1 ) Henry Lee Lucas & Ottis Toole – USA – 3-600 (Victim range)

Lucas and Toole could either be the deadliest team of killers in the Archives, or the greatest hoaxers in crime history. No one can be quite sure how many people they killed even if they confessed and recanted up to 600 murders. Once labelled the “most infamous man on death row”, Lucas, at the time of his death, was remembered by prison authorities as “the best” working the prison sewing machines. With his death the night of March 12, 2001, Henry Lee Lucas took to his grave either a far-reaching confession hoax, or a lethal cross-country rampage of random serial killing.

As a kid, Henry was the poster child of the dysfunctional “Future Serial Killer Club”. Though had eight brothers and sisters whom were farmed out to institutions, relatives, and foster homes, he managed to stay at home where he was mistreated and abused. In true hillbilly fashion, Henry was uneducated, malnourished, beaten, and forced to watch his uncaring, bootlegging, prostitute mom — Viola Lucas — turn tricks. His alcoholic father, called “No Legs” because of a chance encounter with a freight train, killed himself after repeatedly being humiliated by his abusive wife. Henry was often forced to go to school barefoot and wearing a dress and curlers. Not surprisingly, he dropped out by fifth grade and remained semi-literate for the rest of his life.

In Death Row in Huntsville Henry became born-again and spent the last 18 years of his life making guard uniforms. According to prison personnel, he was model prisoner and an ace on the sewing machines. Henry died the night of March 12, 2001 in Huntsville Prison’s infirmary. He was pronounced dead of natural causes at 11:16 p.m. Lucas was a chain smoker and had a history of heart disease. He had recently complained of breathing difficulties and spent two nights in the prison hospital. Officials said he will be buried in the inmate cemetary if no family members claim his body. He was 64 at the time of his death.

2 ) Pedro Lopez – Columbia – 300 (Victim range)

Pedro Alonso López (born 8 October 1948) is a Colombian-born confessed serial killer, accused of raping and killing more than 300 girls across South America. Aside from uncited local accounts, López’s crimes first received international attention from an interview conducted by Ron Laytner, a long time freelance photojournalist who first met López in his Ambato Prison cell in 1980.

He was molested at that age by another man in a neighboring town. He was assaulted again when he was eighteen while in prison for car theft. He was gang raped by four older convicts, and this led to his first murder conviction when he killed three of the four attackers. He recieved a two year sentence for that. His term only made him want to kill more. Usually, he’d wander through the market till he found a girl that he could take to a isolated spot. First he would rape, then second he would strangle the girl. In 1978 he is said to have killed a hundred girls from Peru. In a Indian village he was caught trying to take a nine-year-old girl.

The Ayachucos’ Indians that caught him considered justice to be a beating then torturing, then burying him alive. But before they could do this an American missionary talked them into letting her take him to the authorities. The authorities took Lopez to Ecuador instead of punishing him for the crime. He killed and raped possibly 110 Ecuador girls. In 1980, he was caught leading away a twelve-year-old girl. This came after the unearthing of fifty-three victims. He took them to many other burial sites, but no other bodies were found.

They think that Lopez led them on a wild goose chase on the other searches. Lopez is still in prison in Ecuador, and may get a chance for parole. However, if released he still has trials and prison time coming to him in Colombia and Peru.

3 ) Bruno Ludke – Germany – 85

Bruno Ludke was born in Germany in 1909 and it was reported that he was odd from the start. It was obvious at an early age that he was mentally unbalanced and retarted and began torturing animals for fun as a youth. When he started taking his sadistic pleasures with unwilling women is up for debate but it is generally accepted that by the late 1920’s Ludke was well on his way to an impressive number of kills. A sterilization procedure ordered after a rape arrest, not a rare accurence in Nazi Germany, did nothing to stop his thirst for butchering women.  It was not until 1943 that Ludke was finally stopped. Arrested for the killing of an acquaintance named Frieda Rosner, who had been strangled to death in January.

Ludke soon admitted his guilt and went on to confess to eighty-five slayings, all women who had been strangled and/or stabbed to death. Ludke also confessed that he had often had sex with his victim’s dead bodies.  As a mental defective German law at the time did not allow Ludke to be jailed and he was instead sent to a Vienna hospital to be used as a human guinea pig. He died during one of the experiments on April 8, 1944. The true total of murders is still contended with some claiming that many of his confessed kills could merely be the result of detectives taking advantage of Ludke to clear troublesome unsolved cases.

4 ) Andrei Chikatilo – Russia – 52 (Victim range)

Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo was born shortly after the Ukrainian famine. His mother filled his head with bedtime stories of an ill-fated older brother, Stepan, who was cannibalized at the hands of starving Ukranians. Such atrocities, Andrei’s mother conceded, were not unusual in those times.  The story of a brother, then a child, being snatched up and used for food haunted the young boy. Still, he finished school, went to colleg, and married. Inside, however, something was deadly wrong.  Andrei’s wife, Fayina, and two children were perhaps the only people who saw his calm, gentle side. He was a good husband and father, and never blew a gasket or flew into abusive tirades. He saved that for his fifty-plus victims.

Chikatilo was, to say the very least, seriously troubled. He was impotent, except for when he killed. Cunning, wily, and completely sociopathic, he eluded capture for almost fifteen years. The Russian government at the time the killings began was still Communist, and sadly, Andrei’ reign of terror went unchecked for this reason. Despite the accumulation of brutally killed bodies, the government denied the work of a serial killer.  The Ripper of Rostov, a former teacher, preyed on adolescent boys and girls, and maimed them in unspeakable ways, often violating and cannibalizing the bodies.

Since the male victims were raped also, many homosexuals were ‘weeded out’ by the government. A man innocent of the murders, though a known sex offender, was executed for Chikatilo’s crimes. Finally, the body count and the grotesqueness of the crimes had escalated to such a point that something had to be done. This time, he confessed his grisly crimes in detail, listing a total of fifty-two victims, leading police to some of the murder sites where he reenacted the crimes with mannequins. Chikatilo had experienced a change of heart by the time his murder trial opened in April 1992. He now denied a number of the slayings he had earlier confessed, but with his statements on the record it was hopeless to recant. Sentenced to death by the court, Chikatilo was executed at a Moscow prison on February 16, 1994.

5 ) Gerald Stano – USA – 41 (Victim range)

Stano was an adopted child. This is something that many point to when looking at certain killers motives, including Stano, but it wasn’t his whore mother that was totally to blame for his anger toward people, particularly women. His favoured victims were whores and hitchhikers, but he did manage one cheerleader, and a thirteen year old. He killed the women through various methods- strangulation, gunshots and stabbing. Oddly Stano didn’t rape any of his victims. Psychiatrists said this was because he drew enough satisfaction from the act of murder to care about sex  Stano was arrested after Victim No.42 managed to escape and go to police.

Once arrested Stano told everything to police, admitting to all the murders, and directed police to 26 buried victims.  Eventually the count made it to 41, and he was found guilty of nine of them. He received eight life sentences but ran out of luck on the ninth, drawing death.

6 ) Moses Sithole – South Africa – 38 (Victim range)

Moses Sithole (November 17, 1964) is a South African serial killer who committed the “ABC Murders”, so named because they began in Atteridgeville, continued in Boksburg and finished in Cleveland, a suburb of Johannesburg. Sithole was born in Vosloorus, a poor neighbourhood of Boksburg in apartheid-era South Africa. When he was five, his father died, and his mother abandoned the family. Sithole and his siblings spent the next three years in an orphanage, where he later said they were mistreated. He ran away.

Sithole would gain access to victims by pretending to be a businessman and offering them work, going so far as to invent a fictional charity organization. Once he had gained their trust, he would offer to walk them through a veld (an Afrikaans word literally meaning “field”) to the “business headquarters” until they were out of sight and hearing range; he would then overpower, rape and strangle them. By 1995, he had claimed over 30 victims, igniting a nationwide panic. In some cases, he would call the victim’s family and taunt them.

The police rushed to the pay phone he was calling from, but they were too late. Shortly after that Sithole contacted his brother-in-law, who promised him to help him get a gun and arranged a meeting. The brother-in-law notified the police, but Sithole sensed a trap at the meeting spot and ran. Police shot him twice when he charged them with an axe, wounding him before taking him into custody. He eventually confessed to the murders.

7 ) The Green River Killer – USA – 37 (Victim range)

Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949), known as the “Green River Killer”, is an American serial killer. Ridgway murdered numerous women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s. He strangled them, mostly with his arm, but he would also use ligatures. After strangling the women, he would dump their bodies throughout King County.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ridgway is believed to have murdered at least 48 women near the cities of Seattle and Tacoma in Washington State. Most of the murders took place during a two-and-a-half-year period from 1982 to 1984. Most of the victims were either prostitutes or runaways picked up along Pacific Highway South (State Route 99) who he strangled. Most of their bodies were dumped in wooded areas and around the Green River in Washington, with the exception of two confirmed and another two suspected victims found in the Portland, Oregon, area. The bodies were often left in clusters, sometimes posed, usually nude. Because most of the bodies were not discovered until only the skeletons remained, four victims are still unidentified.

Ridgway would occasionally contaminate the dump sites with gum, cigarettes, and written materials that belonged to others, and he even transported several victims’ remains across state lines into Oregon to confuse the police.  Ridgway would begin each murder by picking up a woman, usually a prostitute. He would sometimes show the woman a picture of his son, to help her trust him. After having sex with her, Ridgway would strangle her from behind, usually with his arm. Most of the victims were killed in his home, in his truck, or in a secluded area.

8 ) John Wayne Gacy – USA – 33 (Victim range)

John Wayne Gacy was convicted of the torture, rape and murder of 33 males between 1972 until his arrest in 1978. He was dubbed the “Killer Clown” because he entertained kids at parties as “Pogo The Clown.” On January 3, 1972, Gacy, engaged to marry his second wife, picked up a youth named Timothy McCoy from the Greyhound bus station in Chicago and drove him to his home where, the following morning, the youth was stabbed to death and buried in Gacy’s crawlspace. According to Gacy, this killing was unintentional, committed in the mistaken belief the youth intended to attack him with a knife from his kitchen.

Three years later, in July 1975, one of Gacy’s employees, John Butkovich, disappeared. Butkovich had recently left Gacy’s employment after an argument over back pay. Gacy later admitted to luring Butkovitch to his home while his wife and stepchildren were visiting his sister in Arkansas. Gacy conned the youth into cuffing his wrists behind his back, then strangled him to death and buried his body under the concrete floor of his garage. Butkovich’s parents urged police to check out Gacy, but nothing came of it and the young man’s disappearance went unsolved. He was eventually convicted and sentenced to death. On May 10, 1994, Gacy was executed by lethal injection.

9 ) Dean Corll – USA – 27 (Victim range)

Dean Corll was a 33-year-old electrician living in Houston, Texas, who with two teen accomplices was responsible for kidnapping, torturing, raping and murdering at least 27 young boys in Houston in the early 1970s. Between 1970 and 1973, Dean Corll killed at least 27 times. All of the victims of Dean Corll were young men between the ages of thirteen and twenty, the majority of whom were in their mid-teens. Most had been abducted from Houston Heights, which was then a low-income neighborhood north west of downtown Houston. In most cases, Corll was assisted in the abductions and murders by one or both of his accomplices: Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks. Several of the victims were friends of either Henley or Brooks. Two other victims; Billy Baulch and Malley Winkle, were former employees of Corll’s candy company. In several instances, Corll forced his victims to either phone or write to their parents with explanations for their absences in an effort to convince the parents that their sons were okay.

Many victims were simply listed by police as runaways despite their parents’ protests to the contrary.  Corll killed his first known victim, an 18-year-old college freshman named Jeffrey Konen, on September 25, 1970. Konen vanished while hitchhiking with another student from the University of Texas to his parents’ home in Houston; he was dropped off alone at the corner of Westheimer Road and South Voss Road near the Uptown District of West Houston. At the time, Corll was living in an apartment on Yorktown Street near the intersection with Westheimer Road. Konen likely accepted an offer by Corll to take him to his parents’ home in the Braeswood Place-West University Place area. Corll buried Konen at High Island beach. The Houston Mass Murders, as the case was later called, became one of the most horrific series of murders in U.S. history.

10 ) Wayne Williams – USA – 27 (Victim range)

Wayne Bertram Williams (born May 27, 1958) is an American alleged serial killer and was identified as the key suspect in the Atlanta Child Murders that occurred in 1979 through 1981. In January 1982, Williams was found guilty of the murder of two adult men. After his conviction, the Atlanta police declared that an additional 23 of the 29 child murders were solved, with Williams shown to be the murderer.

Between 1979 and 1981, 29 children and young black men were killed in a series of murders that terrorized the community in a case known as the “Atlanta Child-Killings.” Wayne Williams was arrested in the case and in 1982 was convicted for the murders of Jimmy Ray Payne, 21, and Nathaniel Cater, 27, and investigators closed the books on more than two dozen other cases after his conviction.  Williams, who is black, has always maintained his innocence, claiming that he was framed for the murders to cover-up Ku Klux Klan involvement in the killings to avoid a race war in Atlanta. But he has yet to win any of his several appeals for a new trial.

referee from : fortunecity

Ps : This list is not follow according to the number.

1 ) El Nicho Falls – Cuba

El Nicho is located in Grupo Guamuhaya part of Sierra de Trinidad mountainous is the second highest point in Cuba Pico San Juan 1108 m about 46 km from Cienfuegos. At mountains of the El Nicho you can hike through the caves, water fall bathing and track the mountain’s exotic flora and fauna. Those interested in another kind of wildlife can go bird-watching in a protected sanctuary. The Tocororo lives in this mountain region, Cuban national bird, with beautiful, showy colors.

2 ) Giessbach Waterfalls- Switzerland

The Giessbach Falls lie in the midst of a landscape filled with Swiss postcard clichés — crystal-clear lakes, snow-capped peaks, cable cars, and cuckoo clocks (well, there’s bound to be at least one cuckoo clock in one of the local farmhouses). The name of the locale might ring a bell as it was in the news in the summer of 1999, when some canyoning tourists were killed in a flash flood. The tragedy hasn’t affected tourism in the region, and people continue to flock to Giessbach to indulge in river rafting and paragliding, or to simply soak up the Swiss atmosphere.

3 ) Havasu Falls – United States

The Havasu falls, or more commonly the Havasupai, are a Native American tribe that has called the Grand Canyon its home for at least the past 800 years. Located primarily in an area known as Cataract Canyon, this Yuman speaking population once laid claim to a land reservation the size of Delaware [1]. In 1882, however, the tribe was forced by the federal government to abandon all but 518 acres of their land. The Havasupai witnessed a silver rush and the Santa Fe Railroad in effect destroy what was fertile land.

4 ) Horseshoe Falls, Niagra Falls – New York & Canada

The Horseshoe Falls, also known as the Canadian Falls, is a waterfall on the Niagara River, located mostly on the Canadian side of the border with the United States. It is located between Terrapin Point on Goat Island in New York State, and Table Rock on the Ontario side of the falls. The Horseshoe Falls is considered to be the most impressive of the three falls that make up Niagara Falls. Approximately 90% of the water of the Niagara River flows over Horseshoe Falls, while the other 10% flows over the American Falls.  The falls produce a large amount of mist, which occasionally renders viewing them difficult.

5 ) Iguazu Falls – Brazil

Iguazu Falls is comprised of not one, but an array of 275 separate cascades and waterfalls, spanning a total of 2.5 miles and plunging up to 269 feet into the Iguazu river. Surrounded by bamboo, palm and fern trees, populated by parrots and macaws, and decorated with the ruins of an 18th century Jesuit mission, Iguazu Falls seems suspended from time, making it an ideal location for the filming of the 1986 period movie, The Mission. Taller than Niagara Falls, twice as wide with 275 cascades spread in a horsehoe shape over nearly two miles of the Iguazu River, Iguazú Falls are the result of a volcanic eruption which left yet another large crack in the earth.

6 ) Minas Viejas Waterfalls – Mexico

One of the most beautiful runs here in the Huasteca. The locals said there was a bit of an earthquake and it opened a fissure in the canyon. The river drops 1/3rd its water after the drain. With rain it will be full for another couple weeks.

7 ) Ouzoud falls – North Africa

The world famous Ouzoud Waterfalls (110 m high) are located in the Grand Atlas village of Tanaghmeilt (Province of Azilal, 150 Km north-east of Marrakech).  These are definitely one of the prettiest falls in Morocco and in Northern Africa as a whole. They’re truly stunning at any time of the year, especially during heavy rain.  The falls are the most visited site in this region. The surrounding landscape is made up of idyllic green valleys, mills, orchards and the dramatic gorges of the ‘El Abid’ river or ‘Slaves river’ in Arabic.  You can even go swimming here, at the bottom of the falls. Access is through a shaded path of olive trees. As the sun begins to fade, you can see whole troops of monkeys playing in the twilight – very surreal.

8 ) Ramona Falls – United States

Ramona Falls is a waterfall on the upper Sandy River on the west side of Mount Hood, Oregon, United States.  It is in scenic wilderness along the Pacific Crest Trail at elevation 3,576 feet (1,090 m). The falls are about 120 feet (37 m) tall overall consisting of a wall of cascades.

9 ) Svartifoss – Europe

Svartifoss is a 20m waterfall made famous by the surrounding hanging hexagonal basalt columns. Meaning “black falls”, it’s perhaps the most popular attraction in Skaftafell National Park in Southern Iceland. There’s hardly any time at the falls to have to yourself as people generally come in waves of tour buses. The base of this waterfall is noteworthy for its sharp rocks. New hexagonal column sections break off faster than the falling water wears down the edges.

10 ) Taughannock Falls – New York

Taughannock Falls is located in Ulysses, NY, part of the popular Finger Lakes Region of central New York. The falls is part of Taughannock State Park located between the Village of Trumansburg (part of the Ulysses Township), and the city of Ithaca. The falls cataract has an incredible drop of 215 feet (66 meters), and is one of the highest east of the Rocky Mountains.  Taughannock State Park also features hiking and nature trails, tent and trailer sites, cabins, picnic areas, beach swimming, fishing, playground areas, a marina launching site, ice-skating, sledding, cross-country skiing and an annual summer concert series.

Add another 1 waterfalls which is my personal favorite.

Horsetail Falls

Horsetail Falls (or Horse Tail Falls) is a waterfall along the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon, United States.  The waterfall is easily accessed, in contrast to its near neighbor Oneonta Falls, as it is right next to the Historic Columbia River Highway. The shape of the falls and the rounded rockface over which it flows cause it to resemble a horse’s tail.

1 ) Cuckoo Bird

The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos. Some zoologists and taxonomists have also included the unique Hoatzin in the Cuculiformes, but its taxonomy remains in dispute. the female cuckoo bird will not only raid the nest of her warbler neighbor to steal eggs, she then leaves her own eggs behind to replace what she just ransacked. In a true testament of nature vs. nurture, despite being abandoned, the baby cuckoo bird is just as much of a con artist as its birth mother.

Thanks to incubating an egg similar in appearance to the other warbler eggs, the baby cuckoo bird blends among the other chicks and is therefore treated and fed like one of the family. You’d think with the baby cuckoo bird’s rapid growth (we’re talking 10 times the size of its foster mother!) the warbler would finally take notice that something is amiss. But hey, a mother’s love can really turn a blind eye.

2 ) Orangutan

Orangutans are large apes that live in southeast Asia. These apes mostly live in trees and swing from branch to branch using their arms. orangutans have used their intelligence to craft tools. That’s where the cheater part comes in — these creatures often use their tools to pick the locks of their own cages. In fact, they are so cunning when it comes to breaking and entering (or exiting) that zookeepers have used orangutans to test the security of enclosures for other animals. Next up: safe cracking?

3 ) Virginia Opossum

The Virginia Opossum, commonly known as the North American Opossum, is the only marsupial found in North America north of the Rio Grande. A solitary and nocturnal animal about the size of a domestic cat. Virginia opossum cheats death by reacting to threats with an unusual tactic — taking an immediate nap. More specifically, this is where the term “playing possum” stems from, which is often used to describe an attempt to pretend to be dead or injured with an intent to deceive. These slow-moving animals really take their performances seriously by actually going into a catatonic state to make it seem like they are really dead, even when poked. Of course, this defense mechanism doesn’t work so well when there’s a car involved — kinda hard for drivers to tell the difference between faux roadkill and the real thing.

4 ) Hanuman Monkey

Hanuman monkey is total cheat because it has the right for impunity. Because the fact is namesake is a Hindu monkey god worshipped by millions of people. Known for its strength and valor, this highly revered primate has a lifelong get-out-of-jail-free card. Nothing is off limits to the Hanuman monkey — food, drinks, clothes. Some people will even put these creatures into training to steal on their behalf.

5 ) Firefly

The firefly are winged beetles, and commonly called fireflies or lightning bugs for their conspicuous crepuscular use of bioluminescence to attract mates or prey. Fireflies produce a “cold light”, with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies. With over 2,000 varieties of this species flitting about, there’s bound to be a few with more sinister intentions. Case in point  most fireflies use their flashing lights to attract mates, but one type of the species has learned how to mimic the luminescent signals of other species to lure them as potential meals as well.

6 ) Alligator Snapping Turtle

The Alligator Snapping Turtle is one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world. It is a larger and less aggressive relative of the Common Snapping Turtle. An alligator snapping turtle can take your finger off with one chomp, but the cheat is in how they’re able to lure their bait. The inside of the turtle’s mouth is camouflaged, and on top of that their tongue features a worm-shaped appendage on its tip. Not only does this look like a fish’s feast, but it actually mimics the movements of a worm as well.

7 ) Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous. A caterpillar tends to be more of a trickster, with all kinds of moves up its sleeve to stay alive. Some caterpillars mimic the look of their habitat — such as leaves and branches — to blend in. But there are also some that resemble other things found in nature, like bird droppings — ew! Other caterpillars are tricky thieves, stealing poisons from the plants they eat only to use them to arm their own spines with toxins. There’s even a caterpillar that cheats death by becoming a killer. Look no further than Hawaii, which plays home to the only flesh-eating caterpillars in the world.

8 ) Chameleon

Chameleons are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of lizards. They are distinguished by their parrot-like zygodactylous feet, their separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes, their very long, highly modified, and rapidly extrudable tongues, their swaying gait, the possession by many of a prehensile tail, crests or horns on their distinctively shaped heads, and the ability of some to change color. The word “chameleon” means “liar” in several languages, and like all good liars, you’ll hardly believe what comes out of a chameleon’s mouth — namely, its tongue.

Because a chameleon’s tongue is usually twice as long as its body length, extends faster than the human eye can follow, and has a sticky tip on the end used to catch prey. Chameleons can also cheat by hiding their whereabouts with their ability to change color.

9 ) Rats

Rats are typically distinguished from mice by their size; rats are generally large muroid rodents, while mice are generally small muroid rodents. The muroid family is very large and complex, and the common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific. When it comes to food and money, rats are truly dirty rotten scoundrels. In the United States alone, they wreak havoc to the tune of creating over $19 billion in damages per YEAR.

It’s no wonder really, when you consider that there are an estimated 70 million rats just within New York City — that’s of course not counting pickpockets, slight-of-hand street vendors or crooked politicians. To make matters worse, not only are rats some of the most expensive cheaters, they’re also surprisingly fast, with their top speed clocking in at around six miles per hour.

10 ) Fox

Fox is a common name for many species of carnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids, characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail. Perhaps the phrase “sly as a fox” owes its origin to the ultra-sneaky foxes in the mountains of South America. Quite frankly, the foxes need to be as cunning as possible, as birds in this region — such as the Rhea — tend to be quite large. And you know what they say about big birds … BIG eggs. Foxes wait for the Rheas to make a move so they can sneak in and snatch the eggs, but because the eggs are often too large to grab in their mouths, the foxes will roll the eggs with their snouts to knock it against something, like a rock or a tree, in the hopes of breaking it down.

reference from : animal discovery

Orestad College is a public gymnasium in the Orestad district of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is noted for its innovative architecture, favoring open studying environments instead of traditional class rooms, and for its media-oriented profile. The building is designed by 3XN Architects. The structure of the building uses three huge columns as the primary load-bearing mechanism.  This allows for great flexibility in the use of the floor space.  Smaller areas are demarcated or screened with non-load-bearing structures, the intention being to allow changes in the way the space is used over time. Newly developed furniture is used to create a range of different spaces, and is designed to be easily shifted and changed to accommodate different group sizes.

The college is interconnected vertically and horizontally. Four boomerang shaped floor plans are rotated to create the powerful super structure which forms the overall frame of the building – simple and highly flexible. Four study zones occupy one floor plan each. Avoiding level changes makes the organizational flexibility as high as possible, and enables the different teaching and learning spaces to overlap and interact with no distinct borders. The rotation opens a part of each floor to the vertical tall central atrium and forms a zone that provides community and expresses the college’s ambition for interdisciplinary education.

1 ) The Amber Room

The original Amber Room in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg is a complete chamber decoration of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors. Due to its singular beauty, it was sometimes dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World”. It was an 11-foot-square hall consisting of large wall panels inlaid with several tons of superbly designed amber, large gold-leaf-edged mirrors, and four magnificent Florentine mosaics.

Arranged in three tiers, the amber was inlaid with precious jewels, and glass display cases housed one of the most valuable collections of Prussian and Russian artwork ever assembled.  Created for Prussia’s King Friedrich I and given to Russian czar Peter the Great in 1716, it was located at Catherine Palace, near St. Petersburg. Today, the Amber Room would be valued at more than $142 million. After other 18th-century renovations, the room covered about 180 square feet and glowed with six tons of amber and other semi-precious stones. The amber panels were backed with gold leaf, and historians estimate that, at the time, the room was worth $142 million in today’s dollars. Over time, the Amber Room was used as a private meditation chamber for Czarina Elizabeth, a gathering room for Catherine the Great and a trophy space for amber connoisseur Alexander II.

2 ) The Lost City – Atlantis (the coordinates are: 31 15′15.53N 24 15′30.53W.)

According to a British aeronautical engineer, Google Ocean, an extension of Google Earth, has found what many humans could not: the lost city of Atlantis. A near-perfect rectangular grid has shown up about 620 miles off the coast of northwest Africa, near the Canary Islands and it looks like it’s on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. “It’s true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth including a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species and the remains of an Ancient Roman villa,” a Google spokesperson said. “In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process.

According to the Greek philosopher, Atlantis was a highly advanced island society that existed some 9,000 years before. Its territory was “greater in extent than Libya and Asia,” with luxurious palaces, abundant gold and silver, and the best soil and climate in the world. Ruled by 10 wise princes, life was so bountiful on Atlantis that few of its inhabitants had to resort to physical labor. But then, Plato wrote, the Atlanteans were defeated in war by other tribes. Soon afterward on one cataclysmic day, disaster struck.

3 ) Blackbeard’s Treasure

The famous pirate Blackbeard only spent about two years (1716-1718) plundering the high seas. Within that time, however, he amassed some serious wealth. While the Spanish were busy obtaining all the gold and silver they could extract from Mexico and South America, Blackbeard and his mates waited patiently, then pounced on the treasure-laden ships as they sailed back to Spain.

researchers now believe they have found the wreckage of Blackbeard’s famous ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, in the briny depths of the Atlantic Ocean.  Blackbeard, known as Edward Thatch or Edward Teach, is thought to have run around near Beaufort Inlet, South Carolina.  The wreck was first discovered in 1996, but is now only conclusively thought to have belonged to the world’s most famous pirate.

it contained not just gold and silver coins (though it had those), but it also contained a great deal of looted equipment.  Apothecary weights, a mortar and pestle, and even some nautical navigation equipment were recovered from the boat.  Apparently, useful tools were very popular among pirates, because they could be resold easily to other sailors and pirates, whereas used gold teeth wouldn’t be easy to get rid of.  I guess it’s the 1600’s equivalent of a chop shop.

4 ) Thousands of Pearls Found in Shipwreck

Salvagers discovered thousands of pearls Friday in a small, lead box they said they found while searching for the wreckage of the 17th-century Spanish galleon Santa Margarita.  Divers from Blue Water Ventures of Key West said they found the sealed box, measuring 3.5 inches by 5.5 inches, along with a gold bar, eight gold chains and hundreds of other artifacts earlier this week.  They were apparently buried beneath the ocean floor in approximately 18 feet of water about 40 miles west of Key West.  “There are several thousand pearls starting from an eighth of an inch to three-quarters of an inch,” said Duncan Mathewson, marine archaeologist and partner in Blue Water Ventures.

James Sinclair, archaeologist and conservator consulting with Mel Fisher’s Treasures, Blue Water’s joint-venture partners, said the pearls are very rare because of their antiquity and condition.  Sinclair said pearls don’t normally survive the ocean water once they are out of the oyster that makes them.The pearls will be conserved, documented and photographed in an archaeological laboratory above the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West.  “Until they’re properly cleaned and conserved we don’t know their value, but it would seem they would be worth upwards of a million dollars,” Mathewson said.

5 ) Montezuma’s Treasure

The search for Montezuma’s treasure continues in the Kan ab area. Legend has it that when the Aztec king, Montezuma was killed by his own people in Mexico in the 1500’s, and the Spanish Conquistadors were driven from Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs took their treasure and hid it from the Spaniards. That was 400 years ago.  In 1914, Freddy Crystal arrived in Johnson Canyon, just north of Kanab. He had a newspaper clipping of Mexican petroglyphs he thought indicated that Montezuma’s treasure was hidden nearby.  Six years later, the entire town of Kan ab was living in tents at the head of Johnson Canyon digging for the hidden treasure. After two years there was still no sign of gold.

Today, a vast treasure trove remains hidden beneath nearly five centuries of mud and sludge on the outskirts of Mexico City, the modern day incarnation of Tenochtitlan. Generations of treasure seekers have sought the lost hoard without success. A former president of Mexico even had the lake bed dredged, but no treasure was found.

6 ) Pharaohs’ Missing Treasure

The discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1922 revealed the fact that he had been buried with many worldly jewels and riches. However, this was not the first the people had heard about royalty being buried with much of the wealth that they had acquired during their life. It was well-known that the Pharaohs of Egypt were usually buried with many of their gems and precious stones and it’s always been better-known that these tombs were often raided by many thieves and criminals.

One particular ruler, Herihor, has been the focus of special attention. Herihor was a high court official during the reign of Ramses XI. Upon Ramses’ death, Herihor usurped the throne, dividing up the kingdom with a co-conspirator, his son-in-law Pi ankh. Herihor placed himself in charge of reburial proceedings at the Valley of the Kings, affording himself ample opportunity to pilfer on a grand scale.  His tomb has never been found. When and if it is, many scholars believe that the missing treasures of many of Egypt’s pharaohs will finally see the light of day.

7 ) King Solomon’s Treasure

A COLLECTION of sacred artifacts looted by the Romans from the Temple of Jerusalem and long suspected of being hidden in the vaults of the Vatican are actually in the Holy Land, according to a British archaeologist.Sean Kingsley, a specialist in the Holy Land, claims to have discovered what became of the collection, which is widely regarded as the greatest of biblical treasures and includes silver trumpets that would have heralded the Coming of the Messiah.The trumpets, gold candelabra and the bejeweled Table of the Divine Presence were among pieces shipped to Rome after the looting in AD70 of the Temple, the most sacred building in the ancient Jewish faith.

After a decade of research into previously untapped ancient texts and archaeological sources, Dr Kingsley has reconstructed the treasure’s route for the first time in 2,000 years to provide evidence that it left Rome in the 5th century. He has discovered that it was taken to Carthage, Constantinople and Algeria before being hidden in the Judaean wilderness, beneath the Monastery of Theodosius.Dr Kingsley said: The treasure resonates fiercely across modern politics.

8 ) The Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant is a vessel described in the Bible as containing the Tablets of Stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed, along with Aaron’s rod and manna. According to the Pentateuch, the Ark was built at the command of God, in accord with Moses’ prophetic vision on Mount Sinai. The Ark remains a topic of study even today, over 2000 years after it was last seen. A great deal of research has attempted to explain the wonders that are attributed to the Ark in the Bible.

One recent study suggests the possibility that the Ark represented man’s first harnessing of electricity. The accounts given of peoples’ sudden deaths from touching the Ark are consistent with death by a high voltage, lethal electrical charge. Such a charge could have resulted from the constant exposure of the box to static electricity, which builds up quickly in a hot, dry climate like the Middle East. The materials that the Ark was made of further support this theory: gold is one of the most powerful electrical conductors, and wood is an excellent insulator.

9 ) Treasures of Lima

The Treasure of Lima is a treasure reputedly removed from Lima, Peru in 1820 and never recovered. Since the 16th century, when Spain defeated the Inca, it controlled Lima. During the next centuries, the Catholic Church gathered a huge treasure in Lima. In the early 19th century, Spain began to have difficulties with its colonies due to wars of independence in South America. Lima was no exception and in 1820 the city came under heavy pressure and finally had to be evacuated.

The “Loot of Lima” was estimated at over $60,000, which came from the cathedral. Among the treasure were two life-sized statues of the Blessed Virgin holding the Divine Child. Both of these statues were made from pure gold. Other treasures included jeweled stones and candlesticks. The thought of just how much this treasure could mean to one person, Captain Thompson had all the passengers aboard Mary Dear killed. He then headed to Cocos Island. Cocos Island is around 400 miles from the coast of Costa Rica where he buried the treasure in a cave.

10 ) Yamashita’s Treasure

Yamashita’s gold, also referred to as the Yamashita treasure, is the name given to the alleged loot stolen in Southeast Asia by Japanese forces during World War II and hidden in caves, tunnels and underground complexes in the Philippines.The two ships that were sunk by the Americans were leaving the bay presumably after they had unloaded all the treasure.  Today, there are many resorts along this bay and many believe that the treasure is still there but since the terrain has changed, it could be underwater caves.

reference from : juvenilegems

1 ) Bosavi silky cuscus/rat

The giant rat is not the only discovery made by the expedition team. They also found another unique type of mammal called the Bosavi Silky Cuscus. The animal – which looks like a small bear – is a marsupial that lives up trees, feeding on fruits and leaves. Weighing in at over 2kg, it has dense silky fur adapted for a mountain environment. Like the giant rat, the Bosavi Silky Cuscus also appeared to have no fear of man, suggesting these animals have never come into contact with humans before. The 82 centimeters long rat weighs around 1.5 kilograms and has a silver-brown coat of long, thick fur. A captured specimen showed no fear of humans.

2 ) Leopard gecko

The leopard gecko is a nocturnal ground-dwelling gecko naturally found in the deserts parts of Southern Central Asia from the southern parts of Afghanistan, throughout Pakistan, to the Northwestern parts of India. Unlike most geckos, it possesses eyelids. It has become a well-established pet in captivity. Leopard geckos are one of the most common pets in the reptile industry because of their easy care and cheap housing. A leopard gecko has a triangular head and a large tail where it stores fat.  Its skin is bumpy and heavily patterned. The patterns are designed to camouflage the gecko from predators.

3 ) Chupacabra (The missing monster)

The chupacabra (“goat sucker”) is an animal said to be unknown to science and systemically killing animals in places like Puerto Rico, Miami, Nicaragua, Chile, and Mexico. The creature’s name originated with the discovery of some dead goats in Puerto Rico with puncture wounds in their necks and their blood allegedly drained. According to UFO Magazine (March/April 1996) there have been more than 2,000 reported cases of animal mutilations in Puerto Rico  attributed to the chupacabra.

The name comes from the animal’s reported habit of attacking and drinking the blood of livestock, especially goats. Physical descriptions of the creature vary. Eyewitness sightings have been claimed as early as 1990 in Puerto Rico, and have since been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile. It is supposedly a heavy creature, the size of a small bear, with a row of spines reaching from the neck to the base of the tail.

4 ) Tube-nosed Bat

Tube-nosed Bat is a species of vesper bat in the Vespertilionidae family. They have tube-shaped nostrils which assist them with their feeding. They are brown with white-yellow and underparts and have specks of orange around their neck. While they are roosting, their fur, which seems to look like a dead plant, camouflages them from predators. They are 3.3-6.0cm in length and have round heads, large eyes and soft fur. This bat is found in India. They are endangered due to clearing of the rain forests in which they live in and are not protected by the World Conservation Union. They feed on rain forest fruit and blossoms. As the brown tube-nosed bat holds its mouth open much of the time in order to echolocate, it is easy to see its large, sharp teeth, used to crush hard-bodied insects.

5 ) Emperor Tamarin

Emperor tamarins are found in the southwest Amazon Basin. The countries of their origin are southeast Peru, northwest Bolivia, and northwest Brazil. River drainage in Peru such as the Acre, Purus, and Jurua have populations of emperor tamarins. They are very light-weighted, so they can reach food at the far end of tree branches, which are unaccessable by heavier animals, including predators.

The emperor tamarins display a need for tenderness when kept as a pet. They love to be stroked by hand and will actually lay on their backs in hopes of extra petting attention. The Emperor Tamarin lives together in groups of two to eight animals. The oldest female leads the group above several mature males. Mutual grooming plays an important role for bonding and socializing.

6 ) Flying Frog

A “flying” frog is a frog that has the ability to glide. That is, it can descend at an angle of less than 45° relative to the horizontal. Arboreal frogs (non-flying frogs) can also descend vertically, but only at angles greater than 45°, which is referred to as parachuting. Flying frogs have evolved independently among 3,400 species of frogs from both New World and Old World families and their evolution is seen as an adaptation to their life in trees, high above the ground. Characteristics of the Old World species include “enlarged hands and feet, full webbing between all fingers and toes, lateral skin flaps on the arms and legs, and reduced weight per snout-vent length”.

flying frog population is considered stable, and they have special status only in certain localities. However, they are partial to breeding and laying eggs in the fetid wallowing holes of the nearly extinct Asian rhinoceros, and further decreases in rhino populations may negatively affect the species.

Ps : DO NOT TRY THIS ON YOUR FRIENDS.

Portuguese Lamprey rice

7 ) Lamprey

A lamprey is a parasitic marine/aquatic animal with a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. Translated directly, their name means stone lickers. While lampreys are well known for those species which bore into the flesh of other fish to suck their blood, these species make up the minority. In zoology, lampreys are often not considered to be true fish because of their vastly different morphology and physiology.

8 ) Narwal

The narwhal is a medium-sized toothed whale that lives year-round in the Arctic. One of two species of whale in the Monodontidae family, along with the Beluga whale, the narwhal males are distinguished by a characteristic long, straight, helical tusk extending from their upper left jaw. Narwhals have a relatively restricted and specialized diet. Their prey is predominantly composed of Greenland halibut, polar and Arctic cod, shrimp and Gonatus squid. Additional items found in stomachs have included wolfish, capelin, skate eggs and sometimes rocks, accidentally ingested when whales feed near the bottom.

9 )White-faced Saki Monkey

The Saki Monkey is one species of the New World monkeys, which is a part of the genus Pithecia. This species is thought to be very closely related to the bearded Saki monkeys, though they are their own separate species. These monkeys are recognized by their small size and their long bushy tails. This species lives in the understory and lower canopy of the forest, feeding mostly on fruits, but also eating nuts, seeds, and insects.

They are also distinguishable due to their furry but rough skin, their grey or sometimes reddish brown coloring, their naked faces, and their hooded heads. Many state that this species of monkey is very serious looking.

10 ) Shoebill

The Shoebill lives only in extensive papyrus swamps in the interior of central Africa, occurring locally from s. Sudan to n. Zambia. The Shoebill is a very large bird. This species was only classified in the 19th century when some skins were brought to Europe. It was not until years later that live specimens reached the scientific community. However, the bird was known to both ancient Egyptians and Arabs.

Shoebills feed in muddy waters, preying on fish, frogs,smaller birds, reptiles such as baby crocodiles, invertebrates and small mammals. They nest on the ground and lay 2 eggs.  The population is estimated at between 5,000 and 8,000 individuals, the majority of which live in Sudan.

I found this picture is funny, share with you guys.

11 ) Sloth

The sloth is a slow-moving mammal that lives in trees. Sloths spend most of their lives hanging upside-down from tree branches; they eat, sleep, mate, and give birth upside-down in the trees. They hold onto tree branches with strong, curved claws that are on each of their four feet.  Male sloths are solitary, shy animals. Females sometimes congregate together. Sloths are nocturnal; they are most active at night and sleep all day. Until geologically recent times, ground sloths such as Megatherium lived in South America and parts of North America, but along with many other animals they disappeared immediately after the arrival of humans on the continent.

12 ) Sucker-footed Bat

The Madagascar Sucker-footed Bat, Old World Sucker-footed Bat, or simply Sucker-footed Bat is a species of bat in the family Myzopodidae. It is endemic to Madagascar. It is threatened by habitat loss.  It is named for the presence of small suction cups on its wrists and ankles. They roost inside the rolled leaves of palm trees, using their suckers to attach themselves to the smooth surface. Later scientists discovered that this species doesn’t use suction to attach themselves to roost sites, but instead uses a form of wet adhesion by secreting a body fluid at their pads.

he whole length of these bats usually measures no more than 2.3 inches and weighs about .3 ounces! There is just one official species of the bat known, though there have recently been reports of finding another species of the sucker footed bat.

13 ) Tarsier

Tarsiers are haplorrhine primates of the genus Tarsius, a genus in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all the species living today are found in the islands of Southeast Asia. All tarsier species are nocturnal in their habits, but like many nocturnal organisms some individuals may show more or less activity during the daytime. Unlike many nocturnal animals, however, tarsiers lack a light-reflecting area of the eye.

They also have a fovea, which is atypical for nocturnal animals.  The tarsier’s brain is different from other primates in terms of the arrangement of the connections between the two eyes and the lateral geniculate nucleus, which is the main region of the thalamus that receives visual information.

21 (2008)

Left : Jim Sturgess (Actor), Born: May 16, 1981. Birthplace: England, UK

Right : Jeff Ma, After retiring from the MIT Blackjack Team, Jeff Ma co-founded the sports stock market website PROTRADE.

Left: Kate Bosworth (Actress) : Born: January 2, 1983 Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA.

Right :  BoJane Willis. Born: 1970 Birthplace: Mount Vernon, Illinois, USA  Jane became a partner at the high-powered Boston Law firm Ropes & Gray.

Left : Jacob Pitts, Pitts grew up in Weston, Connecticut. In high school he was very involved in the theater production company, and took part in all the productions while he was in school, including a performance as the Mysterious Man in Into The Woods.

Right : Mike Aponte Born: 1972  After MIT, Mike won the 2004 World Series of Blackjack and co-founded the Blackjack Institute.

Left : Liza Lapira Birthplace: Queens, New York, USA

Right : Laurie Tsao

Left : Kevin Spacey Born: July 26, 1959 Birthplace: South Orange, New Jersey  (Spacey’s “21″ character is a composite of 3 individuals.)

Right : John Chang, in disguise. Still plays.  Bill Kaplan Kaplan co-founded Fresh Address.  J.P. Masser “Mr. M” in the History Channel program.

300 (2007)

Left : Gerard Butler Born: November 13, 1969 Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Right : King Leonidas Born: ~540 B.C. Birthplace: Sparta, Greece Died: 480 B.C., Thermopylae, Greece (fatally wounded by arrows in the Battle of Thermopylae)

Left : Rodrigo Santoro Born: August 22, 1975 Birthplace: Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Right : Xerxes Born, 519 B.C. Birthplace: Persia Died: 465 B.C., Persepolis, Persia (assassination by stabbing, likely by his political advisor Artabanus)

Left : Immortals (300 Movie) Frank Miller’s disfigured Imperial soldiers who fight behind shiny metal masks, using a martial-arts-like fighting style

Right : Immortals (Persian History) The Immortals were an Imperial Guard regiment that protected the Persian rulers during the time of the Greco-Persian Wars.

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Left : Leonardo DiCaprio Born: November 11, 1974 Birthplace: Hollywood, California, USA

Right : Frank William Abagnale, Jr. Born: April, 1948 Birthplace: Bronx, New York, USA

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Left : Meryl Streep Born: June 22, 1949 Birthplace: Summit, New Jersey, USA

Right : Anna Wintour Born: November 3, 1949 Birthplace: London, England, UK

Left : Anne Hathaway Born: November 12, 1982 Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA

Right : Lauren Weisberger Born: March 28, 1977 Birthplace: Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA

reference from : chasingthefrog

Beever works as a freelance artist and creates murals for companies. He has worked in the UK, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Spain, the U.S., Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Russia and Portugal.

Besides this pavement art, Beever also paints murals with acrylic paints and replicas of the works of masters and oil paintings, and creates collages. Amongst his other work are wood paneled drawings, usually themed around music, measuring 7 meters long by 1.5 meters high.

In reality, there is just pavement in front of him, and the street below together with the expectant crowd, plus the blazing building below him, are all tricks played on the eye (a modern example of trompe l’oeil – a French term that means literally ‘trick the eye’).

There seems to be a common chain email letter depicting his art. This in fact is what inspired me to create this squidoo page. He used to work in Punch & Judy show and that’s where he saw other pavement artists that inspired him to try it. The 3D aspect came later: “I decided to get into 3D after seeing the effect of tiles being removed from the street, and later trying to recreate the sense of depth in a drawing.

Julian’s art is created with chalk. First, like a skillful architect, he first designs his creations on paper. Once he starts, Julian places a camera at a distance of the art and keeps observing it through the lens of the eye. The reason is simple: the camera has a wide angled lens that can create an optical illusion that can distort the actual size of objects. “I think because the camera limits what your brain can do,” he said, “it limits the brain’s ability to judge distance, it makes you only use one eye. And therefore you can make the brain believe stuff that otherwise it wouldn’t believe.”

This is what is known as anamorphism. Once he gets started on his creation, he goes back and forth from his art to the camera a few hundred times to gain perspective. Once it’s created, the results will appear extraordinary as evidenced in the photos on this lens. it will slowly disappear due to nature. He is not worried about it disappearing, since he and millions of others are able to capture photographs of his creation that will forever live in the internet.

There is not much more about Julian’s life, when confronted with private questions such as “how much do you make from this?”, he will not respond or ignore you, he would rather discuss questions about his art. Overall, Julian is very thankful to the internet because otherwise he would not have had the chance to show all his art to millions of people and gain the notoriety he well deserves. “It’s that photograph that goes on the Internet. Then thousands of people will see it. It will be there forever. It doesn’t vanish, really. The drawing on the ground is just a vehicle. ”

Here are some of the videos how Julian draw his art.

reference from : wikipedia, grand-illusions

1 ) Bellagio Hotel – Las Vegas ($100,000+ and also have a credit line of $4 to $5 million.)

The Bellagio Hotel is one of the two certified five diamond hotels in Las Vegas. When you enter the Bellagio Las Vegas, you are completely submerged in the grandeur and beauty of the structure. When you first enter, you experience a splash of natural light from the massive ceiling sky light, which is a rarity in Las Vegas. There are massive glass structures, fountains and elegance in every aspect of the Bellagio Las Vegas hotel, letting every guest be as comfortable as possible while surrounded by beauty.

Each room in the Bellagio Hotel is cleaned daily, and designed to show off comfortable elegance, providing everything that you might need through the duration of your stay. With three thousand suites, you will be able to select the type of room that you want.

2 ) Atlantis Resort – Paradise Island ($34,000 a night)

The Atlantis Paradise Island is a resort and waterpark located on Paradise Island, The Bahamas. The resort was created by South African hotel magnate Sol Kerzner and Kerzner International Limited. Paradise Island first opened its Coral and Beach Towers as the Trump Plaza, then changed its name to Atlantis when the Royal Towers were built. Both the Coral and Beach towers are completely refurbished inside to have the same theme as the Royal Towers.

The Coral Towers were chosen by Travel + Leisure magazine to be the best hotel to stay in. Atlantis Paradise Island has had a new edition added on, called the Cove and Reef Atlantis. The project was over 4 billion dollars, half the cost of the construction of the Royal Towers.

3 ) Westin Excelsior Hotel – Rome ($29,000 a night)

The Westin Excelsior Rome just went under a costly $7 million renovation. The hotel has a long history of hosting celebrities, statesmen and artists visiting Since 1906. It is, in fact, named on Condé Nast Traveler’s 2006 Gold List. It is located in the well known area of Via Veneto, an ideal location for shopping, restaurants and cafes. The Westin Excelsior, Rome has a great reputation for outstanding service and a wonderful location. The hotel presents its own Restaurant Doney, where you can choose from many Roman Specialties, prepared with the freshest ingredients and a skilled chef.

For the health conscious traveller, please enjoy a personalized workout with our trainer in the health club or treat yourself to a shiatsu massage in our fully equipped spa. The well known Villa Cupola is the largest suite in Europe and its magnificent style is shown all around the wonderful hotels with all the extravagant furnishings and newly remodelled 287 guest rooms and 32 suites.

4 ) Palms Hotel – Las Vegas (25,000 a night)

The Palms Las Vegas is one of the hottest Las Vegas hotels available. Perhaps the most spectacular thing about this hotel is the fantastic views offered from the highest stories. With views of Las Vegas from above, you’ll be able to see the sights that many can only dream about.  Palms Hotel Rooms  When you stay at the Palms, you can expect some of the most comfortable rooms on the strip. Each room has a wide variety of different amenities that are designed to make you feel at home while submersing you in luxury.

5 ) Plaza Hotel – New York City ($20,000 a night)

The hotel’s main entrance faces the southern portion of Grand Army Plaza, commemorating the Union Army in the Civil War. Grand Army Plaza is in two sections, bisected by Central Park South. The Hotel Plaza Athenee, New York has now unveiled a selection of new guestrooms and suites with enlarged marble bathrooms, deep soaking tubs and dual sinks. New suites offer an intimate New York residential ambience with hardwood floors in the living rooms, one and half bathrooms and full kitchenettes.

The fitness center will re-open in a spacious environment with front facing views and state of the art equipment. The hotel lobby has a new look with a lounge-like atmosphere. The addition of Two Presidential suites, each 2,000 square feet, as well as a new spa with private treatment rooms will be ready early in 2010.

6 ) Martinez Hotel - Cannes ($18,000 a night)

The Hotel Martinez is known for stylish living, where comfort and technology have aesthetic overtones, and from its eminent position on the sea front, on the famous boulevard de La Croisette in Cannes, the Hotel Martinez has established itself over the decades as the flagship hotel on the Riviera. From the outside, its architectural beauty makes it timeless and establishes its elegance and eternal youth. With seven floors that overlook the sea front and a floor area that covers 40,000 square metres, it is one of the top European luxury hotels. Beachfront access and a private area is offered at the Martinez Hotel Cannes, as well as a swimming pool, a restaurant, a lounge, 24 hour reception, and a fitness center.

7 ) Ritz Paris Hotel – Paris ($17,500 a night)

The Hotel Ritz Paris currently offers 161 rooms, one restaurant, and two bars. The hotel’s restaurant, L’Espadon, was awarded a star by the 2007 edition of the influential Michelin Red Guide. Even if nowadays you can change the video program or make a phone call without leaving your bed or marble bath (Charles Ritz was the first to provide private bathrooms for his clients), nothing has altered the pleasure of stretching out on a wide brass bed surrounded by fine antiques.

Add to that an atmosphere of luxury so enveloping that a new word (ritzy) had to be coined for it. Impeccable staff. The health club was modeled on a thermal spa of antiquity, and the restaurant L’Espadon has its own garden. The Cambon Bar, a Champagne bar with a private entrance at 38, rue Cambon is the newest addition to the hotel—which already boasts the Ritz Club, The Bar Hemingway and the Vendôme Bar.

8 ) Burj Al Arab Hotel – Dubai ($15,000 a night)

The Burj Al Arab is a luxury hotel located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is an iconic structure, designed to symbolize Dubai’s urban transformation and to mimic the sail of a boat. All the suites of this remarkable hotel are spacious to say the least, each taking two floors, with the floor to ceiling glass windows affording stunning views of the Arabian Gulf. Dining in the hotel is an equally memorable experience, with a choice of eight different restaurants, though the signature dining room, Al Mahara, should not be missed, with it’s enormous aquarium providing both the centerpiece, and a convenient location to store the seafood items on the menu.

9 ) Lanesborough Hotel – London ($14,500 a night)

The Lanesborough is a prestigious 5-star hotel on Hyde Park Corner, Knightsbridge, central London. Operated by the American Starwood Hotels corporation, it is reputedly the most expensive hotel in London. A 24-hour private butler is available to each guest. The Lanesborough has accommodated visiting royalty, eminent politicians and entertainers. Opposite are Hyde Park and Apsley House, the former home of the Duke of Wellington. The hotel is next to Hyde Park Corner tube station.

All rooms are decorated with handcrafted Regency period pieces, with 1820’s furnishings and 21st century technology. A state-of-the-art fully interactive TV system with free movies on demand, with wireless keyboard and printer, gives free access to the Internet, e-mail, Microsoft® Office, movies on demand, as well as extensive CD and DVD libraries. All guest rooms offer a mobile phone that, upon request, can operate throughout Europe, additionally each room has a private telephone line and fax machine.

10 ) Peninsula Hotel – Hong Kong ($5,000 a night)

The Peninsula Hong Kong is one of the most internationally recognizable hotels in Hong Kong. Each one of the hotel’s opulent guest rooms is comfortable and stylish and equipped with advanced technology for the convenience of hotel guests – underlined, of course, by the world-famous Peninsula service. Renowned as one of the best French restaurants in Asia, Gaddi’s is Hong Kong’s most elegant dining experience while Felix offers a sleek and stylish city rendezvous with stunning views across the harbour.

Afternoon tea at The Peninsula’s Lobby is a Hong Kong institution, and the best authentic Cantonese food in town is served in Spring Moon.The hotel features a state-of-the-art fitness center and a huge Roman-style swimming pool. The pool opens onto the hotel’s sun terrace, providing an incredible view of Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong Island. The Peninsula Spa by ESPA offers luxurious bespoke treatments for both body and mind.

Belugas are toothed whales with 34 teeth. The teeth are not designed for chewing, but for grabbing and tearing prey. They swallow their prey whole. They are opportunistic.

The beluga whale is white as an adult and molts seasonally. The beluga’s body is stout and has a small, blunt head with a beak, a well-defined neck, and a rounded melon. It has no dorsal fin, which makes swimming under Arctic ice sheets easier. The flippers are short, rounded, and wide. The flukes (tail) are wide and deeply notched.

Beluga whales grow to be about 15 feet (4.6 m) long on average, weighing up to about 3,300 pounds (1500 kg). Males are slightly larger than females.

Beluga whales are very social animals and congregate in pods (social groups) of 2-25 whales, with an average pod size of 10 whales (consisting of both males and females or mothers and calves). A pod will hunt and migrate as a group. The bond between mothers and calves is the strongest. During migrations, several pods may join together, forming groups of 200-10,000 belugas.

Lee Redmond : “I think it was my grandson that said, ‘Grandma, they are like your baby; you’ve taken care of them for 30 years and lost them in a second’. The thing that bothered me with losing the fingernails was that it becomes your identity and I felt like I’d lost part of that. Yet I would always say when people would make comments about my fingernails, you know there’s more to me than my fingernails.”