Aluminium Dogs

Link

via blanketfort

The Venus Project

“The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture."

Whether the project will ever come to fruition remains to be seen. in the meanwhile, enjoy page after page of über-cool futuristic filth.

via the nonist

More Landings, Garages and Trains

I posted about Branislav Kropilak a while back, but it's worth reposting as he has added more new landings, garages, and brand new trains. Sweet photography from Branislav I'm sure you will agree.

Ant Portraits

army ants in action


More ant portraits

Also, check out the trap-jaw ant's triple jump.
.

Our Daily Bread

Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming! To the rhythm of conveyor belts and immense machines, the film looks without commenting into the places where food is produced in Europe: monumental spaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre sounds - a cool, industrial environment which leaves little space for individualism. People, animals, crops and machines play a supporting role in the logistics of this system which provides our society’s standard of living.

Link.

via pruned

Low Resolution Photography

Low Resolution.

via monkeyfilter

Time-Gun Map

This Time-Gun Map of Edinburgh was produced in 1861 to show the time taken for the sound of the one o'clock gun to travel from Edinburgh Castle to different parts of Edinburgh and Leith.

via Moon River

Glacier

shared by johannes asgeir

Glacier in east Iceland.

Niemeyer's Utopia

from BLDGBLOG:

Utopia, pictured above, is a "digital typeface that portrays the mixture between the modernist architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and informal occupation of the urban space that shapes major Brazilian cities." In other words, all the letters look like buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer, jumbled up in Brazilian proximities. Utopia was designed by Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain; because their site uses Flash, however, you can't directly link to the font. But it's there. So if somebody stumbles on a city full of Oscar Niemeyer buildings... will they suspect hidden messages in every glance?

Burnt Out

Errm ya got a match?

Yeah, my ass an yo face.

by foundry via Ektopia... and as reevo says, check out the detail.
.

Bug Soap, Oxymoron.

From Jan Chipchase's Iranian travels.

Levitating Strawberry

A strawberry floating in an intense magnetic field.

found in Laputan Logic, with explanation.

Also pretty cool is Animal Vegetable Videos, "Outfitting animals and plants with helmet-mounted wide cameras worldwide". via Pruned.

No Comment

found in Musselsoppans Vanner

Sand Palms

shared by howiefowler

"Pictures left in the sand as the tide goes out "
.

Culture Jam

via wooster collective

A Lesson in Abysses

From BLDGBLOG:

Image: The surface of the earth peeled away to reveal rock and fissures – a perfect excuse for one of my favorite quotations: "Look down well!" Jules Verne once wrote. "You must take a lesson in abysses." Image produced by R.C. McDowell, G.J. Grabowski, and S.L. Moore for the U.S. Geological Survey; this is Kentucky. An alternative map, by A.C. Noger, is no less topo-optically extraordinary. link.

Now that's a stunning map. Still not beating this one though... the search continues...

Also from BLDGBLOG: Offshore.
.

Doors Closed

from Walking Turcot Yards:

Rare look at the turntable with almost all of the roundhouse doors closed. Year unkown.

Also worth noting: Not a Cornfield. I wonder whether they found it easier to secure funding for this by saying it was an art project rather than a service to the community.
.

Dasch-Horses Are Dangerous

Hardy Burmeyer's long horses have sparked a bit of a controversy. Proof of their actual existence is well documented, but if more was needed, here is a real sequence of pictures taken by Hardy Burmeyer himself:



via wandering with the ghost

Rice Irrigation Dam

shared by charlietyak

...like flies to shit.

or rather, like flies to a venus trap.

photograph by massimo vitalli. be sure to check out the rest of the galley.

via moonriver .

The Choreography of War

What are these? Design sketches for military forts, or the blueprints for an elaborate choreography?


via BibiliOdyssey and the nonist. Be sure to check out the original posts.

The War Room

Random vintage National Geographic Magazine scans part three.

via peanut butter sandwich, who also link to this little gem.

Silhouette

shared by fiou

Chris Parks' Dreamscapes

Chris Parks and his father, Peter Parks have built a what they call a microzoom optical bench, effectively a blending elements of a microscope with an optical bench borrowing knowledge from both the cinematographic field and marine biology, and have been using it to photograph fluid dynamics and chemical reactions happening in a tiny drop of liquid, magnifying a microlitre of water 500,000 times, using water, yeast, baby oil, curry and other secret ingredients to create swirling vortices of color and matter. etc

Link. Don't forget to watch the videos.

via Ozoux (a very eclectic blog)

Also, somewhat related, if you have a fertile imagination at least, have a look at these videos of elastic bands' twang in slo-mo... then read the article.

----------------------------------------

pk comments:

Reminds me of flame fractals.

Indeed.

Sketch the Day Away

remember pikapika?

now watch this video of designers who have combined live sketch recognition and rapid prototyping to create sketched plastic furniture.

Link to original website.

Also... check this out... and this (thanks nairn)

Hannover Kaputte

shared by matratze

In the town hall of Hannover there is a model of how the city looked like right after World War II.

Layers of Reality (Or Some Other Pretentious Title Like That)

shared by fellowsfog and richrawlyk

Mechanical Cabaret

Footage of the Mechanical Cabaret. I was lucky enough to see this in person whilst in the Midlands, and it rocks!

The picture is of a piece by Argentinian automata-maker Pablo Lavezzari. Check his gallery out by clicking on "Galeria de fotos".

P.S.: Here's a link to a video of a 19th Century wooden automaton that writes kanji on a sheet of paper. Simply amazing.

via the Automata / Automaton Blog

previously

Scarecrows

Incompetent Scarecrow shared by aremac

Photos of mannequins used as scarecrows in rural Japan. I'd wager they keep humans away as well...

via Pink Tentacle, which also links to various galleries of lovingly painted cardboard housing projects...

Walking City

The interface for this Japanese company's website takes donkey's years to load, but it's definately worth a peek.

Thanks go to Shiralee for the tip.

The Actionists

Find out more about these intriguing characters here.

Map on a clown's face

This startling and disturbing image is one of the enigmas of cartographic history. The artist, date and place of publication are all unknown, and one can only guess at its purpose. etc.

Futebol!

shared by ricko

Are you an aspiring politician?

Then learn from the photo-op master himself.

Ok, ok... maybe seeing A-dolf with little gals isn't your cup of tea... so how about some acrobatic cows?

hmm... looks like I need a rest.

Oh, by the way, thanks to Charles The Red for pointing out that Spy's Spice has just gone past the one year mark... I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. So there, happy birthday to me and all that.

Now to bed.

Micro Worlds

Following my recent obsession with microscopic worldscapes... check this beauty out in full swing.

Oh, and these fellas... and this teeny tiny crocodile-like critter!

Hell, just knock yourself out and have a browse at the whole microscopy set... this is seriously wondrous stuff.

Actually, go ahead and have a browse at all of nerbanix's pictures. Here is someone for a passion for science and photography going absolutely nuts trying new things out. He/she has even been so lucky to record the breath of a dragon and live to tell the tale... so it must be worth it.

P.D.: regarding the croc-like creature, nerbanix comments:

A water bear is the common name for the tardigrade. These are AMAZING animals that are so unique they have their own phyla (tardigrada). There are about 750 species total so this is quite a diverse group, though they all look about the same.

The most amazing fact is that you can dry these guys out and hydrate them 200 years later and they will come right back to life. You can freeze them, boil them, expose them to space and intense radiation and with a little water they'll come right back to life unharmed.

Drought

Yet another beauty from City Traces.

Wise Old Tree

shared by liam.jon d

Re-creating the Sun

Todd Siler, trained in both science and the visual arts, will exhibit models and drawings derived from his studies and speculations on nuclear fusion reactor design... etc

via moonriver

Persian Art

Ok, I must confess that I feel a bit guilty for posting here pretty much every single one of Pruned's links but... they are so good!

From the master site itself:

A few months ago, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary mounted a spectacular exhibition on Persian manuscript painting. Fortunately, digital facsimiles of the miniatures and folios are still available online.

Here are some of my favorites, starting with this twice-walled Edenic garden floating amidst an orange vegetal sea.

Check out the Pruned Oreegeenal!