SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
In the 160 or so years since the first skyscrapers were built, technological innovations of many kinds have allowed us to build them to reach astonishing heights. Today there is a 1,000-meter (167-story) building under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Even taller buildings are possible with today's structural technology.
But people still don't really live in skyscrapers the way futurists had envisioned, for one reason: Elevators go only up and down. In the "Harry Potter" movies, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and others, we see cableless boxes that can travel not just vertically but horizontally and even diagonally. Today, that future might be closer than ever. A new system invented and being tested by German elevator producer ThyssenKrupp would get rid of cables altogether and build elevators more like magnetic levitation trains, which are common in Japan and China.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2017-08-reengineering-elevators-21st-century-cities.html
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday August 09 2017, @09:13PM (2 children)
treadmills are like boats, lots of fun to use someone elses, but an expensive PITA to keep operating.
I have one in front of my rarely watched TV. Hipsters like walking desks but I have a walking TV at home. A replacement belt is $150. Something I find a little weird is I have to replace the belt every ten or dozen times I replace running shoes. I don't know why shoes cost $75 and you only get 500-1000 miles on a pair but a treadmill that you step on gets 10k miles and only costs twice as much. Carefully engineered obsolescence to maximize profit, I suppose. The idea of running shoes lasting 10K miles is interesting and the fact my treadmill (and car tires) last tens of thousands of miles seems to imply its possible but the marketplace won't permit it, which is interesting. Anyway, the best treadmill is one you don't own.
As the old saying goes, if it flies, floats, or ... is a treadmill, you're better off renting it.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday August 10 2017, @10:51AM (1 child)
I have a footpath, it's like a treadmill but the belt is 25,000 miles long
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday August 10 2017, @11:43AM
Hows the HVAC? Where I live the wx outdoors is really nice about 4 months per year. Not so good the rest of the year. I really enjoy hiking but its more of an "extra luxury" when ma nature cooperates, rather than something I do every day more or less before lunch.