Traffic collisions in India are a major source of deaths, injuries and property damage every year. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2021 report states that there were 155,622 fatalities, highest since 2014, out of which 69,240 deaths were due to two-wheelers. A study by Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, U.S. shows that the use of seat belts significantly reduces the risks and injuries from road accidents, and yet there is no enforcement on use of seat belts in cars. A study by IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Delhi points out that the national highways constitute only 2% of the length of roads in India, but they account for 30.3% of total road accidents and 36% of deaths.
According to the 2013 global survey of traffic collisions by the UN World Health Organization, India suffered a road fatality rate of 16.6 per 100,000 people in 2013. India’s average traffic collision fatality rate was similar to the world average rate of 17.4 deaths per 100,000 people, less than the low-income countries which averaged 24.1 deaths per 100,000, and higher than the high-income countries which reported the lowest average rate of 9.2 deaths per 100,000 in 2013.
Traffic in India consists of almost every conceivable type of motor vehicle, cars, trucks, buses, auto rickshaws, scooters and motorcycles. Add to this crazy eclectic mix bicycles, pedestrians and the odd cow the chaos becomes mind-boggling.
111 West 57th Street, also known as Steinway Tower, is a supertall residential skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Developed by JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group, it is situated along Billionaires’ Row on the north side of 57th Street near Sixth Avenue. The main portion of the building is an 84-story, 1,428-foot (435-meter) tower designed by SHoP Architects and completed in 2021. Preserved at the base is the 16-story Steinway Building (also Steinway Hall), a former Steinway & Sons store designed by Warren and Wetmore and completed in 1925, which originally carried the address 111 West 57th Street.
111 West 57th Street contains 60 luxury condominiums: 14 in Steinway Hall and 46 in the tower. The residential tower has a glass facade with piers made of terracotta; its pinnacle contains setbacks on the southern side. The tower is the fourth-tallest building in the United States as of November 2022, as well as the thinnest skyscraper in the world with a width-to-height ratio of about 1:24.
The residential tower atop Steinway Hall is one of the tallest buildings in the United States, as well as the thinnest skyscraper in the world with a width-to-height ratio of about 1:24. Due to its slenderness, the top stories sway several feet during high winds. The building has been characterized as part of a new breed of New York City “pencil towers”. The tower’s northern elevation rises directly up to the pinnacle, and the southern elevation contains several setbacks as the tower rises, thinning the tower’s footprint on higher floors. The pinnacle’s lighting pattern was commissioned by L’Observatoire International. Because of the shape of the tower’s pinnacle, 111 West 57th Street is nicknamed “Stairway to Heaven”.
111 West 57th Street’s interior spaces were designed by Studio Sofield, though the interior of the original Steinway Hall was planned by Walter L. Hopkins. There are 60 apartments in total: 46 in the tower and 14 in Steinway Hall. According to the New York City Department of City Planning, the building has a gross floor area of 303,225 square feet (28,170.5 m2).
The 46 condominiums in the building’s tower range from 3,873 to 7,128 square feet (359.8 to 662.2 m2). The apartments start above the 17th story, numbered as floor 20, because the views of Central Park from the lower floors are obstructed by neighboring buildings. The units are mostly three-bedroom apartments each occupying one full floor, except for seven duplex units on floors 60–61 and 72–83, which each have between two and four bedrooms. Many of the stories are open in plan and have 14-foot (4.3 m) ceilings. As of 2018, prices ranged from $16 million for a studio apartment to over $66 million for the triplex penthouse.
‘People refer to them as Stonehenge’: Abandoned concrete plant in Manitoba turns into photo destination
Video at the bottom.
Four small hills covered with geometrically spaced concrete spires on the outskirts of Winnipeg has been attracting visitors for years.
Speculation on what they are has given rise to radical theories of aliens and occult worship, but in reality they are the remnants of a industrial endeavor that fell victim in what could be called Winnipeg’s cement wars of the 1960s.
“People refer to them as Stonehenge or things like that,” said Kelvin Stewart, Ward 4 Councillor for the RM of Rosser where the concrete graveyard is located. “People don’t understand what it was, but the piles from the cement plant have nothing to do with cold or sun worship, or whatever Stonehenge is used for.”
On the site four mounds, each at least eight feet tall and in pairs with diameters of 50 and 70 feet, house multiple concrete piles spaced in a set pattern.
On each pile are dates and numbers, which the Manitoba Historical Society said would let workers know when it was strong enough to withstand the stresses of being pounded into the ground. Other numbers revealed pile lengths. They vary from 50 to 60 feet.
There was also a railway connection that has since been removed.
“There was a spur line previously that went off into the site so they had big plans for it,” said Stewart.
Those plans came from a company called BACM, which stands for British-American Construction and Materials Limited. According to the Historical Society, it was founded in 1961 by four brothers and based in Winnipeg.
The business was focused on building supplies, land and property development and construction. Its building supplies division made concrete products, including piles.
The historical society said a new subsidiary company was formed called the British-American Cement Company to operate a new $8.5 million cement factory out of the RM of Rosser location. The company drove its first pile into the ground in November of 1963.
The venture was ill fated as it faced competition from two other cement companies, including a planned new operation from Inland Cement in Winnipeg. According to the Manitoba Historical Society, industry analysts at the time said if the two new plants were built, they would produce triple the amount of concrete needed by Manitoba’s entire building industry.
Inland Cement bought the site from BACM in 1964 following a decision by Winnipeg City Council to give all of their business to Inland, despite operating their cement plant out of Saskatchewan. Inland eventually built its concrete plant in Winnipeg and the old BACM site went dormant.
What’s been dubbed the concrete graveyard has sat empty for years despite several attempts at development.
“I was just a kid at the time with my father who was a councillor. It was going to be a western themed park because it’s not a small thing with the remnants of a cement plant but 240 acres,” said Stewart.
More recently plans have come forward for industrial lots or development because of its location within the CentrePort area. The issue, according to Stewart, is the site’s lack of services.
“It’s not contiguous to current development. There’s no sewer and water,” Stewart said. “That’s kind of problematic.
Stewart said it does get a lot of visitors who often brave the cold winter weather to snap a great shot for their social media feed with hashtags like #pilehenge or #concretegraveyard.
A pic taken off Google Maps. Not sure what the hell the thing in the top right corner could be. No Space Aliens involved here, are you sure?
There was an Alternative Winnipeg pop/rock band back in the eighties that named themselves Monuments Galore. I think their first album had a picture of the site on the cover.
In the northern part of Winnipeg on the Red River is an antiquated railroad swing bridge. Out of service for decades, the bridge is still an amazing piece of history and engineering. When the boats were coming, someone would have to scurry to the middle of the bridge and hit the swing switch. Some type of motor would start the machinery causing the middle section to swivel. Hopefully no trains coming.
The NS Yamal is a Russian Arktika class nuclear-powered icebreaker operated by Atomflot (formerly by the Murmansk Shipping Company). It is named after the Yamal Peninsula in Northwest Siberia; the name means End of the Land in Nenets.
Laid down in Leningrad in 1986, and launched in October 1992, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, it never filled its designed role of keeping shipping lanes open. It has always carried passengers on arctic excursions. In July of 1994 Yamal took an excursion to the North Pole, with the NSF (National Science Foundation), to celebrate the Official Maiden Voyage. While at the exact north pole (verified by GPS & Inmarsat satellite coordinates) the crew and passengers celebrated with a barbeque – the ambient temperature was -10 degrees F (wind gusts were measured at -40 degrees F). Because of the ship 90/90 coordinates the ship captain (Smirnov) organized a swimming party with Mr. Will Rountree (USA) being recorded as the 1st person to ever swim there (21 Jul 94) – water temperature was below freezing, ranging from 28 degrees to 31 degrees F. The Yamal is the 12th surface ship ever to reach the north pole.
The Yamal is equipped with a double hull. The outer hull is 48 mm thick where ice is met and 25 mm elsewhere and has a polymer coating to reduce friction. There is water ballast between the inner and outer hulls which can be shifted in order to aid icebreaking. Icebreaking is also assisted by an air bubbling system which can deliver 24 m³/s of air from jets 9 m below the surface. The Yamal can break ice while making way either forwards or backwards.
Yamal is one of the Russian “Arktika” family of icebreakers, the most powerful icebreakers in the world. These ships must cruise in cold water to cool their reactors, so they cannot pass through the tropics to undertake voyages in the Southern hemisphere.
Yamal docked in Murmansk
Yamal carries one helicopter and several Zodiac boats. Radio and satellite communications systems are installed which can provide navigation, telephone, fax, and email services. Amenities include a large dining room (capable of holding all 100 passengers in one sitting), a library, passenger lounge, auditorium, volleyball court, gymnasium, heated indoor swimming pool, a sauna, and an infirmary. She is equipped with 50 passenger cabins and suites, all with toilets, exterior windows, a television, and a desk.
Yamal also played a significant role in creation of annual travel expeditions to the North Pole, being one of the few vessels capable of getting there and bringing tourists with it in safety. Since 1993 the icebreaker was operated by Murmansk Shipping Company and in 2001-2008 the operation was made by Murmansk Shipping Company and Poseidon Expeditions. Yamal has made a total of 47 voyages to the North Pole.
Sister ship 50 Let Pobedy, biggest icebreaker in the world
General characteristics
Class and type:
Arktika-class icebreaker
Displacement:
23,455 tons
Length:
150 m (490 ft); 136 m (446 ft) at waterline
Beam:
30 m (98 ft); 28 m (92 ft) at waterline
Height:
55 m (180 ft) keel to mast head
Draft:
11.08 m (36.4 ft)
Propulsion:
2 x OK-900 171 MW nuclear reactors; 2 x steam turbines driving 6 generators, total 75,000 hp (55.3 MW)
An orc in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth fantasy fiction, is a race of humanoid monsters, which he also calls “goblin”.
Especially in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race of monsters, contrasting with the benevolent Elves. They are a corrupted race of elves, either bred that way by the Dark Lord Morgoth, or turned savage in that manner, according to the Silmarillion.
Orcs are of human shape, and of varying size. They are depicted as ugly and filthy, with a taste for human flesh. They are fanged, bow-legged and long-armed. Most are small and avoid daylight.
By the Third Age, a new breed of orc had emerged, the Uruk-hai, larger and more powerful, and no longer afraid of daylight. Orcs eat meat, including the flesh of Men, and may indulge in cannibalism: in The Two Towers, Grishnákh, an orc from Mordor, claims that the Isengard orcs eat orc-flesh. Whether that is true or spoken in malice is uncertain: an orc flings Peregrin Took stale bread and a “strip of raw dried flesh… the flesh of he dared not guess what creature”.
The MarkoZen Blog 