Levalet Street Art French Artist Charles Leval

Today you may have seen the miraculous street art of Charles Leval, He also known as Levalet, Popular on the internet earlier this year. The talented artist decorates his city with imaginative wheat-paste images that seem to come alive. He often displays the paste-up characters interacting with 3d materials, like windowsills, electrical cords, and support beams that are already there, as well as throwing his own props into the mix. His latest work, titled “Demineur”, which is French for Minesweeper, features a man with a real cue stick, aiming at a grenade for the perfect shot. Let’s hope he scratches! Check out more work by Levalet on his website and become a fan on FacebookSee Also Street Art by DALeast Looks Like Three Dimensional Shards of Metal.













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Giant Mirrors Installed in Norwegian town Rjukan

The Norwegian town of Rjukan will be a lot less gloomy this winter, thanks to a system of giant mirrors installed on a nearby mountain that reflects sunlight onto the town below. Here's how it works, according to the project's website | The three gigantic mirrors, which are computer-controlled, will follow the path of the sunlight as it moves across the horizon. The mirrors will adjust their aim, reflecting the much-needed sunlight onto the town square. Rjukan, which is roughly 90 miles west of Oslo, is located in a valley and is deprived of direct sunlight for much of the year. The mirror project, which officially opens on Oct. 31, will give residents a 6,500-square-foot ray of light.
This isn't the first time the town came up with the idea. Roughly 100 years ago, the town's founder, Sam Eyde, proposed the idea of a sun mirror. However, his idea, perhaps too complicated for the time, was never realized. Instead, town officials installed a gondola to take sun-hungry residents up to sunshine in the winter months.

The light reflected by the mirrors will lose some of its power in the translation, but not much. According to the project's official site, "the reflected light will have between 80 and 100% of the effect compared to the light that is captured by the mirrors."









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Pilatusbahn — The World's Steepest Cogwheel Train


The project to build the line was proposed in 1873, suggesting a 1,435 mm standard gauge and 25% maximal gradient. However it was concluded that the project would not be economically viable. Then Eduard Locher, an engineer with great practical experience, devised a unique system with the maximal grade raised to 48% to cut the length of the route in half. Conventional systems at the time could not handle such gradients because the vertical cogwheel that is pressed to the rack from above may, under higher gradients, jump out of the engagement with the rack, eliminating the train’s main driving and braking power. Instead, Locher placed a horizontal double rack between the two rails with the rack teeth facing each side. This was engaged by two cogwheels carried on vertical shafts under the car.
This design eliminated the possibility of the cogwheels climbing out of the rack, and additionally prevented the car from toppling over, even under the severe cross winds common in the area. The system was also capable of guiding the car without the need for flanges on the wheels. Indeed, the first cars on Pilatus had no flanges on running wheels but they were later added to allow cars to be moved through tracks without rack rails during maintenance. The line was opened using steam traction on 4 June 1889 and was electrified on 15 May 1937, using an overhead electric supply of 1550 V DC.

The original 32-passenger steam cars averaged 3 to 4 kilometers per hour and took over an hour to reach the summit. Today's 40-passenger electric cars run at 9 km/h and make the trip in about half an hour. The line still uses the original rack rails that are now over 100 years old. While they have worn down, it was discovered that this can be fixed by simply turning the rails over, providing a new wearing surface that would be sufficient for the next century as well.

The route operates between May and November, when the cog railway is not buried by snow, with trains departing every 45 minutes during the day. In winter, access to Mount Pilatus is possible via cable car.









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Incredibly Realistic Sculpture of Abraham Lincoln

The 2nd weekend of this month in Los Angeles held an art festival. One of the works - an incredibly realistic sculpture of Abraham Lincoln. Author - Kazuhiro Tsuji. The Hollywood make-up effects artist Kazuhiro Tsuji created this magnificent 3D portrait of the late president by building it "layer by layer from the inside out." (Just in case you were wondering, it is both as amazing and creepy as you're probably thinking it is.) He used to create clay, reproducing the smallest part of the face of the 16th U.S. president.






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Creative Mother Turns Naptime Into Magical Dream Adventures

Have you ever wondered what babies dream about? Loving Chinese mama Queenie Liao has given us her own take on this question by illustrating what her own tyke’s dreams might look like when he’s asleep. In Wengenn in Wonderland, Liao surrounds her sleeping son with stuffed animals, toys and blankets arranged into storybook-like designs illustrating the happy dreams he might be having. It looks like both mother and son have quite the imaginations!













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Amazing Images that Look Like Paintings

It's not too often that we come across photos that look like paintings. Throughout the five-plus years we've been around, we've seen these unbelievable photos pop up here and there and today, we decided to give them all one home. Here, then, are ten fascinating photos that look unbelievably like an oil, acrylic or watercolor painting. Enjoy!

 Residential building in Mexico City — Oscar Ruiz.
Photographer Oscar Ruiz is behind the shot, above, of a housing development in Mexico. Back in May, it was picked as the photo of the day by National Geographic. "A few years ago when I was working as a helicopter pilot for a local radio station, we were required to fly around all of Mexico City chasing news and traffic. I remember flying up to the highway that connects Mexico City with the neighboring state of Puebla, and on my way back this housing complex that seemed to go on forever caught my attention. I decided to circle around to observe from up close what I later found out was the recently built San Buenaventura complex, which is located in Ixtapaluca, on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City. 

"The exceptional afternoon sun reflecting those thousands of recently painted small homes just looked so beautiful, and the lower I flew the better the angle, so I just got out my camera, opened the sliding window on my Bell helicopter, and snapped a couple of shots."


 James and Kelly Stone made this amazing shot of dunes covered with trees in Lassen National Park.

James and Kelly Stone took this gorgeous shot of dunes dotted with trees at Lassen Volcanic National Park. "Painted Dunes can be seen atop Cinder Cone at Lassen Volcanic National Park in California. The colors are a result of volcanic activity. The beauty is breathtaking. The vision, as you can see, is like an oil painting. God's tapestry on Earth."
Rolling hills in the valley Paluza, Washington, USA.
Photographer Michael Brandt. "This striking image was taken at a place called Steptoe Butte - amazing geographical attractions in the heart of Paluzy. It is a large hill which offers panoramic views of the unique hilly terrain that makes photos endless compositions and constantly changing scenery in different seasons. From late April to early September photographers from all over the world come here to enjoy the uniqueness of the region. "

"Painted Lady" - this is a beautiful picture of three girls in rainbow skirts.

Photographer Barbara Cole. This self-taught photographer, not only defies reality, it does so by shooting Polaroid! "I fell in love with Polaroid in 1987. I experimented with a camera and light, and I like the mood that create these colors. But in the end, it became too difficult to work within this simple camera, and I left her. But then someone helped me adapt my camera to work in the studio. "

 Aerial Photos of the volcanic river in Iceland. Photographer Andrew Yermolaev.

"Iceland - A wonderful country. I would even say that it is a paradise for all fans to take pictures. But for me the real revelation was the aerial view of the rivers that flowed over the black volcanic sand. This incredible combination of colors, lines and patterns. The photo shows the mouth of the river, which flows into the ocean. Just upstream of the river empties into the creek yellow, but yellow threads can not compete with the main color. On the black sand clearly visible traces of the car, so that they can be judged on the size. It's just a river, just a volcano, just our planet. "


 Colorful Chaohu Lake.

Do not you think that this man rowing on the river, where someone spilled paint? But this is a real photo of highly contaminated lake in Anhui Province, Taiwan. Green substance on the surface - it's seaweed. Photographer Tszianan Yutook this picture of Chaohu Lake - one of the eight lakes and rivers in China that the government plans to "cure."

 Photographer Chalantorn Priyasombat called this picture "Cleaning the storm." 

Photographer Chaluntorn Preeyasombat calls this photo Clearing Storm. "Huangshan Mountain, Anhui, China. Taken from the Beginning-to-Believe Peak after morning snowfall. The lingering fog made the scene look like Chinese painting."

"Fire Wave" of Southern California.

California photographer David Orias took some pictures of waves, similar to oil painting. Orias uses a long exposure and telephoto lenses that were produced here are amazing pictures. "In Southern California there is a fire season, and sometimes there are unusual conditions to shoot with a strange orange light in the morning, when the sunlight is filtered and diffused. This creates an unusual and for some viewers unrealistic color. I work with primary colors to create a work of art. "

 Graphic designer Denis Collette took a series of photographs entitled "My watercolor box."


Graphic designer Denis Collette has a series called "My Waterbox," a collection of images that show reflections in a river and lake near his countryside cottage. He said, "I like the creativity of the water and like to be surprised. I have taken thousands of photos of reflections and they are all unique. The reflections are generally of trees, wild flowers, weeds, wild vegetation, the sky and the clouds. But the photo changes depending on the wind, the light, the stream, the level of the river and sometimes the depth of the river. It always fascinates me. The water ripples make them look like oil paintings by Van Gogh, Turner, Riopelle or Monet."

 This photo was taken in Namibia. Orange Hill, painted the morning sun, and gnawed camels acacia trees.

Photographer Frans Lanting. "The picture was taken at dawn when the warm light of the morning sun lit up the huge sand dune dotted with white grass, and white clay bottom land still remained in the shadows. It appears blue because it reflects the color of the sky above ... perfect moment came when the sun reached the bottom of a sand dune. I used a telephoto lens to keep looking. "

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