I’m fairly certain that the idea of jumping over an island has never crossed my mind in all my years of thinking. But if you’re a champion kitesurfer like Youri Zoon and you stumble across a small enough island, well, that’s just another day on the beach for you. Jumping the damn thing and nailing it is just how you live. Watch Zoon catch the perfect gust of wind and fly over an entire 120-foot island near New Caledonia. Sick.
There are a number of volcanically-formed islands in the oceans around the world. A new volcanic island has poked its peak above the surface of the ocean for the first time recently.
The exact location of the island is unknown, but it is said to be close to Japan. The island is actually the tip of an active volcano. It was discovered when coastguard services saw smoke and went to investigate. What they found was an active volcano spewing smoke and molten rock.
The island is tiny right now measuring only 200 meters wide. Since the island is so small it hasn’t even been named. Scientists say that since it is made from volcanic rock it may not live long as such rock erodes easily. If the island survives it may get a name in the future.
[via BBC]
Off the coast of Japan, an exploding volcano has formed a new island about 650 meters in diameter. You can see it spewing and spouting black volcanic ash all around as it fills itself out. Pretty cool.
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If this view looks familiar, it’s because it was the inspiration for the Javier Bardem’s cyberterrorist HQ in Skyfall. Now, you can explore the real-life island on Street View.
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It goes by the name of Hashima, or Gunkanjima (“Battleship Island”), or even “The Dead Island”, since it inspired the water-locked cyberterrorist HQ in Skyfall. As you can see for yourself, courtesy of the new Google Street View (and official “making of” video) embedded after the break, it’s a very a real place off the coast of Japan’s Nagasaki Peninsula, and it’s even lonelier than its fictional counterpart in the Bond film (which wasn’t actually filmed there). There are no tourist offices or giant Oedipus Complexes, as far as we can see, just long stretches of overgrown roads and collapsing apartment blocks that once housed 5,000 people, before they abandoned the island in 1974 following the demise of its coal industry. It took a Google employee two hours to map the place and preserve its crumbling visage for posterity using a special backpack, but don’t be surprised if you want to leave it after just a few minutes.
Filed under: GPS, Internet, Google
Source: Google’s Japanese Blog
“You could argue that there’s some value in it.”
That’s New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking candidly during a recent interview at D10 in California. The topic of conversation? Widespread WiFi, and whether or not the government should be the one thinking about its future ubiquity. More specifically, if WiFi hotspots should be treated like “roads or water supply,” as aptly stated by AllThingsD‘s Kara Swisher.
This obviously isn’t the first time such an idea has crossed the minds of those connected to Washington, D.C. Muni-Fi (municipal wireless networks) projects were all the rage a few years back, but one spectacular failure after another swiftly extinguished that momentum. In more modern times, America (as well as other nations) has sought to solve the “rural broadband” problem, bringing high(er)-speed internet connections to places with a higher bovine population than human.
But bringing broadband to places like rural North Dakota seems like an easy chore to a small, but passionate, group of 60,000 sitting some 4,770 miles from San Diego, California. American Samoa may be an unincorporated US territory located closer to pure bliss than the hustle and bustle of Wall Street, but it’s no doubt being taken into consideration in recent mapping projects aiming to pinpoint the areas most lacking in terms of digital infrastructure. Unbeknownst to most mainlanders, this fragile island chain is home to the most expensive internet in America, and the political issues surrounding it are astonishing. Head on past the break to learn more on what I discovered.
The most expensive internet in America: fighting to bring affordable broadband to American Samoa originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You see that phone booth-sized tiki hut made of bamboo, stone and glass? That’s a specially made building that houses the only ATM in a village. On top of that, it’s completely solar powered, naturally designed for its island and holds a whole lotta cash. More »
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