Puppies and Flowers

A nice collection of photos from Coachella '07. Rage against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers + more. Link

Watch real time, a sampling of images being uploaded to Flickr and their respective geographic locations. flickrvision

Thanks Luke Link

Amazing photographer, Fisherman dude, Deadliest Catch star, Corey Arnold gives you this first hand account.

Link to article with awesome photographs

Something sinister is coming to San Francisco in May. The conditions for a zombie outbreak will be perfect on May 25th around 6pm. Stay tuned for further dispatches.

Arizona physician Michael Collier spends every other week combining geology, photography and aeronautics, in a three-decade quest to tell the earth's "stories" with aerial images.

Link to NPR with slide show and podcast

SINGAPORE: A waterspout has been spotted from the eastern parts of Singapore. Most callers to the MediaCorp News Hotline reported seeing what looked like a tornado or a twister over the sea. Most said they saw the phenomenon at about 2.30pm and that the phenomenon lasted about 15 minutes. Witnesses said it was moving in a circular motion.

Link to pictures

Link to YouTube

Paint drips off a three banner spread across the north side of the Atlas Building in downtown Columbus Ohio.

Link to Flickr set

Shek Kip Mei Estate, Hong Kong's oldest public housing estate, is composed of 100 rooms, each closet-like in size at only 100 square feet and built in response to a devastating fire in the 1950s that left thousands homeless. In a new series of photographs called "100 x 100," Michael Wolf captures the residents of this housing complex who are almost enveloped by the diminishing space around them, their belongings stacked to the ceiling.

Link to article and slides

music, photographs and YouTube Links

Link to Oskar Lewis

Collection [1] [2]

First image may not be safe for work. 

Link to Koen Demuynck's work

Bizarre, yet amusing picture story.

Link to site via lynnspace

This site has 100 excellent panoramic views in high resolution format (mostly California). Ever wondered what its like standing on Mt. Whitney?

Show me the scenery 

Truly a Puppies and Flowers post.

Large collection of images 

From Yahoo news:

Link to Yahoo article

7 wonders website

Houston sculptors Dan Havel and Dean Ruck sculpturally altered two buildings in a Montrose neighborhood.

The project Inversion transformed two Art League houses on the corner of Montrose Boulevard and Willard Street. The Art League offered Havel and Ruck the old studio buildings before they were demolished to make way for a new Art League building.

Link to art league houston

Link to SF Chronicle images

Alissa Coe and Carly Waito make ceramic objects in their little studio in downtown Toronto, Canada.

Link to coe&waito via 7deadlysinners

Found at LearningThai

Images found here

Link to list of giant kite flying festivals in Japan with great picture sets 

Here's a Flickr search on yellow 

Pac-Man? Space Invaders? Frogger? The video games of the 1980s were played in arcades, pizza parlors and bars--and all you needed was a quarter to join in the fun.

From the time Space Invaders appeared in 1978, until game consoles took over in the mid-1990s, arcades were the center of the video gaming world. The classics that were produced in the "golden age of arcade games" are still very much alive today. You can play versions of them for free on many Internet sites or find a version that was produced for a new game console such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Nintendo's Wii.

Link to more images   Thanks Jeff J

images found at Dark Roasted Blend 

The exhibition brings together 34 of Scotland's most exciting designers in an exhibition at The Lighthouse, with associated projects including a 6 citywide billboard project, publication and specially commissioned souvenirs. Building on the success of The Scottish Show in 2004, the exhibition will celebrate the vibrancy and vitality of Scotland's design industry.

Work and installations by the designers will take over most of The Lighthouse by inhabiting the galleries, corridors, stairwells and shop.
The Scottish Show 07 is the national exhibition of the inaugural six cities design Festival.

OSTREET Billboard 

Link to the Scottish Show 07 via DesignBoom

Shown here: 8 vintage Art Deco styled microphones circa 1920's-1950's

Link to more collections 

Cool photoraphic sets at Satan's Laundromat:

Red Hook
parallax
chicken, egg
sf fog
sf sun
Macy's Parade
Tokyo street art 2
Tokyo street art 1
Tsukiji fish market
Tokyo bizarreness 2
Tokyo bizarreness 1
Engrish

Link to slide show  Via ia the Presurfer and Miss Cellania

Update to previous post:

A 10-year-old girl who is worshipped as a living goddess in Nepal has had her title reinstated after defying tradition and visiting the US.

Temple authorities at her home town say that she will not be stripped of her title because she is willing shortly to undergo a "cleansing" ceremony.

Sajani Shakya was one of the three most-revered Kumaris, who are honoured by Hindus and Buddhists alike.

She was chosen after undergoing tests at the age of two.

Since then she has been expected to bless devotees and attend festivals until she reaches puberty.

But she provoked the ire of temple elders by travelling to the US.

Sajani returned from her visit to America on Wednesday. Correspondents say that she was "seemingly unaware" of the controversy.

Link BBC article with more pictures 

Lots more images at Daily Mail 

west tower

Courtesy of a source who goes by the handle of Unaesthetic, we invite you to take in the scenery from the tippy-top of a San Francisco Bay Bridge suspension tower! And on a sunny day, no less

Link to article

Link to the photoset 

Other Telstar San Francisco Bay Area links: 

• Golden Gate Bridge
• nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
• San Francisco's towering One Rincon skyscraper
• inside the brand new Oakland Bay Bridge
  

From roundup:

Each year, farmers in the town of Inakadate in Aomori prefecture create works of crop art by growing a little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice along with their local green-leafed tsugaru-roman variety.

It will be visible until the rice is harvested in September.

Link to Pink Tentacle 

Show me more weird hats! 

Photo: alsuga

In brief:

Saint Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco was designed by architect Pier Luigi Nervi in 1971 and built amid an atmosphere of controversy. The building has been described by many as resembling an overgrown washing machine agitator, and several San Franciscans have taken to calling it "Our Lady of Maytag" for this resemblance. Others find the swooping pyramid shape refreshingly modern for sacred Catholic architecture.

Technical: 

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption, known familiarly as St. Mary's Cathedral, in San Francisco has become a landmark that annually draws thousands of people to this sacred structure, which combines the rich traditions of the Catholic faith with modern technology.

The cathedral's striking design flows from the geometric principle of the hyperbolic paraboloid, in which the structure curves upward in graceful lines from the four comers meeting in a cross. Measuring 255 feet square, the cathedral soars to 190 feet high and is crowned with a 55 foot golden cross.

Four corner pylons, each one designed to withstand ten million pounds of pressure, support the cupola, which rises 19 stories above the floor. The pylons measure just 24 feet in circumference at their narrowest point and extend 90 feet down into bedrock. The inner surface of the cupola is made up of 1680 pre-cast triangular coffers of 128 different sizes, designed to distribute the weight of the cupola. At each comer of the cathedral, vast windows look out upon spectacular views of San Francisco, the City of Saint Francis of Assisi. The cathedral's red brick floor recalls early Mission architecture, and the rich heritage of the local church.

Above the altar is a kinetic sculpture by Richard Lippold. Alive with reflected light, the 14 tiers of triangular aluminum rods symbolize the channel of love and grace from God to His people, and their prayers and praise rising to him. The sculpture, suspended by gold wires, is 15 stories high and weighs one ton.

The 'boob' story:

Urban legend also has it that the Catholic Church sued the architect over the appearance of the breast, claiming that the appearance of a naked breast on the side of a cathedral somehow mocks the Church, which is reputed for being uptight about sexuality.

…

On the issue of the Catholic Church's lawsuit, extensive research shows no evidence that the church ever filed suit against Nervi or even threatened to. The rumor could have started by the "telephone game" effect after individuals associated with the church or the Archdiocese made private commentary on the shape, but even this is idle speculation. 

See more about breasts (from the fabulous Miss Cellania)

and while you're at it, "DO NOT TAKE PHOTO"

Ingmar Bergman in a 1981 photo. Bergman died on Monday at the age of 89, local news agency TT reported, citing his daughter Eva Bergman. (REUTERS/Jacob Forsell/File)

From article:

When the news broke that Ingmar Bergman had died on the lonely and windswept island of Faro, off the coast of Sweden, it seemed like an appropriately tragic spot. Bergman spent a lifetime creating lonely and windswept movies: a cinema of inner life in which man was tormented by his relationship with women and with God.

He was sort of a poet of anguish (his first screenplay, written in 1944, was called Torment), whose best-known movies were existential meditations on the meaning of life. The most famous scene in a Bergman film was in the 1957 religious allegory The Seventh Seal in which Max von Sydow -- part of a Bergman repertory company, along with Liv Ullman, with whom he had a daughter -- portrays a knight who plays chess with Death. It’s a scene that sums up the tragic symbolism of Bergman’s oeuvre, and it defined his public image for many years: in one of a number of parodies, the heroes of Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey play Twister with Death.

Bergman himself may have enjoyed the satire. Despite the austerity of his movies, he had a puckish side. When a Swedish film magazine published an "anti-Bergman" issue, Bergman himself contributed a critical piece, under a pseudonym. Near the end of his career, he acknowledged that he was depressed by his own movies and couldn’t watch them any more.

Link to article 

Maybe there's a theme developing today.

Found at Miss Cellania 

This illusion can be pretty harsh on the eyes but worth it for some excellent results.

Link to Crooked Brains and more images 

Zappa, another brilliant unsung American talent, good for Baltimore I say.

Thursday, August 9th is Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore, MD, as proclaimed by Mayor Sheila Dixon. Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore in 1940 and, coincidentally, wrote and recorded a song entitled “What's New In Baltimore?” Dweezil Zappa, his son, is bringing the ongoing Zappa Plays Zappa/“Tour de Frank” to the Ram’s Head Tavern there on the day designated to honor his late father. Far from a “tribute band,” Zappa Plays Zappa underscores the compositional genius of Frank Zappa much as a symphony orchestra would perform pieces by a master composer. 

Link 

Photos: Allyscha

Thanks Smith 

photos: Annie Leibovitz

Link to article

Martin Klimas destroys a lot of clay to make his art. Combining the silence of Eadweard Muybridge’s horse pictures with the association-rich composition of a still life, Klimas breaks recognizable objects so they become something else, and stops us just at the moment of transformation.

Link to artist's site 

Fun blog full of submitted images of what creatives have on their desks.

(Shouldn't this be an upper and lower case?) 

Shown here: 

Toniduran, Graphic Designer & illustrator
Cherbourg, France
www.toniduran.ouvaton.org 

Link to blog 

Oh crap. Link 

Found here then click on public projects

Aletsch Glacier/Switzerland 8.18.07: US-Installation artist Spencer Tunick and Greenpeace Switzerland present a living sculpture: hundreds of naked people symbolise the vulnerability of the glaciers under climate change.

Link to more images 

realated post 

Not quite sure what this means…

Link to more 

Previous funny bathroom signs 

Link to collection 

From MacNN: 

Apple boss Steve Jobs today introduced the widely rumored and highly anticipated touch-sensitive iPod, codenamed iPod touch. The iPod looks nearly identical to the iPhone in appearance, with a large screen and a customary 'home' button at the bottom. "It features our revolutionary multi-touch interface that you've come to know and love on the iPhone," said Jobs. "If you've used an iPhone you'll feel at home, it's exactly the same." The company also unveiled a new application specific to iPod touch and the iPhone, the iTunes WiFi music store. The new store allows users to preview and download songs via WiFi in the same fashion as the original iTunes software. Apple will offer the iPod touch in two configurations with 8GB and 16GB storage capacities for $300 and $400, respectively. Both models are slated for shipment "in just a few weeks" but before the end of the month.

The 3.5-inch widescreen display displays photos just like the iPhone, and supports Apple's "pinch-to-zoom" technique as well as the customary slide for unlocking the device.

The iPod touch features CoverFlow technology, and includes a WiFi meter in the top-left corner of the screen to monitor signal strength. The new iPod's wireless capability includes 802.11 b/g support, and utilizes the company's Safari Web browser to login to public wireless networks as well as surf the Web.

Apple's iPod touch supports YouTube in a fashion similar to the iPhone, and boasts a battery life of 22 hours for audio playback or five hours of video playback.

Via Neatorama 

A laundromat in Bernal Heights sock exchange.

Found on Flickr via 

uh-oh: 

OVIEDO, Fla. -- Seminole County officials are scrambling to fix a typo on a roadway after a motorist informed Local 6 that the word "school" was misspelled "scohol."

Found here 

William Hundley takes photographs of people covered with sheets while jumping.

Lots more images

NASA Airbrushed UFOs - Lunar Base Towers

Link to YouTube 

HALF MOON BAY - Many of the world's best and bravest surfers are heading toward Half Moon Bay as organizers of the legendary Maverick's Surf Contest have scheduled the big-wave event for Saturday.

Surfers were given the word this morning, said brothers and surf partners Tyler and Russell Smith of Santa Cruz.

Organizers have been waiting for high-quality conditions - huge waves coupled with clear weather on the San Mateo County coast - since the contest window opened Dec. 7. Last year, a dearth of surf scuttled the event.

The contest, with a $75,000 prize pool, will be held Saturday morning off Pillar Point, with 24 surfers paddling into waves in a series of heats that will determine the winner. This will be the sixth time the contest has been held since 1999.

The timing of the event on a weekend may draw record crowds, but organizers have provided other ways for people to watch the show.

The surf break is more than a half-mile from the beach, so spectators may be in better position in front of computer screens, watching a free live Webcast, or by seeing the event shown on the big screen at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Admission to that is $20. More details are available at the contest's Web site, www.maverickssurf.com.

Continue reading

More Pictures

Photo: Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing

What a concept!

Link 

Found here 

From PingMag, a Tokyo-based magazine about "Design and Making Things"

In Tokyo, you can wear these every night - in other cities, there will soon be Carnival. How about false eyelashes by Kakuyasu Uchiide! The brilliant Japanese head make-up artist of renowned Shu Uemura cosmetics will give you beauty obsessed people a tour through his current false eyelash collection for instant transformation into a mysterious Egyptian princess, an extravagant bird or a magical wood elf… We are not being silly here. PingMag spoke also to Uchiide about the perfectionist standards of beauty in Japan. 

article with more examples

Flickr user str820.com photographs objects embedded in tarmac, some of the comments are funny as people suggest what they think the objects are, shown here for example: 'mechanical mouse?'

Link to photoset

Link to more pictures. Thanks Brady. 

Shortest runway in the world requires special license to land there. Not sure this pilot deserves it.

Clearing the vehicles below by the narrowest of margins, a plane swoops in to land at one of the world's most dramatic airstrips. 

Although the clearance is supposed to be 20ft, the scooter riders and car driver take no chances and duck for their own safety.

Pilots need a special licence to land at the strip on the island of Saint-Barthélemy, or St Barts, in the French West Indies. 

Link 

"Limbo" 

Tanya has an amazing eye 

From the Austrian Cultural Forum: 

Gregor Graf’s exploration of urban architecture involves taking medium format images of mundane urban settings and painstakingly removing all text and symbolic references from the image, producing an anonymous and generic metropolis, yet evoking a sense of familiarity. In 2006 Graf was commissioned by the Visual Arts Platform to produce a new work during a residency in London. For his first UK solo show at the Austrian Cultural Forum London, Graf will exhibit new photographs of London along with other new works produced during a residency in Chicago, bringing together exploration of this two huge and complex urbanscapes.

Link to Artist's site

Old roller coaster at Chippewa lake Ohio. Built in 1920's ended service1978. 

Link to more photographs

Chinese artist Li Wei has produced an unsettling series of self-portraits involving his face reflected in mirrors in public places, and photographs of himself crashing into walls and sidewalks.

More pictures and article. 

Link to set

Animal hairstyles? 

Sure, why not? Link

From gizmodo:

While yesterday the world was ogling over the iPhone 3G black body, some people were just awing over black balls. 400,000 of them. Black balls everywhere, bouncing, swinging, cavorting, happily hopping down the side of the Ivanhoe Reservoir with two objectives. First, to fight bromate by stopping sunlight, which forms this carcinogenic component mixing the chlorine and bromide in the water. …

Continue reading with Photo gallery after the jump.

From Flickr: 

Photographer Jason Tozer was asked to take some pictures of bubbles by Creative Review magazine, using the new Sony Alpha camera. More details on how he achieved the shots will be posted at the CR Blog.

Thanks Kevin. 

Scientific American has an interesting slide show of historic photographs that have been doctored.

Shown here:

1937:
In this doctored Nazi photograph, Adolf Hitler had Joseph Goebbels [second from right] removed from the original photograph. It remains unclear why Goebbels had fallen out of favor with Hitler.

Those were the days, before Photoshop.

Link to gallery 

Rachel Papo is an Israeli who was born in 1970 in Columbus, Ohio but was raised in Israel. She began photographing as a teenager and attended a renowned fine-arts high-school in Haifa, Israel. At age eighteen she served in the Israeli Air Force as a photographer. These two intensive years of service inspired her current photographic project titled after her own number during service -- Serial No. 3817131.

Nice looking Poster from JWT Italy, although it reminds me of a Guinness!

In the heart of the Karakum desert of Turkmenistan the Darvaza Gas Crater or The Burning Gates give off a glow that can be seen from miles away during the dark night. The large crater is a result of a Soviet gas exploration accident in the 1950’s. It was created when a Soviet drilling rig was drilling for natural gas fell into an underground cavern resulting in a crater which today measures roughly 60 meters in diameter and 20 meters deep. The huge crater was set alight shortly after being discovered and has been burning ever sense. The recognizable smell of burning natural gas can be detected from a distance and becomes quite strong as you near the hot edge of the crater.

Link to pictures

1. Multicolr Search Lab

Select up to 10 colors and get image results that use that palette. Pretty cool.

We extracted the colours from 3 million “interesting” Flickr images. Using our visual similarity technology you can navigate the collection by colour.

Link to Multicolr Search Lab

2. CompFight

Unsure how this site does it, but it generates search results twice as fast a search on Flickr itself, even displays the pixel dimensions of the largest version of the image available. I use this site ALL the time.

Link to CompFight

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 kilometer (17 mile) long particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, is nearly set to begin its first particle beam tests. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is preparing for its first small tests in early August, leading to a planned full-track test in September - and the first planned particle collisions before the end of the year. The final step before starting is the chilling of the entire collider to -271.25 C (-456.25 F). Here is a collection of photographs from CERN, showing various stages of completion of the LHC and several of its larger experiments (some over seven stories tall), over the past several years. (27 photos total)

Link to article and more photos.

more pictures at darkroastedblend 

So it’s been about a week that I landed in my birth place of Geneva Switzerland. I realized something funny popping out of a lot of windows and balconies: WEED. A lot of it. In deed the law are pretty sweet in Switzerland as far as weed. You can’t go to trial or get fines anymore if you get busted with small quantities of weed or if you get busted smoking a L. You are also allowed to grow your own material.

Link to photos 

Link 

From National Geographic:

Despite Mutations, Chernobyl Wildlife Is Thriving
Twenty years ago today, reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. The blast covered vast areas of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia (see map) with dangerous radioactive material. The effects of the Chernobyl catastrophe are still being felt today—whole towns lie abandoned, and cancer rates in people living close to the affected areas are abnormally high.

Below are some amazing Flickr sets 20 years on. 

Chernobyl Flickr set by mattbr

Chernobyl Flickr set by Dazzababes

Chernobyl Flickr set by kasteran427

Chernobyl Flickr set by isuksig98

Hi-Def San Francisco is project of CloudView Photography. The camera is a 3 megapixel StartDot Technologies Netcam XL mounted in a weather proof enclosure high in the hills of Sausalito. Images are captured every 15 seconds cropped from the full resolution to 1920x1080 and uploaded in 480, 720 and 1080 resolution to the web server. Periodically the software (running on a FreeBSD server) creates a time lapse that collapses the prior 24 hours into 240 seconds of video. 

Link to site. Thanks JPP. 

Link to Set 

Cliff-Top Chateau, France: This 'oasis of pis' overlooks a picturesque bend in the Dordogne River.

Link to photo collection

Links lead to article with much larger images.

Detail 

Celebrating 60 years of existence this year, North Korea holds out as the last Stalinist state in the world. In such a restrictive society, it is difficult - if not impossible - for residents to get news of the outside world, and for the outside world to see in. What photography comes out of North Korea is either state-produced, state-approved, or at the very least state-managed (visitors are restricted in their movement). Still, if you look over the following images with those restrictions in mind, one can still get some idea of life in North Korea in 2008. These photos were all taken within the past six months - some taken from the borders, peering in, others provided by North Korea itself, and several generously shared by freelance photographer Eric Lafforgue, who recently spent some time inside the country. (32 photos total)

Found at Boston.com 

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

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

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

Link to The Dog Photo Booth

For two years Richard Howe systematically photographed every street corner in NYC.

From his site:

The Manhattan Street Corners is my working title for a project to produce a comprehensive photographic portrait of everyday life at street level in daytime Manhattan. Between March and November, 2006, I systematically photographed each and every one of the island’s roughly 11,000 street corners (the exact number is a matter of definition and, in some ambiguous instances, even a matter of judgment). 

Orchard Street & Broome Street, Southeast Corner

Elizabeth Street & Spring Street, Northeast Corner

Broadway & Canal Street, Northeast Corner

Link to The Manhattan Street Corners with much larger images.

Chenman is a Beijing born photographer. She does all her own post work including 3D renderings. These samples are for Beijing Skateboard.

More photos

After the link, click on Portfolio, then select "Project One".

Clicking on images launches Flash movie.

From The Behance Network:

Title: I Lose myself

Magazine: Hintmag

Photographer- Paco Peregrín (www.pacoperegrin.com )

Art Direction, digital art and illustrated- Calvin Ho (www.atomicattack.com)

Styling- Kattaca (www.kattaca.com )

Make up artist and Hairdresser- Beatriz Matallana.(beatrizmatallana.com)

On the night of Saturday, December 6th, two Special Guards of the Greek police clashed with a small group of young men. The exact details of what took place are still unclear, but it is known that one of the Guards fired three shots, and one of those bullets caused the death of 15-year-old Alexander Grigoropoulos - whether the injury was made by an accidental ricochet or deliberate shot remains to be determined. The two Guards are now in jail awaiting trial, the shooter charged with homicide.

This undated photo made at a unknown location shows 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Some of the worst riots Greece has seen in years began within hours of the fatal shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday night in the central Athens district of Exarchia. (AP Photo/Eurokinissi)

Link to Boston.com's photos.

Police seek blow-up doll sex bandit

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man broke into three adult shops, had sex with blow up dolls named "Jungle Jane" and then dumped his plastic conquests in a nearby alley, local media reported Wednesday.

"It's totally bizarre. It's a real concern that someone like that is out on the street," said one of the owners of the adult sex shops in Cairns in northern Queensland state.

"He has been taking the dolls out the back and blowing them up and using the dolls and leaving them in the alley," the owner, who gave the name of Vogue, told the Cairns Post newspaper.

Police told the Cairns Post that scientific officers had taken DNA samples, fingerprints and pictures of the crime scene. Link

400 Russian men and women use inflatable sex dolls as flotation devices on river run

From article: The unusual sporting event was dreamed up by mastermind and organiser Dmitry Bulawinov. He said the idea of floating down the river in the embraces of a rubber woman was conceived as a joke at a party where...

Chinese confuse Russian kids with gender bending dolls

 From englishrussia: Lately some Russian newspapers post photos of these strange Chinese dolls. You can see the scanned piece of article from one Russian regional newspaper. The reason for the panic is that in Russian children toy stores have appeared strange...

An artist’s complicated relationship with her look-alike sex doll

Real Dolls and the men who love them…

Over the last few weeks I've been running into articles on this topic including an excellent documentary by Channel 4. Link to documentary 'Guys and Dolls'. This phenomenom is not to restricted to Japan, if you've watched the video above...

Poupées gonflées! (Mildly NSFW)

I saw this abandoned mansion last week from the street and went in with my friend Michel as translator in case we ran into anyone. It took a bit of jimmying to force the door, and inside we found piles and piles of of binders and dozens of black and white photos, all showing one man at various political events.

It turns out the mansion used to be the home of Takieddin el-Solh ( 1908 - 1988) Lebanese Sunni politician who served as Prime Minister from 1973-74, and 1980. The binders were full of voter lists and various political documents. I'm assuming he abandoned the place during the civil war and moved to a more secure location. The house is in the Sunni section, but was within easy artillery distance of the Green Line.

Link to CraigFinlay's Flickr Set

Excellent collection of numbers photographed on the streets of Budapest.
From Zsolt Molnár's blog:

This is my typo-photographic project that I started in Summer 2008, focusing on the typographical diversity of Budapest’s street numbers. On this blog I will post a number each day in 2009. 365 different types of street numbers hopefully.

Link to Budapest36.

Supernova Creates "Ribbon" in Space
Like a ribbon trailing from a parade float, a streamer of hydrogen gas seems to waft across the stars in an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. 

New Supernova "Gumball" Picture
The remnant of a supernova, first seen from Earth more than a thousand years ago, hangs like a gumball in a composite image released by NASA in June. 

New Hi-Res Views of Mars's ''Fear'' Moon Unveiled
In April the Mars-orbiting HiRISE camera caught new high-resolution snapshots of Phobos, a Martian moon named for the Greek god of horror.

First Mars Avalanches Seen In Action
NASA scientists might have been yodeling for joy in March when they saw the first-ever picture of active landslides occurring on Mars. 

Link to National Geographic Top Ten Collection

Link to Sky.com

Excellent collection of 'funny' aniimal shots via The Presurfer

A PUPPY has been born in Japan with a large, clear, love-heart-shaped pattern in his coat.

The chihuahua was born in May as one of a litter to a breeder.

In pictures: Heart-kun, the love-heart puppy

Shop owner Emiko Sakurada said it was the first time a puppy with the marks had been born out of a thousand she had bred.

She had no plans to sell the puppy, which has been named "Heart-kun".

Link to article

Link to video (sorry the link is no longer good)

Lots more at mpt.1607's Poster and Advertisements Flickr set.

Alexandre Duret-Lutz, a French photographer, specialises in creating what he calls "Wee Planets"

View the rest of the collection here.

Photos by simonk

These are a collection of images I've been gathering over the last year or so,  all images were found on Flickr and I apologize for not having kept a record of the photographers.

Selection from the "Tears" Exhibit.

"I worked hard to create my own style and technique. The main tool is computer photo-manipulation and a mix of several photos. I’ve already created several art projects and showed them in a few countries, including France, Belgium and the USA."

Selection from the "Toystory" Exhibit.

This seems like a feature Google should have had all along. When browsing images you get the option to select similar images based on results.

I still prefer Flickr, here are some Flickr and non-FlickrTools.

1. Multicolr Search Lab

Select up to 10 colors and get image results that use that palette. Pretty cool.

We extracted the colours from 3 million “interesting” Flickr images. Using our visual similarity technology you can navigate the collection by colour.

Link to Multicolr Search Lab

2. CompFight

Unsure how this site does it, but it generates search results twice as fast a search on Flickr itself, even displays the pixel dimensions of the largest version of the image available. I use this site ALL the time.