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Blogging the future

Dickson Despommier, a professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Microbiology at Columbia University, developed the idea of vertical farming with some of his graduate students. The goal is to grow crops and raise animals in skyscrapers in city centers. It is projected that by 2050 about 80% of the world’s population will live in cities; for such economical reasons, Desponmmier believes that the food growth should come from the inside.

Every Universal Exposition has left an innovative architectural landmark in the host city, such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the Atomium in Brussels. The symbol of the upcoming EXPO of 2015 could very well be Skyland: the first vertical farm in the world. In this green skyscraper it would be possible to cultivate agricultural products within a city for its own inhabitants. But what exactly is vertical farming? It is an architectural approach based on two concepts: the vertical development of buildings, and the possibility of cultivating biological products from the inside. The inventor of vertical farming is Dickson Despommier, a professor of Environmental Health Sciences and Microbiology at Columbia University in New York City.

According to his estimates, the large 30-story building would be able to feed between 10,000 and 50,000 people every year. Despommier claims that vertical farming could be the solution to many of the problems that we face today, such as overpopulation and food shortages. Furthermore, vertical farming would reduce CO2 emissions that are associated with food production.

The vertical farm, thanks to hydroponics, would be able to produce a richer harvest protected from atmospheric conditions and parasites. The farming would also be less harmful to the land and the overall environment.

In this interview taken from CNN, Dickson Despommier explains his design philosophy.

To read subtitles in your language, click , then scroll over .

More Info:

• http://www.verticalfarm.com/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uLTOMsF3uU

French architecture firm, Mobil M, has transformed the Plaza Nueva Drugstore in Bilbao, Spain into an artistic display of creativity and interior design. Once a dull space, this pharmacy is now both practical and beautiful.

Today even the most boring of places are experiencing a complete renovation.

Banks, supermarkets, pharmacies, and post offices are not meant to be visually appealing locations. They serve a simple purpose, to provide us with services that we need to go about our daily lives in an efficient manner. However, this is soon going to change. Architects at Mobil M have transformed the Plaza Neuva Drugstore in Bilbao, Spain into a display of artistic inspiration. The once dull location (now a vividly colored and skillfully furnished one), started an artistic revolution. A person does not usually associate a pharmacy, or other stores of this genre with beauty, it is a place people go to when their bodies are not running at optimal conditions. This innovative concept will make visiting places such as pharmacies or convenience stores a cultural experience where one can enrich his mind.

The idea of creating a wonderful interior space in a lackluster environment can have positive effects on the community, as it introduces art into more arenas of society. This artistic movement will undoubtedly spread around the globe, as the first experiment in Bilbao has been labeled a success.

More Info:

• http://www.mobil-m.com/

New technologies are not only changing our everyday lives and how we work and communicate with others; they are also bringing new customs to our societies. The National Texting Championship, held in New York City, is an example of such a phenomenon. The idea is simple: whoever can write the fastest text message wins.  There have only been three competitions so far, but the event is quickly attracting more and more Americans.

To read subtitles in your language, click , then scroll over .

Do you know what was written in first text message ever sent? “Merry Christmas”. It was the Christmas of 1992, and 22 year-old Neil Papworth sent his Christmas greetings to his colleague Richard Jarvis, who at that moment was at a holiday party near Vodafone’s complex in Newbury, England. To send the message Papworth used the keyboard of a computer. Little did he know what sort of technological revolution he had actually started.

18 years later, the number of text messages sent is now more than 2 trillion. Text messaging has not only created a new way of connecting with people, but it has also brought with it a new way of speaking and new cultural norms. In order to fit an entire message into only 160 characters, people have created new vocabulary, have begun including symbols into everyday speech, and have given numbers a new functionality. Teenagers are the original inventors of this new way of speaking, and their national texting champion for 2009 is 15 year-old Kate Moore. So what does it mean to be the texting champion? A first-place trophy, $50,000, and…bragging rights for the rest of the year.

LG’s US National Texting Championship is no easy feat: there are several elimination rounds, which include a text obstacle course, blindfolded texting, and texting while being hassled. Kate, who averages 14,000 messages a month with bills just under 300-pages long, beat over 250,000 texters to win.

What does this new and innovative competition mean for our future societies? It stands to demonstrate how our culture is evolving quickly. We are constantly looking for better and more efficient ways of communicating and existing in this world. Undoubtedly, the texting trend has grown exponentially, as more adults are beginning to also use text messaging as their main form of communication.

More Info:

• http://www.lgtexter.com/past_winners.php

Brammo’s Enertia Electric Motorcycle is first in its class. Running solely on a rechargeable battery, The Enertia is a combination of speed and energy efficiency. With its sleek and simple style, this new motorcycle makes saving the planet look easy.

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As the greenhouse gas scare came out into the media spotlight earlier in the decade, people all over the world decided that change was needed, to save our planet and allow a healthier way of living. Reducing pollution required many new steps to be taken, namely: the new wave of electric models of cars which replaced the gas consuming, earth polluting ones.

In 1885, the first motorcycle ever was built. It was a direct descendant of the bicycle, but had a loud, smoky, and slow engine attached to it. Recently, motorcycles have become a symbol of fearlessness and sheer mechanical prowess. The only problem is that most conventional motorcycles ran on pure gasoline, so what would environmentalists ride?

The motorcycle industry has finally produced the environmentally friendly version of the electric car. It comes from Craig Bramscher’s Brammo, On June 2009, the business magazine Fast Company voted Craig as one of the top ten most creative people in ethonomics.

The Enertia Electric Motorcycle, the first of its class which runs solely on a rechargeable battery capable of covering distances of over 45 miles. Only 99 Enertia Carbon Motorcycles are set to be released in the near future. The lithium ion battery is designed to last for ten years.

I think that this motorcycle has nearly every ingredient to be the upcoming trend on wheels worldwide.  The only downfalls are that it’s still too expensive and goes too slow. However, it can be used by plugging in the electric battery into a wall, and has enough speed to be taken onto the highway as well as a very lightweight body, making it ideal for zipping around crowded cities.

More Info.:

• http://www.brammo.com/

“Pay what you want” is a formula that produces a new form of marketing, and is aimed to deliver more appealing services and products to customers. The growing popularity of this trend is the direct investment that the customers have with their desired products. If it is possible to personalize every type of service or product in today’s society, then prices should also be negotiable.

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We have all, at least once, believed to have paid too much for something, whether it be a vacation, dinner, or cellular phone. It is now possible, however, to pay for a meal according to what we think is fair. “Pay what you want” is a formula that produces a new form of marketing, and is aimed to deliver more appealing services and products to customers.

Let’s see how this idea works. In Längenfeld, Austria 200 people were offered the possibility of a weekend vacation in the snow; and each person chose the price. The tourists were asked to pay an “honest” figure, and to fill out a questionnaire about the quality of the trip. The main objective of this “test” was to gain publicity for the hotels and restaurants in the area, to adapt prices according to the results of the experiment, and to use the gathered information to improve the vacation package.

The same strategy has been adopted by the hotel Ibis Singapore on Bencoolen, where for a limited time it was transformed into a pay-what-you-want structure. Customers paid anywhere from 70 Euro all the way down to 40 cents per room (the equivalent of about $100 and $0.60, respectively). Thousands of people logged onto the website and all of the rooms were booked within minutes on the first the day of the promotion.

The rising popularity of this new system has put the power into the hands of the customer. Today, every potential customer is empowered in a way that was never possible. Thanks to the internet, people can now find information about every product or service available. Furthermore, websites that allow people to comment on products and experiences help both future customers and the producers create better products and prices.

This rising phenomenon has found its way onto television as well, as seen in the following ABC News video clip. The Wrigley Mansion, in Phoenix, Arizona, has also started using the “pay what you want” strategy, and so far, it has proven very successful.

More Info:

• http://www.clientrevolution.com/2009/08/how-do-you-set-your-prices.html
• http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8015840

This video explains a new trend of “try-vertising” in which consumers are able to try new products for free. It’s a win-win situation: buyers get to use the products for free before they hit store shelves, and companies gain valuable market research.

To read subtitles in your language, click , then scroll over .

In the last few years we have directly, or implicitly, experienced and assisted to the creative freedom of art directors, advertisers, and copywriters. In Japan and Korea, the presence of advanced technology and an innovative culture for excellence, has opened the doors for all sorts of experimentation, with the realization of interactive windows, holographic displays, or women window displays (dressed by automatic product distributors).

In the meantime, the exposition of the internet to its business models, it is not beyond contributing further to this scenario.

Contrastingly in the United States, the concept of “sampling” is back in style, or rather free product trials. But this time inaugurating a new era of advertising: “Try advertising”.

With the Alliant International University campus in San Diego, “Sample U” has arrived: a laboratory dedicated to the study of marketing consumer products. “Sample U” offers products that are virtually unavailable, available directly from the manufacturer, in exchange for some information about the identity of the user and their experience.

More Info.:

• http://www.alliant.edu/wps/wcm/connect/website
• http://www.campusexplorer.com/colleges/75652149/California/San-Diego/Alliant-International-University-San-Diego/
• http://www.sampleu.com/Welcome.html