Ganked from 
molasses
At first I was amazed at this piece of equipment, kind of a sci-fi industrial-looking thing. Then I realized that it had all the earmarks of being a photoreal CGI model, somebody's nightmare technology done up in Lightwave or somesuch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucket-wheel_excavator
Holy effluvious crap, that thing is real. To get an idea of the scale, click on the link to the google map.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/060428-bagger288-garzweiler.jpg
(note: I left the image in a link because the photo is so large: 5236x1693, 1111 KB.)
That large image is rife with detail, and just screams spaceship design, or perhaps some sort of future terraforming technology-- you know, for those 3D modelers out there.
molassesAt first I was amazed at this piece of equipment, kind of a sci-fi industrial-looking thing. Then I realized that it had all the earmarks of being a photoreal CGI model, somebody's nightmare technology done up in Lightwave or somesuch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucket-wheel_excavator
Holy effluvious crap, that thing is real. To get an idea of the scale, click on the link to the google map.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/060428-bagger288-garzweiler.jpg
(note: I left the image in a link because the photo is so large: 5236x1693, 1111 KB.)
That large image is rife with detail, and just screams spaceship design, or perhaps some sort of future terraforming technology-- you know, for those 3D modelers out there.