I made Ashley an image

It's not so great but we needed one!

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Side Weather Article

Revolutionary: WindCells are becoming all the rage overseas

Windy, Windy Wellington

WindPower has reached a new high with their sales of WindCells increasing steadily since their business was founded in 2035. WindCells have become Wellington’s main export with WindPower being the leading provider.

Wellington is quickly growing into a unique sensory city, but one element the weather controller cannot eliminate is the wind. The wind has been a defining element of Wellington for many decades, with the wind speeds being the highest for a city in the world ahead of Reykjavik and Cape Town. WindPower has utilized this natural resource to export overseas so everyday objects can be powered with a cheaper fuel.

WindPower was established in 2035, after Jillian Keith saw an opportunity for Wellington’s exports to increase. She began the business to meet the needs of overseas clients in search of natural means to power electronic objects. They were looking for a cheaper solution that did not hinder the performance. Jillian Keith has raised Wellington’s exports by 15%, with main buyers being in the China, Japan and England. Keith states, “I never thought our business would grow so quickly! I am just waiting for competitors to catch on, and then we can become more innovative and exciting.”

Weather Controller Image

Out-Of-Control: Helen Till watches as they change her rainy weather into sun

Weather Report

Running Image

Hows this? Think its too dark but i need tips :)you can delete this but your image needs to be in the right perspective.. the man running in your image is a different angle to the background photo. and it also needs some splash icons under its feet or some shadows to make it look a little more real. :)

This doesn't look real.. HELP

HELP I need ideas on how to alter this to be more realistic

WEATHER CONTROL ARTICLE

SUNDER ONLY HAPPENS WHEN IT’S RAINING

Recent debates over the weather have led to people turning to the government for answers. The weather controller, which was implemented into the Nyx Network a few months ago, is causing more harm than good as people are becoming upset with the way disputes are being dealt with. They are looking for the government to take action and control over the disagreements by offering a consolation to the party that doesn’t receive their desired weather. As a city, Wellington is quite unique. It requires a lot of varying weather conditions to enhance specific sensory experiences; the government should be considering these to keep attracting tourists.

The Global Weather Controller (GWC) was integrated into the atmosphere and monitored by MetControl. This system was implemented after Steven Keller studied the weathers’ chaotic nature in search of elements that can be controlled. This led to the discovery of a two-week pattern, which can be predicted through mathematical algorithms. After defining the algorithms, he began to predict weather to the hour, seeing potential dangers and predicting atmospheric movements. After monitoring the atmosphere, with the help of MetControl, he began to code the weather shifts; starting with small parts of the atmosphere then focusing on larger landmasses. This research took thirty years to establish a fully functional product within the Nyx proteins.

Wellingtonians can connect to the weather controller by logging on to the network and voting for their ideal setting. They have the options of the predetermined weather conditions allocated to the area after MetControl has analyzed the atmosphere. MetControl then collate the votes and set up the weather, this is all done throughout the day and is continuously updated hourly.

Disgruntled Newtown resident, Helen Till, has complained four times to MetControl and no action has been taken. “I need the rain to enhance my outdoor sensory café, as it is receiving no business. People do not want to experience a warm environment that was built to be cold; the full experience is not being met.” Helen wants to be remunerated for the loss to her business by the government. “Most people want sun, I understand that but there has been no attempt for a compromise, we need someone to make this operation fair.” Helen has begun to build rain focus groups through the Nyx network so they can sway the government to consider the need for rain as well as sun.

Mayor Liam Boulder stated, “This issue can not be solved by the government reimbursing losses.” He continued on to describe that the weather controller is a national issue but MetControl cannot look at it on a personal scale. They are doing their best to address the majority vote of the nation. “If the government looked into each case, the details and variations would be endless. Each individual case would need to be filed and reviewed for remuneration; this does not solve the weather issue but instead opens the door to a new set of problems concerning value. We will look into different ways to determine weather instead of majority vote, maybe a roster solution.”

MetControl uses the GWC to determine the weather on a city scale; they take the vote of the people daily and craft the weather to suit the majority. The atmosphere that surrounds the city can only determine the weather that can be manipulated. Luckily for Wellington, they can include any weather in their zone of the Pacific Ocean, which allows them to have more flexibility. With this flexibility, they have more opportunity to meet the needs of the majority of the residents. MetControl representative, Sarah Collins, stated, “The weather has become predictable down to the minute, and MetControl tries their best to spread the minutes to allow for all requests for weather but sometimes people can not be accommodated for.” She was unsure if addressing the government was the right approach but she agreed that there were too many people complaining. “When the weather could not be manipulated we had one less thing to worry about.”

HYDROTHON ARTICLE

WATER COMES OUT ON TOP

Around 12,000 Wellingtonians participated in the first annual Hydrothon race yesterday. The newly formed track held true to form withstanding loads nearing 400kg per square meter. There were categories for all abilities including, a 12km fun run, half marathon men and women, as well as the bionics race; the winner of the open half marathon being bionic runner Jacob Josephs, completing the 21km half marathon course in 43:27. Benjamin Williams was the first natural runner completing the half marathon in 1:01:12.

The half marathon kicked off at 8.30am and ran from Oriental bay, passing Eastbourne, Petone, Ngauranga and finally finishing back at Oriental Bay. Whilst the fun run took a more leisurely route straight out to Somes Island, via Ngauranga and finishing back at Oriental Bay.

Williams felt the fluid track was more forgiving than road running “I did leave the race feeling my knees felt fine, which was odd, normally they feel hammered after running a half. My time was faster too, I think the track actually has a slight bounce to it. You’ll see me run sub one hour next year.”

The fun run was well received by all involved. Organizers Brent and Kimberly Lewis had intended it to be a “sensory experience, for Wellingtonians to get back in touch with the qualities of the ocean. Wellington harbour is the perfect location too, taking running around the waterfront to the next level”.

It was lucky that the weather had been as good as it was, with disputes between Weta Film, who had scheduled rain all week for their filming on Mt Victoria, and event organizers only the night prior. After mediation the two came to a compromise allowing sunshine between 8am and 11am, unfortunate for the slower entrants who finished the course in heavy rain.

This event was only made possible after the discovery of “Jesus’ Trestle” in 2037. Jesus’ Trestle is a porous structured microorganism that moves with the surface of the water. It is light enough to float but rigidly built to hold heavy weights. It dissolves and reforms to gain its strength; intertwining more and more each time. Its structure mimics, the man made material, metal foam, but can be dissolved in water so allows a more natural disposable.

Wellington has harvested and molded its shape to allow for the event to take place with the track being marked out with buoys. There was only one incident of a person falling into the water as he attempted to cut the course. John Dixon thought he could cut from the Petone peak to the finish line at Oriental Bay. Unfortunately, the trestle was only covering the course area, with a width of 1km and he fell in. Luckily there were rescue boats on stand by and they picked him up, but he was disqualified from the competition.

Capital Chronicle, the Opening

Here is the revised edition, thank you Eleanor and Ashley for your editing help.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to a time portal, the date is Monday 18th of June 2040, Wellington City, City Gallery. A place distanced greatly by time and space, but where our wants and needs have remained intriguingly similar.

We have travelled through an era of digital immersion; our interaction with others has become more accessible but created distance between us. We have gradually become submerged in a digital realm where sight and sound have become almighty, as we have neglected to utilize our most primitive of senses; touch, smell, and taste.

In 2040, we have reached a turning point. We have realized the value of the diverse sensory experiences available to us. We have begun to re-introduce ourselves to our physical world engaging with all five senses.

We must now recognise that it is still 2011 and the pending digital invasion has not yet forced our senses to grow stale. We can still experience our world physically, and appreciate the subtleties, often taken for granted; like the gentle crinkle of the pages, that mild aroma of fresh print, and the knowledge that what you hold in your hands is undoubtedly there.

Without further ado, take the opportunity to sit down, make yourself comfortable and enjoy this edition of the Capital Chronicle, Wellington City’s newspaper of the future.

Thank you.

Wind Advert

Wind In A Box Article

Wind in a Box: The wind power prices are rising but people continue to pay. Photo: ASHLEY BETTS

Story: ASHLEY BETTS

Weather To Pay?

The current hike in wind prices has caused Wellington’s exports to rise in value by 35%, making them the leader in natural wind sales. With summer round the corner, people are stocking up their wind power to be fully prepared for the lack of in the coming months. The price hike has not

dettered sales, but rather made people buy more, as wind becomes more scarce the price will continue to grow.

Wellington provides the most natural and strongest wind worldwide, with

Rejkjavik, Iceland and Cape Town, South Africa coming second and third respectively.

WindPower is the main provider in

Wellington with controlling 65% of the market share. CEO Jillian Keith stated that “Wind is becoming more essential but the resource is only natural in certain areas;

Wellington has utilized it’s once undesirable resource and converted it to a multi-billion dollar essential export.”

Weather Article

Solace of the Wind

The current hike in wind prices has caused Wellington’s exports to rise in value by 35%, making them the leader in natural wind sales. With summer round the corner, people are stocking up their wind power to be fully prepared for the lack of in the coming months. The price hike has not deterred sales, but rather made people buy more, as wind becomes scarcer.

Wellington provides the most natural and strongest wind worldwide, with Rejkjavik, Iceland and Cape Town, South Africa close behind. WindPower is the main provider in Wellington with controlling 65% of the market share. CEO Jillian Keith stated “Wind is becoming more essential but the resource is only natural in certain areas; Wellington has utilized its once undesirable resource and converted it to a multi-billion dollar essential export.”

Unfortunately, natural wind may be a thing of the past as the application for weather continues to expand. The new version of Solace 2.5 now shrinks weather down to a metre radius of the individual holding the hand held device. This also allows the person to expand the radius when concerning an area of land that is registered on the network to them.

With this new specified technology, the weather begins to revolve around the personal preference, which means the natural wind will become the unnatural wind. As time passes and technology evolves further, the atmosphere’s balance will begin to be tested and strained be human demand. We need to begin to be fair about our weather choices, before we lose control.

Travel Article

The Pathway to Galilee

A new organism has developed from metal foam to allow people to be able to walk on water. “Jesus’ Trestle” is a new cross species creation designed to hold a person’s weight on the surface of the water. This organic material moves with the ocean’s surface but maintains its strength. Scientists discovered it while looking for a new way to travel through water. Wellington has taken advantage of the discovery being found in the harbour and have began to harvest it to create new walkways through Wellington Harbour.

The Wellington City Council has tamed the coral to create a path from Wellington’s lowest point to Eastbourne. They say the scenic route will encourage more people to experience the water through touch and allows them to explore Wellington in a new unique way.

The general public is very interested in this new organism and is eager to explore the coral’s capabilities once it has been fully tested by a team of experts. The experience of walking on water will be like nothing you can experience through the network; the touch, the smell and the look will lure you in.

Story: Ashley Betts

Photo: Ashley Betts

Windy Wellington

Did some filming today trying to capture the wind with a ribbon around the statue on the water front - going to compile it for time lapse video to show Wellington weather. An image is below.

Walking On Water

I emailed Ben to ask him about walking on water - my travel concept - email below :)

Hi Benjamin,

I'm Ashley Betts from Ross Steven's DLF class, I was wanting to see if this was a cool idea and get an expert opinion on it :)

So basically my idea is to use metal foam to create footpaths on water - http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/2008/04/ten-futuristic-materials/

That website shows that metal foam is a material of the future but I wanted to make it something more organic - maybe some kind of coral that has the properties of metal foam but is more naturally moving with the surface of the water so like as the surface of the water rises the path rises with it.

What do you think?

Thanks

Ashley

REPLY

Hey Ashley,

The metal foam looks cool. The porous structure is important and often adopted by nature as it is strong and uses less resources.

You could switch the metal for lots of other material types, for example, calcium carbonate crystals like coral which are made up of tiny bricks http://www.uiowa.edu/~cemrf/archive/sem/pages/coral.htm, or a silica polymer (so more 'plastic' like) like diatoms http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&biw=1199&bih=634&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=diatoms&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=

I think that you could make it so it so it rises as the surface of the water rises. As both of the structures that I have mentioned are rigid this is more likely to happen by dissolving and reforming. This is similar to what our bones do. They dissolve and get replenished so it is cyclical.

My first thought (and so by no means correct) would be that you could have a silica polymer, coated in a plastic that let's water in an out, by the dissolved silica is trapped in the plastic. The plastic would float, maybe reshape as the water rises and the silica that is below the surface of the water dissolves and reforms above the surface of the water. Actually the plastic could be made from something like vegetable cell walls, which are water insoluble, and made of sugar which is the material that diatoms use to control the shape of silica growth. ANd then you want to get the porosity in there somewhere...

This is just some initial thoughts, hopefully you can understand what I meant, but at the end of the day totally feasible and don't let my initial thoughts limit your ideas too much.

Let me know if you need me to explain differently.

Cheers,

Benjamin

Drawball Precedent?

Check out this youtube video

It is about this website called Drawball. Drawball is this online interactive website that everybody that logs on gets a pixel and a small amount of colour and it becomes a collaborative process to generating a bigger picture - the weather could be controlled like this?

Weather Controller

So I decided that the weather controller should be a 3d model of the world in a space and people interact with it be touching it an zooming in to certain countries. That atmosphere shows real time displays with the ability to go two weeks into the future. These are initial renders of the world.

I will make a video of this interaction in use and how it'll work.

MetControl

MetService converted itself into MetControl and became a worldwide company that controls the weather. They have a treaty with the leaders of the countries which is renewed every 4 years. MetControl must not personally gain from weather patterns and must do their best to keep everyone happy. Any disputes must go through world court where a judge from every continent must be present in order to determine a fair result. The treaty includes clauses about how weather is to be manipulated to primarily save lives and property - personal gain by one individual is not prohibited. Weather reports have become so exact that MetControl can see two weeks into the future and weather patterns can be determined down to the minute that they are changed. Weather can allow have it's course changed or be delayed - it can't fully be altered as the atmosphere is more a chaotic pattern than a blank slate.