Jun 28
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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Jun 28
With the iPhone being so popular, we would expect that many carriers around the world are scrambling for the privilege to offer it as part of its portfolio which would undoubtedly attract many customers to their networks. While it did […]
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Jun 28
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
Jun 26
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Jun 24
Dolls can be creepy. Everyone knows that. But they have just upped the creep factor with this interactive smartphone controlled doll (some images at link NSFW) based on mascot character Mirai Suenaga. Just look at those eyes.
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I guess Anime fans will love it, but to me it’s pretty freaky. The doll is going to be 60 cm tall and has been named simply the Smart Doll. Right now it is in the prototype phase. It has soft vinyl skin and 3D printed parts which were duplicated to generate wax clones and copper plated using electroforming. The robotics are all inside.
For movement of the hands, limbs and arms it has 24 small servo motors and hybrid servo motors. The CPU board sits in the doll’s head. It sports Bluetooth, an ultrasound sensor, a visual sensor, acoustic sensor, location sensor and a touch sensor. Somebody out there will no doubt love this doll. Me, I just want to run.
[via Damn Geeky]
Jun 23
Mt. Fuji, Japan’s national symbol, finally became a UNESCO World Heritage site
Posted in: Today's Chili
On June 22, 2013, the Japanese symbolic mountain, Mt. Fuji (Fujisan), which is the highest mountain in Japan and is a traditionally popular destination for tourists, was finally officially designated as a World Heritage site by UNESCO, announced at the annual UNESCO conference held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This is the 17th Japanese World Heritage site.
As soon as this much-awaited good news arrived in Japan, people, especially those who live around the area, started sharing the joy of the occasion.
There are 3 kinds of classifications for World Heritage site: natural world heritage site, cultural world heritage site, and mixed heritage site, and UNESCO granted Mt. Fuji a cultural world heritage status. The reason is that Mt. Fuji has been a very important place for Japan’s ancient mountain worship and also it’s been a favorite theme for many old and new artists whose art is highly valued overseas – including world famous Ukiyoe artist, Katsushika Hokusai.
A scenic area called Miho no Matsubara, which is 45km away from Mt.Fuji, was also included as a part of Mt.Fuji and registered as World Heritage site.
We expect that it will lead to more interest in Japanese tourism.
Jun 22
You probably wouldn’t let your dog drink out of your toilet, but did you know that there are actually people out there who would eat out of a toilet?
Not out of a regular toilet, of course, but out of the Moko Moko Mokoletto. If you say it again and again fast enough, it’s almost like a tongue twister…
Anyway, the Moko Moko is actually a toilet-themed candy from Japan, where most awesome, weird, and unusual things seem to orginate.
The pack comes with a plastic toilet and a pack of candy. The miniature toilet is first assembled, and then the flavored candy powder is added to the toilet’s tank with water in order to activate it. You, the candy eater, are then supposed to sip the bubbly candy concoction from the toilet. Yum.
The clip above was posted by RRcherrypie, who describes the experience on his blog (translated): “Idea of the product is great, taste is OK. Made of toilet put the water from the tank actually is good. Place in Bathroom own Dollhouse of (1/12 scale). Chloro to look at the toilet was clogged …. Head, I keep clean …!”
There are four different colors of miniature toilets to choose from. Moko Moko product information is available here.
[via Tastefully Offensive and Yababoon via Laughing Squid]
Jun 21
You are not watching CGI. Despite the kaleidoscope of colors and shapes rising from the infinite horizon, this is all real footage of the 12-mile Yurikamome line in Tokyo. Hold onto your butts.
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Jun 21
In case you forgot, Samsung and Apple’s legal squabbles didn’t end in US federal court last year: the litigation rages on in international courts. Stop us if you’ve heard this one — Samsung and Apple are caught up in a lawsuit focusing in part on Cupertino’s bounce back patent, and things aren’t looking great for Sammy’s lawyers. It’s a familiar story, but this time it’s playing out in a Japanese courtroom, with a Tokyo judge deciding that a number of Samsung devices are in violation of Apple’s scrolling technology. What’s this mean to the consumer? Nothing yet — the court still hasn’t calculated damages or approved an injunction, and this isn’t the only legal battle the firms are waging in the country’s court system. Feel free to brush up on your kanji and check out the source link below for more details, or skip on over to Bloomberg for a more digestible account.
Filed under: Cellphones, Apple, Samsung
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