Futuristic Community, Frozen in Time

Throughout history there have been stories of cities lost or abandoned, usually because of their proximity to nuclear test sites, or due to weather disasters. But this "space age" abandoned resort in Sanjhih, Japan literally shows a community truly frozen in time. Built in the late 70's, the government commissioned structures were intended to be a "Futuristic" escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.

It is reported that many strange deaths occurred when the structures where being constructed. and to this day no one knows the actual reasons behind the residents sudden disappearance. Much speculation exists however, from "spirit" sightings, to the possibility that due to the circular nature of the buildings, that poor insulation and climate forces residents to move elsewhere.

After Nearly 30 years, it was announced recently that the buildings are due to be demolished, and while we may never truly know their story, the ghostly photographs of these architectural marvels elicit our imaginations to run wild with ideas, and endless possibilities as what one cities idea of the future could have been.

So what do you think? Could these "Circular Pods" work in your community? Would they "Keep Austin Weird"?

We'd love to hear your comments!

Take a look here for more amazing photographs!

Introducing: Patrick Phillips - Austin Planetarium Marketing Coordinator

Factoids:

• Marketing Director for 6 years in Semiconductor Industry
• Post Production / Marketing for Escopa Films - "Air: The Movie"
• Current Founder & Conductor of the Austin Wind Symphony
• Composer of “Star Trek: New Voyages” episode “To Serve all my Days”
• Hosted a television talk show in Dallas from 1996-2002 and currently does an audio version of the program online.

Who Am I?

Without question, at some point when you start in a new position with a company, you’re going to be asked to introduce yourself.

While most of the time these friendly, (if not sometimes socially awkward) exchanges occur over a crowded conference room table, or in an office doorway, today’s advancements in online viral communication methods, more often than not have you posting your personality and traits via brief “tweets” or “status updates” by means of the web.

Hence this introductory blog...

I should really begin this post by making a few promises… I should point out that these promises really only apply to this particular blog as I do have a personal Facebook, where I tend to be a little too honest sometimes.

First, I promise not to ever start my Planetarium blogs with “Just took out the trash, man doing that always feels so good.” or my personal favorite “At work, tired.” Secondly, if I don’t have anything worthy of blogging about, I’ll save you the time. (Even if both of those things are true of course), this blog is at its very roots about purpose, and building Austin a first class Planetarium we can all be proud to be a part of.

(Cue the documentary piano music) My first planetarium experience at age 7 sparked a sincere interest in space and technology that has continued to captivate and inspire my creativity to this day. I was a “wild child” then, being raised in small-town Dublin Virginia, and quite frankly it really took a voyage to the stars (even if only in a school field trip) away from the misty mountains and railroad tracks to grab my curiosity

So now you know why I literally begged to get my job here at the Planetarium offices. And I am VERY honored that they have made me a part of their team. “Making a difference” really has always been my own personal mantra as I’ve made my way through life. I also admit that in my own selfishness this was finally my grand opportunity to assist in educating and hopefully taming a whole new generation of the “wild child”.

Looking Forward... To the Stars!

For more information: http://thatotherpaper.com/austin/maestro_of_geek_chic

Dirty Little Secret

This story has been floating around for quite a while in cyberspace, and has also been rather extensively addressed by the media as well.

The story is about the International Space Station (ISS), where a new recycling system has been installed for the astronauts. So far this is a boring story, but what if I told you that the water from the toilet is recycled back to drinking water. Yes, the astronauts are recycling their own urine back into drinking water!

Eeeeeeewwwww, right?

Well… I'll let you in on a dirty little secret. Do you know where your drinking water comes from? If you live in Austin it probably means that it comes from the Colorado River like Town Lake. Where does this water come from? Well, upstream of course, it’s a river after all, and when you travel up-river, you travel through Lakeway, Lago Vista, Marble Falls etc.

Now you may be surprised, but the people there go to the bathroom, and their sewage is processed and released… in… yes? Can you guess it? The very same Colorado River, which is then turned into drinking water.

My purpose is not to startle or to gross you out about drinking water from your kitchen tap, but instead to put things in rational perspective. Recycling in space is much more important than here on earth simply because the astronauts do not have the luxury of making a trip to the supermarket.

In space recycling is a matter of life and death, and in that respect, space travel is the only industry where the goal is to have a 100% level of recycling, and a lot can be learned from the technologies needed, or the experiences learned while doing it.

Ahh... All of this talking has made me thirsty. Well, now I'm off for a nice glass of recycled water from my tap.

Cheers!

On May 8th, The Austin Planetarium boldly went where few have gone before…

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum played host to this exciting “Trek” into the final frontier, and geared up for a fund raiser that will eventually lead to the construction of a much needed Planetarium facility here in Austin.

The event had a touch of everything, from one of Kirk’s infamous Orion Slave Girls to improvisational comedians “Start Trekkin”, and a stellar performance by The Austin Wind Symphony, playing what else? The music of “Star Trek”.

The occasion, which had over 600 Austinites in attendance, was held to raise awareness and funding for Austin’s very own Planetarium. Space enthusiast Richard Garriott, Professor of Astronomy and Physics Jim Heath, and Channel 8 News’s very own Burton Fitzsimmons made up a panel of judges “American Idol style” to become critics for an intergalactic costume contest. Where the winner, (Leann Tipton) would prove to be a true environmentalist, and as “green” as one can get.

In addition to the festivities, the Austin Planetarium purchased an entire IMAX showing of “Star Trek” exclusively for the event, and proud VIP guests were ushered excitedly into the theatre at warp speed!

Major media outlets in Austin also covered the event live in their on-air news segments, and the general public who attended the gala continued posting tweets and blogs for several days sharing their experiences with online communities proving their memories will forever live long, and prosper.


NEWS COVERAGE:

Watch KVUE Coverage HERE!
Watch News 8 Austin's Coverage HERE! (Second Video)
KXAN's News Coverage HERE!


NEWS ARTICLES AND REVIEWS:

Austinist
Austin Audience
Austin.com
Austin 360
Austin 360 Article 2
Austin Chronicle
Austin Reader Comments
Austin Decider

Zero-G Raffle Tickets are now available online!

After some delays, the raffle tickets for the zero-G flight with Richard Garriott are now available online!

Yes, for only $10 you have a chance to experience weightlessness! And here is the best part... your donation will support our efforts to build a Planetarium with a Science & Technology Center for Austin.

The raffle started on Saturday April 11 during Yuri's Night, and will continue through May 8, 7:30 pm. That date is the date for our next event: the opening of the new Star Trek movie! As a matter of fact, we have reserved the full capacity of the 9:30 pm showing of the IMAX theater of the Bob Bullock State History Museum! (I am not going to give more details, but if you like Star Trek, we will have something AWESOME for you in store).

The one other place where you can buy raffle tickets and come talk to us will be May 2nd and 3rd, because once again we will have a large booth at the Spring Pecan Street Festival! Next to raffle tickets, we will be selling T-shirts, mugs and astronaut ice cream. Our booth will be located in the same place as last year: North of 6th street on Neches.

Yuri's Night was AWESOME!

Wow, it took me wholly two full days to recuperate from Yuri's Night! What a wonderful event it was, and miraculously it stayed dry. We had over a hundred people attending and there was a lot of excitement in the air, both about Richard Garriott's talk and the planetarium project.

Once again, the event photograph was Teresa Harper from Teresa Harper Photography. We are still processing pictures for the gallery, but we do have the first 5 images available:




Also, Michael Barnes of the Austin American Statesman wrote a nice post (with pictures) of the evening, and News8Austin also posted a TV spot online when we handed pieces of the fireball to Eddie Garcia. You can read that article here.

One last quick note... we had a slight delay in posting the raffle ticket sales online. Hopefully by tomorrow you will be able to buy raffle tickets with a chance to win a zero-G flight right on our website!

Tonight is Yuri's Night!

Tonight is the night!

The doors to Yuris Night will open tonight at 7:30 pm at the Belmont on 6th street. We will be celebrating Yuri Gagarin's historic flight as the first human being in space with, of course, a wonderful Russian theme.

We have Space Tourist Richard Garriott as speaker. He will be talking about his training in Russia, his launch, the flight and landing and will answer questions from the crowd. We will have Russian food, Vodka, live Russian music and dancers.

Plus there will be a silent and live auction as well. We have mission patches from Richard that actually went into space with him, we have meteorites, a 14-piece meteorite collection, a Celestron telescope, a $5000 coupon in architectural design services from Davis Architects and... (drumroll) a nice piece of the fireball that fell over Central Texas on April 15. This is your chance to own a piece of Texas History!

And (second drumroll please), we will be starting our zero-G raffle! For a month we will be selling raffle tickets for $10. The grand prize is a zero-G flight with Richard Garriott! We will be selling the tickets at our events: tonight at Belmont, May 2-3 at the Pecan Street Festival, and May 8 at the Bob Bullock State History Museum with the opening of the new Star Trek Movie. This last event will also be the time when the drawing will take place.

The doors will open tonight at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $25 and will benefit the Austin Planetarium. You can pre-purchase tickets and find more details at yurisnightaustin.com. Tickets are also sold at the Belmont until we have reached maximum capacity. After 10:30 pm the event is free and open to the public.

Hope to see you tonight!