Do you have vertigo? Do you want some?
It’s one of San Francisco’s favorite photo subjects, and today we bring you a selection of our favorite leaning house photos to illustrate just how steep some of the city’s sidewalks can be, courtesy of photographer Leighton Wallis. [From sfist.com]
Photos From an Arctic Outpost Where Landscapes Are Alien and Dying Is Forbidden
From wired.com: The imposing entrance to the Global Seed Vault. Aurora Borealis lights the sky above the Adventdalen valley. This eight-minute exposure reveals the nearly parallel motion of the stars, due to Svalbard’s proximity to the North Pole. The vehicles Wu and his compatriots used to get around. “Probably the closest I’ll ever get to […]
Czech scientist Jan Evangelista Purkinje’s drawings of the shapes made from pushing on his closed eye
Czech scientist Jan Evangelista Purknye‘s (1787-1869) made drawings of the shapes “seen” from pushing on his closed eye. He was a proponent of self-experimentation who tested over fifty dangerous drugs on himself, and took to his eye pushing research with abandon: “When I close my eyes, they begin to shine, just like the dots and […]
A Recent Sampling of Letters to the Editor of the London Review of Books
Letters Vol. 35 No. 22 · 21 November 2013 The Reviewer’s Song Andrew O’Hagan writes: ‘Joan Didion gave me her hand and she was so thin it felt like I was holding a butterfly’ (LRB, 7 November). A beautiful sentence, but I wondered about the simile’s plausibility. It’s been reported that Didion weighs less than […]
Lady Gaga Is About to Fly in a Dress Called VOLANTIS
From complex.com: Image via Complex Art+Design/VOLANTIS In anticipation of her new album, ARTPOP, Lady Gaga plans to reach new heights, literally. As part of ArtRave, Gaga’s fashion, music, art, and tech mash-up party tonight in a Brooklyn warehouse, Gaga will soar above her audiences in a flying dress called VOLANTIS. VOLANTIS was conceived […]
Roentgenium has no uses whatsoever
Element of the week: roentgenium What do unununium and the first ever Nobel Prize in Physics share in common? Image: Cheezburger. This week’s element is roentgenium, which has the atomic symbol, Rg, and atomic number, 111. Originally known by its temporary name, unununium (Uuu), this element was named in honour of German physicist Wilhelm Conrad […]
Artist Makes Pixelated Photos by Stitching ‘Pixels’ on Them
From laughingsquid.com: Artist Diane Meyer adds pixelated sections to her photographs by embroidering pixel-like squares directly on to the photos with a needle and thread. The embroidered areas obscure the underlying photo, much like digital pixelation is used to obscure portions of a photo or video. She has used the technique on photos from her […]
Here’s How Memes Went Viral — In the 1800s
From wired.com: Thicker lines indicate more content-sharing between 19th century newspapers. Image: Ryan Cordell / Infectious texts project The story had everything — exotic locale, breathtaking engineering, Napoleon Bonaparte. No wonder the account of a lamplit flat-bottom boat journey through the Paris sewer went viral after it was published — on May 23, 1860. At […]
Babybel Cheese Wax Is The Ultimate Artistic Medium
If you didn’t make stuff out of that alluring red wax during elementary school lunch, you must have been a monster. instagram.com SO. MUCH. MORE. With it, you can make… Poodles. gramfeed.com Flowers. instagram.com Teddy bears. instagram.com The cast of Bambi. instagram.com A manicure. instagram.com Don’t pretend you never did this. A super impressive horse. […]
Delightful Papercraft Food and Grocery Sculptures
From laughingsquid.com: These delightful papercraft foods and groceries were created by artist Maria Laura Benavente Sovieri for advertising and editorial clients. For more of her photography and visual art, check out her Behance portfolio. via Ian Brooks