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The site that has images of this new building, this"Skyscrapers.com" holds the rights to the images of the new buildings. All of the images bear the warning:

The image above is for internet viewing only, and may not be saved outside your browser or used without a license. However, you can buy usage rights if the image belongs to our staff.

So whatever you do kids! If you're a windoze luser, PLEASE make sure you don't accidentally fullscreen the browser window, and make sure your cat doesn't unwittingly stand on the keys RIGHT ALT+SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN and then shift feet to stand on CTRL+V while you have, say MSPAINT open. That image might end up in an unauthorized area! Also, be careful as a mac user that you don't let your fingers (unintentionally, of course!) stumble across Command Key+4, and if you do make sure the marquee doesn't stray into the protected image! You want to make absolutely sure that if you want to look at these pictures outside your browser window you'll do the right thing kids! Pay the licensing fee!

Get your facts straight.

CN Tower
Think you're high enough now. Think again. Sky Pod, the World's Highest Public Observation Deck is located at a dizzying 447 m (1,465 ft.). Link Here

Taipei 101
Taipei 101 now also holds the highest roof (449 m) and highest occupied floor (439 m) titles. Link Here

I think your calculation is off 8 meters. Also, quoting from CNTower.ca, "At a height of 553.33m (1,815 ft., 5 inches), it is the World's Tallest Building, an important telecommunications hub, and the centre of tourism in Toronto." This would make the CN Tower the tallest still.

In principle I agree with you, but in practice it gets difficult.
The problem with "highest floor of rentable ... office space" is that it forgets the mechanical areas; the HVAC, etc.

Now, if the architect finds a cool way to get this volume into a fun shape, I think it should count.

One example, the First National Bank of Omaha Tower . The lit up portion at the top is all mechanical areas, but it is tall and skinny instead of just another floor. The top of the structure should count.

Another example is One Worldwide Plaza. the pyramid at the top is the mechanical space. Sure, it is taller than the equivalent square mechanical space, but it should count.
Now, the very top part of the cone is purely architectural. Should it not count, since it is technically a spire?

While this is likely the world's tallest skyscraper, the tallest man made structure on the planet is the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. It has been the tallest since 1975, too.

As an aside, i cannot stress how freakin cool it is to stand on the glass-bottomed lower obsevation deck, and peer down at the city nearly half a kilometre below. :)

On Skyscrapers.com it says 'The final section of the spire was put in place October 9, 2003, thus giving Taipei 101 the official world's tallest building title.', yet at the top of the page it says: Year (end) 2004, how come?

Oh, the irony. What about the Williams Tower, which is a near exact replica of one of the World Trade towers. It was even designed by the same architect, Minoru Yamasaki.

You're right, we don't know what the net effect is, but I'll note you get a double boost in the summer. When you capture photons at the window and generate electricity from them, not only do you get the power, you're also reducing the heat entering the building.

Same idea as a green rooftop.

Hmm... considering that windows with greater surface area exposed to the sun would be better for generating more electricity, I wonder if we'll see more buildings like this one.

In my previous post I forgot to add a link to these nice pictures of Sao Paulo.

I've always lived in both Brazil and US. I have more contact with Brazilians from Sao Paulo and Americans from the eastern coast (DE, NJ, MD, PA).

That said, I guess, from my experience, I have some authority to disagree with some points from your posting.

Brazilians are more disorganized, yes, mostly. But one thing about Brazil that cannot be forgotten: It's a multi-faced country.

While some areas, like some north-eastern cities can be [almost] as poor as most African coutries, other cities like Sao Paulo mix some beggars with extremely wealthy people. Well, they don't really mix, as they live two worlds apart. The poorest people can't possibly grasp the life of a rich one. And that's the problem.

Social distribution is very bad, and that leads to a big distortion. Not an easy problem to solve.

Anyway, I know of an American company that, despite all red tape, prefers to hire Brazilians than Americans, because they think Brazilians are more hard working. So, their oppinion differs from yours.

But why does it differ ? Maybe you have had contact with just one "type" of Brazilian. You may be aware that inside Brazil the "paulistas" (those from Sao Paulo) are known for working hard.

Sao Paulo reminds me of NYC. Just with more homeless, more trash on the pavement, more violence (due to social distortion) but's that's basically it. Most people in Sao Paulo are hard workers. It's actually Brazil's economic capital. Lots of choppers there. Its helicopter fleet one of the biggest in the world, second only to Tokyo.

You said you live in Rio. So you had most contact with happy-go-lucky cariocas. I'm not saying all hard-working Brazilians live only in Sao Paulo, just making a generalization. Generally speaking, paulistas tend to work more than cariocas. Of course there are exceptions.

And, yes, there ARE buzzcut, Coke-bottle bi-focal, white button-down Oxford, pocket protector wearing, STRAIGHT-LACED, ANAL RETENTIVE, NO SOCIAL LIFE HAVING NERDS in Brazil. Think about ITA, one of the hardest universities in Brazil. It has a very hard entrancy test, in wich there's about 70 elite candidates per vacancy. The ones that manage to join ITA are trully nerds. BTW, ITA stands for Instituto Tecnico da Aeronautica, and they did help building this rocket.

For more info about Sao Paulo (in English), please read
http://www.fragilecologies.com/jul09_97.html
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/saopaulo/2851 010001.html
http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/wm/ci/101076/

And with awesome megastructures like the Taipei 101 you've got more than just the Bladerunner slums to fantasize about. :)

I might join you once they start building on a Sky City scale(!), since the US certainly doesn't have the balls to build something like that anymore; just look at what they're replacing the World Trade Center with.

--

After seeing Die Another Day, I decided to do some research on the abandoned tube station that Bond went to. The name of the station was "Vauxhall Cross". It turns out, that a Vauxhall Cross station never existed, but it is the offical name of the building better known as MI6 headquarters. Also here are some more pictures of Vauxhall Cross. I'll give them credit for throwing in a little easter egg like that.

I think its great that North Korea doesn't adhere to America's demands. Not doing so doesn't make them bad.

North Korea is much like a homeless person desperately committing violent crimes on street corners: They have nothing to lose. That is the reason why much of the world is fearful of NK with nukes: Israel, the UK, Russia, the US- All have "something to live for", so to speak, so their nukes largely are retaliatory. Mutually assured destruction, if you will. North Korea, on the other hand, seems like the kind of nutbar country that would take action knowing full well that it would be obliterated: What's there to lose?

If you're looking for a great example of anti-Americanism, I would hardly consider North Korea a good choice: A despotic, shithole of a country where millions continue to starve to death while the leadership builds giant monstrosity of buildings in a desperate attempt to portray itself as a successful nation.

Washington State's K-20 network is also connected to I2. Run a traceroute to the border router at my workplace (colville-k12.wa-k20.net) and if you're on I2, your packets will go through Abilene before they get routed to K-20 at the Westin Building in Seattle.

It is nice to be able to download a ISO of the latest distro in 10 minutes (we only have 2 T-1's at work).

SkyScrapers.com

On this site there was an Interview done with an engineer who had some knowledge on the World Trade Center. He stated that the airplanes could have not brought them down seeing that buildings of a lesser, equal, or greater size get the same sort of impact daily with the force of winds.

It is said that the airplanes caused an impact of equal or lesser force than what it would experience from day-to-day wind.

If you are serious about that, here is where they are located[free registration might be necessary].