tornado
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Lenovo ThinkPad T400s run over by truck, left out in tornado in new spate of videos
Lenovo's T400s has been caught in the wild once before -- if by wild you understood us to mean a well-lit, relatively clean and sterile environment. Well, we've caught another several glimpses of the latest ThinkPad, but this time, it's actually in the wild. As in, dropped in the middle of the road to be run over by a giant truck, or left in the downpour of a tornado. Sounds fun, right? No, it doesn't expand our knowledge of price or availability for this puppy, but it is fun to watch in a sick, twisted sort of way. Check both videos after the break.
GC 2008: 'Tornado' ads both suck and blow
Behold: Tornado. What's the game about? Does it really matter? From what we can stomach gather, this ludicrous video – complete with a crappy rip-off of Danny Elfman's Pee-Wee's Big Adventure score – shows a game that looks like a Katamari Damacy clone, is played by swirling the stylus on the DS screen, and stars the love child of Shadow the Hedgehog and Aero the Acro-Bat.Oh, and what is up with that poor raccoon? Or the little girl with the dead eyes and creepy smirk? The whole thing looks like footage David Lynch could have shot after going off his drugs. There's a second spot after the break, but you might want to take a moment to compose yourself before clicking through, since it's just as hysterically awful. You have been warned.
Tornado to blow through Europe
Ignition won't be forgetting about Europe when it comes to localizing Tornado, Success's Katamari Damacy-esque action game about a bunch of heroic cats who employ tornadoes to tidy up the mess left by a devious galactic Prince who wants to claim all possessions on Earth. Hey, it could happen! The game is currently slated for a fall release in Europe, but Ignition might want to hurry up -- the game still lacks a release date in its native Japan. While we wait for something more concrete, let the wind guide you gently towards our gallery and a dozen new images.%Gallery-25101%[Via press release]
CASA network aims to identify tornadoes more quickly
The recent tornado tragedy in Iowa underscores the necessity to replace our aging NEXRAD detection system, and thankfully, a team of scientists from various universities are already working to find a suitable replacement. The Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) satellite network would theoretically be installed on existing infrastructure, and it would purportedly scan areas more quickly and target the bottom of storms -- something the current system falters at. The so-called "gap filling radars" could be used to scrutinize the regions where NEXRAD radars can't see, and better still, it will likely be able to more accurately predict the storm path in order to more effectively alert those who may be in harm's way. On the downside, said network isn't expected to be implemented and ready for use until 2013, so we wouldn't go converting that basement into a home theater just yet.[Thanks, Matt]
Ignition officially announces Tornado, first media blows in
Confirming Nintendo Power's statement, Ignition Entertainment sent out a press release announcing their intention to release Success's Tornado in North America. Surprisingly, the game isn't even close to being released in Japan yet: Success's barebones Tornado website still shows an "undecided" release date.As Toki, a member of the Cosmic Cleaners, Tornado players must use upgradable Tornado Machines to clean up the world and reclaim all the items, people, and buildings that a malevolent Prince has stolen from Earth. Like Katamari Damacy with a different rotational axis. The focus is on acquiring unique items, and completing levels in the Story Mode unlocks them in Arcade Mode for replay and continued collecting.The first English screens are available in our gallery. Take them for a spin, why don't you (oh man, sorry about that).%Gallery-25101%[Via press release]
North American Tornado confirmed
It looks like GameFly was right once again.We recently reported that the renter/retailer put up a listing for Tornado, which was assumed to be a localized version of the Japanese game sharing the same name. Now according to a blurb in most recent issue of Nintendo Power, the Katamari-like game is indeed confirmed to pop up in North America, although no timeline details were given.Nintendo Power also reveals that Tornado will include some microphone blowing elements, which worries us a little bit. As long as the game doesn't overdo it, though, we can't help but think that this will be a nice addition to the DS library.[Via GoNintendo]%Gallery-25101%
Tornado might blow over to North America
The comparisons between Tornado and Katamari Damacy are extremely evident, but there's one major difference: Katamari Damacy games are available outside of Japan, whereas Success's title has yet to accomplish that.In fact, Tornado hasn't even released in Japan yet. It was originally scheduled to come out last year, but later become delayed indefinitely. Oddly enough, though, GameFly has a listing for a DS game called Tornado. Can it be the same game? Perhaps -- we hope so, at least. We wouldn't mind having a portable Katamari-like game release in North America for our favorite handheld.Whatever this game is, it's being published by Ignition Entertainment and has a GameFly release date of September '08.[Via Siliconera]
Mercedes museum hosts most powerful artificial tornado
How better to get visitors to your museum than to create a massive man-made tornado in the middle of the building? Clearly, our cynical suggestion is not the motivation behind the creation of Mercedes-Benz's artificial tornado in the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart: their excuse was that the building had to abide by fire safety guidelines, which state that the massive open spaces in the museum required big fire doors the museum owner didn't want to put in place. The solution was apparently a 34.4 meter high tornado, powered by 144 jets and capable of moving 28 tons of air designed to clear smoke from the building -- and, for demonstration purposes, stage smoke. It's certainly not anyway near as powerful as a real tornado (the video after the break attests to that), but it's definitely just as pretty.
How disturbing: Tornado is kind of familiar
In order to clean up the mess caused by a drunken galactic king evil galactic prince, the tiny protagonist protagonists of Katamari Damacy Tornado must roll up pick up lots of stuff, including trees and buildings, in a big ball tornado. As you pick up more stuff, your ball tornado increases in size, allowing you to pick up bigger stuff.Of course, Katamari Damacy didn't have adorable furry characters (to its credit), and it didn't require players to constantly spin in a circle to generate momentum. Other than that, the two games look pretty similar. But if Tornado is a well-executed ripoff, we'll probably still be interested. We are slaves to rolling-stuff-up gameplay.
Man-made 'tethered tornadoes' touted as a viable power source
With all the wacky unconventional proposals we've seen people come up with for generating electricity in an environmentally friendly manner, is it really so outrageous to think that giant, man-made tornadoes could be harnessed to power a small city? Well that's exactly the idea being floated around the University of Western Ontario these days, which is currently testing a scale model of retired refinery engineer Louis Michaud's patented vortex engine -- a machine fueled by excess power plant heat that uses the physics of convection inherent in rising air to drive electricity-producing turbines. In its most grandiose realization, the engine (inventor's rendition pictured above) would be 200 meters in diameter and generate a 'clean' (debris-free) tornado stretching 20 kilometers into the sky able to coax 20 megawatts each out of ten independent turbines. Obviously the main concern about the anticipated $60 million project -- which would reportedly operate at just a quarter of the cost of a coal-based facility, even before taking into account the $20 million saved on a cooling tower by the participating power plant -- is that the tornado could somehow escape its confines and wreak havoc on nearby communities. Still, with all the advantages this scheme seems to offer, we're certainly willing to give it a chance -- after all, a 'malfunctioning vortex engine' is a lot less scary than a potential disaster at one of the many nuke plants dotting our landscape.[Via UberReview]
T-Mobile's SDA reviewed
We've been spending some quality time with T-Mobile's SDA Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone. The $300 phone boasts some pretty good features for the price, including EDGE data, Bluetooth, a QVGA screen, and a 1.3 megapixel camera. The real kicker is the WiFi connectivity lacking in its 2125 cousin from Cingular, but how does it hold up under rigorous solitaire play and indiscriminate texting of ex-lovers? You'll have to read on to find out.
Student-made games make downloadable waves
Nintendo's Game Seminar managed to bear some fruit as several attending students created games that will be available for download. The games, titled Tornado, Nekosogi Tornado, Bioumu, and Kuru Keshi!, were recently trademarked by Nintendo and will be available in Japan come April via download. [Via Gaming Evolution]
