ever been on a train this nice?

believe it or not, the photo above is of a train interior in japan.
with the results looking nicer than most nurseries, the japanese have taken the idea of ‘child-friendly public transport’ to the next level with these 2 beauties, both designed by eiji mitooka. he was the artistic force behind ‘omoden’ (toy train) and ‘ichigo […]

7 of the coolest fire stations on earth

i didn’t realise there were so many architecturally incredible fire stations until a few days ago when i lost hours looking into it. turns out there are more than a few. here are, in my humble opinion, the 7 best…
1. vitra fire station, germany
architects: zaha hadid
completed: 1993
current status: inactive
this aesthetically stunning fire station was designed […]

3 frightening flagpoles

is it just me or are these immense structures slightly scary?
the 3 largest flagpoles on earth…
gijeong-dong flagpole, north korea
in the 80s, the south koreans built a huge 328ft tall flagpole in daeseong-dong, an area extremely close to the north korean border. the north koreans then proceeded to build their own larger version about a mile […]

hi-tech wheelchairs

1. tankchair

the tankchair is a custom made off-road wheelchair designed by a guy whose wife was growing increasingly frustrated by the limits of her normal electric wheelchair. this treaded beast can wade through mud, streams, sand, snow and gravel. on his website the creator says, “turns out that other people want a tankchair so i’m […]

the old world’s tallest buildings, 1884

(click on pic for mightier version or go here for mightiest version)
this is incredible.
published in 1884, the diagram above shows the 77 tallest buildings of the old world (europe, asia and africa) at that time. strangely, the 78th and tallest structure shown is from the new world: the washington monument. it stood/stands at 555ft and […]

can you spot the library?

if you’ve ever wanted to feel like an ant, head to the library in either cardiff or kansas missouri: rather than using a traditional front to the building, both have decided to turn the premises into giant bookshelves, creating an extremely surreal experience for passers by.
(photos from flickr are linked to the user’s account) 
cardiff public […]

you’ll never not see art as incredible as this

5 artists who have somehow produced the smallest art you’ll struggle to see…
1. willard wigan (website)

using a hair plucked from a dead fly as a brush, birmingham willard wigan paints miniscule sculptures he has carved from grains of rice and sugar. each ‘brushstroke’ is applied between heartbeats and he has said that the pulse in […]

back of the net

this morning i was sat in a dentist chair in chester, syringe mid-gums, dribble running down my chin, heavy rain lashing against the surgery window, a whole day of work in front of me: basically, at that point i believed that life couldn’t get much better. how very wrong i was.
i just recieved an email […]

top 5 ‘deserted city’ scenes in film

there’s a relatively easy way to give the audience a chill during a film: slip in a shot of a deserted city centre, a city centre that’s notoriously busy in real-life, the scene preferably culminating in the camera panning out to prove the crew didn’t just manage to clear 10ft of road for 5 seconds.
it’s […]

incredible engineering: the maeslant storm surge barrier

the maeslant barrier (maeslantkering), a huge storm surge barrier at the mouth of the port of rotterdam in the netherlands, is the largest hydraulic engineering structure on earth and, according to hard-fact bible wikipedia, ‘the largest moving structure on earth’. it was opened in 1997 as the final part of the delta works, an enormous […]