Belinda Lanks

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“[It] Will Be The First Temperature-Controlled Mini-City”

July 14, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Dubai, which is taking the lead in the air, hopes to forge ahead with air-conditioning as well, announcing plans for the first temperature-controlled, indoor city, the Mall of the World. I want to know more about the “specialized surgical procedures and cosmetic treatments” available in the “Wellness District,” which will cater to “medical tourists.” If the emirate’s real-estate market is as much a bubble as some think it is, we may have the first ghost town with a quiet-cool setting. From Belinda Lanks at Businessweek:

“Dubai is the land of superlatives. It already lays claim to the tallest building and the biggest fish tank in the world. Now the city has unveiled plans to build the largest mall and biggest indoor theme park in what will be the first temperature-controlled mini-city.

The 8-million-square-foot shopping center, dubbed Mall of the World, will include 100 hotels, a medical resort, event facilities, and a theater district—all of which can be shielded from the elements by a large retractable roof. The project, according to the developer, Dubai Holding, will be built ‘in phases in alignment with the gradual growth of family tourism in Dubai.’

Attracting shoppers from abroad is the goal.”

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“Catering to medical tourists in a 3-million sq. ft. area”:

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“It Achieved An Efficiency Of 2,824 Miles Per Gallon”

May 6, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Two innovations that would disrupt markets, improve consumer experience and cause a great deal of unemployment. They are necessary improvements and they will hurt.

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Being able to get thousands of miles per gallon in cars would be the greatest triumph ever for environmentalism. Not close to reaching the market, however. From Belinda Lanks at Businessweek:

“A three-wheeled, teardrop-shaped car has won Shell’s (RDSA) Eco-marathon Americas competition, a yearly contest that pits teams of students against each other in a race to build energy-efficient vehicles.

The winning group, from Université Laval in Quebec, overcame technical setbacks, including excess friction short circuits, to achieve an efficiency of 2,824 miles per gallon. To put that in perspective, the prototype could travel from New York to Los Angeles on less than a gallon of fuel. And that figure is still well below the 3,587 miles per gallon the same school achieved last year. (Université Laval has won five out of the last six Shell competitions.)”

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Fancy soaps, shampoos and cosmetics have always been a hustle. Soon you can have a supply at the ready whenever you like, for a relative pittance. From Alyson Shontell at Business Insider:

“Grace Choi was at Harvard Business School when she decided to disrupt the beauty industry. She did a little research and realized that beauty brands create and then majorly mark up their products by mixing lots of colors.

‘The makeup industry makes a whole lot of money on a whole lot of bulls—,’ Choi said at TechCrunch Disrupt this week. ‘They charge a huge premium on something that tech provides for free. That one thing is color.’

By that, she means color printers are available to everyone, and the ink they have is the same as the ink that makeup companies use in their products. She says the ink is FDA-approved.

Choi created a mini home printer, Mink, that will retail for $300 and allow anyone to print makeup by ripping the color code off color photos on the internet.”

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