Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
There was a Big Man Japan, and His Name was Gulliver. “Until its decaying remains were demolished in 2007, the park and its 147-foot-long Lemuel Gulliver statue were prime destinations for urban explorers.” Okay, even for Japan this is odd. The idea was to make a theme park based upon a village in the Country of Lilliput from Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”, complete with a gigantic statue of Gulliver himself for scale. And they did it, about 2 ½ hours outside Tokyo near Mount Fuji. Problem is, the Gulliver’s Kingdom theme park didn’t do very well, and lost money for most of the four years it was open between 1997 and 2001. Some Japanese folks blame the park’s demise on its location, as it was near the Sea of Trees forest, Japan’s most “popular” suicide spot. Whatever the reasons, the park closed and big old Gulliver laid in state with his eyes perpetually staring to the skies until he and the entire park were flattened back in 2007. When you look at the pictures at the links, you’ll probably agree that Gulliver’s Kingdom was a great idea that had a kind of creepy execution, no pun intended. (io9 – Bygone Gulliver Theme Park) AcidCow hosts a pretty fantastic gallery of Gulliver’s Kingdom images — AcidCow
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“Wang Xiao Kang stunned his colleagues and upset the security guards with his impromptu showing at the ZTE campus in Shanghai.” Well, showing up to work dressed as a metal superhero seemed like a good idea at the time. And based on the media attention and press coverage Mr. Wang is getting for his stunt, the 25-year-old worker for the ZTE telecommunications corporation was right. At the link, you’ll see video of Wang showing up in his homemade MK 1 suit to warm and enthusiastic responses from his coworkers. Even though this is Shanghai, showing up at work in an Iron Man suit and getting friendly attention for it are not your typical, everyday things. We think it would have been pretty cool to be at work there that day and see this hulking, clanking bit of whimsy walk by our cubicle. Word is, Wang is now working on a Mark III suit, and we can’t wait to see it. (Gizmodo – Iron Man in Shanghai) You can see images of the build process for Wang’s MK 1 suit, as well as newer images for the Mark III suit build – Wang Xiao Kang’s Blog (in Chinese).
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“Nearly a third of our black tea consumption is Earl Grey, and we feel Tregothnan’s is outstanding compared with other brands.” Tea is tea is tea, and for centuries it has been an essential part of both Asian and English cuisine. And as you probably knew, the importation of tea from China and other parts of Asia to England formed one of the very first bonds of trade between the Eastern and Western worlds. Okay, so much for history, which is always evolving anyway and is often filled with irony. Because for one small company in England, the love for tea has led to a mastery in growing, harvesting and processing the precious leaves into a product which is very much coveted and sought out by tea connoisseurs in Asia. Tregothnan Estates in Cornwall produces numerous varieties of tea, including Earl Grey and Darjeeling, for which some high-end consumers in China and Japan have developed a taste. In Japan particularly, English Earl Grey has become a very popular beverage as casual Japanese cuisine has become more westernized. And apparently having a sip of English Breakfast tea is not all that uncommon these days among the more affluent residents of Beijing and Shanghai. So in an interesting flip-flop of history, at least one English tea company is making and exporting tea to the birthplace of those lovely leaves. As we said, history is not without a sense of irony. (CNNGo – English Tea For China)
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“Some look like defensive structures and feature narrow slits that could be used for shooting arrows. Others, such as those on mountaintops or at valley entrances, could have marked or guarded a frontier.” No one is really sure why they were built, or for what they were used. In the Danba Valley in western China, there are nearly 1,000 towers of varying shapes, sizes and states of repair, and their age ranges from 300 to roughly 1,700 years. Some of the towers are simple and appear to have served a utilitarian purpose. Others are rather tall and ornate, and may have been built as status symbols for wealthy merchants and traders. All of them are built of some combination of cut stone, bricks and wood timbers. And while determining the towers’ age and purpose has been a challenge and delightful mystery for archeologists, a bigger challenge for China is how to prevent future damage from ongoing neglect, and the threat of earthquakes and planned hydroelectric power projects in the area. Here’s hoping the mystery of Danba Towers gets solved before the structures fall apart or are washed away in the name of modern progress. (Wall Street Journal Travel – Danba Valley Mystery Towers)
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“The Eco House will use state-of-the-art technology in Sharp’s efforts to develop the ultimate in future home comfort.” Nearly two weeks ago, we reported on the planned development of an ecologically-friendly sustainable smart town in Fujisawa, Japan. That project, for which Panasonic is supplying the technology, isn’t scheduled for completion until 2014. However, starting this month, Sharp will be testing its own “eco technology” using a special house built for that purpose in Sakai City in Osaka Prefecture. The house features solar panels, of course, as well as LED lighting and state-of-the-art power management systems. The goal of the project is to prove that dwellings can be built and operated to produce absolutely no carbon dioxide emissions. We think it sounds like a great project and hope it’s successful. We’d also like to see Sharp construct a similar project in Sakai City’s sister city of Berkeley, CA, just to see how old-school eco-warriors in that town take to modern energy-saving methods. (Akihabara News – Sharp’s Eco House)
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