The Sears Tower In Chicago

The Sears Tower has been a Chicago landmark for almost 36. Over that time the Sears Tower has become the destination for millions of world tourists and a daily center of work and commerce for thousands of Chicagoans. The Sears Tower has been America's tallest building for 33 years. And at 442 metres, it's no small competitor -the Petronas Towers only beat it out by 10 metres. It has 108 floors, and from its observation deck 412 metres up, four states can be seen for some 80 kilometres from the tower. It has 108 elevators, for different levels up the tower.The Sears Tower will be Chicago's tallest until the Chicago Spire is completed early next decade, which will be 158 metres taller, at a whooping 600 metres in height. This will also make it the tallest in the US. Other tall towers in the US currently planned are the Freedom Tower at 541 metres, and Crown Las Vegas at 512 metres. The Sears Tower, however, will still be the quintessential Chicago skyscraper. After all, the Chicago Spire will be a condominium building, not such a symbol of the city's endeavour, like the Sears.

Julia Roberts Set For an Authentic Pizza Slice in Naples

Naples is set to serve Julia Roberts one of its best pizzas Monday as the actress films a scene from her new film Eat, Pray, Love. The film is based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling 2006 memoir, Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia. Roberts, who is also producing the film, along with Brad Pitt, will enjoy a slice of Pizzeria da Michele Naples pizza with a tourist guide played by Italian actor Luca Argentero.

Crew could be seen moving into the Forcella neighborhood of Naples today. Roberts will bite into her slice of Naples' pizza, the cities most famous food, at the historic Pizzeria da Michele a Forcella pizzeria Monday. Of course, Roberts is no stranger to Pizza movies, as one of her early movies was Mystic Pizza.

Michele a Forcella, founded in 1870, is known for its archetypal 'vera pizza napolitana'.

Taken by the city's lure, the filmmakers have added an extra scene in a church, Pio Monte della Misericordia, housing Caravaggio's famous Sette Opere di Misericordia.

''This film will be very important for promoting the image of Naples and the surrounding region,'' said the director of Campania's film commission, Maurizio Gemma, praising the ''great collaboration'' shown by the local community.


















Asked on her website ''where can I get that pizza you describe in your book,'' Gilbert replies: ''Pizzeria da Michele. Order the double mozzarella. If you go to Naples and don't eat this pizza, please lie to me later and tell me that you did''.

George Clooney Comes Out at Venice Film Festival

George Clooney was spotted arriving in Venice Monday sporting something that's all the rage in Italian trends – TV presenter Elisabetta Canalis. The day before the premiere of his movie, Men Who Stare at Goats, the couple – who landed at Venice's Lido Nicelli Airfield Monday evening – made a grand arrival at the Venice Film Festival following a water taxi ride across the city's lagoon, prompting Italian papers to gush over the pair as the next brad and Angelina.

Clooney, 48, and the woman better known to local media as "La Canalis" or simply "Eli" have been together for the past three weeks, spending time at Clooney's home on Lake Como.

Clooney was introduced to his new girlfriend in Rome. According to actor Alessandro Siani, who costarred with Canalis in a 2006 Italian movie called Christmas in New York, a mysterious car would follow Siani and Eli every day after filming, when Siani accompanied her back to the hotel where they were staying. "One day I finally decided to go over and confront the occupants of the car. I went over and to my surprise, who was sitting in the car? George Clooney!" Siani told an Italian magazine. "This isn't a new fling."

Exotic Empire State Building in New York City

The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.

The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate.It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 2007, it was ranked number one on the List of America's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. The building is owned and managed by W&H Properties.

The Empire State Building is the third tallest skyscraper in the Americas (surpassed only by Chicago's Sears Tower and Trump International Hotel and Tower) and the 14th tallest in the World. It is also the 4th tallest freestanding structure in the Americas and the 12th tallest in the world.
source information from wikipedia

Hugo Chavez Enters Venice Film Festival Lion's Den Attacking Capitalism

As if "Capitalism" didn't already have a bad enough public relations image problem with movies starring Matt Damon and Michael Moore attacking it at this Year's Venice Film Festival now comes Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who received a movie star welcome Monday at the Venice Film festival where he walked the red carpet with director Oliver Stone for the premiere of the documentary "South of the Border."

Hundreds of admirers, some chanting "president, president," gathered outside of the Venice Casino for Higo Chavez's arrival. A few held up Venezuelan flags and a banner in Spanish that read "Welcome, president."

Chavez threw a flower into the crowd and touched his heart, and at one point took a photographer's camera to snap a picture himself. Security outside the Casino was tightened in advance of his arrival with military police checking bags.

Chavez praised Stone's work for depicting what he said were improvements made across Latin America.

"Rebirth is happening in Latin America, and Stone went to look for it and he found it," Chavez told reporters. "With his cameras and his genius, he's captured a good part of that rebirth."

Stone says "South of the Border" is meant to illustrate "the sweeping changes" in South America in recent years as a direct counterpoint to what some say is Chavez's depiction as a dictator by U.S. and European media.

Stone spent extensive time with Chavez for the 75-minute documentary, which is premiering at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, and also interviewed the leaders of Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba and Paraguay, whom Stone said "are on the same page" as Chavez.

"He's a guy you should meet and get to know. ... He's the star of the movie," Stone said in an interview before the premiere.

Stone said he wanted to illustrate changes that put leaders in many South American countries in power who represent the majority of their populations, a movement started with Chavez. He cited Bolivian President Evo Morales, the first Indian to be elected president, and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a well-known trade unionist.

"If you look now, there are seven presidents, eight countries with Chile, that are really moving away from the Washington consensus control," Stone said. "But in America, they don't get that story."

Stone was invited to Venezuela to meet Chavez for the first time during the Venezuelan leader's aborted rescue mission of Colombian hostages held by FARC rebels. The mission was aborted, but Stone said the Chavez he met was different than some U.S. media depictions.

He returned in January to interview Chavez, and continued on to four other countries to interview Chavez's allies, with Cuban and Ecuadorean leaders joining him in Paraguay.

Stone is best known for his dramas, but he also has made four documentaries, including "Comandante," the 2003 documentary based on a meeting with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, which the director says in many ways led him to Chavez.

"South of the Border" is showing out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, which ends Saturday with the awarding of the Golden Lion.

Golden Gate Bridge Pictures

Mini History of Golden Gate Bridge :
This bridge is the result of Joseph Strauss, a technician who is responsible for more than 400 images of the bridge, although much smaller than the Golden Gate Bridge, and most of the continent. Strauss spent more than one dekadi to gather support in Northern California. Strauss's initial proposal for this location is not really good, consists of a large Cantilever on each side connected with the suspension concentrated. Another important person of this project include architect Irving Morrow, responsible for the Art Deco touches and colors, and technicians Charles Alton Ellis and bridge designer Leon Moisseiff, who work together in complex mathematics involved.

Krakatau Volcanic Island : Best of Indonesian Wonders of Nature

Krakatau Volcanic Islands, Nestled between the large Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra is the Krakatau Volcano National Park. In the fourth century, a single marine volcano stood at this site, but in 416 A.D., the caldera of the volcano collapsed. The remnants formed a new caldera, or volcanic feature formed by the collapse of land following an eruption, around 7 km in diameter, with the peak’s remnants becoming the three islands of Verlaten, Lang and Krakatau.