Puppies and Flowers

See the rest here. Thanks Noah P.

Link to collection

Link

Link to SFGate's user photos of their pets.

From Bernd:

I gotta warn you! Before you click through my large collection of photos, you should not forget, what you hear and read daily in of your home countrys's media about China's boom.

They talk about "The Sleeping Giant". About "The Birth of the New Super Power" or "The Awakening of the Red Dragon". Often with a strange kind of undertone, which is supposed to frighten us. The reality definitely looks more peaceful.

For years I've been fascinated by the country and the people. Whenever I linger through the boom town Shanghai, I carry my snap shot camera with me. Because at every corner you can discover people that either are napping in the strangest positions and situations, or are even snoring, while in a deep sleep. The missing mattresses and pillows are noteworthy! 

Link to photos

Diem Chau — See her website for more images

Peter Goldlust — See his website for more images

Photo credit: themexican

Monster.Com - Stuck in the wrong job

NSW Police Force - Watch for cars when wearing headphones

Nejma Sunflower Cooking Oil

See the rest of the collection  Via

Never hear of this band before but enjoyed the animation.

Found at shape and colour

Link to large view

See also:

PhotoShop Toolbar Evolution

You Suck At Photoshop #20 — Final episode, Donnie is Dane Cook!

Photoshop Disasters — PSDs

Digital Forensics: Photo Tampering Throughout History [Slide Show]

I like that Ted Kennedy is 'Sunburn'!

Secret Service codenames are a throwback to the period before electronic transmissions were encrypted. Although they serve no practical security function today, the US Army Signal Corps still assigns codenames (mostly out of tradition).

Source

Video after the link. From Gizmodo:

This video shows how FEMA no only deals with credible threats as hurricanes and terrorist attacks, but also with credible threats like alien attacks and UFO crashes: They have an entire chapter dedicated to this topic in their firefighters manual. Great. As if it wasn't enough with the UK government revealing airplane encounters with UFOs and Hubble discovering unidentified objects in Space to fuel my absolutely cuckoo, sculpt-giant-mountains-out-of-mash-potatoes, I-hope aliens-are-two-meter-tall-buxom-blue-amazons, I-want-to-ride-a-warp-capable-spaceship fantasies.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Intersection of Mission St.
and Cesear Chavez, NE corner
San Francisco

Dear Shareholders and Clients,

The Billboard Liberation Front has partnered with Wachovia to release a daring advertising campaign that celebrates Wachovia’s new money management strategy. This campaign emphasizes the silver lining in the economic storm front now threatening to swamp our economy as well as our individual fiscal inner tubes.

“The calamitous decline in the value of all investments and the impending total collapse of the dollar will render the true value of the average savings account or investment portfolio roughly equal to a bucket of warm piss," noted Thomas J. Wurtz, CFO of Wachovia. Dr. John Silvia, Managing Director and Chief Economist noted: “After that golden shower we got from Golden West, we decided to fight fire with fire and start bailing for our clients and stockholders, mixed metaphors notwithstanding.”

This dramatic revaluation of your money has created the opportunity for our team at Wachovia to offer a unique service to our stockholders and clients. “With what promises to be the coldest winter in years now commencing, we’ve instructed our staff in all 21 States that we have offices in to start bundling greenbacks into tight rolls, perfect for small stoves and furnaces,” said Robert K. Steel CEO and President. “We believe this is the soundest application of our clients’ money.”

Link

I get inspired by the industrial world, all the rigidity of machinery, the network of pipes, wires, refineries, etc. Then I join that with an opposite of flowing graceful, harmonious, and pleasing design of the Baroque and Rococo. And of course I add a bit weirdness and the macabre.

Propaganda Am-Bush Machine

Churchtank Type6.6F with Mine Rollers

Church Tank Type 5A

Venus Admiring Mars' Gun

Link to site

Belgian photographer Filip Dujardin makes images of unexpected buildings – that is, he "combines photographs of parts of buildings into new, fictional, architectonic structures," Mark Magazine explains.

Link Via BLDGBLOG

A Swiss researcher said Thursday he had hit on an unlikely way of recreating the unique sound of a Stradivarius violin -- by treating the wood of a replica instrument with mushrooms. 

Francis Schwarze of the Zurich-based Federal Materials, Science and Technology Institute (EMPA), made a replica of a violin by the Italian master Antonio Stradivari from the year 1698, which was presented this week at the "Swiss Innovation Forum" in Basel.

Schwarze found that treating the maple wood used for the violin with "Xylaria longipes" mushrooms -- which grow on the bark of trees -- meant the sound quality was akin to an original Strad.

This mushroom lightly "nibbles" away at the wood's surface, thus reducing its density and improving the sound of the violin as a result.

"It has a very good sound and also carries well," violin maker Michael Rhonheimer said of the replica.

"I am convinced that the wood treatment at the EMPA has made an audible improvement."

Source

Macaques Fun Tool
Macaque Fool Nuts
Factual Mosque No
Canal Mosque Tofu
Aqua Clef Moutons
Coma Equals Futon
Macs Loaf Unquote
Cams Unequal Foot
A Calfs Tuque Moon
A Qualm Scone Tofu
A Squat Column Foe

Link  via

Francoise Nielly lives in a world of images.
She has explored the different facets of "image" all her life , through painting, photography, roughs, illustrations and virtual, computer generated animated graphics. It is clear now that painting is her direction and her passion.

untitled 435

untitled 476

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Link to more paintings  via

From Mother Jones:

The Treasury Department is all about efficiency these days. The original bailout plan that Secretary Paulson proposed, which has been quietly dumped, was just three pages. I guess it's no surprise, then, that the application to get some sweet, sweet bailout bucks from the TARP Capital Purchase Program is just two pages. No joke, Taxpayers for Common Sense actually got a hold of the thing. If you're interested in landing a spare billion, give it a shot. It won't take you more than five minutes.

Wasn't one factor in the housing crisis the fact that lenders gave home loans to people without checking credit and obtaining documentation of assets, salary, and other signs of financial health? And yet you get piles of cash from the Treasury with less paperwork than what goes into car loans, student loans, and most credit cards?

Source

Thanks Brady!

Scott Beale over at Laughing Squid has a piece on the smackdown last friday night:

A smackdown between mimes and clowns took place Friday at Dirty Marina 16th and Valencia at 10pm. It was reported that a clown picked a fight with a mime in front of Kilowatt by smashing a pie in his face. Later the mimes and clowns duked it out in Albion Alley, ala West Side Story. The fight ended when two clowns ganged up on a mime, wiped off his face paint and ‘demimed’ him. The mime, stripped of his powers was carried off by his troupe, screaming in terror.

More videos after the link

This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb. It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain.

And it is real. It is a newly opened high-security data center run by one of Sweden’s largest ISPs, located in an old nuclear bunker deep below the bedrock of Stockholm city, sealed off from the world by entrance doors 40 cm thick (almost 16 inches).

Source

[via]

"A Kvetch is a funny complaint. This site randomly displays kvetches sent via Twitter."

Link

Show me more covers…

From Glenfiddich's site:

Following the success of the inaugural Glenfiddich Barrel Art exhibition in 2007, we have developed a new exhibition for 2008. This year’s programme involves a single artist who will produce a collection of works that encapsulate the theme of time. We’ve chosen esteemed designer Michael Johnson. Michael has been at the forefront of British design throughout a career spanning decades and work the theme of time has been prevalent in his work to date.

Link to Exhibition site with more photos.  [via]

From holavalencia:

El Gordo, the “big one”, is the most important prize in the Spanish Christmas Lottery — the largest lottery in the world. This year, there’s €2.3 billion in prizes (about 3 billion dollars). There’s a word for that: CRAZY.

Also: EXCITING. Roughly 18% of participants stand a chance at winning something, which ain’t bad odds. There are a limited amount of tickets; in 2006 there were 85,000 numbers. At €200, tickets are expensive, so they’re also sold in décimos at €20 apiece. If you hold a décimo of a winning number, you get 10%.

more  [via neatorama]

Apparently, Photographer Sharon Montrose is smitten with dogs and photo booth strips.

Link to The Dog Photo Booth