Ever wondered just how busy your street is? Telraam is a clever technical initiative that enables ordinary residents to gather data on the traffic passing their window. The Telraam sensor continuously monitors a street from a citizen’s window, providing crucial data on various types of transport, including...
These so-called Strandbeesten, ‘Beach Animals’, are the work of artist Theo Jansen from The Hague in the Netherlands. They are extraordinary ‘animals’ built out of electrical tubing and cloth… with a few squillion cable ties holding things together! They can regularly be seen walking on one of...
Next time you go to Bletchley Park, you might want to take a look beforehand at this really clear and simple explanation of how the WW2 German Enigma machine worked. It’s the latest video in Jared Owen’s series of 3D animations explaining how things work, and it...
This looks good! It’s a behind-the-scenes video about a new crowd-funded movie called ‘Litvyak’ about WW2 Soviet fighter pilot, Lidiya Litvyak, flight commander of the 3rd Aviation Squadron and a Hero of the Soviet Union. Before she was shot down and killed, aged just 22, on 1st...
I didn’t realise restoration videos were a ‘thing’, but our new surreal circumstances act as a catalyst for new discoveries and experiences. Where many have used self-isolation as an enforced opportunity to binge-watch movies and TV series, I have found myself wading through a backlog of Youtube...
This month, FCA Italy, the Turin-based subsidiary of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, finished converting a former 15,000 m2 workspace at their Mirafiori manufacturing plant into a home for 250 historic Fiat, Lancia and Abarth cars. Some of the cars have been arranged into specific themes. Each theme displays...
Gulliver’s Gate is a miniature world in Times Square, New York. I love a good modelscape. How did I miss this one? How did I miss this one for a whole year?? It turns out NYC launched its own version of Hamburg’s fabulous Miniatur Wunderland back in...
Virgin Galactic has just successfully tested its new spaceship, Unity. Yesterday’s flight was the first powered flight for a Virgin Galactic spaceship since the fatal accident on a test flight in 2014. VSS Unity took off from their base in the Mojave desert at 8:02am with...
Engineers can be SO cool! This is a fascinating video of a company called ALE*, who specialised in moving/lifting/sliding heavy stuff, swapping out a 7.5 ton crankshaft from an engine on the cruise liner MS Zaandam. This is small-scale, bread & butter stuff (they did two cruise...
Yesterday, Disney Parks & Resorts unveiled a detailed model of Star Wars Land, scheduled to open at Walt Disney World and Disneyland in 2019. Star Wars Land is not based on a specific location in the Star Wars canon, but instead recreates a remote trading port on...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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