summer games
Latest
Inhabitat's Week in Green: 3D printed boat, algae-based biofuel and a bus that does push-ups
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. The Olympic flame completed its tour through the UK this week as the 2012 Summer Games officially kicked off on Friday, and all eyes have been on London ever since. All week long we've been focusing on the Olympics, beginning with an overview of London's new Olympic Park, which is headlined by the Zaha Hadid-designed Aquatics Centre, and Anish Kapoor's controversial ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower. For a deeper look at the venues that will be on display at the Olympics over the next two weeks, check out our roundup of the top six green buildings at the Olympics. In addition to the sports stadiums, Olympics visitors will also be treated to the sights and sounds of Coca-Cola's multi-sensory Beatbox Pavilion, an interactive sound and light display that responds to touch. But the art installation that we're most excited about is the one by artist David Cerny, who retrofitted a 6-ton London double-decker bus with a gigantic pair of human arms. Best of all, the arms are motorized, enabling the bus to do push-ups.
BMW opens i Store in sync with London Olympics, shows tourists their electric destiny
Technology companies have been lining up to milk the London Olympics spotlight for all it's worth. BMW isn't shy about taking its turn, but it's not looking to cash in -- directly, we mean. The automaker is instead using its just-opened i Store to showcase everything electric and hybrid for downtown visitors who aren't busy watching the cycling. Its centerpieces are unquestionably the i3 and i8, which won't even go on sale until many months after the summer games' closing ceremonies; the i3 on the floor is closer to the street model, though, and will tease EV drivers with BMW's option packs. Should that make your bank account cringe far too soon, the i Pedelec scooter and the i Wallbox charger will be hanging around as well. If you didn't book a ticket to Heathrow in time, don't panic: the i line is going on a world tour this year that starts in Rome, swings past the US and Japan, and comes full circle to London in 2013.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: Sky City One, remote-controlled light bulbs and the Zero-G Olympic Games
Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green. It took five years to build the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building -- but this week Inhabitat reported that Chinese company BSB plans to build the next world's tallest tower in an astounding 90 days. Dubbed Sky City One, the soaring spire will be constructed using prefab building techniques in record time. In other architecture news, Singapore officially unveiled its lush, sprawling Gardens by the Bay in advance of their opening next week -- and the stars of the show are these spectacular solar-powered supertrees that harvest rainwater and light up the night. We also took a peek inside a bomb-shelter-turned-nightclub that is blowing up in Beijing, and several internet titans unveiled new building projects -- Twitter moved into a new green-roofed headquarters in San Francisco and eBay announced plans to power its flagship data center with a Bloom Energy fuel cell farm.
15 Minutes of Fame: Summer Games heat up summer fun and fall recruiting
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. Work warning: Guild chatter and text in these videos contain the occasional snippet of strong language. Summer break tugging your raiding schedule to shreds? Instead of stressing out about it, maybe it's time to shine your organizational mojo on something a little more fun: a Summer Games event. Time and Tide of Earthen Ring (EU) has done just that, building a weekend of off-season fun and games spanning multiple guilds and even both factions. This may not be the first time we've featured articles about trivia contests, funny challenges and even other special events centering on games before -- but I'm not sure we've ever seen anything as well-planned as these Summer Games. Not content to simply entertain its own, Time and Tide opened the event realm-wide this year in a savvy recruiting move that undoubtedly raised their guild's profile and sparked plenty of interest from other players. You'll want to read our interview with GM and Summer Games organizer Firelash, if for no other reason than to snag some sweet ideas for a morale-boosting, team-bonding, raider-recruiting event of your own!
Pentathlon switching to laser pistols for 2012 Olympics
It looks like your chances of hearing someone say "pew pew" at the 2012 Olympic games just got a whole lot better -- the world governing body for the Pentathlon announced this week that the sport will be switching from air pistols to laser pistols for the next summer games. That follows a successful trial at this month's inaugural Youth Olympics, which apparently went off without a hitch and without any impromptu games of laser tag. According to Klaus Schormann of the UIPM governing body, the switch will now also allow for competitions to be held in places like parks and shopping malls, and it will make it easier for athletes to travel with their guns on airplanes. Of course, the move could also open up a whole new can of worms: performance-enhancing hacking.
MST3K crew appears during the Summer Olympics broadcast?
Now look, we're not sure if this was someone's drug-induced fever dream or not, but if it did really go down, it might be the best thing that's happened at the entire 2008 Summer Olympics. According to the Dirty Red Commie, sometime on August 17th between 2:00 PM and 3:13 PM Mountain Time, Joel, Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot from Mystery Science Theater 3000 appeared on NBC's broadcast of the summer games. The DRC says they were simply static -- no hilarious jokes or animated banter -- but cut out during local commercials, giving him the impression that this was coming from the NBC mothership rather than his local station. Apparently a video of the action was set to go up on YouTube, but was "copyright-killed before it was even done processing." If anyone out there on the interblogs is able to confirm this, we'd love to hear from you. Update: While not exactly proving the authenticity of this, we've now got video of it after the break. Update: Aaaaaand... the video has been taken down.
VC Friday: A monstrous update
Maybe "monstrous" is overdoing it, but after last week's no-show for the Virtual Console, we're back to five games for this Friday's PAL region VC update. Hurrah! These range from forgettable spin-offs (Pac-Attack -- the first SNES title we've seen in over three months, bizarrely) to a Commodore 64 fan favorite (Cybernoid) to SNK's excellent King of the Monsters, which probably hasn't been bettered in the monsters-breaking-stuff genre since its release. Super Fantasy Zone -- Mega Drive -- 800 Wii Points Pac-Attack -- SNES -- 800 Wii Points Summer Games 2 -- Commodore 64 -- 500 Wii Points Cybernoid -- Commodore 64 -- 500 Wii Points King of the Monsters -- Neo Geo -- 900 Wii Points We have some videos featuring some of the above for you, but you'll have to smash the break down with your giant monster limbs to access them.
The Empire of Sports
Playing as or battling against elves, dwarfs, monsters and aliens comprise the heart and soul of virtually every MMO on the market. So what would you say to a massive online game based around - not one, but many - sports? Being a sports fanatic, I'm sweating at the very thought of such a bold idea. A few weeks ago The Empire of Sports launched their closed beta. And what is this sporting MMO all about?Players create a fully customizable character to interact, train, compete and attend events in several different spots disciplines including football, basketball, tennis, skiing, bobsleigh, and a series of training/fitness games. Additional single and team sports will be added as the community evolves. According to the website, these are not mini-games, but full blown sports games that feature unique controls giving players a different experience each time. Players will live and train within virtual city centers (which look like Olympic villages) that include all the facilities and services a world class athlete would ever need. Once you're ready you can test your skills against thousands of other players in order to build a virtual sports star existence. Based on the screen shots EoS reminds me a lot of Epyx old Winter Games and Summer Games released during the mid-1980's. Good times. I can't wait to give this intriguing MMO concept a spin! The Empire is accepting beta applications, so if any of this sounds intriguing, shoot on over to their website and join the fun.
