Irving Place

This is so very nifty

2011-12-20T14:37:41Z

In Stereo Where Available

2011-11-19T07:55:50Z

Spell with Flickr

2011-11-19T04:40:37Z

Spell with Flickr is a nifty little script by Erik Kastner. Type in a word and it puts it together for you using letters in photographs on Flickr. I've been spelling things all night.

Wired in the Commons

2011-11-19T04:30:55Z

As you may have already heard, Wired.com has done a wonderful thing:

Beginning today, we're releasing all Wired.com staff-produced photos under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC) license and making them available in high-res format on a newly launched public Flickr stream.

Wired has some really excellent photography, so this is quite a trove. I wonder if any other companies might follow suit?

Abandonment Issues

2011-10-21T20:34:27Z

I have long had a deep love of abandoned and crumbling places. I know I'm not alone in this. Ruins are fascinating, a little sad, a little creepy. Of course, the beauty in ruins is made more complicated when the beautiful, crumbling structures are in the midst of modern American cities. It is easy to equate urban decay with beauty when you aren't trying to live in the middle of it...when it isn't your city that is falling apart.

The photos of 100 Abandoned Houses were shot in Detroit, which certainly has more than its fair share of urban decay. When we look at these, are we rubbernecking? Are we vultures? Do we pause and think, there but for the grace of god and the vagaries of economics goes my city? My home?

Whatever the case may be, they are beautiful, though hard to look at. They make me want to say a prayer and buy American.

Two amazing videos

2011-10-19T16:38:05Z

Whale Fall is a beautiful, cut-paper animation illustrating what happens to the body of a whale when it dies. Sound morbid? It's not.

Whale Fall (after life of a whale) from Sharon Shattuck on Vimeo.

5:46 am is a hauntingly lovely imagination of an empty, flooded Paris.

5:46 am from ArtefactoryLab on Vimeo.

50/50

2011-10-14T20:48:17Z

Courtesy of the New York Times Magazine, excellent pre- and post-makeup shots of runway models, with a Flash-based slider to transition between them. The effect is really nifty.

Men in Traditional Female Pin-up Poses

2011-10-07T16:26:02Z

Rion Sabean put together this excellent series of men doing some of the typical "pin-up girl" cheesecake poses. The guy with the shovel is probably my favorite.

How Do You Stack Up?

2011-10-02T03:11:45Z

The Art of Clean Up: Sorting and Stacking Everyday Objects

(My favorite it the alphabet soup.)

The Colors of Comics

2011-10-02T03:07:46Z

The Colors of Good vs. Evil: Comic Book Color Palettes [infographic] By COLOURlover

"Blue: the ultimate hero. Bright Red: Also used by the ultimate hero," as a Brewers and Badge fan, I can get behind that.

This ain't no Partylite

2011-10-02T03:04:19Z

Creepy woman candle is creepy.

I remember National Geographic World magazine

2011-08-11T21:20:16Z

And the close-up photography quizzes on the back page. If you loved those, you will probably also dig Caren Alpert's magnified photography. The surfaces of ordinary objects look like alien worlds.

That Runner's Glow

2011-08-11T18:45:57Z

I remember it well, that feeling of light-headed "Oh my, I may have to keel over and die now." post-run euphoria/exhaustion. And no, it isn't pretty.

I suddenly really want to go to Seville

2011-07-21T03:22:37Z

Wouldn't you want to spend some time walking in that shade?

I can assure you, I won't be "rooftopping" anytime soon.

2011-07-21T02:51:34Z

But these photos are marvelous.