American artist Cayetano Ferrer (previously featured here) creates seemingly translucent images by placing realistic photographs of backgrounds on solid objects. So what you're looking at above is actually a box covered with pictures of the areas behind and under it.
It's possible to use the just the components of a cigarette lighter to make a rather realistic model of a motorcycle. YouTube user Tysteriskians has a nicely-detailed instructional video on the craft.
The Eiffel Tower, built in 1889, was a temporary structure. It was supposed to last only 20 years before being demolished. But Paris kept it, long, long past its design life. Why has it been so durable? Scientists are creating a detailed computer model of all of its components to try to answer that question:
But creating the model for the Eiffel Tower presented a technical challenge of a completely new kind.
One thing was that the realisation that its materials -- puddle iron (iron that is super-heated, beaten by hand and then folded over) and rivets -- perform quite differently from modern-day steel, concrete and bolts.
"We had to start from scratch," said Roussin.
Materials scientists carried out mechanical and chemical tests on samples of puddle iron to assess its resilience, and stress engineers revisited Eiffel's own drawings to calculate how the tower would perform under load from the natural elements.
Outwardly simple, the geometry of the tower itself posed some mighty number-crunching problems.
The programme had to take into account a range of weather conditions on a latticework of 18,000 metal pieces and the tower's additions, calculating the load vertically, horizontally and in 3D: in all, the model has an astonishing million variables.
They've already learned that the tower has shrunk five and a half inches due to settling.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jNYkE-s1Q0Uh9cDYKlYl106OE-nw?docId=CNG.7e25f7c5d89565fea10627f109f43804.311 via Popular Science | Photo by Flickr user Terrazzo used under Creative Commons license
The now-completed Qingdao Haiwan Bridge over Jiaozhou Bay in China is 26.4 miles long. It's three miles longer than the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, the previous holder of the world record for the longest bridge over water:
No longer dependent on western expertise for such sophisticated projects, the six-lane road bridge is supported by more than 5,200 columns and was designed by the Shandong Gausu Group. When it opens to traffic later this year, the bridge is expected to carry over 30,000 cars a day and will cut the commute between the city of Qingdao and the sprawling suburb of Huangdao by between 20 and 30 minutes.
The bridge is built to withstand an 8.0 Richter scale earthquake take punishment from the occasional typhoon.
Yes, a cactus is a playable instrument. This video shows a person playing a jazzy tune on one while accompanied by a piano. Google Translate is having trouble with the website, but apparently the cactus died in 2009 or 2010, so the project is on hiatus.
Etsy seller WayOutHere turned an old oven into a functional lounge chair. The bottom drawer is opened to support the seat and the stove top turns into an ottoman. It's for sale to people who can pick it up from the Cincinnati area.
Darco Sangermano, 28, was in Naples during that city's New Year's Eve festivities. He was shot in the head with a .22 caliber bullet. Later, at the hospital, he sneezed it out:
The bullet, a .22 caliber, entered the right side of his head, passed behind his eye through the socket, hit a bone in his nose and lodged itself in his right nostril.
Covered in blood, but still conscious, Sangermano then sneezed out the bullet, and apart from a headache, told doctors he felt fine.[...]
He needed surgery just to clean up the wound and get rid of the bone fragments.
"He was a very lucky man, he could have been killed," Dr. Sid Berrone said. "The bullet went through his temple, behind his eye, entered the nasal cavity and then became lodged in his nostril before he sneezed it out. Amazing."
There's a rumor going around that a little model of Han Solo frozen in carbonite appears in every episode of the space western Firefly. Supposedly, actor Nathan Fillion (Capt. Malcolm Reynolds) is a big Star Wars fan, so the set technicians sneaked the model into the background whenever possible. Amy Ratcliffe has already found several examples and has posted screenshots. In the above image, it's in the upper-right corner near Kaylee's bunk.
When I was five, I asked my mother what hair was made of. She attempted to explain it to me in a way that I could understand, but eventually said "protein". "What's that?" She tried to explain protein, and used peanut butter as an example. So, as I misunderstood it, hair was made out peanut butter. I then made a hair-and-jelly sandwich. It tasted terrible.
Where was I? Oh, yeah: Adrienne Antonson makes stunningly realistic models of insects using human hair as her crafting material. They do not go well with jelly.
Some assembly is required, so go get the glue. Artist Wayne Chisnall made a 12-piece kit model of himself entitled "And When I'm a Man." It'll be on display at the "States of Reverie" exhibit at the Scream Gallery in London starting on January 14.
When Jason Loper downsized into a small condo, he wanted it well-decorated to make good visual use of the limited space. So he made a felt TV cover that looks like a classic test pattern.
Judy Berman of Flavorwire rounded up photographs of luxurious libraries in the homes of celebrities, such as Diane Keaton's, which is pictured above. Karl Lagerfeld's is astoundingly packed from floor to ceiling (and then some) with books.
deviantART user Dezychan writes "This is exactly what it looks like, and no, I have no shame in making this." Nor should he. This image could only be improved upon by including Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor) as Tuxedo Mask.
Seattle-based artist Charles Wing Krafft made this skateboard out of porcelain. It's full-sized, so you could presumably ride it. Krafft has made other unusual subjects out of porcelain, such as guns and grenades.
