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Found this on Engadget today:

Getting power to disaster-affected areas is always a tough task, but Andrew Leinonen’s undergrad industrial design thesis (and recent first place entry in the 2008 ACIDO Rocket Show) might be able to solve the problem in an efficient and clever way. Dubbed Solarial, the idea is to use small unmanned airships made out of materials embedded with CIGS solar cells to autonomously deliver clean power to disaster sites by deploying anchored “power boxes” that have 12 total 120V outlets and 2 240V sockets.

I think this is absolute genius. As one of the commenters said, feels like “Why didn’t we think of this already?” You could build units to specific sizes for specific power requirements, and float them high enough to avoid clouds. There’s another concept that’s been around for doing similar things with communications technology.

I’ve held this to be true for a number of years. It sums up much of my childhood.

Before those not interested in video games write this off… hear this! Things are happening in this video game industry that have not happened before… wierd and wonderful things. It’s not going to be long, my friends, until Peter Molyneux’s vision of games being as accepted an artform as movies and books becomes reality.

Take a look at this. And this. And this. Microsoft have just stepped up their final phase of marketing for Halo 3, which drops in a few days. Most of all, take a look at this. If nothing else, it’s one of the most impressive uses of Flash I’ve ever seen. Beyond that… it’s bizarrely moving. I’m trying not to get drawn in and fall for the hype it’s supposed to instill in me… but wow.

Within 15 minutes of getting off the plane in Helsinki, we had all our 5 suitcases plus 4 carry-on pieces, had passed through customs and immigration, and were Finland’s newest immigrants. Unstinkinbelievable, if you’ve ever been through Canadian customs and immigration.

We’ll be in Helsinki for a few days with Maija’s good friend Suski, before heading up to Jyvaskyla. We’re working hard at staying awake; I for one am mightily confused. For those who can sleep on planes, this route should be quite easy… alas I didn’t sleep well, and Maija didn’t really even try.

I’ve already had my fill of delicious Finnish dairy products. I could get used to this.