Arizona's immigration seriff

the world's biggest ferris wheel at london

Tony Blair officially opened the London Eye on 31 December 1999. But it was only after a number of technical glitches had been sorted out that the public was finally allowed aboard in March 2000 – 10 years ago this week. Since then, well over 30 million people have taken the vertiginous but breathtaking half-hour journey, in air-conditioned capsules, up and around what was, until two years ago, the world’s biggest ferris wheel. That honour now belongs to the Singapore Flyer; with a height of 165 metres, it outranks the London Eye by a full 30 metres. But, while the Flyer looks like a gigantic version of a 19th-century original (the first of the breed, designed by George Washington Ferris, began revolving at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago), the London Eye is a fighter jet to the Malaysian city’s biplane. The Eye has since become as much a part of tourist London as Westminster Abbey, the Tower and Big Ben; a friendly curiosity, an urban eye-catcher, and an engineering wonder to compare with the Eiffel Tower.When it was first announced, though, it was hard not to think that the London Eye was going to be some sort of Victorian throwback, an enormous music hall-era fun-fair ride among London’s new wave of challenging millennium monuments– Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge and the Millennium Dome itself. At the time of its opening, the joke went that the Eye was a perfect symbol of contemporary British political culture, going around and around uselessly and getting nowhere in the process.When, however, the design by the architects Marks Barfield was unveiled, most doubts were cast aside. The husband-and-wife team had come up with a striking and rather beautiful hi-tech big wheel. It wasn’t just the high-spec design that drew attention, it was the bravura manner in which the Eye’s prefabricated components were brought up the Thames on river barges to Jubilee Gardens, and the week-long drama during which, inch by inch, the giant wheel was raised from the river and up into place alongside County Hall. Now, every view in and through Westminster, and along the Thames, was changed. Suddenly, this spidery and beautifully resolved ferris wheel crowned Victorian terraces, filled unexpected views along avenues of plane trees and sat like a tiara atop government offices.Perhaps its best aspect is that it also offers awe-inspiring and uninterrupted views over London. From up top on a clear day, the entire city can be peered down upon and encompassed. The patterns of London’s growth can be seen spreading into subtopia and the green belt like rings marking the age of venerable trees. Rides on the Eye in rain, snow or at night offer their own haunting attractions.Of London’s deafeningly trumpeted rival millennium projects, the Eye has been, perhaps, the most endearing. The Dome was undermined by the unforgivably crass and soulless Millennium Experience exhibition of 2000; it was many years before it redeemed itself as today’s O2 music venue. The Millennium Bridge linking Tate Modern and St Paul’s Cathedral wobbled, and it was some while before its virtues could be discerned. Tate Modern became almost too popular for its own good, a heaving cultural souk – acutely in need of its planned extension – where art can occasionally be seen between massed heads and shoulders. Other millennium projects, such as the refurbishment of the Royal Opera House, were fine things, yet tame in terms of fresh design.The London Eye was always a brave and daring adventure, a throwback to 1951’s Festival of Britain, held on the same site – an era when Britain could still claim to lead the world (just) in supersonic-era design and engineering. It looks to the past as well as the future.

911 World Trade Center (WTC) Attack Photos Latest Published

NEW YORK  The captured image from the tragedy of the collapse of the air on World Trade Center (WTC) distributed this week. Gruesome photographs illustrate the burning twin towers with smoke and dust that shrouded the city.Picture was taken by the only photographer allowed near the twin towers on September 11, 2001, from a police helicopter. Images are obtained by ABC News.”The photos were at the core to understand visually the attack,” Jan said Ramirez of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, as quoted by AP on Thursday (11/2/2010).From some image, the top of the Woolworth Building and other skyscrapers visible cloud of dust covered the great, gray with a background of blue sky.

Gray cloud cover in the street area of buildings 16 hectares. All the buildings are not visible, just smoke dust that permeates the sky River Hudson River, at the southern tip of Manhattan.Attacks that knocked down the WTC buildings has been well documented by the TV station or using amateur video. But eight years after it happened, the pictures are still  various circles. Figure tragedy is also a hot issue in cyberspace.”For the survivors, may see the pictures it would be a painful thing,” said President of Network for WTC Victims Richard Zimbler.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Xuf7tDY3e_M&rel=0&fs=1

military transport plane finally takes to the skies The Airbus A400M

Heading into the blue three years late, Airbus’s troubled A400M ‘flying truck’ military transport plane lifts off for its maiden flight.The plane took off from Seville, in Spain, yesterday, with the flags of nine countries emblazoned on its side – the seven Nato nations plus Malaysia, which has ordered several planes, and South Africa, which recently pulled out of its order.Britain has ordered up to 20 of the planes but the project has been dogged by delays and cost-overuns.

Defence officials are due to meet in the next few days to discuss the next step for the beleaguered project, which is running three years behind schedule.Nicknamed the ‘Grizzly’ for its hulking design, the original price agreed by eight Nato nations with Airbus maker EADS for 180 planes was £20billion. But auditors believe the cost could rise by £5billion – raising fears the UK cannot afford it at a time of budget cuts.Negotiators between the nations are looking for ways to close the cash gap without asking taxpayers for any more money. But Britain has made it clear there is no new cash available during the recession.

One way being considered to square the circle would be to deliver about 25 per cent fewer planes under the same budget.But Germany is so far reluctant to make concessions on price that would involve a reduction in guaranteed deliveries.An MoD spokesman said: ‘The UK remains committed to A400M, but not at any cost.’We regard the ongoing negotiations as the best means by which to determine a more deliverable programme.’

the The Airbus A400M video

http://www.youtube.com/v/9MT2HjJcdYY&rel=0&fs=1