GOOGLE has unveiled one of the greatest toys ever – a virtual glass elevator that lets you fly around the world. Made by a few of the engineers in their spare time, the Liquid Galaxy project is an interactive booth with wraparound LCD screens. The screens show synchronised views from Google Earth and you can use a six-axis mouse to move your way through air and water.
Take a look @ the video :
Inspired by Mount Fuji, Taisei Construction Corporation has completed designs for construction of the world’s tallest building. The X-Seed 4000 (no idea where that came from) would stand at approximately 13,123 feet (4 km), nearly 700 feet (213 m) taller than the real Mount Fuji. The next tallest buildings don’t even break 2,000 feet, how puny! While likely to never be built, the X-Seed would have up to 800 floors, and be capable of housing between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people.
Unlike conventional skyscrapers, the X-Seed 4000 would be required to actively protect its occupants from considerable air pressure gradations and weather fluctuations along its massive elevation. Its design calls for the use of solar power to maintain internal environmental conditions. Some estimate that the cost to construct the X-Seed 4000 structure may be somewhere between $300-900 billion US dollars.
Now I’m no astronomer or anything, but if I learned anything in grade school, it’s that 13,123 feet is pretty much the distance to the sun. Which means that the top floor would be perfect for a natural sauna. You heard it here first, if they end up doing that I want credit.
From the “Everything must have Integrated Speakers” department comes Mi Pillows. If you haven’t guessed by now, they’re pillows that have speakers inside. They cost $60, and are available through Hammacher Schlemmer (pronounced Helter Skelter). You can hook them up to an iPod or any other audio device and, uh, listen to music while you’re trying to fall asleep. The sewn on control patches don’t work though, so that’s a sham. On a side note, be careful what you choose to listen to while sleeping. Because last night I fell asleep to Black Sabbath and when I woke up this morning I owed my soul to the devil and had bitten the head off my daughter’s parakeet.
If you’ve reached the point in life where you honestly think you need designer drain caps in your sink or bathtub then it might be time to step back and ask yourself if there’s something more productive you could be doing. Because quite frankly I don’t think there’s a single being on this planet who needs an analog clock embedded in the top of their drain caps.
The ‘Watch Waste’ as it’s appropriately called is available from Murano House and each piece is hand made in Italy by the finest craftsman who are probably also wondering who’s actually going to buy these. The clocks even have precious stones inset into the face so if a visitor happens to take a close look at the bottom of your sink they’re sure to be impressed by your impeccable taste and attention to detail.
As for the cost, well the website asks you to email them for a quote which roughly translates to “You’re charging how much for that?!”
Your current bionic arm just not cutting it? Tired of just rocking a pirate hook? Well a team at Vanderbilt University has developed a prosthetic arm that’s powered by, that’s right folks, rocket fuel! The team came up with the idea while trying to develop a system that functions with the same strength of a human arm.
Conventional prosthetic arms do not have the strength of their flesh-and-blood counterparts, the reason being the batteries. In order to lift comparable weights, a prosthetic arm would need a massive battery, too large for the prosthesis itself. So (project leader) Michael Goldfarb started thinking about other ways to power the artificial limbs, and came up with the idea of using the monopropellant rocket motor system that the space shuttle uses to maneuver in space.
It’s pretty clear that this team lives by the same credo that I do. When trying to solve a problem, always consider some sort of projectile or explosive material in the final design. I mean, really, who needs a ding-dong anyways when you can have it torn or blown off by your bionic arm.
Now I’m not a big fan of posting the latest camera or phone or what have you unless it has something real unique about it. And well, this one does (even if it is a sham and doesn’t work and is a lie and is stupid). The new Sony Cybershot DSC-T200 has a smile detector. Don’t believe it? You’re not alone. But Sony insists.
Using Sony’s proprietary algorithm, this innovative intelligent auto shutter system responds actively to smiling faces. To start, just choose SmileShutter from Scene Selection, then press the shutter fully on the subject to be taken; the camera automatically detects the smiling face and closes the shutter. To detect the different degrees of smiles by your subject, you can set Smile Level sensitivity to “high” (to detect a faint smile), “medium” (for a normal smile), or “low” (for a hearty laugh).
While this sounds like a very interesting feature, I don’t smile. The batteries will die in the camera and the earth will turn to dust before I do. Smiling is for the weak. Showing that much emotion in a photo basically means your mom dresses you and you’re a monster sissy.
Apple Inc. has signed its first deals with mobile phone operators to offer its iPhone in three of Europe’s largest markets, ending a period of intense negotiations, according to a report in the Financial Times newspaper. Germany’s T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH, France’s Orange SA and Britain’s O2 (UK) Ltd. are reported to have signed exclusive deals to sell the iPhone in their respective markets.
The operators have agreed to give Apple 10 percent of the revenue they generate from the sale of voice and data services for the device, according to the report, which cited unnamed sources. The operators hope to introduce the phone in time for the important Christmas shopping season.
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