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An 80-story building in Dubai will feature floors that spin around the building’s central axis, using electric motors powered by wind and solar energy.

Occupants can control their floor through a voice command system, although this demonstration video implies that the rotation will be centrally controlled. I would have used the Clapper, myself.

The building looks like it is doing a hula, although in real life, the floors would move very slowly.

I can only wonder what the Outdoor Circle might say if a similar building were proposed on Oahu. Similar towers have been proposed for Moscow and Manhattan. The Dubai project is scheduled for completion in 2010.

There’s more information at architect David Fisher’s web site, this CNN article titled Dubai ‘shape-shifting skyscraper’ unveiled and in Dynamic Tower Skyscraper: Every Floor Self-Rotates, Powered by Wind and Sun at Gizmodo.

I’ve been annoyed at Starbucks for awhile - it’s the CD racks, countertop displays and spinners that clutter their stores.

The Starbucks on the mauka side of Bishop and King Streets is a prime example of how this retail initiative is a nuisance to customers. That store is small - I’ve seen closets that are bigger. The CD displays make it much harder to stand in line when there’s more than 3 people waiting for a barista. I’m surprised there aren’t ADA lawsuits pending.

CDs and coffee don’t mix

I can’t imagine that the employees like dealing with these racks, either. What happens when a customer knocks over some CDs or spills a drink on merchandise? How do stores control shoplifting and shrinkage? What about teenagers and young children who decide to “play” with the packages?

Starbucks is phasing out its music CD retail business, according to an AlleyInsider.com article called Starbucks (BUX) Dumping CDs. Starbucks stores will have 4 CD slots per store.

I expect that Starbucks stores will still sell iTunes gift cards, as part of the WiFi promotional campaign for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

In addition, Starbucks has handed over the day-to-day management of its Hear music label to Concord Music Group.

Related articles and pages on billso.com

• Digital music
• iPhone
• 27 February 2008: Starbucks, coffee and music
• 26 February 2008: iTunes is number two
• 11 February 2008: Starbucks signs with AT&T
• 7 July 2004: Downloading music at the coffee bar

I attended the University of Georgia, so I know that Georgia has more than a few folks who need some exercise. Google’s Atlanta office is a founding sponsor for Get Outdoors Georgia, a state program that encourages people to get off their seats and exercise in a park. Google is donating a branded YouTube channel, advertising services, maps and other features to support the effort.

If Google ever opens an Oahu office, I hope they will support a similar program for the island. A recent Federal study concluded that 8% of all Americans are diabetic. That’s 24 million people, with another 54 million who are on the verge of looking like the humans in WALL-E. Once someone, especially a child, gets fat, he tends to stay fat. This Motley Fool article, This Drug Market is Booming, discusses how pharmaceutical companies and investors are trying to profit from the diabetes epidemic.

See Get Outdoors with GO Georgia! for more details.

Helio, the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that tried to sell MySpace-branded handsets and service, has been purchased by Virgin Mobile. 

After EarthLink bailed out, SK Telecom pumped an additional US$270 million into Helio in a last-ditch effort to save the struggling business.

The Helio kiosks in Ala Moana Center never looked very busy. I’m not sure how many Helio subscribers signed up in Hawaii, but the nationwide numbers had gone down to 170,000, compared to Virgin Mobile’s 5 million. Young adults seem to carry T-Mobile’s Sidekick or a Verizon phone, although the iPhone may gain traction in a few weeks with its new low price. 

See this TechCrunch article titled Helio Hangs It Up for more details. 

Related articles and pages on billso.com

• iPhone
• 9 June 2008: iPhone 3G
• 13 April 2008: MySpace keeps trying to sell music downloads
• 29 September 2006: ESPN sacked, Helio scrambling

The Honolulu Advertiser, like other Gannett newspapers, has spent a considerable amount of time and effort to set up a hyperlocal blog network at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com. The Advertiser’s web site is littered with small graphical ads that promote individual blogs with the same cookie-cutter approach: the blog’s name, along with the author’s name and picture, with an uninspired tagline such as “A blog by…” or “Blog with…”

Advertiser Editor Mark Platte wrote a progress report in this Honolulu Advertiser op-ed article called Blogs a hit, and we’d love more. One section of this article is interesting:

I’m always on the lookout for new blogs, specifically in areas that aren’t already covered, and I am always asking staffers and those outside the staff if they are interested in blogging. Some have started blogs and decided the time commitment is more than they bargained for, so they drop out. But blogging is about experimenting, and if a blog doesn’t work, there’s no problem replacing it with another authored by someone with a fresh perspective.

This Poinography article from the same day, 15 June 2008, called Editor wants more hits and ad revenue, er, bloggers examined the same section with a cynical view.It’s true that print and broacast advertising revenues have been on the decline for years, as advertisers make more online media buys. The title of this TechCrunch article is a good starting point: Top 100 Advertisers Shifted $1 Billion To the Web Last Year At The Expense Of TV And Newspapers.

As Advertising Age notes, the economy has something to do with this trend: Top 100’s Ad-Spend Growth Grinds to Halt.

The Advertiser has been involved in a long-running labor dispute with its writing staff. The blog network is one way to recruit new, non-union writers who could provide online content during a strike or walkout.

Many of the Advertiser’s bloggers are already union journalists for the newspaper, but the majority of the neighborhood bloggers are new recruits to the Advertiser.

Authority and timeliness

A newspaper’s blogs should be as authoritative and reliable as the print and online editions. I enjoy reading the New York Times’ blogs, especially Bits and The Lede. The blogs provide Some of the Times’ blog articles are a draft or preview of a longer article that appears a few hours later in the print and online editions of the newspaper itself.

A few of the Advertiser’s 36 bloggers need assistance in learning how to blog. Kim Fassler, in an article called Friday Tidbits in her Quarterlife Cafe blog, mentioned that she has problems finding topics for her blog posts:

I suppose Quarterlife Cafe would probably fall into the category of “meaningless fluff” designed to entice the twenty-something crowd into reading the newspaper. But, hey, if I can get just one more apathetic twenty-something to read just one more article and learn just one more important aspect of some Hawaii issue, then I’ll write all the meaningless fluff I can muster.

That post had five subheadings in it, with Kim’s comments on Iran, teenage pregnancy, and cloning. I would have split that single post into 4 articles posted throughout the day.

Some of the comments on Kim’s story were excellent. One person noted that the Advertiser’s blog software seems slow, for example. Their pages do resolve at a lazy pace, but that’s some a good server-side cache could fix.

Tomorrow I’ll post an announcement about a new direction for my blog.