Has Anyone Seen Anything Like it?

Thanks Mate. That's them. Its just such a surprise to suddenly find some as exquisite as those. Thanks, Ky.

And thanks to you too Rohrschach.

You know, it seems like a trivial thing to look at them but there is so much engineering involved if you think about it. I am aware that this is so in all of nature but this seems to stand out and could give clues about building.

I am a big fan of Gaudi and I wonder if he ever saw these grow and maybe got inspiration from them. Just give me time and a few million $$ and I would start tomorrow.

Here is what I mean. Thanks again for the reply. Got a fwew million stashed away somewhere?

I also love this guy - truly unsung dude.

Troll through the 'noted works'

Yep, him and Kandinsky inspired many of my paintings. Got to get to the building one day, Ky.

This reminds me of Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase", shown in 1913 at the Armory in New York. A reporter described it as an "Explosion in a Shingle Factory." (Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" same year, also with riotous protest.)

For 2013, I would like my artist wife to reverse this gig by painting a classical Botticelli nude descending a staircase, but titling it "Explosion in a Shingle Factory."

I wonder how many people would get the joke after a whole century.

***

Those basket/lace/cage fungi are sure cute. But they all seem to be in the "stinkhorn" group. When mature, they exude an odorous slime that attracts flies, which in turn propagate the spores. Before the mature stage, some of these are edible, but I have no idea how tasty they would(n't) be.

U can rely on me Mrs Tornado - Do It!

Looks like he was a fun gi to be with.

nice one

thank you.

here is a better look at the works...

I especially like this

Yeah - did all that - but still can't find "The" staircase he did.

All the 'concrete math gurus' said it would never even "self support", and when it did - demanded ridiculous test levels - which it passed - easily.

I'm fairly sure it was when he was pioneering steam curing, but don't remember which project it had to do with.

just poking around at your suggestion... only found this staircase.

Yes please, I'll have one. Looks solid enough for me anyway.

Ti's loverly, and thanks for the finding of.

You can see why the "establishment" of the day reacted. Doubly so as it's not "straight!' (in plan) and 'the top is not even connected to the building!'

(looks a bit chunkier in the legs and 'squarer' in the "armpits" than I remember, but that was a millennia ago)

NOT BAD..... but i prefer this ones!

Me again

I suppose some of you would not be very interested in such mundane things as funghi. What have they to do with engineering? Well, here is a link that uses bacteria to create structures. Some of you might have heard about this proposal. To the others it might be worthwhile taking 10min. and to have a look.

Surprisingly (not for me) a certain "swing of things" falls into place, just by itself (?).

Here is the link, enjoy, Ky.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/magnus_larsson_turning_dunes_into_architecture.html

You've consumed so many mushrooms in your life.. why stop now?

Next we address edible vs smokable....

Take care some buitifull colored creatures are quite piosonous. I heared as general rule shiny colored mshroom, stripped black and yellow insects and red and black colored frogs are piosonous.

Gorgeous mushroom Ky!

There is a rule that mushroom foragers must follow to avoid Darwin awards: NEVER eat a mushroom unless you are 100% certain of the identification and that it is positively known to be edible.

There's no 'general' characteristic (sliminess, color, shape etc) that can be used to tell if a mushroom is fit to eat or not. You have to learn to identify to family and species by multiple characteristics. If the family includes poisonous species, you are best off to get local advice from experts and fungivores. Best advice, avoid families with poisonous species completely until or unless you have become expert in identification and know the history of what's been confirmed edible and safe in your region.

This Clathrus beastie is totally distinctive. I've never seen them, myself. But I wouldn't be tempted to eat anything in the Stinkhorn family, many of which are reported poisonous and/or foul.

I totally dig your parallel with Gaudi! Maybe he was mushroom inspired.

Buckyball aliens! They might well be intelligent.

That was one of my first thoughts. How smart is that funghi really? Now you try and replicate that, even as a computer model. Made from water and some organic compounds. I found it fascinating hence my post.

Welcome to CR4. Any little bit helps, Ky.

Just out of interest, your comment, though amusing, is based in urban myth, or IP assumption by 'weight of celebrity'.

I'll hack this a bit for brevity;

The first dome that could be called "geodesic" in every respect was designed just after World War I by Walther Bauersfeld, .... on the roof of the Zeiss plant in Jena, Germany, and opened to the public in July 1926.

Some 30 years later, R. Buckminster Fuller named the dome "geodesic". <which as you see is just the correct math concept term.

And where it says in the Bauersfeld link: Buckminster Fuller reinvented and popularized this design. Popularised; yes. Reinvented?; no. Perhaps "reinvented the dead foreigner's math", thus receiving a US patent via the Edison/Bell method.

In some ways you are correct in another way you are forgetting something.

Did these guys go to Disney Land for a holiday? And then replicate?

I'd say it was the other way around.

I agree, they must have thought the same as I did when I saw these constructions. Nature has a subtle way of teaching. I'm all eyes and ears.

Were they made of truncated triangular pyramids - yep I'd be forgetting something.

By the by - did you know that is a spiral construction? (and overcomes the common problem of collapse during construction that almost ever other dome design is prone to? very very clever)

Maybe its the omega 3 oils in the diet?

And castles made of sand swift into the sea, eventually. J.H.

I watched a tv show (NG? Discovery? I dunno) where a native built one the original way... and you are totally right... fascinating method.

Chris

Hi Chris

This is serendipity at its best. From tropical funghi to igloos. I just spent a few minutes watching this at 32deg.C (+). Fascinating stuff, I take my hat. When we meet up one day we'll have to built one, yes please.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/How_to_Build_an_Igloo/

What a wonderful world, Ky.

What a great find!

Buckyballs but not alien.

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2010/november/nanodevices.aspx

I wonder, Ky.

Cool link 'DNA for nano's', a new realm opens for the "mass re-organiser"

Send me one, I'll somehow get my ex to taste for us.