Slashdot Mirror
Engineers Propose Lily Pad-Like Floating Cities
Zothecula writes "The idea of going offshore to satisfy our renewable energy needs isn't new, but the grand vision of Japan's Shimizu Corporation goes way beyond harnessing green energy at sea for use in cities on Terra firma — it takes the whole city along for the ride. The company, along with the Super Collaborative Graduate School and Nomura Securities, is researching the technical issues involved in constructing its Green Float concept — a self-sufficient, carbon-negative floating city that would reside in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean."
Tsunamis are barely detectable in the open ocean. Their height builds up as they approach land.
Hey...it only rarely happens, and if it wasn't for the man made disaster that was our levy system, Katrina wouldn't have hurt us much at all.
99% of the time...life is GREAT down here. The attitude, friendly people, interesting culture, banana republic government (is entertainment for us locals)...and the fact that we understand the concept of the "to go cup" at bars, makes it all worthwhile.
Ok, so a storm comes from time to time, really it is usually just an excuse to pack and take an impromptu 4-day vacation to visit friends relative, or maybe even take the party to Beale St. in Memphis.
There are reasons why people live here...and want to visit here.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I think the point is that this idea comes from Japan, where land is not cheap.
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
It explained the lack of typhoons, but a lot of TFA doesn't make sense at all.
The Japanese may go for that population density, but it's not for me. The city I live in is 100k people and it must be twenty times that area, and it's too densly populated for my tastes.
Huh???? In a half mile area? WTF?
Free Martian Whores!
http://www.seasteading.org/
Idea's been around for a while. The main issue is that it takes some major bucks to get a project like this off the ground so it'll likely remain among the list of intriguing ideas nobody's been able to finance like intercontinental bridges, beanstalks, arcologies, and such.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
it should read "Artists Propose Lily Pad-Like Floating Cities"
The fractal growth concept is kind of cool though.
Knowledge Brings Fear
Link
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
and if it wasn't for the man made disaster that was our levy system,
You mean, if it wasn't for the greed and corruption that left the levee system unmaintained and ready to fail.
And of course there's the fact that the levee system was rated for a category 3 hurricane, while Katrina was actually a Category 4 - in other words, exceed the specs, expect failures.
I've visited NO. It's a decent place to visit. Wouldn't really want to live there till they get out of the Poverty-Pimp business though.
Lots of cities all over the world are like that, it is a solvable problem. We need port cities, they will tend to sink like this.
No no, these guys want to build cities ON the ocean.
New Orleans was build UNDER the ocean.
Crucial difference. :)
I agree 100%. In fact, post-Katrina, many of the political shenanigans that flew in the past, have not been put up with. There have been a number of politicians go to prison for bribery and the like. Jim Letten has done a world of good to help clean up dirty LA public service people. Sure, we still have problems, but we have come a LONG way since Katrina.
Heck, these days, people are calling Chicago politicians more corrupt and crooked than NOLA ones. Katrina, in many ways was a blessing and a curse. Yes, it was devastating to many who lost everything. But it also helped flush the city of a lot of what was wrong with it...the dead weight, the crime (still bad, but doesn't seem as bad as before), and the corruption. New Orleans is a MUCH nicer place to live now, than before Katrina. New blood is flowing in (many in the 30-35 educated ranks moving here), new businesses are coming in, many of the projects are being replaced with mixed housing..and pretty soon, we hope to have a major bio-medical corridor come in to replace some horribly blighted areas at the end of the Mid-City area which will help revitalize that area, and the areas closer to the French Quarter.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
The very existence of NO is just begging for Katrina and many more similar disasters."
Well, it isn't like we just decided in the past couple of decades we'd like to build and little burg here and move in 'cause it would just be cool to live below sea level.
New Orleans is older than the United States itself man...it is a city that is almost 300 years old man.
And, it is located precisely where it is for a number of reasons, the largest reason being near the mouth of the Mississippi river to the Gulf. NOLA is a very important port city for the US. Pretty much everything from the midwest comes through us to go out to the world. You like seafood? Well, we pretty much provide about 1/3 of the US's seafood from this area. You kinda have to live near the water to do that. You like Oil? Well, at least..do you need it? Well, a great deal of the US's spigots are due to NOLA and our immediate areas, everything from people to run the rigs, to the 'taps' that the tanker ships unload to shore...to the refineries that people here run and work in.
NOLA is a very important city...even if you don't care about the culture that NOLA has given the US, music, food, etc....economically, you should rethink how important you think it is.
And hell...why can't we invest to protect it like the Netherlands does their areas that are below sea level?
Every place in the US has its problems.
Do we abandon CA, because it has earthquakes, fires, and mudslides? Do we abandon the cities in the midwest that flood from the Mississippi river? Do we abandon the panhandle states due to all the tornadoes? Do we abandon NYC because it is a target for terrorists (not to mention, they are WAY overdue for a hurricane situation that makes the one in NOLA look like a puddle jump)?
Quit bitching about it...and come have some fun down here. We're friendly...its funny to watch it wear off on my northeastern friends that come here to visit.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
*shakes head* Whatever... I got plenty more karma to burn stating the truth even when it hurts some delicate snowflake's worldview.
I don't think your original post is that offtopic, but I can say that seeing about 5 posts here with you arguing "this is ontopic, meta this, woe is me!" really isn't on topic of floating cities.
/. isn't about getting nothing but praise for comments, it is about making an interesting discussion.
Mods here are *sometimes* like a box of chocolate. You aren't sure what you will get. Sometimes posts that shoot up to +5 end up at -1, sometimes it is the other way around. I wouldn't worry about the modding that your posts get. If you are posting quality content, the masses will override the few. Besides,
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!