Solar panels right around the lunar equator? Space hotels? Well, I was a little sceptical about these dreamy futuristic plans when I read about them on a hooey pseudoscience site. So I went to the source, Shimizu Corporation of Japan. I was even more sceptical when I noticed that the company’s March 2010 balance sheets were only showing assets in the few millions.

Then I noticed they were using units of MILLIONS OF YEN. Add to that the fact that they appear to have built large numbers of cutting-edge mega-projects all over the world, including some gorgeous record-breaking bridges in Asia, for example.

So, are we going up? Dang it, did I get born 50 years too early? I mean, it was really cool to usher in the computer age and all, but I want to go up!