I don't know about you guys, but I love nighttime photography. While I may not have the skills to do it myself, photographers who are interested in improving their night shots will probably love the video tips over at Shutter Salt. For the rest of us though, the incredible images are enough to enjoy.
Anton Semenov is an artist at an advertising agency by day, but at night, his digital paintings take a turn for the dark and become much more interesting. While most people probably wouldn't feel comfortable having his art plastered up in their bedrooms, it certainly demonstrates a lot of talent and is great to look at around Halloween.
Have you ever wondered what Brad and Angelina would look like if they switched faces with each other? Or what Abraham Lincoln would look like if he was actually played by Nic Cage? Well, thanks to the magic of Photoshop, now you can -and the results are hilarious. WebUrbanist has a great collection of Photoshop face swaps along with links to blogs that specialize in that sort of thing. Enjoy.
Designer Yoni Alter made this adorable print featuring the eyes of a variety of famous cartoon characters? Can you name them all? If not, don't worry, she also released a cheat sheet for the poster.
Sure we usually think of horror movies as a Halloween treat, but movie makers don't limit themselves to just one holiday. Flavorwire has a slideshow featuring horror movies that feature just about every major holiday of the year.
From Black Night (Chirstmas) to Easter Bunny, Kill! Kill!, they've got them all covered. I'm a little disappointed that Silent Night, Deadly Night, but they only used one movie per holiday.
Personally, I haven't seen any movies on their list, but some of them certainly sound entertaining. Have you guys watched any of these?
If you’re the kind of person who finds commercial haunted houses boring and instead loves traveling to macabre places, then you’d better start booking your tickets because we’ve compiled some of the creepiest and scariest places on earth. Of course, if you’re squeamish and don’t like to read about death or look at pictures of long-dead bodies, then you should probably skip ahead because this article just isn’t for you.
Japan’s Suicide Forrest
At first glance, the Aokigahara Forest near Mount Fuji is an ideal nature destination, filled with stunning trees growing on hard volcanic rock, and icy, rocky caverns. But the forest has a much darker side, one that was popularized with the 1960 novel Nami no T?, where the main characters end up committing suicide in the area. While Aokigahara was always a destination for the forlorn to end their lives, Nami no T? made the idea much more popular and since the book was released, an average of 30 people kill themselves in the area every year, with a record-setting body count of 108 deaths in 2004.
The government has put out a number of signs in both Japanese and English urging people to reconsider their decision and seek psychiatric help. Once a year, a group of volunteers patrols the forest looking for bodies. These body hunters mark off the areas they are exploring with plastic tape that is never removed. Thus, even if you never see a dead body or ghost roaming the forest, you are still bound to see signs of the forest’s secrets wherever you happen to go.
Unless you already have a doll phobia, the idea of an island filled with dolls doesn’t sound all that creepy at first. It’s once you learn that the dolls are mutilated and left hung in trees while they rot away, all in honor of a drowned little girl that you start to realize just how creepy this macabre tourist destination really is.
It all started over fifty years ago, when the island’s only resident, Don Julian Santana found the body of a dead little girl in the canal where the island sits. He was haunted by her memory and soon started hanging dolls in the trees to appease the girl’s spirits and to ward off evil spirits from entering the island. Doll heads, arms, legs, etc. are sprawled out across the island in a strange sacrifice to prevent further evil. Strangely though, in 2001, Don Julian suffered the same fate as the little girl, drowning in the canal beside his home. Some people believe this was the work of the dolls who have since become inhabited by evil spirits. These days, the dolls remain the sole occupants of one of Mexico’s darkest tourist attractions.
The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo started when the local monastery outgrew its original cemetery, so the monks decided to mummify one of their recently deceased brothers before placing him in their newly opened catacombs. The process seemed to work well, so the monks began mummifying all of their fallen comrades and placing them in the catacombs. After a few centuries, word spread about the monk’s unique burial methods and it soon began to be a status symbol for rich people to be entombed in the catacombs buried in their finest clothing. Some people even left wills requesting that their clothing be changed by their family members at regular intervals.
The last friar was buried in the catacombs in 1871, but famous people from the area continued to be interred up until the 1920s. There are now about 8000 mummies lining the walls of the many hallways, which have been organized into categories: men, women, virgins, children, priests, monks and professionals. Some of the bodies are even set in poses, including the bodies of two children who sit together in a rocking chair.
Good news for those of you who are fans of the great Comedy Central show Reno 9-11, Netflix wants to start remaking the show after it was already canceled two years ago. While nothing is completely official, the show's producers have actively been discussing the idea with Netflix, who recently announced their intention to make original streaming content for their service.
I don't know about you guys, but I hope this one ends up panning out.
Sure you might not need a tiny paper chair, but it sure is a lot more memorable than a tiny flat piece of paper. Oddee has a great selection of memorable business cards and while I love the chair idea, the breast augmentation one is certainly appropriate for a plastic surgeon's potential market.
I've honestly never been that into motorcycles, but for some reason, I always have been fascinated by motorcycle sidecars. If you feel the same way, then don't miss this great list of awesome sidecars on Dark Roasted Blend.
Seen at Occupy Endor last weekend...just kidding, it was at the New York Comic Con last weekend. BuzzFeed has more great pictures of cosplayers spotted at the convention.
Jewel thieves decide to steal a load of diamonds at the behest of an older criminal boss. While robbing the jewelry store, an alarm goes off and one of the thieves kills the employees. Blah blah blah ... Mexican standoff ends in a massacre, aaaand scene.
It sounds just like Reservoir Dogs right? It's not. The author is actually describing the plot of City on Fire, which is a Hong Kong action film that Quentin Tarantino pretty much ripped off to make his classic film.
Cracked has more about movies that are actually blatant rip offs in this great article.
I don't know about you guys, but I would certainly want to go see this. For more funny Star Wars mash up posters, check out the Geeks Are Sexy article at the link.
Dark Roasted Blend has a great article on turtles right now, complete with tons of great pictures and some interesting facts about the creatures. For example:
The rigid shell means turtles cannot breathe as other reptiles do, by changing the volume of their chest cavity via expansion and contraction of the ribs. Instead, turtles breathe in two ways. First, they employ buccal pumping, pulling air into their mouth, then pushing it into the lungs via oscillations of the floor of the throat. Secondly, by contracting the abdominal muscles that cover the posterior opening of the shell, the internal volume of the shell increases, drawing air into the lungs, allowing these muscles to function in much the same way as the mammalian diaphragm.
I don't know about you guys, but this article makes me want to run off and adopt some new hard-shelled pets.
This beautiful My Little Pony poodle was spotted over at the British Dog Creative Stylist of the Year competition. For more delightfully goofy pictures of posh pups, check out the link and enjoy The Telegraph's slideshow, which also includes pictures of a dragon dog and a Lady Gaga poodle.
