Showing posts with label Fukuoka Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fukuoka Japan. Show all posts

Feb 10, 2012

Artificial Singing Star

Singer Aimi Eguchi is Japan's latest artificial star. She is a member of the Japanese pop band AKB 48. Eguchi's character is entirely computer generated, using features from six other band members. She is not the first, but the second computer generated singer in Japan.

Hatsune Miku, a computer generated cartoon, is the first. Miku regularly sells out "live" concerts featuring 3-D holographic images of the singer performing on stage. The statement to, 'not believe everything you see' is becoming more real every day.

Nov 6, 2010

SUX

FAA identifiers for airports aren’t technically acronyms, but the three-letter codes can give rise to their own headaches. Just ask the Sioux City Gateway Airport, which the FAA saddled with the unfortunate designator “SUX.” Airport authorities petitioned for a new code, and the FAA, not a joke, offered them “GAY” as a nod to the “Gateway” part of the airport’s name.

Sioux City decided that switching to GAY probably wouldn’t save them any taunting, so officials decided to make the best of the SUX situation. Now the airport markets playful t-shirts emblazoned with slogans like “Fly SUX.”

SUX might not even be the worst code. According to a 2008 LA Times story, Fresno’s is FAT, and Perm, Russia’s is PEE. The big winner has to be Fukuoka, Japan, though. Hmmm, how does that one get abbreviated.