Tunnel Links New York To London

I must go and see this the next time I go to London. Basically, a long tunnel across the world filled with mirrors makes an image from London go all the way across the ocean to New York. It was designed by a rather creative artist and inventor named Paul St George, and it is called a Telectroscope.

It was possibly the most laborious and least informative interview ever
conducted. It took about five minutes, yielded a one-word answer, and gave
little real flavour of the subject.

Still - it was conducted using two
whiteboards, two marker pens, and it was done over a distance of 3,471 miles
(5,585 km). How? Well there are two answers to that.

If you believe
artist and inventor Paul St George then his "Telectroscope" connects New York
and London via a (very) long tunnel running through the earth's crust, with the
images bouncing back and forth using mirrors.

The other explanation is
that it is all done by optical fibres - take your pick. One end of the "tunnel"
emerges next to Tower Bridge on the banks of the Thames in London - the other is
next to Brooklyn Bridge on the banks of New York's East River.

It looks
like something HG Wells might have imagined. Each end has a giant telescope-like
construction which appears to punch its way out of the earth. There are dials,
and levers, and thermometer gauges on the side of the 20m long brass and wood
construction.

Peer into it and you can see people on the other side of
the Atlantic. Wave at them, they wave back at you. Write on the whiteboard, and
ask a question, and they will write back.

[via BBC news, photo, original website]

My BAJD Contribution

I know this is a day late, but I had to contribute and I couldn't get myself to write this post yesterday. Anyway, I liked the style Kinzi took when she wrote her post, so I will try and use it as well. I always have to add the humorous twist to the thing, so here it is.

• Where else is there a place with a name mistaken for a basketball player?
• Where else would you find the traditional meal made from dried yoghurt, rice and meat?
• Where else would you find the rarest type of humans, the cheating, lying, thieving, ugly, single-celled-brained taxi drivers?
• Where else could you get anything you wanted if you walked into a shop and ranted like a man possessed?
• Where else would a country's national television station get the lowest audience ever?
• Where else would you find such bad customer service and quality and such rude and incompetent customer service staff?
• Where else would having a 'wasta' or not could lead to your life or death?
• Where else would you find such a wide range of socially acceptable options once you've finished school - '6ib aw handaseh'?
• Where else would you wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of a weddings gunfire?
• Where else would you use your car horn more?
• Where else would there be a national holiday because it was supposed to snow?

Welcome to Jordan! And if anyone has another one, feel free to add it in the comments section.

Xbox Live

Playing on the internet with other real people is something that has revolutionised the industry of gaming. These days, multi player functionality is a must when reviewing a game, and it counts just as much as the single player part of it.

Xbox Live delivers a rather unique experience of multiplayer gaming to the Xbox gamer, and is rather different from other networks. As Xbox 360 users have their own profiles, these are used as the gamers users and are carried from game to game without any configuration.

Friends can be added to parties and clans, and from here the player can move with his party from one game to another, all under the comminucation of the headset. Voice messages can also be sent to players even when they are offline.

When out of games, the Xbox Marketplace offers a wide selection of games, videos and expansions to choose from. Game demos are always available for free and other items are bought by Microsoft Points, although I haven't tried buying anything.

All in all, Xbox Live is one essential addition to the Xbox 360 that makes it superior to the other consoles. Although I may not agree with having to pay for it, I do look forward to renewing my subscription.