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Sony Earphones Make Attractive, Useless Subway Maps
Posted by Wilson Rothman at 11:45 AM on August 25, 2008
In order to prove how far Sony has come since ATRAC3 and long-playing MiniDiscs, a new ad attributed to the company shows a NYC subway map traced in its entirety by black Sony earphones, accompanied by a Network Walkman. As if it wasn't enough to try to retake ownership just one iPod-saturated public transit system, a search revealed similar designs for both the London Underground and Sydney's Metro. That last one makes sense, since Sony retained the Sydney office of badass ad agency Saatchi and—repetition is key to messaging—Saatchi for the inspired work. One prob though: As any seasoned straphanger will tell you, you kinda need the colours, or else all the lines run together. [The Cool Hunter]
These photos, taken from a Flickr set, show what appears to be some sort of crashed spacecraft in London's Potters Field. They offer no explanation as to what's going on over there across the pond. Do any of you know what this is? Movie shoot? Publicity stunt? Photoshoppery? Actual alien invasion? Let's hear your guesses, both educated and uneducated, in the comments. Update: It's 
A mugger who stole jewelry from a teenager on a tram has dropped himself right in it, after he clocked himself in the on-board security cameras. The victim, a 16-year-old boy, was travelling with two friends on a tram in Bromley, a South London suburb, when he was approached by another kid who, after admiring the necklace and bracelet, snatched them. Rather than fleeing immediately, the dumbass tea-leaf sauntered up to the CCTV camera on board the tram, and struck a pose with the stolen items. The mugger, who claimed he was carrying a knife when the victim asked for his gear back, was described by a British Transport policeman, as "not the brightest spark. He was there for a long time and either didn't care or wasn't aware he was being filmed." [
London's Olympic Stadium is going to be huge, providing seating for over 80,000 people. The problem is, after the games leave there won't be as many uses for a stadium of that size. The solution? Construct it out of flatpack materials like an Ikea bookshelf, then just take it down and move it elsewhere after the games.
The Telectroscope is more than a giant telescope—looking through its lens in NYC, you can see all the way to London—and vice versa. These steampunk creations were unveiled today in the two cities to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge. Artist Paul St George's Victorian-style gold and wood trim make the behemoth-size scopes impressive to look at, but the most amazing part is how he claims they work.
Well, we're here. This is the Soho Hotel in, er, Soho, where HTC is launching something (although I think we all know it's going to be the 
London Heathrow airport's latest building, Terminal 5, launched last month after almost two decades of planning, US$8.5 billion dollars in cost, and 100 million hours in manpower. It is a glass and concrete and steel marvel, the largest free standing building in the UK, with over 16 kms in suitcase moving belts, and was supposed to be a cure for the Airport's famous congestion by way of massive automation. On its opening day, and it just did not work right. This week, British Airways' plans to move its long haul operations from the crowded main terminal to the new terminal were pushed back til June. Much of the press was quick to say that tech was the source of the failings in parking, luggage handling and check in, but here are the details I can find on what exactly caused endless lines and delay for so many passengers of Terminal 5.
Using a US$115 Daisy open-source player, and a tin with a London tube map on it, Mchaceortiz made himself an MP3 player with a difference. The six way-retro switches on the tin control the volume, track selection and play and pause, and you can see another shot of it opened up after the jump.
Over 100,000 construction workers on the 2012 Olympics venue in London will be subjected to biometric tests while they build the site. The two-tier system will scan hands and faces, and should be up and running by June this year, when work starts on the 50-acre site. And these measures, part of the $700 million security budget, will not just be for the building contractors, either.
Those nutty Brits, obsessed with their CCTV cameras, dirty hot water and blood pudding, have decided to mix it all into a single gadget: road cameras which can detect blood and water in the bodies inside the car using an infrared beam. The system will be able to spot who's abusing the carpool lanes, fining you in case you were trying to fool the police using Marge, your special "inflatable friend." Definitely, 
