World's largest tower officially opens

The world's tallest building has officially opened in Dubai. Construction of the Burj Dubai (as it was previously known) has taken six years to complete.

The Burj Khalifa, named after the leader of Abu Dhabi, is 2,716ft high, easily surpassing the former record holder, Taipei 101.

The tower holds many other records such as the world's highest occupied floor, the tallest service lift, and the world's highest observation deck...on the 124th floor!

The world's highest mosque and swimming pool will also be halfway to the skay on the 158th and 76th floors.

The tower will also be seen in the upcoming Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol movie starring Tom Cruise.

In the News...

BURBERRY SALES UP

Fashion retailer Burberry has reported a 30% rise in revenues in the past six months, after enjoying strong growth in all of its markets.

Revenues at Burberry - best known for its red, black and camel check design - hit £830m for the six months to 30 September. Comparative retail sales - which ignore new store openings - rose 16%.

Burberry added that its Chinese stores had seen same-store sales growth of 30% in the past six months.

EU CHANGE CAP

The European Union has announced plans to reform its Common Agricultural Policy - its most expensive scheme, and one of the most controversial.

The CAP cost 58bn euros (£51bn; $80bn) last year - 47% of the whole EU budget.

The European Commission does not want to cut the budget, but change its priorities - including linking direct payments to environmental measures. But farming, environmental and taxpayer groups all have their own concerns about the plans.

UK UNEMPLOYMENT HITS 17 YEAR HIGH

UK unemployment rose by 114,000 between June and August to 2.57 million, a 17-year high, according to official figures.

The unemployment total for 16-24 year olds hit a record high of 991,000 in the quarter, a jobless rate of 21.3%.

The number of people out of work and claiming benefits rose 17,500 to 1.6 million in September.


Source: BBC Business News

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Steve Jobs changed the world. He was born in 1955 to a Syrian father and an American mother but was put up for adoption. He was raised by the Jobs family who worked near Silicon Valley.

He formed Apple with Steve Wozniak and together they launched in 1976 the Apple I. In 1977 they launched Apple II which was the first home computer.

Famously Steve Jobs visited Xerox and saw their icon driven systems which inspired him to created the Macintosh in 1984, which also featured an iconic advert filmed by Ridley Scott in the style of an Orwellian nightmare.

Jobs left Apple in 1985 under a cloud and then formed NeXT (which was used by Tim Berners-Lee to create the World Wide Web) and he also found time to buy out George Lucas' stake in an animation company called Pixar.

Jobs returned in 1997 to Apple and in 1999 had helped launch colour versions of the Apple Mac.

However it was in 2001 that Steve Jobs and Apple really started to fulfill their potential and promise. The iPod was launched, revolutionising modern portable music, followed by iTunes in 2003, the online store to download music. An incredible achievement in an era where many used the internet to download mp3 files for free!

How could he top this? In 2007 he launched the smartphone to end all smartphones: the iPhone. This was a portable PC in your pocket. And then in 2010 he went into the market they said couldn't be done... the Tablet PC. Apple's version was called the iPad and has already sold millions of units.

Steve Job's untimely passing will have a profound effect on Apple, which for a brief time this year became the world's top company, eclpising Exxon Mobil.

Steve Jobs was a visionary who always cared for aesthetics as much as performance. Style over content, perhaps, but that was and is Apple.

It has been remarked that he will be remembered alongside Thomas Edison and Henry Ford as genuine American legendary entrepreneurs.

Dreamliner 787 arrives at last

Boeing's massive new plane was finally delivered on October 1st in preparation to fly from Tokyo to Hong Kong for Nippon Air.

Airbus is Boeing's global rival and their new breed of planes are much bigger. Boeing though is concentrating on other benefits to customers.

The Dreamliner is designed to be light and fast due to its new fuel-efficient engines and an outside structure largely made of composite materials — carbon fibers meshed together with epoxy — instead of sheets of aluminum.

Inside, passengers in all class will experience more natural light from larger windows, more variety of in-flight entertainment, and higher humidity which aims to lower cases of dry eye and headaches.

Dreamliner's also burn 20% less fuel compared to planes of similar sizes.

Airlines in order to be competitive in the future have to reduce costs so any small fuel saving or aerodynamic drag saving is welcome.

Hopefully these cost savings will result in sleeker, more comortable planes and they will be passed on to customers in terms of lower flight prices.