Archive Category: Pictures
Cyclone Nargis Wiped Out an Entire Burmese Village
Image: Geoeye/CRISP-Singapore, Caption by Holli Riebeek.
The two images, taken by the Ikonos satellite, showed how a village in Burma (Myanmar) was completely wiped out by the Cyclone Nargis:
This tiny village was located about 27 kilometers (16 miles) south of Yangon, the country’s largest city. In the lower image, taken on May 3, 2002, trees and buildings line a single street, which is surrounded by fields of crops, probably rice. After the disaster, the trees and buildings are completely gone, replaced by messy piles of rubble.
Giant NES Controller Table: Fun and Functional!
Kyle Downes of Ultra Awesome blog made a giant NES controller coffee table/storage place. What’s so neat about it is that the controller actually works! (Imagine hitting a 3.5 inch / 90 mm wide A and B buttons repeatedly, you can get wrist cramps for that …) Link - via Boing Boing
Embroidered Underwood Typewriter
Photo: blueblythemonster [Flickr]
Flickr user blueblythemonster has the best craft project EVAR: a hand-dyed and embroidered felt Underwood typewriter! Actually, she has more. Lots more: Link
And congrats to blueblythemonster for winning the 2nd Annual Softie Awards for the category "Embroidered to Death"!
Flower Girls by Elsita
Artist Elsa "Elsita" Mora created these fantastic (and cute to boot!) sculptures out of bits and pieces of flowers and leaves, called
"Flower Girls."
Check out many more examples at her blog: Link - via ohdeeoh
American Burger Drink Coaster
UK online retailer drinkstuff.com has this clever drink coaster set shaped like an "American burger" (I suppose us Yanks just call it "burger"). The buns, tomato, meat patty, cheese, and lettuce all function as drink coasters, and when you’re done - stack ‘em all up like a burger!
Link - via I Like Totally Love It, thanks Malte Goesche!
Hydrojump by Travis Pastrana
Photo: Travispastrana.com
Oh, to be Travis Pastrana: bored by motocross/supercross, freestyle motoX, rally racing, doing a double backflip and jumping out of a plane without a parachute, he invented the new sport of Hydrojump: basically hydroplaning and then launching a bike off a floating ramp.
By late afternoon we headed back to the Hydrojump and Jim was ready to get this one over with. He geared up and let 'er rip! The tricky part on this one was the run up, there was a 90 degree turn at the top of the hill you came down then you had to line up with not a lot of time to hit the water after the 90, also having to keep your momentum for a great amount of speed to reach the ramp, not to mention it had been rain off and on all day and it was slick as heck! A lot to think about as your coming up to a 110 foot long hydroplane off a 4 foot wide freestyle ramp. Just thread the needle boys!
They're still looking for that bike at the bottom of the lake. Link: Travis' website | Gallery at Autoblog | Youtube clip at Didn't You Hear...
Cigarette Smoking is Good … for Birds!
Photo: Brian Klaus
Cigarette smoking may be bad for your health, but it's great for the wildlife! Brian Klaus of Nothing Else Better To Do Than Read This Blog wrote:
I opened the door and went onto the patio to ask Gabriel what he wanted. I haven't been out on this patio since I quit smoking (I would never smoke in the house). I guess I prefer my patio on the ground.
Now here's the embarrassing part. I used to dump my ash tray into a trash can that was on the patio. I guess since I haven't been on the patio in so long I've forgotten to empty the trash can which is filled about 2/5's of the way up with cigarette butts. Pretty gross, I know. I'm a slob, I admit it.
Just as I was about to shout down to Gabriel I noticed the trash can and a bird that made it's nest inside of it!! I can't tell if there's eggs in the nest of butts and twigs that the bird had made for itself, but I don't have the heart to chase the bird away.
Link | And as you can see above, the first egg hatched! - Thanks Brian!
Manbabies
Here’s a funny site where the heads of fathers are photoshopped in their kid’s place.
Link: manbabies
A Dentist with a Sense of Humor: Sorry, We’re Open!
Dr. Arthur Dunec, a dentist in Toronto, Canada, has a sense of humor: his office has the sign "Sorry We’re Open" to welcome his patients!
Cozy Chair: Part Chair, Part Radiator
It’s easy to stay warm while lying down on the Cozy Chair by Sabine Müller and Andreas Quednau of SMAQ design group: the chair doubles as a radiator!
The chair saves energy by heating only what needs to be heated: you, your slippers and a drink: Link - via Apartment Therapy Unplugged
San Francisco Cityscape Sculpted from Stainless Steel Cookware
From On Gold Mountain: Sculptures from the Sierra by Zhan Wang
Artist Zhan Wang created the cityscape of San Francisco using stainless steel pots and pans and silverware!
His work is now on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco: Link | Photo Gallery - via Boing Boing
Gallery of 50 excellent pixel art designs
You’ll find a gallery of 50 excellent pixel art designs at Smashing Magazine. Pictured: “City Glow” by Chiho Aoshima.
Greenpix: Giant Solar-Powered LED Wall in China
Behold the Greenpix Zero Energy Media Wall, a gigantic LED wall completely powered by solar energy!
Gizmodo has the story:
Greeting visitors attending the Xicui entertainment complex near the site of the games is a 20,000 square foot wall of computer-controlled LEDs, the largest of its kind ever built. Better yet, the wall manages to power itself completely using only the sun.
The GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, designed by Simon Giostra & Partners and Arup, uses thousands of solar capture cells attached to each of its glass panels to charge up during the day and then release dazzling light shows at night. It’s the first time perforated photovoltaics laminated in glass have ever been used in a building in China, but if all goes off without a hitch, it most certainly won’t be the last.
Link | Greenpix website | YouTube video at Technabob
Office Snapshots
Office Snapshots blog, like its name suggests, is all about where you work. Well, if you work in a tech company or for a successful blog (not in a dumpy ol’ warehouse like me!).
Here are some fun photo galleries of the offices of Digg, Apple, Adobe, and even Om Malik’s neat tech blog GigaOM: Link - Thanks Haendel Dantas!
Tron Canadian Dollar
Photo: What to do? [Flickr]
We posted about Flickr user Joe D’s "refacing" of Lincoln in the US $5 bill as a character from Tron - and now, look what happened: everyone’s doing Tron money!
Here’s a "Tronified" (Tronized?) Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Canada’s 7th Prime Minister as depicted in their $5 bill, from Flickr user What to do?
Link - via Super Punch
Timothy Horn’s “Medusa” Jellyfish Lamp
Medusa (2006) by Timothy Horn
Details of Medusa from underneath
Inspired by the illustrations of the 19th century German Zoologist Ernst Haeckel [wiki], Australian artist Timothy Horn created this 9 ft wide "jellyfish" lamp, titled Medusa, out of cast silicone and fiber optics.
Link: Timothy’s Website | Medusa installation at the Hosfelt Gallery in New York
Building Your Own (Functional) Iron Man Suit
With all the hoopla about Iron Man, DVICE blog wonders if we can actually build a real Iron Man suit. Step one is to check out what history has to offer, and that’s Hardiman exoskeleton for humans:
Before we start building our own Iron Man suit, let’s first benefit from the experience from those who have tried this in the past. In 1965, GE (disclosure: our parent company, bless ’em) was the first to try creating an exoskeleton for humans. But the first iteration went berserk — kicking, bucking and gyrating so much, they never chanced it with a human inside. The project was scaled down to an arm that would be able to lift 750 pounds, enough to load up a bomb onto a plane on an aircraft carrier. Big problem, though: The arm itself weighed 1,500 pounds, far beyond anyone’s capacity to handle it. The idea was scrapped.
Read the rest of the entertaining article here: Link - via Gorilla Mask
Max Knight’s Walking Bike
Can you walk your bike and ride it at the same time? You can with Max Knight’s "Walking Bike." Instead of tires, Max uses 8 pairs of sneakers, complete with black ankle socks!
LOLBrimley: Cats That Look Like Wilford Brimley
Gato Island found not one, but five cats that look amazingly like Wilford Brimley. Behold, here are the LOLBrimleys: Link - via Cynical-C
World’s Longest Foosball Table
As an ad gimmick for Amstel Beer, Airworks built this XXL foosball table to accomodate 2 entire soccer teams (22 players): Link - via Gizmodo
Captain Jack Sparrow LEGO Bust
"Captain Jack Sparrow is like a cross between Keith Richards and Pepé Le Pew"
- Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean actor
That’s Craig Steven’s super-neat LEGO bust of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie!
Links: Captain Jack Sparrow | William Shatner | Freddie Mercury LEGO busts - via The Brothers Brick
Thai dog rescue!
My sister-in-law sent these photos from Bangkok. These two kids were spotted rescuing a small dog that was stuck in an aqueduct. Innovation and pluck! I love Thailand. [Flickr set]
David Wasserman’s Tin Can Art
Neatorama reader Steven Wasserman told us about his dad’s tin can art:
My father, David Wasserman was a successful commercial artist. In his spare time, he created monumental and beautiful works of metal collage depicting a variety of subjects, using small pieces cut from tin cans & soda cans. He never exhibited his works during his lifetime, but since his death I have been able to arrange museum, university, and gallery shows, & this website is another way to introduce him & his achievements to the world.
Check it out - they’re amazing! Link - Thanks Steven!
Maker Faire Bay Area 2008 Photo Gallery
Maker Faire is this weekend in San Francisco. Scott Beale of Laughing Squid has already posted a gallery full of fascinating photos.
Shipwrecks and Sea Disasters
They’re big, they’re buoyant, and when they fail, they might stay right where they are for many years. Dark Roasted Blend has a whole fleet of shipwrecks and abandoned boats for you to see. Link
Colossal Squid at Te Papa Museum in New Zealand
Photo: Te Papa Blog
That’s Dr. Steve O’Shea and Dr. Tsunemi Kubodera of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, preparing to preserve their colossal squid specimen, caught in the Ross Sea in February 2007 and kept frozen until now.
Everyone’s enthralled with the squid’s eyes, which are the size of dinner plates. But I was more amazed at the tentacle hooks:
The arm hooks are set in fleshy, very muscular sheaths and are strongly attached to the arms. They are likely to assist in holding and immobilising struggling prey as it is being killed and eaten. Most of the arm hooks have the main strong ‘claw’ (visible below), and also two smaller auxiliary cusps closer to the hook’s base, making them three-pointed and maximising their ability to hold and dig in. The base of each hook also has a complex structure that is set deep into the surrounding musculature. (Source)
Photo: Kat Bolstad
The Te Papa’s Blog has the entire story: Link - Thanks Geekazoid!
10×10
100 pictures, arranged in a 10×10 grid, showing the biggest news stories of the hour.
Each hour is presented as a picture postcard window, composed of 100 different frames, each of which holds the image of a single moment in time. Clicking on a single frame allows us to peer a bit deeper into the story that lies behind the image. In this way, we can dart in and out of the news, understanding both the individual stories and the ways in which they relate to each other.
10×10 runs with no human intervention, autonomously observing what a handful of leading international news sources are saying and showing. 10×10 makes no comment on news media bias, or lack thereof. It has no politics, nor any secret agenda; it simply shows what it finds.
You can pull up clickable headlines by clicking on the pictures or the one-word headlines on the right side at the site, but the pictures are not explained. This screenshot was taken at 11PM Wednesday (the time in Italy). Link -via YesButNoButYes
First Drawing of Spider-Man Now at Library of Congress
The Library of Congress had just acquired the original 1962 drawings from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s "Amazing Fantasy #15" - complete with Ditko’s pencil erasures and white-out opaquing fluid - in which Spider-Man made its first appearance in print!
Matt Raymond of the Library of Congress Blog wrote:
People who are more familiar with Amazing Fantasy #15 than I are probably not surprised by this fact, but I got a good chuckle from the disclaimer that appeared at the top of the first page (pictured at left). It almost seems to be begging skeptical readers to give Spider-Man a chance, completely unaware of the phenomenon that was about to be unleashed on the world.
The excessively exclamatory paragraph reads: “Like costume heroes? Confidentially, we in the comic mag business refer to them as ‘long underwear characters’! And, as you know, they’re a dime a dozen! But, we think you may find our SPIDER-MAN just a bit … different!”
The good folks at the LOC promises to digitize the collection forthwith! Link - Thanks Matt!
Coffin Couches
The guys at CoffinCouches.com sells sofas made from recycled coffins (coffins that are not used for burial because of cosmetic defects):
Our niche happens to be 18 gauge steel coffins which we collected from local funeral homes primarily in Southern California. It is a health and safety law that funeral homes cannot resell used coffins to the general public. We approached funeral directors with the attitude of recycling. These coffins are not used for burial due to slight cosmetic inconsistencies. They are reconfigured and modified resulting in a finished product - a unique one a kind coffin couch.
If you notice (although it may be too small) the six cast iron heavy duty legs are embossed with the universal biohazard insignia. The reason we utilized this sign was because safety was our utmost concern. If you are not aware, once a human body is placed in a coffin it is considered biohazard tissue. The legs have the embossed insignia for
precautionary reasons in the event body fluids are exchanged on these coffins. Perhaps you would feel safe knowing that you are in designated biohazard scene! Ha!!
Link - Thanks Piper Kinison!
Iron (Wo)Man Subway Ad and Other Mash Ups
Remember the Star Wars / Murakami / Beer Ad Mashup post on Neatorama before? Well, Jeff Simmermon of And I Am Not Lying For Real has more: Link - Thanks Jeff!
