Machu Picchu, Peru

Located on a mountainous area above the Urubamba Valley, Machu Picchu is a pre-Colombian Inca site and regardless of whether you have an interest in history or not, can make you stop and stare in sheer awe. Built initially in the middle of the 15th century, Machu Picchu was said to have been inhabited for around 100 years before it became uninhabited and went uncovered for over 3 centuries, until Hiriam Bingham, a Yale lecturer, rediscovered the site in July 1911.

The Eye of the Sahara, Mauritania

Formally known as the Richat Structure, the Eye of the Sahara is a much more appropriate name. This mysterious blue eye has puzzled scientist since the first space flights, when astronauts noticed it looking back at them. Space shuttles use the 50 km-wide feature as a landmark even today, it is so clear in the middle of the barren Sahara desert. Researchers now believe it is a "symmetrical uplift", essentially an area that rose up as hard quartz while softer rock and sand was eroded from it.

GREAT BLUE HOLE - BELIZE

Found on both land and in the ocean throughout the Bahamas and the national waters of Belize are deep circular cavities known as Blue Holes which are often the entrances to cave networks, some of them up to 14 kilometres in length. Divers have reported a vast number of aquatic creatures some of which are still new to science. In addition, they’ve recorded chambers filled with stalactites and stalagmites which only form in dry caves. For the explorers this was proof that at one time, nearly 65,000 years ago, when the world was in the grip of the last major ice age, the sea level of the Bahamas was up to 150 metres lower than it is today. Over time the limestone of the islands was eroded by water and vast cave networks created. When sea levels rose again about 10,000 years ago some of these collapsed inwards and the Blue Holes were formed.

Puerto Princesa Underground River (Philippines)

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park is located about 50 km north of the city of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines. It features a limestone karst mountain landscape with an 8.2 km. navigable underground river. A distinguishing feature of the river is that it winds through a cave before flowing directly into the South China Sea.

It includes major formations of stalactites and stalagmites, and several large chambers. The lower portion of the river is subject to tidal influences. The underground river is reputed to be the world's longest. At the mouth of the cave, a clear lagoon is framed by ancient trees growing right to the water's edge. Monkeys, large monitor lizards, and squirrels find their niche on the beach near the cave.

Sailing Stones, Death Valley, USA

This mysterious and ghostly phenomenon occurs at Racetrack Playa, Death Valley which is a fitting location! The stones travel long distances without any human or animal help! It seems as if they just lift themselves up and scoot along, making a trail or groove in the rock surface as they travel. Scientists' best guess as to why this happens at present is that wind at the level of the stones causes them almost to hydroplane. Sometimes they turn left or right, and other times it looks like two stones are racing each other. They only move every three or four years and the grooves take some time to build up. Definitely a wonder of the world!

MS OFFICE ALTERNATIVES!

Don't like Microsoft Office or can't afford?
There are many alternatives present in market which are available free of cost or at minimal cost having almost all features MS OFFICE boast of...







Google Docs
Developed by Internet search giant Google, Web-based Google Docs offers word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, and form application. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time. Google Docs also allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating real-time with other users.

As for the size limits, each doc can have a maximum size of 500K, plus up to 2MB per embedded image. Each Spreadsheet can be up to 256 columns, 200,000 cells, or 100 sheets. Presentations Files in .ppt and .pps formats can have a maximum size of 10MB or 200 slides; files uploaded from the Web can be up to 2MB; emailed files can be up to 500K.

Google Docs can also be accessed offline with Gears, an open source browser extension that enables web applications to run offline. When a user is not connected to the Internet, Google Docs uses information stored on his computer's hard drive, rather than relying on information sent across the network.

COREL

WordPerfect is a word processing application developed by Corel. The office software helps create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, manages email, and share work seamlessly with Microsoft Office compatibility and built-in PDF tools.

It offers support for more than 60 formats, including Microsoft Office 2007 and open standards such as Open Document Format (ODF) and Office Open XML (OOXML).

It lets users create letters, reports, newsletters, budgets, invoices, receipts, slide shows, proposals and interactive reports. It can also turn complex spreadsheets into charts and graphs.

The software packs Pocket Oxford English Dictionary, drawing application, 175 digital photos, 8,000 clipart images, 900 TrueType fonts, WordPerfect XML Project Designer and conversion utility.

What differentiates Word Perfect from other word processors is its streaming code architecture, its Reveal Codes feature, and its user-friendly macro/scripting language, PerfectScript.

ZOHO

Zoho Office is an online office suite which includes tools for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, CRM, project management and invoicing. Like Google Docs, Zoho applications are web-based and operating system independent. Its online word processor, Zoho Writer, quite closely apes Microsoft Word features and functionalities. It supports common formats, including Microsoft Word (DOC), Office Open XML (DOCX), OpenDocument text (ODT), OpenOffice text (SXW), HTML, RTF, JPG, GIF & PNG files. Zoho also lets users edit a document when page breaks are displayed. Writer works even when one is offline, thanks to open source technology. Offline document edits get synchronised when user goes online. Zoho Writer also provides a choice of footnotes or endnotes, with note numbers in superscript, placed in the text. Zoho is a division of AdventNet, which provides online software services to corporate IT departments and is based in California. thinkfree

Another Microsoft Office rival that closely resembles its functionality and features is ThinkFree Office by Haansoft ThinkFree Co Ltd. ThinkFree Office supports Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint file formats. It provides identical features for Windows, Mac, or Linux. ThinkFree Office includes a word processor (Write), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation programme (Show), and a WYSIWYG html and blog editor (Note). It also has a web-based edition that runs Write, Calc, Show and Note in a browser using a mix of Java applet and Ajax technologies. User gets 1GB of online storage space for saving their documents. Recently, the company updated its online version, ThinkFree Office Live, introducing a new unified online document viewer called Uni Paper and allows the use of its service without any registration. Key features of the web version include: No need to attach documents to emails if they need to be shared with business partners or colleagues, support for group document editing and reviewing, Document tagging and creation of Adobe PDF documents for free. OpenOffice.org

My personal favourite.
OpenOffice is a free open-source office application suite offering support for standard OpenDocument Format (ODF) for data interchange as well as Microsoft Office formats. As of March 2009, OpenOffice supports over 80 languages.

OpenOffice was originally derived from StarOffice, and later acquired by Sun Microsystems in August 1999. The suite offers word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics and databases.

Its word processor, called Writer, offers features like AutoCorrect, AutoComplete, AutoFormat, Styles and Formatting, Text Frames and Linking, Tables of Contents, Indexing, Bibliographical References, Illustrations, Tables and other objects.

Adobe Buzzword


Here's a free online word processor from Adobe called Buzzword. It lets users write reports, proposals and share it with others.

Buzzword has two views, Document Organiser and Editor. The Editor provides six sliding toolbars at the top of the window which lets users choose fonts, text styles and format paragraphs. It also lets users add lists, images, tables, and comments to a document.

The Document Organiser shows all Buzzword documents, the one's that are shared and created by the user. There is also a Sort feature to organise how documents are grouped: by author, by date modified, by size, or other options.

Other key features include: users can assign user roles; add comments that include text, tables, and images; maintain history of document versions; and a Collaborator bar showing who is invited to collaborate on a document.

IBM Lotus Symphony

IBM Lotus Symphony Document lets users create documents with predefined document templates, formatting with predefined styles for paragraphs, characters, and headings, contextual toolbars and editing menus. It also offers inline spell checking and correction feature, graphics for creating tables, charts, diagrams, automatic creation of a table of contents, footnotes, indexes and footers and headers.

It also extends support for a variety of file types, including Microsoft Office and Lotus SmartSuite Export documents and Adobe PDF for easy sharing.

Jarte

Jarte, a light-weight, portable word processor based on the WordPad engine. The standard version is available for free.

Features include the ability to edit Microsoft Word documents, OLE support (the ability to insert pictures and sounds), tabbed document access, spell checker, page breaks, print previewing, visual header and footer designer, clip history, a reference bar, multilevel undo and redo functionality, and single-click bookmarking.

Jarte uses the Windows built-in word processing engine at its core.

DEAD SEA is really dead!

Yes Dead Sea is really Dead.
The Dead Sea is 67 kilometres (42 mi) long and 18 kilometres (11 mi) wide at its widest point.Unlike it's name, its a salt lake stretching between Israel and West Bank in the west and Jordan in the east.It's 422m below the sea level which is the lowest point on the dry land.'s the saltiest water body of the world with 33.7% salinity.In other words it's water is 8.6 times more saltier then ocean water!
Due to its salinity no life is possible in the water and hence its called 'DEAD SEA'.
Its a major tourist destination with spas,beautiful beaches and pilgrimage spots around it.Millions of people visit this amazing place every year.
A city has come up at its shore called 'living dead sea'!!

Don't know swimming? Don't worry just jump in the water...u will float!!!!

Still looking for a destination for coming vacations? better stop thinking and get ur tickets!

For more information check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea