Slashdot Mirror
Japan's Melody Roads Play Music as You Drive
Krishna Dagli writes "The road works by using grooves, which are cut at very specific intervals in the surface. Just as traveling over small speed bumps or road markings can emit a rumbling tone throughout a vehicle, the melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes."
From over 2 years ago on slashdot.jp: http://slashdot.jp/article.pl?sid=05/02/02/0340256 (pseudo-english translation)
That platform is in Nagoya. It's called the "Area 21". The glass "pool" on the top collects rain water to nourish the grass areas around the area.
The area beneath is used for a lot of purposes, from concerts to street soccer championships.
Nagoya (and Japan) has a huge number of projects with the sole purpose of making the city life more fun and less stressful. Like the lamp posts playing smooth jazz in the evenings, or the carousel attached to a building close to Area 21.
There are virtually no street vandalism, so they can put a lot of statues and art on the streets, and it stays untouched and unharmed.
Of course it's not heaven on earth, there are problems, but in the lat 2 years it became my most favorite city.
I lived in many places, Midwest, west coast, east coast, europe, singapore, new zealand, but so far, the city life in Japan is the best I have ever experienced.
See & hear it in action: Video here
This may come as a shock, USA is not the World.
Many other countries have their own recording industry associations that are perfectly good at collecting royalties and prosecuting file sharers.