Caterpillar 797

The Caterpillar 797 mining truck was the largest of its kind in the world until 2001. Brought into operation in 2000, it has a payload capacity of 360 tons. The Cat 797 is powered by a 24 cylinder V24 quad-turbo diesel engine that produces an amazing 3,400 horsepower. The truck is 23 feet from the road to the top of truck bed, and almost 50 feet tall when the bed is raised for dumping. The total Length of the truck is 47.5 feet.

Eight onboard computers monitor oil pressure, transmission torque, engine performance and tire temperature. The Caterpillar 797 sells for $3.4 million; the 13 foot tall Michelin tires were especially designed for the 797, and cost about $30,000 each.

When a new 797 is delivered, it arrives in pieces aboard 12 semis, including an 850 gallon (or optional 1800 gallon) fuel tank.

With a full load, the 797 can move as fast as 40 mph on level ground. Behind each wheel is a pack of 42-inch brake discs ... 10 each in front, 15 per corner in the back. Dissipating that energy is a computer controlled brake-cooling system that pumps oil -- up to 1160 gallons of it per minute -- through multiple coolers and then through the discs. These brakes work!

The truck uses fuel in huge amounts ... an average of 65 gallons/hr ... with a fuel economy rating of 0.3 mpg. With such huge costs involved, the vehicle is usually run 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, stopping only for regularly scheduled maintenance.

For maximum efficiency, mining truck volume must be a multiple of mining shovel capacity. Cat built the 360 ton capacity 797 specifically to handle the 90-ton loads carried by the industry's biggest shovels; four scoops and the truck is full. But P&H Mining Equipment of Milwaukee recently debuted a "dipper" capable of snatching ore in 100-ton bites, which creates a problem in filling the 360-ton-capacity pickup. New models are in the works!

Have you ever seen a Water bridge over a river?

The 918-metre Magdeburg Water Bridge or Wasserstrassenkreuz in German, completed in October 2003, connects two important German shipping canals, the Elbe-Havel Canal and the Mittellandkanal, which leads to the country’s industrial Ruhr Valley heartland.

Engineers first conceived of joining the two waterways as far back as 1919 and by 1938 the Rothensee lock and bridge anchors were in place but construction was postponed during the first and second world wars. After the Cold War split Germany, the project was put on hold indefinitely by the East German government. With the reunification of Germany and the following establishment of major projects in transport tracks the Water Bridge again became a priority.

Construction began in 1997 and after six years and around half a billion euros the gigantic water bridge now connects Berlin’s inland harbour with the ports along the Rhine river. The huge tub created to transport ships over the Elbe took 24,000 metric tons of steel and 68,000 cubic meters of concrete to build.

Until the opening of the water bridge in October 2003 the ships moving between the Midland canal and the Elbe-Havel canal had to detour 12 km through the Rothensee lock, the Elbe and the Niegripp lock.

THEY ARE IN EVERY OFFICE!!!!

ONE WHO SLEEPS THROUGH THE DAY!

ONE NOSY ONE!

ONE CLOWN!

ONE EATING CONTINUOUSLY!

ONE WHO IS LOOKING FOR ATTENTION!

ONE CLIQUE!

ONE STALKER!

ONE LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW ALL DAY!

ONE WITH NO DRIVE FOR WORK!

ONE SHY MOUSE!

ONE SITTING ON THE LOO MOST OF THE TIME!

ONE IDIOT!

ONE WHICH IS PERMANENTLY SHIVERING!

ONE FOR THE DIRTY JOBS!

AND . . . UNFORTUNATELY . . . ALSO

A BOSS!!

Rotor!!!!!!

Check this out, you're driving through England and you are completely confused because you are driving on the left side, when you see this sign:

and of course you ask yourself ''What now?''

After a few meters you come to a rotor...

It like on a round-about!!!!

There are 3 or 4 of them. In Swindon, London and Cardiff and in near Southampton.

Of course, the driving-route is opposite of the normal one!

Mother of the Year 2004

In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth. The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve. After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans that could be found quickly, were a litter of weaner pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops???

Take a look........ you won't believe your eyes!

Origami!!

Origami (Japanese: ori, to fold, and kami, paper lit. "folding paper") is the art of paper folding. The goal of this art is to create a given result using geometric folds and crease patterns. Origami refers to all types of paper folding, even those of non-Japanese origin.

Origami only uses a small number of different folds, but they can be combined in a variety of ways to make intricate designs. In general, these designs begin with a square sheet of paper, whose sides may be different colors, and usually proceed without cutting the paper. Contrary to most popular belief, traditional Japanese origami, which has been practiced since the Edo era (1603-1867), has often been less strict about these conventions, sometimes cutting the paper during the creation of the design or starting with a rectangular, circular, triangular or other non-square sheets of paper.

History:
Although some historians argue that Origami originated in China, it is generally accepted that its actual development as an art form occurred in Japan. Origami was mostly a traditional art for the amusement of children until Akira Yoshizawa spurred a renaissance of the art form with his new advancements, including wet-folding and the Yoshizawa-Randlett system of diagramming. In the 1960s the art of origami began to spread out, first with modular origami and then with various movements developing, including the kirikomi, purist and pureland schools of thought.