World’s Most Detailed Globe adds some flair to your living room

worlds-detailed-globeIt is not uncommon to find a globe in a home, as some of us tend to have one either for decoration’s sake, or to use it as some sort of educational tool. Now that Sudan has split into both North and South Sudan, it would be interesting to see whether new globes produced reflect the existence of the world’s newest nation. Well, if you have plenty of dough in your pocket but have no idea on how to spend it, how about settling on the $13,000 World’s Most Detailed Globe? It has been called the world’s most detailed globe for a very good reason – because it comes with a whopping 28,000 place names.

Majority of the globes out there in the market have listed down 4,000 locations thereabouts at the most, but measuring 32″ across, this virtuosic achievement in cartography is capable of holding enough detail in order to spark any geography lover’s imagination. We are talking about places such as the Scottish county town of Ayr all the way to the Isthmus of Kra in Thailand, in addition to Panama’s Las Perlas Archipelago. The World’s Most Detailed Globe is a floor-standing globe that ends up as a focal point of any library or captain’s quarters, and it comes grandly cradled in a handcrafted mahogany frame.
[ World’s Most Detailed Globe adds some flair to your living room copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Settlers of Catan Globe: Catanosphere

Instructables settler PenfoldPlant traded Settlers of Catan’s flat board game for a globe. A modified truncated icosahedron, to be exact. The result is a multipurpose piece that can serve as decoration, a container for game pieces and yes, a playing surface, albeit one that’s not as convenient as the original.

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PenfoldPlant calls his creation the Catanosphere. If it looks like a lot of work, that’s because it is. You’ll need lots of glue, nearly 500 small magnets and a steady hand for this project.

settlers of catan catanosphere by PenfoldPlant 2magnify

Also, as you may have noticed some of the Catanosphere’s spaces for the tiles are pentagonal, but the game’s tiles are all hexagonal. So you’ll have to make or print pentagon-shaped copies of the tiles as well.

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The globe’s shape and the presence of pentagonal tiles also affect the game somewhat, though PenfoldPlant believes that you can still play with the exact same rules as the original.

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Colonize Instructables to for his detailed instructions and notes on the Catanosphere.

Google Free Zone comes to the Philippines: access Google+, Gmail and Google Search without charge

Google Free Zone comes to the Philippines: access Google+, Gmail and Google Search without charge

Luckily for some, Google has thing for dishing out free internet, which is probably why it’s teamed up with Filipino carrier Globe to test out complimentary access to its services. Available now, Free Zone allows any internet-enabled phone to access Gmail, Google+ or Google Search without even having a data plan. Intended mainly for feature phones, you can even load up pages from those search results without paying a dime — or should we say, peso. There’s no usage cap, but clicking through to subsequent pages, accessing Gmail attachments, or opening links from within Google+ will incur charges, but you’ll be prompted to accept them or sign up for a plan before that happens. The Philippines is the first market to try out Free Zone, but the wider scheme is “aimed at the next billion users of the internet, many of whom will be in emerging markets.” Yeah, the catch is that you’ll be exposed to some advertising while you’re using it — but there’s no such thing as a free search, right?

Update: Actually, there is such a thing as a free search. Google has been in touch to let us know that “Free Zone doesn’t serve any ads.” Bonus!

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Google Free Zone comes to the Philippines: access Google+, Gmail and Google Search without charge originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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