I Art You

Its a busy week on the Tech Travel Week Roundup, focuses heavily on Dubai but also venturing deep into the Peruvian jungle we once again bring you the best tech attractions from around the world.

1) Take a ride on Dubai’s brand new subway, a video of the entire trip sped up too 818mph. [Source]

2) Some ad agency offers their vision of the future of Dubai, is it the annual make a video of Dubai week? [Source]

3) The 1km high Nakheel Tower should be complete around 2019. [Source]

4)Missel Silos converted into homes

5) The tallest abandoned structures in the world. [Source]

6) Decorating Machu Pechu with a giant laser light cannon. [Source]

Another week full of wonderful technical attractions scattered around the world. As hard as we tried there was no real theme to this weeks tech travel roundup.

1) Solar powered Wi-Fi in a bus stop, you must be in San Fransisco. [Source]

2) Futurologist Ian Yeoman gave a presentation on the distant future of the travel industry…it is a little bleak. He envisions people staying indoors, for example indoor ski resorts, one if Dubai is fine but I would not want to make a habit of visiting fake environments. He also envisions lots of robots, and robot sex which we will leave up to you to yay or nay. [Source]

3) Promo for 2012 or just a bad real estate investment? A new concept puts a pop 20,000 city right on the Mississippi in New Orleans. Its a neat concept but real estate is not exactly in high demand in the area, but it might fly somewhere else. [Source]

Soup and Michael Jackson steal the show of this weeks Tech Travel Roundup. From Japan to the United States here is this weeks list of the hottest tech attractions.

1) RIP Michael Jackson, an exclusive tour of Michael Jackson’s personal arcade, much of which was auctions off earlier this year. [Source]

2) McDonald’s will be offering a free charge for your card along with a Big Mac meal. The fast food restaurant is piloting a new program with electric vehicle charging stations at a Cary, North Carolina location. [Source]

3) Japanese love ramen, and they also love robots, so it only seems logical that they would combine the two. Meet the man who wants to remove the men that make ramen [Source]. It may not be as high tech but vending machines also deliver machine made ramen ordering [Source]. The Japanese also love their fake Korean BBQ [Source].

4) Go on a dinosaur safari from July to September at museums exhibition in Cheba, Japan. [Source]

5) Living on the moon? [Source]

Summer has come, its time to get outdoors and maybe even go on a road trip or two. In other words it is the perfect time to explore some of the worlds greatest tech attractions. Network World has gathered up some of America’s hottest geek destinations with their 11 Summer Vacations For Geeks, and an article from the writer of the Geek’s Atlas.

1) Choose from these 11 Tech Terrific vacation destinations this summer. [Source]

2) A list of tech shrines that every Geek must visit! [Source]

3) Japan is hard at work building another GIAN ROBOT!!!! [Source]

4) Meanwhile Japans other GIANT ROBOT!! is basking in the lime light, enjoying its fifteen minutes of fame. [Source]

The world is changing fast, major investments in alternative energy projects are starting to bear fruit. Around the world new projects are be announced and construction is beginning every day.

1) Europe’s largest solar power plant is going up in the Vatican. [Source]

2) GE and CISCO have chosen Miami as the host city for a trial of their new $200 million Smart Grid Project. Smart energy grids, panels that allow homeowners to view their energy consumption and smart appliances will all be part of the test run. [Source]

3) San Jose’s airport is planning to build a monument to technology in their airport. Some sort of weird robot space telescope people can walk under is the current A Plan. [Source]

Another week, another tech round up. Lots to cover, and for once the geographic location of the tech attractions are spread out all over the world without the usual geographic location in Japan.

1) Alhambra Fortress in Granada has finally been read, by a computer at least. A 3D scanner has scanned all 10,000 inscriptions on the fortress.

2) In Britain one mans obsessive James Bond collection has been transformed into the first James Bond Museum.

3) Costa Rica seems to like airplanes transformed into buildings, there is the Costa Verde 727 Fuselage Suit and the El Avion restaurant.

4) More aviation tourism may be on its way to Dubai. Rumor has it that some company in Dubai has made a hefty bid on the last available British Airways Concorde.

5) While in Dubai do a little Sand Boarding, with the Sandviper, the first board dedicated to sand boarding.

6) The Tate is getting an Egyptian style extension, architectural firm Herzog & deMeuron has complete the stunning design.

7) Another aviation themed restaurant in South Korea, apparently the first of its kind to fly commercial. [Source]

One of the best places for some tech travel is one that many of you might have already been to. The Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral is one of the meccas of tech travel, lucky for some of us our parents already took us there on a side trip to Disney World. The center itself has loads of interesting exhibits, but if you time things just right you will be able to see the main attraction, a shuttle launch. Although tickets sell out fast for the launches the shuttle taking off can be viewed from many near by locations outside of the Kennedy Space Center.

The next shuttle being launched is,
Shuttle Discovery - ISS 15A
February 12th, 2009 7:30AM

STS-119 will be the 28th U.S. mission to the International Space Station. The flight will deliver the Starboard 6 truss segment, giving the station its fourth and final set of power-generating solar wings.

This weeks tech round up has a bit of a mishmash of technology attractions. As usual Japan and the United States lead in the coverage, these two tech titans provide the bulk of technological advances so its only natural that the most tech attractions are found in these countries.

First up is a bowling alley that is most likely the largest in the world. The 116 lane bowling alley located in the city of Aichi, Japan is truly a site to behold. It is even more impressive when you consider this massive bowling alley was built in land scarce Japan. [Source]

A city in Georgia is considering the development of a virtual world where citizens could attend city council meetings and learn more about the events in their city. The program would encourage involvement by rewarding participants with points that would be redeemable for discounts at local businesses. It seems like a great way to get often apathetic citizens involved in their cities management. [Source]

Last on this weeks round up in the San Diego, California based company is hard at work on electromagnetic transportation systems. Most maglev systems are designed with passengers in mind, but General Atomics (has an awesome name) has a concept for maglev cargo trains. They already have a 400 foot test track created. [Source]

As usual Tech Travel week is once again bringing you the latest and greatest in tech travel news, this week has been another big one. While many of the attractions listed this week are things you actually can not go, we feel they still fall right into the category of tech travel tourism. Confused? That’s ok read on and all will be revealed.

The first item is a bit of sad news for Trekkie travelers, the Star Trek Mecca “Star Treck Experience” in Las Vegas has closed. The museum/rides was housed in the Hilton hotel, but the company was looking at bringing a more profitable attraction in for some time now. They must have found something new to go in there because the Star Trek attraction is out the streets looking for a new location. Source

Next up is some serious American ingenuity, although you can not necessarily visit these sites as a tourists these locations represent the future. Technology progressing in front of your eyes, now that is something to take note of in your tech travels.

The U.S.’s largest solar plant is located in sunny Nevada. Created by Solar One ACCIONA’s plant produces enough energy to power over 14,000 homes annually.

Next up is Space Port America, picture an airport, but instead of catching a flight to some other world city you take a trip to space. This is the concept that is being put into reality Las Cruces, New Mexio. Home to Virgin Galactic and a number of other small space tourism companies the project is poised to make New Mexico the world’s hub for space tourism.

After talking about Space travel, regular old ground transportation may sound a little boring. However, one company that’s developing some new train technology could revolutionize train travel in the United States. American Maglev is pushing magnetic levitation tech for use in urban transportation systems. They claim their methods are much cheaper then traditional Maglev trains. They are currently constructing a test track in Georgia, United States.

Another busy week for tech travel news. Considering the controversy in the US elections about million dollar planitariums its only fitting we bring you news of the most expensive planetarium on earth! Also on tap today are massive solar fields in Nevada, and the closure of a beloved tech attraction in Vegas.

First of is a new hotel in Malibu offering all the amenities of a geeks dream home. Order room service on your ipod, surf the net via wi-fi, or watch some youtube videos on your big screen TV. Truly a hotel for the technologist in you, the best part is that the Malibu hotel is only a trial and a LA software company is looking to role these out nation wide. Source

Further abroad in the land of the rising sun you can now visit Thanko’s flagship store in Tokyo. Thanko is most famous for its campy usb creations, from heated slippers to sushi usb, use the map, and with a bit of luck you should be in USB heaven soon.

San Fransisco is home to the worlds most advanced planetarium, the Morison Planitarium will blow you away, three stories tall and $20 million dollars, is it worth it? You decide, as for the political news you can view the much debated Chicago planetarium here.

For the final instalation, check out this cool sci-fi style tower from the Czech Republic. Although the tower itself is cool the really neat part is when you catch site of the aliean like creatures climbing up and down the sides of it..the most sci-fi modern are in the world!

Be sure to tune in next week for the weekly technology travel round up.