The beautiful 16-day Olympic dream came to an end on August 24, 2008 at the Bird’s Nest National Stadium. The world looked in awe as the poignant love story came to an end, bathed in a kaleidoscope of color with the mesmerizing dance patterns, breathtakingly spectacular choreography and grand fireworks.

The closing ceremony of one of the most remarkable Olympics the world has seen in recent times was an emotion filled affair. The celebration of unity, brotherhood of humanity and China’s reassertion that there is nothing impossible was all there for the crowd of more than 90,000 and the whole world to see.

The motto of the Olympics, “Higher, faster, stronger” was outlined in the best possibly way by the athletes, who surged ahead with their world-breaking sporting performances and by the host athletes, who showed excellence and dominance in such a way that they redefined the image of the communist nation internationally.

China was on top of the world and there was not a single soul that grudged them their success. For China, it was a journey of confidence and self-belief. The doubts had melted, leaving feelings of euphoria in their wake.

The IOC President Jacques Rogge declared the games closed with the words, “Tonight, we come to the end of 16 glorious days which we will cherish forever. Through these Games, the world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world. These were truly exceptional games.” (more…)

How about just picking up that car from the corner of the office room, taking it out, unfolding it and driving it back home? The new sports car is almost like a toy car coming to life.

A sports car that can be folded into half is the most innovative creation of a young 22-year-old British designer, Daniel Bailey. He states that his creation has been inspired by the Peugeot 908 and Lamborghini Murcielago.

According to Bailey, this sexy, sleek and mean looking car goes up on its nose, allowing the back wheels to slide under the car on two rollers. This way, it becomes half its size and makes parking easy. Obviously, people will have to get out of the car before it can be folded.

Bailey says that this car will run on hydrogen fuel or electricity and he came up with the concept of a folding car, in order to take care of the two main problems that most modern cities face; that of pollution and population. The lack of parking space in major cities due to the large number of cars is a big issue and the ability to fold a car up to 50% of its original size when parking, alleviates the need for creating even more parking space.

This design has been submitted by Bailey in a competition held by Peugeot to create a concept car that is designed to evolve perfectly in the cities of the future with large population and huge number of cars; while including aspects such as environmental awareness, economic efficiency, social harmony and interactive mobility.

A similar prototype of a lightweight electric folding car model is said to be under creation by scientists led by Bill Mitchell, professor of architecture, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT.) This stackable and foldable car is named, “City Car.” MIT says this car can be mass produced and rented by commuters following a business model of shared-use. It can be folded and stacked just like grocery carts either at subway stations or other sites. The key to this concept is said to lie in the wheels design. (more…)

Once upon a time, when India was yet to start shining, the evening entertainment was taken care of: watching Maradona or Platini on TV. Then India reached out and a new phenomenon unraveled in India: cricket. From a mere sport, it was becoming a passion, or even a religion as some cricket lovers would say.

Today, with the unfolding of the DLF Indian Premier League, the way cricket is looked at will never be the same again. The World’s best players match their wits, skills and energies and the game’s popularity is all set to reach its crescendo.

The Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket (a short match where only 20 overs are played) competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI.) The first season of IPL commenced on a high note, amidst a lot of glitter on April 18, 2008, with some high voltage action.

The DLF Indian Premier league will feature eight teams/franchises and will run for 44 days. During the season, each team will play a home match and a match away from home against every other team. There will be two semi-finals where the top four teams will contest and a final match. (more…)