The Mirage today welcomed its newest addition to Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat - six-week-old white, white-striped and golden tiger cubs. The public will get its first chance to see these rare and adorable cubs in a special nursery created for them in the Secret Garden Friday, June 13, 2008, which happens to be Siegfried’s 69th birthday.

The Mirage welcomes tiger cubs to Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat

The Palazzo Las Vegas, a Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) property, announced that the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) made its “green” status official with the presentation of a Silver LEED(R) Certificate (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) at an award ceremony held today. Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons and David E. Rodgers, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency at the U.S. Department of Energy were also on-hand to honor this impressive accomplishment.

The Palazzo employs such effective environmentally-efficient technologies that it conserves enough water to provide each Nevada citizen with 266 eight-ounce glasses of water for a year and saves enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for 12,100 years. It even promotes alternative modes of transportation by offering valet parking-for bicycles. Key features that contribute to The Palazzo’s tremendous conservation include:

– Artificial turf, drip irrigation and moisture sensors in planted areas

result in over a 75% reduction in irrigation needs.

– Swimming pools at The Palazzo are heated with an expansive solar pool

heating system. In the summer, the excess solar energy not needed for

the pools is directed to the hotel’s hot water system, reducing the

need to heat water for guest suites.

– Air conditioning controls in guest suites that automatically setback by

several degrees when guests are not present and reset to the desired

temperature upon return.

– Team member service areas equipped with lighting occupancy sensors that

shut off lights when no one is in the area.

– Interior plumbing fixtures use 37% less water than conventional

buildings as a result of water-efficient showerheads, high efficiency

toilets and low-flow lavatory faucet aerators.

– Moisture sensors monitor real time, site specific air temperature,

humidity, rainfall and other factors to provide daily watering cycle

adjustment.

– A waste recycling program implemented from demolition through

completion diverted over 70% of waste from the landfill.

– The building’s structural steel averaged 95% recycled content, while

the concrete averaged a 26% recycled content rate.

The Palazzo Las Vegas Named Largest ‘Green’ Building in the World

Universal Studios is about to build a new signature ride: a high-tech roller coaster full of lights, music, loops, twists and turns — and a quick trip over the heads of people walking through the nearby CityWalk entertainment district.

The Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit is planned to be big, bright and brash enough to become the new visual symbol for the theme park when the coaster opens in about a year. Universal Orlando officials said Tuesday that it also will feature enough digital technology to appeal directly to what they refer to as the “YouTube culture.”

Universal Orlando officials said the coaster will rise 167 feet into the air and feature numerous loops and corkscrew turns. Rockit — the first big, outdoor thrill ride for Universal Studios — is set to open in spring 2009.

I shuddered when I read the part about the “YouTube culture”, I can just imagine how the planning meeting went.

“What’s hip to the kids these days?”

“My daughter is into this Youtube-thing.”

“Great! Work that into a ride somehow.”

New ‘Rockit’ high-tech roller coaster coming to Universal Studios Orlando in 2009

Thanks to the magic of Youtube (w00t Youtube!), I got to see the only part of the Grammy’s I was interested in. The show was highlighted by a brief performance of the Beatles “A Day in the Life” from the Cirque du Soleil show “Love” shown in the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas. The Grammy’s version of the Cirque show didn’t really capture how absolutely wonderful the Las Vegas version is.
My wife and I got to see “Love” on it’s first “test” night, completely by luck (well actually it was due to the ineptitude of Frontier airlines). Two weeks prior to our vacation Frontier notified us that our Friday flight had been bumped to the next morning. We went into frantic mode because we generally don’t stay in Vegas over the weekend due to the extreme bounces in hotel prices (or in our case our hotel was sold out for that night). After finding a suitable replacement, I discovered that the first ever public showing of “Love” was going to be going on that Friday, and surprisingly I was able to grab two tickets. So in the end it worked out for the best. To folks heading to Vegas, I can’t say enough about how wonderful this show is, definitely one of the best stage shows I’d ever seen.

Link to the video on Youtube.

(Cross posted over at Brian Kirsten’s Blog)