Not all economy seats are created equal. Can you get a good seat experience for decent shut-eye? By doing a little bit of digging you’ll find out enough info to help you make a flight in economy a pleasant flight, instead of an unbearable one. My suggestion is that you should be aware of what one or two inches of leg room can do — it makes the difference between being able to open your laptop all the way or being able to cross my legs comfortably. Seat pitch and width can vary greatly between airline carriers and aircraft type. So, when you’re comparing flights, be sure to check out the comparison chart at the end of the post to help you identify the differences between seat pitch and width on different airlines.

Seat pitch is the distance from any point on one seat to the exact same point on the seat in front or behind it. And while it is not the exact equivalent of “legroom”, it does give a very good approximation of how much seat room you should expect. The Bottom Line: the more seat pitch the better!

Photo: Travis Church

Virgin America - Where JetBlue attempts to woo its patrons with extra leg room and some satellite audio and video content, Virgin has opted for a sensory barrage. Stepping into what is seemingly a “purple palace” in the sky with fully-equipped mood lighting, the brand new fleet of aircrafts at Virgin America provide passengers with some of the latest technology for in-flight entertainment and productivity. The Airbus A320 features comfortable leather seats in coach class, and a comfortable pitch of 32” and width of 19.7”.

Emirates – Emirates is relatively generous to their coach passengers in terms of legroom. Coach passengers flying the A330 can expect their seats to have a pitch of 32”, while flying the B777 aircraft will up the ante to 33”-34”. Seat width remains approximately 17.5” on either type of aircraft.

Singapore Airlines - Singapore Airline were the first airline in the world to put into service the Airbus A380. The A380 has 32“ seat pitch and 19” width. The Singapore Airbus A340-500 used on long haul flight between New York and Singapore is even more spacious than the bigger A380 with 37“ of seat pitch and 20“ seat width.

JetBlue – JetBlue has recently reconfigured their fleet of A320 aircrafts which has helped to increase the seat pitch in coach. Passengers can now expect to have a coach seat with a 34”-36” pitch, and for an additional $10, passengers can request an “Even More Legroom” seat, which increases the pitch to an impressive 38” - these seats are limited, and you must call a JetBlue agent to book one of these seats at 1-800-JETBLUE.

Virgin Atlantic - Flying Virgin Atlantic offers two choices for economy passengers: Economy, and Premium Economy. Economy passengers can expect their seats to have a pitch of about 31”, while Premium Economy customers can expect a tad bit more leg room and a wider seat at 21”, compared to 17.5”. Economy seats also feature seatback TVs, video on-demand, and some seats feature video game consoles with up to 35 different games.

Qantas - Qantas provides ample legroom for economy passengers on both their domestic and international flights. The B747 fleet provides 32” pitch seating, and a width of 17.25”. Qantas recently began offering International Premium Economy seating for select flights, and these seats offer a wider 19.5” seat and footrest. Each seat also has its own personal fold-out 8.4” touch-screen monitor built-in to the armrest for watching movies on-demand.

Cathay Pacific – Cathay’s fleet of B-777s offer a seat pitch of 32”, and a width of 18.5”. Flying coach class aboard their larger A340-600 aircrafts, from Hong Kong to New York nonstop, offers a marginally slimmer seat width at 17.75”. These long flights offer economy passengers an innovative view from the nose of the plane via a nose-wheel cam that broadcasts a signal to the TV screens on-board.

British Airways - On the British Airways Boeing 747-400 the World Traveller (economy) class has 31″ of pitch, and a seat width of 17.5”. Each British Airways aircraft also features 4-5 rows of World Traveler Plus economy seating with larger 38” pitch, 18.5” width, and slightly greater reclining capabilities.

Japan Airlines – Japan Airlines offers both an Economy and a Premium Economy choice for seating. The economy seats offer a spacious 34” of pitch and a 17” width, while the Premium Economy seats offer an increased 38” of pitch and 18.9” width. Premium Economy seating is available on JLA’s Boeing 777-300ER aircraft (a total of 46 seats per plane). These seats also offer an incredible 120-degrees of recline.

United Airlines - United offers two choices to its economy passengers; Economy and Economy Plus. Economy passengers can expect differing amounts of leg room depending upon the specific aircraft. All aircraft seats have a seat pitch of 31” except for: the A319 (31”-33”), the A320 (31”-33”), the A321 (32”), and the A330-300 (32”-34”). Economy Plus seating adds an additional 4” of legroom, and this seating option is available to Premier or high status members of United’s Mileage Plus frequent flier program, or to full-fare/unrestricted economy passengers.

>Airline Economy Seats Chart

	Seat Pitch	Seat Width	Seat Recline
	32”	19.7“	32”
	32“	17.5”	6”
	32”	19-20”	6-8”
	32“	17.5”	n/a
	31-32”	17.2”	6 degrees
	32”	17.75”	15 degrees
	31“	17.5”	n/a
	34”	17”	32 degrees
	31-35”	17-18”	5”

Footnotes

A tip of the hat goes to SeatGuru for compiling seating charts.

The technically-savvy owner of this 14,000 sq. ft. estate requested (1) complete integration of all electronics, (2) unbridled user control and programmability, (3) optimum flexibility, (4) thorough and accurate status feedback of all electronics in the house, and of course (5) reliability…an integrators dream…a challenge to behold. The client’s request culminated in using 49 AMX touchpanels running off 5 Netlinx masters with 37,245 lines of code controlling 43 audio zones, 9 local systems, 13 video displays, 9 PTZ cameras with hard drive recorder, 18 Litetouch enclosures, 12 climate zones, 140 security zones and pool/spa control. This young, retired dot.com founder enjoys family life with his wife and three young children. As an avid baseball fan and car collector, his house caters to these interests with a richly detailed automobile museum in the basement and HDTV displays in virtually every room. source

A great example of integrating a home theater surround sound system into the walls of the theater, and seemingly making the speakers invisible, is a half of a million dollar home cinema in Denver, Colorado. The Genelec in-wall speakers are built into the walls of the theater, and they are surrounded by a sound-proofing material. An attractive fabric material is then placed over the speakers to give the theater a cleaner look. This is a relatively simple way to hide speakers, but it’s effective at creating a smooth-looking theater without any bulky speakers protruding from the walls or taking up space on the floor. source

A great way to conceal home theater speakers is to blend it into its background. For example, this beautiful log cabin home in Canada features surround sound speakers that are built into the stonework of the home. They’re barely visible without actually knowing that they’re there. Aside from the creative way of concealing this home’s surround sound speakers, this place even has window shades which close with the push of a button when it’s time to watch a movie, and the movie screen is revealed with the push of a button as well. Almost every electronic system (audio, heating, lighting, etc.) in this home is controlled through an Elan touch panel that is embedded in the stonework. So much for rustic log cabin living! source

If you want to have that great sound system in your home, but you also want to keep it looking elegant and discreet, you may want to check out the various realistic speaker covers on the market. These are very realistic furniture pieces which house a speaker hidden inside. The photo shows a great example of how realistic these hidden speakers actually look. There are multiple speakers in this photo including three of them on the mantle – it’s not very easy to spot them! The speakers on the mantle are disguised as the two vases, and the set of books in the middle. The line of speakers in this photo are from the Acoustic Research Home Décor line of audio products. They also have speakers disguised as lamps, wicker baskets, decorative towers, clocks, and a variety of subwoofers mounted inside of decorative trunks. source

When it comes to an outdoor living space, it’s not complete until a nice outdoor sound system is installed. Whether in a garden, poolside, patio, or any other outdoor space, a good sound system is a great addition to help bring music/home theater outside. Outdoor speakers come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors to fit just about any type of outdoor décor. You can find waterproof outdoor speakers in the shape of rocks, tree stumps, potted plants, water fountains, and various decorative statues. These types of speakers are perfect for poolside music, garden entertainment, parties, or for your outdoor home theater. These outdoor speakers are very discreet, and often times people don’t even notice that they’re actually a speaker. source

When trying to keep a wall-mounted surround sound system discreet and hidden, it’s sometimes difficult, but it is possible. This example of a bedroom home cinema shows a great way to mount a 5.1 surround sound system very discreetly into the ceiling, and still be able to achieve the optimal listening angle while watching a movie. The two front Kef loudspeakers sit flush with the angled ceiling until the home theater system is turned on. At that point, they will automatically descend from the ceiling to produce the optimal listening angle. The 42-inch plasma sits hidden inside the custom-built window sill, and the MJ Acoustics Reference 100 subwoofer is hidden in a custom-built cabinet. When not in use, this home cinema is almost completely hidden – great install! source

This 7,500-square-foot home in Illinois may just have the ultimate sound system. This house contains a total of 49 speakers, both inside and outside of the home. The total cost of this extreme speaker set-up was around $30,000! The owner’s say that there’s not one dead-spot in the house where sound can’t be heard at an optimal level. You’ll find speakers mounted in the closets, bathrooms, on the patio, and even inside the steam shower. The entire sound system consists of a variety of Elan and Sonance speakers, which are mounted either in-wall, in-ceiling, or outdoors. The owner’s commented about why they installed such an elaborate sound system in their home, “we like listening to music, sure” - well Duh! source

So how do you go about installing 24 12-inch subwoofers in a home theater room, and still be able to hide them enough so that nobody even knows they’re there?…until you crank up the volume of course. This award-winning home theater in Texas was able to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. The $3.4 million theater’s sound system consists of a total of 38 audio zones where sound is heard at optimal levels. Just to get an idea of the cost of this sound system, the least-expensive speakers used were a pair of $2,000 CAT in-wall speakers. By discreetly integrating the extensive speaker system into the existing décor, the installers were able to make the speakers disappear behind hand-made fabric screens (the photos show the speakers with the fabric screens off), and blend it in perfectly with the overall theme of the theater - turn-of-the-century Parisian opera house. source

If you are inspired to better conceal your speakers and speaker cables for your HDTV setup or audio system then its time to explore your options for vogels wall mounts, vogels brackets and speaker wall plates.

Most gamers have to make do with a drab setup comprising couch and standard plasma TV. There’s nothing wrong with that but on the other hand, take a look at nine of these ultimate games rooms below. These are some of the most elaborate and expensive, home gaming setups and video arcades ever. Playing PS3 or Xbox 360 at any one of these awesome gaming rooms would be like immersing yourself right into the game, rather than just playing it. You can literally feel like you’re in the cockpit, on the battlefield, or surrounded by zombies at any of these ridiculous game rooms.

“The Greatest Show On Earth”


What do millionaires do with all that money?…invest it?…travel?…give it away to charity? Well Jeremy Kipnis decided that he would build a home theater which he calls “the greatest show on earth” - and oh yeah…It only cost him a cool $6 million to build it. This amazing home theater features one of the largest screens ever installed in a home (18-feet wide), and also one of the greatest sound systems on the planet. The sound system consists of 16 subwoofers, 8 tower speakers, 10 tweeters, and 3 center channel speakers, all of which are powered by a group of 35 amps. It’s hard to even imagine what this theater would sound like during a movie or while playing video games. Speaking of video games, this in-home movie theater does include a Playstation 3, and it’s no doubt one of the most engaging video game experiences that any gamer could ever want. source

Three-Screen Theater


Are you kidding me!? This theater is ridiculous. Not only does it have a huge 109-inch Stewart Filmscreen with Runco VX-4000d DLP projector, but on each side of this screen are 2 more 50-inch NEC plasmas. What does this mean? Well…you can watch a movie, the big game, and play Xbox 360 all at the same time – talk about multitasking. The Xbox 360 is mounted right in the center console between two of the 11 comfortable recliners in the room, so you don’t even have to get up to change games. To add to the comfort of your gaming experience at this awesome media room, there is also a full wet-bar at the back of the room, so you can make yourself a drink to sip-on while you play. If you get tired of playing Xbox (why would you?), you can go shoot some pool at the adjacent game room or play on one of the arcade-style games. It’s a rough life! source

Dee Brown’s Game Room


Dee Brown is a former pro basketball player who played with the Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors, and the Orlando Magic. He has created what he calls “the ultimate game room” inside of his Orlando, Florida home. This game room is 1,000-square-feet in size, and it features not only multiple console video game systems, but also a nice collection of arcade games. Dee is able to easily switch between playing his Xbox, Playstation, or Nintendo consoles since they are all connected to a 4-port switch hidden beneath the sofa. There’s a 61-inch plasma for surfing the web, watching a movie, or for playing video games. This room also has 2 other smaller TVs, surround sound with 2 subwooofers, and an AMX touch-panel to control everything. A row of arcade-style games lines one of the walls of the game room, and are connected to the Internet, so Dee is able to get updates and see other people’s records from around the world for each particular game. He can even download various games to play in his arcade, and he has well-over 2,500 of them including classics like Asteroids, Centipede, and Donkey Kong Jr. source

Jerry Rice’s Home Theater




San Francisco 49er’s ex-wide receiver great Jerry Rice, and his 3 kids, play their video games in this awesome home theater custom built inside of his 20,000-square-foot home. Playing video games in this 30 by 25-foot, $200,000 home theater is about as good as it gets. The screen is an incredible 123-inches, and the 10,000 watt sound system is supposedly better than THX quality. The entire system is controlled by a 10-inch AMX touch-panel screen, which controls lighting, temperature, audio, video, and video games – it also controls the 80 hidden speakers placed throughout the entire house. What’s great about this game room is that it even has a snack bar for when you get hungry, which includes popcorn, drinks, and tons of candy. source

CinemaScope Theater




Stepping in to this home theater in Anniston, Alabama is almost like stepping into an actual movie theater, and in many ways, the technology used here is as good as a movie theater’s. This 28 by 35-foot theater/game room features an awesome 13-foot wide screen that is just slightly curved in order to provide the most accurate picture possible. This theater will play DVDs and games in CinemaScope format, which is the ultra-wide format that the large movie theaters use – it’s even wider than the widest plasmas and LCDs out there. What this means is that there are no more annoying black bars on the screen during movies. When he’s not watching a movie in his incredible home theater, William Wesson (the owner) likes to play his Xbox here, and what an experience it is. He describes it best by saying, “you really feel like you’re in there. A couple of fighter pilot games are awesome. In “Ghost Recon,” you’re actually out in the field, and you have the 360-degree field of sound, and you can hear and feel people approaching from behind you in the game.” source

Waterfall Home Theater


Inside of this 9,000-square-foot home in Danville, Pennsylvania, an amazing home theater will provide you with one of the best gaming experiences of your life. This media room was inspired by the homeowner’s award-winning backyard waterfalls and water garden. They decided to give this room a feeling of “the outdoors”, and they created one of the most unique home theaters in the United States. This theater has just about every feature that you can imagine, and on-top of being an incredible room to watch a movie, it also has dedicated hook-ups for their Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. This 16 by 26-foot media room features 3-tiers of seating, plus a unique 3-bench rounded seating area in the rear of the theater. Playing video games on the 95 by 54-inch screen, along with the $17,000 Runco VX-1000ci projector and 7.1 surround sound system, would be the experience of a lifetime for any true gamer out there. source

Luna City Arcade


This backyard arcade has to be one of the best game rooms in the world. This incredible game room was created by Peter Hirschberg, and it’s located in Linden, Virginia. He constructed a 2-story building for the arcade that’ about 2400-square-feet in size – bigger than many houses! Right now, Luna City Arcade houses over 60 arcade-style machines, along with some awesome video game memorabilia, and sweet lighting. Despite Luna City Arcade looking like a public arcade, it’s not, so don’t just show-up there and expect to play. Peter does host “game days” every few months, though, where people can come and play in the arcade – there’s even a dollar bill change machine, so you don’t have to bring a pocket full of quarters. If you’re unfortunate enough to not be able to check this place out in person, you can at least drool over the pictures. source

Gamer’s Paradise


This guy’s set-up would make any true gamer proud. This fully-equipped gaming station features a huge 58-inch Panasonic 1080p plasma TV, and just about every gaming console you can think of from the original Nintendo to the Wii. What good would this game room be without a good surround sound system? This one has got it with a Klipsch 5.1 surround, powered by a Harmon Kardon receiver. He’s even got 4 Guitar Hero axes that are ready to rock whenever you are, as well as the Rock Band drumset and mic (not shown). The only problem with this game room is being able to actually put down the controller at some point, which should be difficult considering there’s no shortage of gaming pleasure here. source

Backyard Arcade


If you’re looking for the ultimate game room, this one created by Barry Evans may just be it. He constructed a huge climate-controlled building in his own backyard that would put some professional video arcades to shame. This awesome game “room” features hundreds of video game consoles, tens of thousands of games, and tons of video game collectibles. Barry estimates his video game collection to be worth over $500,000. Just goes to show you that it pays to be a video game geek.

If you are inspired to improve your home gaming setup, you don’t need to spend as much as some of the above to get the results you want. Explore your options for tv cables, projector screens and vogels wall mounts for your existing flat screen TV.

Green, green, green, everything is becoming environmentally-friendly these days – cars, homes, and even our entire lifestyles. But do you actually know how much energy your HDTV is using?…The answer may be a surprise to many people. That shiny LCD or Plasma actually uses power whether they are turned on or off, and that power consumption can add-up to big bucks over long periods of time – not to mention have negative effects on the environment. Lets dig deeper into the issues surrounding power guzzling HDTVs, and also take a look at how much power the most popular LCD and plasma HDTVs actually use so that we can gain a better understanding about the great differences in power consumption among similarly sized HDTVs.

A recent study by the research giant, Nielsen, states that roughly 15.5 million out of 112.8 million TV households in the United States are equipped with HDTVs – many of which have multiple HDTV sets. Research has also showed that about 1out of 3 homes are not actually taking advantage of HD programming. This means that people are buying these power-hungry big-screen HDTVs, and they’re not even using them to take advantage of the ultra-clear HD picture. Why buy a power-guzzling plasma HDTV when you’re not even going to watch HD-programming on it?…It doesn’t make sense.

As a general rule, the bigger the TV, the more power it will use. So when you step-up to that big-screen HDTV, you need to make sure that it’s not going to send your electric bill through the roof. On average, a 42-inch LCD HDTV will cost about $75 per year to operate, while the real power guzzlers are the bigger TVs which can cost as much as $225 per year or more. There are some big-screen HDTVs, though, that are more efficient than others, so it’s a good idea to research them before buying. Most TVs don’t carry the “Energy Star” label on them like most other appliances, so it can be difficult to find the “greenest” TV possible without doing some due diligence first. Some TVs that are supposedly Energy Star compliant are not all that “green” in reality, so you have to look beyond that label.

When talking about power guzzling TVs, the worst offenders have to be the big-screen plasmas. A recent article at Smarthouse.com even called plasma screens “ Public Enemy No. 1”. A report by Deloitte Technology, a media and telecommunications leader, claims that the average plasma TV generates about 400 kg of carbon dioxide annually – not very “green” at all! Plasma TV’s tend to consume much more power than LCD’s or rear-projection TVs. Here’s a quick comparison chart that shows the average power consumption of three types of TVs as well as other electronics:

• Plasma TV - 350 watts
• Rear-Projection TV - 211 watts
• LCD TV - 222 watts
• Playstation 3 - 197 watts
• Nintendo Wii- 19 watts
• source

As you can see the Playstation 3/Plasma hook-up guzzles the most power. If you take a look at some of the biggest plasmas available right now, it’s amazing to see how much power they actually use – even when they’re turned off. But LCD TVs can be just as power-hungry in some cases. The Sharp 65-inch LC-65D90U LCD, for example, uses an amazing 583 watts while turned on, and it uses 76 watts even while it’s turned off. This adds-up to well-over $200 per year on your electric bill – but I guess if you can afford a TV that big in the first place, the cost of electricity to operate it won’t be that big of a problem. That being said, it’s still an environmental issue even if the issue isn’t cost.

Now that you’re a little more up-to-speed about HDTV power consumption, let’s take a look at the 5 most popular plasma HDTVs, as well as the 5 most popular LCD’s, and compare the power consumption of each. Then, we’ll take a look at some of the top-rated budget 42-inch HDTVs, and also provide you with some easy tips on how to conserve power with your TV. So without further adieu, here are the top 5 most popular LCDs and plasmas (according to Amazon.com), and their power consumption.

Top 5 Plasma HDTVs

	1. Samsung FPT5084 50″ 1080p Plasma HDTV ($1800) This 50-inch 1080p plasma is the best-selling plasma at Amazon.com. Although this HDTV is considered Energy Star compliant, it still uses a relatively high amount of power. At the default settings, this Samsung uses about 412 watts while turned on, and it uses about 369 watts while on “power save” mode. Overall, this power consumption is rather high for a screen of this size.
	2. Panasonic TH-42PZ700U 42″ 1080p Plasma HDTV ($1400) Although this Panasonic is smaller than the Samsung FPT5084, it’s definitely more of a power guzzler. This HDTV uses about 464 watts of power while turned on, which averages out to about $141 per year. Not very “green” at all.
	3. Samsung HPT5064 50″ 720p Plasma HDTV ($1350) This 50-inch plasma is the third most popular plasma HDTV at Amazon.com, and for it’s size, it’s pretty efficient. This Samsung uses about 321 watts of power when turned on, and in “power save” mode, it only uses about 288 watts. As far as 50-inch plasmas go, this one is can be considered as “green”, although it still consumes a lot more power than smaller models.
	4. Panasonic TH-50PZ77U 50″ 1080p Plasma HDTV ($2000) Although this plasma has great resolution and an awesome picture, it’s definitely considered a power guzzler. This HDTV is considered Energy Star compliant, and yet it burns 693 watts of power when turned on. This plasma is a bad choice for any “green” buyers out there.
	5. Samsung HPT5054 50″ 720p Plasma HDTV ($1250) This 50-inch Samsung HDTV is rated at about 390 watts of power usage. While this may be efficient enough to qualify for the Energy Star seal-of-approval, there are plenty of other energy-efficient alternatives out there.

Top 5 LCD HDTVs

	1. Sony Bravia KDL-40V3000 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV ($1500) This Sony is the best-selling LCD at Amazon.com, and it’s also a good choice for “green buyers”. This 40-inch LCD consumes only about 260 watts of power when on.
	2. Samsung LNT4665F 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV ($1850) This 46-inch Samsung LCD is a good all-around choice for “greenies”. This HDTV only consumes about 247 watts when powered on, and only about 109 watts in “power save” mode – not bad. That works out to about $76 and $34 respectively.
	3. Samsung LNT4661F 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV ($1500) Like the other best-selling LCDs here, this Samsung is also very efficient when it comes to power usage. This particular model uses about 245 watts when turned on, and about 111 watts in “power save” mode. These are both very “green” numbers for a 46-inch HDTV.
	4. Samsung LNT4061F 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV ($1200) Again, this LCD is relatively efficient when it comes to operational power consumption. This 40-inch Samsung uses about 245 watts while powered-on – about the same as the aforementioned 46-inch Samsung. The 46-inch model is a bit more efficient, because it does have a larger screen, so it could be considered to be a tad bit “greener”.
	5. Sony Bravia XBR KDL-52XBR4 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV ($3000) Rounding-out the top 5 best-selling LCD HDTVs is the biggest and most expensive model. This Sony may be big, but it’s still pretty efficient. This big-screen HDTV uses about 320 watts of power when turned on, and about half of that amount when the “power save” feature is used. While this figure is a little higher than the other LCDs, it’s still much lower than the plasma TVs.

So the obvious conclusion we can draw from the data is that LCD TVs consume much less power than plasmas. This doesn’t necessarily mean that LCDs are the better choice, because there is so much more that has to be considered when forking-over all that money for a new big-screen: resolution, response time, sound, size, etc. It is safe to say, though, that LCDs are much more efficient than plasmas, in terms of power consumption, which in turn makes them the “greener” choice.

Despite plasmas being inferior to LCDs when it comes to power consumption, plasmas tend to be slightly less-expensive than LCDs with similar features, although the gap is quickly narrowing. So if you’re on a budget, there are some good choices out there for both plasmas and LCDs. If you’re looking for your first HDTV, you may want to take a look at 42-inch models, which are not too big, not too small, and not too expensive.

One of the best manufacturers of HDTVs for under $1,500 is Panasonic. For the past few years, Panasonic has released some of the best budget plasmas on the market. Some of these top-rated 42-inch plasmas include the following models: TH-42PZ700U, TH-42PHD8UK, TH-42PX77U, TH-42PX60U, and TH-42PX50U. All five of these models are under $1,500, and they all produce excellent picture quality, good response times, and solid contrast ratios. They are, however, plasma TVs, so they do tend to suck-down a lot of electricity.

If you’re looking for a “greener” HDTV, than you have to look at getting an LCD. LCD screens have the advantage of being much more visible in brightly-lit areas. Plasmas on the other hand are better for dark rooms, such as a media room or theater room with no windows. LCDs, as we’ve already figured out, are sometimes twice as energy efficient than plasma HDTVs. Some good 42-inch budget LCDs would include the Philips 42PF9830A and the 42PFL7432D – both of which are extremely energy efficient (consumes only about 200 watts of power) and are under $1,500. Other good 42-inch LCD choices include the Vizio GV42L and GV47LF – again, both are under $1,500 and exceptionally efficient. Lastly, Philips unveiled their new Eco TV at this year’s CES, and this thing is so eco-friendly that it basically sips power. The company says that this 42-inch LCD HDTV contains technology which allows it to run while only consuming 75 watts of power, or only about $50 of electricity per year. The Philips 42PFL5603D is available in March, 2008 at a MRSP of $1399.

So, what about those of you who have already emptied their wallets for one those 50-inch plasmas and had no idea that they were so power-hungry. Well, there are some simple tips that you can use to significantly reduce the energy use of any TV. These tips may be a little obvious in some cases, but you’d be surprised how effective they are at reducing energy costs – sometimes as much as 50%:

1. Turn off the TV when you’re not watching it (Duh!)
2. Turn off your TV’s quick-start option (if your TV is equipped with one)
3. If you have an LCD, dim the backlight a bit
4. Turn on your TV’s power-saver mode (if equipped)
5. Adjust the factory settings of the TV to dim the brightness a bit
6. Don’t watch so much TV!

New HDTV Technology…

HDTVs are here to stay and while many of them are energy efficient, some of them still are not. With even more new advancements in HDTV technology set to release in 2008, it will become even more confusing when shopping for a new TV. Sony recently released the world’s first OLED (organic light-emitting diode) HDTV. This new technology features vastly improved contrast ratio, wider viewing angles, and better color reproduction over plasma and LCD TVs. The Sony XEL-1 OLED TV only has an 11-inch screen, so this technology has a long way to go before it can compete with the much larger plasmas and LCDs, but it definitely looks promising. The one downfall of the first OLED HDTV is that it is definitely a power guzzler. While it only uses between 22 and 24 watts during operation, it’s only an 11-inch screen! This comes out to about 0.44-0.46 watts per-square-inch of screen, which is much higher than an efficient LCD which is typically around 0.10-0.15 watts per-square-inch. So there are some issues associated with the power usage in the first-ever OLED HDTV, but this technology is still in its early stages so only time will tell if it ever overtakes plasma or LCD technology in terms of popularity.

Another emerging HDTV technology was unveiled at the 2008 CES. Mitsubishi had on display their 65-inch LazrTV, which as the name implies, uses laser technology to produce images on the screen. Mitsubishi claims that this full-HDTV will cost less than plasma/LCD, require 25% less power, have a 50,000 hour life-span, and never lose picture quality over the life of the TV like plasma and LCD TVs do. LazrTV will be available by the end of 2008. If this technology can live-up to all of its hype, “laser TVs” could very easily become the most popular type of HDTV in the near future. The future of HDTV technology looks bright, but it’s up to the consumers to make sure that this future is “green”. So make sure that you take into consideration power consumption next time you go to purchase a TV, so that you don’t end-up with an energy-wasting power guzzler.

We hope you are inspired to improve the carbon footprint of your HDTV setup or at least help steer your choice in the right direction. Also, explore your overall TV setup with options for tv cables, hdtv connection panels and vogels wall mounts for your existing HDTV.

Home theaters are becoming more and more popular and affordable - especially if you can do-it-yourself. But, did you know that home theaters aren’t limited to the inside of your house anymore? Some uber-cool (and somewhat wealthy) people have remodeled their backyards into their own outdoor home theater. These backyard cinemas make for a great venue in which to enjoy a movie or watch the football under the stars. The most luxurious outdoor home theaters are nostalgic reminders of the drive-in theaters of old. These amazing home theaters are the best of the best, and they are innovative solutions for the movie-buffs out there who want to enjoy nature to its fullest by bringing their home entertainment space from the inside, to the outside. Reality check - If you’re like most people then all you can only afford is a cheap plasma in a cabana! However, if you are not like me and you have a pile of cash, here’s what you can do:

The Dive-In Theater - Maui, Hawaii

The upscale Hawaiian-style outdoor theater system at this 14,000-square-foot Maui hideaway is certainly its main attraction. The maker of this customized set-up, Engineered Environments, had to take into consideration the high amount of rainfall, humidity, and windy conditions, which Maui is known for, when they designed this outdoor home theater. The 20ft screen is mounted to an automated lift system beneath a teak bench located poolside. When not in use, the TV screen is hidden in a concrete vault where humidity and rainfall cannot effect it. The pool area is also littered with strategically placed outdoor speakers, which provide a nice 7.1 surround sound effect. There’s even an installed weather station which records wind speeds to make sure that it’s safe for the TV to be used, without it being damaged. Can you imagine how cool it’d be floating in the pool or lounging poolside watching the game or a movie?

Outdoor Poolside Cinema - Florida

This awesome outdoor home theater was designed and installed by Crown Audio in Orlando, Florida. The screen itself is 300-inches diagonally, and it is set on a motorized track to raise or lower it accordingly. The entire system uses 8 large speakers concealed as rocks, placed in strategic locations around the pool, and a full rack of amps to power them. The whole neighborhood will know when you’re watching a movie at this place!

The Drive-In Theater - Hollywood Hills, California

Living in the Hollywood Hills is already the epitome of luxury, but when you add a full-size movie theater to the backyard of your residence – you’re taking luxury to the next level. This 5,800-square-foot glass home was designed by Hagy Belzberg, and it features this enormous outdoor movie-screen mounted on the side-wall of the guest house. This beautiful backyard home theater is easily one of the best of its kind.

Golf Clubhouse 11ft Reversible Screen - North Carolina

This outdoor home theater at the “Cliffs at Walnut Cove” golf community in North Carolina uses a reversible screen which can be viewed while you’re working on your putting skills, or while you relax in the comfortable back porch. This cool home theater innovation ensures that you don’t miss one moment of the big game. This outdoor/indoor home theater consists of a 11 ft. by 7 ft. HDTV with reversible display, indoor surround sound, and outdoor weatherproof speakers for surround sound.

Aussie Outdoor Cinema - Victoria, Australia

A company called Yellowstone Landscaping in Australia came-up with this next outdoor home cinema design, and it’s a beauty. Outdoor Design & Living magazine agrees, as they featured this design in 2006, and for good reason. This very comfortable and cozy outdoor living space features a large projector screen and a PE7700 BenQ home theater projector as its centerpiece. A gazebo was built around this outdoor theater in order to protect it from the elements. Sweet design!

Elegant Outdoor Theater

This beautiful house has definitely taken home entertainment to the next level with this awesome poolside home theater. This smooth installation features full surround sound for watching movies, and there are also speakers wired throughout the house for when you want to listen to your favorite tunes from any room. You can watch your favorite movie while relaxing in the pool, or while lounging poolside, on the gigantic motorized screen that works alongside with the ceiling mounted projector to provide you with the ultimate home theater experience.

Double Plasma Setup - Reno, Nevada

This awesome $4.2 million home in Reno, Nevada features mountain views and 2 home theaters – one inside and one outside. The outdoor home theater is built for comfort, and it features 2 large-screen plasmas built into the brick wall. Full surround sound and a full outdoor kitchen makes this outdoor theater one that will surely get a lot of use. There’s also a built-in gas fireplace for those chilly winter nights in Reno.

Cal Spas Hot Tub + Home Cinema

Cal Spas has taken outdoor living to a whole new level with their ultimate outdoor home theater. This fully-equipped outdoor living area is like having a living room and a kitchen in your backyard. This incredible outdoor set-up includes a 63-inch LCD flat panel HDTV, surround sound, integrated DVD/CD player, iPod docking station, Sirius satellite radio, hookups for gaming consoles, 5-burner BBQ grill, wet bar, weatherproof recliners, and 2 fire pits – all of which is weatherproof.

Inflated High End Theater

A more high-end version of the inflatable outdoor home theater inflates in about 5 minutes with its own built-in fan. This gigantic screen is 16 ft. by 13 ft. in size, and it includes a DVD player, high-output DLP projector, dual 15-inch speakers with stands, microphone, and all of the required cables. It’s basically like having an outdoor home theater in a box, but this “little kit” will set-you-back about $10,000. Set-up this outdoor theater in your backyard, and you’ll be the most popular house on the block.

The Blow up Budget Screen

Alright, for those people on a tight budget but still want to enjoy watching a movie poolside or under the stars, you can opt for this inflatable TV-screens. This particular model will come in both an 8 ft. and a 12 ft. version at a cost of $799 and $999 respectively. You can connect your surround sound system to the weatherproof widescreen to complete your inexpensive outdoor home theater set-up. These screens will work with any type of projector.

If you are inspired to hook up a new home theater setup at your place, you’ll need to explore your options for projector screens and tv cables.

If you think that rat’s nest of cables behind your computer is bad, check out some of these cable disasters – it’ll make you feel a lot better about your own personal “computer-cable hygiene”! This is the definitive list of the all-time worst (or at least sloppiest) wiring jobs ever, including out-of-control computer wiring, A/V cables gone-bad, data center disasters, and ridiculous power lines from around the world.

This looks like the “geeky” version of the Price is Right wheel.

If you think your job is hard, try being the guy that has to find the one loose cable in this mess of wires.

Watch your step…

At least these people are smart and put up a sign that says “Do Not Touch Any Of These Wires” - now that’s workplace safety at its best.

You’ve almost got to stand-up, and salute this patriotic cable mess.

There’s gotta be something living underneath that clump of cables! These audio cables are a little-bit out of control.

Almost looks like somebody pulled an office prank involving silly string and and a stack of servers.

Spaghetti never looked better.

Colorful cable catastrophes are some of my favorites – they’re a thing of beauty.

Yeah … that’s a lot of wiring!

Check out these beautiful long-locks of cable. Couldn’t they have made them a little shorter? It looks cool anyway.

This wiring job may look like crap, but as long as it works, it doesn’t matter what it looks like.

Innovative new pay-phone.

Here’s a couple of the original Google Servers. The first one was called “the Corkboard Rack”.

Have a look at these disgusting data centers …

Good idea! Get rid of the messy cables by stuffing them underneath the floor - “out of sight, out of mind”.

This is how you connect a TV, DVD player, XBOX 360, surround sound system, computer, phone, PS2, and anything that plugs into the wall, all into one outlet at your house. Quite an accomplishment.

This is cable chaos! I feel sorry for the guy who has to maintain this mess.

This one is just disgusting.

This pile of junk actually looks kinda cool.

Now lets take a look at some of the most ridiculous power lines in the world. I don’t think that very much planning went into the design of these cluttered cable messes.

Here’s a guy who’s trying to fix some power lines, and he’s not even wearing any shoes. Yeah - this is totally safe.

Can you squeeze anymore cables into this mess.

Talk about a tangled mess. I hope those cables aren’t live!

I think that Bangkok needs to rethink its power line infrastructure.

Watch your step – live wires right at head-level.

Seoul, Korea went a little “cable-happy” on this street corner.

Here are some beautiful cable-canopies covering these bustling city streets.

What can I say about this tangled disaster. It pretty much speaks for itself.

Here’s some more spaghetti to whet your appetite.

“Typical” home office set-up.

So how do you clean-up your cable mess? Here’s a sped-up version of how it’s done, called “2 Techs 1 Closet”. Nice work guys.

Ever had to work somewhere with comparably messy cable planning? Have you got a computer cable disaster of your own? Do you have an embarrassing jumble of TV cables behind your home cinema setup? Leave your comment below!

Over the years, we’ve been treated to some brilliantly evil villains on screen. These shady adversaries all have their own signature evil lair as their headquarters when they aren’t busy plotting to take over, enslave or annihilate the world. So what makes a good lair?

In the best criminal hideouts we look for sheer scale and ambition, legions of henchmen who seem to volunteer for such skullduggery, armies of button-pushing assistants in white coats, internal monorail systems, next-generation weaponry, hoards of gadgets, the occasional rocket or glamorous vehicle and control rooms full of people giving orders though the compound’s own PA system – and all this has to be in an unknown location that is often so obvious that it eludes detection. A good lair is indicative of the criminal mind hiding there. Here are 20 of the best!

Dr. Evil’s Secret Underground Lair, Las Vegas

Dr. Evil’s Secret Underground Lair: Dr. Evil has occupied many secret lairs during his career as an “evil doctor” who was always trying to take over the world. In Austin Powers International Man of Mystery, Dr. Evil occupies an underground lair near Las Vegas that was located in the Nevada desert. Here, Dr. Evil plans to “hijack some nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage”. His elaborate control center consisted of a gigantic nuclear warhead that was to be used to trigger massive volcanic eruptions around the world, part of a dastardly plan he called “Project Vulcan”. Dr. Evil’s populated his underground hideout with a choice selection of henchmen including his sidekick Number 2, Alotta Fagina, Frau Farbissina, Mustafa, and the eye-pleasing Fembots. Future Dr. Evil lairs included a hideout in the Seattle Space Needle, and a secret spot behind the famous Hollywood sign in Hollywood, California.

Lord Voldemort’s Headquarters, Lucius Malfoy’s House

Luciu Malfoy’s House: Lord Voldemort is Harry Potter’s greatest nemesis, and he took over Lucius Malfoy’s house after he broke into Azkaban and released all of the inmates. He called this place his headquarters, and it’s where he and the other Death Eaters devised their evil plans. Malfoy Manor was a very elaborate home with many odd features. One of the weirdest aspects of this home was the white peacocks that were the resident pets of this evil lair, which was a strong contrast to the overall evil feeling of the house. Overall, this was a very creepy place, but for Lord Voldemort it was a nice “upgrade” for him, and it suited him perfectly. He spent many years living in the forests of Albania, and he finally called Lucius Malfoy’s house his own after the death of Dumpledore.

Death Star, Star Wars

Death Star: The Death Star is the evil empire’s deadliest weapon in the series of Star Wars movies. Luke Skywalker was able to destroy the Death Star II, and Darth Vader, in Return of the Jedi by using the Force. The first Death Star was an immense planet-killing space station with an overall diameter estimated to be between 120 km and 160 km to accommodate a crew of 265,675. To protect the Death Star, it was equipped with 10,000 turbo-laser batteries, 2,600 ion canons, and over 700 tractor beam projectors. But those underpaid Empire engineers forgot about that pesky shaft to the core, maybe they outsourced some of the design?

The Green Goblin’s Mansion, New York

The Green Goblin’s Mansion: In the original Spiderman comic book the first Green Goblin, aka Dr. Norman Osborn, lived in a mansion in New York City with his son Harry. Norman was famous for his advancements in nanotechnology, which ultimately is what led up to his transformation into the Green Goblin due to a green serum which exploded in his face, giving him super-strength and super-intelligence but also driving him insane. Norman housed his Green Goblin gear at his mansion in a secret room behind a mirror. His gear consisted of a suit that produced a type of sleeping gas, and a flying “surfboard” that had a ton of built-in weapons used to fight his arch adversary – Spiderman. The Osborn mansion was destroyed in Spiderman 3.

1428 Elm Street, A Nightmare on Elm Street

1428 Elm Street: This house in a small suburban town in the state of Ohio was the home of the infamous Freddy Krueger. Freddy had secret rooms in the basement of this house where he stored all of his torture devices, newspaper clippings of his crimes, and of course his famous glove with razor-sharp blades attached to the fingers. The actual Freddy Krueger house went up for sale back in 2006 for approximately $1 million. I wouldn’t live in that house if you paid me to live there, but in a sub-prime world you’ve gotta do what you gotta do!

Scaramanga’s Secret Hideout, Koh Tapu

Scaramanga’s Secret Hideout: For those who don’t know who Scaramanga is, he’s one of James Bond’s most infamous adversaries from the 1974 movie Man with the Golden Gun. In this James Bond flick, he hid his gigantic, deadly laser weapon inside a small island, which is today called James Bond Island and is located in the Phang Nga Bay National Park in Thailand. The true name of this island is Koh Tapu, which means Nail Island, and it has become a major tourist destination for James Bond enthusiasts.

Arkham Asylum, Gotham City

Arkham Asylum: The Arkham Asylum has housed some of the worst criminals that have ever roamed Gotham City. A short list of the inmates include The Riddler, The Penguin, Mad Hatter, Two-Face, and maybe the most famous – the Joker. The Arkham Asylum is built on top of a large underground cavern; it’s a very dark and gloomy place to say the least. The fact that this place houses so many famous villains from the DC Comic world definitely makes it one of the worst evil-filled lairs on our list.

The Grinch’s Home, Mt. Crumpit

The Grinch’s Home: The Grinch is the somewhat lovable villain from the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Before the Grinch has a “change of heart” and turns good, he sits in his mountain-top lair plotting and planning ways to get revenge on the Whos down in Whoville. The Grinch fled to the top of Mount Crumpit after being seen as an outcast by the other Whos. In his cave atop Mt. Crumpit, the Grinch and his dog Max lived for years in solitude until one Christmas Eve night he decided to steal all of the Who’s bamboozles, blunders, and even their roast beast. You can guess what happens in the rest of the story.

Dracula’s Castle, Romania

: This castle is officially known as Bran Castle, and it was once one of the residences of Prince Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler. Vlad the Impaler is best known for his cruel and unusual punishment techniques, as well as for being the inspirational figure for the 1897 Bram Stoker novel, Dracula. Today, some people refer to Vlad the Impaler as Dracula. The Bran Castle still stands today, in Romania, and features a host of underground secret passages and rooms that may have been used by Dracula for any one of his “blood-sucking” rituals – you never know.

Evil Monkey in the Closet, Family Guy

Evil Monkey in the Closet: The Evil Monkey from Family Guy is quite a mystery. We know that he lives in Chris Griffin’s closet, and he lives to terrorise him, but we don’t know much else. The Evil Monkey seems to live exclusively in Chris’s closet, and the only person that believes that the monkey exists, other than Chris, is Stewie. Peter has seen the monkey before, but he mistook it for Meg!

The Penguin’s Lair, Gotham City

The Penguin’s Lair: The Penguin was one of Batman’s greatest foes, and so he decided to stay close to his enemy by having his secret hideout right in the middle of Gotham City. On another note, imagine taking a weekend break in Gotham City, other than the occasional crazed bad guy the place is so dull and boring! The Penguin’s evil lair looks a lot like the Penguin exhibit at the zoo – Penguins and ice everywhere. On the set of Batman Returns, 30 real penguins were used on the set and up to 50 mechanical penguins were used at any one time for added effect.

The Riddler’s Base, Claw Island

The Riddler’s Base: Many people may remember The Riddler from the 1995 movie Batman Returns, but he was on the scene long before then as one of Batman’s arch enemies. The Riddler is famous, of course, for the signature riddles that he uses throughout the Batman films. His base on Claw Island in many ways was reminiscent of a disco, at least by some people’s accounts, because of all the crazy lighting effects. Claw Island would be the spot where The Riddler’s reign of terror over Gotham would end when Batman finally solved his riddle and sent him to Arkham Asylum for the criminally insane.

Shipwreck Cove, Pirates of the Caribbean

Shipwreck Cove: Shipwreck Island, and more specifically Shipwreck Cove, were the meeting places of the Brethren Court (governing body of the pirates) in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Shipwreck Cove is said to be an “impregnable fortress, well-supplied, and able to withstand nearly any siege.” It is said that this fictitious island’s land mass is composed entirely of shipwrecks. Shipwreck Cove was ruled by the Pirate King, leader of the Brethren Court, played by Keith Richards in Pirates of the Caribbean III.

Lex Luthor’s Many Hideouts

Lex Luthor: Superman’s number one nemesis has had a plethora of hideouts throughout the years. Here’s a list of Lex Luthor’s known lairs straight from the Superman Encyclopedia: “a complex of buildings held aloft by a giant dirigible high above the stratosphere, a glass-enclosed city of ancient, weird design, an abandoned factory, a gigantic man-made meteor floating in outer space, an abandoned barn, a secret underground lab, a giant spaceship, a secret mountaintop laboratory, an electronics firm, a hidden laboratory on the outskirts of Metropolis, a laboratory hideout that has been lined with lead to conceal it from Superman’s X-ray vision, a massive fortress-like citadel on a lonely mountaintop north of Metropolis, a lonely farmhouse in the mountains north of Metropolis, a secret lead-lined subterranean hideout built into the side of a grassy hill, and the elaborately equipped Luthor’s Lair, Luthor’s Lair II, and Luthor’s Lair No. 5.” Whew! Luthor’s most ambitious lair appeared in Superman Returns when he blasted a Kryptonian crystal encased in Kryptonite into the seabed off the eastern seaboard. The ensuing continent that would be created would destroy every other continent on earth killing billions of people in the process and making the planet inhabitable for Superman. Ingeniously crazed indeed.

Syndrome’s Volcanic Hideout, Nomanisan Island

Syndrome’s Volcanic Hideout: Syndrome aka Buddy Pine aka Incredi-Boy was the evil super-villain in the 2004 movie The Incredibles. His evil pad was located on a volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean with it’s own rocket launch-pad and was full of hi-tech equipment and all manner of advanced gadgetry. Some of the cooler gadgets that Syndrome had included a pair of rocket boots, water bombs, flame-throwing assault rifles and the zero-point energy shooter that could suspend people in mid air. The lava-flow in the dining room, which opens up to reveal a walkway to his control center, is in our opinion the best feature of the lair by far. Syndrome’s pad was of course trashed by the Incredibles.

Tortuga, Haiti

Tortuga: Throughout the 17th Century, the Island of Tortuga was a hotspot for pirates who would use the island as a hideout. By 1640 the pirates of Tortuga called themselves the Brethren of the Coast and had established the island as a place to stash their loot. The piracy problem got so bad on this small Caribbean island that the French governor imported 1,650 prostitutes to Tortuga in an effort to “regularise” these out-of-control pirates. The chaotic reign of the Brethren over Tortuga Island came to an end at the end of the 17th Century when treaties were signed with other nations to help prevent another “pirate infestation” like the one throughout the 1600’s.

The White Witch of Narnia’s Snowy Lair of Jadis, Narnia

Lair of Jadis: The White Witch of Narnia was the Queen of this fictitious kingdom in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. She put a curse on the kingdom that made it winter for eternity. Her elaborate castle was a sort of winter wonderland constructed of nothing but snow and ice, like one of those ice hotels on steroids. The White Witch was a 7ft tall, beautiful woman who had the power to wave her wand and magically turn someone into stone-cold statue. The White Witch displayed the petrified remains of her victims inside of her castle for all to see, which is just a little creepy.

Burns Manor, Springfield

: While Mr. Burns isn’t necessarily as evil as other villains in this list, he’s still a pain in the neck for Homer Simpson and the rest of Springfield. His crankiness probably stems from the fact the this rich nuclear power plant owner was reportedly born in 1881! The Burn’s Manor features electrified fencing surrounding the mansion and posted signs that say “Keep Out” and “Trespassers Will Be Shot”. Of course one would be remiss to forget the famed on-call hounds who chase visitors out of his mansion on a regular basis.

Dr. No’s Hideout on Crab Key Island, Jamaica

Dr. No’s Hideout: Dr. Julius No was one of the many adversaries of James Bond. His lair was located on Crab Key Island and protected by what many thought was a dragon, but it was actually an armoured buggy equipped with a flame-thrower. The Russians supplied Dr. No with millions of dollars worth of equipment to help sabotage American missile tests that were being conducted nearby. The aerial photo shows Dr. No’s facility at Crab Key Island, and the round dome structure is where the transmitter used to defeat American missiles was housed.

The Oval Office, White House

The Oval Office: We’ve all heard about the “evil” stuff that has gone-on inside the closed doors of the Oval Office during Bill Clinton’s reign as President of the United States. The Monica Lewinsky scandal really turned this wing of the White House into a scandalous place. Some may argue that Bill Clinton is not evil at all, but his wife Hillary may have argued that point at least at the time of the scandal. It’s funny how she is now running for President, and may some day sit in that same chair. Possible revenge?

As the world’s population continues to boom so does density in major conurbations. This increase in density is actually increasing around the world as an influx of people move to the cities in search of jobs and the (often hollow) promise of a better life. The shift from oil to biofuels is augmenting the problem because land that may have been used for development will be required to grow the crops needed for energy production in the future.

This leaves the world’s major cities with a conundrum: how do you accommodate more people in the same space? For many the answer lies in the architectural philosophies of Paolo Soleri, an Italian-American visionary accredited as the father of arcology. If you have ever played Sim City 2000 you may or may not already be acquainted with the arcology, a structure of mammoth proportions created to accommodate large populations in sync with the surrounding environment.

If you thought that Dubai had a monopoly on the biggest developments and architectural oddities, think again! Here are some of the best proposed arcology-inspired sky / vertical cities from around the world to feast your eyes on.

Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid, Tokyo

Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid: The dimensions of this sky city are nothing short of staggering. If ever completed the Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid will stand 12 times higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt at 6,574ft tall with an area of 3 square miles at the base. The structure would consist of 8 layers stacked on top of each other which would have a total area of 34 square miles. Each layer will consist of smaller pyramids each roughly the size of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas with layers 1 through 4 devoted for mixed residential and commercial usage and layers 5 through 8 for leisure and social facilities. There will be accommodation for 750,000 people, or 1/16th of Tokyo’s 12 million strong population. Getting that many people around will be a challenge met by a zero carbon, personalised rapid transit system and a network of accelerated walkways and elevators that connect the city via 55 strategically located nodes. The exterior facade of the proposed hyperstructure will be sprayed with a photovoltaic coating to convert sunlight into electricity for a greener city.

X-Seed 4000, Tokyo

X-Seed 4000: Note: X-Seed 4000 is an architectural dream, a proposal that was originally drafted in 1995 with the sole intention of drawing attention to the designers who came up with the masterplan. Nevertheless we think the X-Seed 4000 is awesomely cool, even if it is permanently consigned to the drawing board. At 13,123ft tall the X-Seed 400 would eclipse even Mount Fuji whose iconic shape has been attributed by the architects as their inspiration. The $1 trillion teepee-like, self-contained hyperstructure would be supported by a frame of pillars, each habitable. There would be 800 floors with 26 square miles of space capable of housing anywhere between 500,000 - 1 million people. Of course all sorts of technology would need to be developed to make such a gigantic project work including next generation rapid transit networks, high speed elevators and a system capable of moderating huge fluctuations in temperature, wind speed and air pressure throughout the building. X-Seed 4000 would be powered entirely by the sun, although it is unclear whether this would involve covering the facade with photovoltaic panels or next generation thin film solar panels. The interior of the building does appear to adhere to the Soleri’s ideology of humans in coexistence with nature; as seen above there is no shortage in terms of indoor foliage. The question remains: who would want to live in the shadow of a 2.5 mile tall building? Mental.

Sky City 1000, Tokyo

Sky City 1000: Sky City 1000 is an ambitious 3,280ft tall self-contained city first proposed by Takenaka Corporation in 1989 to help restore green space to Tokyo’s urban congestion. If Takenaka’s vision of an answer to Tokyo’s problems gets the green light we’ll see a city that fulfills Soleri’s visions. Sky City 1000 will consist of 14 glass-protected plateaus with a total floor area of 3.1 square miles that would be home to vast green spaces. The mixed use building will house 36,000 permanent residents with space for a further 100,000 workers as well as schools, shops, theatres and other social facilities. Next generation, triple-deck high-speed elevators are currently in development that will form the backbone of Sky City 1000’s transport system, allowing people to get from the ground floor to the top in just over 2 minutes flat. Each plateau will also have a monorail system which will help move people laterally. In theory Sky City 1000 will help reduce the high temperatures often seen in Tokyo by freeing up more land that can be reclaimed and turned into green space. This project is still at the proposal stage but authorities in Tokyo actually take it seriously; Sky City 1000 may turn out to be the world’s first arcology.

Millennium Tower, Tokyo

Millennium Tower: The cone-shaped, 2,755ft tall Millennium Tower was first proposed in 1989 by Foster + Partners to address the acute shortage of development land and overpopulation in Tokyo. The tower will be constructed 1.2 miles offshore in Tokyo Bay and stand 170 storeys high with 0.4 square miles of floor space for mixed residential and commercial use. Millennium Tower will be capable of sustaining a community of 60,000 residents who will move vertically and horizontally throughout the arcology using a high-speed metro network in cars that can hold up to 160 people at a time. This system will stop at transportation hubs available on every 13th floor where passengers may disembark and continue their journey via lifts, escalators and moving walkways. The Millennium Tower will use wind turbines and solar arrays installed in the upper floors to provide sustainable energy for the entire building, making this one of the greenest arcologies presently envisioned.

Crystal Island, Moscow

Crystal Island: Foster + Partners’ Crystal Island was recently granted preliminary planning permission for construction on Nagatino Peninsula, just 4.5 miles from the Kremlin. Crystal Island is a self-contained city that will soar 1,500ft tall with 0.96 square miles of floor space for mixed use, that’s 4 times the floor area of the Pentagon. This megastructure will accommodate up to 30,000 residents in 900 apartments but will also boast 3,000 hotel rooms, a cinema, theatre, museum, shopping malls, sports complex and an international school for 500 pupils. Panoramic views of the city skyline will be available on huge viewing platforms 980ft above the streets of Moscow. When completed Crystal Island will have one of the largest atriums in the world, which can be opened in the summer to regulate the temperature of the 500ft high public space inside.

Ultima Tower, San Francisco

Ultima Tower: Eugene Tsui is known for his enthusiasm for futuristic megastructures. His design for the 2 mile tall Ultima Tower in San Francisco is a response to increasing population density in San Francisco where space comes at a premium. The proposed Ultima Tower will have a 6,000ft base diameter with 500 storeys shaped like a giant cone that encloses 53 square miles of space. Tsui’s plans reveal a space capable of housing 1 million residents in a vertical city that meets and exceeds anything previously conceived. Ultima Tower will be a sustainable building powered by facade-mounted arrays of solar panels, wind turbines and a technique called Atmospheric Energy Conversion that will use the difference in pressure between peak and base to generate electricity. If ever constructed the Ultima Tower will have a unique stacked design with entire floors devoted to green space complete with 100ft - 165ft ’skies’ for an open and non-claustrophobic feeling. One interesting thing to note: given the height of the building the journey from the ground floor to top would take just under 10 minutes travelling at 3 miles per hour in an elevator.

Bionic Tower, Shanghai / Hong Kong

Bionic Tower: The Bionic Tower is a proposed vertical city that has piqued the interest of Shanghai and Hong Kong, both cities with notoriously high population densities. If the project was to get the green light from either city it would reach 3,950ft tall consisting of 300 storeys with a total internal enclosed area of 0.8 square miles. The tower would be constructed on a 0.4 square mile artificial island connected to the mainland to allow the 100,000 inhabitants access. The cost of all this, in one of the most populous areas in the world? $15 billion.

Swastika Influenced Design

1. Swastika Influenced Design: How is it that a US Navy building standing since the 1960’s could cause a controversy in 2007? As hilighted in the mass-media earlier in the year, Google Earth users noticed what only a few pilots would ever have seen - that a US Navy barracks on Coronado island, San Diego was built in the design of a swastika. The Navy said they always knew what the layout of the barracks resembled but thought no one would ever notice. As a result of these images becoming available online, they are being forced to spend $600,000 on new structures and extra greenery to camouflage the building. Embarrassing to say the least. Links: Google Maps / Google Earth

Aircraft Traffic Jam

2. Aircraft Traffic Jam: What would you expect from one of the busiest airports in Europe? Looks like a freak of fortune to catch 3 aircraft on takeoff from Frankfurt International Airport, but it’s actually just overlay issues. Note that there is only a shadow for the middle aircraft. Links: Google Maps / Google Earth

Single-winged Aircraft Landing

3. Single-winged Plane Landing: This single-winged miracle-aircraft is the result of a bizarre mapping error that Google Earth occasionally suffers from. If you are a frequent Google Earth user you’ll probably have noticed incidences where roads and bridges don’t align properly or varying image resolutions cause some strange viewing. This aircraft was snapped on approach to the north western runway of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport but appears to only have one wing! Links: Google Maps

World War 2 Bomber in Flight

4. World War 2 Bomber in Flight: Google Earth has the ability to snap airplanes in midair - apparently some 3,300 planes have been placemarked. This is a World War II bomber flying over the sleepy suburbs of Huntingdon, England. Unfortunately, the bomber is no longer there in the updated image of the area.

Capsised Cruise Liner

5. Capsised Cruise Liner: If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a powerful typhoon slams into a cruise liner, then here’s your answer. This liner-shaped hotel was docked in the South Korean port of Busan when it was hammered by the 135mph winds of Typhoon Maemi in 2003. Links: Google Maps / Google Earth

North Dakota Truck Crash

6. North Dakota Truck Crash: Sometimes Google’s snapshots of our world are lucky enough to catch things as they happen. Here Google Earth captures a truck that crashed and sprawled out over East Burleigh Avenue just outside of Bismarck, North Dakota. Links: Google Maps

Ghost Ships

7. Ghost Ships: No longer confined to the annals of countless storybooks and Hollywood movies, ghost ships are real and they’re here today thanks to the camera-freakology of Google Earth! Here we can quite clearly see a ghost ship docking in Newark, New Jersey and taking on a load of cargo. Perhaps this is some sort of reincarnated Black Pearl? I dunno …

John Travolta’s Airport / Home

8. John Travolta’s Airport / Home: It’s no secret that John Travolta is an eccentric, but who would have expected him to build an airport and home in one? His home in Ocala, Florida is one of very few non-commercial airports in the world with a runway long enough to handle aircraft the size of his personal Boeing 707. Check out the internal and external shots in this Architectural Digest feature. Completely. Crazy. Links: Google Maps / Google Earth

African Wildlife

9. African Wildlife: Imagine all the creatures roaming about African, just getting on with their thing. Now, thanks to the National Geographic African Megaflyover Project, we can enjoy some of the last true wilderness on the planet via super-high-resolution aerial photographs of Africa. Check out this magnificent image of a large group of hippos in the mud, including a poor old hippo which is seen laying on the bank, being eaten by vultures. Links: Google Maps / Google Earth

Gravity Defying Car Parking

10. Gravity Defying Car Parking: Do you think getting somewhere to park your car is tough where you live? In Westenbergstraat, Netherlands, drivers apparently have to park on the sides of walls. Of course, this is just an example of tongue-in-cheek Dutch humour that comes through well from the above view. Links: Google Maps

Giant Indian Head w/ iPod

11. Giant Indian Head w/ iPod Turns out that the original inhabitants of north America were much cooler than previously thought. “Loud White Ears” had set such a trend back in the ancient times that they decided to build a large effigy of him in commemoration. Links: Google Maps

Super Shrunk Aral Sea

12. Super Shrunk Aral Sea: The once thriving Aral Sea used to be the 4th largest inland lake in the world but has shrunk to a mere 15% of its original size over the last 20 years. The water-guzzling cotton industry has mainly been responsible for this super-shrinking. As a knock on result, the once busy local fishermen have had to pack up and leave, abandoning their boats which are now 50km from the receding shoreline. A sad scene to look upon indeed. Links: Google Maps

The Leaning Tower of Seattle