For every structure that claims the title of "World’s Tallest" there are thousands of people who make the decision to never, under any circumstances, go to the top of these structures. One of the most common phobias on Earth is the fear of heights, and there are millions of people on Earth who would rather take a rock to the head than go anywhere near these amazingly tall, and somewhat frightening, structures.
1. The Grand Canyon Skywalk
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Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring sight. Standing 3,600 feet above the floor of the Grand Canyon on a glass panel is enough to make even the bravest of individuals weak in the knees. The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a unique structure that extends out over the edge of the Grand Canyon, where its distance from the glass to the floor of the Grand Canyon exceeds the height of the tallest building on Earth.
Built in 2007 as a tourist attraction, the Skywalk juts out 70 feet out at its farthest point, beyond the edge of the Grand Canyon. Weighing one million pounds without the counterweights that keep the Skywalk from turning into a tourist tragedy, it is an awe-inspiring sight to stand over the edge of the canyon.
Don’t worry though, only 120 people are allowed on the Skywalk at any one time, and the Skywalk itself can hold 822 people, each weighing 200 pounds.
2. Burj Khalifa
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The tallest structure ever built, and several hundreds of feet above the next tallest skyscraper, is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It is a base-jumpers dream, but for anyone afraid of heights it is enemy number one.
This skyscraper stands 2,717 feet above the ground, and holds several records related to the tallest structures on Earth. It beat the previous tallest structure by 600 feet, and it boasts the highest swimming pool on Earth. Ever wanted to go for a swim on the 76th floor of a skyscraper? Well, you can do that here. The building also has the highest outdoor observation deck in the world at 1,450 feet. On a clear day it is possible to see 100 miles in every direction, just don’t look down.
If you don’t like riding an elevator, then you should stay away from this building. The tallest elevator shafts in the world are found here and on February 8, 2010, one elevator became stuck between floors, trapping tourists for nearly an hour. For someone who hates heights, that would be the equivalent of hell.
3. The Gateway Arch
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St. Louis is the Gateway to the West and to celebrate this, the city built The Gateway Arch in 1967. While it may just look like a horseshoe stuck in the ground from a distance, it takes on a whole new level of panic inducing fear for those afraid of heights when standing on the observation deck of the Arch. Standing 630 feet above the ground, the observation deck features 32 small windows that a visitor can look through to see as far as 30 miles on a clear day. That may not seem too bad, especially considering the observation deck of the tallest building in the world is three times as high, but when you see nothing holding you up in the air but two pillars to the side, and only air below you, you may have a different feeling about this view.
4. Glacial Aerial Tramway Kaprun III
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People who fear heights may hate the previous three buildings and monuments, but at least these places are held in place by steel and concrete. Not so for the Glacial Aerial Tramway Kaprun III. At this third section of the aerial tramway in Kaprun, Austria, there is nothing holding you up from crashing into the ground but some cables. The tramway opened on November 26, 1966 and the third section of the tramway is the tallest aerial tramway support pillar in the world. Standing 372 feet above the ground, the pillar sits on a concrete slab that rests on the edge of a mountain. Originally built to just over 300 feet, the tramway pillar has been extended twice, which is two times too many for anyone who doesn’t like hanging in the air on a swinging tramway.
5. The Skybridge at the Petronas Towers
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Located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the Petronas Towers are the tallest twin powers in the world, and formerly the tallest buildings in the world. However, it is not the towers that make anyone who is afraid of heights cringe; it is the Skybridge that runs between them.
The Skybridge is a walkway that runs between the two towers, and it is the tallest two-story bridge on the planet. Sitting 558 feet above the ground, it is best when walking on it to not think about the fact that the bridge weighs 750 tons, and is not actually bolted to the towers. The bridge is designed to slide back in and out of the towers in order to prevent the bridge from breaking due to high winds.
6. Royal Gorge Bridge
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The Royal Gorge Bridge, located in Canon City, Colorado, was the tallest bridge in the world, hanging 955 feet above the Arkansas River. Built in 1929, it was the tallest bridge in the world until it was beat by a bridge in China. What makes this bridge a bit tougher to walk on is the fact that it contains 1,292 wood planks that are all that separate you from to the river far below. This bridge is very popular with base jumpers, with thousands jumping off the edge of this bridge since it first opened.
7. CN Tower
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Before it was beat by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada was the tallest freestanding structure on the planet. Standing 1,815 feet high, the CN Tower has many features to help make anyone who hates heights hug the ground in fear. First, there is the glass elevator that moves up outside the tower to show you just how high you are going with each second that goes by. In addition, the highest public observation gallery can be found on the CN Tower, rising 1,467 feet in the air. The CN Tower also features the highest bar in the world at 1,135 feet, the highest wine cellar at 1,152 and the highest revolving restaurant at 1,152 feet as well. Worse of all, at least for individuals who fears heights, is the glass floor in the observation deck, which is 1,122 feet above the ground.It takes a brave soul to stand on this piece of glass that looks straight down to the ground.
As more and more building continue to rise up to the sky, there are plenty of people who choose to keep their feet firmly on the ground. Whether it is standing on a piece of glass over one thousand feet above the ground, or walking across a small bridge that moves with every brush of wind, these places are the places that give anyone who fears heights a severe panic attack. For those that hate heights, there are plenty of sights to see that sit firmly upon the ground.
Author: Craig Baird — Copyrighted © roadtickle.com
"Profile" (1994) - What is he thinking?
Image via moillusions
Artist Kumi Yamashita’s work is the perfect example of two truths: that things are not always what they seem and more metaphorically, that sometimes we have to view things in a different light to discover a new meaning. If this sounds too cryptic, just marvel over how Yamashita breathes new life into simple, wall-mounted cut-outs by providing them with an interesting shadow.
"Lovers" (1998) - aluminium sheeting, lights, cast shadows:
image via mymodernmet
"Origami" (2005) - "Each color sheet on the wall, lit from the right, casts a silhouette of a profile":
Image: Kumi Yamashita
If you liked Incredible Shadow Art Created from Junk by British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster, then you’ll like Kumi Yamashita’s work. Unlike Noble and Webster, however, Yamashita does not use hundreds of pieces and no junk to create her shadow objects – faces and figures mostly – but banks on the belief that less is more.
"Feather" (2006) - light, wood, shadow:
Image via outtheway
Like a painter who tries to convey an image with the fewest number of brushstrokes, Yamashita uses slim pieces of wood, square paper or aluminum numbers and letters. Though the installations are light (pun intended), their messages are quite heavy: The profile of a handsome man above, for example, cast from the shadows of various letters, symbolizes the thoughts and words that may go through his mind, or even the implications put on us by society.
Just numbers? "City View" (2003):
Image via moillusions
Probably her simplest installation is an exclamation mark that, lit from the side, turns into a question mark. Like a firm belief that is suddenly shattered.
"Exclamation Point" (1995):
Image via outtheway
Simple? Not really. Says the Japanese-born, now New York-based artist about her motivation:
"Through my work I wish to remind ourselves of how we preconceive what is around and inside us. It is easy to passively turn to prepared information. Knowledge, ideas, and values are too often accepted without questioning."
Call it visual trickery or manipulation, but the beauty of Yamashita’s objects lies in their simplicity, symbolized by the materials she uses: paper, wood, aluminum and most importantly, light.
"Clouds" (2005) - "The thin metal object on the wall, lit from above, casts the silhouette of a couple":
Image via mymodernmet
"Glider" (2002) - light, aluminum, shadow:
Image via mymodernmet
Though born and raised in Japan, Kumi Yamashita has spent much of her adult life abroad, starting with a high-school exchange to the US in 1984. She then graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1994 from the College of Arts in Washington and with a Master of Fine Arts in 1999 from the Glasgow School of Art in the UK. Since then, she has taken part in close to 30 group exhibitions and was featured in more than 10 solo exhibitions around the world. She’s also won numerous awards for her work.
If you want to see how it's done, here's a video of "Dialogue" (1999), the silhouettes of two conversing heads produced with the help of light, a motor, styrene, shadow and 60 rotating profiles, lit from the side. Can you make out what they are talking about?
If you really want to know, you have to watch this last video of Kumi Yamashita as a guest in Takeshi Kitano show "Unbelievable," a special about visual artists that aired on 21st March 2008 on Japanese television. Don’t miss the "making of" and the audience’s reaction – it’s worth watching from start to finish!
More information about latest works and exhibitions can be found on Kumi Yamashita’s website.
PS: Original post here.
This is the three-dimensional spherical labyrinth that challenges the limits of your manual dexterity and spatial understanding as you maneuver a 5/8" wooden marble through its entire course. The Superplexus is a complex network of chicanes, multi-planar hairpin turns, spirals, and staircases–even a vortex. Hand made from 3- and 6-ply Finnish birch that form the track, over 400 hours are involved in its construction.
The labyrinth is set inside a 36" diameter acrylic sphere affixed to a Jatoba base using a stainless steel gimbaled mount that allows you to tilt the sphere in any direction to guide the marble. The entire track laid out on a straight line is 31′ longer than a football field. In addition to the track, the ball must travel on a 1/16" diameter stainless steel wire pathway at eight points along the journey. A series of directional arrows indicate the course to follow, and successful completion requires a minimum of 425 turns (plane changes) of the sphere–without letting the marble fall off the track.
More Info : The Superplexus
Photo: via xenophilius
Tardigrades even defy Space
Shoot them into Space or to the bottom of the deepest ocean, deprive them of air, water and food for a decade and sprinkle some radiation on top for good measure. These critters won’t die. Meet the water bear or tardigrade, world's toughest animal.
Here’s why they’re called water bears:
Photo: via cellar.org
Tardigrades are microscopic, water-dwelling invertebrates with eight legs that seem to have a bear-like appearance and gait and tend to cling to moss or lichen; characteristics that have given them the nicknames water bears or moss piglets. Although they breathe through their skin and therefore lack respiratory organs and a circulatory system, the anatomy of water bears is quite complex.
Like a wrinkled caterpillar:
Photo: Goldstein Lab
The water bear’s body is covered by a chitinous layer that is regularly moulted, similar to insects. Females and males occur in most species and many have complicated courtship behaviour and mating rituals. Depending on where they live, water bears can be strongly pigmented from orange and bright red to olive green for those living on mosses and lichens – often with a density of up to 25,000 animals per liter!
Yup, this is where they live – on pillow moss or Grimmia pulvinata:
Photo: Darkone
Though tiny at only 0.1 mm to 1.5 mm, tardigrades are everywhere – from the icy climates of Antarctica to the sweltering heat of the equator; the high altitudes of the Himalayas (6,000 m/19,800 ft and above) to the deep sea (below 4,000 m/13,200 ft). More than 1,000 species of tardigrades have been identified since their discovery by German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773 and there’s even an International Tardigrada Symposium held every three years.
Ain’t he cute - kind of potato like, don’t you think?
Photo: via dvice
Now the big question is, what do these hardy animals eat? Most of them live off the cell content of bacteria, algae and mosses that they suck out. Three marine species are known to parasitize sea cucumbers, barnacles and aquatic invertebrates. A few species are carnivores and feed on microscopic wheel animals, roundworms and even each other!
They’re lovingly also called tardies by those studying them:
Photo: via Tardigrada Newsletter
In September 2007, the European Space Agency even took two species of tardigrades into Space, about 160 miles up. Some water bears were exposed to the vacuum of space only, others to ultraviolet radiation as well – about 1,000 times more than on Earth. All not only survived unharmed but even procreated and laid eggs that survived normally. Thus, they join the few species of lichens and bacteria as the only ones to survive the vacuum and solar radiation of Space unprotected.
Tardigrade eggs in exoskeleton:
Photo: via eeob
The more extreme the environment, the better the water bear adapts. The facts are just so amazing and unbelievable that we have to sum them up again: Tardigrades can withstand extreme temperatures of -273°C (-523 °F), close to absolute zero, temperatures as high as 151 °C (303 °F), 1,000 times more radiation than any other animal or human and go almost a decade without water! On top of that, throw them into a vacuum, organic solvents such as 96% alcohol or ether, or even liquid helium and they’ll be fine.
The secret to their success? Water bears are not only able to reach a state where their metabolism has ceased entirely but to maintain this state for years and at any stage of their life cycle! The image below shows the Arctic, moss-dwelling water bear Adorybiotus coronifer in a dried and extremely cold-tolerant state.
Looks like a water bear in 2D – only 0.7 mm long:
Photo: via diagonale-groenland
Seasonal changes in the Arctic marine water bear, Halobiotus crispae:
Photo: via diagonale-groenland
So much for the theory that only cockroaches would survive a nuclear disaster. We’re quite relieved as tardigrades are not only many times smaller than cockroaches but also many times, er, cuter.
Sources: 1, 2, 3
This is a kinetic sculpture made for the BMW Museum in Munich. It is a "metaphorical translation of the from-finding process in design."
View a video of the making here.
Official notes about the project (from Art + Com):
The installation consists of 714 metal spheres hanging from thin steel wires attached to individually controlled stepper motors. Covering a six-square-metre area, the spheres enact a seven-minute long mechatronic narrative, creating a representation of the form-finding process in different variations. Moving chaotically at first, the sculpture evolves into several competing forms and eventually resolves as a final shape, which hints at the outlines of well-known BMW automobiles such as the 327, the 1500, the Z4 coupé and the Mille Miglia 2006. The cycle is synchronised with a graphic light strip running around the walls and texts and audio quotes from senior BMW figures on the company’s values and design aims.
A video of the sculpture in action:
Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice fields in Japan.
But this is no alien creation - the designs have been cleverly planted.
Farmers creating the huge displays use no ink or dye.
Instead, different colours of rice plants have been precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy fields.
As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the detailed artwork begins to emerge.
Smaller works of crop art can be seen in other rice-farming areas of Japan. The farmers create the murals by planting little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru roman variety to create the coloured patterns between planting and harvesting in September.
The murals in Inakadate cover 15,000 square metres of paddy fields.
From ground level, the designs are invisible, and viewers have to climb the mock castle tower of the village office to get a glimpse of the work.
Rice-paddy art was started there in 1993 as a local revitalization project, an idea that grew out of meetings of the village committee.
Closer to the image, the careful placement of thousands of rice plants in the paddy fields can be seen.
The different varieties of rice plant grow alongside each other to create the masterpieces.
In the first nine years, the village office workers and local farmers grew a simple design of Mount Iwaki every year. But their ideas grew more complicated and attracted more attention.
In 2005 agreements between landowners allowed the creation of enormous rice paddy art.
A year later, organizers used computers to precisely plot planting of the four differently colored rice varieties that bring the images to life. The largest and finest work is grown in the Aomori village of Inakadate, 600 miles north of Tokyo, where the tradition began in 1993.
The village has now earned a reputation for its agricultural artistry and this year the enormous pictures of Napoleon and a Sengoku-period warrior, both on horsebacks, are visible in a pair of fields adjacent to the town hall. Napoleon on horseback can be seen from the skies, created by precision planting and months of planning between villagers and farmers in Inkadate.
A Sengoku warrior on horseback has been created from hundreds of thousands of rice plants; the color's created by using different varieties, in Inakadate in Japan.
More than 150,000 visitors come to Inakadate, where just 8,700 people live, every summer to see the extraordinary murals. Each year hundreds of volunteers and villagers plant four different varieties of rice in late May across huge swathes of paddy fields. Another famous rice paddy art venue is in the town of Yonezawa in the Yamagata prefecture. This year's design shows the fictional 16th-century samurai warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife, Osen, whose lives feature in television series Tenchijin. Fictional warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife Osen appear in fields in the town of Yonezawa, Japan.
And over the past few years, other villages have joined in with the plant designs. Various artwork has popped up in other rice-farming areas of Japan this year, including designs of deer dancers.
