'Toylet' games make a splash in Japan urinals

An "Intelligent Toilet", manufactured by Toto for Daiwa House is seen at a show room in Tokyo. Japanese toilets are famed for functions such as posterior shower jets and perfume bursts, but entertainment company Sega has gone a step further by installing urine-controlled games in Tokyo urinals.AFP - Wednesday, January 19

TOKYO (AFP) - – Japanese toilets are famed for functions such as posterior shower jets and perfume bursts, but entertainment company Sega has gone a step further by installing urine-controlled games in Tokyo urinals.

Four types of "Toylets" games are available to be played during a test period ending this month at four male bathrooms in pubs and game arcades, in a project aimed at drawing attention to digital adverts.

Each urinal is fitted with a pressure sensor, and a small digital display is placed at eye level. Digital adverts are shown after the games.

Games include "Graffiti Eraser" in which a user tries to aim at the pressure sensor in the urinal to erase virtual graffiti on the display.

Or there's "Mannekin Pis" -- named after a Brussels fountain depicting a urinating boy -- which measures the volume of the user's stream.

Another is called "The North Wind and The Sun and Me", in which the strength of a urine stream determines the extent to which a virtual girl's skirt gets blown up by a digital wind.

"Splashing Battle!" pits the user against the previous urinal user in terms of stream strength.

First-time foreign visitors to Japan are often baffled by the complexity of Japanese high-tech toilets, which feature computerised control panels, usually with Japanese language instructions as well as pictograms.

The "Toylets" will only be available at limited locations until January 31, "with no concrete plans to make them into actual products," said a Sega spokesman.

Inside the 'Glass Pavilion'

By Sushil Cheema, photos by William MacCollum and Jim Bartsch, WSJ.com

Aug 18, 2010

Known for his modern designs, Los Angeles- based architect Steve Hermann finished his latest project in Montecito, Calif., about four months ago.
Mr. Hermann considers the home, called the Glass Pavilion, his “opus.”
When he builds in the Hollywood Hills or Beverly Hills, Mr. Herman says he is usually restricted to a small lot.
This lot measures about three-and-a-half acres and gave him the space he needed to create a home featuring walls of glass.


Slide Show: Inside the 'Glass Pavilion'
"Here I have complete privacy," Mr. Herman says.
"It allows you to be one with nature inside the house."
The 13,875-square-foot home features five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms, a kitchen with a wine room and an art gallery that displays the architect’s vintage car collection.

Mr. Hermann, who has a passion for mid-century modern furnishings, also designed some of the home's furniture, including the benches in the hallway.
He originally built the home for himself, but while the six-year project was underway, he says, his plans changed.
Among those changes, he notes, was the birth of his daughter, now 10 months old.
Mr. Hermann says he will likely rent another home for awhile before embarking on another project for himself.
The home is now listed for $35 million, and the furnishings are negotiable. Suzanne Perkins of Sotheby's International Realty has the listing.

Click here to see more photos of the "Glass Pavilion"


http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/inside-the-glass-pavilion

Saudi Arabia to test 'world's largest clock'

By ASSOCIATED PRESS 
08/11/2010 14:31

Timepiece that "will dwarf Big Ben" to be unveiled during Ramadan.

 

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia will test what it is being billed as the world's largest clock in the holy city of Mecca during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the official news agency reported Tuesday.

The four-faced clock tower will top a massive skyscraper that when completed will be around 1,970 feet (600 meters) tall, the second tallest in the world after Dubai's Burj Khalifa.

The clock will dwarf London's Big Ben, once the largest four-faced clock in the world, with dials more than five times greater in area.

The around 130 foot (40 meter) diameter Saudi clock dials are also bigger than the current world champion at the Cevahir Mall clock in Istanbul, which has a 36 meter face set in the transparent roof of the shopping complex.

The complex overlooks Mecca's famed Grand Mosque, which Muslims worldwide face during their five daily prayers and is part of Saudi efforts to develop the city visited by millions of pilgrims every year.

A three-month test run for the clock will start during the first week of Ramadan — the month-long period of prayer, reflection and sunrise-to-sunset fasting, the report said. This year, Ramadan will begin Wednesday.

Only one of the clock's four faces has so far been completed and is covered with 98 million pieces of glass mosaics.

Each face will be inscribed with "God is greatest" in Arabic and fitted with thousands of colored lights. The clock will be visible from more than 16 miles (25 kilometers).

An observatory deck is planned at the base of the clock.

A huge golden crescent moon, 75 feet (23 meters) in diameter, will eventually rise above the clock on a 200 foot (61 meter) spire, from which some 15 beams will shoot up into the sky, the agency added. The entire clock, from the base up to the crescent, itself will be 820 feet (251 meters) high.

German and Swiss engineers designed the clock and according to the Ministry of Religious Endowments, the entire project will cost $800 million.

The seven tower complex is being built by developer Saudi Binladen Group, the press agency reported.

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=184413

Mecca clock vs Big Ben

Big Ben (L) and the Mecca Clock Tower (R) are now in competition to be recognised as the Height of Clock Towers:

St Stephen's Tower: 315.9ft

Royal Mecca Clock Tower (when spire is added): 1,970ft.

Diameter of clock faces:

Big Ben: 23ft

Royal Mecca: 151ft

Inscriptions:

Big Ben: "Domine Salvam Fac Reginam Nostram Victoriam Primam" (Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria I)

Royal Mecca: "In the name of Allah"

Illuminations:

Big Ben: Originally gas light, now each dial is lit by 28 bulbs.

Royal Mecca: 2 million LED lights on the clock face; 21,000 white and green lights above the timepiece that flash five times a day to signal the call to prayer. 16 bands of vertical lights will also be beamed 7 miles into the air on festival days.

Other claims to fame:

Big Ben: Until now, the great bell was housed in the world's tallest four-faced clock tower. It might still be the world's most recognisable clock, but its significance is dwindling for many ever since the BBC World Service's English services stopped broadcasting the "bongs" on a daily basis (now only happens at 0000 GMT on New Year's Day). Some local language BBC networks still play the chimes of Big Ben.

Royal Mecca: The largest of seven towers making up the Abraj al-Bait complex. It will house a giant shopping mall, over 2,000 hotel rooms, two helipads and a prayer area that can fit 30,000 people. The hotel in the clock tower itself will have 800 rooms. The Palace of Westminster has 1,100 rooms.

The complex is being built by the Bin Laden Group, Saudi Arabia's largest construction company owned by relatives of the terrorist kingpin. Although the clock tower will be hailed as a masterpiece of Islamic architecture, it is in fact being designed by a German company.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/7937168/Mecca-clock-vs-Big-Ben.html

DUBAI IS INSTALLING 50-70 BOXES.......

Sleep box - how about sleeping in a box when you are just passing by a large city?

Size: 2 m x 1,40m x 2,30m to sleep in comfort and security.

Cheap sleep in case of emergency for anyone rich or poor!!

No time wasted looking for a hotel.

Designed to be installed at train stations and airports, and central public places or cities where accommodation is fully booked.

In tropical climate countries the sleeper box can be installed outdoors in main streets.

The space includes bed, linen, ventilation system, alarm. LCD TV, WiFi , space for your laptop and re chargeable phone. Under your bed and floor there is a cupboard for your luggage.

Payment is made at terminals who will give clients an electronic key that can be purchased for 15 minutes or for as many hours as you need.

source : here