The Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah -- it's the biggest

This is supposedly the largest man-made excavation on earth. Extraction began in 1863 and still continues today, the pit increasing in size constantly. In its current state the hole is ¾ miles deep and 2.5 miles wide. I wonder how much copper has been extracted from this mine ???

When did the ivy first appear on Wrigley Field's outfield wall?

1937. The original vines were bought and planted by famed baseball owner/promoter Bill Veeck, whose father had been the Cubs' president.

Cubs fans will get cemetery that looks like Wrigley Field

CHICAGO (AP) -- Finally, the perfect answer for a team that has been killing its fans for 100 years: A place to put their remains.

A Chicago man and Bohemian National Cemetery on the city's North Side are joining forces to build for Cubs fans a final resting place that looks a lot like the spot where they saw their dreams of a pennant die year after year.

Called "Beyond the Vines," the 24-foot long ivy-covered wall is designed to look like the one in dead center at Wrigley Field.

It's all on the drawing board now, but the wall is expected to be up and ready to accept fans in October -- just about the time Cubs fans are starting their annual mantra of "Wait till next year."

And when it does go up, Dennis Mascari the president of Fans Forever, Inc., says it will transform the cemetery experience, if not for the dead, at least for the living.

"When you come to a cemetery to visit a loved one it's usually a pretty sad, gloomy situation," he said, standing on the lawn where the wall will be erected. "But when you come here and visit (what looks like) his home away from home ... Wrigley Field, it's going to be a great feeling for people."

Mascari, 60, is envisioning something special. There will be a stained-glass scoreboard. And at each of the 280 niches in the wall -- "eternal skyboxes, that's what we call them," he says -- there will be an urn emblazoned with the Cubs logo.

Near each urn will be a bronze baseball card with a photograph of the deceased fan who, Mascari said, depending on the wishes of the family can be dressed up in a Cubs hat, Cubs jersey or full Cubs uniform. It could also include the dead fan's 'statistics' such as date of birth, date of death, and maybe their favorite Cubs game and favorite Cub.

There's even talk of piping in Cubs games on speakers so nobody, living or dead, will miss an inning. Not only that, but if this idea appeals to more than 280 Cubs fans, the cemetery has set aside enough land to add a right-field wall and a left-field wall.

The price tag for interment will cost as much as $5,000, the "grand slam" package that includes pick up of the body and delivery to Bohemian for cremation in its brand new $100,000 cremation oven, a service, and, of course, the baseball card plaque and urn.

But Mascari knows there are plenty of fans who have long since died and their remains are just sitting in urns somewhere, waiting for their own Field of Dreams. Interment of those ashes can cost as little as $1,200.

If this sounds, well, crazy, urns with the logo of the Cubs and other sports teams are already on the market and the maker of those urns -- Eternal Image -- says last year that Cubs urns accounted for 10 percent of their Major League urn sales.

And nobody who saw survivors of dead Cubs fans bring photographs to the 2003 playoffs will forget the sight of them trudging home, pictures under their arms, after the Cubs once again failed to reach the World Series.

Besides, Cubs fans have for years been scattering ashes of loved ones at Wrigley Field -- a tradition immortalized by the late singer-songwriter Steve Goodman, in whose "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" an old man asks his own family to do just that at the "ivy-covered burial ground." Those ashes include some of Goodman's, scattered there by family and friends a year after his death.

That tradition reminds Mascari that his wall can offer something to fans they can't possibly get from having their ashes scattered on the outfield grass: Peace of mind.

"Last year the turf (at Wrigley) was removed," Mascari explained. "So something like this would make sure that fans would never have to worry about any turf being removed and put somewhere else."

Essential for CHIC camping

Bottega Venetta brings its signature weave to a fold-out camp stool. At $5,000 you'd hope a tent would be included. By special order, (310) 858-6533.

PEEKABOO KAYAK

Go ahead and take a peek! The Peekaboo is a unique design that adds a whole new dimension to your time on the water. In addition to great paddling performance, there is a large viewing window allowing you to look into the water while paddling. Made of high grade polycarbonate, the window is shatter-proof, scratch-resistant, and easily replaceable in the unlikely event it becomes damaged. It is positioned exactly where you naturally look, with a deep window well to reduce sun glare. The nose of the boat doubles as a kid’s jump seat, providing a perfect place for smaller paddlers wanting to tag along and take a peek into the underwater world. When paddling, a pronounced integral keel offers excellent tracking, while huge shoulders provided added stability. A roomy stern tank/gear well offers plenty of room for snorkel gear or a picnic lunch. Designed to fit most body types, the ergonomic seat well and Comfort Plus seat will have you sitting in style all day. The scupper hole drainage system makes for a dry ride, further increasing comfort. Easy-lift bow, stern, and side carry handles make transporting the boat a cinch, and the molded-in cup holder keeps your favorite beverage handy. With a large load capacity and great stability, the Peekaboo is the perfect choice for family fun on the water. It will give you a whole new view of paddling.

"The bridge over nothing

It's a bridge that has been disguised as a street for six decades.

True, it carries a sign that warns drivers not to carry overly heavy loads "on this bridge." But UCLA's Dickson Court bridge looks like just another road passing through, not over, an area of rolling lawns on the east side of campus. Students sit on its guardrails without fear because there is no drop.

Few know that the drop once was a five-story-deep ravine. The bridge, erected in 1927with picturesque Romanesque arches, was known as Arroyo Bridge and was the first structure built at UCLA. Truckloads of construction materials for the new UC campus were carried over it.

In 1947, the ravine was filled with thousands of cubic yards of dirt, burying the brick-enclosed arches and making way for new buildings.

Passers-by today have just a misleading, tip-of-the-iceberg view

A University ordered up by a King

THUWAL, SAUDI ARABIA -- Up the corniche, along a coast where boats carrying pilgrims bound for Mecca sailed for centuries, a thicket of cranes rises over whitewashed mosques along the Red Sea.

Steel flashes and blowtorches glow as 20,000 workers build a $10-billion university ordered up by a king who hopes Western ingenuity will revive the economy of this ultraconservative Muslim nation. When finished next year, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology will offer coed classes, Western professors, a curriculum in English and other touches loathed as dangerous liberalism by Islamic fundamentalists.

"Springer Spaniel playing in snow"

Adrian Russen took this shot with his Sony Cybershot p72

"Icing sugar snow by the Taff"

The low sun and long shadows made James Blight glad he had his camera handy this winter's morning in Cardiff. He used a Nikkon Coolpix 3700.

The world-famous Chrysler Building is sold

New York City: The world-famous Chrysler Building on New York City's Lexington Avenue was today sold to the Dusseldorf-based company GVP. A company spokesman said they were buying the skyscraper for an investment fund. All shares will be sold to German investors. According to GVP, 828 million Deutschmarks (about $395 million U.S.) were raised for the building. Chrysler Building was previously owned by Tishman Speyer Properties.

The Dynamic Tower that constantly changes shape

NEW YORK CITY-When Italian architect Dr. David Fisher today revealed the launch of the Dynamic Tower at the Plaza Hotel here, the world’s first building in motion, to be constructed in Dubai and Moscow, he revealed that the third tower will be located in New York City. Although he did not reveal specifics about the Manhattan rotating tower, he said he was already in talks with developers.

Rotating Tower Dubai Development Ltd. headed by the Dynamic Group is the developer of the $700 million, 80-floor Dubai tower, which is entirely self-powered. The building will be 1,380-feet tall and apartments will range in size from 1,334 sf to Villas or Penthouses of 12,916 sf, complete with a parking space inside the apartment. Fisher told the audience that the building, which generates electricity from wind turbines mounted horizontally between each floor, will begin construction in the next few months.

The second Dynamic Tower revealed is planned for Moscow and is now in the advanced design phase, with pre-assembling of the units to start soon and completion scheduled for 2010. The developer is the Mirax Group, headed by Sergei Polonsky. Fisher told the audience that the construction cost of the Moscow tower--which will have 70 floors and be 1,310-feet tall--is $400 million.

"Our intention is to build the third Rotating Skyscraper in New York," Fisher stated. "Additional Dynamic Towers will be built around the world, following an expression of interest from developers, governments, and public officials to construct a Dynamic Tower in Canada, Germany, Italy, Korea and Switzerland."

Fisher explained that the Dynamic Tower has infinite design possibilities, as each floor rotates independently to create a building that constantly changes shape, resulting in a unique and ever evolving architectural structure.

BEIJING OLYMPICS 2008 PREVIEW

Workers catch fish to reduce the population in a manmade lake around the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing. The workers are doing so as the water has become turbid due to overpopulation of fish in the lake.
REUTERS/Jason Lee (CHINA)

The Return of the Alfa Romeo

Where are the hot-cool small cars, the drive-all-night cars, the pair of dice-on-the-mirror cars?

Where they've always been: In Europe. Here's a look at the Alfa Romeo MiTo roaring back with style.

"Larry, Moe and curly fries: It’s the American way of life "

Kevin O’Keefe has a thing or two to say about the average citizen.

The average American can name all Three Stooges but not all three branches of the federal government. He lives within three miles of a McDonald’s, he has no ambition to be famous and he prefers whole milk to other kinds.

And O’Keefe, author of “The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation’s Most Ordinary Citizen,” is just warming up.

For years, O’Keefe held high-profile jobs in the sports and entertainment industries. He worked on countless national marketing and public relations campaigns, all designed to reach the average American. Over time, O’Keefe began to wonder whether he knew who that was.

“I really felt I had this need to understand the average American, whomever he or she was,” O’Keefe says.

So he went on a quest. After collecting facts from every credible source he could find (government agencies, polling firms, research organizations and other media), O’Keefe began traveling and interviewing his fellow Americans. He crisscrossed the country for more than two years, research book in hand, trying to create a portrait of the average American.

As he did so, he made an interesting discovery. “We have these impressions that in some cases are left over from years and years ago, like the impression that someone who is an average American lives on a farm in Middle America,” O’Keefe says. “Well, the last time that most Americans lived in rural areas was about 100 years ago. Most average Americans live in metropolitan areas.”

Armed with his statistics, O’Keefe says, he was able to “knock down many of the myths about Americans.”

“We have this image that the average American is lacking in smarts,” O’Keefe says, “but in this country, the average IQ scores have increased three points per decade since nationwide IQ testing began in the 1920s.”

Here are a few other things he learned:

* Sixty percent of Americans live in the state in which they were born.

* The average American believes nature is sacred or spiritual but spends 95% of his time indoors.

* The average American buys 800 gallons of gas a year and consumes 55 gallons of soft drinks a year.

* Sixty percent of Americans eat peanut butter at least once a week, and the average American eats three pounds of it a year.

* Americans spend over $100 more a year on footwear than on vegetables.

* The average American shower lasts 10.4 minutes.

* Sixty-nine percent of Americans go to the movies at least once a year.

Use the SUN to Keep Your Cool

TOKYO -- Toyota's Prius gas-electric hybrid will become even greener next year with solar-powered air conditioning on some high-end models, Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Monday.

The solar panels on the roof of the new Prius model will provide 2 to 5 kilowatts of electricity, the newspaper said in a report without citing sources.

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to purchase the panels from Japanese electronics maker Kyocera Corp., the newspaper said.

Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco declined to comment.

A Toyota executive, speaking on condition of anonymity because product plans are not supposed to be disclosed to the media ahead of time, has said details on what would be a third-generation Prius probably would be revealed in May of next year.

Sales of the Prius have been booming as a result of soaring gasoline prices and growing worries about global warming. A hybrid delivers better mileage by switching between a gasoline-fueled engine and an electric motor.

Toyota has made hybrid technology the pillar of its growth strategy, promising to deliver hybrids in every model in its lineup soon after 2020. Toyota has sold more than 1 million Prius models over the last decade and is planning to sell 1 million hybrids a year sometime after 2010.

Toyota is also pursuing an aggressive strategy for ecologically sound production by using solar panels and other technology at its plants.

Adding solar panels to a model targeting mass consumers would mark a first for a major automaker, said the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, widely known as the Nikkei.

ABBA is as it was

Despite the astonishing success of the stage musical "Mamma Mia!," ABBA has ruled out any reunion tour.

Songwriters Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of the Swedish pop quartet told Britain's Sunday Telegraph that ABBA will never perform together again.

Ulvaeus said "money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were. Young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition."

ABBA, one of the biggest bands of the 1970s, split in 1982 but continues to sell nearly 3 million records a year. The group also included singers Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

From the Associated Press

"Its a blimp on steroids"

CALGARY — A private Calgary company and the world's biggest aircraft maker plan to build a "blimp on steriods" - an airship filled with helium and powered by big rotors that can be used to haul heavy equipment to remote areas where there are no roads, including northern Canada.

Calgary's SkyHook International Inc. announced Tuesday it is teaming up with Chicago-based Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA) to build the so-called Jess Heavy Lifter, or JHL-40, which will haul steel, huge trucks and other equipment in remote areas where ground transportation may not be an option.

The SkyHook JHL-40 heavy-lift rotorcraft looks like a blimp with four helicopter-like rotors underneath and will be able to lift a 40-tonne load slung from its belly and carry it 300 kilometres without refuelling.

That's a big advantage in the Arctic, where the costs of developing oil and gas projects and diamond and base metal mines have soared because of the need to build roads or provide expensive airplane access to remote communities.

Boeing and SkyHook hope to have the first JHL-40 in service by 2012.

An artist's rendidtion of the new Skyhook aircraft is illustrated in this Boeing handout photo shown above.

Eco-friendly buildings help shrink costs

For 63 years they loved him in Cincinnati

Flowers and other memoirs lie at the base of a statue of former Cincinnati Reds pitcher and broadcaster Joe Nuxhall at Great American Park Friday, Nov. 16, 2007. Nuxhall died following a bout with cancer. He was 79.

Joe Nuxhall was the youngest player ever to appear in a major league game in the modern era, pitching 2/3 of an inning for the Reds on June 10, 1944 at the age of 15years, 316 days due to player shortages during World War II. Long known as "The Ol' Lefthander," he compiled a career earned run average of 3.90 and a record of 135-117 during his 16-season career, with all but 5 of his victories being earned with the Reds. After retiring as a player, he became a broadcaster for the Reds from 1967 through 2004.

Ernie Banks --- "Mr. Cub"

Outside of Wrigley Field in Chicago, a statue of Hall of Fame shortstop Ernie Banks is emblazoned with his famous saying: "Let's play two"
April 5, 2008