Dirty, noisy and unbelievably expensive, London is a vast cosmopolitan melting pot of people, ideas and energy. There's not so much a buzz about the place as a deafening roar, and somewhere behind the incessant bustle is 2,000 years of history struggling to be heard.

It's a cliché to describe London as a collection of villages, but historically that's exactly what it is. From its origins in the area today known as "the City", the capital expanded over the centuries to include the surrounding areas, each of which maintain their own distinctive character.

There's genteel Notting Hill with its cafés and boutiques; the trendy media enclave of Soho, all restaurants and bars; the village-like charm of Highgate; the old money of Kensington and Knightsbridge; and the arts-scene cool of Hoxton and Shoreditch.

And there's much more besides; from the East End of mythical chirpy cockneys to the leafy suburbs south of the river, the sheer size of the city can be overwhelming.

Architecturally, the city is a hodge-podge of styles, the consequence of the city's evolution over millennia and its being razed twice, first by the Great Fire of 1666, which destroyed some 80 percent of the capital, and then by the bombs of World War II, which left as much as a third of the City and the East End in ruins.

Now Christopher Wren's seventeenth-century landmarks share space with 1960s brutalist statements like the Hayward Gallery and contemporary showstoppers such as the sparkling Swiss
Re tower, known to Londoners as "The Gherkin."

But more than simply being a city of buildings and neighborhoods, London is fueled by an ideas economy: it's often described as the financial capital of the world; is at the cutting edge of new media; and is a major exporter of art, literature and fashion. Then there's Londoners' compulsive desire to invent and re-invent musical genres, with the city giving birth to the urban sounds of drum n' bass, garage, grime and dubstep.

Above all, it's a city of movement. People from all over Britain, and indeed, all over the world, move to London to pursue their dreams, while many Londoners grumble about leaving in search of a quiet life. Despite its long history, it can seem a transient place, with no fixed identity. But that transience is its greatest strength. It is the constant influx of new ideas and fresh energy that makes London such an endlessly fascinating city.

Japan's economy shrank at a 3 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, the government said Friday in a lowered revision of an already pessimistic reading for the world's secondbiggest economy.

Fears about a global downturn have been growing amid soaring prices of gas, steel, food and other goods. Signs of a slowdown in the U.S., Japan's major trading partner, have added to the worries.

Tatsushi Shikano, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co. in Tokyo, said the pessimistic revision had been expected, given recent indicators that show declines in corporate investments, exports and consumer spending.

"Our view of a weak economy was once again confirmed," he said.

The economy was expected to stay sluggish for the next few months, staying flat at best, and may continue to contract, Shikano said.

The Cabinet office reported Japan's gross domestic product -- a measure of the value of its goods and services -- contracted 0.7 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter.

That was steeper than the 0.6 percent contraction given in a preliminary report released August. For the annual rate, Japan had said the economy contracted 2.4 percent in its earlier report.

Since the "bubble" economy of overspending burst in the 1990s, Japan had been eking out moderate growth in recent years.

But some Japanese officials are now seriously worried about a possible recession because of emerging risks largely outside Japan's control.

The lagging economy is expected to be a key issue in the ongoing campaign to find a new prime minister after Yasuo Fukuda abruptly announced his resignation earlier this month.

The ruling party is selecting its new leader later this month among five candidates. Partly because of the growing worries about the economy, former Foreign Minister Taro Aso, who is promising more stimulus spending to wrest Japan out of its doldrums, is widely viewed as the likely victor.

The city plans to turn the stench of its residents' waste into sweet green cash and renewable energy.

The San Antonio Water System will sell captured methane gas generated from the utility's treatment of 140,000 tons of biosolids, or sewage, from customers each year.

The city-owned utility's board of trustees approved a contract Tuesday to provide at least 900,000 cubic feet of natural gas daily for the next 20 years to Ameresco Inc., a Framingham, Massachusetts-based energy services company.

"Treating these biosolids generates an average of 1.5 million cubic feet of gas a day," said Steve Clouse, the water system's chief operating officer. "That's enough gas to fill seven commercial blimps or 1,250 tanker trucks each day."

The utility already sells for reuse a portion of the water that's cleaned at its wastewater treatment plants. It also converts some biosolids into compost that's sold for use in yards and gardens.

The creators are billing it as one of the coolest hostels in the world and it's undoubtedly one of the most novel overnight stays you are ever likely to experience. Welcome to the Jumbo Hostel -- an old Boeing 747 which is being converted into a 25-room hostel at the Stockholm-Arlanda airport.

Renovation work is underway on a plane which used to carry in excess of 350 passengers. Jumbo Hostel is scheduled to open for business in December 2008 and will provide accommodation for up to 85 guests.

CNN spoke to Dios about how he got the project off the ground. "We were looking to expand the business but it was more or less impossible to find reasonably priced housing at the airport. And you cannot build a new house and run a hostel because it is too expensive," he said.

It was in 2006 that Dios first heard about the Boeing 747, which had come up for sale. Formerly flown by the now defunct Transjet Airways, the plane was wasting away in a hangar at Arlanda airport and hadn't flown since 2002.

"The plane was in a terrible state when we first saw it," he said. "But we contacted the owners and gave them a fairly good offer, I think."

Although he wasn't prepared to let on exactly how much he paid for the old Boeing, Dios confirmed that the price tag was a six-figure sum (in euros).

Dios took possession of the 1976 Boeing 747-200 -- one of 393 built by the company until 1991 -- in June 2007 and by December he had reached agreement with the airport authorities about his unique proposal.

In August 2008 the plane was finally moved to its permanent home at Arlanda airport's main entrance, where it will now stay.

Apart from the engines being removed from the wings before purchase, the plane, from the outside, looks almost exactly as it did when it was grounded.

The interior, for obvious reasons, is a different matter. Dismantling and stripping out all the old equipment and instruments started earlier this year. The final phase of refurbishment is nearing completion and Dios says it complies with the same building regulations required for a house.

There will be two types of accommodation. A basic room will be roughly six square meters in size with sleeping space for three adults. It will cost €110 ($150) per night.

But if you fancy splashing out, you can book the top deck, complete with the cockpit suite, which comes with a private bathroom and panoramic views of takeoffs and landings. Dios envisages newlyweds taking advantage of this more expensive option, which costs €500 ($700).

If you don't want to spend a whole night on board you can hop on and relax in the cafe suite for a couple of hours at a cost of €25 ($35). This will also afford you the opportunity of striding out onto the wing and taking in the views of the bustling airport.

People around the world who are unable to visit Ground Zero and pay their respects to September 11 victims can still find solace in contacting others through the technological wonders of their home computers. Especially if they're willing to venture into a virtual world.

A series of September 11 memorial events in Second Life, a virtual world run over the Internet, were created to give visitors the ability to connect with others scattered around the country and world.

Second Life is a massive 3-D environment -- a sort of parallel universe that runs on computers -- where people can create a unique identity, buy virtual land and even make and spend money from real life.

Over a 24-hour period on September 11, 2008, a variety of events took place including speeches, victim name readings, memorial dedications and tribute performances.

For some who lost friends or loved ones in the attacks, the memorials serve as a way of visually experiencing and coming to grips with Ground Zero and other sites. Some of the virtual memorials also allow people to talk to each other in real time.

A Second Life iReporter using the name Vickie Maidstone sent updates on several virtual memorials to iReport.com