Monday, July 9, 2007

HEAT WAVE!!!

It's 6:20am and the temps have already reached 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Brace yourselves boys and girls, it's going to be a hot one today. With weather reports predicting between 95-100 degrees, keep your fingers crossed that Con Edison has everything in working order today or we may very well experience another one of those god-forsaken blackouts. I'm personally keeping my fingers crossed that our AC will be up to the task. I feel confident, seeing that we just had it serviced a couple of weeks ago so we should be okay. But i'll keep my fingers crossed just the same.

NEW SEVEN WONDERS ANNOUNCED

Over the weekend a new list of the Seven Wonders of the World was released. Now as a kid I was always fascinated about the "Seven Wonders of the World" and why they were chosen as such. Most of the original seven were from the Middle East or Greece and of all of them , only one still exists today:

The Pyramids of Egypt are three pyramids at Giza, outside modern Cairo. The largest pyramid, built by Khufu (Cheops), a king of the fourth dynasty, had an original estimated height of 482 ft (now approximately 450 ft). The base has sides 755 ft long. It contains 2,300,000 blocks; the average weight of each is 2.5 tons. Estimated date of completion is 2680 B.C.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were supposedly built by Nebuchadnezzar around 600 B.C. to please his queen, Amuhia. They are also associated with the mythical Assyrian queen Semiramis. Archaeologists surmise that the gardens were laid out atop a vaulted building, with provisions for raising water. The terraces were said to rise from 75 to 300 ft.

The Statue of Zeus (Jupiter) at Olympia was made of gold and ivory by the Greek sculptor Phidias (5th century B.C.). Reputed to be 40 ft high, the statue has been lost without a trace, except for reproductions on coins.

The Temple of Artemis (Diana) at Ephesus was begun about 350 B.C., in honor of a non-Hellenic goddess who later became identified with the Greek goddess of the same name. The temple, with Ionic columns 60 ft high, was destroyed by invading Goths in A.D. 262.

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was erected by Queen Artemisia in memory of her husband, King Mausolus of Caria in Asia Minor, who died in 353 B.C. Some remains of the structure are in the British Museum. This shrine is the source of the modern word mausoleum.

The Colossus at Rhodes was a bronze statue of Helios (Apollo), about 105 ft high. The work of the sculptor Chares, who reputedly labored for 12 years before completing it in 280 B.C., it was destroyed during an earthquake in 224 B.C.

The Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria was built by Sostratus of Cnidus during the 3rd century B.C. on the island of Pharos off the coast of Egypt. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 13th century.

Because most of the original seven are no longer in existence, the powers that be (whoever they are), decided that a new list of seven were in order. So after a worldwide election, a popular vote came up with the following list as the "New Seven Wonders of the World" (though they still chose to keep the Pyramids of Egypt, which actually makes it Eight Wonders of the World, though why I'm even talking about this in the first place, I'll never know...):


1) The Taj Mahal (INDIA). The white marble-domed mausoleum in Agra was built by Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654 for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth. The complex - an example of Mughal architecture combining Indian, Persian, and Islamic styles - houses the graves of the emperor and his wife, as well as those of lesser royalty.






2) Christ the Redeemer Statue (BRAZIL- My personal favorite). The 38-metre-tall statue of Christ the Redeemer with outstretched arms overlooks Rio de Janeiro from atop Mt. Corcovado. The statue, which weighs more than 1,000 tonnes, was built by Polish-French sculptor Paul Landowski in pieces in France starting in 1926, then shipped to Brazil. The pieces were carried by cogwheel railway up the mountain for assembly. The statue was inaugurated in 1931.








3) Great Wall of China (CHINA). The 6,700-kilometre barricade running from east to west in northern China is the longest man-made structure in the world. The fortification, which largely dates from the seventh through the fourth century BC, was built to protect the dynasties from invasion by the Huns, Mongols, Turks and other nomadic tribes.











4) Pyramid at Chichen Itza (MEXICO). This step-pyramid surmounted by a temple survives from a sacred site that was part of one of the greatest Mayan centres of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Built according to the solar calendar, it is placed so that shadows cast at the fall and spring equinoxes are said to look like a snake crawling down the steps, similar to the carved serpent at the top.





5) Machu Picchu (PERU). Built by the Incan Empire in the 15th century, the giant walls, palaces, temples and dwellings of the Machu Picchu sanctuary are perched in the clouds at 2,400 metres above sea level in the Andes mountains. It remains a mystery how the huge stones were moved into place for the construction of the remote city.





6) Petra (JORDAN). The ancient city of Petra in southwestern Jordan, built on a terrace around the Wadi Musa or Valley of Moses, was the capital of the Arab kingdom of the Nabateans. It also flourished under Roman rule after the Nabateans were defeated in AD 106. The city is famous for its water tunnels and numerous stone structures carved in rock, the most impressive of which is probably Ad-Dayr, an uncompleted tomb facade that served as a church during Byzantine times.











7) Rome Colosseum (ITALY). The giant amphitheatre in Rome was inaugurated in AD 80 by the Emperor Titus in a ceremony of games lasting 100 days. The 50,000-seat Colosseum, which has influenced the design of modern sports stadiums, was an arena where thousands of gladiators duelled to the death and Christians were fed to the lions.


As you can see, the final choices were interesting to say the least. Will I visit any of them? Probably not (well, may be the Christ the Redeemer). But then again, who knows for sure?

That was your history/geography lesson for the month, boys and girls. If there are any "wonders of the world" that you thought should have gotten a mention, feel free to list them here!


DOLLAR DRAFT MADNESS tonight ($1.00 mugs, Bud, Bud Light and Coors Light), 4pm - close! FIREMARSHALL ED and F.I.T. GIRL are pouring the drafts tonight!


Stay cool!



NUFF said.