Somebody's been stealing the manhole covers... Well, there is always a fix:
"Double-deckers" are getting more and more popular:
Minimalist drain pipe:
Stairways in the Wilderness:
A hybrid:
(sent in Homer Seywerd)
Something always happens to the balconies... they have a special karma, I think:
Windows and Doors:
Just build OVER your problems, and they'll disappear:
Bad, bad FAIL:
Need more square footage? Hire extreme and fearless contractors:
An old warehouse in Bath, England, with a wooden winch housing sticking out, photo by Javier Carcamo
Need more square footage for pigeons? Just keep adding to the existing structure:
Interior Decor recycling and re-use in Chelyabinsk, Russia -
The Throne Room:
Should there be some kind of the "Architectural Horrors" theme park, with all sorts of crazy construction going on there - at the safe distance from general public? It will have rare periods of quiet -
and abundance of thrills:
These guys recreated every single line that was on the blueprint! -
The photo of "Something old, something new -" is of a building in Romania, Bucharest, Revolutiei Plaza (Revolution). It was required by the construction authority to keep the old building's facade, as it is from the national patrimony. To be honest, it doesn't look so bad in real life.
The photo captioned "Need more square footage? Hire extreme and fearless contractors:" is from Bath, England (UK). The building faces the river on the opposite side to that photographed and was a goods warehouse, its in a row of many. The wooden cabin jutting out is on the opposite side to the river and housed a winch to lift/lower goods into/from any of the other floors (you can see the trap door through which the winch operated in the picture). This is a very common architectural feature and can be seen in large grain stores, warehouses etc..As the addition only housed a winch it was cheaper to make it from wood- it is however attached to the rest of the building with the correct layout of girders. How do I know this? I live in the converted one nextdoor!
The photo captioned "Nobody can tell me what this is: (maybe an altar to the gods of construction? They need all the forgiveness they can get)" is try to illustrate old russian tale about Emelya (men) who drive the stove. The same: http://www.es911.ru/files/1(1).jpg
re "Nobody can tell me what this is:" - it looks to me like a brickwork mockup. The builder makes one or more of these to illustrate different brickwork types, and the client agrees to one of them. The bricklayers refer back to that, so that the final brickwork is what the client wants. They should demolish mockups after the building is complete, but if the building is never completed...?
I quite like the look of the something-old-something-new coagulation in Bucharest. It reminds me of the Citigroup Center in NYC, the skyscraper which had to be built balanced on four huge stilts to make room for a church on the same plot.
I wonder how many other landmarks are designed to accomodate other buildings?
from what I know, the tower in the lake is an actual church-tower in the village of Graun, south-Tyrol. The village was moved when a dam for a power-station was constructed, but they left the church-tower standing (it's now a tourist-stop to make photos, obviously). when you search for "Graun, Italy" on Google Maps and activate photos, you can find it.
the italian "water tower" is not a water tower but a church tower. it was buried by water to create a dam for generating electric power. The town is Curn Venosta, in Val Venosta, near Passo Stelvio (not really Gavia). http://wikitravel.org/it/Curon_Venosta http://www.comune.curon.bz.it
I believe the "Nobody can tell me what this is: (maybe an altar to the gods of construction? They need all the forgiveness they can get)" is actually a portable stove. Like a George Foreman, but awesome.
I seriously had an apartment that had something like the "Throne Room". The toilet was on a platform raised 6 inches from the rest of the bathroom. I always thought "I'm high on pot" whenever I sat on it.
The hybrid stairs are common in the SNCF building (SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français) (French National Railway Company) is a French public enterprise). I have exactly the same one in my town, in Toulouse. and, yes, it's kinda weird.
The picture of curved bridge was made when the bridge was tested under pressure of heavy loaded trucks. In real life bridge is in good condition and stands straight as any other bridge.
That first one is the ugliest building I've seen in a while. It's not even creative or unique... it's just plain ugly. It looks like a building being attacked by hairy brown caterpillars or something.
U, my dear friend, it is obvious that you are not verry much informed about certain things you posted on your site. The "something old, something new" - is an awarded piece of architecture and it is verry spectacular, but yet, thank you for the publicity, anyone might want to see that one in real life or maybe just closer.
For the "Stairway Into the Wild," it actually looks like it goes around the corner of the building on that level. It looks like the stairs end because the railing is glass and see through so it looks like it just drops off!
Are these architects out of their minds or are the people who commissioned the works? There's a great book on this subject called "Architecture of the Absurd: How Genius Disfigured a Practical Art."
They can also swim using a sort of water jet; it's most obvious in the third pic, the sargasso frogfish. They "breathe" in with their mouths and instead of pushing it out of gill slits, it's jetted out of their "elbows". First hand experience, so no source (saw it in my local fish shop)
I didn't like that much the video with the challenged person trying to clean an automatic sliding door. For some reason the Internet is full of insensitive youngsters laughing their heads off at the old, the poor, the feeble. Thumbs down this time, though most the time this blogs has buckets of fun.
The library image is from a show called "Or Shalem, Jerusalem Lights the Night" - a group named Skertzò projected images on the "Tower of David" in Jerusalem.
see more info on that photo here: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/lighting_up_the_night.html
"It is said that there is one fatality per week" - Someone who actually did research (asking the local police station) found rather lower numbers, even if 3-12 per year is still a lot. http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/warning.html
I was there few years ago on that road in Transylvania. My second scariest ride ever (number one was also in Romania). I was there on biztrip and had to go across Romania from one corner to another. I decided to make it a little more enjoyable and visited Dracula's castle/ruins (Poienari). After that i stayed on that road in the mountains. On map it look like a nice ride across mountains. In reality I was scared to death.
I had some help for that feeling: heavy rain started, which started some mud avalanches (don't know the right English word for it) and flooding the road. As i got higher in the hill, cellphone lost signal, because there is no network... And as an added bonus - my fuel gauge was right at the bottom. On the way up i passed some locals riding horses and a few ghost(ish) villages. At one point there were PET bottles blocking the way, but i got through. Soon after that i understand that warning. After one sharp turn the road just ended. It was all covered in snow. Absolutely no chance to keep going, even on foot. To make it even more unpleasant, right there was an abandoned truck, partially covered in snow. Apparently some time ago he was stopped by the same snow, and could not go back, because the road was too narrow for a truck to turn over.
At that point i was really really scared. No phone, almost no fuel, raining as hell... I turned back and driving crazy fast (just to get to the point where there is phone signal) headed back down. My luck - it was all the way down, which helped saving fuel. I managed to get back down to the city and went straight to the nearest petrol station.
This probably doesn't sound very scary, but then and there it really was :)
Here are some pics from that trip: http://picasaweb.google.lv/jybook/Hungarija#
Don't fall for the Nazi Autobahn propaganda myth. In fact, the democratic Reich had already built Autobahns and put them into operation before the Nazis gained power. Their propaganda effectively made people believe that the Fuehrer's order to build Autobahns created lots of jobs and helped struggling Germany to overcome unemployment, which is not true. First, the democratic Reich had already put up significant amounts of capital for exactly that purpose, second, the number of people working to build Autobahns was negleglible small number compared to the 6 million jobless Germans.
@jealousy : If you had looked for information before going on your, i quote, "second scariest ride ever" you would have known that part of that road is closed every year by the authorities until june or sometimes even july exactly because of the heavy snowing that is normal in wintertime there. For someone who gets scared of PET bottles and forgets to check the fuel before going on a trip, i can understand how that was scary, bu-hu-hu :)
I drove the road trough the transilvanian alps too ... It's not a bad road actually, it's especially spectacular. The road has quite some holes in them but nothing really crazy. We, too, got blocked eventually by the snow - but If you're ever driving by car from Bucharest to Sibiu, somewhere after may - really, take this road, it'll be the most beautiful you ever took
When I was a kid, the road to my paternal grandparents' home in Harlan County, Kentucky passed under a rock cut similar to the one in the second image. My sister and I always made sure to duck. :-)
I've been to Tajikistan, and the highway connecting the two major cities of that country (Dushanbe and Khudjand) is almost as scaring as the first road in this series. The road from Dushanbe to Khorog (a town in eastern Tajikistan) is even more scaring. Both roads are unpaved, and they go through mountain passes over 3,300 meters high. They are really spectacular! Please check these ones for your next series!
Talking about found treasures... check out this link about weird Argentinean lack of coins crisis. Looks like a treasure chest with pesos is worth its weight in gold... http://www.slate.com/id/2205635/
"When even the most insignificant purchase requires the same order of planning and precision as a long-range missile strike, you can hardly blame people for keeping a jar of monedas safe at home."
Yes, that creature is a baby two-toed sloth. If you notice the sign on the container, it says "Freckle y Velcro" "Y" is "and" in Spanish so I imagine there are two sloths in there and that's why it appears to have an extra limb. The other one is probably hidden behind it.
Good stuff as always. Extrasolar planets are incredibly fascinating. There is one (name and location escapes me at the moment) that is a "Super Earth" with nothing but water for a surface. But the pressure is such that the water molecules are tightly packed into a solid, similar to the "ice" within the ice giants Neptune and Uranus.
Titan would have been a good Saturn satellite to add to this list; being what Prof. Carolyn Porco calls "an analog of Earth." With its lakes of hydrocarbons and hazy atmosphere, you have rains and large bodies of paint thinner to enjoy on your Titanic vacation!
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The photo of "Something old, something new -" is of a building in Romania, Bucharest, Revolutiei Plaza (Revolution). It was required by the construction authority to keep the old building's facade, as it is from the national patrimony. To be honest, it doesn't look so bad in real life.
The photo captioned "Need more square footage? Hire extreme and fearless contractors:" is from Bath, England (UK). The building faces the river on the opposite side to that photographed and was a goods warehouse, its in a row of many. The wooden cabin jutting out is on the opposite side to the river and housed a winch to lift/lower goods into/from any of the other floors (you can see the trap door through which the winch operated in the picture). This is a very common architectural feature and can be seen in large grain stores, warehouses etc..As the addition only housed a winch it was cheaper to make it from wood- it is however attached to the rest of the building with the correct layout of girders. How do I know this? I live in the converted one nextdoor!
The 'Nobody can tell me what this is' looks like some sort of mobile oven.
The photo captioned "Nobody can tell me what this is:
(maybe an altar to the gods of construction? They need all the forgiveness they can get)" is try to illustrate old russian tale about Emelya (men) who drive the stove. The same: http://www.es911.ru/files/1(1).jpg
re "Nobody can tell me what this is:" - it looks to me like a brickwork mockup. The builder makes one or more of these to illustrate different brickwork types, and the client agrees to one of them. The bricklayers refer back to that, so that the final brickwork is what the client wants. They should demolish mockups after the building is complete, but if the building is never completed...?
I quite like the look of the something-old-something-new coagulation in Bucharest. It reminds me of the Citigroup Center in NYC, the skyscraper which had to be built balanced on four huge stilts to make room for a church on the same plot.
I wonder how many other landmarks are designed to accomodate other buildings?
from what I know, the tower in the lake is an actual church-tower in the village of Graun, south-Tyrol. The village was moved when a dam for a power-station was constructed, but they left the church-tower standing (it's now a tourist-stop to make photos, obviously).
when you search for "Graun, Italy" on Google Maps and activate photos, you can find it.
the italian "water tower" is not a water tower but a church tower. it was buried by water to create a dam for generating electric power. The town is Curn Venosta, in Val Venosta, near Passo Stelvio (not really Gavia).
http://wikitravel.org/it/Curon_Venosta
http://www.comune.curon.bz.it
I believe the "Nobody can tell me what this is:
(maybe an altar to the gods of construction? They need all the forgiveness they can get)" is actually a portable stove. Like a George Foreman, but awesome.
I seriously had an apartment that had something like the "Throne Room". The toilet was on a platform raised 6 inches from the rest of the bathroom. I always thought "I'm high on pot" whenever I sat on it.
The hybrid stairs are common in the SNCF building (SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français) (French National Railway Company) is a French public enterprise). I have exactly the same one in my town, in Toulouse. and, yes, it's kinda weird.
Nobody can tell me what this is:
(maybe an altar to the gods of construction
This is a brick stove. I've seen them in people's back yards. Looks like someone took one and mounted it on wheels.
Updated with all new info - thank you!
The picture of curved bridge was made when the bridge was tested under pressure of heavy loaded trucks.
In real life bridge is in good condition and stands straight as any other bridge.
The picture from Bath was taken by me:
http://flickr.com/photos/javic/101758496/
Photo credit added - thank you for letting us know - picture came without attribution.
Can't believe that some of them are real, I am laughing my ass of here... :-))
That first one is the ugliest building I've seen in a while. It's not even creative or unique... it's just plain ugly. It looks like a building being attacked by hairy brown caterpillars or something.
You know, I gotta admit the house in Bath, England is cute in an ugly way. Or is it the other way around...
U, my dear friend, it is obvious that you are not verry much informed about certain things you posted on your site. The "something old, something new" - is an awarded piece of architecture and it is verry spectacular, but yet, thank you for the publicity, anyone might want to see that one in real life or maybe just closer.
The building in Bucharest, Romania, is not a simple building, it's the UAR(Romanian Architects Union) builduing;)
"Plumbing Gets Complicated" = radiant heating floor system
For the "Stairway Into the Wild," it actually looks like it goes around the corner of the building on that level. It looks like the stairs end because the railing is glass and see through so it looks like it just drops off!
Are these architects out of their minds or are the people who commissioned the works? There's a great book on this subject called "Architecture of the Absurd: How Genius Disfigured a Practical Art."
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