I PuT a SpElL On YoU

via my bro

BONUS: alt version via the comments:

New Techniques

How would someone play the guitar if they'd never seen one being played before? Maybe something like this?

(Not saying that's what happened here, because it isn't. This is just an wonderful display of skill and imagination.)

via reddit

Hi,

I hope you are well.

Here is an elephant dressed up as a butterfly. I found it here.

Think I should probably go to bed now.

Vanishing Point

Chris Morris

Together with Armando Ianucci, Chris Morris is the best satirist in the UK right now, taking aim particularly at the workings of the media, politicians, and the moral codes of the day. This short piece is a fine example of his work:

He has now completed a film about a group of Jihadists in the UK which is bound to offend just about everyone. And I for one canot wait to see it. You can watch a short clip from the movie here.

La Mano del Desierto

"The Mano del Desierto is a large-scale sculpture of a hand located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. The sculpture was constructed by the Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal at an altitude of 1,100 meters above sea level. The work has a base of iron and cement, and stands 11 metres (36 ft) tall." link. more pics.

via artificial owl / ektopia
image source

Sunset from Mars

Captured in 2005 the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. link.

via pruned

James Randi The Bullshit Hunter

The James Randi Educational Foundation currently offers a $1,000,000 reward to anyone who can prove to have paranormal abilities.

Library of Dust

"Library of Dust depicts individual copper canisters, each containing the cremated remains of patient from a state-run psychiatric hospital. The patients died at the hospital between 1883 (the year the facility opened, when it was called the Oregon State Insane Asylum) and the 1970’s; their bodies have remained unclaimed by their families."

via BLDGBLOG

La Puerta

Clever stop motion video by Sam3 and Limow

Frozen Puddles

shared by zsaj

The other day I stumbled on the above picture of a frozen puddle on flickr. I liked it so i thought I'd look for more, and found loads of them, so I started collecting them in a group, and let's just say that I got a bit carried away...

People in Order

Castles Beneath Cities

"Castles Beneath Cities" by Brad Downey.

There is a world of Princes, Wizards and Dragons beneath our cities.

Either that or the rats are starting to get a bit cocky.

via a desgana

Puttin on the Ritz

BONUS: (thanks detarkin)

Ghost Furniture

"Chaises à Calke Abbey par Tom Mannion
Dans les bureaux de la maison Martin Margiela, via Café Mode
A l'ambassade d'Autriche à Paris, par Eugène Atget. "

Post shamelessly stolen from the magnificent Le Divan Fumeur Bohémien

Magnetism

Visualisation of magnetism by Caleb Charland.

via gizmodo / today and tomorrow

Insular

Insular by Kate MccGwire. Created stacking 50 layers of paper and burning through them.

via moon river

Thank You Lhasa

May you rest in peace.

Lhasa de Sela - September 27, 1972 – January 1, 2010

A Room with a View

Abelardo Morell teaches photography at the Massachusets College of Art and Design. In order to show his students how a camera obscura works he would turn his class into one. It wasn't long before he started doing it in places other than the class, and taking photographs of the results. He creates the projections by covering the window with thick black plastic and leaving a small hole through which the image sneaks into the room and projects itself, upside down, on the opposite wall. (You can see the covered up window in the mirror of this photograph).

I guess the next step is to create photosensitive wallpaper so you can inmortalise the view from your window inside your room. Forever.

In his more recent work he has started taking color photographs to great effect. Strangely some of these are not upside down.

I'm particularly fond of the two sets of shots below showing the same view at different times of the year.

I'd seen Mr Morell's work some time ago and always meant to post it but never got round to it. You can see the rest of his work on his website. My memory was jolted by today and tomorrow's post on the work of James Nizam, who uses the same technique to create the images from inside abandoned houses:

Lovely stuff.

The Mona Lisa Curse

Christine Nguyen's netherworlds

Christine Nguyen combines original photography, real objects and a salt crystalising process which create these nether-worldly results. they deserve to be seen big so feel free to click on the pictures to enlarge.

And if netherworldly doesn't exist as a word, it does now.

via moon river

Timelapse - Smoke from Los Angeles Wildfire

Timelapse - Los Angeles Wildfire from Dan Blank on Vimeo.

Actual time: 40 minutes. Music by Brian Eno.

via minutiae

No Comment

shared by stevesachs

CGI World

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Alicante born, and Madrid based Jorge Seva (aka Alex Roman) has spent 4 years creating this absolute masterpiece of CGI animation. Everything you see in this video has been created by him on a computer. And it's absolutely amazing. I strongly recommend you watch these in full screen.

There is an interview with him (in Spanish) here. And here is a video where he shows the compsition and work process of various shots.

Compositing Breakdown (T&S) from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Botanical Beasties

"The illustrations in 'Arzneipflanzenbuch' (Medicinal herb book) incorporate elements from folklore (...), witchcraft and alchemy (the traditional anthropomorphic Mandragora* - mandrake - and zoomorphic root forms)."

See more, read more, at the always excellent BibliOdyssey

Crazy Nuts Illusion

see also the dragon illusion

via fogonazos

The Bouba / Kiki effect

"The Bouba/Kiki Effect was first observed by German-American psychologist Wolfgang Köhler in 1929. In psychological experiments, first conducted on the island of Tenerife (in which the primary language is Spanish), Köhler showed forms similar to those shown above and asked participants which shape was called "takete" and which was called "baluba". Data suggested a strong preference to pair the jagged shape with "takete" and the rounded shape with "baluba". In 2001, Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard repeated Köhler's experiment using the words "kiki" and "bouba" and asked American college undergraduates and Tamil speakers in India "Which of these shapes is bouba and which is kiki?" In both the English and the Tamil speakers, 95% to 98% selected the curvy shape as "bouba" and the jagged one as "kiki", suggesting that the human brain is somehow able to extract abstract properties from the shapes and sounds. Recent work by Daphne Maurer and colleagues has shown that even children as young as 2.5 (too young to read) show this effect." Link.

The Madness of Penguins

From Werner Herzog's excellent Encounters at the End of the World.

happy new year