Happiness

Happiness is an emotional feeling of enjoyment and satisfaction.
People may pursue happiness differently. But it is the same happiness for everyone. Happiness is important in our every day life. We have thoughts, happiness varies differently to each person. But it’s one of the main things in our whole life. There are different kinds of happiness. Everyone has their own definition of happiness. Big events like getting married, graduated from a good university are happiness. Small things like buying a favorite thing or looking at your beloved ones is also happiness to someone. Having happiness is easy but also difficult. Think of happy things and make your life full. Happiness will come to you anyhow.

Why I choose "Pyramids"

Pyramids are great constructions of men-kind. How did ancient people build pyramids? Were pyramids build by ancient human beings or by aliens? Scientists are exploring what really happened when building the pyramids in ancient time.

Building PYRAMIDs...

Construction
The base of the Great Pyramid forms a nearly perfect square, with only a 19-cm (about 7.5-in) difference between its longest and shortest sides, out of a total length of about 230 m (756 ft). This huge square is also almost exactly level. When newly completed, the Great Pyramid rose 146.7 m (481.4 ft)—nearly 50 stories high. The pyramid’s core probably includes a hill of unexcavated rubble, making it impossible to determine its exact number of blocks. Researchers estimate that 2.3 million blocks were used to build the Great Pyramid, with an average weight of about 2.5 metric tons per block. The largest block weighs as much as 15 metric tons.

The work of quarrying, moving, setting, and sculpting the huge amount of stone used to build the Great Pyramid was most likely accomplished by several thousand skilled workers. Thousands more unskilled laborers and supporting workers—bakers, carpenters, water carriers, and others—were also needed for the project, so that a total of as many as 35,000 men and women were involved in the project. Many archaeologists and engineers now believe that the pyramid builders were not slaves, as was previously thought, but paid laborers who took great pride in their task. Most were probably farmers, contracted to work for a limited period. Specialists, who were permanently employed by the king, filled the positions that required the most skill—architects, masons, metalworkers, and carpenters.

In building Khufu’s pyramid, the architects used techniques developed by earlier pyramid builders. They selected a site at Giza on a relatively flat area of bedrock—not sand—which provided a stable foundation. After carefully surveying the site and laying down the first level of stones, they constructed the Great Pyramid in horizontal levels, one on top of the other.

Most of the stone for the interior of the Great Pyramid was quarried immediately to the south of the construction site. The smooth exterior of the pyramid was made of a fine grade of white limestone that was quarried across the Nile. These exterior blocks had to be carefully cut, transported by river barge to Giza, and dragged up ramps to the construction site. Only a few exterior blocks remain in place at the bottom of the Great Pyramid. During the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) people took the rest away for building projects in the city of Cairo.

To ensure that the pyramid remained symmetrical, the exterior casing stones all had to be equal in height and width. Workers marked all the blocks to indicate the angle of the pyramid wall and trimmed the surfaces carefully so that the blocks fit together. During construction the outer surface of the stone was left unfinished; excess stone was removed later.

As the Great Pyramid rose, the workers built large ramps to drag their materials up the sides of the structure. The exact form of these ramps is not known, but scholars believe that they were probably built wrapping around the pyramid as they rose. These ramps were probably made of desert clay mixed with water and bonded with limestone debris left over from the construction work.

When the workers had completed the pyramid and installed the pyramidion, or cap stone, ramps still covered the surface of the pyramid. As the workers dismantled the ramps from the top down, they slowly exposed the pyramid’s stone surface, which stonemasons smoothed and polished. When the ramp was gone, the pyramid was displayed in its full majesty.

Clotheline!!!

It's art!!!

To fight global warming, some hang a clothesline!---From the New York Times

To reduce energy bills and carbon emissions ,the author (Kathleen A. Hughes) secretly hung a clothesline in her backyard. Like many homeowners' associations, hers restricts their use. According to the authors own experience, as a child she used to hung clothes outside on the clothesline with her mother every time they washed their clothes. Her teacher told her she should use a clothesline to dry her clothes instead of the dryer. Since 1991, Kathleen hasn't seen people using clothesline. More buildings are build so that there's not even space for us to hang clothes outside. In the authors opinion, in order to use less energy and to reduce our monthly electric bills, using clothesline is possible.

There's a clothesline fan, Alexander Lee, a lawyer and 32-year-old clothesline activist in Concord, N.H. His web site, laundrylist.org, is an encyclopedia on the energy advantages of hanging laundry. Mr. Lee sponsors an annual National Hanging Out Day on April 19. The clotheslines are in a lowered corner of the backyard surrounded by hedges, they cannot be seen from the street, so it's not ugly for the neighborhood. There were more than 88 million dryers in the country in 2005, the latest count, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. If all Americans linedried for just half a year, it would save 3.3% of the country's total residential output of carbon dioxide, experts say. It's one of the simplest things to do to help with global warming. In Hollywood movies, they even use clotheslines as a kind of decorator, like in the films "Angela's Ashes," "Children of Men" and "Pearl Harbor." As to the author, she completely agrees, she thinks that maybe more people will join in to the group of clotheslines fans.

In my own point of view, using clotheslines rather than dryer is a good way to fight global warming. Clotheslines are actually a kind of "beauty". It gives a homey, close neighborhood feeling. Especially in summer or spring time, hanging your clothes outside the yard is a way to be close to nature. Some people might think that seeing laundry at the neighborhood is an ugly flag of poverty. In some countries, hanging out the clothes is almost a traditional. Like in China, few people use dryer to dry clothes. Although we have drying machines at home, but it's not necessary to use it when we have a balcony. Why not feel the smell of nature? The smell of machinery isn't good...is it? In most of the developed countries, people mostly prefer to use dryer. Because it's fast and convenient. But think of it, using dryer is a waste of both energy and money. Give ourselves a break, try to dry your clothes on a clothesline some day. You can exercise at the same time! Feel the feeling of closing nature, and enjoy the moment hanging clothes with your kids!

My opinion in building skyscrapers

Skyscrapers are hard to build and cost a lot when building it. People think it's not worthy to build super-high skyscrapers because of both economic and physical problems. But in my own opinion, building skyscrapers is the best solution for the fast growing population in the whole world.
The fast growing population is one of the most serious problems in the world now. Will there be enough space for mankind to live in the future? Architects find a good way to solve the mass growing population problem by building super-high skyscrapers. Building these tall buildings can let more people live and work in it. Try to think of a 6 storeys building and a 150 storeys one. Which one is better? The 150 storeys building can hold a lot more people than the 6 storeys one. For example in New York City downtowm, factors like lands are expensive, the growth of business. In order to earn more money and develop the economy, tall buildings have to be build for earning back the profits.
With the fast developing technique. Engineers are using high-techs to build these skyscrapers. Special kinds of shapes are designed in order to withstand the great turbulence of earthquake and strong wind. New materials are used. However, because building a skyscraper is an enormously complex project, the materials used in building a skyscraper has to be supported by all over the world. The usage of materials will cause a disruption to global supply. But the result is optimistic. Using one of the sentences Louis Sullivan wrote in 1896, "The building is one of the most stupendous, one of the most magnificent opportunities that the Lord of Nature in his beneficence has ever offered to the proud spirit of men." Skyscrapers are the pride of man-made structures.
Building super-high skyscrapers might be the best solution for our future life. Although more need to be done, building more skyscrapers seem to be the tendency in the whole world. Our achievements are only limited by our own imagination. The things impossible today, will be reality tomorrow.

My experience on China Central TV Tower

I've been to the China central television tower in Beijing when I was in elementary school. The tower is 386.5 meter high, 405 meters high including the lightning rod. Our teacher took us up to the balcony of the tower, although on that day, there was no wind. On the top of the tower, because it's so high, the wind was so strong. My classmates and I can't stand still on the balcony. We felt like flying... and it was so scary. I remembered that I had a small toy bear on the back of my backpack, the strong wind even blew my favorite toy bear away. I was so sad that day and even swear that I will never go to a place so high again.

Sears Tower (Pictures)

World Trade Center (Pictures)

Petronas Towers

Petronas Towers


Vital Statistics:


Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Completion Date: 1998
Cost: $1.6 billion
Height: 1,483 feet
Stories: 88
Materials: Concrete, Steel
Facing Materials: Aluminum, Stainless Steel
Engineer(s): Thornton-Tomasetti and Ranhill Bersekutu


Until 1998, the world's tallest skyscraper had always been in the United States. But that year, Malaysia's Petronas Towers laid claim to this distinction.
Squeaking past the Chicago Sears Tower by 33 feet, the spires atop the Petronas Towers peak at an impressive 1,483 feet. Yet there's a controversy. The highest occupied floor in the Sears Tower is actually 200 feet higher than the top floor of the Petronas Towers, and its antennae stretch higher still.
So why are the Petronas Towers considered the world's tallest buildings? According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, spires count, but antennae don't. Spires do not contain floors, but they are counted in the world's tallest building race for one architectural reason: they're nice to look at.
Built over a former racetrack, the Petronas Towers reflect a unique blend of religion and economic prosperity. The $1.6 billion towers contain more than eight million square feet of shopping and entertainment facilities, underground parking for 4,500 cars, a petroleum museum, a symphony hall, a mosque, and a multimedia conference center.
Each tower's floor plan forms an eight-pointed star, a design inspired by traditional Malaysian Islamic patterns. The 88-story towers, joined by a flexible skybridge on the 42nd floor, have been described as two "cosmic pillars" spiraling endlessly towards the heavens.

Home Insurance Building

Home Insurance Building

Vital Statistics:

Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Completion Date: 1885 (demolished in 1931)
Height: 138 feet
Stories: 10
Materials: Steel
Facing Materials: Brick
Engineer(s): William LeBaron Jenney


Considered the first American skyscraper, the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was the first tall building to be supported by a metal skeleton of vertical columns and horizontal beams. Engineer William LeBaron Jenney discovered that thin pieces of steel could support a tall building as well as thick stone walls could. The steel necessary to carry Jenney's 10-story building weighed only one-third as much as a 10-story building made of heavy masonry. Since the steel skeleton supported the weight of the entire building and the exterior wall was really just a skin to keep out the weather, the Home Insurance Building was the first tall building to have many windows. Jenney steel frame brought floor space and windows to the structure we now know as the modern skyscraper.

Chrysler Building

Chrysler Building

Vital Statistics:

Location: New York, USA

Completion Date: 1930

Cost: $20 million

Height: 1,046 feet

Stories: 77

Materials: Steel

Facing Materials: Brick

Engineer(s): Ralph Squire & Sons

In the summer of 1929, a "race for the sky" broke out on the island of Manhattan. Automobile tycoon Walter Chrysler battled Wall Street powerhouse Bank of Manhattan Trust Company for the title of world's tallest building in what many historians consider to be the most intense race in skyscraper history. In the spring of 1930, just when it appeared that the bank might capture the coveted title, a small crew jacked a needle-thin spire hidden in Chrysler's building through the top of the crown to claim the title of world's tallest at 1,046 feet.

Not only was the Chrysler Building the world's tallest structure, it was also one of the most decorated office buildings in the world. Chrysler wanted "a bold structure, declaring the glories of the modern age" -- and he got it. He decorated his skyscraper with hubcaps, mudguards, and hood ornaments, just like his cars, hoping that such a distinctive building would make his car company a household name. Today, the Chrysler Building is recognized as New York City's greatest display of Art Deco, a decorative style characterized by sharp angular or zigzag surface forms and ornaments.
Only four months after the completion of the Chrysler Building, the world's tallest championship title would be claimed by a new structure, the Empire State Building.

Skyscrapers

The term "skyscraper" was coined in the 1880s, shortly after the first tall buildings were constructed in the United States -- but the history of tall buildings dates back hundreds of years. Since the Middle Ages, engineers have engaged in a battle for the sky.

San Gimignano towers
Before there were skyscrapers, there were towers.Made of heavy stone, towers had thick, sturdy walls, but the rooms were dark and cramped -- too many windows would have weakened the structure.

Flying buttresses: Notre Dame Cathedral
Soon Gothic cathedrals joined the quest for height.Long, stone arms, called flying buttresses, supported the cathedral's heavy weight, allowing the walls to be filled with colorful glass windows.

First steel skyscraper:Home Insurance Building
With steel came the first modern skyscrapers.During the Industrial Revolution, engineers began experimenting with two new materials -- iron and steel. The 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was the first tall building to be supported by a steel skeleton of vertical columns and horizontal beams. But even with windows, the closely spaced columns and deep beams made rooms in the Home Insurance Building feel tight and cramped.

Home Insurance Building

Early elevator
Who wants to climb all those stairs?In 1857, the installation of the first passenger elevator in the Haughwout Department Store in New York City made it possible and practical to construct buildings more than four or five stories tall.Check out the forces that act on skyscrapers!

Minneapolis skyline
New structural designs made skyscrapers even lighter and stiffer.As skyscrapers grew taller and taller, engineers were faced with a new enemy: wind. Today's tallest skyscrapers, which are almost 1,500 feet tall, must be 50 times stronger against wind than the typical 200-foot buildings of the 1940s. How do engineers design skyscrapers to resist wind?

Petronas Towers
Today, the sky's the limit!As architects and engineers experiment with new styles and building methods, taller and more innovative structures are springing up around the world. The tallest buildings in the world, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, are connected by a flexible skybridge on the 42nd floor -- a design that improves the circulation of people between the towers and provides an escape route from one tower to the other in case of emergency.
Now that you're a genuine skyscraper whiz, test your skills in the Skyscraper Challenge!

Picture

The Turning Torso skyscraper in Malmö, Sweden. It is the second tallest residential skyscraper in Europe. The tower was completed in 2005.

The first day in my blog

This is the first time I create my own blog. I'm sure I'll have a good time here! If you have some comments just leave messages here.