It is the most beautiful mummy
I ever see. Ice Maiden, or Children of Llulailaco (la Doncella in Spanish) is a mummy found in in 1999 in an icy pit on Llullaillaco volcano. The 15-year-old girl/maiden were believed to be sacrificed more than 500 years ago in a ceremony marking the annual Andes corn harvest. Dressed in fine clothes and given corn alcohol to put her to sleep, the victim were then left to die at an elevation of 6,730 meters (22,080 feet). Currently, the well-preserved mummy of the Inca maiden is on display for the first time at a museum in Salta, Argentina. The serene gaze etched on her face from hundreds of years ago when she froze to death high in the Andes is still so charming. 
Source: Preserved mummy of 500-year-old Inca 'Ice Maiden' wows visitors @ Dailymail
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500-year-old Argentina Inca 'Ice Maiden' Mummy
Kalamazoo Town's "SHCOOL" Road
The word 'SHCOOL' in beautifully-painted, giant white letters is spelled out on a road near Northwood Elementary in the town of Kalamazoo in the state of Michigan, USA. Maybe the embarrassing spelling mistake suggests the road worker who painted need go back to 'Shcool'! ~_~
Source: Spelling mistake means it's back to 'shcool' for road worker @ Dailymail
World's First Zebra Crossing for Penguins
At Living Coasts in Torquay, Devon of UK, the authorities painted the world's first zebra crossing for penguins which are kept at Penguins Beach after the request from the zoo keepers. Every day a colony of 80 African penguins cross the wide footpath to make way through from Penguin Beach to meet their keepers to during the feed time. Wow, how smart the zoo keepers!
"It's hard to teach a penguin
road safety, but the zebra crossing does alert visitors to the fact that the birds cross there.
"They live on Penguin Beach but are fed in the public area which means a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing.
"The crossing has been put down to show visitors where the penguins cross the public walkway and to emphasise the need to take care.
Source: The world's first zebra crossing for penguins @ Dailymail
Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road, the Most Awesome Road in the United Arab Emirates
Can't imagine that there is such a beautiful road with totally no trees on its two sides.
The Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road
The road is cut into the Jebel Hafeet Mountain
, the highest peak in the United Arab Emirates , the oil-rich Persian Gulf state. The mountain spans the border with Oman and lies about 90 minutes' drive southeast of the thriving city of Dubai . It looks down upon a dusty, desert landscape that belies a nation of astonishing wealth.
Source: Mountain Road in UAE @ Fordac's Blog
Eurostar Sets Speed Record On Paris-London Line
In the newly constructed line called High Speed 1 connecting London and Paris' new St Pancras station, a Eurostar train took two hours, three minutes, 39 seconds to finish its inaugural journey, cutting cut Paris to London journey times by more than 20 minutes.
According to the he BBC journalist on board the train, a GPS device had recorded a speed of 202mph (325km/h) in France and 195mph in Britain where trains will normally reach speeds of up to 186mph.
Source: Eurostar sets Paris-London record @ BBC
Arnold Chase's Mega Mansion, Among USA's Largest Single Family Houses
Who is Arnold Chase? Too many people are now keen to know him. He is a West Hartford-based businessman, the boss of Gemini Networks. He has donated 66 miles of fiber optic cable to Hartford residents for their wireless access and once constructed WTIC-TV, FOX's Channel 61.
Currently, Arnold Chase, is building a mega 50,900-square-foot mansion at his town in New England of Connecticut. Together with the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina,109,000-square-foot (10,125-square-meter), Oheka Castle in Huntington and Donald Trump's 80,000-square-foot (7,430-square-meter) Maison de l'Amitie in Palm Beach, Florida, Arnold Chase's masion will become one of largest single family house in US.
The enormity of the house Arnold Chase is building on Avon Mountain is not fully apparent from the outside, where only 17,000 square feet (1,580 square meters) of it lies in plain view.
It is the two-level, 33,500-square-foot (3,110-square-meter) basement complex, complete with a 103-seat movie theater, ticket booth, concession stand, game room and music annex, that will make it the largest occupied single-family home in the New England states in the northeast U.S.
At nearly 50,900 square feet (4,730 square meters), the Chase home will be slightly larger than billionaire Bill Gates' home in Washington state, about 4,000 square feet (372 square meters) smaller than the White House and 20 times larger than the average-size home in America.
Besides the two-tiered movie theater, soda fountain and men's and women's bathrooms, the Chase home will include a 400-square-foot (37-square-meter) "observatory," five bedrooms, eight full bathrooms and five half bathrooms, according to documents filed with the West Hartford planning office. The game room, in the "upper" basement, will take up nearly 4,900 square feet (455 square meters) — nearly twice as big as the average-size house.
Source: AP via Hfxnews earlier seen at SN
Venezuela Caracas Hilton Hotel Renamed by Hugo Chavez's Government
Photo: Caracasapie/Flickr
The new hotel name is now called the Alba Caracas. Alba means "dawn" in Spanish and is also the acronym of Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas trade initiative that sets to counter U.S.-backed Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
"The goal is to convert the hotel into a socialist tourism business for the enjoyment of citizens," said Eustacio Aguilera, president of the Simon Bolivar Center, a government cultural institution that owns the hotel.
Source: FOX
Bloodsucking Chupacabra Appeared in Cuero, Texas?
Chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish, and it is said to have originated in Latin America, specifically Puerto Rico and Mexico. Veterinarian Travis Schaar of the Main Street Animal Hospital believes it as a strange breed of dog. But when the mysterious mammal with big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin turned up at Phylis Canion's ranch in Cuero, Texas, it did cause a stir there. Make sure check out the interesting AP full story with three demonstrating pictures.
Video: Boston Fire Leaves 2 Firefighters Dead
From Nowpublic
Two Boston Firefighters were killed and four others injured in a 4 alarm fire at 1727 Center Street in West Roxbury about 9:15pm Wednesday (August 29) night. The fire started in the Hi Ho Thai restaurant and extended into a dog grooming parlor next door.
The fire spread rapidly and a 2nd alarm was ordered shortly after the first arriving companies. A partial roof collapse occurred causing an air conditioning unit to fall into the building. All companies were ordered out of the building by Command.The scene grew chaotic when several Firefighters were carried from the building by their brothers.Two Firefighters were in cardiac arrest and CPR was immediately administered by a District Chief and Boston EMS Paramedics.
Command ordered a 3rd and 4th alarm as the fire intensified and more manpower was needed. Tower Ladder 17 operated a gun from their bucket and several hand lines were in use.
Four other Firefighters were transported to area hospitals.
I don't if my elder sister who is currently living in Boston has ever visited the restaurant or not.
Waste-plastic-bottle Paddling Boat
Due to problems in the drainage system, a road in the Xiangcheng District of Suzhou City in China was flooded during a rainstorn day on August 29. The picture shows a creative boy was paddling a "boat" made of empty plastic bottles along the street by making fun of floods. Source: Chinadaily
Crazy Tomato Fight in Spanish Bunol Town
Revellers fought in tomato pulp during the annual "Tomatina" (tomato fight) in the Mediterranean village of Bunol, near Valencia, August 29, 2007. The origin of the tomato fight is believed to start around 1940, in the early years of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco[wiki]. 
Source: China daily
Stunning Brunei Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque
Indeed Beautiful! Amazing in appearance, The Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque is too beautiful to be true. The Holy Place is Brunei's proudest architectural achievement. It sits on an artificial lagoon near the Brunei River in Kampong Ayer, which is appropriately enough, known as a 'water village.' A structure in the water that resembles a ship was at one time used for official state ceremonies. The mosque is the largest in the Far East, and considered among the most beautiful in the world. It reaches a height of 52 meters and is topped with a gold dome supported by walls of Italian marble, which also forms the mosque's columns, arches, and towers. The stained glass was hand made in England and the carpets are Saudi Arabia.
Manhattan of the Desert, Yemen Shibam
Dubbed as the oldest skyscraper-city in the world, or Manhattan of the desert, Town Shibam located at Hadramawt of mideast country Yemen was once the capital of the Hadramawt Kingdom. (It is somewhat disappointed that my Yemeni friends never talk about it before.)
Shibam has existed for around 2,000 years, but most of the city's houses come mainly from the 16th century and currently has about 7,000 inhabitants. The Shibam houses safeguarded under UNESCO's human cultural heritage programme are made out of mud bricks, with only about 500 tower houses currently still there, rising 5 to 9 stories high. Inside the city there is virtually no traffic due to the extremely narrow alleyways.
The following is a Youtube video tour of Shibam Town
Archnet.org hosts a photo gallery on this human heritage.
Source: Wiki & Deputy-dog
Simon Ward's One Day Trip to Julie's Undersea Lodge, World's First Underwater Hotel
Click here to see a fantastic one day trip by Simon Ward to Julie's Undersea Loge (slideshow tour), the world's first underwater hotel which was originally built in the early 1970s as a research lab off the coast of Puerto Rico and relocated to Key Largo, Florida, USA and opened for the public. On Simon Ward's website, he displayed a lot of photos showing how to reach and what they eat and the environment surrounds at the Lodge.
Sexy Lady-style Streetlights in China
Video: Minah Rempit, One Sample of Notorious Malaysian Illegal Racing
We are expatriates living in Malaysia, and are bothered by Mak Rempit (illegal motorcyle racing in English) almost every mid-night of Friday and Saturday. Here Minah rempit is just one case of the notorious Malaysian illegal motorcyle stunts on the major countryside or city roads. Those Malay guys are much more crazy than you can believe!
p.s., If you are a new expatriate living or to live in Malaysia, don't walk alone along the major roads in Kuala Lumpur, Klang, Johor Bahru and Penang among others after 24:00 every Friday and Saturday. Otherwise, you will definitely be in a dangerous situation if you run across those Mak Rempit drivers. No cheating!
Los Angels to Debut MTA 65-feet-superlong Bus Service
The technically illegal 65-foot-long prototype MTA superlong bus with a capacity of up to 131 passengers will be tested on the Orange Line busway of Los Angels for one year starting from the next week. Because it is five feet longer than the longest bus allowed by California law, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will have to seek an exemption from Caltrans to operate the prototype. Link via Utube Laughter
Norway Pine: Minnesota State Tree
It's good for me to know something more about U.S.A like Minnesota State Tree.
The red or Norway pine (Pinus resinosa) became the official Minnesota state tree in 1953. Red pines are tall, stately trees that reach heights of 60 to nearly 150 feet. Their trunks are straight and uniform and may grow to five feet in diameter. When mature, the trees usually are bare of branches for two-thirds of the way up the trunk, with rounded tops or “crowns.” Their needles are four to six inches long and grow in pairs. Red pines begin producing cones at 15 to 20 years of age. Their cones, about two inches long and stout, have a two-year growing cycle; they begin growing in mid-summer the first year, remain attached through the following summer, and ripen in the fall. Red pines are popular as Christmas trees when small, and when mature are harvested for use as structural timber and pulpwood; they also make suitable poles, pilings, mining timbers, and railroad ties because their wood is easily penetrated by preservatives. Red pines can live to be about 400 years old. They grow on outwash plains, level or gently rolling sand plains, and low ridges adjacent to lakes and swamps; in northeastern Minnesota, they often grow on very exposed sites including islands, peninsulas, lakeshores, and steep slopes.
