Knee Replacements Turn Back the Clock for Patients with Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis

A recent study shows that knee replacement surgery may significantly improve pain and leg function in patients with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis (RA), thus improving their quality of life.

The surgery will not restore patients to the same level of comfort and mobility as they had in their younger years, but according to the Arthritis and Rheumatology journal reports that knee replacement can turn back the clock to when patients were less affected by pain.

In a six month study, researchers found, according to senior study author Kaleb Michaud, “The vast majority of patients had their symptoms improve dramatically from the surgery, but this procedure is not a cure – RA patients will continue to need to treat their disease outside of the joint replacement.”

Knee replacement is one of the most common surgeries, with about 720,000 people in the U.S. alone getting this procedure last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Recently, there have been recalls of knee replacement products due to complaints of moisture on the instrumentation.

The surgery is much improved in recent years, with replacement knees made from a patient’s own cells. This replacement, NeoCart, is an investigational cartilage tissue implant to treat certain knee cartilage injuries. The proprietary procedure uses regenerative medicine technology to create hyaline-like cartilage tissue from a patient’s own cells.To generate the NeoCart cartilage tissue implant, a surgeon first obtains a small sample of normal cartilage from a patient’s knee through a minimally invasive arthroscopy, or “knee scope.” This small tissue sample, or biopsy, is then treated and placed under special conditions that allow for cell growth, organization and tissue formation. This allows the patient’s own cells to form a hyaline-like cartilage tissue implant before being returned to the surgeon for implantation.  The implant can be trimmed so that it fits the injury site (like a puzzle piece).

Francois Desmeules, a researcher in rehabilitation at the University of Montreal says, “Surgery can help people with severe pain and disabilities that don’t respond to alternative treatments such as weight loss, exercise, physical therapy and medication for osteoarthritis.”

 

(Image courtesy of Flickr user Kenny Holston, under a Creative Commons license.)

In the Kitchen-Cultural Clashes in Britain

copyright Amy Yi-Mei Chen, 2008

Our kitchen was a battleground for all things British and American. It was

where the eight of us converged every day: four Brits, four Americans, some hung

over, and all hungry.

At first we tripped over each other, literally. Too many people, not enough

space. Our two tiny fridges and freezers couldn’t handle all of our groceries at

once. Eventually we learned to cook in shifts and alternate shopping days. Things

continued to get easier as we Americans began to adopt British habits. We started

drinking tea in copious amounts, fascinated by the swirls we could make on the

surface by adding milk. It never took long to boil the kettle, but it was always a

challenge to remember who took what kind of milk (0.1 percent skimmed, 1.7

percent semi-skimmed or 3.6 percent whole), not to mention who liked sugar and

how much. Even more confusing was when “tea” became more than just the

beverage but also what the Brits called dinner.

Just when buying non-refrigerated eggs became almost normal for us

Americans, we were confronted with the wrath of our British flat-mates for our

failure to purchase free-range products. “Think of the chickens in the cages,” they

told us in their Leeds or Durham accents. (Not to be confused, they always

insisted, with accents from any other regions.) The guilt, we decided, wasn’t worth

the 50 pence we might have saved otherwise.

The cultural differences that surfaced in our kitchen didn’t all revolve

around food. Over tea, I once questioned a British flat-mate as to why Brits

pronounced the letter “Z” as “zede.” “Because we invented the language!” she

haughtily replied. “It’s you who says it wrong.” We Americans were confronted

with similar outrage when questioning our British roommates as to why French

fries were called “chips” and potato chips “crisps.” As the year progressed, I found

it was often better to quietly accept such differences.

Whether gossiping, arguing or just shooting the breeze, life essentially

revolved around our kitchen, complete with its stacks of dirty dishes and arrays of

empty wine bottles. As with all communal living situations, we endured our share

of conflicts and accidents, which often resulted in broken cups or shattered rice

cooker lids. But hey, it could have been worse. At least we had our own

bathrooms.

Fish That Eat Dead Skin

There are those of us who simply cannot live without getting a pedicure. And who can blame them? It’s a jungle out there, you don’t need to be part of the problem by having unsightly talons attached to your feet. But, in our efforts to find the most ‘alien’ way to get a pedicure, we discovered one way that has proven to be a little bit on the fishy side. We are talking about fish that eat dead skin.

Imagine having a school of one inch long fish swarming around your feet and simply nibbling away! The Gurra rufa, or fondly referred to as ‘doctor fish’, have a thing for eating people. Well, the dead skin off their feet anyway. The highly popular and quite frankly, a little strange fish pedicure fetish came up a few years back. This is back when if you weren’t serving your feet to some fish in the name of a pedicure then you weren’t allowed to vote.

A practice that started in the Middle East and the Far East, it found it’s way to the rest of the world and caught on like fish sticks. But it has recently come to light that this way of grooming just might not be as healthy and as chic as we all thought it was.

Why the ‘doctor fish’ might be making you sick

A study conducted by the Centers for Disease (and you know it is serious when these guys get involved) shows that the Gurra rufa species may be transferring some bacteria to their unassuming ‘main course’. Researchers say that the ‘doctor fish’ maybe playing host to colonies of a group of bacteria called ‘Streptococcus agalactiae’. That by itself may not be such a big deal considering the fact that many of us will not know what ‘Streptococcus agalactiae’ is. But they go on to explain further that this particular brand of bacteria can lead to pneumonia, sepsis and meningitis. All conditions that tend to make life a little ‘hectic’ to say the least.

The researchers said that water, the primary address associated with the ‘doctor fish’, is the perfect breeding ground for a host of ill meaning nasties such as bacteria. To add to that, the Gurra rufa have numerous types of bacteria that live on their scales. Further more, they tend to go to the bathroom in that water. Add that the tiny little mouths nibbling away at you and the smallest of cuts may lead to a little more than just another Sunday afternoon with the girls at the spa. You will need to see an actual doctor!

Although, truth be told, these health threats have remained incredibly theoretical, it is still highly advised (by the best doctors on the Planet), that the following people should not go for any of these spa treatments involving fish:

– People with compromised immunity due to HIV/AIDS
– People with medical condition like diabetes
– People with sores or skin cuts
– People who generally do not like getting eaten alive.

It may seem like a fun way to clean your feet but if you are not highly fond of bacteria and taking chances that involve getting bacterial infections, then you might want to steer clear of this kind of pedicure. Oh and if you also have no desire to have fish nibble on your feet…

 

A Nostalgic Look At Technology That is Dead and Gone

[pullquote position=”left”]We live in an age preoccupied with novelty…[/pullquote]

Technology is evolving as such a rapid pace, with everything from disruptive technology to smarter, lighter and more intelligent products that make our lives easier, we take a look back at technology that is still around that you may come to never see again, or maybe you’ve seen this stuff at all! If you’re a millennial that’s probably the case.

Many believe that advances in technology will radically transform society, and we are witness as humans to this shift. We can already see the effects everywhere around us in our day to day lives. Our relationship with technology is an interesting subject. New advances in product innovation and technology push us to adapt to using these new gadgets. New devices and services are replacing things of the past, present and the future (even before products are made) and becoming part of our everyday lives.

With technology evolving at such a high rate, we can’t say for sure what’s around the next corner. When a new high-tech gadget is born, something else will become obsolete. Sometimes, the loss might be a positive thing, but at other times, the product’s extinction or eventual demise may stir some bittersweet or nostalgic emotions.

We live in an age preoccupied with novelty. The adoption of new gadgets is happening faster than ever. For example, we have moved from the launch of tablet computing in the year 2011 to tablets sharing over half of the global market in personal computers in the year 2014.

If you are over 30 years old you will most likely remember all these, yet you may never see them again due to advances of technology that will likely make them extinct either now or in the near future:

VCRs

— they were cutting edge technology just 20 years ago and more than half of all American homes
still have at least one. But they are no longer made and people who still have one never use them anymore.

VCR

Arcade Game Venues

– once a favorite entertainment of geeks, playing video games at an arcade
already began fading away in the mid-1990s. A few arcades survive nowadays, but their days of glory are
long gone. The advent of high-tech gaming systems allows you to enjoy a better gaming experience at home.
Today we can even play on our mobile phones. Arcade games will soon be totally extinct and live only in our memories.

Arcade games

Hard-drives

— running out of space on your hard-drive will become a thing of the past soon. Terabyte
size drives are already selling for affordable prices. But soon the hard drive technology will become totally
extinct and replaced by holographic drives and cloud storage.

hard drive

Floppy disks

– storing data on a floppy disk was once the standard protocol for transferring and storing
data on personal computers. But by today’s file size standards the 1.44 MB of storage seems almost
ridiculous. PCs are not being built with a floppy disk drives anymore these days and the floppy disk is
already nearly extinct.

floppy disks

56k Computer Modems

– once hearing the sound of a modem connecting was the sign of getting Internet
access. Today, in the age of high speed Internet, 56k modems have become nearly extinct.

56k-modem

Polaroid Cameras

— Polaroid will soon stop selling its instant film. All film-based cameras will be soon
completely gone, as well digital cameras are everywhere and provide many more advantages.

polaroid

Typewriters

— The traditional typewriter is already nearly extinct, being replaced by computers, word
processing software and keyboards.

typewriter

Printers

The dot matrix printer, born in the 1970s, delivered low-quality printouts before
laser and inkjet technology took over the market. It will be soon a thing of the past, with its slow and noisy
operation, frequent paper jams, and general faults no one can or be bothered to figure out – and its thin strips of perforated paper.

lexmark_printer-11402107

Answering Machines

Most people are using now dial-in voice mail instead of the answering machines.

answering machine

Calculator Watches

— one a favorite gadget of nerds, the calculator watch is nearly extinct today. It was
replaced by phone watches.

calculator-watch

Public Phone Booths or Pay Phones

— in an age of mobile phones public phone booths are on life support.

relic

Dial Phones

— the ease of the touchtone dial has made rotary phones virtually deceased.

1960s-Northern-Electric-dial-phone

Mobile Phones for Cars

— the early mobile phones were installed in people’s cars. The spread of mobile
phone technology lead to the extinction of mobile phones attached to cars.

car phone

Laser Discs for Movies

— this technology is definitely obsolete now.

laser disc

Car Cigarette Lighters

— most automobile manufacturers are dedicating ports to electronics charging
instead of the classic cigarette lighter.

car lighter

Incandescent Light Bulbs

— more and more people are using instead energy saving, ecologic friendly
bulbs.

incandescent bulb

CRT TV’s and Monitors

The huge and wieldy TV’s and monitors of the past are most likely now to be seen on the side of a road or in a dumpster somewhere.

tv side of road

 

Audio Cassettes

— the life of the cassette is over in the era of mp3 players and smartphones.

cassette

Hardcover Books

— in our age of increased interest for ecologic-friendly technologies the hardcover
printed books might be close to their end. They are being replaced by digital versions that are easy to read on mobile
devices such as Kindle. Thousands of bookstores have closed in the past decade, victims of Kindle, Apple,
and Amazon readers. In ten years’ time it’s possible that all reading will be done via digital means.

hardcover book

Carbon Copy Paper

– with printers now able to scan and copy, you don’t see the old-fashioned carbon
copy paper so often anymore.

carbon copy paper

Fax Machines

— today the fax machines are nearly extinct, since most documents are now created on
computers and easy to attach and send by email.

fax

Clock Radios

— Replaced by smartphones.

clock radio

DVD players, Blu Ray players

– these will be soon become extinct, being replaced by streaming video. In
the near future new technology will allow us to enjoy 3D and holographic movies.

dvd

Stand-alone GPS devices

— since the car’s infotainment system or your smartphone does the same
thing, the stand alone GPS device is a thing of the past.

gps

Desktop Computer

— once considered a revolutionary gadget, desktop computers are becoming extinct,
being replaced by laptops, netbooks, and tablet PCs. Computing is going mobile and in the near future we’re
going to see a wide range of handheld computing devices.

desktop pc

It’s obvious that some of the items enumerated are already nearly extinct, available for sentimental viewing in museums or to buy at thrift stores, or on some huge landfill in China, all we know, or will come to know will be extinct before its new, as technology rates increase.

Are We Living Inside a Holographic Universe?

The universe and its entirety is astronomically endless and infinite. This reality, we often experience is it real in essence? Some people think we exist in different dimensions. Or probably the thing we call reality isn’t reality at all, only a dream.  Other people also think that we exist in an illusion or even a dream, according to scientists in the 20th century, some well learned men believed as such. Today, some scientists hypothesize that we are inside a box of energy. Everything is non-existent in a Holographic Universe, these are just but dreams not mere reality. The universe is a consciousness more like a hologram. The reality that we know now is a mere illusion within that hologram. A hologram is composed of and also linked through a grid or a web and is based on patterns. It has its beginnings and it also has an end. If the grid of the hologram is destroyed then it will mark the end. Some common examples of this in modern society is the movie The Matrix.

There’s what you call the “Holographic principle”, the idea is that the universe that has gravity could create certain dimension patterns. Quantum field theory has been used for many years as a mathematical tool in certain curved spaces. This new principle suggests that the holographic principle is possible in flat spaces. Many scholars want to challenge the theory, saying that mathematical descriptions of the universe are quite complex. There are results obtained by scientists at TU Wien in Vienna, suggesting that the holographic principle can be possible only in a flat space-time.

Our world is not run by artificial intelligence or by a supercomputer like in sci-fi movies. But these scientific fiction films bear a striking resemblance to digital simulations, according to Jim Elvidge. He has a lot of experience in this field and has worked on cutting-edge technology for decades. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University, he has multiple patents in digital signal processing. He also published papers about “remote sensing” and other related topics. His theory suggests that we may “live” or we may be “living” in a computer program. And that most things we touch are empty spaces, thus our senses deceive us.

A number of scientists believe and regard nature as a computer like binary code. The Laws of nature is a perfect example for that. We must be very observant with our surroundings. Nature is indeed mysterious and powerful. Just like the laws governing the universe, nothing can stop its function. A group of physicists provided some of the clearest evidence that it could be just a projection. However, theoretical physicist Juan Maldacena proposes that the model of the Universe in which gravity arises is thin and can be interpreted by using vibrating strings, done correctly by well established physics. These mathematically interpreted “strings” which consists of nine dimensions will be the “Hologram” of which its functions are properly out in a simpler, flatter cosmos where there is no gravity. This means that one can create a hologram by these measures. Overall, it’s just a theory of one mind, there are lots of possibilities.

The universe may become a giant brain, more likely so with a computer that mimics reality. The results of fundamental laws may govern growth or provide the brain functions that can exercise wave patterns and ideas that can possibly create a dimension or hologram. The growth of social networks is like the expansion of one universe or galaxy.  Computer simulation destroyed the early universe into the tiniest possible units. More like, the quanta of space-time is more miniscule than subatomic particles. Nothing travels faster than light, so if somebody hits a baseball from the world, the ripple effects of that event will never be able to get or reach a distant part of the galaxy in a reasonable amount of time. This mean that those two regions of space and time aren’t casually related.

People believe or may not believe the Holographic Universe theory but there’s no harm on having an open mind. There are a lot of modern scientists who are looking for answers, and some of them have their own theories, of which these theories in some essence do make sense. So again, it is up for you to decide. Do we really live in reality or is this just a simulation of the universe? Only time will tell.

Cyborg Implants And The Rise Of The Human Cyborgs

In the late 1970’s people watched a science fiction film created by Martin Caidin entitled ‘Cyborg’. It featured how an individual lost an arm and a limb but was immediately replaced with mechanical prosthetics using cyber technology. These bionic replacements were stronger and powerful than the original replaced extremities.

Inspired with this new fictional concept, it was made into a TV series where people got glued to watch ‘The Six Million Dollar Man”. The ‘Bionic Woman’ was a spin-off of the former. Today, nobody would ever think, even in his wildest dreams that cyber fiction on lost organs and limbs can now be a reality, that is, actual restoration through cyborg implants. Sutherland, W. (2009) explained that “the term cyborg was initially coined by NASA scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline in 1960 when they discussed hypothetical advantages of human-machines in space.

Today, cyborg implants are real. They are part- machine, part- biological organism which can be used for medical and scientific purposes to include military/ law/ intelligence enforcement purposes. When it comes to modern medical technology, there were significant medical breakthroughs intended to improve patient care, deliver longer life expectancy and the right quality of life. The expectations in this field go over and beyond. For example, Divorsky, G. (2012) discusses the recent breakthrough on powering implants in the brain: “MIT engineers have developed a fuel cell that can run on your brain’s own glucose_ a breakthrough that could result in powerful neural prosthetics that could restore and control a number of bodily functions”. According to SCImago Journal and County Rank Journal (2013),

“You can now find cyborg implants being used in each body organ of the human body. Most likely, medical implants must be accompanied with biomechanical features as good as those of tissues arising from within without any adverse effects. Studies of the long-term effects of medical implants in very human anatomical site must be carefully calculated in order to ensure accuracy, safety and effective performance of the implants”. Nowadays, surgery cyborg implants demand an interdisciplinary cooperation of a number of qualified and exceptional consultants. A good example is the successful cochlear implants that required the involvement of audio specialists, medical audio experts, speech and language teachers, and other professions involved with repairing and curing hearing-impaired and deaf individuals”.

Taking up several challenges ahead and in quest for effective and sustainable solutions, cyber research technology is now into laser and advanced implant systems, complemented with thermo-fluid dynamics, mechanics, nanoelectronics, metrology and numeric simulation to bioprocess, biomechanics, other variant bio-systems.

Believe it or not but the following individuals were benefitted from the cyber research technology through cyborg implants. Nelson, B. (2013) presents a few out of the seven recorded actual cyborg patients who benefitted from Cybernetics.
“One is Neil Harbisson was born with extreme color blindness. Equipped with a cyborg eye, he now is adapted to a device implanted in his brain that renders perception of colors as sound on a musical scale. This device allows Harbisson to ‘hear’ a color. Next is Kevin Warwick, a Professor in a University in United Kingdom. Using himself as guinea pig, he experimented by inserting microchips in his arm to perform several functions that allowed him to operate a heater, doors and light.

Nelson, B. (2013) continues by explaining that “Cyber technology is most immediately helpful for amputees like Jesse Sullivan. Sullivan was equipped with new robotic limbs, connected to his nervous systems, capable of functioning like normal limbs. Lastly, Jens Naumann was struck with both blind eyes. He became the first recipient of an artificial vision system which is connected directly to his visual cortex through brain implants”.
All these real-life cyborg individuals volunteered to become cyborg, half-man, half machines. All of them are said to be inspiring harbingers of the future. At least none of them were converted as “Terminators”_ at least not for the time being.

The future is here. Cyborg implants as major component s of Cyborg technology or Cybernetics have already made several steps of advancement to a point where it is now safe to say that bionic humans are no longer stuff of science fiction. All individuals who subject themselves to become recipients of cyborg technology are said to be inspiring harbingers of the future. At least, none of them function as “Terminators” for the time being.
What holds Cyborg technology in the future? Cybernetics will continue to provide more freedom and improve life to quadriplegics, the blind imprisoned in their world of darkness, the deaf and other people who will seamlessly need synthetic replacement parts that will gain widespread acceptance and use. However, there is the trepidation that the cyborg technology will hopefully not be used to control human mind unethically or that will violate human rights.

Vertigo Inducing Surreal Cliff Concept House in Australia

[intro]After a couple asked for a concept home to be designed along “extreme parcels” of coastline in Victoria Australia Modscape got to work…[/intro]

bond villain house

Australian modular architects and home designers Modscape have devised a futuristic looking concept home which is designed to resemble a barnacle attached to a ship’s hull, that seemingly defies physics by being suspended off the side of a cliff in Australia. With a certain Bond villain look, the home hangs rather precariously with the ocean beckoning below. It pushes their use of modular home design concepts and technologies to new levels by anchoring itself to the side of a cliff by way of engineered steel pins and was built in a modular fashion level by level.

The cliff concept home has three bedrooms, a living area, kitchen, and gigantic floor-to-ceiling windows that display breathtaking (or vertigo-inducing) views of the horizon and ocean beneath. There were obvious design challenges such as how to hang the house off the side of the cliff, but also how to transport the owner through the home’s five levels. The upper level houses the entrance and carport and the owner is then transported through all five levels by way of a elevator with the lower level dedicated to a fully outdoor BBQ and spa.

inside cliff home

cliff home

 

Songdo City – Why its the Smartest City in the World

[intro]Some have dubbed it as “The World’s Smartest City”, while others call it “The City of the Future” and “Korea’s High-Tech Utopia”. It has also been called “A City in the Box” because of its massive reliance on technology. Built on a reclaimed sea-land, Songdo International Business District has been dubbed as the world’s smartest and greenest city, with tall and beautifully designed buildings planned around a 100-acre central park and about 40% of the total space accounting for green spaces around the city. The city’s developers call it the smart city or future city.[/intro]

In 2000, the area around which the city is built on was just a marshy stretch of mudflats in the Yellow Sea and a home to a number of fishermen. No one would ever have imagined that years later, the land that many people saw as unproductive would emerge to become one of the most beautiful technological real estate developments in the world. What’s even more impressive about this city is that it was developed from scratch, unlike many cities. The Songdo project was started approximately 20 years ago as the construction of Incheon International Airport began. The airport is located 35 miles west of Seoul, the capital of Korea.

The Korean government had several things in mind. First, any smart city is a big attraction to many foreigners and business investors and true to this, the city has managed to lure foreign business, which is a huge economic leap. Secondly, the government hoped to build a city that would demonstrate Korea’s unique technological prowess. The developers envisioned that Songdo would grow into a global Asian city like Singapore and Hong Kong. Even though most cities around the world try to make themselves “smarter”, Songdo’s beauty and functionality is exceptional.

So, What Makes Songdo the Smartest City in the World?

A city that has been built from scratch in a country that uses advanced technology in construction is definitely unique. You can imagine why the city is not only the smartest, but also is one of the high-tech capitals in the world. Here is a brief description of the city that will leave you astounded.

City Infrastructure

Songdo city owes its super-efficient infrastructure to Korea’s advanced technology, which is amongst the best in the world. To start with the transport system in the city is incredibly coordinated, with well-planned road networks, many transit options (buses, waterways, pedestrian thoroughfares, cycling, trains, subways) with all stations displaying the arrival and departure time on the laser panels, and numerous charging stations for electric trains. It’s also one of the most walkable cities in the world as everything is designed to be reachable in a short time by foot. Surprisingly, it also has the longest subway system in the world. Apart from its cutting-edge infrastructure, Songdo also boasts of its ultra-fast Wi-Fi network. With a city build on a technology base, you can expect a lot more, especially now that Korea has become renowned for its hi-tech industry.

This master-planned metropolis has been recognized as a model of sustainability, innovation, and city-scale development. Designed by a renowned international architectural company, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Songdo city is largely recognized for its innovative building designs which consist of massive retail shops, hotels, office space, residential apartments, as well as cultural and civic facilities. In fact, it’s the only city in the world where all buildings meet the LEED requirements. The 68-storey Northeast Asia Trade Tower stands as Korea’s tallest building and the most advanced corporate center. The Songdo Convensia, an architecturally stunning building operates as Incheon’s primary conventional center and is Korea’s largest column-free interior space. The Incheon’s Arts Center is a cultural complex housing an opera house, concert hall, music conservatory, a library, design school, and the museum of Asian Contemporary Art.

The city consists of public and private schools offering a state-of–art learning environments, public and private healthcare facilities such as the Songdo International City Hospital that boasts of the latest medical diagnosis and various treatment technologies.

The city’s 600-acres of open space including the famous Central Park offer a beautiful relaxation place for those working in the city. With its numerous green spaces around the buildings, the city provides a conducive environment with fresh and clean air.

One feature of the city’s infrastructure that stands out is the city’s waste management system. Forget the common waste disposal methods. The city’s waste disposal is high-tech as all the kitchens are installed with pneumatic trash shoot that funnels waste materials to a central water processing center. The food waste is used for agricultural purposes while the rest of the garbage is recycled. The city’s also uses a powerful central utility that recycles approximately 40% of waste water from all around the city. The city’s infrastructure also incorporates Korea’s powerful technology with high-tech sensors that regulate and monitor temperature, energy consumption, traffic, and every other type of infrastructure running in the city.

As for leisure and shopping, Jack Nicklaus Golf Club, IFEZ Songdo Arts Center, Central Park, Lotte Shopping Town, Sheraton Incheon Hotel, and others are some of the best places to hangout for cultural activities, shopping, and leisure. Other iconic sites include the Gateway Center, the Songdo Convenesia Center, and International Business Square, all in the modern architectural design.

Additionally, Songdo has been identified as one of the most beautiful and affordable places to live in. Forget the boring life in other cities. Songdo has it all. For city lovers, there are numerous charming garden residences with over 22, 500 housing units, state-of-the-art high-rise apartments, sleek low-rise loft spaces in the Songdo Canal Walk, and beautiful penthouses with crystal clear views of the Yellow Sea and the Incheon Bridge – all connected to the city’s unending supply of water, energy, and the efficient waste collection facilities.

Unlike what many people think, Songdo is more than just a high-tech district with sleek building designs and technologically controlled facilities. There is much more to business investments and the economical development. The city was specifically designed to appeal to the foreign investors especially with its dense network frame, green spaces for extra luxury, and its efficient infrastructure.

With billions of dollars invested in its construction, Songdo is expected to become Northeast Asia’s hub for business, culture, and leisure.