People, technology and great ideas: 2009

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Bund Tourist Tunnel - The Most Impressive Bund Sightseeing Tunnel in Shanghai

Tourist Tunnel is perhaps the most interesting activities that can be found all over Shanghai. Its psychedelic light show will make you groan, but this is exactly what makes it so funny. Kids love it, adults quite puzzled his strangeness. Nevertheless, it remains the great way to get across the river from the Podung side to the Bund. The good thing is that it is very convenient, the entrance is right by the bund and it leaves you just a block away from the oriental pearl tower. The entrance can be a little difficult to find. On the West bank of the river at the northern end of the Bund, you will see a sign for him over the stairs that go under the street. On the eastern side of the river, you will find the tourist tunnel entrance in front of the entrance door to the convention center hotel (Riverside building shaped as a globe).
The two trip ticket is a lot cheaper than a one way. The ride goes slowly so you don't need to even sit down. The accompanying light show is part Disney, part psychedelic, complete with flashing strobes, blowing tinsel, and swirling hallucinogenic images projected on the concrete walls. The five-minute ride will make your head spin.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Wooden Large Hadron Collider by N.Polissky

Nikolay Polissky is the only land-artist in modern Russian Art. Starting 2000th he was creating most his works in the settlement Nikola Lenivets, Russia, four hours from Moscow. His art may be called Utopian, both in art and social sense. And moreover, this Utopia is materialized Utopia. In social determination, Polissky succeeded in reviving and depicting a semi-abandoned village, with help of Art turning it into a real cultural center (an international festival of landscape architecture “ArchStoyanie” has been passing here since 2003) and making its inhabitants real participants of a constructive process.

"Large Hadron Collider" is a work from a new project, made-up by Nikolay Polissky. Now the unpuddled mirror of people's conscience must reflect not classic inheritance of the World Architecture, but the latest scientific achievements. Strictly speaking, there was a work of this kind by Polissky – “Baykonur”, 2005: a huge installation consisting of models of rockets and launching systems entwined of twig. First exhibited in the yard of the Tretyakov’s gallery during the First Moscow Biennale of Modern Art, this installation was then transferred to Nikola Lenivets, where later it was burnt in the course of traditional Shrovetide fest. It was already there when science could have been read through prism of ritual and magic. Flame made the interlink between space rockets and their twigged copies. And the outflow to extraterrestrial space turned into burning bringing to memory funeral pyres that provide the dead to pass to the afterworld.

The "Hadron Collider" by Polissky and his co-authors, first of all interests with that half-mystical aureole mantling modern science. Contemporary scientists for Polissky are kind of oracles, privy to secrets of universe hidden for ordinary people, and maybe even capable to influence forces ruling the world. And that is not that far from truth: few of us can really explain how the Large Hadron Collider is constructed and what purposes it serves. Scientific world view, same as magical or religious world view may only be taken for granted. The "Large Hadron Collider" by Polissky and co-authors is a simulated implementation of that very machine, from which God may emerge.

Large Hadron Collider by N.Polissky from Ivan Polissky on Vimeo.

source

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Gömböc

An interesting mathematical curiosity: the Gömböc (pronounced "gəmbəts"). This is an intriguing object, devised by Hungarian mathematicians Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi, that has the property of self-righting to a single stable position despite being homogeneous, completely convex and not being obviously "flat" or "thin".
As with many other shapes with useful mechanical properties, this self-righting behaviour has already been achieved in nature in animals such as the Indian Star Tortoise. More on this at the Mathematical Intelligencer article Mono-monostatic bodies: the answer to Arnold's question (PDF). The question of whether it is possible to construct a three dimensional body which is mono-monostatic but also homogeneous and convex was raised by the by Russian mathematician Vladimir Arnold. This is of interest because it is known to be impossible in two dimensions.
A gömböc is, incidentally, Hungarian for a round thing, which may apply to dumplings or the sinister pork haggis in the Hungarian folktale A kis gömböc that hangs in a cottage attic and eats a family.

Compare the rattleback or celt, an object of no discernable application, but one also with unusual dynamic properties: in its case, a preferred direction of spin.

source Apothecary's Drawer Weblog

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Russia’s Aqua Star: An Original Underwater scooter

The Aqua Star is an underwater motorcycle that permits the user to go underwater without any special equipment. The way it works is simple. The body of the motorcycle rider stays in the water and the head is encased in a sort of helmet (integrated into the Aqua Star’s body) that serves as a diving bell equipped with an air-supplying system. The controls operate like a bike – just twist the handlebars.
The electronic motor on the Aqua Star permits movement in all directions underwater. The

Russian developers of the Aqua Bike came up with several fascinating innovations. For one thing, they used even glass for the helmet instead of the usual spherical glass that distorts the diver’s visibility and makes the eyes get tired.
Developers of the Aqua Star claim their motorcycle can be used at a depth of up to 12 meters (about 42 feet) and ride with 7km/h speed (about 4 miles per hour). The Aqua Star should be

ready for market by next summer but the price is still a mystery. The brothers are pushing forward with their newest design, a two-seat motorcycle.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Unusual bridges – water bridges

Magdeburg Water Bridge

Ships usually sail under bridges - here, however, they sail over one! The Magdeburg Canal Bridge, sometimes referred to as the Magdeburg Water Bridge connects the Mittellandkanal and Elbe-Havel-Kanal waterways, traversing the River Elbe in the process. The bridge can carry trains of barges propelled from the rear by high-power tugs (so-called "push-tows"), and large inland cargo vessels. All this is made possible by a gigantic steel trough. Completed in December 2003, the bridge is 918 meters long and has been modestly described as "a giant, kilometer-long concrete bathtub."

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Minden canal bridge

Central buildings of the Wasserstraßenkreuzes Minden are the old Trogbrücke and the parallel new Trogbrücke. Both lead the Midland Canal over the Weser. With the 83 m long lock and the new canal bridge that was taken into service also in 1998. The usual traffic only uses the new bridge. The 370 m long bridge is the second largest in Europe.

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Sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Friday, January 9, 2009

Top 25 ads of 2008

The Top 25 ads of 2008 featuring gems such as Nike Football ad and Budweiser's Wassup reworked for Obama

Stride Gum: Dancing Matt

This is Matt. He quit his job to dance around the world. 14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Check out all the places he traveled to this time around.

And, be sure to keep an eye out for more to come from Matt.

Nike Football: Take it to the next level (FULL 2 MINUTES VERSION)

Wassup 2008

+ old original version

Tan Hong Ming in love

Ad by Leo Burnett Malaysia for Petronas. Cannes Gold in TV
Tan Hong Ming
This ad adresses the race problem in Malaysia... The boy, Tan Hong Ming, is of chinese origin, the girl is not. This doesn't keep them from being a "couple".