Some of these pictures need captioning….

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1. Modern ways to control water

A Water Highway

The bridge “Magdeburg” (Germany) – you need to look at it a number of times to understand what is actually happening.

It’s a bridge that goes over the Elba river. It allows boats easy access into canals. It cost more than 500 million Euros and took 6 years to build

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I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1.

There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as ‘Bankrupcy Planning”. Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

• Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
• Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
• Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 stores nationwide
• Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
• Cache will close all stores
• Talbots closing down specialty stores
• J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots) Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
• GAP closing 85 stores
• Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
• Wickes Furniture closing down
• Levitz closing down remaining stores
• Bombay closing remaining stores
• Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January ** (Please see below comments for more info.)
• Whitehall closing all stores
• Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
• Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January
• Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
• Macys to close 9 stores after January
• Linens and Things closing all stores
• Movie Galley Closing all stores (This  listing at ReasonPad has been confronted by Movie Gallery by proving us a link to their official statement. We have added the link for our readers information http://www.moviegallery.com/company/blog.aspx )
• Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
• Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
• JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
• Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores
• Wilson Leather closing down all stores
• Sharper Image closing down all stores
• K B Toys closing 356 stores
• Lowes to close down some stores
• Dillard’s to close some stores

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO US….WE ARE IN A BAD PHASE….AND YES, MORE “SALES” AND SCREWED UP GIFT CARDS

** : This listing at ReasonPad has been opposed by Zales & Piercing Pagoda with the below stated statement sent to us on 11/25/2008. The below statement has been published for our readers information.

“ It has come to our attention that false and misleading information, regarding our Company and our real estate portfolio, is circulating on the Web, as part of a hoax to scare consumers. Zale Corporation is a financially strong company that operates over 2,100 locations across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. The Company has no intention of closing its Piercing Pagoda brand; in fact we’ve sighted the brand as one of our growth opportunities. Last fiscal year we closed 106 underperforming locations at lease maturity as part of our disciplined real estate strategy. At the same time, we opened 47 locations. The vast majority of our closings were at Piercing Pagoda where we had multiple locations in the mall and have since improved productivity of the existing locations. Our gift cards and warranties are a key part of our ongoing business and will continue to be honored at our stores.”

Sirens blared outside Yahoo!’s campus Tuesday, a day after chief executive Jerry Yang said he will step down as the Web portal continues to struggle to gain a grip on the advertising market and capitalise on its media assets.

Paramedics, police and a fire truck responded after a Yahoo! employee suffered a seizure, a company security guard said. It’s unclear what caused the seizure, but employees at the company’s headquarters are bracing for 1,500 jobs cuts that are expected next month.

With the Web portal’s future less certain than ever, employees were guarded when asked about Yahoo!’s troubles. The company’s stock is down 63 per cent from what Microsoft offered to pay for it in February, and Google continues to bite off chunks of Yahoo!’s business by the mouthful.

Many employees, however, weren’t talking. Why risk a job in this economy? “I’m sorry, I can’t say anything,” one employee said as he rushed away with a box lunch in hand.

Still, asking Yahoo! employees what went wrong is only fair. The company is constantly criticised in Silicon Valley, where it is seen as the loser to upstart Google in the race to control the Web.

Yet Yahoo! is staffed by some of the smartest, most Web-savvy people on earth. Surely, they deserve a chance to respond.

Here’s what employees said when asked about Yahoo!’s most talked-about missteps.

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10 Wiley Post & Will Rogers

1898-1935, 1879-1935

Wiley Post who was the first pilot to fly solo around the world and his good friend Will Rogers a famous comedian, humorist and social commentator were set out to fly around the world together. This photo (that’s Will Rogers in the hat and tie, standing on the wing) was taken on August 15, 1935 shortly before taking off from a lagoon near Point Barrow Alaska. During take off Post’s experimental Lockheed Explorer sea plane crashed when its engine failed killing both men.

Interesting Fact: The airport in Barrow Alaska was renamed Wiley Post - Will Rogers Memorial Airport.

9 John and Jackie Knill

On January 13, 2005 the bodies of Canadian couple John and Jackie Knill were discovered on a Thailand beach resort. They were two of the many victims killed from the December 26 2004 tsunami. Weeks later a Seattle man doing relief work found a damaged camera and discarded it but kept the memory card in the camera. After downloading the images he discovered pictures of the Knill’s enjoying their vacation, as well as shots of a huge wave approaching the shore. With each picture it shows the wave getting closer and closer to shore. The last picture taken of them before the wave hit (shown above) was shot just after 8.30 am on December 26.

Interesting Fact: The Seattle man that discovered the images recognized the Knills from a missing person’s web site and contacted the couple’s two sons in Vancouver Canada. The man then drove from Seattle to Vancouver to give the sons their parent’s last images.

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Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo has announced his decision to step down from his position as chief executive officer as soon as a replacement has been appointed.

Yang’s departure comes after less than 18 months at the helm. Over the past few months, Yang drew intense criticism from shareholders for failing to agree an acquisition by Microsoft early this year.

Since then, Yahoo’s fortunes have continued to deteriorate. A planned search deal with Google, its best hope of getting a quick boost, fell apart after regulators objected, and the company’s shares have slumped as its core display advertising market has deteriorated.

So, where did Yahoo actually go wrong?

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