Founder Simons Woodroffe is launching the first ever in airport hotel. Quite a brilliant idea I must admit. Simple first class rooms available for rental by the hour or for a full nights stay. Full accommodations with room for two, a shower, wi-fi, storage, mood lighting, TV and music. The perfect place to wait for those early morning red-eye flights, long layovers, delayed flights, or a place to freshen up before a business meeting/hot date. The disign is by Priestman Goode. The first hotel opens in the Gatwick Airport, with future openings planned for other airports in the UK. I can't wait till they catch on in the states.
So those who know me know I am allready obsessed with acrobatics. I just can't get enough of Cirque Du Solei. An now I can make my own little shows with these adorable little AcroBots. What a well done flash game. I must have spent an hour playing with this bloody thing... twice!
So Google is throwing money at people with the challenge to develop a viable hybrid/plug-in electric combo car that will get 100mpg. They are also pushing for energy reclamation systems that will take unused energy in the car such as heat and overcharged batteries and sell it back to power companies when the car is plugged into a standard outlet. Cool stuff. So who wants to buy me a 100mpg Prius!
Anyone else think this looks like something out of the Dark Crystal. A giant eco-friendly tower,Khanty Mansiysk, is in the future for Siberian residents. This multi-use building is designed with the angles and facest of a glimmering diamond to maximize the suns radiance and energy within the building. The tower will accomodate, redents, work, and leisure bringing crucial amenities to this stark reigion.
Only half completed, five years in the making, and already a monolith. Burj Dubai is a rising Star in the annals of architecture. Due to be the new tallest building in the world. Dubai City is the new Paris, the new London, and the new Hong Kong. make no mistake Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president and prime minister of the UEA (United Arab Emirates) and ruler of Dubai is hellbent on making Dubai the new world center, and not doing a half bad job at it.
What I do know is that this building is stunning. I triumph of humanity, as much as the rest of Dubai City. I want to be there, opening day. Perhaps have a winter flat somewhere on the 300th floor. Yeah... that sounds nice.
Researchers have developed an ultra thin panel which illuminates using charged plasma, similar to fluorescent bulbs, injected into micro pockets within standard aluminum foil, sandwiched between plastic, glass, or crystal. This technology can be manufactured in any size in many shapes, and most importantly, its fairly inexpensive. The sheets are thinner than a sheet of LEDs, more efficient than incandescent bulbs (and fluorescent bulbs in the near future), and can be produced in many colours. the designers have founded a company called Eden Park Illumination and hope to have a marketable product in the next two years.
So Microsoft has released a beta version of their new photosynth software. This is killer computing here. a program that can intelligently extrapolate a 3D composite of a location from a large collection of arbitrary photos taken at that location. One can then navigate through these photos in a 3D environment that logically and seamlessly (assuming you have the computing power to keep up) transitions between the images placing them in the correct perspective/angle relative to the 3D model of the environment.
Whats wild about this is first, the information this software can store about an area is nonlinear, its in fact fractal. one can dive into the details of a room or environment for near infinity. The detail and depth of information is only limited by the source images used to generate the composite.
Second, the future of this technology is mindboggling. theoretically in a few years, systems could be set up to composite the globe, using every photo, image and picture ever taken, from high resolution satellite images to half a megapixle cell phone pictures. All of this stuff readily available on the net. Every picture you ever put on a computer integrated into one massive 3D generation of the world.
On the more practical side we will probably see Google and other mapping programs snatch this stuff up. No longer will you glide over dated satellite images of the planet, but will walk in 3D models down every street and alleyway ever captured on a camera. scarier yet, you will be able to walk into any building, house, or complex ever captured in a snapshot.
And I'm only scratching the surface. Its a brave new world. On the other hand I can't wait until I can play with this thing myself and start crating my own image composits.
This is not a blog about me. I have been there and done that, and admire those that can keep it up.
No this is a blog to share all the fascinating, weird, innovative, groundbreaking, unique, fun, beautiful, important, and just plain cool stuff out there on the net, in the world, and in our lives.
This blog is for the curious at heart and because peoples interests are diverse.
I am also open to new authors if anyone else would like to become a writer for this blog. just let me know and I will review anyone who is interested.
