Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

VIRAL

German observatory goes viral after Star Wars re-styling

A German professor has brought international attention to Zweibrücken in the country’s southwest after repainting an observatory to look like Star Wars robot R2D2.

Published: 27 March 2019 10:56 CET
Updated: 27 March 2019 17:07 CET
German observatory goes viral after Star Wars re-styling
Image: Facebook (Hochschule Kaiserslautern)

Hubert Zitt, an electrotechnology professor at the Zweibrücken University of Applied Sciences in Rhineland-Palatinate, is known for giving his lectures a science fiction feel. 

For decades Zitt has discussed the real-life possibilities of science fiction technology and how they could be achieved.

He came to international prominence by discussing the potential for beaming and warp-drive technologies in his class “The Physics of Star Trek” at universities and science fiction conventions around the globe. 

The observatory in Zweibrücken. Image: Facebook

Thinking that he needed to bring a little science fiction flavour to the observatory, he got together a team of painters – including his father and several of his students. 

The tower’s transformation actually took place in late 2018, but it has only recently gone viral in the American media. 

Star Wars actor Mark Hamill gave professor Zitt a shoutout on Twitter, thanking him for turning Germans into “Giant Nerds”.

Hamill’s predictions seem to be coming to fruition, with Star Wars fans from around the world travelling  to the small town on the French border to get their own slice of viral fame. 

 

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}
p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; line-height: 17.0px; font: 14.0px ‘Helvetica Neue’; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000}
span.s1 {font-kerning: none}
span.s2 {font: 14.0px ‘Apple Color Emoji’; font-kerning: none}
span.s3 {font: 14.0px ‘Zapf Dingbats’; font-kerning: none}

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

WEATHER

IN PICTURES: French town hit by freak June hailstorm

A French town has been hit by a freak hailstorm that left locals clearing drifts of ice in the streets with shovels and snow ploughs.

Published: 29 June 2021 16:44 CEST
IN PICTURES: French town hit by freak June hailstorm
Photo: Sapeurs-pompiers des Vosges

The hail struck the town of Plombières-les-Bains in the Vosges mountains on Tuesday morning.

Romain Munier, head of communications for the local emergency services, told French media: “There were up to 60 centimetres of accumulated hail” while in the wider area, “up to 10 millimetres of water accumulated in six minutes”.

https://twitter.com/timbaland57/status/1409881345741012994

Locals were pictured clearing the street of ice with shovels and snow ploughs after the storm passed and the fire and rescue crews for the Vosges area said they had received 56 callouts in total.

Large areas of France are on weather alert for storms until Thursday, as a ‘cold drop’ passes over the country leading to extremely unsettled weather.

In most areas, however, the storms will be confined to heavy rain and thunder.

In neighbouring Switzerland, the Swiss news agency ATS reported giant hailstones up to seven centimetres wide in the canton of Lucerne.

In the canton of Fribourg, the police and fire brigade were called 300 times, including to rescue a class of 16 children and two adults caught in the hail.

Six of the children and one adult were taken to hospital.

At least five people were injured in the German-speaking Swiss cantons, including a cyclist who suffered head injuries from hailstones, according to ATS, whilst in Germany severe flooding has hit parts of the country including Stuttgart.

SHOW COMMENTS