Tag: Rolls

  • Traffic-Proof Transit: Real Car-Straddling Bus Rolls Out in China

    [ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

    lanebusfeature

    Initial plans to develop a lane-spanning bus in China were met with great enthusiasm but some skepticism, the latter of which is now being addressed versus a real-life, full-sized prototype.

    The idea is simple: a bus that arches over traffic, neither hindered by nor hindering other vehicles on the road. Its mass and reduced need to start and stop also make the bus more sustainable than most transit options.

    lanebus2

    The mega-vehicle is spacious and vast, 72 feet long, 25 feet wide and 16 feet tall. With seven feet of clearance, leaves plenty of room below for ordinary road vehicles.

    lanebustest

    The bus runs on specialized tracks on either side of two-lane traffic roadways and can carry up to 300 passengers at top speeds of up to 60 miles per hour.

    Since the concept has been demonstrated, countries including Brazil, France, India and Indonesia have expressed interest in the TEB-1 system, hoping to deploy it on their own congested urban roadways.

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    [ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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  • Photographer finds 1200 rolls of unprocessed film from 1950s

    One of the 66 bundles of undeveloped film, which total an estimated 1,200 rolls, all shot by a single photographer in the 1950s. Far too much for Levi Bettwieser to develop himself.  

    Levi Bettwieser is the founder and film technician for The Rescued Film Project – an archive of images from ‘lost and forgotten’ rolls of film, sourced from all over the word. Last year, Bettwieser acquired 66 packages of undeveloped film from the 1950s, totaling an estimated 1,200 rolls.

    Each package is made up of several rolls of undeveloped film, meticulously wrapped in aluminum foil, newspaper and athletic tape and as Bettwieser explains, ‘this is way more film than I can process myself.’ The single roll that he has developed shows some degradation but has yielded usable images. 

    Blue Moon Camera in Portland has agreed to take on the task of developing the rest of the unprocessed film, but even with a discount, processing so many rolls is going to cost a lot of money. Bettwieser has launched a funding campaign on Indiegogo.com, and at time of writing, his team has raised roughly a third of the total funding goal of $ 15,000.

    If you’re interested in this project, you might enjoy reading a series of articles that we published in 2014. 

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Reading Railroad: Chicago Rolls Out Mobile Train Car Libraries

    [ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

    reading railroad

    A project in Chicago is turning train cars in the city’s elevated rail network into moving libraries, providing free reads for travelers and commuters using the public transit system.

    mobile library movement

    mobile book library readin

    The Books On the L lending project began as a concept pitched during Chicago Ideas Week and operates with a simple and effective lending policy for this novel type of mobile library: you can read as long as you ride.

    books on the subway

    The Chicago Transit Authority trains will be populating cars with volumes from hundreds of genres, and could potentially give access to thousands more if they implemented QR codes for ebook reading devices.

    mobile reading chicago

    The same idea has informally manifested itself in other cities as well, part of a larger Books on the Subway (or Underground) movement that ranges from ‘find a book, leave a book’ ideals to more organized endeavors in places including London, Washington D.C. and New York City. But readers beware: become too engrossed in your borrowed page-turner and you may miss your stop.

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  • Lensbaby rolls out Composer Pro II and Edge 50 Optic

    Lensbaby has announced new additions to its lens lineup with the Composer Pro II and Edge 50 Optic. The Composer Pro II houses the swap-able optic, updating the original Composer with an ‘upgraded’ metal body, and the 50mm equivalent F3.2 Edge optic provides a tilt shift effect slice of focus that can be moved around the frame. Read more

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Escape Artist: Giant Ball Rolls Down Streets, ‘Round Corners

    [ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

    redballroll

    Wind and rain conspired to set loose a gigantic inflatable piece of installation art, turning it into a kind of impromptu performance piece for drivers and bystanders as one (very big) red balloon rolled by. In some regards, the resulting viral sensation has taken on a life of its own, extending the reach of the sculpture far beyond its target audience.

    caught

    Designed to be a source of urban interaction, the RedBall was in the process of being wedged between two downtown businesses before being redirected by forces of nature. Museum staff, installation participants and a handful of bystanders chased the recently-liberated sphere down the streets, eventually catching, deflating and returning it to the installation site. Instagram user jeremy419 happened to catch much of the action from atop a nearby building. Meanwhile, a hacked version of video puts a fresh tomato-style spin on this unexpectedly interactive work of  art.

    freshtomatoe

    The museum’s director of communications, Kelly Garrow, recapped the sequence of events for reporters: “It started pouring rain, so the ball was wet and slippery. The wind picked up, and it popped up and just started going. You can see in the video that’s going viral that it rolled about halfway down a block and then mysteriously took a left-hand turn. It made its way partially down the street before people caught up with it.

    red ball escape

    Despite its size (15 feet in diameter), the ball weighs only 250 pounds, minimizing its potential for damage to one bent street sign – quite tame compared to rounded corporate art sculpture set loose in Fight Club as part of Project Mayhem.

    public ball of art

    A world-traveling artwork, the ball was created by Kurt Perschke to be pressed into tight spaces and has been in play for nearly a decade without incident. Meanwhile, add this escapee to Nena’s 99 Luftballons lyrics and you get a nice rounded “100 red balloons go by.”

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  • Google rolls out standalone Photos app with unlimited free storage

    Confirming rumors from earlier in the week, Google has announced its new Photos app – a standalone service that separates the photo component of its Google Plus app. It’s available now for Google and iOS and comes with unlimited free storage of 16MP or smaller images. Read more

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Adobe rolls out Lightroom CC and Lightroom 6 with HDR and panorama tools

    Adobe has announced standalone and Creative Cloud versions of its image management and Raw conversion software, Lightroom. Among other new features the latest versions gain simple HDR and Panorama merging tools that create 16-bit DNG files from the merged results.  Read more

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Canon rolls out PowerShot SX410 IS and ELPH 350 HS compacts

    Rounding out its pre-CP+ announcements, Canon has introduced two new PowerShot compacts – the SX410 IS and the ELPH 350 HS/IXUS 275 HS. The SX410 offers a 24-960mm equivalent zoom range, a 20MP CCD sensor, 720p video and Canon’s Intelligent IS stabilization. The PowerShot 350 HS assumes a more compact form with a 25-300mm equivalent zoom range, 20.2MP CMOS sensor, built-in Wi-Fi with NFC and 1080p video. Read more

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Adobe rolls out CC update with new desktop and mobile tools

    Adobe has announced updates to several of its mobile and desktop software applications, just in time to kick off the company’s Adobe Max conference. While Photoshop itself only receives a couple of minor updates, such as more 3D printing profiles, there are some interesting new features added to the Adobe ecosystem. Among them is a new Libraries feature, making it possible to save layers and graphic elements for use across apps and platforms. Read more

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Sony rolls out Zeiss FE 16-35mm F4 wide angle zoom and HVL-F32M flash

    Sony has announced the Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS for its E-mount interchangeable lens cameras, as well as the HVL-F32M flash and XLR-K2M XLR audio adaptor kit. The 16-35mm is the fifth full-frame zoom for Sony’s Alpha 7 series. Read more

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)