Friday, May 1, 2009

Unique Hotel...!!!!!

Unique Hotel...!!!!!


Sao Paulo is a place where the skyline seems to go on forever and ever. And then some. In comparison—at least after viewing the South American city from the rooftop restaurant of the ultramodern and aptly named Unique hotel, with a constant flurry of sleek black helicopters buzzing overhead—Manhattan seems, well, small.


And as you can see in the above photos, the Unique seems pretty big by boutique hotel standards: The windows are actually perfectly round portholes; coupled with the boat-inspired design, the overall effect makes you feel like you’re a passenger aboard some impossibly hip cruise line.


And there is, in fact, water down below (as well as above): A sub-level pool that can only be accessed via a huge water slide. It’s an aggressively playful touch—and a total blast. I’ve found that the ideal way to prepare for a nine-plus hour flight from Sao Paulo to JFK is to indulge in a little nightswimming, doing the backstroke while listening to Roxy Music (the pool features underwater speakers, natch). Another perfectly “Unique” touch: The pool features a pair of hydro-therapy massage chairs.

Needless to say that after a night at this hotel—where stars such as Madonna have checked in and during my visit, I happened to be right next door to photogenic Top Chef vet Sam Talbot—my return trip to New York City went just swimmingly!

Amazing Mammoth Baby.....!!!!!

Amazing Mammoth Baby.....!!!!!


Researchers at Japan’s Jikei University will soon be checking the mailbox for a cool package from Siberia — the recently discovered frozen body of an ancient baby mammoth. The nearly complete body of the female calf, said to be one of the best-preserved specimens of frozen mammoth ever discovered, is estimated to have been less than one year old before it was preserved in ice about 10,000 years ago. 

According to the Russian Tass news agency, a reindeer herder stumbled upon the 130 cm (4 ft 3 in) tall, 50 kg (110 lbs) frozen mammoth in May in an area of permafrost in northwestern Siberia, near the Yuribey River on the Yamal Peninsula, which extends into the Kara Sea. The mammoth, whose trunk and eyes remain intact and which still has some fur on its body, was shown to an international panel of experts that convened on July 5 in the town of Salekhard, near the discovery site. 

Preparations are now being made to ship the baby mammoth to Jikei University School of Medicine, where researchers will use advanced computed tomography (CT) scanners to obtain three-dimensional images of its internal organs. “This is the first opportunity for anyone to perform an analysis on a complete mammoth body,” says Jikei University professor Naoki Suzuki, “and it should provide a more complete picture of its anatomy and how it lived.”