Longest Bridge Over (Troubled) Water Opens In China

Take note: over water. But don’t fret; the longest bridge on Earth is still found in mainland China, except in a different place. The longest bridge over water, as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records, is a 24.6 mile stretch spanning the aquatic divide between Qingdao and Huangdao island.

The actual cost, in dollars, varies according to the news sources that have reported its opening this week. The bridge, which is supported by five thousand pillars, took four years and 10,000 laborers to complete. The price stag varies between $1.5 billion to a little short of nine billion. That’s a pretty broad variation.

To allay fears that natural disasters could undo what mankind has wrought, Chinese authorities were quick to assure its earthquake proof construction. That, and it’s freaking huge.

Having built the largest structures on Earth, all that’s left for China to do is build a whole planet roughly the size of our moon to house a couple of billion people. The extra real estate would do the world a lot of good.

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Blade Runner Foreshadows The Near Future: The SoloTrek Air Car

A revolution in transport will soon change the world’s cities. While it doesn’t involve cars that transform into robots, it’s still cool despite. Anyway, what we’re referring to are air cars, basically personalized flying vehicles that seem the only solution to nightmarish traffic and pollutive congestion.

Seen above is the SoloTrek concept, a multi-rotor design that can at least manage a passenger or three, including the pilot. The guys behind this project are Michael Moshier and Robert Bulaga, who have launched their own company to facilitate the production and subsequent manufacturing of the SoloTrek.

The VTOL SoloTrek is already destined to e a hybrid vehicle capable of decent range and fast speeds. Of course, t’s not the only flying transport being developed fr commercial use and industrial applications. As mentioned a few paragraphs up, the coming trend involves both personalized aircraft and ugly compact cars, between these two you can expect the cars we use to day to e universally obsolete in a matter of years. That is, if the SoloTrek and its ilk catch on.

Between air cars and human-like robots whose motives are suspect, Blade Runner further vindicates itself as the most stark portrayal of our near future. The only thing it seems to have gotten wrong are smartphones.

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