Southern Italy is dotted with hulking aqueducts that went out of service years ago. In an attempt to find a new use for the structures in lieu of tearing it down, the government held a competition. One of the winning designs will blow your mind.
Like ghosts? Then you’ll love Poveglia, a small, deserted island in the Venetian lagoon that’s going on the auction block next month. It’s been called "the island of madness," "Hell," and "the most haunted place on Earth." You’d just love it to pieces.
Organized crime is famously good at exploiting time-sensitive industries like construction, fishing, and—of course—garbage removal. But revelations about millions of tons of toxic waste buried haphazardly and illegally by the mob are causing an uproar in southern Italy, where cancer rates are nearly 50 percent higher than the average in certain areas.
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I’ve always found it curious that the entire city of Venice, Italy is built on the water. The way to get around much of the city is by boat, and the main thoroughfares are canals between different buildings and walkways. As close as I’ve ever gotten to exploring Venice, Italy is watching James Bond chase bad guys around the city.
If you want to explore Venice, but can’t afford the airfare, Google has announced that its Street View imagery is now available for all of the canals and walkways of Venice. To grab the Street View imagery, Google workers used their Trekker Backpack and covered 265 miles on foot and 114 miles by boat.
Google says that it covered all the major attractions in Venice and also covered some of the lesser-known features including the synagogue of the first Jewish Ghetto and the Devil’s Bridge on Torcello Island. Google has even offered up a behind-the-scenes video showing how it captured some of its Street New footage in Venice. This is way cooler than those Street View images of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider.
[via Laughing Squid]
While the images below might look like some sort of horrible, but unlikely disaster, what you’re looking at is the result of an art project on the streets of Milan, Italy.
As part of an ad campaign for European insurance companies Europ Assistance IT and Genertel, ad agency M&C Saatchi Milano installed a full-size submarine in the ground in the center of Milan. Think of it like one of those Allstate Mayhem commercials on steroids.
There was even a live performance to go along with it to help convince bystanders that a submarine had actually crashed through the street, complete with emergency personnel, and a submarine crew:
You can check out more images of the chaos over on designboom.
Why does it seem like awesome ad campaigns like these always happen too far away from me to go see them in person?
[via designboom via It’s Nice That via Colossal]
After prematurely breaking cover in the US, Vodafone’s Smart 4G appears to have fled to Italy, where it’s allegedly been spotted again on one of the network’s local flyers. If the image above is to be believed — and the light spec list is pretty standard to this kind of marketing material — we now know a little more about Voda’s first own-brand LTE handset. Namely, its rounded-corner design, 4.5-inch display, 8-megapixel camera, Snapdragon processor and Jelly Bean Android build. Oh, and that in Italia, it should cost €5 per month on prepaid plans, or come free with two-year contracts. The FCC docs that originally outed the Smart 4G don’t list an LTE band compatible with Vodafone’s Italian network, suggesting the device could come to several European countries (at least) in a few radio variants. We’re still certain it’ll feature on a low-cost 4G contract in the UK, but before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s wait for the formal announcement, which has to be coming soon.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: @flapic (Twitter)
A team of Australian researchers recently climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa with a 3D scanner and came back with the most detailed map of the building ever. At first you might think that the beautiful results were meant for a museum, but this detailed scan will help scientists protect it from ruin.
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While we were busy gawking at the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, Apple was quietly expanding the reach of its AppleCare+ extended support program. The service is now available in France, Italy and the UK, giving locals two years of iOS and iPod hardware support (including two accident claims) beyond the European requirements. Customers pay £79 (€99 in Europe) to cover an iPad or iPhone, and £49 (€59) to safeguard an iPod. Unfortunately, the expansion comes at a cost for Americans — Apple is quietly hiking its AppleCare+ accident repair fee in the US from $49 to $79. While that’s still cheaper than regular service, it’s expensive enough that some may simply prefer to take better care of their gadgets. May we suggest a case?
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Tablets, Mobile, Apple
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Apple (UK), (US)
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