Nov 21 2008 Bridge Constructed By Shooting Cable-Carrying Rockets Across Huge Valley
Just look at that bridge. I was almost tempted to call it Photoshopped, but then I remembered I'm not a stupid idiot. The Siduhe Grand Bridge has been in construction for over 4 years and stands 2,132 feet above the ground below. Holy shit! One of the initial problems with building the bridge was how to get the 3,200ft long cables across the valley. The answer? Attach them to rockets and blast them across.
so you've erected the enormous towers on each side of the deep valley, deeper than any valley previously bridged. how do you get a pilot cable from one tower to the next? previous solutions have included: attaching the cable to a kite and flying it over (e.g. niagara falls suspension bridge), carrying one end by helicopter (e.g. akashi kaikyo bridge) and floating one end on a boat (e.g. brooklyn bridge). the brains behind the siduhe bridge decided to ignore all those options and break another record instead. they attached the 3200ft cables to rockets and accurately fired them over the valley, becoming the first people to do so.
Hell yes! Ah, ingenuity at its finest. And also, rocket power. PSSSSSHOOOW! But seriously, for a case of beer I'll let you shoot me out of a cannon. Two cases and I'll even wear a paper hat.
Hit the jump for several pictures of the actual rocket firings. Pretty cool stuff.
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Sep 17 2008 World's Shortest Man Meets Leggiest Woman
The Guinness Book of World Records held an event yesterday in Trafalgar Square to celebrate the release of the 2009 edition. Among the attendees were Svetlana Pankratova, world's leggiest woman (at 52"), and He Pingping, the world's shortest man (at 2' 5.37"). As you can see, the photoshoot gave He the perfect opportunity to score a worm's eye view of Svetlana's love nest. Nice He, but if I was you I would have climbed one of those legs and built a treehouse.
Shortest Man Meets Leggiest Woman [aol]
Thanks to Pat, who swears he dated a chick with even longer legs and had to use a grappling hook to have sex.
Aug 19 2008 Eye Candy: The Burj Dubai Nears Completion
The Burj Dubai tower, tallest building in the world, is soon to be completed. So photographer David Hobcote took a bunch of high-res pictures from the air to commemorate the 2,087 ft structure. As you can see, the results are breathtaking. And, if you don't start again, potentially lifetaking.
Hit the jump for several more of the ridiculousness.
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Jun 12 2008 Chicago Building World's 2nd Tallest Building
Chicago has started construction of the world's 2nd tallest building, the Chicago Spire, which, when completed in 2011, will stand 610 meters (2,000 feet) tall. However, the accolade will be short lived, as the 612 meter (2,009 foot) Russian Tower in Moscow is scheduled for completion in 2012. The Chicago Spire will be the world's tallest residential-only building though, and have 150 floors with 1,194 condominiums ranging in price from $750,000 to $40 million (a nice place to visit but a better place to rob). Let's see, what else? Ah yes, the spire makes one complete 360 degree turn from top to bottom and "has been labeled as a giant 'drill bit' by the public and others in the media have likened it to a 'tall twisting tree' and a 'blade of grass'". Wow, those are the worst descriptions I've ever heard. These people are either pretentious a-holes are high as hell on their own 'twisted trees' and 'blades of grass'. Seriously, it's a giant freaking dildo.
May 6 2008 Tallest LEGO Tower Is Pretty Tall, But Wired
I know what you're all thinking, "Damn, Geekologie ain't had no sweet LEGO posts in awhile, how am I supposed to get my fix?" Well put the needles down my friends, the LEGO post is back, this time in the form of a monster puke colored tower. The Legoland Windsor theme park in England recently broke the world record for tallest LEGO structure (which was 96.1 feet) with this motley mother. The scraper of skies stands inches short of 100 feet (add a couple more blocks you fools!) and took just under a billion individual LEGO blocks to complete. Did you fall for that? I was just wondering if you'd believe that if I said it. Because it didn't really take a billion blocks, just 500,000. It's pretty awesome and all, but how about removing those wire tethers? That makes it kind of questionable. I want to see it stand on its own. Which is why I just started construction of the world's tallest freestanding LEGO tower. I made it to five feet but ran out of blocks. So I tore a couple blocks off the top and created a mask. That's right folks -- I'm robbing Toys "R" Us, wish me luck.
UPDATE: A pimply teenage clerk hit me in the face with a broom handle and my mask broke. They recognized me as the guy who's always hanging out in the LEGO section. I tried to grab one of the new Indiana Jones sets and make a run for it, but some hag hit me with her shopping cart and threw my back out. Now I'm laying face down in a holding cell at the police station with a slipped disk or something. Some other guy keeps touching my ass and I keep telling him to stop. I can't even see what he looks like. I guess the real lesson here is this: next time I'm making my mask out of K'Nex.
A couple more pictures of the LEGO highness after the jump.
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Dec 12 2007 World's Highest Tennis Court Is High As Hell
Yes the picture's real. Burj Al Arab in Dubai is home to the world's highest tennis court (at times). At 210 meters (about 690 feet), it's pretty far up there. Way higher than I'd feel comfortable running around hitting a ball. The court doubles as a landing pad when there aren't any matches being played, and as a place to shit your pants the rest of the time.
Video of Andre Agassi and some other guy playing tennis up there after the jump. I like how at the end they just start wailing balls off of the side trying to hit things. Because that's what I would do.
Continue Reading " World's Highest Tennis Court Is High As Hell "
Dec 6 2007 World's Highest Commercial Bungee Jump
The world's highest commercial bungee jump is at the Macau Tower in China. You leap from 233 meters (764 feet, or about 61 floors). It looks pretty high up if you ask me. As much as I do love extreme sports (Counterstrike, eating contests, sex without protection) I don't think I could do it. But not because I'm scared of heights. Because I'm not. It's because I heard a guy jumped off and then bounced back into the stratosphere and got sucked into a jet engine. Yep, and I don't want that to happen to me. The height has nothing to do with it.
Video action after the jump (!)
Nov 28 2007 World's Fastest Zipline Reaches 100 MPH
The world's fastest zipline resides in Sun City, South Africa. They also claim it's the tallest and longest, but I think that's debatable. You ride the thing with a damn fin between your legs to keep you straight while reaching a top speed of 100 mph. Wow this thing is awesome, and it fulfills a lifelong dream of mine: To feel like you're about to die right before crashing into the South African desert and really dying. Awesome!
Continue Reading " World's Fastest Zipline Reaches 100 MPH "
Nov 6 2007 Great Wheel of China Ferris Wheel Is Huge
China is constructing the world's largest Ferris Wheel. It was supposed to be ready for the summer games, but apparently won't open until 2009. It will have 48 separate gondola-like pods, each capable of holding 40 passengers (for a total of 1920 people at one time!), and will reach a maximum height of 680 feet. Making it significantly taller than any other. I'm just hoping a ride isn't as painful as watching this thing. Now I'm not recommending you jump out of this Ferris Wheel at its max height, I'm just saying I know a kid that got a year pass to Disney for falling out of Space Mountain.
World's tallest Ferris Wheel coming up in China [newlaunches]
Aug 21 2007 Japan's Plan For World's Tallest Building
Inspired by Mount Fuji, Taisei Construction Corporation has completed designs for construction of the world's tallest building. The X-Seed 4000 would stand at approximately 13,123 feet (4 km), nearly 700 feet (213 m) taller than the real Mount Fuji. The next tallest buildings don't even break 2,000 feet, how puny! While likely to never be built, the X-Seed would have up to 800 floors, and be capable of housing between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people.
Unlike conventional skyscrapers, the X-Seed 4000 would be required to actively protect its occupants from considerable air pressure gradations and weather fluctuations along its massive elevation. Its design calls for the use of solar power to maintain internal environmental conditions. Some estimate that the cost to construct the X-Seed 4000 structure may be somewhere between $300-900 billion US dollars.
Now I'm no astronomer or anything, but if I learned anything in grade school, it's that 13,123 feet is pretty much the distance to the sun. Which means that the top floor would be perfect for a natural sauna. You heard it here first, if they end up doing that I want credit.
A few more conceptual pictures after the jump.
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