The design growth isn’t stopping here though – there are more and more hotel concepts popping up every week, and it seems like new, brave, futuristic designs are being drawn up by the minute. With all our high levels of technology and the high quality material we can now source – it seems the sky is the limit.

1. The Death Star Lunar Hotel

It’s the beautiful curves and shape of this hotel that makes it so beautiful. It’s no doubt going to be the kind of property that people flock to – just because it looks so good. We’re thinking along the same lines of the Burj al Arab in Dubai. The hotel is planned to be built in Baku and will be a mix of residential properties and luxury hotel rooms (for those who can afford it!)

2. The Poseidon Underwater Hotel

If you ever dreamt of being a mermaid when you were younger (or Sponge Bob Square Pants) this is the hotel choice for you. Ok, it’s not going to be open for a long time, and you’ll have to fork out some flights to Fiji– but the finished result will be a stunning underwater development , where instead of looking out to sea from your balcony – you’ll be looking up through the sea from your glass ceiling. We’re sold.

3. The inflatable space hotel

Soon, our holidays won’t just be limited to earth. This hotel design will see guests shoot into space and enjoy the rush of space travel and the incredible views of earth that can only be experience from that kind of setting. It doesn’t come cheap either – at a whopping $1 million a night per person. It’s also a long way off completion; the technology to provide guests with this kind of experience is still in the making.

4. The Lunatic Hotel: On the Moon

Although space travel seems exciting, the designers behind this hotel concept are hoping that staying on the moon will bring a “retro feel” to the ultra-modern idea of jetting into space. Guests will have luxury accommodation whilst staying on the moon, and will sleep in ‘pods’ which will act as luxury sleeping suites. The experience is hoping to open to the public in 2015 – which is still a long way off. And we’re still curious as to how we’d send a postcard home.

5. Waterworld – China

Waterworld is China’s equivalent to building an entire town full of everything an adventure seeker would ever require. The hotel feature below ground levels which are in fact underwater – but the water pool around the hotel provides swimmers with a vast space to enjoy themselves, and also provides an almost natural setting to what is actually something man-made. The rock area around the sides of the hotel will provide rock climbing and abseiling too – so this really is a hotel for the adventure seeker inside you. It’s not built yet – but the design has won awards so the concept looks to be going ahead.

Article written by the folks at Ladbrokes Bingo.

Imagine our highways flowing efficiently, the lanes filled with intelligent driverless vehicles using computers and satellites to eliminate gridlock and reduce fuel consumption.  Thanks to an emphasis on science and engineering, as well as expanding the scope of engineering programs to include things like non traditional things like online graduate degree courses and supplementary K-12 courses, the era of the autonomous car is a lot closer than you might think.  Cars like the 2011 Infiniti M56 already use radar to track cars in front and cameras to keep the car within the lane lines.  The M56 operates the throttle and brakes to maintain a safe following distance, and can even uses the brakes one at a time to keep the car in the middle of the lane.

The car of the future is soon to become the car of the present.  The US military is expressing serious interest in this new technology that has potential commercial and personal applications as well.  The U.S. Department of Transportation has commenced study of “smart road” technology to tackle problems of congestion, including an integrated intelligent highway system with wireless transponders that would communicate with GPS units in cars to keep traffic flowing efficiently.

As with any new technology, these cars will at first sport a hefty price tag.  The goal of developers, however, is for these to be the standard cars on the road in the future.  What is in the works is an entire revamp of modern transportation.  New highway technologies will work together with automobile technologies.  This new vehicle communications system will provide traffic information and safety warnings to onboard computers, which will also use GPS technology to navigate the highways.  As technology improves and becomes more readily available, prices will come down, making the cars more affordable at the consumer level.

Think this is all a science fiction fantasy?  Think again.  Students at the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford University are currently designing an autonomous car to conquer Pikes Peak.  Cornell University students are working on an all-terrain vehicle for the US military.  Surprisingly, researchers at Google are leading the way, having created an autonomous Toyota Prius fleet that has logged over 140,000 driver-free miles!  Cars currently in development are fuel powered, hybrid, and electric cars.  The expectation is that these cars will be fully automated and fully electrical, eliminating both traffic congestion and our dependency on foreign oil.

The autonomous vehicle is on its way.  Straight out of Knight Rider and Batman, the car of the future is almost here.  Imagine how much safer the streets would be with cars pre-programmed to obey speed limits and traffic laws.  Driver error, the cause of the majority of traffic fatalities, would be practically eliminated.  Vacationing in an RV would become much more relaxing, with retirees spending less time driving and more time relaxing and enjoying the scenery.  Prepare yourself, the driverless car is no longer a pipe dream. It’s coming to a road near you.

1. An Agreeable Artichoke t-shirt from ShirtWoot, Shirt Woot is a daily deal site, so this shirt is probably not available currently, but it’s such a cute little illustration of a friendly artichoke, how can you not smile?

2. Bacon Makes Everything Better t-shirt from Loyal Army: we could do an entire top 10 just about bacon t-shirt, but here’s a particularly cute one. This bacon knows he’s the answer to all of your problems (except obesity) and he’s willing to lay down his little life for you – look at how happy he seems just chill’n in that pan.

3. Oooooh Burn t-shirt from Snorg Tees: this toast just got burned, so snap! Would you like some ice for that? Or maybe some butter? Anthropomorphic bread is a really popular t-shirt concept, breakfast food in general is pretty popular among t-shirt designers.

4. Toaster Love t-shirt by Busted Tees: This sexy toaster wants to get it on with this piece of bread. See, it’s funny to apply human attributes to food and household appliances.

5. I Make Bread Fun t- shirt from Questionable

Content- This funny little toaster t-shirt is from webcomic artist Jeph Jacques. Technically this isn’t an anthropomorphic food t-shirt, but I felt a toaster was close enough.

6. Let’s Go Gave Breakfast t-shirt from Redbubble: Reminiscent of the anthropomorphic dancing food from old movie theaters, this has a vintage feel and celebrates the most important meal of the day – Breakfast!

7. Orange U Sick  of Vampire Yet t-shirt from Delias: True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Twilight, when will this trend end? Well, these vampire oranges are cute and funny and make a great point.

8. First is the Wurst t-shirt by Busted Tees – And the winner is, the wurst! It’s funny because of the double meaning and the idea of a sausage running a race.

9. I’m Popcorn t-shirt by Goats: I never noticed how much like a little monster popcorn looks.

10. Sleeping Sushi t-shirt from Threadless: Darling little rice balls sleeping under pieces of raw fish… too cute.

Melody Stone is a marketing associate and custom t-shirt designer at Fibers.com. Melody blogs for Fibers.com regularly and loves innovative design where ever it is found.

Nintendo Gameboy – 1989

This beauty was first brought onto the market in 1989 and many people thought it would totally flop. It was big and the screen was pretty bad. It also took AA batteries and was fairly heavy. but this groundbreaking handheld game outdid the rivals that had better technology, such as the Sega Game Gear. A big part of its success was that in came in at only $89 and it had some fantastic games, such as Tetris and Super Mario Land.

Playstation 1 – 1994

The Playstation 1 was not anything particularly earth shattering as far as its technology; the CD-based game system had been around for a few years. The big thing about the Sony, though, was that it seemed to be more of a grown up gaming system, both in its appearance, and in the type of games that were available. Gaming really started to enter its adult phase with the Playstation 1.Great games included Metal Gear and Resident Evil.

Sega Genesis – 1989

Sega made a strong leap into the future with the Genesis because of its new CD-based game system, and also because it had a lot of great games, such as Afterburner, Outrun and Strider, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog. It was not particularly advanced in its technology, but it had some good games; it sported the great Mortal Kombat series of games as well.

Microsoft Xbox – 2005

The Xbox was not particularly innovative for its time, but it is high on the list of great consoles because of the Xbox Live. The online platform that this system came with really broke new ground in online gaming and brought them into the future. The Live portion created an entirely new hub where gamers could play each other, and also stream movies and also buy games.

Nintendo – 1985

This is the big game system that really made just about every child a game fan in the 1980s. The NES had so many games available in so many categories that it really did have something for everyone. Of course, you can never forget that this box brought into being the hugely influential Super Mario Brothers. This system was so popular in the late 1980s that it was extremely difficult to find them at Christmas time.

Sega Dreamcast – 1999

Most people do not remember the Dreamcast, so they might make the mistake of thinking that it was not a good system. Oh you would be sorely mistaken! Many experts think this is one of the greatest systems of all time, in terms of its technology and games. The Dreamcast had a fantastic library of games and all sorts of innovations on the tech side.

This system had games like Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5 and so much more. There were such an odd mix of interesting games, there has not been another system that has anything like it.

The system had an ethernet jack that allowed you to play online and it even let you surf the web. In the end the system was done in by the coming of the PS2, but the Dreamcast was the grandfather of a lot of the great systems that came later.

Kobayashi vs. The Giant Bear

Kobayashi is one of the top professional eaters in the world. In this video, he is going up against a grizzly bear. The bear is able to obviously eat more than a man, but he is slowed down because he does not realize it is a competition of course. In the end though, the bear proves to be to much for man.

Hot Dog Eating Contest 2007

This video features the legendary Kobiyashi again, but he is defeated by Joey Chestnut. I liked how Chestnut pressed his stomach down so that he can fit more hot dogs. Chestnut wins by eating 66 hot dogs, including buns.

Waffle Eating

This is a video of a top eater, Pat Bertoletti, as he gets ready for a waffle eating contest. He is trying to break the record of 23 that is hold by Joey Chestnut.

 Stockton Asparagus Festival Eating Contest 2008

This eating contest features Joey Chestnut, who ends up winning it all after eating more than 5 pounds of asparagus. I like how they talk about the ‘reversal buckets’ that are behind each competitor. I wonder what the urine of each competitor smelled like after this? Yuck!

 Thanksgiving Day Pie Eating Contest

This is a great video of the best competitive eaters in the country seeing who can eat the most pumpkin pies in just six minutes. The winner reveals his secrets: drinking coffee as he goes, and eating from the outside in. The crust is the hardest part to eat, so you want to get rid of that part first.

Related articles

• The Origin of the Hot Dog: A History(bizarrebytes.com)

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• Shark Eats Another Shark Whole (Photo)(verybestphotos.com)

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• Top 10 Bizarre Foods They Most Likely Serve in Hell (toptenz.net)

Thanks to Noreen for this creative dessert that looks great and tastes even better. Find more at PictureTheRecipe.com. Lime Lemon Mint Bars could be the perfect summer treat that cools you from the inside out.

Hillbilly Heist – 1997

Total: $17 million

In Charlotte, NC,  a Loomis Fargo vault supervisor grabbed $17 million and stuck it in a company van. He drove off with the money and left it with two coworkers. He then bailed for Mexico, where he intended to hide for a few months. His co-conspirators were to wire him the money (did they consider the trail that would leave behind? Guess not). But his fellow conspirators plotted to have the guy murdered! Meanwhile these two were blowing through millions of dollars in extravagant fashion in North Carolina. Nah, that won’t attract attention! Needless to say, they were all arrested and thrown in prison in less than one year.

The Iraq Central Bank “Heist” – 2003

Total: $1 Billion

This actually was more of a massive checking account withdrawal than a real heist, but the total was the most in world history, thus its place on this list. Saddam Hussein decided in 2003, when things were getting squirrely, to have his son Qusay pull the money out of the bank. He left the country with a staggering $1 billion (in a billfold?). Sadly for him, he and his sicko brother had little time to enjoy the wealth of their nation. Both were blasted to smithereens by US special forces four months later. Still much of the money still is missing

Gardner Museum Heist – 1990

Total: $300 Million

In Boston in 1990, two thieves dressed themselves as Boston police and somehow convinced guards at the Isabella Stewart Museum to let them into the building. An hour later, they were gone, with unfortunately for them, some extremely valuable paintings that are probably unsellable. One of them was Johan Vermeer’s The Concert, but the other was Rembrandt’s legendary The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. Neither of these paintings could ever be sold on the black market. They are simply too famous

The Heist of the Mona Lisa – 1911

Total: Priceless

When the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911, many people just visited the Louvre in Paris to see the empty spot where the painting had been for years.

The heist was very simple. An ex-employee stayed in the museum overnight and just walked out with the famous painting. Thousands of leads were pursued by authorities for over two years. Then the thief attempted to sell the painting in Florence. The dealer contacted the Uffizi Gallery to verify the painting. The man was arrested a few hours later.

Securitas Cash Depot Heist – 2006

Total: $101 Million

In 2006, the Securitas cash depot manager in Tonbridge, England was stopped by two ‘cops’ as he was going home from his job. At that time, two more thugs dressed as cops were at his house, telling his family he was in an accident. They all went to a farmhouse and the family was told at gunpoint that they would be killed if they did not follow orders. A few hours later, the thieves left with over $101 million. They left behind the family and 14 employees. They were tied up but not hurt. They also left over $200 million behind because their truck could not hold another dollar. Five of them have been convicted, half of the money is still missing.

Related articles

• The Top Ten Bank Robberies of the 21st Century (toptenz.net)
• 8 of the Craziest Home Insurance Scams (thisblogrules.com)
• 5 Largest Embezzlement Cases in Modern U.S. History (makethelist.net)

Mets Fan Dies During Escalator Fall – 2008

A fan of the New York baseball Mets was at a game in 2008 with several members of his family. Sadly, he fell over the side of an escalator and smashed into the concrete floor several stories down. He died an hour later at the hospital. Normally this sort of incident might be due to alcohol. However, it appeared that the man was walking down an escalator that was out of order. He slipped and fell over the side to his death.

Beating Death of Phillies Fan – 2009

David Sale was killed after a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game in 2009. Sale was with a group for a bachelor party who went to the afternoon game. The party went to a bar that was part of the baseball park. Members of this group had a fight with another group after someone spilled a drink. The two groups were thrown out of the bar. But then, three men in the other group kicked and punched Sale until he was unconscious. Sale died from the beating an hour later.

Hockey Fan Death – 2002

No fans had been killed during a professional hockey game in 84 years, but that streak ended tragically in 2002. A girl by the name of Brittanie Cecil was seated behind one of the goals above the safety glass. She was struck in the head by an errant puck at a Columbus Blue Jackets game. She left the arena conscious but she sadly passed away a few days later at the hospital. It was found that the collision was so violent that her head snapped back and tore an artery in a spinal column. This was what killed her, not the actual strike from the puck. It was after this that the NHL mandated that safety nets be put at both ends of the arena behind the goals.

Le Mans Disaster – 1955

The worst auto racing accident ever happened at the Le Mans endurance race in June 1995. The car driven by Pierre Levegh clipped another race car and went airborne towards the crowd. It slammed into a barrier at 100 miles per hour, and it exploded. The engine and axle flew into the crowd. Eighty-three people died, and some were decapitated. This caused major safety changes in auto races, and many races were banned for several years.

Peru Soccer Riot – 1964

In May 1964, there was a soccer match between Argentina and Peru to decide which would qualify to participate in the Olympics that year. Argentina was ahead in the final few minutes when the tying goal was not allowed by the refs. Fans went crazy, and riots started. The cops shot tear gas into the crowd, and people ran from the stands. But the stadium gates were not open, so there was a huge stampede. Over 318 people died. The police had to escort the referees from the game so they would not be killed.

Baseball Fan Dies Catching Fly Ball

A Texas Rangers fan in July 2011 leaned over the outfield fence to try to catch a ball that one of the players flipped into the stands. Unfortunately, he lost his balance and fell 20 feet to the field. He died of cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.

For example:

5. Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkway Disaster

This terrible engineering disaster occurred in 1981 in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City. On July 17 of that year, there were about 2,000 people in the atrium of the hotel to view a dance contest. There were several dozen people standing on the walkways of the atrium. There were three walkways essentially situated one above the other. At seven pm that evening, these three walkways were jammed with people who were viewing the lobby, which was also full. The fourth level walkway was suspended over the other two. Construction problems and poor communication between two contractors meant that the load was doubled on the connections between the support beams for the fourth floor and the tie rods on the second floor.The design could just barely hold the empty weight of the structure. With hundreds of people on it, the walkways collapsed into the lobby and killed 115 people. Two hundred were injured. Several engineers permanently lost their license to practice in construction.

4. The Great Boston Molasses Disaster

In 1920, a molasses tank that was 50 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter contained about 2 million gallons of molasses. It was put in the middle of Boston for some reason on a very rickety structure. Witnesses said that when the tank collapsed, there was a very loud sound of rumbling sort of like a machine gun as the rivets exploded from the tank. The ground shook as if there was a train going by. The collapse of the tank meant that a massive wave of syrup about 10 feet high poured down the street and went as fast as 30 miles per hour. The molasses had enough strength that it wrecked the girders of the nearby train platform and literally pushed a train off the track. Buildings were ripped from their foundations and were pulverized. There were 21 people killed and 152 people injured.

It was noted afterwards that the company who owned it, Purity Distilling Company, had painted the tank brown to hide all of the leaks. It is thought that it burst due to pressure that built up from fermentation.

3. Skylab

Skylab was launched in 1973 on a Saturn V rocket, and was put into an orbit that was 200 miles above the earth. The problem was that engineers did not account for the aerodynamics of the sun and meteroid shield, as well as one of the solar panels. This caused the satellite to be seriously damaged during the launch. Debris flew off the shiled and caused one of the solar panels to stay pinned to the side. This meant that the solar shield could never deploy, and Skylab never had enough power. Plus, the astronauts always bitched that the place was too damned hot because of the damaged sun shield.

In the end, due to the craft’s many problems, the orbit decayed and Skylab fell and burned up in the atmosphere in 1979.

2. Tacoma Washington Bridge

The Tacoma Narrows bridge consists of two 1 mile long suspension bridges. The main spans are 2,800 feet. The first bridge, later known as Galloping Gertie, was first opened in 1940. It earned its namesake a few months later when it underwent an amazing structural collapse that was caused by wind. It is one of the first major bridge disasters that was actually caught on film (see above). Most amazing of all was that no one died during this disaster. A replacement for this bridge opened in 1950, and today there is a parallel bridge in its place.

1. Chernobyl

This was the worst nuclear plant accident in world history. It is the only one that reached the worst level of the International Nuclear Event Scale – Level 7. In April 1986, Soviet workers were conducting safety tests on the #4 reactor. They shut down several safety features and there was a sudden power spike that caused the reactor to explode and spew deadly radiation into the atmosphere. More explosions caused more radioactive material to spew out, and it is likely that many thousands of people died. The Soviets neglected to inform local residents at first of how deadly the disaster was, and most of the people who viewed the spectacular fires were dead in days from massive radiation poisoning.

For a very informative video about the Chernobyl disaster, watch this:

These days of course, we have drive-thrus for everything from fast food, to banks, to beer and wine shops (only in OH to my knowledge) and so much more.

Drive-thrus are an integral part of American culture, so it’s no surprise that we now have people going through the fast food drive-thru and singing their orders. Ah, the wonders of video cell phones and Youtube!

If you are going to attempt to do a drive-thru song, a few tips: Don’t sing too fast, make sure your words are very clear, and put some passion into it! You know you’ve done well if the employee laughs, and actually understood your order!

My favorite real drive-thru songs are below.

Sonic Drive Thru Singing Order

So this is, obviously, a dude singing his order at a Sonic. He’s playing his guitar and has a heck of a voice. I mean, I’m all getting into this great song here as he is wailing about cheesy fries and Cherry Lime Aid! Just fabulous.

By the way, there generally are two basic styles of these drive-thru songs. The first is where he just uses the same words he would have used if he were speaking the order. That’s what this guy is doing. The other is where the singer has developed an entire song with his order intertwined. That’s what the next drive-thru song guy below does. Check it out.

Taco Bell Folk Song Singing Order

In this drive thru singing video, these dudes have written an entire folk song that describes the order that they want. Man, they have got some serious pipes. What is really impressive about this is that the Taco Bell guy gets the ENTIRE order right. That’s a pretty impressive feat, listening to a song through one of those tinny drive-thru sound systems. Good work, man.

McDonald’s Singing Drive-Thru Order

Ok, these guys are a little more raw, not quite as talented as the other two above. The McDonald’s guy can’t get their order right, either. Oh well, I give them major props for effort.

Another Take on the McDonald’s Drive Thru Song

This guy is really great at his drive-thru song, and his back up singers do a fine job too. I could definitely see this being the McDonald’s theme song. Seriously, why doesn’t a fast food chain do an ad spot of one of these songs, or hold a national contest for the best one?