the world of bizarre sound recordings

As I imagine is the case for many deputydog readers, I’m fascinated by anything that goes above and beyond the norm. Having hosted experimental radio for nearly a decade, I’ve had opportunities to hear many truly strange sounds. These are a few standouts of the unlikely and just plain odd recordings I’ve come across. All are beautiful in their own ways– I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

extremely impressive shiny balls

the enormous 34ft diameter shiny ball pictured above goes by the name of ‘la géode’. this stunning metallic structure houses a 1000m² hemispheric imax screen at the ‘cité des sciences et de l’industrie’ in paris. it was designed in 1983 by french architect adrien fainsilber and then realised by engineer gérard chamaillou. it’s apparently one of the largest geodesic domes on earth.

how to disguise a water tower and confuse the public

walking towards the ‘house in the clouds’ in suffolk for the first time can be a confusing experience if you approach from the right angle as the otherwise normal-looking home appears to either float above the trees or perch on a non-existent hill behind the surrounding greenery…

hands down, the coolest skyscraper ever made

there are so many reasons to love this beauty that it’s hard to know where to start. it’s got 13 floors which, to me at least, makes it a skyscraper. it’s entirely made of wood, thus making it a wooden skyscraper. it was made by the fair hands of a single crazy russian man, thus making it a homemade wooden skyscraper. brilliant.

standing in the leg of a giant

with a total weight of 1.2million tonnes, the troll offshore gas platform was built using 245,000m3 of concrete and 100′000 tonnes of steel (apparently the equivalent of 15 eiffel towers), the walls of its legs measuring over a metre thick. following construction, over a period of 7 days, ‘troll a’ was towed from rogaland in norway to the troll gas field in the north sea - a total of more than 200km.

israel’s bizarre uphill subway system

maybe i live a sheltered life but i’ve never been more surprised by a public transport system than when i came across this little beauty. it’s called the carmelit, it runs underground in the citry of haifa, israel and it’s the country’s only subway system. due to the city being located on the side of mount carmel, the entire single track ‘funicular’ system has been designed to accomodate the incline, hence the strange stepped stations and diagonal trains.

(another) 5 extremely cool research facilities

i’m currently hooked on these structures so, hot on the heels of the first 5, here’s another bunch of amazing facilities and fascinating machines that have been created for research purposes.

5 unbelievably cool research facilities

otherwordly structures, massive machines, surreal technology….

some incredible beasts have been constructed in the name of research and below are 5 of the most immediately intriguing…