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It
may be a slum, but it's a slum with an escalator! Officials in Medellin,
Colombia, have inaugurated a giant outdoor escalator in one of its poorest
slums:
The only thing missing now is a giant slide to go down! Link (Photo: Luis Benavides/AP)For generations, the 12,000 residents of Medellin's tough Comuna 13, which clings to the side of a steep hillside, have had to climb hundreds of large steps authorities say is the same as going up a 28-story building.
Now they can ride an escalator, in what the mayor of Medellin said is the first massive, outdoor public escalator for use by residents of a poor area. [...]Comuna 13 residents came out to celebrate and study the $6.7 million escalator which officials say will shorten the 35-minute hike on foot up the hillside to six minutes. Use of the escalator is free.
An escalator in Tel Aviv bears the opening text crawl of Episode IV of Star Wars. Many people are wondering why, but I regard it as self-evidently good. Watch a video of it in motion at Geekologie.
Link -via Geekologie | Previously: Text Crawl Dress
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Orville Douglas Denison thinks that telescoping ladders used by firefighters are too slow for firefighters to use effectively. So he designed a system that would lift up firefighters on something like a conveyor belt or an escalator:
In a rescue, firemen could extend Denison’s hydraulic ladder to windows as high as 113 feet. But rather than clamber up the ladder, the firefighter would hop on, and the rungs would roll up at 200 feet per minute—more than twice the average climbing speed of a firefighter weighed down by 130 pounds of gear. The firefighter would ride to a window, load unconscious victims into a rescue bag, hook the bag to the ladder, and shift it into reverse to bring the person to safety. Denison says it can now take up to 15 minutes, and sometimes several men, to carry one victim down a ladder from 10 stories. He estimates that his ladder could lower four people to the ground in less than four minutes.
Link | Image: Kevin Hand
Comments Off The Levytator is a free-form escalator that can bend and curve as needed by architects. It operates on one continuous loop, so there’s no need for redundant conveyors moving in opposite directions:
Unlike traditional designs, where redundant steps move underneath those in use, the Levytator utilises a continuous loop of curved modules, which can follow any path upwards, flatten and straighten out, and descend once more, all with passengers onboard.
The system can be arranged in any configuration – as a DNA-esque double helix in a science museum, for example – and also offers several practical advantages at a cost that is similar to a conventional unit.
Link via Geekosystem
[YouTube Link - via Kinda Unique]
Cuteness: this family of ducks is trying to climb an escalator … the wrong way up!
The Bruins game is over, but the entertainment doesn’t stop! Check out the progress of this (blonde) lady going the wrong way on the escalator …
Go, lady, go! Link [embedded YouTube clip]
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Christophe.
