2038 Watersheds

Modern technology-- we've reached some watersheds. First in size. Like the new "world's largest building." An amazing piece of human technology. There was a veritable Babel of responses to it in the worldwide media. How it could it not be newsworthy? It was big.

How big?

Well, it's only 18 stories tall but it has 1.2 million square feet of floor space. One article, sensitive to your different possible cultural bases for comparison, said it could house three Pentagons, four Vatican cities or twenty Sydney opera houses. Retail space is equivalent to 329 football fields.

It's so big, in one area it has an indoor beach. Complete with  a massive wave pool. But that's not enough. It also includes a gentle breeze, is illuminated 24-hours a day by an artificial sun, and features an 164-yard long giant LED screen that shows an artificial sunset on it's simulated horizon. Talk about watershed.

The building just happens to be in Chengdu China so you know what that means. They've finally solved their outdoor air pollution problem. Use coal to fire a big power plant, and move everyone indoors. Hey, with a 164-yard LED screen showing clear blue skies, who needs smog?

The other techno-watershed I saw recently involved the Panamanian president. The Panama police stopped a North Korean ship going through the canal that was apparently loaded with nuclear missiles hidden in brown sugar.

At least it’s healthier than white sugar.

What got me techno-wise was the President, who went to look and then decided to send a picture proving it to the whole world. By tweeting it. Yep, the President of Panama, proving North Korean nuke smuggling, a grave and serious international offence, tweeted it. 

I wonder if Twitter ever wishes they had a more serious sounding name.

America, ya gotta love it.