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Synagogue of Augsburg, Germany.
Source: Neil Folberg. And I Shall Dwell Among Them. Historic Synagogues of the World.
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no desire to see the show again but
how I do love this supreme jackass
let me count the ways
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even a single book may overspill the skin.
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Carl Kronberger - A Portrait of a Girl Wearing a Golden Hood
In 1980, Lake Peigneu, Louisiana disappeared into an underground vortex of doom. Actually, the accident was due to a math error, which resulted in one of the strangest oil drilling and salt mining accidents in U.S. history.
The Diamond Salt company had a huge salt mining operation under the lake. Meanwhile, Texaco Oil was drilling for oil from shallow platforms, which were built on the lake. Texaco roughnecks set a new drill a few hundred feet down, through the lake, through the lake bed, and into the earth. The drill bit hit one of the salt mine shafts, and the above disaster happened.
Just when you think it couldn’t possibly get worse, it does. The entire lake was sucked into the mine. The drill hole was originally 14 inches, but the force of the water expanded it to hundreds of feet across. At one point, a reverse water fall of 150 feet was formed because the Gulf of Mexico drained backwards (north!) into the lake. Watch the event unfold disaster on top of disaster. It is incredible. Via BoingBoing.
Debbie Chachra is a materials scientist. Working out of Olin College — an engineering school set up like a liberal arts college — she teaches undergraduates, researches better ways of teaching undergraduates, and does strange things with bees. Beyond her professional duties, she runs Daily Idioms, a Tumblr of striking ideas.
Chachra has a knack for noticing and pointing out the underlying forces that shape the stuff our stuff is made of and how the properties of that stuff in turn shapes our tech and so our culture. Last year, Warren Ellis asked her to write about whatever was on her mind. The result was a fascinating exploration of the consequences of peak oil for industrial design. She called it “peak plastic.”
Tim Maly talks with Chachra about peak plastic, the challenges of the 3-D printing revolution, and honey bees.
British company Pavegen has developed a new paving tile that captures the energy of footsteps and turns it into electricity.
On a small scale, one day’s worth of foot traffic over a few tiles could power one street light overnight. In another recent field test at a music festival, dancers stomping on a dance floor with Pavegen tiles generated enough energy to recharge their mobile phones.
The company’s first big field test will come this summer at the London Olympics. Pavegen will be installing its system just outside the Westfield Stratford Shopping Center, one of Europe’s biggest and busiest urban shopping malls. The tiles will be placed on one of the main pedestrian thoroughfares leading into nearby London Olympic Park. Depending on the foot traffic, the company hopes its tiles might be able to power the mall’s entire lighting system. More.
(Image: Pavegen)
(via npr)
i just love stuff like this
#nyc, #transit, #engineering
Incredible new photos of New York City’s 7 train expansion project.
(via npr)
I wish there was an “infrastructure porn” tumblr.
Not far from Vienna, there is a nuclear power plant that never went into operation. Shortly after finishing construction, a vote determined Austria should never use nuclear power. Yet the government had this plant, so it was used to educate nuclear engineers from all over the world. This would have been the hottest place: nuclear fuel rods were stored in these iron containers.
More pictures here: http://www.pictorymag.com/showcases/infrastructure/
