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9 Stunning Next-Gen Airport Designs Cleared for Takeoff | Wired Design. Few of us will have the chance to visit an office designed by a world-class architect; an even smaller group will enjoy the luxury of living in a home designed by one. But for the price of a coach ticket, we can visit amazing spaces crafted by top designers, and enjoy their work while eating a slightly stale Cinnabon. Airports, especially those in big cities, expose an architect's work to millions of people every year and are highly sought-after assignments. New projects are awarded through competitions that can span years; once granted, they may take decades to be fully completed.

The latest airport award to be given will be happening in London. The British capital is facing an aviation crisis and mayor Boris Johnson has called on Zaha Hadid, winner of the 2004 Pritzker Prize, to help solve it. London's Heathrow Airport is an icon of air travel, but one that is ill equipped to handle the 300 million people who are expected to pass through its gates by 2030. Gallery: JetBlue's Google Glass-enhanced airport mockups.

Innovation Excellence. Gamification Facts & Figures. Conventional wisdom has it that sales people love competition. They want a challenge, beat their friends and colleagues, and be on top of the leaderboard. And sales managers constantly use carrots and competition, because this is what “motivates" sales agents. But is this true? We know that sales reps have to make money for the company. Depending on the product or service sold, the sales process and effort can vary significantly, from products and services which need a lot of explaining and have long sales cycles, to others that need nearly no explanations and sell quickly. Either way, competition puts stress on the fragile relationships between sales agents, colleagues, and customers and here are nine reasons why. #1 Competition is the opposite of collaboration.

When we consider the reason why we start companies, it’s because together we can achieve more than as individuals. . #2 Only a handful of people compete. If you’ve used competition in the past, have you also crunched the numbers? Learning to use My Blocks. This tutorial explains how to use the "My Block" feature of the NXT-G programming system by working through several examples. What is a My Block? Why Use My Blocks? Making your First My Block Creating a My Block Viewing and Editing the Contents of a My Block Inserting a My Block into a Program Creating My Blocks with Input Parameters What are Input Parameters? Creating a My Block with an Input Parameter Using a My Block with an Input Parameter Designing Your Own Input Parameter Changing the Name of a Parameter Creating a My Block with Multiple Input Parameters Making a Block Header Comment Variables, Wiring, and Editing within a My Block Using Variables to Send Data to a My Block Defining Variables in a My Block Rewriting the Contents of a My Block Sharing Wires in a Tabbed Switch Using My Block Variables from the Main Program Making a Modified Copy of a My Block Copying a My Block Changing the Icon for a My Block What is a My Block?

Why Use My Blocks? Making your First My Block. ThinkBank. Seven innovations in air travel : Travel Tips. Between 5 and 7 September hundreds of representatives from airlines and airports around the world will visit Vancouver for the 2012 Future Travel Experience, an annual conference that showcases the latest technologies for making air travel easier. Getting ahead of the event, I checked in with major airports and airlines to find out about some of the previously presented travel tech innovations that they’ve been testing this year. Do-it-yourself boarding at gatesOn 27 June, Las Vegas' McCarran Airport opened a third terminal for domestic and international flights. At all 14 of the terminal’s gates – where JetBlue is the primary airline -- there are self-boarding stations where passengers scan their boarding passes to open the automated clearance gates and board planes on their own. Other airlines are eyeing the same technology as a replacement for gates overseen by personnel.

But facial scanning can also be used to achieve other efficiencies. Eads altran airport of the future. Intelligent airport vision. The Airport of the Future | Fentress Architects. Future by Airbus  Through innovation, and out-of-the-box thinking, Airbus will continue to meet its eco-efficiency goals, and ensure that air travel continues to be one of the safest, and most eco-efficient, means of transportation. As the air transport sector continues to grow, Airbus believes that the industry as a whole must concentrate on technological advances, while also advancing solutions that will meet passenger and market demands, the growing population and its demographic profile, and respect all aspects of the environment. After celebrating its own four decades of innovation, Airbus now is looking to the next 40-plus years – actively working with other industry stakeholders and experts to anticipate the global needs of a better-connected and more sustainable world.

However, it all begins with one question: “what will air transport look like in the year 2050?” 25 Awesome Beta Research Tools from Libraries Around the World. If you're tired of using the same old search box on your local library website for research projects, it might be time to broaden your horizons. Try out one of these in-the-works betas sponsored by world-class libraries around the world. From academic libraries like that at MIT or renowned research centers like the Library of Congress, the following beta research tools feature innovative tricks to connect you with the most relevant, valid results on the Internet and in their card catalogs. Melvil Dewey would be proud. Tools Used at College and University Libraries Check out this list for academically-minded beta search tools sponsored by universities around the world.

Vera Multi-Search: MIT: This new tool is still in the works, but once it's officially approved, students and researchers can use Vera Multi-Search as a way to find material in several different databases with one single search.

Data Visualization

Online graphical dictionary and thesaurus. Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate. Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections. It's a dictionary! Visuwords™ uses Princeton University’s WordNet, an opensource database built by University students and language researchers. The Visuwords™ Interface To use the applet you only need to type a word into the search query at the top of the page and press 'Enter'. You can zoom the model in and out by rolling the wheel on your mouse. Understanding the links between Synsets.

Microsoft Sustainability : Productivity, future vision. Productivity Future Vision (2011)

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