Twitter user Chris (RaiderTex52) just posted this photograph taken yesterday by his friend Ryan Scott, flying at 38,000 feet northwest of Amarillo, Texas. It’s a massive haboob—the arabic term for a type of intense dust storm. It just looks like The Nothingness is eating Texas like a good juicy steak.
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In the early, angst-filled days of the Cold War, miners starting carving the insides out of a hill between Dallas and Austin, Texas. The workers didn’t know what they were building, but—at 7,000 acres—it was huge. At that point in time, it was only known as "Project 76."
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This awesome sunscreen looks like it would be at home in deep space, but it’s actually designed for the arts district in Dallas, Texas. The sculpture/sunscreen was commissioned by the police to protect us from brain scans by aliens (NOT!).
Actually, it was designed by REX Architecture as a proposed way to prevent harsh reflected light from bouncing off a highly reflective building into a neighboring sculpture center. The 400-foot-tall installation would generate different designs throughout the year. The shields are designed to open and close like flowers to automatically block sunlight coming in at different angles. Mr. Burns would have been proud.
The sun’s movements were mapped, allowing the team to sculpt SURYA perfectly. Personally, I think they should have included some solar panels in their design so they could harness the Sun’s energy at the same time. That would have been even better.
[via designboom]
Houstonians might be eager to snap up pieces of the Astrodome’s turf and concession stands, but they weren’t prepared to authorize $217 million in bonds to preserve the aging stadium through a redevelopment scheme that would transform it into a convention center. On Tuesday, Houston voters rejected the plan, "very likely dooming it to demolition," according to The New York Times. The decision will be put in the hands of local officials—but this seems final. RIP.
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Now that AT&T is actually laying down fiber-optic line in Austin, we have yet another reason to be jealous of Texas’ weird city. According to Ma Bell, “tens of thousands” will be getting 300Mbps downloads (and uploads), the “fastest internet speeds available” in town to the general public, come December. Those subscribers can snag a free upgrade to gigabit service — GigaPower, as the company calls it — when it’s available in the middle of next year. Oh, and if you want a say in where the ultra-fast service travels, make your neighborhood proud by voting at AT&T’s website. For some reason though, we don’t imagine Google will be casting any ballots.
[Original image credit: Adriano Aurielo Araujo / Flickr]
Source: AT&T
The work of photographer Mark Willis combines advanced imaging and fabrication technologies with archaeological exploration, often producing breath-taking images, 3D models, and highly accurate virtual environments from ancient sites in the U.S. Southwest.
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You didn’t think Texas would actually let Charlotte hold on to the title of world’s largest HD screen, did you? Texas Motor Speedway announced that in 2014 it will take the wraps off of “Big Hoss TV,” a 218-by-94.6 foot (20,633 square foot) 1080p display manufactured by Panasonic. That’s bigger than the 16,000 square-foot HD screen at Charlotte Motor Speedway, as well as the massive screens located in Houston and Dallas. As the track’s handy infographic points out, it has 9,000-plus square feet on the Cowboys’ board, it’s bigger than the Lincoln Memorial and will weigh more than seven elephants when it’s done. Just like the CMS screen it will be used to display live video, instant replays, stats and more during races, viewable to every frontstretch seat in the house (those seated on the backstretch will be greeted by a mere 18-by-24-foot 1080p display). Construction begins this fall after the Texas 500 NASCAR race, and it’s scheduled to be ready in time for the race weekend of April 3rd, 2014.
Source: Texas Motor Speedway
Google’s goal of meeting its electrical needs with renewable sources got another big boost today. The Happy Hereford wind farm in Texas will produce 240 megawatts of juice, and all of that output has been bought by Big G. That power won’t flow directly from the turbines into Google’s data centers, instead it’ll be fed into the regional grid when Google sells the energy on the wholesale market. The 240 renewable energy certificates (REC) acquired in the deal will be retired in support of mother earth, and any additional REC’s created by the wind farm will be used to “reduce our [Google’s] carbon footprint elsewhere.” According to Google, this is similar to other green energy deals it’s done in Iowa and Oklahoma, so it’s highly likely we’ll be seeing more such deals in the not-so-distant future. Of course, no one will be receiving any of that Happy Hereford wind power just yet — the farm won’t be sending out any renewably-sourced electrons until late 2014.
Filed under: Misc, Alt, Google
Source: Google Official Blog
You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Not everyone gets to walk behind the tech industry’s velvet ropes. So when Motorola opened the gates to its Fort Worth, Texas facility — the place where custom Moto X’s are made — we were there to bring you an inside look. And in the interest of getting you even more intimately acquainted with the Google company’s assembled in the USA smartphone production hub, we have something almost as good as being there: a behind-the-scenes video tour. So, what are you waiting for… an invite? Head past the break to glimpse phase one of this whole new Motorola and see Governor Rick Perry spike an iPhone 5.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
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