One of the highlights of the BBC Life Series is this fascinating (and cute) video of the pygmy gecko floating atop a puddle, running on water, and evading the raindrop bombardment. Seems like nothing can indeed sink the little critter - here is a positive, life-affirming message for your day...
If you think that this is Photoshopped, you are sorely mistaken. Neither is this a virtual location, plucked from some computer game environment. This is the actual Congress Hall in Biel, Switzerland - augmented by an art project by urban artists Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann.
This pair of designers are also responsible for the "Everland" hotel room concept, which you can stick pretty much anywhere - including to the wall of any building - and enjoy the view that comes with the location:
(Photo by Gregory Guida, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.)
UPDATE: This is a Hispaniolan solenodon - more info. A venomous animal, and a living fossil!
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Better than the Grand Canyon Skywalk?
This is the Five Fingers Viewing Platform, above the Salzkammergut area in Austria:
What do you think? More spectacular than Grand Canyon Skywalk experience? To see other breathtaking viewing platforms around the world, we refer you to this page.
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I'm Bored
I could not banish this image from my mind for days... Be warned.
Hopefully DRB can provide some remedy from this condition.
Similar soul-crushing conditions were all over New York ghettos in the 1970s, due to the "Planned Shrinkage" doctrine adopted by the City Council.
"By the mid 1970s, The Bronx had 120,000 fires per year (an average of about 3 fires every 2 hours); 40 percent of the housing in the area was destroyed."
See a whole lot more at this page. But also marvel at the modern miracle of community revitalization - compare these shots with Bronx today: the area looks nothing like before, it has even become a desirable (sort-of) place to live for NY hipsters...
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Emotionally Charged
(original unknown)
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Brian Berg, the King of Cardstacking, creates a hotel room out of 200,000 Holiday Inn keycards
- The 400 sq. ft. - a guest bedroom, bathroom and lobby, all fully equipped with life-sized furniture made out of Holiday Inn key cards.
- The largest card structure Berg has ever built and the only one in the world of its kind - the only card creation made at full human scale
- Made of more than 200,000 Holiday Inn key cards, weighs 4,000 pounds, took four months to construct
Bryan Berg broke the Guinness World Record for the World's Tallest House of Cards in 1992 at the age of seventeen, with a tower fourteen feet, six inches tall. His latest record-holding structure in the category is over twenty-five feet tall. Berg also established a new record category for World's Largest House of Cards in 2004, and continues to hold both records. Learn more at CardStacker.com
Watch "Behind The Scenes" video here, detailing the project.
IHG, the world's largest hotel group, unveiled the Holiday Inn "Key Card Hotel," the first-ever hotel made of keycards on September 17 in New York City, to mark the relaunch of 1,200 Holiday Inn hotels globally this autumn. Holiday Inn has also launched its global "Key to Change" promotion, giving guests the chance to win an all-expense paid trip to a relaunched Holiday Inn of their choice, anywhere in the world - www.holidayinn.com/Key.
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When Your Girlfriend Tries to Tell You Something...
This cat can't be too enthusiastic about Cat Piano, or much of anything, actually:
(original unknown)
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Is it a tank? Is it a Transformer? Well, it's just a "humble" logging truck...
Roger Snider takes wicked pictures of various wicked American custom big rigs - see our previous article for some super examples. Now, his recent gallery of the Pacific North West logging rigs is pretty impressive, but some shots (exclusive for DRB) taken in California are also full of brute beauty:
This, and other works by Kris Kuksi and other masters of Steampunk Art can be seen at the world's first major exhibition of "Steampunk", which opened on October 13th in Oxford England. It showcases a unique collection of art inspired by devious devices, confusing contraptions and other oddities taking place at the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford University.
See more sculptures by Kris here, and read DRB interview with him on this page.
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The kitchen every woman wants... (1960 advertisement)
Those pictures of NY in the 70/80's almost deserve to be accompanied by danish photographer Jacob Holdt's pictures of "Brutal New York 1965/95", here as seen on skyscrapercity.com:
The animal in the fourth picture is a Solenodon (I believe that's how they call them in english) and is an endemic animal from the country I come from, Dominican Republic, but also found in our neighbor country, Haiti. Is endangered, btw.
The quintessential 'trip' movie "Koyaanisqatsi" features very similar images, images that truly mainstream shocked '70s America. The film as a whole is an entirely unique experience and I recommend it highly (plus the music is by Phillip Glass, which cannot fail to be magnificent).
Great bit of gecko footage there! And I never quite understood why (other than for sheer amusement) the Gecko in the insurance ad has an east London accent??? That second pic, is pretty mad! Considering something I was reading in The Daily Dust about how health and safety in the UK posting guidelines on how to safely eat a biscuit, I can't imagine that country allowing this sort of thing any time soon! Awesome pics once again!
I am so thankful that this gallery does differentiate between concept & finished product, Just because someone cam make a picture of something doesnt mean it can actually be made.I am so sick of tech blogs telling us the flying car or whatever is just round the corner. You will never purchase any of these "products" at any price because the manufacturing processes in order to produce these phones DOES NOT EXIST! I am now two cents poorer.
This is the web-site for a pub quite near to where I live. http://www.catandcustardpot.co.uk/ No satisfactory explanation for the name has ever been found
Another one that has "reputed" origins is "The Case Is Altered". The most common origin given is "La casa alta" brough back from the peninsula campaign during the Napoleonic wars.
In the '80s, traditional pubs were bought up by the fistful by large breweries who wanted places to sell their beer exclusively. Many, many original and quite exquisite turned-wood fittings, stained-glass windows and other irreplaceable pieces of history were tossed out to make way for cocktail bars and large-screen TVs.
Ironically, in the past decade well-heeled young revellers have been craving the feel of yore. Now these breweries are spending a fortune making ersatz versions of what they ripped out to begin with.
My parents used to have a cottage in Earl Sterndale where the Quiet Woman is! It's a tiny village in a steep gorge in probably the most bleak part of the Peak District National Park - and the pub is about as bleak and quiet as its name! In fact every time I've been there it's been closed... although apparently it does open daily - bizarre place!
Great names! The Kings Head is always a popular one too, and the "Wicked Woman" looks pretty attractive from where I'm standing!
I don't know about the first vehicle but the O'keefe truck belonged to The O'keefe Brewery which was purchased by the Carling Brewery becoming the Carling O'keefe brewery which was then purchased by the Molsons Group. At no time did it ever belong to Labatts.
Simon, We are a small traditional signage company in Sussex UK and read your article on pub signs with great interest, we are at present building a Wordpress site and would very much like to include your article in this site, would that be possible? many thanks Sherrie britishinnsigns@waitrose.com
The swastika is a Hindu symbol, facing either way. The Nazi's stole only the right-pointing one. (This is why it's amusing once in a while to see a stupid neo-nazi with the hindu symbol for evolution of the universe, the left-facing one.)
Michael Moschen gave a ted talk years ago and discussed his philosophy and approach towards juggling. Worth watching for anyone who enjoyed the triangle piece. He's amazing!
Re Art Deco, I heartily recommend The Netherlands Plaza, at 3rd and Race St in downtown Cincinatti, OH. Furnishings purchased at the original Art Deco exposition in Paris, 192x. The 1st floor bar is probably the most surreal place to get drunk east of the mississippi.
There's a reason why all of Vegas is photographed at night. The build "quality" of these structures is mediocre. Walk around during the day and look. Vegas is a visual dump by day.
The chocolate fountain smells fantastic in person. I have tried many times to photograph the ceiling in the Venetian and the pictures always come out too dark. Loved the vintage nighttime shots though, well done!
There's a reason why all of Vegas is photographed at night. The build "quality" of these structures is mediocre. Walk around during the day and look. Vegas is a visual dump by day.
Your first black and white photo from 1952 is the Flamingo. You can see Bugsy Siegel's suite to the far left of the circle. I stayed there when I was a kid, in 1955, and that is just what is was like, surrounded by desert. You can see the Flamingo today in the next photo - it is right behind the Eiffel Tower.
Another time we stayed at an old hotel downtown called the Sal Sagev (Las Vegas spelled backwards). It is still there, but called the Golden Gate Hotel, to match the name of the attached casino.
Fantastic photos! Too bad a great invention like the watch more often than not spells the demise of these old clocks - that today will carry a hefty price tag! I was reading about an ancient water clock the other day, that apparently kept time more accurately than anything else until the 17th century, or something like that anyway...
One very famous clock is missing from this collection and that's the Eise Eisinga planetarium in the modest Frisian city of Franeker. He build his clock inside his home and at present is the oldest working still acurate clock of it's kind. W
I believe the link to Recently Found 1941 Pearl Harbor Photos isn't accurate. While Snopes isn't perfect, this one seems to make sense from the points that it would be impossible to take all those photos from a single camera. http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/pearlharbor.asp A comment on the linked site also disputes the description based on the variation of images.
Glad you're back from the summer schedule. I find something interesting in all your posts.
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6 Comments:
Those pictures of NY in the 70/80's almost deserve to be accompanied by danish photographer Jacob Holdt's pictures of "Brutal New York 1965/95", here as seen on skyscrapercity.com:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=402544
Also, visit his own site for more documentaric storytelling and photographies from his journey around the american lower class communities:
http://www.american-pictures.com/english/index.html
The animal in the fourth picture is a Solenodon (I believe that's how they call them in english) and is an endemic animal from the country I come from, Dominican Republic, but also found in our neighbor country, Haiti. Is endangered, btw.
The pictures of the Bronx are sobering indeed...
The quintessential 'trip' movie "Koyaanisqatsi" features very similar images, images that truly mainstream shocked '70s America. The film as a whole is an entirely unique experience and I recommend it highly (plus the music is by Phillip Glass, which cannot fail to be magnificent).
I'll have to pygmy up one of those geckos. I can send them down for milk and be assured they'll return... eventually...
Another magnificent update, Avi. Many thanks from the Antipodes.
Great bit of gecko footage there! And I never quite understood why (other than for sheer amusement) the Gecko in the insurance ad has an east London accent??? That second pic, is pretty mad! Considering something I was reading in The Daily Dust about how health and safety in the UK posting guidelines on how to safely eat a biscuit, I can't imagine that country allowing this sort of thing any time soon! Awesome pics once again!
Here's a real staircase above Crescent St. in Montreal that looks kinda like the art installation!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kylemacdonald/4024115121/sizes/l/in/set-72157622360608725/
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