the clock are moving up, rather than down.

On the morning of his wedding day, the groom is symbolically dressed by his parents. The groom arrives at the house of his bride on the way to the wedding chapel. He brings gifts of cash, wrapped in red tissue, to give to his bride’s friends, in exchange for ‘letting her go’. In some families, the wedding couple serves tea to both sets of parents while kneeling in front of them. a symbolic gesture of asking for permission. The bride and groom then leave for the wedding site together.

Chinese Marriage Ceremony and Wedding Reception

The wedding ceremony is usually attended only by the couples’ immediate families. Just after the ceremony and before the wedding reception, the bride who honors tradition will serve tea to her in-laws in a formal ceremony. The couple will usually go to a professional studio for wedding pictures before they proceed to their reception. The wedding reception, an elaborate standing only affair.

A welcoming speech is usually performed by an MC who is hired for the occasion. The speech is followed by a cake cutting ceremony. The traditional wedding cake is immense, with many layers. The layers symbolize a ladder that they couple will ‘climb to success’, so couples will cut the cake from the bottom and work their way up. The cutting of the cake is the only event of the reception. The bride and groom feed each other a piece of cake with arms entwined, trying not to destroy the bride’s elaborate makeup. A piece is then cut for each of the parents and for the grandparents, who are fed by the bride and groom holding the cake together. Sometimes a wedding toast is given and guests are invited to greet the newlyweds and their parents. Musical entertainment, which ranges from a simple keyboard player to a symphony or orchestra, accompanies the receiving line It is customary for guests to shake hands again before leaving the reception. At more elaborate Chinese weddings, a sit-down reception may feature a 9 or 10 course meal as well as musical entertainment.
Chinese brides often change outfits at least three times during the reception.

The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes.
As an abstract concept, love usually refers to a deep, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual emotional closeness of familial and platonic love to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love.Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.
Love is a deep and complex emotion. It inspires people to heroic acts and drives them to desperate measures. Poems, plays and songs have tried to explain its mysteries and allures. Defining love is a challenge-how can you tell if the feeling you are experiencing is truly love? Love can easily be confused with lust, desire and extreme fondness.

“Love one another and you will be happy. It’s as simple and as difficult as that.”

“Where there is love there is life.”

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.”

“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.”

“For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.”

“We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh.”

]]> http://www.timeidol.com/background-animal/feed/ 0 http://www.timeidol.com/life-googleplex/ http://www.timeidol.com/life-googleplex/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:28:19 +0000 panta http://www.timeidol.com/?p=1977

The Googleplex is located between Charleston Road, Amphitheatre Parkway, and Shoreline Boulevard in north Mountain View, California close to the Shoreline Park wetlands. Employees living in San Francisco or the East Bay may take a wifi-enabled Google subsidized shuttle to and from work. It is powered by biodiesel.

Neighbors of the Googleplex include Alza Plaza to the west; Shoreline Amphitheatre to the north; Intuit to the northwest and Century Theatres, Microsoft Corporation’s Silicon Valley research complex, and the Computer History Museum to the south. Moffett Field lies nearby to the east.

The four core buildings, totaling 47,038 square meters (506,310 sq ft), were built for and originally occupied by Silicon Graphics (SGI). The office space and corporate campus is located within a larger 26-acre (110,000 m²) site that contains Charleston Park, a 5-acre (20,000 m²) public park; improved access to Permanente Creek; and public trails that connect the corporate site to Shoreline Park and the Bay Trail. The project, launched in 1994 to reclaim a former industrial brownfield, was a creative collaboration between SGI, STUDIOS Architecture in San Francisco, SWA Group of San Francisco and Sausalito, and the Planning and Community Development Agency of the City of Mountain View. The objective was to develop in complementary fashion the privately-owned corporate headquarters and adjoining public greenspace. Key design decisions placed parking for nearly 2000 cars underground, enabling SWA to integrate the two open spaces with water features, shallow pools, fountains, pathways, and plazas. The project was completed in 1997. The ASLA noted in 1999 that the SGI project was a significant departure from typical corporate campuses, challenging conventional thinking about private and public space.

this is interior of Googleplex

A lifeguard sits on duty as an employee works out in one of two swim-in-place pools at Google’s headquarters.

We already knew that working for Google had certain advantages, but, believe me, this giant of the search motor takes the welfare of its employees seriously … as shown by this decompression (stress) capsule that is impermeable to sound and light …

Moving around: A slide allows quick access from different floors . . . There are also poles available . . . they are similar to the ones used in fire stations .

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Food . Employees can eat all they want from a vast choice of food and drink .

Work Station: Each employee has at least two large screens. There are 4-6 ‘Zooglers’ per office .

INOVATION: Large boards are available just about everywere because ‘ideas don’t always come when seated in the office’ says one of Googles managers .

LEISURE . Pool tables, video games etc. are available in many areas .

Communication . . . On each floor, there are private cabin areas where employees can attend to personal affairs ..

Technical Support: Problem with your computer ? No problem . . . Bring it to this area where drinks are available while it is being fixed . . .

Health: Professional masseurs (eusses) available .

REST . . . This room provides massage chairs that you control . . . while you view relaxing aquariums . . . . !!!

Ambiance . . . There are many books in this library . . . even some about programming !!

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A famous French shipbuilder ship company and one of Monaco joined hands together to build this yacht with enormous dimensions:    The WHY 58×38. (58meter long and 38 meter wide)

This is a “green” yacht.

Wally et Hermès use green energy to 20 to 30% fuel savings and 40 to 50% electricity consumption on board. Therefore there are 900 m2 equipped with solar panels, producing a daily output of 500 kW.

Equipment

Three decks, a 25 meter pool, a spa helicopterpad a 100m2 with hammam, sauna, gym and massage room,a promenade of 130 meter, a music room, a dining room, a cinema, sun decks, suites, terraces, a lounge, a bibi. The luxury is at the rendez-vous. The decks are connected by stairs but there is also an elevator.

The suite of the owner

With an area of 200m2 and completely covers the third deck. (This is the bedroom) The sea view is great and there is a private terrace of 25 meter long.

A sea of light.

The yacht has the shape of a horseshoe and has a roof so everything is bathed in a sea of light.

The spacious lounge

On the lower deck are the common premises, such as lounge, piano bar and dining area…

Dinning Room

The dining room opens onto the sea view.

Suites for the guests

For the guests, 5 suites with sea views (on the middendek).There is also a reading room equipped.

The roofs look like a large flower floating on the clear water of the Taedong, or a parachute which has just landed, so it gives the impression of a dynamic sculpture. The stadium has 80 exits and ten lifts. It was built in two and a half years on the picturesque Rungra Island in the Taedong River, and commissioned on May 1, 1989. Every condition is provided for international games. The football pitch is covered with natural grass, and the 400 metre track and other parts for field events are rubberised.

The stadium has various training halls, recreation rooms, an indoor swimming pool, an ultrasonic bat, a sauna, beds and so on, which are indispensable for the players training and convenience. It also has dining rooms, and a broadcasting room and telex booths. The rubberised indoor running track is several hundred metres long and is on the sixth floor.

Elena Dementieva,Russian women

Jelena Jankovic, Serbian women

Vojislava Lukic, Serbian women

Jelena Dokic,Australian women

Ashley Harkleroad, American women

Kris Evert, American women

Maria Sharapova, Russian women

Alona Bondarenko,Ukrain women

Ana Ivanovic, Serbian women

Anna-Kournikova, Russian women

Insects can be found almost everywhere — on the highest mountains and on the bottom of rushing streams, in the cold South Pole and in bubbling hot springs. They burrow through the ground, hop and sing in the trees, and dart and dance in the air. They come in many different colors and various shapes. Insects are extremely useful to humans, pollinating our crops as well as flowers in meadows, forests, deserts and other areas. But ticks and some insects, such as mosquitoes and fleas, can transmit disease.

Insects are vital to the immense cycle of life, furnishing food for other creatures and breaking down natural materials to chemicals and nutrients for recycling into new life. Whirling, buzzing, singing, chewing, vibrating with energy, they are all around us. We have only to open our eyes to watch and begin to understand them.

Ladybugs

Ladybugs, also called lady beetles or ladybird beetles, are a very beneficial group. They are natural enemies of many insects. They are small insects, ranging from 1 mm to 10 mm (0.04 to 0.4 inches), and are commonly yellow, orange, or scarlet with small black spots on their wing covers, with black legs, head and antennae.
Coccinellids are found worldwide, with over 5,000 species described, more than 450 native to North America alone.
A few species are pests in North America and Europe, but they are generally considered useful insects as many species feed on aphids or scale insects, which are pests in gardens, agricultural fields, orchards, and similar places. The Mall of America, for instance, releases thousands of ladybugs into its indoor park as a natural means of pest control for its gardens

Mantis

Mantodea or mantises is an order of insects that contains approximately 2,200 species in 9 families  worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. Most of the species are in the family Mantidae. Historically, the term “mantid” was used to refer to any member of the order because for most of the past century, only one family was recognized within the order; technically, however, the term only refers to this one family, meaning the species in the other eight recently-established families are not mantids, by definition (i.e., they are empusids, or hymenopodids, etc.), and the term “mantises” should be used when referring to the entire order. A colloquial name for the order is “praying mantises”, because of the typical “prayer-like” stance, although the term is often misspelled as “preying mantis” since mantises are predatory.  The closest relatives of mantises are the orders Isoptera (termites) and Blattodea (cockroaches), and these three groups together are sometimes ranked as an order rather than a superorder. They are sometimes confused with phasmids (stick/leaf insects) and other elongated insects such as grasshoppers and crickets.

Beetles

Beetles are the group of insects with the largest number of known species. They are classified in the order Coleoptera  which contains more described species than in any other order in the animal kingdom, constituting about 25% of all known life-forms.
Beetles can be found in almost all habitats, but are not known to occur in the sea or in the polar regions. They interact with their ecosystems in several ways. They often feed on plants and fungi, break down animal and plant debris, and eat other invertebrates. Some species are prey of various animals including birds and mammals. Certain species are agricultural pests, such as the Colorado potato beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata, the boll weevil Anthonomus grandis, the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, and the mungbean or cowpea beetle Callosobruchus maculatus, while other species of beetles are important controls of agricultural pests. For example, beetles in the family Coccinellidae (“ladybirds” or “ladybugs”) consume aphids, scale insects, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects that damage crops.

Dragonfly

A dragonfly is a type of insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera. It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body. Dragonflies are similar to damselflies, but the adults can be differentiated by the fact that the wings of most dragonflies are held away from, and perpendicular to, the body when at rest. Even though dragonflies possess 6 legs like any other insect, they are not capable of walking.
Dragonflies are valuable predators that eat mosquitoes, and other small insects like flies, bees, ants, and butterflies. They are usually found around lakes, ponds, streams and wetlands because their larvae, known as “nymphs”, are aquatic.

Rhino Beetle

The rhinoceros beetles or rhino beetle are a subfamily (Dynastinae) of beetles in the family of scarab beetles (Scarabaeidae). They are among the largest of beetles, and their common name refers to the characteristic horns borne by the males of most species in the group. The male beetles use their horns in mating battles against other males.

Their larval stage is long, several years in some species. The larvae feed on rotten wood while the adults feed on nectar, plant sap and fruit. Rhinoceros beetle larvae are sometimes fried and eaten as a bush delicacy.
Rhinoceros beetles are popular pets in Asia. They are clean, easy to maintain, and safe to handle. In Asian countries, male beetles are also used for gambling fights since they naturally compete for female beetles with the winner knocking the other off a log. Rhinoceros beetles are also one of the strongest animals on the planet in relation to their own size. They can lift up to 850 times their own weight.

Ants

Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae  and along with the related wasps and bees, they belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. Today, more than 12,500 species are classified with upper estimates of about 22,000 species. They are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and a distinctive node-like structure that forms a slender waist.
Ants form colonies that range in size from a few dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly organised colonies which may occupy large territories and consist of millions of individuals. These larger colonies consist mostly of sterile wingless females forming castes of “workers”, “soldiers”, or other specialised groups. Nearly all ant colonies also have some fertile males called “drones” and one or more fertile females called “queens”. The colonies are sometimes described as superorganisms because the ants appear to operate as a unified entity, collectively working together to support the colony.

Butterfly

A butterfly is any of several groups of mainly day-flying insects of the order Lepidoptera, the butterflies and moths. Like other holometabolous insects, butterflies’ life cycle consists of four parts, egg, larva, pupa and adult. Most species are diurnal. Butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight.
Culturally, butterflies are a popular motif in the visual and literary arts.

larva

Bees

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila. There are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in seven to nine recognized families, though many are undescribed and the actual number is probably higher. They are found on every continent except Antarctica, in every habitat on the planet that contains insect-pollinated flowering plants.