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Vegas adds Ford hydrogen buses to fleet

Here's something you can brag about to your family the next time you get back from Las Vegas.

The city has added two hydrogen fuel buses from Ford Motor to its downtown bus routes. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman hosted an inaugural launch for the press on Monday.

The city of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Valley Water District's Springs Preserve have already been participating in municipal hydrogen pilot programs. The Springs Preserve hydrogen filling station makes its own hydrogen from water and electricity generated by the station's solar panels.

Now tourists and citizens interested in … Read more

Good-bye Vegas

LAS VEGAS--I've been here for three days, and boy, it's been intense.

As the first real stop on my Road Trip around the Southwest, I've had two behind the scenes tours of the Cirque du Soleil, and one tour underground through the tunnels underneath Sin City.

And now, I bid the city, and my great view from the 19th floor of the Mirage, overlooking the Strip, adieu.

It's on to the next stops: Hoover Dam this morning, and then onto the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

There will, of course, be more blogs, more Twitters, more photo galleries … Read more

The Cirque du Soleil fights for radio frequencies

LAS VEGAS--If you're involved in the technical side of the Cirque du Soleil, like Keith Wright and David Dovell are, then the scarcity of available radio frequencies poses a potential headache for you.

That's because Wright--the operations production manager for the Cirque's show, Ka, and Dovell, the technical director for its LOVE show, are both in charge of productions that depend heavily on wireless radio transmissions between hundreds of crew members.

And they face different, but equally challenging, problems.

For Dovell--and, actually, for Wright as well, come to think of it--the problem is political. He told me … Read more

A quick taste of the tunnels under Vegas

LAS VEGAS--I just got back from a tour of the storm drainage tunnels under Las Vegas. I was given the tour by Matt O'Brien, whose recent book, Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnel of Las Vegas, chronicles his experiences there.

I will put up a full story and photo gallery later, but I thought it would be good to post a little taste now to whet your appetite.

Enjoy, and make sure your shoes are sturdy and dry.

Get ready for Moo Stickers

LAS VEGAS--So, I'm here in Sin City on my Road Trip around the Southwest, and I'm carting around a very un-gadget-like toy.

These are the brand-new Stickers from Moo, the British company that brings you the brilliant Moo business cards that are the toast of the Web 2.0 world, and clever little notecards, as well.

Moo's stickers, which come with the oh-so-cheerful slogan, "Ooh, Sticky!" on the cover of a little flip book, come 90 to a book. Like the company's other products, you can upload your own images, allowing you to wow … Read more

No Vegas monorail Wi-Fi

LAS VEGAS--One of the things I heard about this insane city that surprised me the most was that the Monorail had Wi-Fi on it.

I'm in town to cover the technology of the Cirque du Soleil on my Road Trip around the Southwest, and I had heard it from a friend. That in and of itself wasn't enough to make me believe it. But then I read something on the Intarweb that I thought confirmed it. After all, the pipes never lie, do they?

And if there's one thing I like, it's finding new ways to get online when on the road. … Read more

Cirque du Soleil's Ka needs network technicians

LAS VEGAS--I just got back from a backstage tour of Cirque du Soleil's Ka theater, and I'm still a little dumbstruck by the technology that's built into the show and the infrastructure that runs it.

I'll write much more about this--as well as some of the tech behind the Cirque's Love, as part of my Road Trip 2007 coverage--but one of the things that came out of my tour that I thought warranted a quick blog was when Keith Wright, the operations production manager for Ka, mentioned to me in an aside that he'… Read more

Vegas gets you with weight sensors in the fridges

LAS VEGAS--I'm never surprised when I visit Sin City and find that the hotels here have come up with new and innovative ways to get my--and your--money.

But when I arrived here late Tuesday night for the first real stop on my Road Trip 2007 around the Southwest, I discovered a new one--new, at least, to me--that make me blink.

I've stayed in a million hotels and motels in the last few years, and even a few in Vegas. And in many places, I've used the in-room fridge to store a couple of drinks I brought in … Read more

The $150,000 gear shift knob

As luxury items or egregious excess appear to be the theme of the day, it seems fitting to include this gem from that icon of motoring wealth, the Bentley.

It's not a gadget per se, of course, but we just couldn't resist because this thing is so far over the top. Finished in white gold and 30 carats of diamonds, the knob costs $150,000--almost as much as the $165,000 Bentley Continental GT, as Luxist points out. As far as we know, it's the only shift knob that has its own Web site. But if … Read more