High-Rise Cities in the World

                                                        Hong Kong - 7.685

Interesting data on the number of houses taller than 35 meters. For the record - the usual panel five-storey building - about 18 meters.

New York City. USA - 5.924

Sao Paulo. Brazil - 5.667

Singapore - 4.368

Moscow. Russia - 3.273

Teheran. Iran - 2.804

Tokyo. Japan - 2.702

Rio de Janeiro. Brazil - 2.564

Istanbul. Turkey - 2.148

Saint-Petersburg. Russia - 1.770

Chicago. USA - 1.125

                                                           

                           Caracas. Venezuela - 1.109                                                                                     

Bangkok. Thailand - 1.106

Recife. Brazil - 1.103

Santiago. Chile - 1.094

Shanghai. China - 990

Animations on the Leaf

The Cloud Buildings — Seoul

Seoul, South Korea’s ‘The Cloud’ buildings are immediately offensive — The buildings are called ‘The Cloud’ and they are being built in Soul, South Korea by Netherlands-based architectural firm MVRDV. The two 850+ foot towers are connected in the middle by an explosive looking “cloud”.

In response to the obvious and immediate backlash due to its uncanny resemblance of the worst terrorist attack ever, that killed thousands of innocent people, MVRDV has released an apology on their site for anyone they may have offended and says that “the design inspiration of The Cloud is visualized in the first image on our website, a cloud covering the centre of the Skyscraper.” The disturbing buildings are scheduled to be completed by 2015.

Global Seed Vault in Norway

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (Norwegian: Svalbard globale frøhvelv) is a secure seedbank located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near the town of Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the North Pole. The facility preserves a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern. The seeds are duplicate samples, or "spare" copies, of seeds held in gene banks worldwide. The seed vault will provide insurance against the loss of seeds in genebanks, as well as a refuge for seeds in the case of large-scale regional or global crises. The seed vault is managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement between the Norwegian government, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).

Construction of the seed vault, which cost approximately NOK 45 million (US$9 million), was funded entirely by the Government of Norway. Storage of seeds in the seed vault is free of charge. Operational costs will be paid by Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Primary funding for the Trust comes from organisations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and from various governments worldwide.