Don’t look down: Terrifying view from glass box balcony jutting out from skyscraper’s 103rd floor
If you’re scared of heights, it may be time to look away now. Not content with having the tallest building in America, the owners of Sears Tower in Chicago have installed four glass box viewing platforms which stick out of the building 103 floors up.
The balconies are suspended 1,353 feet in the air and jut out four feet from the building’s Skydeck. Enlarge Floating on air: Visitors get their first view from The Ledge, four glass balconies suspended from the 103rd floor of Chicago’s Sears Tower Designers say the platforms - collectively dubbed The Ledge - have been purposely designed to make visitors feel as they are floating above the city. The reward is unobstructed views of Chicago from the building’s west side and a heart-stopping vista of the street and Chicago River below - for those brave enough to look straight down. ‘It’s like walking on ice,’ visitor Margaret Kemp, from Bishop, California said. ‘The first step you take you think “Am I going down?”‘ Fearless: Anna Kane, five, spreads out on the floor of the 10ft square box which is 1,353ft up Spectacular: She also enjoyed amazing views out across the city ‘At first I was kind of afraid but I got used to it,’ 10-year-old Adam Kane from Alton, Illinois, said as clouds drifted by below. ‘Look at all those tiny things that are usually huge.’ John Huston, one of the owners of the Sears Tower, even admitted to getting ‘a little queasy’ the first time he ventured out on to the balcony. However, after 30 or 40 trips, he seems to have got used to it. Thrillseekers: The boxes jut out four feet from the building and were specifically designed to make visitors feel as if they are floating ‘The Sears Tower has always been about superlatives - tallest, largest, most iconic,’ he said. ‘The Ledge is the world’s most awesome view, the world’s most precipitous view, the view with the most wow in the world.’ The balconies are 10ft high and 10ft wide, can hold five tons, and have glass which is 1.5 inch thick. Unfazed: Although some adults felt dizzy after experiencing the Ledge, children seemed to take it in their stride Long way up: Even the floor of the platforms are glass - few were brave enough to look straight down Inspiration came from the hundreds of forehead prints visitors left behind on Skydeck windows every week. Now, staff will have a new glass surface to clean: floors. Architect Ross Wimer said: ‘We did studies that showed a four-foot-deep (1.2 metres) enclosure makes you feel like you’re floating since there’s only room for one row of people, not two.’ The Skydeck attracts 25,000 visitors on clear days. They each pay $15 to take an elevator ride up to the 103rd floor of the 110-story office building that opened in 1973. 
Tennessee
Photo courtesy of Frankie.
Two-year-old ‘world’s youngest smoker’
A TWO-YEAR-OLD boy from the city of Tianjin in China is the world’s youngest smoker.
Well, at least the youngest to admit it.
Except he didn’t admit it, his dad did, after proudly teaching Tong Liangliang how to spark up between tantrums and milky vomits.
Liangliang’s dad said his son was born with a hernia, and being too young for an operation, has taken up smoking to help him deal with the pain.
Now he’s a pack-a-day man. Pack-a-day toddler. And he won’t give up, screaming and throwing himself on the floor if he’s refused a durry.
“The father wasn’t aware how serious the toddler’s habit had become until the child began to increase the number of cigarettes he smoked per day,” news agency CRI said.
The Guinness Book of World Records is unlikely to accept the feat, as it has refused such requests before on the grounds that it “promoted a harmful habit”.
Yeah. And maybe lock this guy up for child abuse.
Thailand paints elephants to look like pandas… because Thais like pandas better
Though the elephant is the national symbol of Thailand, the country has gone panda-crazy - so crazy that indignant zookeepers have taken the unusual step of painting elephants to look like pandas.
The stunt has resulted in panda-monium as the zookeepers try to draw the country’s attention back to its neglected giants.
Native American Code of Ethics
1. Rise with the sun to pray. Pray alone. Pray often. The Great Spirit will listen, if you only speak.2. Be tolerant of those who are lost on their path. Ignorance, conceit, anger, jealousy - and greed stem from a lost soul. Pray that they will find guidance.
3. Search for yourself, by yourself. Do not allow others to make your path for you. It is your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.
4. Treat the guests in your home with much consideration. Serve them the best food, give them the best bed and treat them with respect and honor.
5. Do not take what is not yours whether from a person, a community, the wilderness or from a culture. It was not earned nor given. It is not yours.
6. Respect all things that are placed upon this earth - whether it be people or plant.
7. Honor other people’s thoughts, wishes and words. Never interrupt another or mock or rudely mimic them. Allow each person the right to personal expression.
8. Never speak of others in a bad way. The negative energy that you put out into the universe will multiply when it returns to you.
9. All persons make mistakes. And all mistakes can be forgiven.
10. Bad thoughts cause illness of the mind, body and spirit. Practice optimism.
11. Nature is not FOR us, it is a PART of us. They are part of your worldly family.
12. Children are the seeds of our future. Plant love in their hearts and water them with wisdom and life’s lessons. When they are grown, give them space to grow.
13. Avoid hurting the hearts of others. The poison of your pain will return to you.
14. Be truthful at all times. Honesty is the test of ones will within this universe.
15. Keep yourself balanced. Your Mental self, Spiritual self, Emotional self, and Physical self - all need to be strong, pure and healthy. Work out the body to strengthen the mind. Grow rich in spirit to cure emotional ails.
16. Make conscious decisions as to who you will be and how you will react. Be responsible for your own actions.
17. Respect the privacy and personal space of others. Do not touch the personal property of others - especially sacred and religious objects. This is forbidden.
18. Be true to yourself first. You cannot nurture and help others if you cannot nurture and help yourself first.
19. Respect others religious beliefs. Do not force your belief on others.
20. Share your good fortune with others.
May The Great Spirit Smile down on you and keep you and yours safe
May the trail rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sunshine warm upon your face
May the rain fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May The Great Spirit hold your hand in the palm of his hand
