Back in the 70s, amateur radio enthusiasts around the world began hearing a sharp, repetitive tapping noise at the 10Hz frequency, which disrupted communications and could occasionally be heard over telephone circuits. It was dubbed the “woodpecker” signal, and this was the cause of it: a Russian over-the-horizon anti-ballistic missile system called Duga-3, which could give early warning of missile launches.
This must-be-from-Japan iPhone game is called Tsumineko Mew Mew Tower, and even from the Engrish name, you can pretty much deduce what it’s going to be about. Yeah, you build a tower of cats.
The unique Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo is a futuristic-looking architectural marvel. But without local support for maintenance and preservation, it may not survive long enough for the future to see it.
Financial apocalypse be damned! The Shanghai Tower, set to reach a whopping 632 meters by the time it’s completed, broke ground over the weekend. With its zenith a full 140 metres higher than the Mori Building (currently the world’s highest observatory), it’ll grab the honours of the tallest building in China.
Oh, wow. Apparently, in May, a Brit and a Frenchman snuck on to the under-construction Burj Dubai and BASE jumped from it at 650 metres up. Now, there’s video available of their infiltration, jump and subsequent escape. The footage from up top and the jump is just incredible stuff. I wish I had the cajones to do something like this. Although my favourite part of the video may be the footnote at the end; wait for it, it’s worth it. [Current via Neatorama]
Today’s crazy building comes to us via the architects at design firms MVRDV and ADEPT. And no, “Sky Village” is not headed for Dubai. Instead, the 380-foot “pixelated” structure will rise above the city of Roskildevej—just east of Copenhagen, Denmark. The building will include apartments, a hotel, retail shops and offices as well as sky gardens for residents. The most interesting aspect of the design however involves the adaptability of the pixel living spaces. galleryPost('pixeltower', 3, '');
If you thought the Leaning Tower of Pisa was messed up, get a load of the Capital Gate tower currently being constructed in Abu Dhabi. Actually, saying it is “messed up” is incorrect given that the 18 degree westward incline was completely intentional. In fact, the project’s architects have submitted a joint application to the Guinness Book of Records to recognise the tower as the ‘most inclined in the world.’ In order to support the awkward angle of the 35-story structure, the design called for a foundation of extremely dense reinforced steel mesh and 490 piles sunk nearly 30 metres into the ground. Hmmm…I hope Abu Dhabi doesn’t get a lot of earthquakes. [World Architecture News via The Design Blog] galleryPost('capitalgate', 3, '');
After the Washington Post ran a story about how both Verizon and AT&T tripped over themselves to put up cell towers at John McCain’s Arizona ranch to patch up his crappy reception, Verizon came out huffing with remarkable speed that it “was wrong,” and they just put those towers up because the Secret Service said so and they had to, not because it was John McCain and he’s more specialerer than you. However, the Atlantic’s Joshua Green lays out why Verizon’s denial doesn’t quite add up.
newVideoPlayer("/legotower_gizmodo.flv", 494, 298,""); We told you about the 460,000-brick, 29.48 metre Lego tower before, but here is the video showing how it was built by Lego experts with the help of 3,000 kids, who assembled 121 sections made with 2 x 4 Lego bricks to raise this titanic monolith–the highest ever in world. [460,000-Brick Lego Tower Breaks World Record]
We like Ericsson’s idea for the original Tower Tube–take something as ubiquitous and ugly as a cell tower and add a touch of nice design and a streamlined manufacturing process that saves money and energy. Now they’re taking the idea in another cool direction by adding a four-blade vertical wind turbine to the already-efficient design, allowing it to generate much of its own power. It’s a concept in trial stages currently but something that makes a whole lot of sense. [Ericsson via PC World]
