The G-Cans Project has an awesome gallery of Tokyo\’s underground flood management system. Lots of massive, large-scale, industrial mechanical rooms and equipment. My favorite is this monstrosity.
[ From Boing Boing ]

The Jerry Seinfeld Dictionary of Terms and Phrases. I never realized how much that show contributed to our culture.
[ From Kottke.org ]

I\’ve been playing Half-Life 2 the last few days. Oh man, it\’s so good. It was totally worth the wait. I haven\’t had this much fun with a game in a long time. Valve has really mastered the art of level design; it really feels like you\’re walking through a European city, or being chased through canals. The physics engine is incredible too, when you throw a box it actually flips and bounces like you would expect. Everything is just very well done. I\’m also surprised that it runs pretty smooth on my old Pentium 4 1.5 ghz, I thought I\’d need to upgrade. Bravo, Valve.

Half-Life 2 is finally coming out on Tuesday and Gamespot has a big article about the last year or so of development, including the way-too-optimistic Sept. 30, 2003 ship date, the code theft, and leading right up to final play testing.

Forbes has an article about a $20,000 suitcase. I\’m sure it\’s a very nice suitcase, but come on! It has retractable wheels that perfectly balance the suitcase when extended. It has hidden compartments that are opened using controls next to the handle. It only weighs 11 pounds cause of all the exotic materials used (magnesium, titanium, aluminum, carbon fiber). Crazy. It sounds really cool, but probably not worth $20,000.
[ From Gizmodo ]

Some tanks showed up at an anti-war protest last night in Westwood. Apparently they got lost and ended up there accidentally.

Anyway, I was having lunch with co-workers today near Westwood when one of the tanks drove past. Now, 2 of my co-workers are actually interns from Sweden. So one guy was like, \”Why the fuck are there tanks driving down the street?\” Heh heh, welcome to the U.S.
[ From Boing Boing ]

Remember back in the \’90s when virtual reality was supposed to be the next big thing? You wore goggles and gloves and the picture would move as you looked around. The biggest problem was that you couldn\’t move around in a virtual space by actually taking steps; you had use a joystick or walk in place which looked and felt stupid.

Japanese researchers developed a system to allow a person to actually walk while remaining in one spot. Their system, called CirculaFloor, \”…consists of four square floor tiles, each incorporating several motors and wheels to enable the tiles to move in any direction. The tiles move to cancel out the motion of someone walking. They use magnetic sensors attached to the walker\’s feet to determine the direction they are walking.\”

There\’s a video demonstration too. Pretty cool stuff.
[ From Sensory Impact ]

And now, I give you a whole bunch of pictures of Japanese businessmen fallen asleep on the way home from working too much.
[ From one.point.zero ]