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Racing for Survival: 13 Extreme Vehicles for the End of the World

03 Nov

[ By SA Rogers in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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If you’ve ever watched The Walking Dead and thought to yourself, “in a zombie apocalypse, I would just find the nearest armored diesel-powered vehicle and pack it full of survival gear,” here’s an array of potential choices to stoke your fantasies. Some are available to the deep-pocketed public and some are technically for military use only, some fully-equipped RVs and others basically just for roaring through utter chaos and making it out alive.

Hudson Armored Personnel Carrier – With a Turret

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You’d be extremely lucky to come across one of these, post-apocalypse, if it happened to be abandoned or not in use. The Hudson Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) by INKAS was designed specifically for SWAT transport and it has a freaking turret. Other notable features include two escape hatches, gunports all around the perimeter and the platform of a ’79 Land Cruiser to make replacement parts and maintenance easy. It’s a lot more fun to imagine roaring around in this thing to escape zombie swarms than it is to envision the sort of real-world situations in which it’s actually used (and that goes for most of the rest of these, too.)

Applied Minds KiraVan

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A lifelong adventurer built one of the world’s most insane vehicles in honor of his four-year-old daughter, envisioning an off-road expedition truck that could take her anywhere on earth without limitation while maintaining the highest levels of luxury. The result is the ‘KiraVan,’ which can travel up to 2,000 miles without resupply, climb 45-degree slopes and push through small bodies of water, not to mention its kevlar-reinforced tires, diesel-powered motorcycle ‘dinghy’ and a massive trailer housing the kid’s own ‘penthouse’ loft.

Mercedes-Benz Zetros 2733 6×6

Mercedes-Benz Zetros

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Built as a luxury RV for rich hunters, the Mercedes-Benz Zetros 6×6 is not your grandfather’s vacation vehicle. It can go off-road, a virtual mobile fortress with ATV storage and extra-tough tires. Inside, there’s a bathroom with marble flooring and underfloor heating, a bedroom, a fully-equipped kitchen, a built-in SAT receiver powered by a diesel generator and a gun safe.

INKAS Huron APC

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An earlier, larger version of the INKAS Hudson, the Huron APC looks like a Hummer on steroids and features “revolutionary lightweight armor” that makes it faster and easier to maneuver than similarly-sized armored vehicles. It can carry up to 16 passengers, and its engine bay is protected by the same armor that’s capable of shielding its crew from AK-47 fire. With a price tag of over half a million dollars, not even the richest civilians can buy it – it’s intended for police and military missions only.

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Racing For Survival 13 Extreme Vehicles For The End Of The World

[ By SA Rogers in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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Split Level: Segmented Russian Rock Dwelling Bridges Lake & Cliff

02 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Steep sites with limited buildable areas have always proved challenging for architects, but this home aims to navigate rocky terrain by breaking up a single dwelling into stair-connected segments.

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Designed by Igor Sirotov, the PS1 House is a private residence to be built onto a series of stone lips that span from the lake’s surface below to access points above.

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Weathered steel and concrete blend the buildings into the landscape while physically linking them via steps and railings as well.

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The idea was driven in part by a desire to minimize the building’s footprint and need to alter the natural landscape, taking advantage of existing natural formations.

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The design borrows from Modernist and Brutalist camps, austere but materially rich with aging in mind.

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Steel frames and stone floors match the color and pattern palettes of surrounding site elements, providing semi-permeable shelters for bedrooms, kitchens and dining spaces at intervals between the top and bottom.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Earth from a New Perspective: ‘Overview’ Aerial Shots Reveal Hidden Beauty

01 Nov

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Planned community of Sun Lakes, Arizona

Other than a few brief glimpses near airports, few of us ever get to see the Earth from high up in the sky, taking in all of the complex textures and patterns created by nature and human activity. If we could, we might feel more inclined to do all that we could to protect it. This phenomenon, as experienced by astronauts when viewing our small, fragile planet from space, is called the ‘overview effect,’ and it serves as the inspiration behind a series of stunning aerial photographs by Benjamin Grant.

A highway interchange in Jacksonville, FL

World's largest aircraft storage facility, Tucson, Arizona — World’s largest aircraft storage facility, Tucson, Arizona

Residential communities in Boca Raton, FL

‘Overview: A New Perspective of Earth’ is a new hardcover book full of over 200 aerial images taken of sites all over the world, from industrial areas of South Korea and fields in Ethiopia to planned communities in South Florida. Grant initially started the project as an Instagram series in December 2013, selecting high-resolution satellite photographs that reveal the extent to which we have altered the surface of the planet upon which we live and curating them into a thoughtful, emotional collection.

Agricultural development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Residential neighborhood in Delray Beach, FL

“What I’m really trying to get across here is that we’ve entered an important time in human history where our home has been significantly altered,” Grant told Wired in a 2015 interview.

The Gemasolar Thermosolar Plant, Seville, Spain

Grant searches aerial shots relating to a specific current event or environmental issue to find the ones that have the biggest impact, striking us as visually beautiful even when the imagery depicts tragedy. Some examples include shots of a refugee camp in Kenya, shrinking ice sheets and the choked streets of the world’s most populated cities. Take a look through the feed on DailyOverview.com, or order the book on Amazon.

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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Creative Currency: 33 Sculptural Works of Art Made From Coins

31 Oct

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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These works of art are literally made of money, yet worth more than the sum of their parts – but do they support or negate the argument that coins should be obsolete as currency? Artists use pennies, nickels, half dollars, Eurocents and other coins to craft murals, mosaics, sculptural busts and benches, or just carve into their faces, modifying them into pop culture icons like Frankenstein and E.T.

Hand-Engraved Coins by Shaun Hughes

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UK-based engraver Shaun Hughes etches decorative designs onto coin faces, embellishing therewith curlicue and floral patterns or adding flowing hair.

Hobo Nickels by Paolo Curcio

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Following in the hobo nickel tradition, an inexpensive and highly portable art form involving the modificationn of coins, artist Paolo Curcio adorns a variety of coins with pop culture imagery, skulls and more, including the heads of clowns, Frankenstein and E.T.

Geometric Coin Sculptures by Robert Wechsler

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Artist Robert Wechsler cuts slits into coins that enable him to build complex three-dimensional sculptures, including a series for The New Yorker. The sculptures can consist of as few as four coins, up into the thousands.

Welded Euro Sculptures by Gabriel Rufete

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Whether stacked on top of each other or welded at their edges, coins provide the basis for surprisingly detailed sculptures of human forms by Gabriel Rufete.

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Creative Currency 33 Sculptural Works Of Art Made From Coins

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Garden of Whispers: Surreal Sand Dunes Fill 13th-Century Gothic Church

31 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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A makeshift wooden walkway winds along a strand-lit and tree-lined path between dunes, creating a surreal environment within the context of this historic church.

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Set in a religious space in Toulouse, this strange journey is punctuated by small vignettes that speak to the history of the place. In addition to physical installations and visuals, the space features a soundscape of whispered voices playing in the background and array of carefully generated aromas.

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Along their way through the sandscape, visitors will find a full campsite nestled in the low hills as well as other small shelters with pots, pans, bedding and fireplaces – temporary and nomadic signals juxtaposed with a sturdy historical structure.

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The materials date from various ages, including modern plastics as well as ancient-looking tents of rough-hewn wood and fabric. The end result fits the artist’s aim of “creating a timeless experience outside known references.”

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Nor is the experience entirely static – live persons add dynamism to the mix. Artist Hans Op De Beeck “has staged a number of serene figures that quietly perform mundane, everyday acts. From time to time, these silent live performers offer tea to visitors.”

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“Overall, the ‘Garden of Whispers’ incorporates a range of historical, religious and mythological references, yet most importantly, aims to offer a profound experience of the present, regardless of explicit references.” The temporary installation will be open to the public through this November.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Scrubbed: 10 Unclean Abandoned Soap Factories

30 Oct

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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These abandoned soap factories sure look filthy… if only there was something that could scrub away the dirt & grime, making them look shiny and new again.

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The old abandoned Wink Soap Company building in Racine, Wisconsin was built in 1900 though Wink didn’t move in until 1938. The company then proceeded to make soap like it was going out of style – it wasn’t but Wink was, shutting down their soap-making operations in 1980. The building, still sporting its handsome though faded painted sign, looks like it closed fairly recently instead of 35-odd years ago.

Hosed Down

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This abandoned soap factory somewhere in France isn’t much to look at but within its bland decaying shell, a graffiti masterwork by the artist Ziru complements the factory’s detritus of hoses and rust. Kudos to Flickr user Romany WG who captured this ephemeral artwork for posterity in mid-October of 2011.

Finnished

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This abandoned soap factory in Kaarina, southwestern Finland, is close enough to a major city (Turku, in this case) to attract graffiti artists yet isolated enough to let them do their deeds in relative privacy.

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It’s not known why the factory closed – supplying all those saunas must have been good for business. Kudos to Flickr user WIGILOCO for snapping these images and more on a visit to the factory in late 2010.

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Scrubbed 10 Unclean Abandoned Soap Factories

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Furniture Chopping: Converted Grocery Cart Chair & Couch Pair

30 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

converted shopping cart couch

Shopping carts are anything but sleek and modern, often dysfunctional and generally associated with a boring chore, at least until this (re)creator came along.

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Etiënne Reijnders is a Dutch designer who decided to test the stylistic limits of grocery carts, cutting, sawing, folding, forging and welding them into stunning new shapes.

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The resulting seats utilize almost all of the material from the original carts, carefully planned to minimize waste while also creating beautiful and functional seating.

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Reijnders is not the first designer to think of recycling everyday materials into furniture (the example above comes from another designer), but the results in his case somehow manage to bridge the gap between looking both like the recycled object but also something dynamic and new.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Furniture & Decor. ]

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World’s First All-Electric Mobile Office Built Into a Nissan Van

29 Oct

[ By SA Rogers in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

Who wants to sit in a stale, noisy central office when they could take their job – not to mention the coffee maker – on the go instead? This Nissan vehicle houses the world’s first all-electric mobile office, and it’s more than just a fold-down desk in the back of a van. The whole enviable setup includes a panoramic glass roof, wood flooring with built-in LED lights, an intelligent system that adjusts the lighting and color, wireless mobile charging and an espresso machine that pops up out of the counter.

Devised to show off what the e-nv200 van can do, the mobile office concept spotlights changing workspace trends, especially as flexible and remote working becomes more widespread. Lots of workers are no longer chained to permanent desks anymore, with the freedom to do their jobs from any number of places.

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Both of the side sliding doors on the e-nv200 can be opened, along with the split rear doors, to open up the office to the worker’s chosen surroundings. Drive the van to the park, a beach or any other spot that inspires you and helps you focus, pull out the floating deck at the rear and enjoy working conditions most of us can only dream about.

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The fold-down desk console features a built-in touch screen computer, wireless mouse and keyboard along with storage space and stationery supplies, and there’s even a mount inside one of the rear doors for a folding Brompton bike if you want to take a break and get some exercise. Watch the video to take in all of the details.

[ By SA Rogers in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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Desert Farm Grows Food Without Soil, Groundwater, Fuel or Pesticides

28 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

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Using the sun and the sea, renewable sources of energy and water, a desert farming operation in Australia show how organic food in a fresh new and sustainable way.

The soil-free hydroponic systems of Sundrop Farms use solar energy to filter brackish water for use on crops, growing 17,000 metric tons of food annually. The sun’s energy also powers, heats and cools the greenhouses as needed, reflected via a series of 23,000 mirrors. In contrast, a “conventional greenhouse uses groundwater for irrigation, gas for heating, and electricity for cooling.”

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The “plants are grown hydroponically, which is the technical way of saying we don’t use soil. Our plants flourish on nutrient-rich coconut husks instead.” Additional climate and irrigation controls allow the farm to maximize outputs with minimized inputs.

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The desert location as well as natural control strategies allow Sundrop to accomplish their goals without harmful, expensive or polluting inputs as well. “Unlike traditional agriculture we use no fertilizers and no weed killers. We control plant eating bugs with carnivorous ones, just the way nature intended.”

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Sundrop’s success illustrates the possibilities of working in a world where water, land and energy are all scarce and valuable. Moreover, the farm shows that fruits and vegetables can be produced year-round in any conditions thanks to hydroponics and green energy, from rural wastelands to urban food deserts.

“Because we do everything in a controlled environment, we know what our input costs are, and we’re doing everything on a renewable basis, we can provide real consistency of supply and a higher quality product at a better price year ’round,” said Philipp Saumweber, chairman and CEO of Sundrop Farms.

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“Existing farming practices are unsustainable,” explains Sundrop. They generally use fossil fuels, excessive groundwater and require appropriate soil and weather conditions. “Yet by 2050 rising populations will see a 50% increase in food demand. Climate change is increasing the number and the severity of catastrophic weather events. And water scarcity is becoming more acute in arid regions. We need to look at alternative ways to create energy and to produce food. That’s no longer a preferred option but a necessity. Fortunately however, things are starting to change.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

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Audi Ad Fakery: These Hyperrealistic Photos Were Made with a $40 Scale Model

27 Oct

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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These photos may seem to depict a $ 160,000 luxury automobile zooming through sand, snow, sea foam and salt flats, but the objects on your screen are smaller than they appear. The lack of a person sitting in the driver’s seat is not an indication that the car is self-driving: it’s because the car itself stands only a few inches tall. This version of it, anyway. Photographer Felix Hernandez bought a $ 40 scale model of the Audi R8 sports car on the internet and created the sets in his studio, with astonishingly realistic results.

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The automaker commissioned Hernandez to create the series as a promotion for the high-end car. As behind-the-scenes photo of his studio setup reveal, most of the work is done with miniatures and special effects rendered mostly in ordinary edible household products. Careful lighting, staging and camera angles make the models appear full-sized, so minimal Photoshopping is needed for the final effect.

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“I love photo manipulation and digital art, but what’s really cool is doing as much as you can in-camera,” says Hernandez in a piece he wrote for PetaPixel. “For snow scenes, I use wheat flour. For desert scenes, I use corn flour. For atmosphere, I add smoke. For rain, I spray water. For droplets, I add corn syrup. In some photos, I add images into my background. I also use Photoshop for adding effects that are difficult or impossible to do in-camera – things like adding a sense of motion, color grading, etc.”

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Previous photosets have included a series in which the artist took photos of a young boy and a miniature boat and blended them together in Photoshop, as well as Stormtrooper figurines hand-painted to make them appear more rugged and worn. See them all on Behance.

360Photography

Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Racing for Survival: 13 Extreme Vehicles for the End of the World

Hudson Armored Personnel Carrier – With a Turret

Applied Minds KiraVan

Mercedes-Benz Zetros 2733 6×6

INKAS Huron APC

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Racing For Survival 13 Extreme Vehicles For The End Of The World

Split Level: Segmented Russian Rock Dwelling Bridges Lake & Cliff

Earth from a New Perspective: ‘Overview’ Aerial Shots Reveal Hidden Beauty

Creative Currency: 33 Sculptural Works of Art Made From Coins

Hand-Engraved Coins by Shaun Hughes

Hobo Nickels by Paolo Curcio

Geometric Coin Sculptures by Robert Wechsler

Welded Euro Sculptures by Gabriel Rufete

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Creative Currency 33 Sculptural Works Of Art Made From Coins

Garden of Whispers: Surreal Sand Dunes Fill 13th-Century Gothic Church

Scrubbed: 10 Unclean Abandoned Soap Factories

Hosed Down

Finnished

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Scrubbed 10 Unclean Abandoned Soap Factories

Furniture Chopping: Converted Grocery Cart Chair & Couch Pair

World’s First All-Electric Mobile Office Built Into a Nissan Van

Desert Farm Grows Food Without Soil, Groundwater, Fuel or Pesticides

Audi Ad Fakery: These Hyperrealistic Photos Were Made with a $40 Scale Model

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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Hudson Armored Personnel Carrier – With a Turret

Applied Minds KiraVan

Mercedes-Benz Zetros 2733 6×6

INKAS Huron APC

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Racing For Survival 13 Extreme Vehicles For The End Of The World

Hand-Engraved Coins by Shaun Hughes

Hobo Nickels by Paolo Curcio

Geometric Coin Sculptures by Robert Wechsler

Welded Euro Sculptures by Gabriel Rufete

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Creative Currency 33 Sculptural Works Of Art Made From Coins

Hosed Down

Finnished

Next Page – Click Below to Read More: Scrubbed 10 Unclean Abandoned Soap Factories

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Racing For Survival 13 Extreme Vehicles For The End Of The World

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Creative Currency 33 Sculptural Works Of Art Made From Coins

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Scrubbed 10 Unclean Abandoned Soap Factories