Globe Turned into Jedi Training Remote

(Video Link)
Remember the hovering sphere that Luke Skywalker used during his early lightsaber training with Obi-Wan Kenobi? YouTube user trooperkent made one of his own out of a hovering globe.

Via: Make, Via: Neatorama

Floating Cube in Center

Simple cube optical illusion where we see what looks like floating or levitation. LINK: Youtube

"Floating Point"

"Floating Point" is a lovely time-lapse video by photographer Samuel Cockedey. By now the conventions of this type of video are pretty well established: The high perspective (usually urban), the moody music (usually electronic), the onrushing clouds, the streaming traffic. (Remember "The Sandpit"?) But Cockedey adds an element that a lot of others don't: A prominent credit line overlaying the bottom right corner of the video. It's his absolute right to safeguard his work in any manner he sees fit, of course. But the thing is so distracting that it ends up, for me at least, marring the experience. And it raises a question I can't immediately answer: When there's a clash between making a creative work and protecting its provenance, which one is more important? LINK, Via: Vimeo

Floating Tanks

English Russia reports that during the 1950s, the Soviet Union developed floating tanks. Engineers attached pontoons to T-54 tanks and drove them into the water:

PST-U consisted of five pontoons that were filled with plastic foam. Total weight of the device was 10 tonnes. Buoyancy reserve (with T-54 tank) was 40%. Maximum speed of tank with the floating device was 19 km/h ashore and 12 km/h afloat. The floating device was equipped with its own fuel tanks with a capacity of 500 litres; equal to coverage of 60-80 kilometers distance without any tank’s fuel consumption.

At the link, you can find more pictures and diagrams.

Link | Photo: English Russia, Via: Neatorama

Amphibious Bus

An amphibious bus was tested in Glasgow. The $1,000,000 Dutch-made vehicle can carry up to 45 passengers. The vehicle runs like a normal coach on the road but when in water uses a hull to float and is powered by twin jets. LINK, Via: Youtube

Air Board Personal Hovercraft

AirBoard is an innovative gasoline powered personal hovercraft that rides on a cushion of air and can go as fast as 15 mph.

Priced at $14,000, it can operate over concrete, asphalt, grass or shallow wet areas, but cannot hover over water, sand, or dirt-filled areas. LINK [via]

The Air Board floats about 8 inches off the ground. It can go as fast as 15 mph, and will last about an hour on 1.3 gal of gasoline. Two levers on the steering bar control the Air Board’s acceleration and brakes. The rider simply shifts his weight to turn. The Air Board also has a safety switch that kills the engine when the rider jumps off, so even if you’re hurled in front of it you won’t end up being sucked underneath.


LINK: Youtube

A Floating Apartment Building

Dutch architect Koen Olthuis responded to the rising sea level by designing a floating apartment building:

The Dutch are uniquely accustomed to dealing with fluctuating water levels; much of the Netherlands is below sea level, and vast swaths of land, known as polders, are continually pumped free of the accumulating rainwater that threatens nearby homes and buildings. The Citadel will simply rise and fall with the changing water levels, making it impervious to flooding, tides, and sea waters inching upward as a result of global warming.

Built atop a floating heavy concrete foundation, The Citadel will house 60 luxury apartments, a parking garage, a floating roadway, and boat docks. Each apartment will naturally have waterfront views via a garden terrace, and greenhouses will be interspersed throughout. But the greenest feature of the Citadel is its cooling system: submerged pipes will pump water throughout the structure to cool it, reducing its energy use by 25 percent compared to a conventional building.

Link, Via: Neatorama

Floating Water Bridge

Discovered by Elmar Fuchs, in which, with the help of electricity, water can actually create a floating bridge for as long as 25 millimeters. LINK, Via: Youtube, Via: Cracked

The music is a part of the song "blue ale" from the CD "just blood" by eloah.

Pod cars to float over Abu Dhabi

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is a system that has been used at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown for over 30 years (it was invented by a professor there), and now a super-duper version of it is being planned for Abu Dhabi. It runs on an elevated grid, on wheels rather than on a monorail, and each podcar operates independently, taking passengers directly to their destination, bypassing other stops.

Under one scenario, a passenger enters the system, swipes a card and a voice says "Good morning, So-and-So! Where would you like to go today?" And then tells you when your podcar will be ready, and at which platform.

The podcar artwork shown here depicts a PRT system proposed for Stockholm, Sweden.

Image by Visulogic

Link - Via: io9, Via: Neatorama

Beautifully Dangerous (Dangerously Beautiful?) Staircase by Jordi Vayreda

Jordi Vayreda of Spanish design studio Jordivayreda Projectteam created this floating staircase for a client’s home that looks awesome. LINK, Via: Neatorama

Awesome Floating Staircases

Those two amazing sets of stairs are from the Didden Village project by Dutch architectural firm MVRDV. The project itself is a rooftop addition in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The exterior is a stark contrast to its surrounding (and may not be to everyone’s tastes), as you can see in the link below, but the interior stairs are amazing! LINK, Via: Neatorama

Jape - Floating

This is the offical video for Jape's song Floating. It was directed by
M&E and D.A.D.D.Y. Floating is taken from the EP "Jape is Grape". Link, Via: Youtube