Φόρουμ της Νεολαίας Βορειοηπειρωτών

Bruce Jones has spent much of his career designing underwater toys for the rich and famous. The 50-year-old president of U.S. Submarines is best known for building ultraluxe custom subs, $80-million vessels that feature private staterooms, paneled interiors made from exotic hardwoods, plush carpeting, and enough onboard oxygen to keep you and 10 friends breathing easy for three weeks of cruising at depths of nearly 1,000 feet. Now Jones is redirecting his expertise in undersea opulence toward the hotel industry. His plan: to open the Poseidon Mystery Island, the world’s first major resort at the bottom of the ocean, by September 2008.

“When I was in high school, I was always writing letters to Jacques Cousteau and sketching underwater habitats,” Jones recalls. In 2000, he took the first step toward the real thing, offering a reward to whomever found the best location for his futureundersea playground. “I’ve got a lot of friends in the submersible business who are also scuba divers,” he says. “So I put the word out that if someone came up with the perfect spot, we’d pay them $10,000.” A business associate and avid diver suggested a reef off the Bahamian island of Eleuthera and collected his reward. But Jones eventually ran into trouble negotiating a price for the site with its American owners. After a year of fruitless back-and-forth, he decided to set his sights farther afield, on Fiji.

DIVING IN FEET-FIRST

Jones is not the first to pursue an aquatic hotel. That credit goes to Jules’ Undersea Lodge (named, of course, for seafaring scribe Jules Verne), a little bungalow at the bottom of the Emerald Lagoon in Key Largo, Florida. Opened in 1986, Jules’ is more akin to a sunken RV than a full-fledged resort. Up to six guests can rent the two-bedroom, one-bath undersea retreat for the night, but scuba certification is mandatory; the front door is 21 feet underwater.

In Dubai, where hotels are prized for ostentation, a group of commercial developers is hyping the creation of the $500-million Hydropolis Undersea Resort. A sprawling 1.1-million-square-foot complex—with lavish suites, a ballroom, a shopping mall and a missile-defense system to ward off terrorists—Hydropolis is an ambitious vision of luxury at 60 feet underwater. As of press time, though, the project had stalled in the preconstruction phase. According to Mansoor Ijaz, deputy chairman of the board for Crescent Hydropolis Resorts, LLC, Hydropolis is on hold pending “land acquisition” and probably won’t be finished before the current opening date, set for 2008.

Money, naturally, is the first hurdle facing any large-scale endeavor. In the case of Poseidon, private investors and an American merchant bank have anted up nearly all of the $105 million that Jones needs to complete the resort. Clearly, they are optimistic that Poseidon can lure enough celebrity guests and high rollers to be a financial success. Meanwhile, Jones has inked a deal with the owners of a privately held South Pacific island. If all goes well with construction, the Poseidon Mystery Island will soon be submerged in 40 feet of water in a 5,000-acre coral lagoon near the coast of a narrow, 225-acre isle located in northeastern Fiji.

ROOM WITH A VIEW

Jones designed Poseidon to provide guests—scuba aficionados and landlubbers alike—with an all-inclusive vacation package: fine dining, stunning views of the surrounding lush coral habitat, and the opportunity to dive directly from the hotel’s airlock, a hatch that lets divers out but keeps the sea from flooding into the hotel. Once the resort opens, visitors staying in one of the 550-square-foot guest rooms will enjoy a 270-degree view of the vibrant coral reef and tropical fish, visible through floor-to-ceiling windows and illuminated by external flood lighting. Guests will access the hotel through two elevators. Because the interior pressure will be held at one atmosphere (the same pressure as onshore), they won’t have to worry about getting decompression sickness. A Frisbee-shaped module at one end of the resort will house a kitchen, reception lounge and 3,000-square-foot rotating restaurant and bar. A second saucer will enclose a library, a conference room, a wedding chapel, a spa and the largest underwater accommodation in the world, the 1,200-square-foot “Nautilus” suite priced at $15,000 a night. To ensure that guests always have a crystal-clear view of the teeming marine life, Poseidon will have an automatic window-cleaning system (barnacles, algae and other marine creatures cling to just about anything in the sea). High-powered water jets will glide along tracks mounted to the sides of the resort, spraying the windows with high-pressure seawater, filtered so as not to coat the acrylic with barnacle larvae or other critters—a mechanism modeled after the cleaning jets in an automated car wash.

If the windows of a guest module become damaged, or if the room requires other repairs, maintenance workers can detach it from the main body of the resort and bring it to the surface. To loosen the joint that connects each suite to Poseidon’s “spine,” workers will close the watertight doors separating the guest module from the spine and then pump the joint full of seawater. As the hydrostatic pressure increases inside the coupling, it will force the suite loose so that an overhead crane can hoist it out of the water.

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME

First, however, Bruce Jones must build the thing. To keep costs down, the entire structure will be assembled in a shipyard in Portland, Oregon, and transported by a heavy-lift ship to Fiji. Meanwhile, engineers will drive guidance pilings into the seafloor. The hotel will float off the ship in one piece, and divers will thread small metal rings, bolted to the hotel’s exterior, onto the pilings. These pilings keep the structure aligned until divers can pin the hotel’s steel legs to the reef. The whole structure is then ballasted until it sinks to the seabed.

The trickiest part of building Poseidon, Jones says, is acquiring the huge sheets of transparent acrylic required for the windows in the guest rooms and the restaurant and bar area. A few manufacturers could produce the acrylic in the sizes he needs, but the cost would bankrupt the project. So Jones has decided to fabricate it himself. Poseidon’s five engineers, each a submarine designer with at least 13 years of experience working at U.S. Submarines, will design and build a specialized autoclave for forming both the curved four-inch-thick acrylic windows in each room suite and the floor-to-ceiling panes in the end modules.

Like so many other ambitious hotel-resort plans, Poseidon must overcome unenviable logistical hurdles before the first guest walks through the door. Other promising underwater projects have ground to a halt because of budget overruns and legal wrangling. Even funding and lagoon space isn’t a surefire guarantee that Poseidon will ever be completed, although Jones’s decision to pre-fab the hotel, rather than risk the vagaries of underwater construction, tips the odds in his favor. Finally, some industry analysts are skeptical that the pool of potential guests is large enough to keep the hotel afloat. But Jones is confident that he will be taking guest reservations for Poseidon—and that guests will pony up the $15,000-per-person, per-week reservation fee—for a long time to come.

Κάποιοι άλλοι είναι πολύ πιο μπροστά!!!




Bikini Bottom is similar to an average American city. The city consists of various businesses, including restaurants, stores, and manufacturers. The city has a stable economy, balanced education and health systems, a structured government, and a firm law enforcement system. There are even stadiums, amusement parks, and other recreational facilities.

Geography
Bikini Bottom's geography is shown as consisting of mountains, dense forests, lakes, lagoons, caves, grasslands, reefs,rivers, and barren wasteland.

Major geographic features have colorful names including Goo Lagoon, Goo Lagoon Sea Caves, Sand Mountain, Flounder Hill, Guppy Mound, Kelp Forest, Kelp Swamp, Kelp Caves, Kelp Vines, Jellyfish Fields, Jellyfish Lake, Spork Mountain, The Brain Coral Fields, Make Out Reef, Mount Climb-Up-and-Fall-Off,[7] Mount Kabloovious
(volcano at the nearby town of Palm Bay), Rock Bottom (a separate city located at the bottom of a trench), Ancient Mariner Valley, Mermalair (a man-made underground cavern) and Atlantis.[2]

Rock Bottom
This is featured in only one episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Here, it is dark and foreign to many of the people from Bikini Bottom. An example of this is how they talk. This is done by every other word, one sticks their tongue out and spits. In addition, the Bathroom signs are different from ordinary ones. The only way someone gets out of Rock Bottom is from a 90 degree cliff.


Cityscape
The city is divided into various districts, including Downtown Bikini Bottom, Goo Lagoon, Sand Mountain, Jellyfish Fields, Kelp Forest, the Flying Dutchman's Graveyard, Residents' Row (SpongeBob's / Patrick's / Squidward's homes),[8] Make Out Reef, Ancient Mariner Valley (the location of Neptune's Paradise.)[9] and Palm Bay.

The city is divided by its main road, Conch Street, which runs from downtown and past the homes of SpongeBob, Squidward, and Patrick, through the Krusty Krab restaurant, the Chum Bucket and the Reef Theatre cinema. The road intersects with Barnacle Road and Coral Avenue. Anchor Way is not far off from Conch Street. Conch Street runs north-south as revealed in the SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom video game. Downtown Bikini Bottom is located in the northernmost point of the city, while SpongeBob, Squidward, and Patrick's House are on the southern part of the road. Goo Lagoon is located west of the road, while Jellyfish Fields is to the east. Other establishments are located more southerly, including Sandy's house, Shady Shoal's, the Krusty Krab, the Chum Bucket, and the Movie Theater. The Kelp Forest is located more southerly.

The County Line is the boundary of Bikini Bottom[2] and in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie video game, it is very close to downtown Bikini Bottom. This is very fitting, given that it serves as the northernmost district of Bikini Bottom, according to the SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom video game.

In every episode in which the skyline of Bikini Bottom is shown, features such as buildings, houses, and anchors can be seen. This is most likely Mr. Krabs's house. In earlier episodes of the series, a red flower arch can be seen, which now no longer appears in the skyline. The Sea Needle, which is the tallest point in Bikini Bottom, is oddly never seen in the skyline. The Sea Needle only appears in two episodes of SpongeBob, Pre-Hibernation Week and Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II. The Sea Needle also appears in the video game, Battle for Bikini Bottom where it is shown just outside of downtown Bikini Bottom. In some episodes, a lighthouse appears in the skyline, most likely Mrs. Puff's Boating School. Other episodes feature the Krusty Krab's Marquee. A large clam-shaped structure, most likely a propeller from a ship, is seen in some episodes.

In the center of Bikini Bottom the citizens work and live in large, gray buildings made of metal. There are some other forms of buildings, mostly aquatic-themed as seen above. Further out from the town citizens need to use whatever is available and easy to live in, such as Patrick's rock, SpongeBob hollowed-out pineapple, and the stone monument Squidward lives in.



Population
The population of Bikini Bottom is uncertain. The creator of the show, Stephen Hillenburg, confirmed that Bikini Bottom is a large city. Before almost leaving the city, Sandy Cheeks sang a song about the city, describing it as "Crowded and Smoggy,"[10] which are the characteristics of Los Angeles, although the physical look & feel of Bikini Bottom suggests that it is in fact a much smaller city. A one-time Pretty Patties joint created by SpongeBob attracted 46,853 customers. Almost everyone from the city is there, which may suggest a population of around 50,000.[11] In the episode Squilliam Returns, Squidward mentions Bikini Bottom is a "hick town", meaning it is probably quite small like most hick towns.


Demographics
Bikini Bottom's populace, like that of the rest of the series, consists of various anthropomorphic fish, whales, crabs, sponges, octopuses, starfish, anchovies, lobsters, sharks, and most other forms of sea life, including sea monsters. Some forms of sea life, like jellyfish, seahorses, snails, and worms aren't sentient however, and are treated like pets or wild animals. An example of this is SpongeBob's pet snail, Gary. The first known land creature to live in Bikini Bottom was the Dark Knight, an ancestor of Sandy Cheeks, before the 12th century (Bikini Bottom was then known as Bikini Bottomshire).[1] Sandy Cheeks, a squirrel from Texas, is (along with Wormy the caterpillar) the only land creature seen living in modern Bikini Bottom.

Some pet animals tend to resemble our land animal pets, for example snails resemble cats (and meow) and worms resemble dogs as in one episode, where Spongebob gets a pet worm named Rex that seems to resemble a dog in behavior.

History
The history of Bikini Bottom can be traced back to the Permian period (which looked more like the Tertiary period in the prehistoric Bikini Bottom). During a time travel, Squidward Tentacles accidentally made his way to this era, and inadvertently invented the sport of jellyfishing.[12] Years later, in a more advanced prehistoric time (possibly the Cretaceous era, since a pterodactyl was seen flying at the opening scene; however, the prehistoric Bikini Bottom looked more like the late Quarternary era), SpongeGar, Patar, and Squog (possible ancestors of SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward, respectively) discovered fire.[13]


A scene from "Dunces and Dragons" (2006) that depicts Bikini Bottom in the Middle Ages, as a village known as Bikini BottomshireIn the Medieval Era, Bikini Bottomshire was under the rule of King Krabs (ancestor of Eugene H. Krabs) and was under attack by the evil wizard, Planktonomor (ancestor of Sheldon J. Plankton). SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star were transported to this time after a jousting accident. They were expected to arrive in this era because they were the "prophecy." According to Princess Pearl, "the prophecy" was that they (SpongeBob and Patrick) were the ones to save the kingdom. Princess Pearl (daughter of King Krabs) was kidnapped by Planktonomor's fire-breathing jellyfish, and taken hostage at Planktonomore's tower. Fulfilling the prophecy, SpongeBob and Patrick saved Princess Pearl and defeated Planktonomor. Later, during a parade while celebrating SpongeBob and Patrick's heroic deeds, King Krabs invented the Krabby Patty, which would be passed down through the Krabs family, and the formula being kept secret.[1]


On November 30, 1942, Eugene H. Krabs was born.[14] In his childhood, he immediately became a financial genius as he is known today. In 1947, his father gave him a dollar, in which he loved so much; however he spent it on a soda, which was upsetting to him. Soon he went to Posiden Elementary and met a friend, Sheldon J. Plankton. The two opened up a restaurant and after accidentally knocking someone out with their tainted patty, they had an argument and became bitter rivals, inventing the Krabby Patty secret formula in the process. Not long after, the Vietnam War occurred, in which the events are unknown. After the war, Mr. Krabs fell into a deep depression, which seemed endless; however, a bankrupt retirement home, the Rusty Krab, gave him hope. Mr. Krabs decided to buy the building, rename it, marking the establishment of the Krusty Krab. The financial success of the Krusty Krab took off and became a premier eating facility in the Bikini Bottom.

In the present time, Bikini Bottom has had various occurrences of destruction. In Dying for Pie, a bomb pie fell on Squidward's face, causing a nuclear explosion (with Squidward dead center). In "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm", an Alaskan Bull Worm struck Bikini Bottom, which made Sandy hunt it down. Bikini Bottom was moved away, but the worm crushed it. In "Wormy", while Sandy was out of town SpongeBob and Patrick were given the duty of taking care of her pets, one of which was a caterpillar named Wormy. Wormy grew into a butterfly overnight, which caused SpongeBob and Patrick to freak out, thinking Wormy's dead. They then proceeded to cause a mass hysteria that lead to the city's destruction. Global warming also took effect in the short, "The Endless Summer."

Years later, Mr. Krabs opened a second restaurant, namely the "Krusty Krab 2." Plankton initiated his evil Plan Z, and stole King Neptune's Crown, thereby framing Mr. Krabs. He was frozen because of this; however, SpongeBob and Patrick set out toward Shell City to retrieve Neptune's crown, and then saved the day. These events are depicted in the Spongebob Squarepants film.[2]


Entertainment and Media
In Bikini Bottom contributes to the social interaction within the city. There is the Bubble Bowl, Goofy Goober's Ice Cream Party Boat (for the kids), Weenie Hut Jr., Super Weenie Hut Jr., and the Salty Spittoon club (for strong people only), the Tough Tavern bar (for tough men only) and The Reef Theatre (cinema). The Krusty Krab houses entertainment with shows such as the Annual Squidward Tentacles Talent Show (featuring the unpopular Squidward Live segment), The Komedy Krab and "Live Nude Pranksters", which featured an unclothed SpongeBob and Patrick. In addition, a popular band called "Ned and the Needlefish" started in Bikini Bottom.

Bikini Bottom has many forms of media. News, magazines, radio, and television contribute to Bikini Bottom's wide spread of news and entertainment.

The city paper is called the Bikini Times. It features the regular news, as well as daily comics. One of the comics is called The Wisenheimers. There is another newspaper that is called the Bikini Bottom Inquirer, which is a parody of The National Inquirer.



There are five radio stations in Bikini Bottom, which are called WH20 hosted by Alba Corey, "The Tuneful Tuna", KRUM (top 40 music)[15], KOLD (K-Old, your all-oldies station) and K-BLUB[16]. There also appears to be boy bands and rock bands; the first being "Boys Who Cry" that Pearl enjoys and "Stingray 5000" that Patrick happily found in the dumpster, and "Ned and the Needlefish", who appear in "Wigstruck".



Events
Every year Bikini Bottom has the Fry Cook Games (a spoof of the Olympic Games but with fast food). The Fry Cook Games are held at Bikini Bottom's Fast Food Coliseum. The first annual competition was held in 1980. Eugene H. Krabs and Sheldon J. Plankton went head to head against each other until the 21st Fry Cook Games in 2001. There, The Krusty Krab was represented by SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Chum Bucket was represented by Patrick Star. In the 21st Fry Cook Games, there were 8 events (The chocolate high dive, bun toss, butter skating, giant ketchup bottle toss, hurdles, while carrying platters, riding giant spatulas and samba dancing). The tie breaker was bun wrestling. The winner was never determined.[17]
The Great Snail Race is an annual race between snails at Oyster Stadium, which is located in the Bikini Bottom Zoo. At the pre-game ceremony, of the 102nd Running of the Snail, Lightning Larry Luciano (The winner of the first race) lights the Torch of Good Sportsmanship (although very slowly). After the torch is lit, the games begin. The first snail to make it across the finish line, wins. The result of the 102nd race ended with Rocky (won by default, owned by Patrick Star, actually a Pet Rock) in first place, Snellie (owned by Squidward Tentacles) in second place, and Gary (disqualified, owned by SpongeBob SquarePants) in last place, disqualified due to the coach running on to the race track. Patrick had the trophy engraved to Squidward Tortellini (mistaken for Squidward Tentacles), because he had wanted to win very badly.[18]
The Anchor Toss Competition is a contest of strong ocean dwellers tossing a large anchor on a 510+ yard field. A referee goes and measures the distance between the tosser and the anchor, but is constantly hit by it. SpongeBob was part of the contest, along with Sandy Cheeks, Don the Whale, and Larry the Lobster.

Krusty Krab
The Krusty Krab, owned by Mr. Eugene H. Krabs, is the most popular restaurant in Bikini Bottom. It usually has two employees: SpongeBob SquarePants, the restaurant's fry cook, and Squidward Tentacles, the restaurant's cashier. Both employees have difficulties with working together: Squidward hates SpongeBob, and SpongeBob in turn exacerbates the situation by remaining completely naive toward Squidward's spiteful attitude. The restaurant's menu consists of the usual fast-food products, with its specialty being Krabby Patties, similar to hamburgers in appearance. Plankton, the owner of the Krusty Krab's rival restaurant, The Chum Bucket, is always trying to find out the mystery ingredients for the Krabby patty formula.

Like many buildings in the show, the Krusty Krab does not have a specific floor plan. In most episodes, however, the restaurant includes the main dining room with doors leading to Mr. Krabs' office, a kitchen, and a restroom The building's design is based on a New England lobster trap. In the front, the Krusty Krab has a parking area, even though cars are usually not seen in it. In the back of the Krusty Krab, a dumpster is seen in most episodes. The Krusty Krab is open most days from 8:00 am until 6:00 pm, and is closed on Sunday.

The food served at the Krusty Krab consists of its specialty, the world-famous Krabby Patty burgers, as well as a host of other meals off the Galley Grub, with food ranging from Kelp Fries to Coral Bits to Dr. Kelp (derived from the Dr Pepper soft drink) and more, including Silly Meals. This is enough evidence that the menu is similar to that of Checkers Drive-In, McDonald's or Burger King/Hungry Jack's. They have also sold pizzas ("Pizza Delivery") and a once-free salad bar (now $1) at times. The Krusty Krab menu is always featured differently in different episodes.


PS.1. Και να μην ξεχνιόμαστε:
PS.2. Κατάφερα και δημιούργησα post μεγαλύτερο απο του Priest!