Used Construction Equipment for the MMAA Building in Qatar

A building resembling a prickly cactus is about to sprout from the dusty, dry soil of Qatar to house - appropriately - the Minister for Municipal Affairs and Agriculture.

Designed by Bangkok firm Aesthetics Architects, the dome-like building will be very energy-efficient and feature sun shades to control the heat.

For used construction equipment, got to MSloane Consulting.

The dome at the foot of the building will house a botanic garden. Unfortunately, as Qatar has one of the highest GDP in the world, construction processes are not likely to be as energy-efficient as the building itself.

Star Diamond Project in Canada and Heavy Equipment for Sale

The Star Diamond Project is situated 60km east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, which is the main supply centre for Northern Saskatchewan, encircling the Star Kimberlite area. Star Kimberlite is located at a burned portion of the Fort a La Corne forest.

For mining and heavy equipment for sale, visit our Website: MSloane Consulting.

Star Kimberlite is among the largest diamond bearing kimberlites worldwide, covering 352ha. The Diamond Project and the Fort a La Corne joint venture (FALC-JV, a joint venture of 60% Shore and 40% Newmont, also referred to as ‘Star West’), are located within it.

The Star Diamond Project is a mineral disposition in grounds owned by Canada’s Shore Gold and Fort a La Corne. The project is wholly owned by Shore Gold and is treated as a single entity. Shore Gold’s main business is the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral properties.

The project area covers 23 mineral dispositions aggregating to 9,280ha. Shore Gold controls 395 claims covering 219,196ha.

Analyzing the Flickr location tags...

I just ran across this article in New Scientist, but have been thinking a lot about the use of geotagged photos and some possible expansions to it. With just location, it's interesting to view a set of photos, just what are people taking pictures of at the Apple Store in Manhattan? It's the fifth most photographed (and geotagged) place on Earth. Is it the facade? Inside? Most of the GPS-based automatic image tagging devices wouldn't work inside the store. And although there's a lot of interesting data here, it can't really be used for an immersive experience since there's no pointing information at all. Let's think of the Washington Monument, some photos are outside, classic tourist shots of the monument, some are facing away from it, catching other aspects of DC, and some are from the top looking around. Image if each image had orientation data associated with it, a fluxgate compass as well as the GPS location, then you could tie a large number of images into, say, Google Maps, and move around in a collage of photos. Okay, this still doesn't work inside too well, but for outside it would pretty spectacular. You could walk 42nd Street in photos at Christmas-time last year, or watch the parade go by.

The next step after that would either be computer detection of the horizon-line in the image (I didn't bother to Google the efforts that must be going on in that direction) or tilt sensors in the camera. With focal length data, position, pointing, and tip/tilt, each photograph would be a capture of a well-defined piece of the world at that time. A 3-D immersive virtual reality of collected photos, might be a nifty thing?

So, hardware-wise, what does this look like? Well, GPS, 3-axis magnetometer, and 2 absolute angle sensors are just a couple of chips and some MEMS. Might be able to add in a low-power inertial navigation unit using fiber optic gyroscopes in version two. That should keep the position information good within a walk through a building letting you get your tagged full-orientation photos of the inside of the Sistine Chapel and the Louvre.

Kuwait's tallest building - Al Hamra Tower. MSloane Consulting supplies construction equipment

Kuwait's tallest building, the 412m Al Hamra Tower, is on track in its schedule to open in 2010.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merill, the tower is being built in Kuwait City by Turner Construction with Ahmadiah Contracting and Trading Company and will be the world's largest sculpted tower once completed.

MSloane Consulting supplies construction equipment, and provides related services anywhere in the world.

Mining Equipment and China's Iron Ore Assets

For mining equipment for sale, visit MSloane Consulting.

According to estimation of the country's leading steel information provider this weekend, China is expected to own rights in more than 100 million tonnes of overseas iron ore assets next year.

The Beijing based Lange Steel Information Service said the estimation has included assets owned by Chinese firms following the purchase of China's Hunan Valin Iron and Steel Group in Australian mining company Fortescue Metals Group.

Hunan Valin purchase in Australia's third largest iron ore producer has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, but the deal still needs further approvals from the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The deal if secured would ensure a yearly iron ore supply of 10 million tonnes for Hunan Valin from FMG.

Lange said six Chinese steel producers, including Baosteel, Sinosteel and Hunan Valin have each secured rights in an annual supply of more than 10 million tonnes of overseas iron ore assets. It said another four producers have obtained a combined supply of 12 million tonnes of iron ore from overseas suppliers.

Mr Wang Guoqing a Lange analyst said about 80% of China's overseas iron ore supplies are in Australia which have been obtained through stake purchases, purchases of assets joint ventures and joint development.

China imported 443.56 million tonnes of iron ore in 2008, bringing the country's reliance on imported iron ore to around 50%.