Solar Power to Rule in 20 Years

Speaking on behalf of a panel of experts convened by the National Association of Engineers to address the 14 “grand challenges of the 21st century,” Ray Kurzweil said solar power will scale up to produce all the energy needs of Earth’s people in 20 years. Members of the panel are “confident that we are not that far away from a tipping point where energy from solar will be [economically] competitive with fossil fuels,” Kurzweil said, adding that it could happen within five years.

Site – http://www.livescience.com

Harajuku

Harajuku is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan. The area is known internationally for its youth style and fashion. The term “Harajuku Girls” has been used by English-language media to describe teenagers dressed in any fashion style who are in the area of Harajuku.^[7] These girls may be members of various sub-cultures including Gothic Lolita, Ganguro, Gyaru, and Kogal. They may also be dressed as characters from an anime, movie, or manga (known as cosplay).

Site – http://en.wikipedia.org

Samsung BlackJack

The BlackJack is my first smartphone and is the second smart phone for Cingular (the first being the 8525). I have gotten the phone unlocked and running with a T-mobile unlimited data plan. While the BlackJack certainly rivals the Motorola Q and Blackberry Curve with its sleek design, will it show a winning hand? (A black jack reference, yes. How could we not?) It’s hard to say. Since our review unit was a pre-production model, we’re holding off on a final call until we get the real thing. That said, our initial impressions are more positive than negative. There are design issues, but the BlackJack definitely delivers on its 3G capabilities. The slim all-black casing looks great and feels solid (reminiscent of a lenovo thinkpad). The smart phone also features a similar soft-touch finish found on the Dash, and is thus easy to grip. The BlackJack also is comfortable to hold, and thanks to its slimmer body, feels more like a cell phone.

Site – http://reviews.cnet.com

Super-speed Internet satellite blasts off in Japan

Japan launched a rocket Saturday carrying a satellite that will test new technology that promises to deliver “super high-speed Internet” service to homes and businesses around the world. The rocket carrying the WINDS satellite — a joint project of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries — lifted off its pad at 5:55 p.m. (0855 GMT). If the technology proves successful, subscribers with small dishes will connect to the Internet at speeds many times faster than what is now available over residential cable or DSL services. The Associated Press said the satellite would offer speeds of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second.

Site – http://edition.cnn.com

The Future of the Video Game Industry

When Ray Kurzweil, the author of The Singularity is Near and one of the most noted futurists around, takes the stage at GDC 2008 in San Francisco on Thursday to talk about ‘the next 20 years of gaming,’ he’ll be weighing in at a moment in the industry’s existence when the lines between games and Hollywood and advertising are blurring. One thing that strikes me about how video games are intersecting with people’s lives in 2008, when it was simply impossible to find a Nintendo Wii for sale anywhere, is that the medium now is truly mainstream.

Site – http://www.news.com

Akira Yamaoka

He is most well known for his work for the Silent Hill series of video games, for which he composed all the music and sound effects in the whole series.  Yamaoka’s sound commonly contains strong melancholy undertones and generally identifies with the dark ambient, industrial, and trip-hop genres. Since Silent Hill 3, he also started working in collaboration with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Joe Romersa for vocal compositions.  Much of his work from previous titles has been compiled for the 2006 Silent Hill movie adaptation, directed by Christophe Gans.  His music from Silent Hill 2 was performed live in 2005 at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert in Leipzig, Germany. Yamaoka also performed music from Silent Hill at the world-premiere of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony on May 27, 2006 in Chicago, Illinois, and accompanied the orchestra with an electric seven-string guitar.

Site – http://en.wikipedia.org/

Top 9 Unique Structures by 2010

The phenomenal Chicago spire (pictured above), when completed in 2010, will be the world’s tallest residential building and the tallest building of any kind in the western world. seemingly modeled on the image of a giant drill poking through the ground, the 609m structure will dominate the Chicago skyline.  Obviously, construction technologies are advancing extremely quickly. couple that with multi-billionaires / deep-pocketed companies trying to outdo each other in the quest for the next standout design and you have a near-future filled with mile-high skyscrapers and buildings that no longer look like buildings. Below are 9 strange and unique structures which have either been approved or are in the final stages of approval. some have already been partially constructed. Welcome to the future landscape.

Site – http://deputy-dog.com

TIME – Top 100 Novels

Welcome to the massive, anguished, exalted undertaking that is the ALL TIME 100 books list. The parameters: English language novels published anywhere in the world since 1923, the year that TIME Magazine began, which, before you ask, means that Ulysses (1922) doesn’t make the cut. Even so, there are many titles we couldn’t fit here that we’re still anguishing over. Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood dropped in and out. Aldous Huxley’s Point Counter Point hovered for a while at the edges. This project, which got underway in January, was not just a reading effort. It was a re-reading effort. It meant revisiting a lot of novels both of us had not looked into for some time. A few titles that seemed indispensable some years ago turned out on a second tasting to be, well, dispensable. There were also first time discoveries.

Site – http://www.time.com

Astronomers vie to make biggest telescope

A telescope arms race is taking shape around the world. Astronomers are drawing up plans for the biggest, most powerful instruments ever constructed, capable of peering far deeper into the universe — and further back in time — than ever before.The building boom, which is expected to play out over the next decade and cost billions of dollars, is being driven by technological advances that afford unprecedented clarity and magnification. Some scientists say it will be much like switching from regular TV to high-definition. In fact, the super-sized telescopes will yield even finer pictures than the Hubble Space Telescope, which was put in orbit in 1990 and was long considered superior because its view was freed from the distorting effects of Earth’s atmosphere. But now, land-based telescopes can correct for such distortion. Just the names of many of the proposed observatories suggest an arms race: the Giant Magellan Telescope, the Thirty Meter Telescope and the European Extremely Large Telescope, which was downsized from the OverWhelmingly Large Telescope. Add to those three big ground observatories a new super eye in the sky, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2013.

Site – http://www.cnn.com