“Reef Balls” Help You Save the Environment After You Die
October 29, 2008
Today’s environmentally-conscious people are thinking of ways to stay green even after they’re gone.
Eternal Reefs is putting a new spin on the at-sea burial by offering an environmentally-friendly alternative to cremation and traditional cemetery burials.
The company offers a way to have a memorial and help out the environment at the same time, by creating a memorial reef that contains the ashes of the deceased.
The memorial reefs are known as “reef balls.” They are constructed by mixing cremated remains with liquid concrete, which is put into mold in order to create the reef ball.
The reef ball is placed alongside other reef balls to create an artificial reef that provides a habitat for sea life.
Read more
Zeppelin Rides Make a Comeback in California
October 29, 2008
The unique experience and spectacular views of zeppelin rides are being brought back to life by a company called Airship Ventures, located in San Francisco.
Ever since the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937, there hasn’t been a zeppelin in American skies, although blimps can be spotted somewhat frequently.
Airship Ventures, brainchild of Brian and Alexandra Hall, a couple from Silicon Valley, is bringing the zeppelin back to America by offering airship tours over San Francisco. Their zeppelin took to the skies last Saturday, flying over the Golden Gate Bridge as crowds watched in awe.
Airship Ventures is aiming to recreate some of the success that zeppelin ride companies have enjoyed in Tokyo in the Alps, right here in America.
A zeppelin, however, is different from a blimp. A zeppelin has a rigid structure, whereas a blimp does not. Airship Ventures new Zeppelin NT (NT stands for New Technology) is 246 feet long, making it 15 feet longer than a Boeing 747 and it carries a $13 million price tag.
Modern zeppelins are kept afloat by nonflammable helium, as opposed to flammable hydrogen, which is what was used to fuel the Hindenburg. This new zeppelin is one of just three in the entire world; the other two are located in Germany and Japan.
Read more
iPhones Help Airlines Get a Little Greener
October 23, 2008
Airline and government officials are continuing the push to do away with paper boarding passes and converting them instead to electronic means.
Pretty soon when you get your boarding pass from an airline, you’ll be able to have it on your cell phone or PDA. In fact, this is already happening in some airports. The boarding pass will be displayed in the form of an electronic bar code that will be scanned at checkpoints by a TSA screener wielding a $1,000 scanning device.
The TSA plans on expanding the passes to be nationwide within the next year and have been testing out the new paperless passes to make sure that they are secure. Read more
The Scariest High-Tech Haunted Houses in America
October 21, 2008
If you haven’t been inside a haunted house for awhile, you might be shocked to see how far they have come. The haunted houses of today have animatronics and Hollywood-quality sets and special effects designed to shock you and make you scream.
Haunted houses around America keep trying to one-up each other with the latest technology and special effects. Here are some of the most high-tech haunted houses in the nation.
The 13th gate, Baton Rouge, LA
The 13th Gate in Baton Rouge has 13 themed indoor and outdoor areas where you can crawl through an old hearse and crematory oven, get lost in dark underground tunnels and end up on a rickety bridge that overlooks hundreds of live snakes.
The haunted house is 40,000 square feet in total, and is considered to be one of the country’s top haunted attractions.
A movie industry construction crew works year-round on the Haunt and during the Halloween season over 100 professional actors along with special effects makeup and airbrush artists bring the show to life.
Airplane Interiors to be used as Advertising Space
October 16, 2008
The airline industry can use all the revenue they can get. In an attempt to raise revenue without raising prices for customers, some U.S. airlines are beginning to sell advertising space on the interior and exterior of airplanes.
Airlines outside the U.S. such as Dublin’s Ryanair have already been taking advantage of the opportunity to sell ad space on planes, offering spots on tray tables, overhead bins and the aircraft’s exterior.
Ads are already being put on the bottoms of security bins, on boarding passes and in-flight t.v. screens, in addition to the usual ads that are on beverages, magazines and napkins.
Ad space in airplanes could be considered very valuable because passengers will be exposed to them for hours at a time.
So, next time you get on a plane, you could be seeing ads as you stow your bags, go to the bathroom, even when you get air-sick and need to use the little baggie in seat pocket.
Passengers are likely to be annoyed by the onslaught of ads, but may be thankful that they won’t have to cough up more cash for a plane ticket.
(link)
Club Wants People to “Dance to Save the World”
October 13, 2008
Britain’s first “eco-nightclub” opened last weekend in London.
“Club4Climate” features a high-tech dance floor that actually generates power from the people who are dancing on it. As dancers move around on the floor, ceramics and crystals generate an electric charge that will supply an estimated 60% of the club’s energy needs.
Club4Climate was started by a property developer named Andre Charalambous, who goes by the alias of “Dr.Earth.”
The entrance fee to the club is just £10 but upon entrance, customers are must sign a pledge promising that they will work to curtail climate change.
Customers who arrive at the club on foot or on bikes will get in for free, although they will still have to sign the pledge to fight climate change.
The green efforts at Club4Climate don’t stop at the electricity-generating dance floor, the venue also sells organic drinks in polycarbon cups and the bathrooms are equipped with waterless urinals and low flush toilets.
The club also has its own solar power and wind turbine system, and any excess power will be donated locally.
Dr. Earth hopes the club will inspire young people to take an interest in the fight against global warming.
(link)
Cranial Billboards to appear at LAX
October 10, 2008
Would you shave your head for $660?
With the airline industry suffering globally, some airlines are taking extreme measures to attract more business. A New Zealand airline is planning to use human heads as advertising space, starting later this month.
An incentive of $660 is being offered by Air New Zealand for people to shave their heads and don temporary tattoos promoting the airline. The human billboards will be stationed at California’s LAX airport.
Air New Zealand will be paying people to shave their heads (people who are already bald can participate too) so they can be used as “cranial billboards.” The backs of their heads will bear temporary tattoos that advertise slogans like “Need a Change? Head Down to New Zealand.” Read more
Connecticut Casinos hit hard by Economic Downturn
October 9, 2008
Foxwoods casino in Connecticut is learning the hard way that the gaming industry is not in fact recession-proof, as they plan to lay off about 6% of their workforce in an effort to cut costs.
Among the workers being laid-off is Foxwoods CEO Patricia Irvin, a former Pentagon official and Wall Street attorney.
Irvin was on the job for less than a year before being let go. The casino plans to lay off roughly 700 workers by October 17th.
The Mashantucket Pequot tribe, who own Foxwoods, say that the layoffs will be across the board, affecting everyone from hourly employees to management positions.
The layoffs will be staggered over the next couple of weeks. Foxwoods opened its new MGM Grand expansion just four months ago, which created two thousand jobs.
Board director for the Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board, John Beauregard says that this is a daunting layoff and that reabsorbtion will be a challenge in today’s economic climate. Read more
Airport Polls Passengers: Do You Prefer Fox News or CNN?
October 7, 2008
Which news channel would you prefer to watch at the airport: Fox News or CNN? This is the question that South Bend Regional Airport in Indiana is asking passengers after receiving complaints from five University of Notre Dame professors about the airing of Fox News on airport televisions.
The complaints from the professors called for the airport to switch over to news broadcasting that was more politically neutral than Fox News, which tends to be “the right-wing Republican voice,” said ethics professor Darcia Narvaez, who also said that many cable news stations are biased in their political coverage.
Narvaez said that such programs essentially become propaganda when they are aired in public spaces that are financed by money from taxpayers.
Because airports are considered a public space, the people inside them can be considered to be a captive audience, according to Erik Bucy, an Indiana University Professor. Bucy is currently working on a project that deals with the way in which candidates’ images are displayed in visual media.
Since it is election season, news broadcasts could have a bigger influence on the voting mindset of a casual viewer at the airport.
The airport has decided to conduct a survey asking passengers whether they’d rather see news, sports, or weather broadcast on the airport’s 15 television monitors. If someone answers that they would like to see news, they are asked which station they would prefer.
The survey aims to collect responses from 1,000 passengers to help figure out what changes need to be made.
So far, 300 out of 400 responses wanted to see news instead of other kinds of programming such as weather or sports. Out of the people who responded in favor of news, 132 of them wanted to see CNN, 113 wanted to see Fox News, 58 were for MSNBC and four preferred CSPAN.
John Schalliol, the airport director, said that the results so far have not given reason enough to make a change.
(source)