I would totally eat that—tortellini and spinach boiled in an electric kettle, followed by ciabatta bread baked on a clothes iron. Mmm mmm good. [George Egg via Consumerist]

Taste Test is our weeklong tribute to the leaps that occur when technology meets cuisine, spanning everything from the historic breakthroughs that made food tastier and safer to the Earl-Grey-friendly replicators we impatiently await in the future.

According to BldgBlog, approximately 4,000 oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico will be decommissioned within the next century. Morris proposed to convert this space into exclusive, self-sufficient eco-friendly, high-end resort islands off the Gulf of Mexico, dubbing it our very own American Dubai, as you can tell from the yacht parking lot seen in the gallery below.

Currently, the method of removing these sorts of oil rigs would be to blow them up, which would cost millions of dollars and would kill a ton of sea life in the process. With a deck of each oil rig at 20,000 square feet, that creates about 80 million square feet of usable space. One reason this proposal is cheaper than blasting is that the rooms themselves are efficiently shipped out on big tankers and installed by stacking and sliding open, Transformers-style:

[BldgBlog]

The hotel, called the Harmon, was just essentially "kneecapped." What did they do, take an X-acto knife across the blueprints? You have to wonder what Foster thinks of all this. [LasVegasSun via BLDGBLOG]

The small beach will protect guests' precious feet by piping cold air through a series of tubes underneath the sand, which will suck enough heat from the blistering surface to offset the beaming sun and 110F temperatures. A system of computers and thermostats will monitor and adjust the system.

Hotel proprietor Soheil Abedian, who holds the uniquely Dubaian job title of "Guy Who Takes Wild Guesses at What Very Rich People Might Pay For", had this to say about his project:

We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on. This is the kind of luxury that top people want.

Top people! I can only assume that this means the hotel's patronage will be strictly limited to previous winners of Top Chef and/or America's Next Top Model. The hotel is set to open next year, or possible in early 2010. [Daily Mail]

So The Algonquin offers a complimentary Kindle "loaded with your favorite book" during the duration of your stay at the hotel. Just as I've found iPod alarm clocks to be, somewhat surprisingly, pretty handy when I travel, a Kindle preloaded with something decent for me to read sounds pretty great, too.

I stayed at a place recently with an Xbox 360 hooked up to an HDTV over an SD cord. It had no games and couldn't connect to the internet. What a tease! I had to leave the room to do stuff and everything. [The Algonquin via Engadget and Image]

Currently, the Albilmo temporary housing units are being rented out to customers in European countries only—but the idea seems to be catching on, so I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising individual tried their hand at setting something similar up in the States. [Abilmo via Cool Hunting via io9]

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1. Hotel Sax, Chicago
Sixth floor Studio is a room open for guests from 4pm to midnight which is "powered by Microsoft," meaning it has XBox 360 with the best games, Windows Media Center HDTV and Zunes a go-go.

2. Hotel Avante, Mountain View
Near Google's HQ, the Avante is nothing fancy but includes a bunch of random stuff in every room, like Etch-a-Sketch, a Rubik's cube, a deck of cards, a slinky, tape and scissors. For some reason.

3. Westin, Sydney
Nothing special about this one, except it's a five star and they probably will kick your ass if you try to break into the walls to escape room service's tips.

More geeky hotels at the link. [Hotel Chatter]

The Snow Room was developed by MNK—a company that has made a name for themselves developing saunas. While the idea does seem strange, it appears that hot/cold therapy is common in northern European countries. So the idea of sitting in what is essentially a meat locker for relaxation (and to watch your penis die) may not be so far fetched after all. [Trendhunter via DVICE]

Among them are various Marriott properties, Andre Balazs properties, Jeff Klein hotels and even Holiday Inn hotels. The budget lines like Holiday Inn are used to giving up free stuff like breakfast and Wi-Fi in order to compete. Head on over to see the entire list. – Jason Chen

Best WiFi Hotels 2007 [Hotelchatter]

I think the most interesting fact is The Hotel Royal in Munich that actually used Xbox consoles running Linux as the room set-top boxes. Damn, that is really geeky. Hit the link below to get all of the details on the top geeky hotels in the world, including a video tour of the Tribeca. –Travis Hudson

Best Geek Hotels in the World [HotelChatter]

Marriott Rooms Plug in to HDTV [Crave]

Costing nearly $590 million to build, the 220-suite hotel should be completed in December. I don't know about you guys, but every movie I've seen about people living underwater ends with aliens arriving or a giant squid attacking or the Russians shooting off a nuke or something. I'll stick to staying on dry land, thanks. –Adam Frucci

Hydropolis Underwater Hotel [via Neatorama]

Mariott testing smartphone-based hotel check-ins [MobileMag]

This could be a pretty good idea for the customers, but you better keep track of your minutes while Ueno has your phone. I can imagine the headline now: "Sheraton Hotel GM fired after using customer's phones to rack up $3 million worth of phone charges to a Taiwanese sex line." – Travis Hudson

Hotel: Put that 'CrackBerry' down, you addict! [CNN]

The Charles Hotel is in Harvard Square and apparently installed these special in-mirror televisions for their esteemed guests. This means you can watch Katie while washing, brushing your teeth, or shaving your junk.

Katie Couric in a Charles Hotel Bathroom [HotelChatter]

You Shall Never Be Without HDTV Again [HotelChatter]

Although the list is politely written, there are some surprises on it. Marriott Flagship is at the top for its inconsistency across its Residence Inn, Courtyard and other brands, not just for the bad quality of the connection but also the user-unfriendliness of it all. The Kor Hotel Group is second in line for bottom honors and then the big surprise, there sits that king of the boutiques, W Hotels in third place in this rogue's gallery. Read 'em and weep, innkeepers, and maybe fix things up for next year.

Worst WiFi Hotels 2006 [HotelChatter]

Best WiFi Hotels [HotelChatter]