In the 1950s, nuclear power was seen as the answer to everything. Engineers were working on nuclear powered planes, automobiles, and trains, and searching for other ways to use the power of the atom. Read about some of the inventions that seem far-fetched today, but were just on the horizon at one time, at Dark Roasted Blend. Link

The food would sail along in small capsules at upwards of 60 miles per hour. As many as 900,000 capsules could be in circulation in the nearly 2,000 miles of air pressure pipe, all of which would be controlled by smart grids that would keep food from crashing into each other. To give some semblance of order, the capsules would generally be organized into little trains of about 300 linked capsules, each spaced about a meter apart.

Now, this idea might seem a little nutty – I’ll admit it seems rather fanciful. But the people behind Foodtubes point out the UK transports 180 times more water than food everyday, and all of that is done using pipelines with minimal pollution and no traffic jams.

Up to 200,000 food-carrying trucks could be taken off British roads, which would save 40 million tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.

Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

Hi folks! Well, Samuel Cockedey has told me he’s gotten a brand new time-lapse video for you Neatoramanauts, lucky you! This time he’s changed his from filming his fantastic soothing landscape vistas of Tokyo and has gotten down to the nitty-gritty of the city life full of it’s hustle and bustle – specifically focusing upon the realm of transportation.

I can’t help but watch in awe at how all the scenes coalesce into a well oiled machine of movement and light…one could easily (or rather naively!) imagine the light pulses and streams of activity like that of data flowing through a massive computer.

The music is in collaboration with Paul Frankland, aka Woob, an ambient/electronic artist whose stuff you can find in the link below. Also, just search for Samuel’s name to see his other videos here on Neatorama! I highly suggest checking out the video in full screen mode or on the Vimeo site itself for a larger view…oh and plant on some headphones!

Samuel Cockedey – Link
Paul Frankland (aka Woob) – Link

This is a great little video, an excerpt from Disney’s "Magic Highway USA", showing what people from the late ’50s thought would be the future of transportation.

It’s really neat to see how far we have come, and how far we haven’t. Some of the predictions have come to some manner of fruition, such as real-time traffic stats, navigation, and autodriving vehicles. While some are still pretty far out and "Far Out!" like atomic-powered and solar-powered cars.

– via techeblog

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by mjgolli.

The Airbus A380 is the ultimate in airline luxury, and here are lots of photos to prove it!

The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine airliner manufactured by the European corporation Airbus, a subsidiary of EADS. The largest passenger airliner in the world, the A380 made its maiden flight on 27 April 2005 from Toulouse, France, and made its first commercial flight on 25 October 2007 from Singapore to Sydney with Singapore Airlines. The aircraft was known as the Airbus A3XX during much of its development phase, but the nickname Superjumbo has since become associated with it.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by rappin.

The people of Falkirk, Scotland needed to connect two waterways, but there was one big problem.  The difference in height between the two measures about the same as an eight story building.  The solution?  A pretty amazing rotating boat lift, the only one of its type in the world:

The Scottish capital city, Edinburgh and its second city, Glasgow, had no water based connection for seventy years. It wasn’t until almost the dawn of the new century that this situation was reconsidered and the idea of the Falkirk Wheel was taken seriously and put in to action.

Now the wheel, as well as a connector between the two cities, is a remarkable and awe-inspiring tourist destination in its own right. However, if it wasn’t for the prodigious gambling habits of the British people this amazing structure would never have been built.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by taliesyn30.

Ok here’s something I’ve never seen before that dates back to pre-World War II. This contraption consists of a tractor and some form of corkscrew drive system. After a bit of research, it appears that this invention originates from Russia. Call it Russian mechanized genius/madness, you decide. Via – LiveLeak