The most Bizarre and Unique Roofs

Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit"). Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life.

Casa Batlló Gaudi in Barcelona, Spain

Roof of the Core at the Eden Project, in Cornwall.

Up sided roof, at Seixal, Madeira

La Pedrera's roof

Meet Gaudi’s Casa Mila, more affectionately known as la Pedrera in Barcelona. The roofs of most buildings are stale and industrial, flat and square, dotted with aluminium vents and plain brick chimneys. Gaudi turned his vents and chimneys into sentinels who, through the narrow slits in their helmets, would keep permanent watch over the building’s residents. The undulating roof is tiled and dotted not only by the helmeted warriors, but also by several bulbous sculptures covered in a mosaic of white tiles.

Rocky roof, at San Clemente Piers

This proposed village for Heden, a sleepy cityblock in Sweden’s Gothenburg, has more than a touch of Hobbiton about it.

From the top of the Florian tower in Dortmund, Germany.

California’s Academy of Sciences (SF) is covered in rolling hills - the perfect place for students to grab their lunch in the sun.

Roof of Water Reservoir, Mina

One of the earliest strange but beautiful objects to be seen in Google Earth is the roof of Water Reservoir at Mina near holy city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The water reservoir caters to about 2 millions pilgrims who gather every year at Mina, during Hajj and it is covered by this huge reinforced concrete shell roof which has a diameter of 365 metres. It is one the largest cable-stayed concrete shell roofs in the world.

Brazilian Leaf Roof

Outside of Rio de Janeiro, on a beautiful little beach with amazing blue water, sits a little house with a flowering roof that shades and protects like a big tropical banana leaf. Designed by Mareines + Patalano, the open air abode is meant to encourage interaction and connection between man and nature. With verandas and open spaces in between rooms and no corridors, the tropical beach house is an ideal place for social gatherings and parties. The open layout also takes advantage of trade winds that blow in from the sea, providing natural ventilation and passive cooling.

The amazing holes in the Earth

2. Kimberley Diamond Mine-South Africa
The Kimberley Diamond Mine (also known as the Big Hole) holds the (disputed) title of being the largest hand-dug hole in the world. From 1866 to 1914 50,000 miners dug the hole with picks and shovels, yielding 2,722 kg of diamonds. Attempts are being made to have it registered as a world heritage site.


3. Monticello Dam-CaliforniaThe Monticello Dam is a dam in Napa County, California, United States most noted for its large circular spillway with a rate of 48,400 cubic feet per second.

4 Bingham Canyon Mine-Utah
The Bingham Canyon Mine is a copper mine in the Oquirrh mountains, Utah. The mine is 0.75 mile (1.2 km) deep, 2.5 miles (4 km) wide. It is the world's largest manmade excavation.

5. Great Blue Hole-Belize
The Great Blue Hole is an underwater sinkhole off the coast of Belize. The hole is 1,000 feet across and 400 feet deep. It was formed as a limestone cave during the last iceage.

6. Mirny Diamond Mine-SiberiaThe Mirny Diamond Mine is 525m deep and has a diameter of 1200m. It was the first, and one of the largest, diamond Pipes in the USSR. It is now abandoned. While it was still operational, it would take two hours for trucks to drive from the top to the bottom of the mine.

7. Diavik Mine-Canada
The Diavik Mine is a mine in the Northwest territories of Canada. The mine (opened in 2003) produces 8 million carats or about 1,600 kg (3,500 lb) of diamonds every year.

8 Sinkhole-Guatemala
In 2007, a 300 foot deep sinkhole swallowed a dozen homes in Guatemala - killing 2 and causing thousands to be evacuated. The sinkhole was caused by rains and an underground sewage flow.

9. Udachnaya Pipe-Russia
The Udachnaya Pipe is a diamond mine in Russia. The owners of the mine plan to cease its operations in 2010 - in favor of underground mining. The mine was discovered in 1955 and is over 600 meters deep.


10. Chuquicamata-Chile
Chuquicamata is an open pit copper mine in Chile. It is the mine with the largest total production of copper in the world - though it is not the largest copper mine. The mine is over 850 meters deep.

Source: CRIENGLISH

50 canditates announced for world's "best job"

A list of 50 candidates has been announced for "the best job in the world" -- being well paid while enjoying the life on a tropical island in Australia, according to media reports Wednesday.

From the United States, Britain, Russia, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Kenya, they were selected from a total of 34,684 applicants from some 200 countries and regions.

"Yesterday, a team of Tourism Queensland marketing and international staff along with a professional recruitment company made the very tough decisions necessary to cut the shortlist to the Top 50," said state Tourism Minister Desley Boyle.

The tourism promotion campaign -- finding a caretaker of Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef was run by the Queensland state government. The winner would get 150,000 Australian dollars (about 100,000 U.S. dollars) for six months and includes free airfares from the successful candidate's home country to the island.

"There's everything from action and adventure, comedy, animation and a choreographed musical number that just stays with you," Boyle said.

The Top 50 will be narrowed down to a final 11, 10 of whom will be chosen by Tourism Queensland with an 11th "wild card" applicant chosen by popular vote.

They will be flown to Hamilton Island in early May to take part in the final selection process with the successful candidate announced on May 6.

AP

The world's wackiest sports!

Cheese Rolling: The sport of cheese rolling began in the Gloucestershire hills of the ancient past, but these days it has matured into an international event. Essentially a crowd of enthusiasts pursue a round of local cheese down a hill - the first across the finishing line wins the cheese. However...

...this is Coopers Hill, the home of cheese rolling. And a place not for milk sops or faint-hearts. It's not just participants who can hurt themselves. The cheese can reach speeds of 70mph and woe betide anyone in its path.

Bog Snorkelling: This is the world famous Waen Rhydd bog - a 60-yard trench filled with the best of Welsh rainwater and heaven knows what else. Competitors tackle the course wearing flippers and a mask, with no conventional swimming strokes allowed.

Baby Jumping: Evel Knievel famously jumped buses, but the people of Castrillo de Murcia in Spain jump babies.
OK, it's not a sport, per se, more a religious festival, which is great news if it means the jumpers don't wear spikes.

Conkers: Why is it that so many wacky sports have their origins in Britain? In deepest Northamptonshire they host the annual World Conker Championship, drawing hard-baked nuts from all corners.

Hot Dog eating: Meanwhile, over in the US of A, good ol' boys and gals have come up with the fatties' delight: competitive hot dog eating. The rules are simple - cram as many down you as you can in 12 minutes.

Kabbadi: Kabbadi is a revered sport of the Indian sub-continent. Distilling its noble traditions and centuries of culture down we get this: it's British Bulldogs while holding your breath.

Swamp Soccer: It's football. In a swamp. A bit like a Rochdale home game.

Wife Carrying: Alongside superhuman F1 and rally drivers the Finns are also justly famous for giving the world the awesome spectacle that is wife carrying. Now a major event in literally dozens of villages, men must carry their wife (piggyback or the controversial 'Estonian way' - upside-down to you and me) over a 253-metre obstacle course. The winner gets his wife's weight in beer.


Turkish Wrestling: The Turks are famously proud of their wrestling tradition. Especially their domestic version where strapping blokes put on leather shorts, cover themselves in olive oil and grapple. Organisers of the wrestling games were recently incensed and surprised to find their annual event was the highlight of a tour arranged by gay travel agencies.