Passionland

Deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean, forgotten for the best part of a century, lies a tunnel linking London and New York. It was built on the whim of a Victorian inventor with the aim of linking two great cities and developing the kind of friendship that still exists today. But bad fortune befell the venture - and the tunnel lay idle ever after.

Until today, that is, when the project was rekindled with a modern twist.

Using a giant “electronic telescope” and state-of-the-art technology, England and America were joined once again when the tunnel entrances were reopened beside Tower Bridge in London and Brooklyn Bridge in New York. It meant that New Yorkers and Londoners could wave to each other across the sea and begin the kind of mute dialogue that was only a dream all those years ago for eccentric engineering entrepreneur Alexander Stanhope St George (deceased).

Or at least, that’s the way the story goes.

What is certain is that now you can indeed stand on the South Bank of the UK end of the 21st century “Telectroscope” - and see someone standing 3,460 miles away across the water. And - oh dear - it didn’t take the Brits too long to utilise it for a bit of fun at the expense of their American cousins. The truth is that the Telectroscope - installed by Artichoke, the same people who spectacularly paraded a mechanical elephant through London two years ago - probably employs the latest broadband, camera and satellite technology to close the gap between our two great nations.

The Telectroscope uses 6ft screens and a Jules Verne style telescope that gleams with brass and an array of Victorian dials. Participants peer into one end of the screen - and hey presto - they can see anyone standing at the other side. “Part of the idea is just to allow people to use it in whatever way they want,” said Mr St George, 53, from Bristol, who insists he developed the Telectroscope after discovering his great-grandfather’s dusty notes and diaries in an attic.

“The thought of a tunnel under the Atlantic is fascinating,” he said. “What child has never dug a hole at the beach and wondered how long it would take to go through to the other side of the world? “The Telectroscope is a stage, and the people who use it are the performers. “Their unpredictability is all part of it. It’s encouraging people think about different ways of communicating, to see people living everyday lives thousands of miles away - and, perhaps, to study the way everyone reacts differently to something they’re not quite sure about.”

 Percaya nggak percaya, di kota besar seperti Jakarta ojek jadi modatransportrasi umum paling fleksibel. Paling cepat karena tanpa macet,murah, dan penggunanya lengkap dari kalangan bawah sampai atas.“Di kawasan bisnis Thamrin, Kuningan dan sekitarnya banyak pejabatperusahaan selevel Manager ke atas yang wira wiri naik ojek. Biasanya untuktrek jarak dekat, misalnya dari gedung satu ke gedung lainnya,” buka KokoSandoza, Presiden Director PT Ningrat Muda Mandiri.Berlatar belakang fenomena ini lah, Limo bike diluncurkan. Tentunya dengankonsep yang lebih eksklusif dengan paduan antara kecepan dan style karenadibuat khusus untuk mengakomodir kebutuhan kaum high end.Penasaran? Pada launching yang berlangsung siang tadi (14/6), di Sun Motor,Jl Fatmawati, Jakarta Selatan diperlihatkan wujud sang limo bike.“Demi kenyamanan kita menggunakan Piaggio Spy 125 dan GT 200, lalupenumpang juga diberikan helm berkualitas tinggi serta perlengkapanberkendara lain seperti jacket, penutup kepala, penutup celana,” terang DwiCesario, Operations Director PT Ningrat Muda Mandiri.Selain itu perlengkapan seperti boks bagasi sebagai tempat laptop danbarang berharga lainya juga tersedia. “Pengendaranya juga kita seleksisecara ketat untuk mengeliminir kecelakaan,” tambah DwiSeperti kita tahu, resiko berkendara dengan sepeda motor tetap tinggi.Untuk itu asuransi menjadi kewajiban bagi armada dan para penumpangnya.“Jadi konsumen tidak perlu was-was lagi,” janji Dwi.Lalu kapan mulai beroperasi? “Di Bali kita start awal Juli ini, sedang diJakarta sekitar akhir Juli,” ungkap Dwi sambil menjelaskan layanan LimoBike ini.“Kita punya tiga layanan, yang pertama single trip, daily rental, danwisata toring. Khusus untuk single trip kita akan buka hot line agarkonsumen bisa langsung menelepon bila membutuhkan jasa kami,” tutup Dwi.Wah kaya taksi ya, Mestinya disebut Ojek Eksmud aja.

This morning I did my ritual, reading Jawa Pos newspaper in pdf format (from its website), and I found a very interesting article. Then I check that in other sources, and here I wanna share it to you all.. the crazy, awesome, wonderful, magnificent idea of building a DYNAMIC TOWER.Italian architect David Fisher is building his first skyscraper, the Dynamic Tower, and it happens to be one of the most ambitious construction plans since the Pyramid of Khufu. Every floor of the 80-story self-powered building rotates according to voice command, and nearly the entire structure of the $700 million building is pre-fabbed. I caught up with the architect in New York, and he blew my mind again and again.Fisher was inspired to design the Dynamic Tower during a visit to a friend’s top-floor Midtown Manhattan apartment. “I had a view of the Hudson River and East River at the same time, it was beautiful and I wanted to make that feeling accessible to more people.” He loves the idea of seeing the sun rise and set in the same room, and considers the building to be four-dimensional. “Time is always changing the shape of the building,” he told me.The rotation takes up to 3 hours (so you’re not always spilling your coffee), and gets power from photovoltaic solar cells and 79 wind turbines, one located between each floor. The system is meant to create enough energy to power to the entire tower and still have juice to spare for some surrounding buildings. According to Fisher, two of these $700 million futuristic scrapers are planned so far, one each in Dubai and Moscow. They will be built using a truly radical technique.Construction on the Dynamic Tower will be unlike anything that preceded it. The only part of the tower built on site will be the skinny center core. It is strong enough to hold the floors in place, and will contain the building’s elevators, which transport people and cars right to their door. Each floor will be made piece by piece in a factory in Italy—a throwback to Fisher’s previous life in prefabricated bathroom design—and placed onto the core using a lift system. With this method, each story is completed in about six days. By comparison, traditional ground-up methods can take six weeks per floor.Groundbreaking for Dynamic Towers in Dubai and Moscow is expected to happen in the fall, with construction reaching completion by the end of 2010.  

Maybe this isn’t the first in Indonesia, i dunno… But Naif has joined the international ranks of Radiohead, Mars Volta and The White Stripes by selling their album on a USB device… Abroad, the price is waaay higher than a typical music album on a CD format, maybe as high as three times… To compensate, labels are inserting more artworks and of course, due to the format, they are able to include the music video in the album… But, there’s no release on how much Naif will sell their USB album yet, we’ll just have to wait for that one…

Apparently, Naif is copying or rather, applying what the big artists are doing abroad… last year, Prince released his album freely in England, bundled with The Evening Standard Saturday edition… by lunch time, the newspaper is nowhere to be found. HMV, the biggest record store in the UK, even bought 300 copies of the newspaper and reasoned that they are a music store, hence they can sell anything if it contains music, albeit the sell… As for Naif’s case, not so long ago, i think it was last month’s edition, Naif newest album “Let’s Go” was bundled with Rolling Stones magazine, and the same happened, the magazine was nowhere to be found in such short time… Now, although me or other people might not agree to the “music album for free” practice, but i can’t help but think, if i were rolling stones magazine i’d find other artists to do it again with… heck, my publication was a sold out!!

Nowadays, mobile phone has become our important communication device - if I couldn’t mention that it’s the most important thing. So for them who have a lot of meetings in public space and do mobile working, they often have problem with their mobile phone’s battery. Your battery is empty, but you need call someone. Ouch…

The good news is a cell phone charging kiosk introduced in China and US may solve the problem. A six feet tall by two feet wide cell phone charging kiosk can charge 18 different types of mobile phone at the same time, and even iPod. The device with a 17 inch color monitor near the top and equipped with stereo speakers also can be an advertising media in mall and other public spaces.