A. Kachmar

In these new galleries we present great product and industrial designs that are modern, creative and beautiful. Designs where form and function works perfectly together.

Ferrari Motorcycle Helmet by Vinaccia Integral Design


Wooden bike by Yojiro Oshima


Peugeot Pleyel Piano


Axe by Oscar Dülow


Jack - concrete speaker by Ben Wahrlich




Lacie USB Key




Aëdle Headphones


The Federal Maple Set Knives


Brass Bottle Opener


Wooden bathtub








Goldfish Cord Storage


Areaware - Rustic Bottle Opener


Empty Memory




Zai CORE Axe by Kacper Hamilton




3D Printed Lamp Shades by Samuel Bernier


Nollie Flip Stool


This one is a couple of years old but so damn awesome it doesn’t really matter.

If you would like to send us suggestions for these galleries, please click the link “Submit suggestions” located at the very top of every page. And don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS-feed and follow From up North on Twitter + Facebook to get all the latest updates.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

Sometimes you have nowhere to build … but up. And really, there is something nice and relaxing about removing oneself from the main floor of a home – which can be done at times even in a one-story dwelling, as these lovely lofts illustrate.

Long and narrow is the name of the game in most of Manhattan, including the East Village where this condo by JPDA Architects is located. Taking advantage of a unique pop-up opportunity at the roof level, this stellar little bedroom manages to be bright and spacious while being tucked away at the top of a slim staircase (which doubles as drawers).

Switching styles and approaches for a moment, consider this lofted space by Maxim Zhukov. Instead of lofting the bed, this industrial space lofts a little study above the bed instead, taking advantage of the vertical opportunity in a totally unexpected way.

For some greater stylistic variety, here is some (P)inspiration – a few Pinterest finds to pique your interest in other built-in and add-on ways to use existing or create new upper-level spaces for everyday occupation by kids or adults.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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I've been making plans for a big trip through some nice places around the world, and it's always great to see some pictures to inspire me to go to places I've never thought about visiting before, like these, capture by Weerapong Chaipung.

Weerapong, a photographer from Thailand, has captured some truly dreamy scenery around the globe, as you can see here. Really fantastic and fresh! For more of Mr. Chaipung's pictures, please visit his portfolios at 500px and Fine Art America. There you can also buy his prints! He'll definitely appreciate it. Cheers! ;)

Tags:  photography

If Lucian Rudaux was the Grandfather of space art, Chesley Bonestell was the father. He was born on January 1, 1888, 15 years before the Wright brothers first flew and 38 years before the launch of the first liquid-fuel rocket. When he died 98 years later, men had walked on the moon and spacecraft had visited most of the planets and many of the moons of the solar system.

Bonestell's paintings not only anticipated 20th century space exploration, they helped to bring it about. So realistic were his depictions of other worlds that visiting them no longer seemed fantasy. His artwork looked like picture postcards taken by some future astronaut.

Bonestell started drawing at age five and be­gan formal art instruction by the time he was 12. When he was 17, he visited Lick Observatory where he was in­spired by seeing Saturn through the observatory's giant refractors. As soon as he returned home, Bonestell sketched a picture of the planet as he had observed it—probably his first attempt at space art.

Bonestell eventually became an architectural designer and renderer. One of his first professional jobs was working with the legendary Willis Polk on the reconstruction of San Francisco after the great earthquake and fire. Polk quickly made Bonestell his chief designer. In New York, Bonestell assisted Wil­liam van Alen in the design of the Chrysler Building (its famous gargoyles are Bonestell's work). Later, Bonestell worked on the Golden Gate Bridge.

During this time, he kept up his interest in astronomy, filling sketchbooks with extraterrestrial scenes, like this one:

In 1938, Bonestell began a new career in Hollywood as a spe­cial effects matte painter. The first film he worked on was Orson Welles's Citizen Kane. All the views of turn-of-the-century New York and of Charles Foster Kane's mansion, Xan­adu, are Bonestell's artwork. In The Fountainhead, Bonestell in a sense was Howard Roark: all of the buildings created by Ayn Rand's superheroic architect are by Bonestell. He eventually became Hollywood's highest-paid matte artist.

After his success as an astronomical artist, Bonestell returned to Hollywood to provide spe­cial effects art for George Pal’s Destination Moon, War of the Worlds and When Worlds Collide. The complete panoramic matte painting for the latter is here, and an unused alternate version below:

And Bonestell's 14-foot-wide lunar landscape created for Destination Moon:

It occurred to him that he could employ what he’d learned as a special effects artist to create astronomical art with a level of realism never seen before. "As my knowledge of the technical side of the motion picture industry broadened,” he wrote, “I realized I could ap­ply camera angles as used in the motion picture studio to il­lustrate 'travel' from satellite to satellite, showing Saturn ex­actly as it would look, and at the same time I could add inter­est by showing the inner satellites or outer ones on the far side of Saturn, as well as the planet itself in different phas­es."

For instance, he often employed a laborious technique of constructing detailed model landscapes, which he then photographed, painting over the final print. This resulted in a level of realism that was utterly convincing. It was a laborious technique, however, that he seldom used after the 1950s. Here is a detail from one these models:

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This project resulted in his first published space art, a series of paintings depicting scenes on Saturn’s moons, that appeared in the May 29,1944, issue of Life. The public—to say nothing of science fiction fans—were astonished and delighted. Among the paintings was a ethereally beautiful view of Saturn seen from Titan. Inspiring an entire generation of scientists and space enthusiasts—countless scientists, engineers and astronauts have been inspired in their choice of careers by Bonestell's images, including a young Carl Sagan—it has been called “the painting that launched a thousand careers.”

Around this time, Bonestell began a long-term collabora­tion with Willy Ley, an expatriate German historian and sci­ence popularizer who had been a member of the German Spaceflight Society (Verein fur Raumschiffahrt). Taking advantage of Ley's advice, Bonestell began adding spacecraft to his paintings. In 1946 Life published another set of his il­lustrations, this time depicting a manned flight to the moon.

Bonestell's art began appearing regularly in magazines, from Look, Coronet, Pic and Mechanix Illustrated to Air Trails, Scientific American and Astounding Science Fiction. So popular had his art become that Bonestell once mistakenly sent the cover painting for a science-fiction magazine to the wrong publication. The editor of that magazine promptly ran it! Bonestell's first book, The Conquest of Space, created in collaboration with Ley, featured 48 of his paintings. It became an immediate best-seller. The cover painting has become one of the iconic images of the 1950s:

In addition to the artwork he was creating for books, magazines and movies, Bonestell created a magnificent mural for the Boston Museum of Science. Forty feet wide, it depicted a lunar landscape with breathtaking realism. The mural was removed after the Apollo 11 landing in 1969 because “it was no longer accurate.” The mural is now in the collection of the National Air & Space Museum, where plans are being made to restore and display it.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke tried to explain Bonestell’s popularity at this time by saying that his “...remarkable technique produces an effect of realism so strik­ing that his paintings have sometimes been mistaken for ac­tual colour photographs by those slightly unacquainted with the present status of interplanetary flight.... In the years to come it is probably destined to fire many imaginations, and thereby to change many lives."

Clarke was only too right. In 1951 Cornelius Ryan, the asso­ciate editor of Collier's magazine, invited Bonestell to illus­trate a series of five articles on the future of spaceflight. The prime author was Wernher von Braun.

Just as Clarke had been, von Braun found himself awed by Bonestell's sharp eye for scientific and engineering accuracy. He once wrote that "Chesley Bonestell's pictures... are far more than reproductions of beautiful ethereal paintings of Worlds Beyond. They present the most accurate portrayal of those faraway heavenly bodies that modern science can offer. I do not say this lightly. In my many years of association with Chesley I have learned to respect, nay fear, this wonderful artist's obsession with perfection. My file cabinet is filled with sketches of rocket ships I had prepared to help him in his art work—only to have them returned to me with pene­trating detailed questions or blistering criticism of some in­consistency or oversight."

The Collier's series—published between 1952 and 1954—took America by storm. The country turned space-happy; reproductions and knockoffs of Bonestell's paintings appeared in settings ranging from commercial advertise­ments to television programs to school lunch boxes. The series was eventually collected in three books: Across the Space Frontier, Conquest of the Moon and Exploration of Mars, now all collector’s items. Bonestell's artwork strongly influenced the American pub­lic and, in turn, the government to support an investment in space exploration. An influence that has been repeatedly acknowledged.

Over the following decade Bonestell watched manned space explo­ration become a reality. He grumpily noticed that the softly rolling lu­nar hills seen by the Apollo astronauts bore little resemblance to the craggy, romanticized, Doresque landscapes he had painted. But such inaccuracies do little to diminish the primary importance of Bonestell's work. His illustrations gave immediacy and veri­similitude to dry astronomical data. What had once been columns of numbers and blurry telescopic images took on a new, compelling reality.

Bonestell continued to work until he died in 1986, an un­finished painting still on his easel. Asteroid number 3129 and a crater on Mars have been given the name "Bonestell"—a fitting honor for the man whose art contributed to the birth of the space age.

All art copyright by and reproduced courtesy of Bonestell LLC

Your body, and even your DNA, are under constant assault from ultraviolet light. Sometimes that's just an unpleasant fact of life. Sometimes, though, the hyperchromic effect and UV light help scientists know when there's a problem - like when DNA has been destroyed.

Read more...

Photo by ElectroSpark

As we saw in Chevy's old-vs.-new crash test, older doesn't always mean safer, depending on the variables in a car crash; but looking at photos like the one above, it's hard to deny that we really used to overbuild things. The A- and B-pillars on that '69 Catalina don't look all that thick, but as you can see, they didn't crumple.

The photo is from ElectroSpark Studios, run by a Florida-based designer who's made it his mission to "[Bring] you photos and ephemera liberated from the attics, garages and closets of America's mid-century vacationers," as he writes. "Most photos are from original Kodachromes for which I have a particular fondness of." His Flickr photoset called Vintage Transportation is a pretty awesome browse—while it's got plenty of cars in it like Remarkably Retro, he's also got trains, planes and boats.

Photos by ElectroSpark

Speaking of planes, the Pontiac photo above reminded me of something else I'd seen:

That there is an astonishing reminder that America used to make ridiculously tough products: During combat in 1943, this B-17 Flying Fortress suffered a mid-air collision with a German Messerschmitt over Tunisia. The left horizontal stabilizer was completely ripped off, and as you can see, the fuselage itself was nearly torn in two. Take a closer look:

The mid-air photo was taken by a U.S. airman in a neighboring plane, who had seen the damaged plane start to go down... and then come back up, and fly level. He probably couldn't believe his eyes. Despite the damage, the pilot flew the plane 300-something miles back to base in Algeria and landed it safely.

(more...)

Students perform better when their instructors use hand gestures -- a simple teaching tool that could yield benefits in higher-level math such as algebra.

Loneliness and isolation often go hand in hand, so teasing out which factor is harder on health isn't easy. But a British study now suggests that, while loneliness may make you unhappy, it's social isolation that could take years off of your life. Discuss (with a friend).

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Here's Death and Taxes's collection of 18 obsolete words that would be handy (or at least funny) to use today, compiled by Carmel Lobello from a book called The Word Museum and a blog called Obsolete Word of the Day. Some of my favorites:

Snoutfair: A person with a handsome countenance — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk

Groak: To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them – www.ObsoleteWord.Blogspot.com

Spermologer: A picker-up of trivia, of current news, a gossip monger, what we would today call a columnist — “The Word Museum: The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten” by Jeffrey Kacirk

Jirble: To pour out (a liquid) with an unsteady hand: as, he jirbles out a dram — www.Wordnik.com

18 obsolete words, which never should have gone out of style

Art collective Los Carpenteros has created intricate watercolors of LEGO sculptures, buildings, and even tornadoes.

images via Los Carpenteros

via IT Lego, The Save Room Minibar

Jiu-Jitsu master and competitor Clark Gracie looks relaxed even as he is about to get slammed to the ground.

UPDATE: Now there's an advice animal series based on this image.

Submitted by: Unknown (via Reddit)

Tagged: photogenic , martial arts , g rated , win Share on Facebook

Short of a few seconds of homebrewed animations here and there, we've never seen Calvin and Hobbes animated. That's fine—Bill Watterson's panels are more lifelike than a kabillion hours of most shows—but seeing it done right is enough to make your eyes fall out from happiness. More »

A Chinese fishmonger was going about his business when he randomly discovered a bomb... inside the stomach of a squid he was gutting. Apparently, a three-pound squid had swallowed an eight-inch bomb on accident. The bomb was live. More »

In a study of 6,455 semen samples (yup), scientists at Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found that human sperm were most atheletic — and were found in the highest concentrations — in winter. There was a marked decrease in sperm motility and numbers in spring, summer, and fall. It's an interesting and logical addendum to the fact that sperm counts and motility decrease in men who subject their testicles to warm conditions; in hot tubs, say, or a pair of overly tight underpants.

According to a report from AllThingsD, lack of customers wasn't the only reason Google Reader will meet its untimely end on July 1st. It was also, for Google, a potential source of bungling that it wasn't worth shoring up. More »

Last year, German scientists created aerographite, which at 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter was dubbed the world’s lightest material. However they have now been eclipsed by a team from China’s Zhejiang University that has created Graphene Aerogel – a sponge-like solid material made from freeze-dried carbon and graphene oxide that weighs just .16 milligrams per cubic centimeter. That’s just twice the density of hydrogen.

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Post tags: aerographite, carbon, Graphene Aerogel, graphene oxide, nanocarbon, world's lightest material, world's lightest substance, Zhejiang University

Read the rest of Mexico City’s Manuel Gea Gonzalez Hospital Has an Ornate Double Skin that Filters Air Pollution

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Post tags: double skinned air filter, eco design, Elegant Embellishments, green design, Hospital Manuel Gea Gonzalez, mexico city, prosolve370e, sustainable design, Torre de Especialidades, Urban air filtration system

Dutch designer Jurgen Kuipers projected Sawyer, a bicycle with a lowrider geometry. The frame is constructed out of plywood.

(Want more? See NOTCOT.org and NOTCOT.com)

Are you a desperate vagabond ready to conquer the highest peaks and submerge into the deepest depths to steal the concealed secrets of the universe? Buck up! Today is a great time to plan the possible route of your next risky adventure! You might not believe your eyes, but the places we will show you really exist. Some of them will bring you on the verge of tears, some will make your heart beat faster, another will make your hair stand on end - anyway, they won't leave you indifferent.

We won't go too verbose as no words can render the celestial charm of those sites. "A picture costs a thousand words" - they say. So, come on, pack your bags and join our thrilling expedition to the most surreal places on Earth!

Fly Geyser, Nevada

Can you imagine that even not all Nevada residents know about this wonder? Fly Geyser is located on the territory of a private Fly Ranch which makes it extremely difficult to access. High fence and locked gate with spikes on top guard the geyser from tourists. To be absolutely honest, we should mention that the Geyser is not a completely natural phenomenon. It was created by chance during well drilling. The well went out of order after several decades of operation as warm geothermal water has found a weak spot and began to leak onto the surface. Dissolved minerals started their sculptor job, which is still going on. Geyser coloration is explained by the variety of minerals it is made of.

The Wave, Arizona

The Wave is a sandstone rock formation in the United States of America near the Arizona and Utah border on the Coyote Buttes slopes. Travelers and photographers from all over the world are attracted by its colorful, wavelike forms. The Wave's intersecting U-shaped troughs are the result of erosion of the Navajo Sandstone during the Jurassic period.

Lake Retba, Senegal

Lake Retba or Lac Rose is located in the north of the Cap Vert peninsula of Senegal. It got its name due to the Dunaliella salina algae making its water look like strawberry milk shake. Pink color is clearly visible during the dry season. The lake is also famous for its high salt content, allowing people stay on the surface similar to the Dead Sea experience.

Derweze, Turkmenistan

Have you ever stood at the Hell's Door? Go to Derweze village, which name means "The Gate" in Turkmen language if you search for extreme! This terrifying attraction is located in the middle of the Karakum Desert, about 260 km north from Ashgabat. The Derweze area is rich in natural gas. Soviet geologists got into a cavern filled with natural gas while drilling. Due to the ground collapse, a large hole has created. It was decided to burn off the gas, but the roasting breath of the inferno is still trying to break into the world of living!

Socotra, Yemen

Socotra is considered to be a unique archipelago in the Indian Ocean for the diversity of its exotic flora and fauna. Its weird alien plants are the result of island's long geological isolation together with unbearable heat and drought. One of the most unusual Socotra's plants is the dragon's blood tree, resembling a strange umbrella. Aboriginals believed its red sap to be the blood of a dragon.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

Have you ever walked through the clouds guessing are you in the top or the bottom? Salar de Uyuni gives you such unique possibility! Salar de Uyuni or Salar de Tunupa is the world's largest salt flat occupying the area of about 10,582 square kilometers. Today's Salar is a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes. Its surface is covered by a few meters of salt crust possessing the utmost flatness, which varies within one meter over the entire area. Actually, the crust serves as a source of salt and makes a pool of brine, rich in lithium as well. The sky over the Salar is always clear, which in combination with large area and exceptional flatness makes it a perfect object for calibrating the altimeters of Earth observation satellites.

Jiuzhaigou Valley, China

Five-Color Pond is one of the smallest but the most amazing water basins in Jiuzhaigou lakes. Despite the shallowness, it has a breathtaking colored underwater landscape and some of the brightest and clearest waters in the area. As the legend goes, the Goddess Semo used to wash her hair here and the God Dage brought her water every day.

Sossusvlei, Namibia

Deadvlei is one more surreal attraction of Sossusvlei, Namibia. It is a clay pan located about 2 km from Sossusvlei. It used to be an oasis with several acacia trees before, but the river that watered the oasis has changed its course. Now the dead acacia trees make an odd contrast to the shiny white salty floor of the pan and the intense orange of the dunes.

Badab-e Surt, Iran

Badab-e Surt's terraces are made of travertine, which is a sedimentary rock deposited by flowing water from two distinct mineral springs. Thousands of years the water from these two springs had been streaming down from the mountain, it mixed up and gradually created a number of orange, red and yellow colored pools which now have the form of a staircase.

Crescent Lake (Dunhuang), China

Yueyaquan is a crescent-shaped lake in the oasis, lying 6 km south of the city of Dunhuang. Its name comes from the Qing Dynasty. The lake itself and the surrounding deserts attract the tourists appreciating camel and 4x4 rides.

Lake Natron, Tanzania

The queer lake's hue is normal for water basins with extremely high evaporation rates. During the dry season, as the water evaporates, salinity level increases to the maximum point and specific salt-loving microorganisms begin to thrive. Some of them produce red pigment colorizing the water and turning it into the Martian landscape.

Ice Cave in Skaftafell, Iceland

This cave in the glacier appeared as a result of glacial mill. The rain and melt water on the glacier's surface are forming streams that flow into the crevices. The streams melt holes in the glacier forming long ice caves with intricate walls and ceilings. Cold wind finishes the job and we can observe a momentary marvel ready to collapse at any time. Due to the constant glacier movement one can hear a scaring cracking sound inside the cave. The incipient crevices let the indirect daylight into the tunnel and we can observe its mysterious play on ice bubbles.

Pamukkale, Turkey

Pamukkale can be translated as "the cotton castle" from Turkish. It is a natural attraction in Denizli Province in southwestern Turkey. Snow white Pamukkale's terraces are made of travertine, a sedimentary rock, deposited by water flowing from the hot springs.

Lencois Maranhenses National Park, Brazil

The Lencois Maranhenses National Park is a low, flat, occasionally flooded land, covered with large, white discrete sand dunes. Though it looks like a desert, in fact it is not. Due to the regular rain season in the beginning of the year, fresh water accumulates in the valleys between the sand dunes, reviving the desert with blue and green lagoons. It's rather surprising, but those water basins are inherited by fish, even despite the dry season.

Angkor, Cambodia

Angkor is a huge complex of the 12th century temples in Cambodia. No doubt that it's a place of historical and cultural interest. The buildings are ancient and magnificent. But what do you think is really strange about this place? Just look at those trees! They look like ancient nation of Ents, the walking trees from "The Lord of the Rings" movie! Do you think they can really exist?

Chand Baori, Rajasthan

Have you ever seen anything like that? Chand Baori is a famous stepwell in the village of Abhaneri near Jaipur in the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is located opposite Harshat Mata Temple and was constructed in 800 CE. Can you imagine that those 3500 narrow steps in 13 stories extend 100 feet into the ground, making it one of the deepest and largest stepwells in India.

Frozen waves in Antarctica

These waves look like decorations from popular "Ice Age" cartoon. It seems as if they were frozen immediately at the will of a snow Queen. In fact, the waves are the result of melting, not freezing. Melting has created those downward pointing spikes, which are simple icicles.

Hidden Beach in the Marieta Islands near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Hidden from stranger's eyes, the beach of Marieta Islands, Puerto Vallarta can be called a lost secret world. Marieta Islands are archipelagos formed as a result of volcanic activity. This natural wonder possesses its unique marine ecosystem. The beach is a real paradise for people fond of snorkeling and scuba diving. Diverse, virgin flora and fauna in combination with transparent crystal water make the experience unforgettable. Humpback whale, sea turtles and dolphins are just a few animals that can be seen there.

The Glow Worms in Waitomo Caves

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves are definitely worth seeing not only because of their historical and geological significance. The glow worm, Arachnocampa luminosa, is a unique creature living in New Zealand. Thousands of these small worms radiate their otherworldly luminescent light hanging from the cave rocks during your unforgettable boat ride. The glowworms create a really magical view, every tourist should see at least once in a lifetime.

The Tunnel of Love in Ukraine, Kleven

In this photo you see the abandoned railway track, located nearly 350km from Kiev, which has transformed into a special romantic place, frequently visited by couples. The Tunnel of Love is especially beautiful in spring, when the green trees growing from both sides of the track form an improvised arch around it. This arch stretches for up to three kilometers and looks like a green picturesque tunnel of trees. The railway is occasionally used by the fiberboard factory, which preserves the tunnel in its initial look.

Glen Brittle, Scotland

Glen Brittle is a large glen in the south of the Isle of Skye, in Scotland. The magic Fairy Pools you see in the picture run down from the mountains into the glen. The area is extremely popular among hikers and mountain bikers. The marvelous lilac slopes above the Fairy Pools are covered with thick forests full of rare plants and animals and who knows, maybe even elves and fairies have found their refuge in this mystical place.

Cano Cristales, in the Serrania de la Macarena, province of Meta

Cano Cristales is a unique biological wonder often referred to as "the river of five colors" or "the river that ran away from paradise" and "the world's most beautiful river". Greater part of the year, Cano Cristales looks like any other river, but during a brief period of time yearly, it bursts into blossom and turns into the vibrant explosion of colors. Between wet and dry seasons, when the water level is just as required, a unique Macarenia clavigera plant turns the river into a sparkling ruby red stream, contrasting to the patches of yellow and green sand, blue water, and the enumerable shades in between.

Mount Roraima, South America

This rock soaring in the clouds is called Mount Roraima, the highest mountain of the Pakaraima chain of tepui plateau in South America. The mountain includes the triple border point of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. The tabletop mountains of the park are considered some of the oldest geological formations on Earth, dating back to nearly two billion years ago. The mountain's highest point within Venezuela is Maverick Rock, which is 2810 m high.

Richat Structure, Mauritania

Look into the Eye of Sahara, isn't it impressive? The Richat Structure is a prominent circular feature in the Sahara desert lying in the west-central Mauritania near Ouadane. This structure is a deeply eroded, slightly elliptical dome, 40-km in diameter. Differential erosion of the resistant layers of quartzite has created these high-relief circular cuestas. Its center consists of a siliceous breccia covering an area of approximately 3 km in diameter. Initially, there was a theory that the structure appeared as a result of an extraterrestrial asteroid impact. Looking at the circularity of the Eye, you might be inclined to believe it, but the point is now argued to the favor of highly symmetrical and deeply eroded geologic dome.

Grand Prismatic Spring - Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

If you want to see something really magnificent, put Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming into your list. This hot spring is the largest in the United States and the third largest in the world. The devilish colors of the spring strike the imagination! The water is saturated blue, with red lava-like color surrounding it. Would you like to know the secret? This amazing tint is produced by the pigmented bacteria. They form microbial mats around the edge of the water. Seasonal temperatures as well as levels of chlorophyll and carotenoids greatly influence the hue of the bacteria. The mats do not form in the center of the spring because the water is too hot for bacterium's live cycle. The water is heated by the underground vents, which are a part of the volcanic system, the Yellowstone stands on.

About the author

Helga Moreno is a copywriter for TemplateMonster Blog and one of those bloggers, absolutely cranky on writing and always hungry for new experience. When not writing about WordPress or responsive design, she loves sightseeing and travelling and always strives to capture everything beautiful on her way.

Tags:  inspiration photography surreal places earth guest guest post

We've seen some fancy knife handles in our day, but none more interesting than the ones you'll find on the ends of these Pearce Knives ($20-$75). Surprisingly affordable, these unique...

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This is the mouth of a sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), a marine fish with one set of very human-looking teeth, and a whole mess of hellishly stubby, decidedly un-human-looking teeth. It is at once familiar and alien, and more than a little creepy. But it will not give you nightmares.

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Buckminster-Fuller‘s ground-breaking geodesic domes might have been technologically revolutionary and highly efficient, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easy to find a roofer to maintain them. For that reason—and several others—a developer is not only trying to get rid of his Bucky-inspired dome, he’s offering a whopping $100,000 bonus to anyone who will take it off his hands. The Gold Dome, once a branch of Citizen’s State Bank on Route 66 in Oklahoma City, was recently purchased by David Box who has found $2.5 million worth of problems with the building—leading him to offer up the distinctive dome to anyone who will take it.

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Post tags: Bailey Bozalis Dickinson and Roloff. route 66, bank reuse, Buckminster Fuller, bucky balls, david box, geodesic dome, Gold Dome, historic demolition, historic landmark, historic preservation, oklahoma, Oklahoma City, old banks

Stop what you're doing and watch this. No, really. Clear your schedule for the next seven minutes and have a seat. This here's the story of Prince Rupert's Drop – and if you're into physics, high-speed video, explosions, or the feeling of your jaw falling open in an involuntary expression of sheer wonderment, it's a story you definitely need to hear.

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"Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we've been bombing over the years been complaining?"

LA video artist Michael Haussman recorded human bodies bouncing up and down at 2000 fps, synching the camera to the movement so that the people appear to be standing still while gravity mercilessly attempts to separate their meat from their bones. Add in some spooky music and it's like watching someone in the first stages of being torn to shreds by angry, invisible poltergeists.

This slow motion study reveals the shocking effects of gravity upon our body. What is normally missed in the blink of an eye, is poetically recorded in extreme slow motion, as gravity takes hold and pulls the body down to earth, causing the skin, cellulite, muscles and facial expression to sag down, with a weariness, as if the subject has suddenly aged thirty years. It appears like a special effect, the force ripples from the legs up, turning the body wrinkled and saggy, with a worn, older face that is defeated and depressed. Then the exact opposite effect and emotion overcomes the subject as they are made weightless and set free. We observe the body becoming youthful, rejoicing in it’s expression and flawless skin texture, as it sores away from the earth. All physical and emotional expressions seem to float effortlessly upward in a positive, beautiful direction.

GRAVITY by MICHAEL HAUSSMAN (Thanks, James!)

On the Guardian, Charles Arthur has totted up the lifespan of 39 products and services that Google has killed off in the past due to insufficient public interest. One interesting finding is that Google is becoming less patient with its less popular progeny, with an accelerating trend to killing off products that aren't cutting it. This was occasioned by the launch of Google Keep, a networked note-taking app which has the potential to become quite central to your workflow, and to be quite disruptive if Google kills it -- much like Google Reader, which is scheduled for impending switch-off.

So if you want to know when Google Keep, opened for business on 21 March 2013, will probably shut - again, assuming Google decides it's just not working - then, the mean suggests the answer is: 18 March 2017. That's about long enough for you to cram lots of information that you might rely on into it; and also long enough for Google to discover that, well, people aren't using it to the extent that it hoped. Much the same as happened with Knol (lifespan: 1,377 days, from 23 July 2008 to 30 April 2012), or Wave (1,095 days, from May 2009 - 30 April 2012) or of course Reader (2,824 days, from 7 October 2005 to 1 July 2013).

If you want to play around further with the numbers, then if we assume that closures occur randomly as a normal distribution around the mean, and that Google is going to shut Google Keep, then there's a 68% chance that the closure will occur between April 2015 and February 2019. Even the later date wouldn't be much longer than Evernote - which is still growing - has already lasted. Is Google really that committed to Keep?

Google Keep? It'll probably be with us until March 2017 - on average (via /.)

The new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers football team is currently under construction and when it opens in 2014 it will have WiFi service for all 68,500 fans in the stadium at once. Read more...

CollegeHumor illustrator H. Caldwell Tanner takes a humorous look at “Classic Nightmares and Their Modern Equivalents.”

As seen on TV, the Rollie Eggmaster Cooking System uses “vertical cooking technology” to make breakfast eggs phallic, and optionally, on a stick. The product’s promo trailer shows the Rollie device, in all its pop-up easy-to-clean glory, slowly doling out tubes of cooked egg. “Breakfast is a hassle; it’s messy and you’re busy,” says The Rollie company. They further, “Just crack your egg, pour it in and watch it pop up in minutes.” Sold!

via Consumerist, Gizmodo

judgecorp writes "The Google Keep note-keeping app has had a frosty reception. Analysts including Gartner have said its functionality is laughable compared to that of the rival Evernote (saying "it's like saying MSFT Paint is a threat to Photoshop") and other users have rejected it on the grounds that after the death sentence on Reader, Google can't be trusted not to pull the plug on a service which people have come to rely on."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.