Blogging Is Overrated

"You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself."

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:28:03 -0400

““You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”” -...

When people unfollow me...

Tue, 21 May 2013 21:18:39 -0400

I sometimes wonder which post it was that pushed them over the edge.

micropolisnyc: Until recently, European tourists seeking...

Tue, 21 May 2013 20:40:10 -0400

micropolisnyc:

Until recently, European tourists seeking poverty-porn have been crowding onto buses to ride through “a real New York City ‘GHETTO,’” i.e., the Bronx.

The controversy that erupted over the tour caused the operator, Real Bronx Tours, to drop it today.

But the NY Post tagged along last week as one tour guide, Lynn Battaglia,made snide comments and gazed at impoverished locals.

As the bus idled across from historic St. Ann’s Episcopalian Church, Battaglia launched into a description of the crime, poverty and violence that plagued the South Bronx during the 1970s recession.

As she spoke, a line of two dozen poor people — including one man visibly agitated by the onlookers — waited for handouts from the church pantry.

“I don’t know what that line’s about, but every Wednesday we see it,” Battaglia told the tourists. “We see them go in with empty carts, and we see them come out with carts full.”

Bronx Borough President slammed Real Bronx Tours last week:

“To have foreigners come and gawk at a long line of people who are less fortunate than they are and to make money off of that and to view them as they are some sort of entertainment is pretty disgusting.”

There is so much wrong going on here I don’t even know where to start. WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE.

Fantasizing About the Perfect Elegant Death Landscape with a...

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:40:26 -0400

Fantasizing About the Perfect Elegant Death

Landscape with a Corpse is a series of images in which Japanese photographer Izima Kaoru merges violence with delicate, feminine beauty. For each spectacle, Kaoru asks his model to reveal their fantasy about a perfect death. He then asks them which designer clothing they imagine wearing when people discover their dead body. Using that information, Kaoru combines the gorgeously styled female models with a morbid final end. However, according to his bio, the images “do not allude to something fatal and irreversible but a kind of elegant and highly aesthetic ceremony.”

First using a long lens, he documents the moment from quite a distance. It’s not always instantly clear what is happening in the scenes, but upon closer inspection, viewers will realize that they are witnessing a disturbing, fictional murder scene. Then gradually, in an additional three or four photographs, Kaoru moves closer to the subject until the final shot is an up-close detailed portrait.

The artist says, “By projecting the viewpoint of the deceased onto the picture, looking down at the beautiful scenery which could be a tragic scene of death in reality, I tried to express my thought: no matter how we die, we will travel up to the world beyond the sky without regretting how we lived.”

sail-away-from-reality replied to your photo: The Glory Days of Old-Fashioned Color...

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:02:19 -0400

sail-away-from-reality replied to your photo: The Glory Days of Old-Fashioned Color...

Satellite Photos Show What the Oklahoma Tornado Looked Like From...

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:00:25 -0400

Satellite Photos Show What the Oklahoma Tornado Looked Like From Space

NASA has today released a series of images along with a video following Monday’s devastating thunderstorms that produced an F-4 tornado (winds between 166 and 200 miles per hour) that touched down in Moore, Oklahoma. Several satellites were used to provide forecasters with the latest imagery.

NASA’s Aqua satellite was responsible for a visible-light image which provided a high-resolution look at the storm. The NOAA GOES-13 satellite provided images of the storm every 15 minutes, and the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite observed lightning from the system.

(Continue Reading)

Satellite Sees Storm System Generate Powerful Oklahoma Tornado...

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:50:00 -0400

Satellite Sees Storm System Generate Powerful Oklahoma Tornado [hd video] by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

America's Best Beer Cities | Travel + Leisure

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:20:23 -0400

America's Best Beer Cities | Travel + Leisure: fuckyeahbeer: Portland, OR Denver Portland,...

THE AUDACITY OF HOPS Most of us at this point have tried several...

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:40:00 -0400

THE AUDACITY OF HOPS

Most of us at this point have tried several craft beers, and many of us liked them enough to switch almost exclusively away from the Bud Lights of the world. But few know the real history behind their rise to prominence. The Audacity of Hops ($14) chronicles that story from the 1960s through to today, based on interviews with the most influential folks in craft brewing, tons of research, and, we’ll go ahead and assume, a healthy amount of beer drinking. Filled with amusing anecdotes and sometimes surprising facts, it’s a must-read for any beer lover.

"It’s Important for artists to constantly produce work."

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:34:50 -0400

“It’s Important for artists to constantly produce work.” - (via nicholasmax)

I'm in the wrong line of work

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:27:02 -0400

I'm in the wrong line of work

World’s tallest building, Sky City will break ground next...

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:22 -0400

World’s tallest building, Sky City will break ground next month in China

Developers of what will be the world’s tallest building, the broad group has already had success with the prefab skyscraper method with their 15 storey s9 building in shanghai, which was delivered and assembled the 30 storey hotel structure in a mere 15 days; however the a subdivision of the chinese developer made waves when they announced that they aimed to construct the tallest building in the world, sky city within 90 days. while the project was set to top out this march 2013, the hunan-based developer broad group announced that the total construction time will be 7 months. the aptly named ‘sky city’ will reportedly break ground next month. the extreme productivity is mainly due to a system of modules and prefabricated parts combined with a back-breaking timeline. located in just outside changsha, the rapidly developing waterfront area that will soon house a zaha hadid theater complex, the mixed use residential complex will house 31,000 people inside. approximately 83% of the vertical complex will be exclusively residential, while 3% will be reserved for office use. a hotel with a thousand person capacity and a school set to educate 4600 children is also planned for the veritable urban complex.

(Continue Reading)

"…there’s no such thing as Flickr Pro, because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:20:27 -0400

“…there’s no such thing as Flickr Pro, because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are,...

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old,..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:58:18 -0400

““No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his...

Playful Structures Feature Well-Balanced Meals These playful...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:40:20 -0400

Playful Structures Feature Well-Balanced Meals

These playful sculptures are a visual reminder to keep a healthy diet. Each image features the ingredients for a delicious meal, with all of the parts organized into precariously balanced structures. Italian stylist Elena Mora collaborated with photographer Karsten Wegenerto to produce this series, entitled Ricettario: A Balanced Diet.

The two artists have created a wonderfully fresh and modern series of still life images that will have viewers seeing their food in a whole new light. Included in the series are salmon, minestrone, margherita pizza, and apple cake. Each attractive and quite unexpected food presentation is set against a solid colored, complimentary background. The clean lines and harmonious arrangements will have you wondering how things don’t topple over.

(Via. MyModernMet)

Amazing Still Life Photos of Plants Used for Witchcraft Working...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:00:20 -0400

Amazing Still Life Photos of Plants Used for Witchcraft

Working in collaboration with floral sculptor Elizabeth Parks Kibbey, photographer Amelia Bauer’s Book of Shadows combines the floral still life popularized in the 17th century with the other pervading cultural threat of the time: the looming peril of witchcraft. Using plants historically known for their medicinal and spiritual power, Bauer’s work strips away the malignant connotations. In her own words (viaBOOOOOOOM), the Book of Shadows photos “turn these spells towards the domestic, and present a less threatening, more palatable femininity.”

(Via. Flavorwire)

The Polaroid Years Prestel‘s new book, The Polaroid Years:...

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:20:16 -0400

The Polaroid Years

Prestel‘s new book, The Polaroid Years: Instant Photography and Experimentation, is filled with Polaroid images from artists ranging from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol, Walker Evans to Robert Mapplethorpe, David Hockney to Lucas Samaras. From its inception in 1947, the Polaroid system inspired artists to experiment. Keep in mind, they didn’t have Tumblr, Instagram, blogs, websites, Facebook, etc., to share and exchange ideas as we do now. The book features essays about Polaroid’s inception as well as the marketing genius of the corporation, and artist statements from Chuck Close, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Miranda Lichtenstein, Catherine Opie, and more, citing how Polaroids have affected them in so many ways.

Two exhibitions have been announced to accompany the book launch. The first is on view now through June 30, 2013 at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York and the second opens September 20 at the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

I’m full of grief bacon.

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:47:15 -0400

I’m full of grief bacon.

Bad news for Flickr Pro account users: Unless you have signed up...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:40:16 -0400

Bad news for Flickr Pro account users: Unless you have signed up for a recurring subscription, Your out of luck. As of yesterday pro accounts are no longer available for purchase.

Last year, Flickr migrated all Flickr Pro accounts into recurring accounts. As long as your account is by way of a recurring subscription (currently quarterly, yearly or for two years), you can continue to renew your account once it expires.

If your Flickr Pro account was the result of a gift certificate, it’s possible that because it is not recurring, it and its benefits will end once it expires.

How long Flickr Pro users would be able to continue to renew their accounts? Flickr says: ”There are no plans for Pro renewals to go away.”

Renewal rates will also remain the same as they are now.

However:

Flickr Pro is going away, but Flickr will still offer upgrades for users.

For $49.99 a year, users can remove ads from the Flickr experience. This doesn’t add any other features; it just removes ads.

It’s worth noting that $49.99 a year is twice what a Flickr Pro membership used to cost.

For $499.99 a year, users can double their Flickr capacity and bring it all the way up to 2TB. Yeah — $500 for another terabyte of storage.

What are your thoughts on this?

Beast Sounds Go Visual in Artist’s Synesthetic Creations The...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:00:16 -0400

Beast Sounds Go Visual in Artist’s Synesthetic Creations

The images Mark Fischer makes for his Aguasonic Acoustics project are visually mesmerizing, like something you might find in a black-light room at the back of a smokeshop.

These images, however, weren’t created to enhance your high. They’re part of an art project where Fischer takes animal sounds — mainly whales, dolphins and birds — and processes them through software he wrote to turn them into pictures.

He calls his images “pictures” or “photos” because he thinks the approach is very similar to photography. Both capture raw data, be it sound or light, and use that data to make a particular visual representation.

“The methodology is definitely photographic,” he says.

Usually animal sounds are represented visually with spectograms, which are graphs of sound waveforms. Fischer’s software uses a mathematical procedure called a wavelet because he thinks it’s a more robust way to visually analyze sound. It’s more robust, he says, because wavelets can simultaneously zoom in on details in the sound while still representing the overall pattern of the data, whereas a spectogram has to choose either detail or big picture and can’t do both.

(Continue Reading)