Behold: the longest glass bottomed bridge in the world, extending for over half a kilometre 200 metres above the Lianjiang River in China’s Huangchuan Three Gorges Scenic Area. Designed by Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University, the span comprises three layers of 4.5cm-thick glass lined with steel and suspended from cables.
Capable of supporting 500 people at a time, it’s a lot more stable than the previous record holder.
Rob Cross tweetz:
My colourised 1949 aerial photo of #Dublin featuring Trinity College, the Custom House, and the old North Wall and George’s Dock areas of the Dublin Docklands before it was transformed into IFSC (International Financial Services Centre)
Behold: the 1971 Lamborghini Miura P400 SV Speciale – the world’s first mid-engined supercar. Launched in 1964 and based on Kiwi test driver Bob Wallace’s experimental Miura Jota, only 764 were made of which only 150 were SVs.
This vehicle, with its original 385bhp 4-litre V12 power plant and Oro Metallizzato paintwork has had a full Concours restoration, making it, arguably, the finest survivor of its type.
Yours at auction tomorrow (for the second time this year) for about €2.25 million.
Antii fascist cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s by Erich Godal, seamlessly reduxed by illustrator Chris Piascik for 2020.
It’s diffuse. And gaseous.
Scarlet for yeh.
Behold: M31, aka NGC 244, aka Andromeda – the closest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. But not as it’s normally seen. To wit:
Some 2.5 million light-years distant it shines in Earth’s night sky as a small, faint, elongated cloud just visible to the unaided eye. Invisible to the eye though, its enormous halo of hot ionised gas is represented in purplish hues for this digital illustration of our neighbouring galaxy above rocky terrain. Mapped by Hubble Space Telescope observations of the absorption of ultraviolet light against distant quasars, the extent and make-up of Andromeda’s gaseous halo has been recently determined by the AMIGA project. A reservoir of material for future star formation, Andromeda’s halo of diffuse plasma was measured to extend around 1.3 million light-years or more from the galaxy. That’s about half way to the Milky Way, likely putting it in contact with the diffuse gaseous halo of our own galaxy.
(Digital Illustration: NASA, ESA, J. DePasquale and E. Wheatley (STScI) and Z. Levay)
Hostels In Ireland tweets:
A spectacular stary night sky over Lough Tay which is nearby our #Glendalough International Hostel.
A new, unhinged episode of DOMO Dreams for Adult Swim Smalls by Jack Wedge.
Just let it wash over you.
Rob Cross tweetz:
My colourised and restored August 1911 Robert French photo of a bustling Rathmines Junction in Dublin featuring pedestrians, cyclists, trams, and horses. Original b&w photo from the National Library of Ireland.
Behold: the 1974 BMW 3.0 CS, more specifically, actor Robert Downey Jr’s newly modified CS, upgraded by autoshop Speedkore with a bespoke leather interior, high performance shocks, wheels, callipers, pistons, a (somewhat chinny, in fairness) carbon fibre front bumper and the rorty 3.6l straight-six engine from an E-34 M5.
