Comments on: A new kind of waterfall

A new kind of waterfall

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:23:32 -0800

水の落ちる絵 (Pictures in Falling Water)

This is from a huge shopping/entertainment/hotel complex called "Canal City" in Hakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan. Now, for all I know, this kind of thing is a feature in every shopping mall from Philadelphia to Salt Lake City, so forgive me if this is nothing new to you stateside Mefiers... And while we're on the general subject of water, here's some underwater babies. Cute! And, I'd like to dedicate this FPP to nickyskye.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:31:08 -0800

Heh, at first I thought these were going to be pictures taken through falling water: "Well, this is dumb, when's the water going to start to cascade, it's just dripping and dropping like an old man at a urinal- oh. Oh, wow. WOW." Awesome, thanks! And huzzah for AquaBabies!

By: nola

nola — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:40:51 -0800

That is amazing.

By: figment of my conation

figment of my conation — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:42:50 -0800

Very cool (and made me have to pee).

By: Ron Thanagar

Ron Thanagar — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:44:46 -0800

OK, that was brilliant. Very cool. (Heck, I thought it was gonna be some art exhibit at Frank Lloyd Wright's place.)

By: tkolar

tkolar — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:46:34 -0800

Neat!

By: chihiro

chihiro — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:08:41 -0800

Happy Happy Happy Happy Love Love Love Love :)

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:17:56 -0800

Oh man! I wish there was one of these at the local mall. I guess we'll have to settle for performance artists building illegal apartments in it. Also, I hope they reuse the same water over and over again. Water fountains are awesome.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:31:21 -0800

Also, I hope they reuse the same water over and over again. This is Japan, it's almost certain that they do. Waste is considered anti-social in Japan. This isn't actually new, I thought I saw it on the Blue before; MIT did this for the World's Fair a few years ago. Still, I enjoyed it!

By: msali

msali — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:43:17 -0800

Wow, that is amazing. Thanks for posting this. (And for bringing my attention to the fact that Nickyskye is back!)

By: SemiSophos

SemiSophos — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:54:19 -0800

Pevnick Design, inc makes these things. Lots of pictures and videos on the the site. Also, Jeep uses one at trade shows. Video with discussion of the functioning of the device at youtube.

By: jayder

jayder — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:10:41 -0800

Cool. Never seen that before.

By: wanderingmind

wanderingmind — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:15:32 -0800

This is really cool - though I can't help but think that if it'd been built in an American mall, it'd be used for streaming advertisements.

By: Tacodog

Tacodog — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:21:15 -0800

I saw that at the Kitchen and Bath trade show a few years ago. Neat stuff. The floor near it was all wet though.

By: rikschell

rikschell — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 10:27:28 -0800

I'm pretty sure this technology was meant to have colored lights and a late-night Pink Floyd show attached to it somehow.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:24:02 -0800

though I can't help but think that if it'd been built in an American mall, it'd be used for streaming advertisements. Thanks for the idea!

By: pracowity

pracowity — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:16:22 -0800

If they layered several of these, used strobe lights, and turned off the lights, they could run 3D movies. And if they let you stand under it, they could shower the people with "love" and all sorts of other words.

By: meta_eli

meta_eli — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:20:31 -0800

I saw one of these at a tech conference a few years ago. The youtube doesn't do it justice; the resolution was impressively high.

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 12:54:31 -0800

This is so amazing and intuitive that it doesn't surprise me at all that the Japanese did it.

By: empath

empath — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 13:18:58 -0800

Except it wasn't the Japanese that invented it.

By: kliuless

kliuless — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 13:52:32 -0800

amazing, the guys up there have their peeing synchronized exactly.

By: Artw

Artw — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:13:10 -0800

Definately more pleasing when it's not in enlarged-prostate-mode.

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:21:30 -0800

This is my gobsmacked face. Wow.

By: subgear

subgear — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:15:34 -0800

I laughed. I cried. I wet myself.

By: mmoncur

mmoncur — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:32:11 -0800

Wow. Definitely nothing like that here in Salt Lake City...

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:57:49 -0800

Except it wasn't the Japanese that invented it. Do you have info on this, empath? I'd love to know who invented this fountain, and where there might be others like it.

By: darksasami

darksasami — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:58:28 -0800

I really, really want to take a bucket and steal the letters from the middles of the circles at 2:30.

By: Sangermaine

Sangermaine — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 19:24:00 -0800

flapjax at midnite, lupus_yonderboy's link says that MIT developed it for their exhibition which he says was several years ago, though perhaps a Japanese company or individual designed it independently.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:29:01 -0800

Thanks Sangermaine. There it was, way upthread, staring me in the face, but did I notice it? NOOOOOO! Like we used to say in Alabama, if it'd been a snake it woulda bit me.

By: straight

straight — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:46:05 -0800

This is really cool. Great post. Thanks.

By: exlotuseater

exlotuseater — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:43:32 -0800

made my day

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:09:33 -0800

omg that is so cool! What a neat idea and amazing it hasn't been done before. That was fun. Thanks flapjax.

By: Fnarf

Fnarf — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:42:43 -0800

Hasn't been done before? They've been making them for almost 20 years.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:04:25 -0800

They've been making them for almost 20 years. So we've discovered, in this thread, thanks to Semisopho's link above. But it would seem that none of the commenters here had seen these things before. Perhaps you've been seeing them for the past 20 years? It would appear so, from your comment. Anyway, that company site does indeed say "since 1989", but I have a feeling these waterfalls haven't been as polished and perfect, for the past 20 years, as what we're seeing in the linked video. I reckon if it had, we'd have all known about it by now.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:42:53 -0800

Jeep had one of these for last year's (or was it two years ago) motor shows. It was all over the net.

By: bokeh

bokeh — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:51:43 -0800

Let me know when you can play Doom on it.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:02:18 -0800

I dunno about playing Doom. The screen refresh rate is pretty miserable.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:40:24 -0800

AWW!!! omg, Just discovered this wonderful post. Thank you sooo much dear flapjax at midnite. Am slow on the uptake these days. Sorry.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:42:01 -0800

*smacks forehead. What I meant to say was I just discovered that you dedicated this post to me.