10 Insane Buildings Currently Under Construction

If these wild, under-construction buildings are any indication, the future is near, and it will be extremely tall and draped in glass.

1. KINGDOM TOWER

Wikimedia Commons

Set to dwarf the world’s tallest building—the United Arab Emirates’ Burj Khalifa—by over 550 feet, Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower will be the planet’s first building to top a kilometer in height. The $1.2 billion project, located in Jeddah, will house luxury condos, office space, an observatory, a Four Seasons hotel, and feature the world’s highest sky terrace on the 157th floor (still quite a ways from the top, fyi). Construction on the project officially started last year, and the building is due to be completed in 2019.

2. SHANGHAI TOWER

Wikimedia Commons

In the works since 1993, China’s $4.2 billion, 121-floor Shanghai Tower was topped out earlier this year and is now wrapping construction. It is currently the world’s second tallest building, but the Tower isn’t officially set to open until 2015. Still, millions of people have already seen the view from the top thanks to vertigo-inducing snaps and videos, shot by two Russian daredevils who illicitly climbed to the top, which went viral last year. The mixed-use Tower is composed of nine distinct vertical zones and is surrounded by a layer of transparent glass skin to filter weather and provide natural ventilation.

3. THE DUBAI PEARL

dubaipearl.com

Somewhere between designing artificial islands shaped like the world, the largest mall known to man, and, of course, the planet’s tallest building, someone decided Dubai should also be home to a luxury development that looks vaguely like a regular building that has ominously sprung massive legs. The Dubai Pearl, overlooking the Persian Gulf and set to top out at 73 stories, kicked off construction in 2009 and is due for completion in 2016. The planned “integrated city” features four towers connected by a sky bridge, and will include a 1,800-seat premium theatre and serve as home to the Dubai International Film Festival.

4. AGORA GARDEN TOWER

Vincent Callebaut Architectures

Coming in 2016, Taipei's double-helix-shaped Agora Garden Tower will split the difference between man and Mother Nature. The twisty, 20-story luxury residential building will be green in every sense of the word, with balconies on each floor to support gardens, and state-of-the-art sustainable features including solar cells and rainwater recycling .

5. WORLD ONE

Wikimedia Commons

When it’s completed next year, the 117-floor World One tower will be the tallest residential building on the planet and far and away the tallest building in Mumbai, nearly doubling the 61-floor Imperial Towers that currently hold the latter title. World One will be home to some of Mumbai’s wealthiest residents, with 300 luxury 3 and 4-bedroom units that start at $1.5 million, and feature designs by Giorgio Armani's Armani/Casa studio. Fancy, but World One might not hold the “Mumbai’s Tallest” title for long, considering the currently-on-hold India Tower is planned to reach 126 stories.

6. KING ABDULLAH PETROLEUM STUDIES AND RESEARCH CENTER

 

Closer to the ground than most of the buildings on this list but every bit as mind-blowing, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC, for short-ish) looks more like a Bond villain's lair than a multinational non-profit. The futuristic crystallized design is the brainchild of Iraqi-born architecture icon Zaha Hadid, who designed the center as a series of interlocking, six-sided cells. Construction on the project started in 2009 and, as of 2014, the steel frame has been completed, but it’s currently unclear when the facility will be open for business.

7. SUZHOU ZHONGNAN CENTER

skyscrapercenter.com

Construction just recently started on Suzhou, China’s 2,391-foot, 138-story Suzhou Zhongnan Center, meaning there’s still a long, long (long) way to go. But if the pointy, $4.5 billion project is completed on schedule in 2020, it will be the tallest building in China and the third-tallest on earth. The hotel, office, and residential tower will be located beside the nearly-complete 69-story Gate of the Orient, which, as has repeatedly been noted, looks a whole lot like a big pair of pants.

8. LOTTE WORLD TOWER

Wikimedia Commons

Set to hover well above anything else in Seoul, South Korea’s skyline, the Lotte World Tower will top out at 1,824 feet and 123 stories tall when it’s completed in 2016. The building will feature, from the bottom up, retail, offices, apartments, a hotel, and a public observation space on top. It will also notably overtake North Korea’s extraordinary pyramidical Ryugyong Hotel as the largest building on the Korean Peninsula.

9. DAWANG MOUNTAIN RESORT

coop-himmelblau.at

Sick of hotels that don’t delicately hover between two cliffs over an abandoned quarry and a lake? Changsha, China’s Dawang Mountain Resort should have you covered come 2016. Spreading over 170 meters from end to end, the resort will feature “an entertainment ice world” with indoor skiing, a water park and hanging gardens.

10. SONGJIANG HOTEL

tripadvisor.com

Apparently, luxuriating in structures creatively built around quarries and lakes is the next big thing in high-class Chinese vacationing. Like the Dawang Mountain Resort, the Songjiang Hotel rests quarry-side, but the 19-story Shanghai-adjacent hotel will actually be built directly over the quarry’s walls, with a waterfall flowing over the facade. Oh, and if you don’t have the incredible view from one of the higher floors, you might want to go for one of the bottom two, since they’ll be submerged under water.

Full > http://mentalfloss.com/article/59304/10-insane-buildings-currently-under-construction

What’s hidden in the Vatican Secret Archives?

The signature of astronomer Galileo Galilei from the records of his trial is on a document in the Vatican Secret Archives. (CNS photo / Vatican Secret Archives)

Some believe it houses evidence of extraterrestrial life. Others, ancient texts that disprove the existence of Jesus. Perhaps dark truths that would discredit and destroy the Church?

A mistranslated Latin word may be responsible for the conspiracy theories about the Vatican Secret Archives. In fact, the actual contents can stand on their own without delving into the absurd.

The archives, or Archivum Secretum Apostolicum Vaticanum, contains historical records chronicling intriguing historical events. Its contents, once plundered by Napoleon and moved to Paris, span 12 centuries.

• There’s the document that began the Protestant reformations: Pope Leo X’s 1521 decree excommunicating Martin Luther.
• A 1530 petition from 85 English clergymen and lords asks Pope Clement VII to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. The seals of many of the signatories were affixed to the petition, each held in place by red ribbon. This is considered the source of the term “red tape.” Clement refused, of course, leading to the establishment of the Anglican Church.
• Michelangelo penned a letter to the pope warning that Vatican guards hadn’t received paychecks in three months, and that they were threatening to walk off the job.
• A year after Columbus landed in what became North America, Pope Alexander VI issued Inter Cetera, the 1493 papal bull that split the New World between Spain and Portugal.
• There are letters from Abraham Lincoln as well as Jefferson Davis, who wrote to try to convince Pope Pius IX that the South was an innocent victim of Northern aggression. Neither man was Catholic.
• The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, the notion that Mary was conceived without original sin, was articulated in 1854 on a piece of parchment that’s in the archives.
• Famous Vatican trials were recorded with handwritten transcripts that are housed there, including cases against the Knights Templar in the early 14th century and astronomer Galileo Galilei in the 17th, who was tried by the Vatican for heresy and forced to spend the rest of his life under house arrest.
• When Sweden’s Queen Christina abdicated in 1654, she converted to Catholicism from Lutheranism, moved to Rome, and today she is one of the few women buried in St. Peter’s Basilica. There’s a letter to the pope announcing her conversion.

Interesting, sure, but hardly the stuff of Dan Brown novels.

See photos of items in the Vatican’s archives here.

Secretum, the Vatican says, translates more accurately to “personal” than to “secret” and refers to the private letters and historical records of past popes. In fact, the archives haven’t been secret since 1881, when Pope Leo XIII opened them up to scholars.

Pope Paul V created the Secret Archives in 1612. Four hundred years later, the Vatican celebrated by making 100 items available for public viewing for the first time. The exhibit, Lux in Arcana, shed some light on the papal past and provided some color to events that shaped history.

David Kertzer spent years researching in the Secret Archives for his recent book, The Pope and Mussolini. He writes that Pope Pius XI, and his secretary of state, who became Pope Pius XII, made deals with Mussolini to protect the Church’s interest in exchange for silence on state-sponsored anti-Semitism, a conclusion at odds with the Church’s account.

“People talk, scholars talk. Are there things that aren’t being made available because they’re seen as unflattering from a Church point of view?” Kertzer, an anthropology professor at Brown University, said.

Still, Kertzer said, the Secret Archives are staffed by professionals, and “there’s an appreciation of serious historical scholarship.”

That’s not to say that the holdings are easily accessible.

Scholars enter through the Porta Sant’Anna, pass Swiss Guards, walk through the Cortile del Belvedere, and present credentials that must be renewed every 6 months. Journalists, students, and amateur historians aren’t welcome.

Related

• 

  Photos from inside the Vatican Secret Archives 

Once admitted, there’s no browsing. Instead, researchers request specific documents, using bulky catalogues, some handwritten in Italian or Latin. They can request up to three folders each day.

If in just a few minutes they realize that what they’re seeking isn’t in the requested folders, they’re forced to pack up for the day – a challenge for scholars on a deadline or those who have traveled long distances.

Computers are allowed, but photos aren’t, which means long sessions in the third-floor reading room typing notes.

Are there things that aren't being made available because they’re seen as unflattering from a Church point of view?”

— David Kertzer, anthropology professor at Brown University

What’s next?

The sitting pope decides when to expand the archives.

Pope Francis is considering when to open the full archives of Pope Pius XII, the man dubbed “Hitler’s Pope” by some, but whose cause for canonization is championed by Church traditionalists who say he hid Jews from the Nazis.

For the Vatican, mystery and palace intrigue come with the territory. But for a department whose official name includes the word secret, there is transparency around many items known to be housed there.

Full > http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2014/09/01/whats-hidden-in-the-vatican-archives/

6 Hover Vehicles That Are Closer Than You Think

Ever since humans invented the first mobile machines, it seems that they have been dreaming of how to make those machines hover. And while consumers have an impressive variety of vehicles to choose from today, there is a depressing lack of hovering ability among current transportation options. Fortunately, there are several forward-looking companies and individual inventors that are currently working on making humanity’s dreams of commercially available hover vehicles a reality.

The hover vehicle projects highlighted on this list are in varying stages of development, from pure concepts to early prototypes. However, all of the technologies employed by these hover vehicles appear to be feasible if given enough funding and research. From hover cars to hover skateboards, here are six hover vehicles that have a decent chance of becoming available to consumers in the years to come.

1. Terrafugia TF-X

Massachusetts-based firm Terrafugia is currently developing an electric hybrid vehicle that will be able to drive like a conventional car, but also takeoff vertically and fly. While the propellers that lift this flying car eventually fold up when it enters flight mode, the nifty vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of the TF-X definitely qualify it as a hover vehicle.

Perhaps even more impressive than its hovering capabilities is the TF-X’s autonomous navigation system. According to Terrafugia’s website, although a human operator will have the option to fly the TF-X manually, the vehicle will also have an automatic mode that will fly it between approved landing zones. The TF-X will also include many safety features, including the ability to auto-land in case of operator unresponsiveness and a backup full-vehicle parachute system.

Unlike many other flying car concepts, the TF-X is intended for the typical consumer and not just those with a pilot’s license. According to Terrafugia, the TF-X will only take the average driver around five hours of training to learn how to operate it. However, before you put a TF-X on your Christmas wish list, you should note that the company expects development of the vehicle to last eight to 12 years.

2. Volkswagen hover car concept

Volkswagen’s concept hover car was the result of the German company’s People’s Car Project in China in which consumers submitted their ideas about what the car of the future should look like, according to Digital Trends. So while the hover car showcased in Volkswagen’s concept video has yet to be created, this vision of the car of the future may not be as far-fetched as it seems, since it relies on several proven technologies.

Like existing magnetic levitation (maglev) trains, this wheel-shaped vehicle would rely on an electromagnetic track embedded in the road to enable its ability to hover, while a thruster in the back would propel it forward. Although this would require that tracks be installed into roadways, it should be noted that researchers at Stanford have already explored embedding an electrical grid into highways in the U.S. that could also be used to guide and charge autonomous vehicles, as reported by CNET.

Likewise, Google has already demonstrated the feasibility of autonomous vehicles with its self-driving car project. Finally, as reported by The Verge, a Toyota executive announced at Bloomberg’s Next Big Thing Summit in 2014 that the car maker was exploring a similar hover car concept as part of its “most advanced” research and development efforts.

3. The HoverCar by Brent Saxsma

The quest for a hover vehicle isn’t just being undertaken by big companies. Inspired by the flying DeLorean seen in the Back to the Future films, inventor Brent Saxsma is trying to build his own hover car. Just like the flying DeLorean seen in the movie, Saxsma’s HoverCar would feature wheels that rotate inward. However, instead of rocket thrusters, the HoverCar would use embedded duct fans to create lift. According to his official HoverCar website, Saxsma has even applied for a patent for a sophisticated duct fan system that will allow the vehicle to hover.

Although the HoverCar Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign was cancelled last December, it doesn’t appear that Saxsma has given up on his dream of creating a real flying DeLorean. While some skeptics may dismiss Saxsma’s idea as ludicrous simply because it was borrowed from a movie, it should be noted that there are other successful inventors who have been similarly inspired by science fiction films. As previously reported by the Cheat Sheet, the inventor of the mobile phone claimed that he was inspired by the handheld communicators he saw in Star Trek.

4. Aerofex Aero-X “hover bike”

Who said cars were the only vehicles that could hover? California-based firm Aerofex is developing a hover vehicle called the Aero-X that has been compared to the speeder bikes seen in the Star Wars films. The Aero-X seats two people and can hover up to 12 feet above the ground at speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. Video of an early prototype of the Aero-X can be seen here.

Like the Terrafugia TF-X, the Aero-X has been designed with the average consumer in mind. According to Aerofex, the Aero-X features intuitive controls that respond to an operator’s movements similar to how a motorcycle does. The Aero-X may even be safer than a motorcycle since it will feature a roll bar. Customers will also have the option to have whole vehicle airbags installed.

Before you get too excited about going where roads are not needed, you might want to first check your bank account. According to Aerofex’s website, the estimated price of the Aero-X will be $85,000. The first deliveries are expected to commence in 2017 and interested customers can already reserve an Aero-X with a $5,000 refundable deposit.

Full article > http://www.cheatsheet.com/technology/6-hover-vehicles-that-are-closer-than-you-think.html/?a=viewall

Young Black Males in U.S. Suffer Well-Being Deficit

by Dan Witters and Diana Liu

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Among men, blacks have lowest well-being in U.S.
• Young black males evaluate own lives far lower than young non-blacks

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Among U.S. men, blacks have lower well-being than non-blacks, particularly among young men and seniors, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Black men under the age of 35 have a Well-Being Index score that is at least one point lower than all other groups, a deficit that is statistically significant.

These findings are based on nearly 98,000 interviews with American men aged 18 and over, from Jan. 2-Dec. 30, 2014, conducted as part of theGallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

Young black males as a group have higher unemployment, lower graduation rates, less access to healthcare and higher incarceration rates than other racial, age and gender groups in the U.S. And in 2014, the particular difficulties this group has in dealings with law enforcement became headline news after events in Ferguson, Missouri, and Staten Island, New York, occurred involving the death of certain young black men at the hands of police. This article explores young black males' well-being, compared with other groups.

The Well-Being Index among black men aged 18 to 34 averages 59.1, 1.8 points lower than the average among all non-black men. The difference is 1.9 points for black men over the age of 65. Among those between the age of 35 and 64, however, there is little difference because blacks and whites in this age range have similar well-being scores.

Asians and Hispanics report the highest levels of well-being among men nationally. Asians in particular hold the highest well-being in every age group, while Hispanics are second-highest in every age group except the over 65 group, where they are surpassed by whites.

Within each racial group, senior citizens have the highest well-being of all age categories. Among blacks, Asians and Hispanics, well-being is also higher among those between the ages of 50 and 64 than among those less than age 50. In contrast, the youngest white males have higher well-being than white men of middle age.

Life Evaluations Much Lower for Black Men Under 35

Similar to well-being generally, young black males' general outlook on their lives is particularly worse than what is reported by young males who are not black. Gallup finds 51.7% of black males ages 18 to 34 rate their life situation well enough to be considered thriving, compared with 59.6% of non-black males in the same age range. There are much smaller differences in life evaluation between blacks and non-blacks at older ages.

Also noteworthy is that young black males evaluate their lives worse than black males aged 35-49, a pattern not found across age groups among all U.S. adults or among non-black males, where life evaluation typically is lower among older age groups.

Gallup and Healthways classifies Americans as "thriving," "struggling" or "suffering," according to how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10 based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. Those who rate their present life a 7 or higher and their lives in five years an 8 or higher are classified as thriving, while those who rate both dimensions a 4 or lower are considered suffering. Respondents whose ratings fall in between are considered struggling.

Implications

Race and ethnicity is associated with well-being for both men and women, as is age. Among all Americans, well-being is higher for young adults than for middle-aged adults, before peaking among seniors. This general pattern is broken among blacks, as the life evaluation of young black men trails that of black men aged 35 to 49. These findings come at a time when Americans' satisfaction with race relations in the U.S. issharply lower than what was reported in 2008. In addition,disproportionately high incarceration rates of young black males in the U.S. could potentially result in overestimating their already lower levels of reported well-being, as only non-incarcerated respondents are reached in the ongoing Well-Being Index.

Black men face many challenges in American society. The official unemployment rate for black men is 10.4%, double the rate of 5.2% found for men generally. Amidst the jobs deficit, one-quarter of young black men report that they are treated unfairly by police because they are black, higher than what is reported by black women of their age group or older black men.

The well-being shortfall reported by young black men stems from, but also adds to, these challenges. Well-being among populations is related to employment, healthcare utilization, crime, high school graduation rates, poor mental health, and life expectancy among other outcomes.As leaders of communities continue to discuss ways to help the lives of its citizens, embracing principles of well-being can serve as a critical contribution to this conversation. For young black males in particular, substantially lower well-being also represents a clear opportunity for leaders to make improvements in this arena.

John Hope Bryant, CEO of Operation Hope and a noted thought leader focused on the challenges facing black men in American society today, adds, "There are a myriad of factors that contribute to why young black men's suffering index is so high, but what matters most today -- and for our collective American future -- is what we do about it in the here and now. And going forward, what every young person in the world wants is a positive expression of what we call 'their life aspirations.' What is needed now are for policy makers, business leaders, thought leaders and community leaders to take this data, and to stand up a Call To Action 3.0. Our lives -- and our collective future -- literally depends on it."

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey Jan. 2-Dec. 30, 2014, yielding a random sample of 97,784 adult men, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, selected using random-digit-dial sampling.

For results based on the sample sizes noted below, black respondents for each age category will have a maximum expected error range of about ±2.7 percentage points (life evaluation) and ±0.8 index points (Well-Being Index) at the 95% confidence level. Non-black respondents, in turn, will have a maximum expected error range of about ±0.8 percentage points (life evaluation) and ±0.2 index points (Well-Being Index) at the 95% confidence level.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Samples are weighted to correct for unequal selection probability, nonresponse, and double coverage of landline and cell users in the two sampling frames. They are also weighted to match the national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, population density, and phone status (cellphone only/landline only/both, and cellphone mostly). Demographic weighting targets are based on the most recent Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older U.S. population. Phone status targets are based on the most recent National Health Interview Survey. Population density targets are based on the most recent U.S. census. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/181952/young-black-males-suffer-deficit.aspx

How much money did Hillary Clinton get from big banks?

Top Contributors

Senator Hillary Clinton (Career)

This table lists the top donors to this candidate in 1999-2016. The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organizations' PACs, their individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

Why (and How) We Use Donors' Employer/Occupation Information

METHODOLOGY

NOTE: All the numbers on this page are for 1999-2016and based on Federal Election Commission data available electronically on echo Monday, August 03, 2015. ("Help! The numbers don't add up...")

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center.

Interactive site > https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00000019&cycle=Career

If you think she doesn't owe big favors, think again.

A US President's Salary? Who in the hell wants that job?

Since 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment.^[79][80] The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.

Now let's put that figure in perspective.

3) CEOs of poorly performing companies

Most U.S. chief executives are vastly overpaid, but if their company is rewarding shareholders and employees, producing quality products of good value and being a responsible corporate citizen, it's hard to take issue with their compensation.

CEOs at chronically unprofitable companies and those forever lagging industry peers stand as the most grossly overpaid. Most know they should resign -- in shareholders' and employees' interest -- but they survive because corporate boards that oversee them remain stacked with friends and family members.

The ultimate excess comes after they're finally forced out, usually by insiders tired of seeing their own stock holdings plummet. These long-time losers draw multimillion-dollar severance packages as a reward for their failed stewardship.

2) Washed-up pro athletes in long-term contracts

Pro athletes at the top of their game deserve what they earn for being the best in their business. It's those who sign whopping, long-term contracts after a few strong years, and then find their talents vanish, who reap unconscionable sums of money.

NBA player Shawn Kemp, for instance, earned $10 million in a year he averaged a pathetic 6.1 points and 3.8 rebounds a game. Atlanta Braves pitcher Mike Hampton earned $9.5 million -- in the second year of an eight-year, $121 million contract -- while compiling a 7-15 won-loss record for the Colorado Rockies with a pitiful earned-run average of 6.15.

Thank the players' unions for refusing to negotiate contracts based on performance -- and driving up the cost of tickets to levels unaffordable for a family of four, especially for football and basketball. They point to owners as the culprits, yet golf star Tiger Woods and tennis champ Serena Williams earn their keep based on their performance in each tournament.

1) Mutual-fund managers

Everyone on Wall Street makes far too much for the backbreaking work of moving money around, but mutual fund managers are emerging as among the most reprehensible.

This isn't kicking 'em when they're down, given the growing fund-industry scandal. They've been long overpaid. Stock-fund managers can easily earn $500,000 to $1 million a year including bonuses -- even though only 3 in 10 beat the market in the last 10 years.

Now we discover an untold number enriched themselves and favored clients with illegally timed trades of fund shares. That's a worse betrayal of trust than the corporate scandals of recent years, since they're supposed to be on the little person's side.

Put aside what fund managers earn and consider their bosses. Putnam's ex-CEO Lawrence J. Lasser's income rivals the bloated pay package that sparked New York Stock Exchange President Dick Grasso's ouster. Lasser's take: An estimated total of $163 million over the last five years.

Full article > http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-10-most-overpaid-jobs-in-the-us

Why?