Artificial Islands, Floating Homes... what next?

Everyone must have at least heard about the Palm Islands being constructed on the shores of Dubai. There are 3 sets of The Palm coming up. They are The Palm Jumeirah, The Palm Jebel Ali and The Palm Deira. Wonderful, aren't they?

The Palm Jumeirah


The Palm Jebel Ali


The Palm Deira

Well, they are still on land, artificial or not. But there are these new Floating homes, which literally float on water. Floating Homes and Alternative Housing are two places where I read about them. Isn't it cool to have a home that can float? That too, with electricity and drinking water supply.

So if this is the trend of the latest real estate, whats coming next??? Homes in outer space is still a far-fetched idea. But what about reclaiming waste lands, say like the Sahara (which was once a grassland! Ref here, here and here.) which occupies most of the African continent. Or take some of the smaller deserts. Its definitely possible. If artificial islands can be made, acclimatization of deserts is possible too.

Undersea cable snap

The recent snapping of optical cable under the sea, presumed to be caused by ship anchoring makes one wonder about the reliability of the networks in place. I also happened to read a Reuters report yesterday, that a total of 5 undersea cables were broken in different places; and that the cause was not really the ships as claimed... weird world!

Update(15 Feb): Well, it seems I'm mistaken about the total number 5. I'd read a report online which I think was from Reuters that said it was 5. Anyway, even if its just 3, the incident had me off the net for 2 whole days, and then real slow for another 2 days.

Update(17 Feb): More news of the report of 5 cables being cut. See here for one such report.

Moon missions

The first mission to moon was on July 21, 1969 and the last one was on Dec 11, 1972. If such great feats were possible in the early 70's, why not now? The technology is far more advanced. Computers have become a lot smaller, computing power has grown exponentially, communication is much more efficient. Then why not?

(Update: I read somewhere that NASA is planning another mission Orion-15, by 2019. Hmmm.)