Roger Federer Vs. Andy Murray

It’s here! The 2010 Australian Open men’s singles final is upon us. And it’s going to be a scorcher! (Or at least pretty warm. The weather forecast calls for evening temperatures in the mid eighties.) Here’s what’s happening on-court:

Roger Federer vs. Andy Murray, Rajah vs. Muzzah, Swiss vs. Scot, offense to defense vs. defense to offense, experience vs. youth, 4 vs. 6, 15 vs. 0.

These two have played 10 times, with Murray winning six of the encounters. Federer’s won the last two – at the World Tour Finals and the Cincinnati Masters – as well as their one Major meeting in the 2008 US Open finals.

It’s a close match up, and we all know what to expect. Roger has it all planned out, you see: “Andy, if you are listening, I’ll come in on your backhand, you’ll pass me, I’ll drop shot you, you’ll lob me, I’ll hit it through the legs. It’ll be something like that.”

Apple unveils ‘iPad’

Apple Chief Executive Officer, Steve Jobs took the wraps off the 'iPad' tablet to unveil his company's biggest product launch since the iPhone three years ago here on Wednesday. iPad, a 10-inch gadget with a touchscreen interface and wireless connectivity will play all sort of audio, video, games and media & is priced at $499.

America's Favorite Movie Star

1. Clint Eastwood (2)
2. Johnny Depp (8)
3. Denzel Washington (1)
4. Sandra Bullock (not ranked)
5. Tom Hanks (7)
6. George Clooney (not ranked)
7. John Wayne (3)
8. Meryl Streep (not ranked)
9. Morgan Freeman (9)
10. Julia Roberts (6)

* indicate the actor's previous year rank

Federer beats Hewitt Again

In round 4 of theongoing Australian Open Tennis, World no.1 Roger Federer defeated World no.22 Australian Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. This is the 15th win for the Swiss great Federer over the fellow Australian. The last time Lleyton Hewitt beat Federer was during the Davis Cup at Melbourne Park in 2003. Since then they have had many close encounters. But Federer has beaten Hewitt 14 times without loss. And this win is his 15th.

The Centenary Diamond

On March 1, 1988, De Beers was having a big bash to celebrate their 100 years in business. Chairman Julian Oglivie capped off his speech with a little tidbit that stunned the crowd - De Beers’ Premier Mine had recently uncovered a diamond that was perfect in color and weighed 599 carats. It had been found nearly two years before; the company kept it quiet for the sole purpose of flaunting it at their 100th anniversary. It didn’t get to keep all 599 of those carats, though - it had to be cut down to remove some cracks around the edges and it took 154 days to cut 50 carats away. That was just the beginning of the stone’s overhaul - when all was said and done, the Centenary ended up weighing 273.85 carats with 247 facets. It was on loan to the Tower of London for a number of years (have any of you seen it?), but it’s rumored that the stone has since been sold. De Beers remains mum on the subject, saying they respect their clients’ anonymity.

Australian Open Tennis 2010

In the third round of the Australian open tennis 2010,

Spain's World no.2 Rafael Nadal defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber(rank 27) 6-4 6-2 2-6 7-5.

Croatia's Ivo Karlovic defeated Ivan Ljubicic (24) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.

Marin Cilic (14) beat Stanislas Wawrinka (19) 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-3

Aamir Khan strikes a 35 crore ad deal

Aamir Khan, the Perfectionist of indian cinema has bagged a huge ad deal with UAE's telecom giant Etisalat which is worth Rs.35 crore. Sources say the telecom giant which is entering Indian market has ropped in Aamir Khan for a 3 year contract. This is the biggest deal by an indian for an ad & the indian ad industry has got busy with the such big deals. Aamir is already the brand ambassador of several brands like Coca-Cola, Parle, Tata Sky and Samsung.

Kieron Adrian Pollard - IPL

The fellow West Indian cricketer Kieron Adrian Pollard became the most expensive purchase of the Indian Premier League player auction in Mumbai. The explosive Caribbean all-rounder Kieron Pollard emerged as the most expensive players, being sold for a whopping $750,000 at the auction for the third edition of the Indian Premier League that held on January 19, 2009. Pollard, 22, will join the Mumbai Indians team after attracting an undisclosed winning fee.

Hollywood's Biggest Box Office Hits

The Eugénie Blue - Notable Diamond

This Titanic-esque vivid blue diamond is 30.82 carats. It’s called the Eugénie Blue because of an old legend that the sparkly stunner originally belonged to Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III. There is no evidence to support this tale, though, so many people prefer to simply call it “The Blue Heart” instead. The gem was cut into its distinctive shape in 1909 or so (some accounts say it was 1910) and was bought by Cartier shortly thereafter. Since then it has bounced around from a wealthy Argentinian woman, Van Cleef and Arpels, a European family, Harry Winston, Marjorie Merriweather Post, and, finally, the Smithsonian, where The Blue Heart has resided since 1964. And although it may look like it inspired the fictional Heart of the Ocean from the 1997 Leonardo DiCaprio epic, it didn’t - the Heart of the Ocean was actually based on the infamous Hope Diamond.

A Man Living with Half of a Body

Peng Shuilin had half of his body amputated after being run over by a truck. But he never gave up! His recovery has amazed surgeons after almost two years undergoing a series of operations. The vice-president of the hospital where this 37-year old Chinese man has been treated said: “He is amazing and the only person in the world to survive having so much of his body amputated.” He’s doing well now and has opened his own bargain supermarket - called the Half Man-Half Price Store. That’s incredible. It seems nothing can get him down.

Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival

The Sapporo Snow Festival, one of Japan's largest winter events, attracts a growing number of visitors from Japan and abroad every year.

Every winter, about two million people come to Sapporo to see the hundreds of beautiful snow statues and ice sculptures which line Odori Park,the grounds at Satoland, and the main street in Susukino.

For seven days in February,these statues and sculptures(both large and small) turn Sapporo into a winter dreamland of crystal-like ice and white snow.

The Snow Festival began in 1950, when local high school students built six snow statues in Odori Park. in 1955, the Self-Defense Force joined in and built the very first massive snow sculpture, for which the Snow Festival has become famous for now. The Festival has grown from these humble beginnings to become one of the biggest and most well known of Hokkaido's winter events.

India's most influential women - Aishwarya Rai

Aish is an achiever if ever there was one. From winning the Miss World pageant in 1994 to forging a successful acting career in Bollywood to becoming the face of the Indian film industry in Hollywood, this gal has been there and done it all. Ash was the first Indian actress to serve on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival, the second film personality (after her father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan) to have a likeness of her displayed in London's Madame Tussaud's Museum and has even had a special variety of tulips named after her in the Netherlands. As for detractors and controversy, she's had her share of those too, but always prefers to keep her personal life private and remain gracious in the face of criticism. Life lesson from Aishwarya: Take criticism in your stride and meet harsh words with silence - let your accomplishments speak for you.

Getting To Know Nostradamus

These days, everyone’s heard of Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus, but most people just know that he was one of the most famous seers in history. Most people don’t really know about his specific predictions, his life or why he’s so famous. To help clear the air and to celebrate Nostradamus’ December 14 birthday, here’s a bit of info on the most famous psychic in history.

What You’ve Heard About His Life Is Probably Wrong

A lot of the books about Nostradamus’ prophecies also include pieces of his biography. Unfortunately, just as the prophecies suffer from poor or manipulated translations, his biographies in these texts are often based on rumors or complete fabrication. There are stories that he was educated by his grandfathers, who were both physicians to the court of Good King Rene of Provence, but there is no evidence of this at all.

The books also claim he obtained his medical doctorate from Montpellier University and that he then began lecturing at the school, but this is directly contradicted by the slim bit of documented facts about his life. Before attending the university, he traveled the countryside working as an apothecary, which led to his expulsion from the university after the administrators learned that he used to work as an apothecary, which was expressly banned by university rules. The University of Montpellier still has the expulsion documents related to the incidents in its library. Needless to say, it seems unlikely the university then hired him to work as a lecturer.

Burj Dubai - Fireworks

Burj Dubai is now Burj Khalifa

Dubai, UAE; January 4, 2010: The world's tallest tower, developed by Emaar Properties, was unveiled tonight to a crowd of thousands and the world in a crescendo of fireworks, lasers and fountain displays. The official height of the tower, unveiled as 'Burj Khalifa', was announced as 828 metres (2,716.5 ft).

A closely guarded secret, the official height of Burj Khalifa was flashed onto a giant screen before an estimated crowd of more than 400,000, as lasers and fireworks lit up the night sky. Fireworks cascaded from the tower's spire to the base and lasers blazed out from all levels leaving the crowds awestruck.

The height was disclosed in arithmetic progression, with the numbers being flashed onto the screen, one after another. The tower's height breaks all existing world records for tall buildings.

Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world according to the three main criteria of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). The CTBUH ranks the world’s tallest buildings based on ‘Height to Architectural Top,’ ‘Height to Highest Occupied Floor’ and ‘Height to Tip.’

At 828 metres (2,716.5ft), Burj Khalifa is 320 metres taller than Taipei 101, which at 508 metres (1,667 ft) had held the record for the world’s tallest building measured to the architectural top since 2004, the year the project was announced.

Burj Khalifa achieved the distinction of being the world's tallest structure – surpassing the KVLY-TV mast (628.8 metres; 2,063 ft) in North Dakota, USA – 1,325 days after excavation work started in January 2004. The tower also beats the 31-year-old record of CN Tower, which at 553.33 metres (1,815.5 ft) had been the world’s tallest free-standing structure on land since 1976.

Burj Khalifa employs a record-breaking 330,000 cubic metres of concrete, 39,000 metric tonnes of steel rebar and 142,000 square metres of glass; and it took 22 million man hours to build. Other world records for Burj Khalifa include the highest occupied floor in the world, at over 550 metres (1,800 ft); the highest outdoor observation deck in the world – At the Top on Level 124; and the tallest service elevator, which travels to a height of 504 metres (1,654 ft).

Mr. Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman, Emaar Properties, said that with the unveiling of the final height of Burj Khalifa, the world now had a new reference point for high-rise developments. “Burj Khalifa is an example of collaboration on a global scale, and the tremendous positive energy that can be generated when people from all over the world come together to work towards a common goal. Thousands of professionals and skilled workers from around the world worked on this once-in-a-lifetime project.”

“More than 60 of the world’s leading consultants including South Korea’s Samsung Corporation and New York-based Turner Construction International realised the design for Burj Khalifa of Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM),” he said.

Burj Khalifa employed the latest advances in wind engineering, structural engineering, structural systems, construction materials and methods. All design considerations took into account the 12,000 people who will live and work in the tower. The handover to residents of the various components of Burj Khalifa will begin in February.

With a total built-up area of about 6 million sq ft, Burj Khalifa features nearly 2 million sq ft of residential space and over 300,000 sq ft of prime office space, in addition to the area occupied by the keenly awaited Armani Hotel Dubai and the Armani Residences. The tower also features modern lifestyle amenities including clubs, health and fitness facilities, gourmet restaurants and the 124th floor observation deck, 'At the Top.'

Burj Khalifa is the focal point of the 500-acre ‘mega-project’ by Emaar Properties, described as the new heart of Dubai.

Russian Mafia

Russian Mafia originated in the Soviet Union and now has influence all over the world. It has between 100,000 to 500,000 members. They are involved in organized crimes in countries like Israel, Hungary, Spain, Canada, UK, US, Russia, etc. They have also immigrated to Israel, America and Germany by using Jewish and German identities. Their activities include drug and firearm trafficking, bombings, smuggling, pornography, internet fraud, etc. One of their rules is to never co-operate with the authorities. If any of the members squealed when captured, they would be killed on release. They are feared for their vandalism, terrorism, organ trafficking and contract killings.

Hotel Silken Puerta America, Madrid (Spain)

Madrid is the home of Hotel Puerta América, belonging to the Silken Group, a project in which the best architecture and design studios of the moment participated. The uniqueness of this hotel is the interior that gives this an unmatched different look when compared with any other hotel in the world.

Each room has been made very spacious with minimal accessories in it that makes you feel as if you are in a spaceship. Stay in this hotel could be a dream come true situation for most of us!

Kiran Bedi

In 1972, the Indian Police Service recruited its first lady officer - Kiran Bedi.. Her career with the force has seen her go from strength to strength - during her glorious tenure spanning more than three decades, she was Inspector General Prisons of Tihar Jail, an award-winning prison policies reformer and finally retired as Director General of the Bureau of Police Research & Development, Ministry of Home Affairs. It is said that she once had PM Indira Gandhi's car towed for illegal parking!

Kiran has also founded two NGOs for welfare, preventive policing and drug-abuse. And despite her dedication to her career, she still found time to be a dutiful wife and a doting mother. Life lesson from Kiran: Defy convention, because nothing is impossible - and be the best you can be.