Studio view — new work in progress

Here is a funky phone cam view looking back from the front of the studio of some new work in progress (click to enlarge):

Russian smokestack implosion

Here’s a great shot from English Russia (click the pic to enlarge):

Russian smokestack implodes

Says English Russia, which posted a series of pictures and a video of this smokestack collapse:

After the Soviet Era too much of objects stay abandoned in Russia and with the modern rise of development of new business and residential areas more and more are need to be removed from the terrain. Many controlled demolition companies act on this market, sometimes they have some nice objects to remove like those two old factory chimneys.

Newsmash: September 18, 2008

Time for another edition of Newsmash, a mashup of headlines taken from CNN.com over the last 24 hours. For added fun, guess which of the headlines below was NOT altered in any way, but appears just as it did on CNN.com (*answer following):

Amish invade Florida town

Baby squirrel to help count California rats

Best dressed sheriff loves house standing

Blind masseurs jump from bridge

Candy may prevent attack

How to avoid places that are good for teeth

How we got into this meltdown

Is boutique passenger jet worth the price?

Japanese glasses caught in submarine

Man finds dead satellite

Medicine gains in mass popularity

Mystery of bloody money mess

Orbiting shark scrambles for safe milk

Parents you’ve never heard of

Reality warned to back off

Rescuers free giant lizards from toilet

Russian roulette takes center stage

Squealing cat beats pig to death

This administration allegedly survives hurricane

Who gives better answers, people or miracle cat?

*And the winner is… Blind masseurs jump from bridge. Sometimes you just can’t beat reality, so… Reality warned to back off!

Ike Wavewall

Hurricane Ike wavewall TexasIke Wavewall, a future persona of mine. Currently the title of this great image of Hurricane Ike making his presence felt on along the Texas coast. Ike has already innundated Galveston Island. From CNN.com: Sea floods Texas island; get out or ‘certain death’. I don’t recall ever hearing a warning as definitively dire as this one from the weather service:

“All neighborhoods … and possibly entire coastal communities … will be inundated during the peak storm tide,” the weather service warned. “Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family one- or two-story homes will face certain death.”

Ike guy waveThat’s quite a guarantee. Apparently the last time such language was used, three years ago,  a hurricane named Katrina was bearing down on the Gulf coast.

Now, if just by not evacuating and remaining at or near the coast makes you eligible for “certain death”, what exactly is this guy on the left getting set up for? Immediate certain death? No, I got it: Sudden Death. Sudden Onset Death Syndrome (SODS). Or, Hurricane Induced Denial & Elimination Syndrome (HIDES).

Get out of there, people. Get out.

Physicists make the best sculptors: The Large Helical Device

If you want more proof that physicists are the best sculptors working today, beyond the Large Hadron Collider about to come online in Switzerland, look no further than the Large Helical Device Project in Japan — click the pic to see a larger version:

Large Helical Device

Whatever this thing does, it does it beautifully.