Shainaf87

Photographer Shane Black had a comfy job, but the dream of traveling across the United States to capture the majestic beauty of America's most beautiful spots had always been in the back of his mind.

One day, Black was joking with his friends about the trip, but the as the idea got more serious, they all committed to leaving their jobs to travel for two months. Black and his friends set off on a 13,000 mile (~20,900 km) journey in a trusty old Dodge Caravan (with no cruise control, no less!) and visited 32 states and 13 national parks.

The result is this breathtaking video clip titled Adventure Is Calling, composed of over 10,000 photographs, that you simply must see in full screen:

LOCATIONS

00:00 - Badlands National Park, South Dakota
00:16 - Yosemite National Park, California
00:26 - Zion National Park, Utah
00:37 - Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
00:44 - Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
01:06 - Monument Valley National Park, Arizona
01:20 - Marysville, Ohio
01:31 - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
01:58 - Central Florida
02:03 - Flagstaff, Arizona
02:09 - Bruneau Dunes State Park, Idaho
02:13 - Holbrook, Arizona
02:21 - Marysville, Ohio
02:25 - Monument Valley, Arizona
02:29 - Texas
02:32 - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
02:36 - Bandon Beach, Oregon
02:39 - White Sands National Monument, New Mexico
02:43 - Big Sur, California
02:46 - Santa Barbara, California
02:53 - Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
03:26 - Bruneau Dunes State Park, Oregon
03:51 - Zion National Park, Utah
04:03 - Yosemite National Park, California
04:19 - Zion National Park, Utah
04:34 - Monument Valley National Park, Arizona
04:46 - Yosemite National Park, California

Black taught photography workshops during the day and spent the night photographing time-lapses of the gorgeous night's skies. Read more about Black's journey over at National Geographic's StarStruck blog.

If you were an American living on the other side of the pond, these are the foods you might start to miss. Redditor AxleTheDog posted a picture of the American section in the ethnic food aisle at the Tesco store in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. I see an overabundance of peanut butter and chocolate. There are two flavors of Goober, marshmallow creme, Pop Tarts, mac and cheese, and of course plenty opt candy. Canned pumpkin? A commenter explained that they do have pumpkin pie in Europe, but to make it you have to cook a pumpkin yourself, so the canned version makes things easier -the American way. See the full-side picture at imgur. 

This week, harpist Elizabeth Hainen and the Philadelphia Orchestra will perform the U.S. premiere of Tan Dun's Nu-Shu: The Secret Songs of Women. NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with Tan and Hainen about the work, which was inspired by an ancient secret language spoken by women in Tan's home province.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

The treacherous tides of the internet have swept up a pair of unsuspecting old people who just wanted to take a nice vacation from the drudgery of their daily lives in Australia to exotic Canada, land of a thousand enchantments. The couple believed they’d won an all-expenses-paid trip to Canada, complete with brand new luggage, from an online contest they’d entered, but it turned out that they’d actually won an opportunity to transport a whole lot of crystal meth across international borders.

Read more...

4gifs:

Marching band Tyrannosaurus rex. [video]

similaridad:

Miguel Ferrer, Kyle MacLachlan, David Lynch and David Bowie on the set of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992).

Dark, deviant, vampy, trampy, nutty, smutty. Pants optional. 'Tis the season for Halloween parties! Here's a little playlist for all the zombies and sexy Dorothies. For all the Batmans and Robins...and Mileys and Robins. For all the giant foam bananas in pajamas. For the year-late Honey Boo Boos. And for you too, obscure Russian poet who no one knows so you have to explain your costume all night. Get out there and work it, twerk it, shake it 'til you break it.

READ MORE »

This is the absolute best toddler costume of all time. Unless you dress them as Boy Goblin King. Man, Halloween is the BEST.

Read more...

Sarah Silverman has just released a full episode of Susan 313 — the pilot she made for NBC that they ultimately decided to pass on — to her YouTube channel.

Read more...

The sitar player and composer's father, Indian music pioneer Ravi Shankar, died while she was recording her new album, Traces of You. Banning Eyre reviews the record, which features Anoushka's half-sister, Norah Jones.

» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us

“American Horror Story: Coven,” which begins Wednesday on FX, alternates between camp and brutality.

Hell Houses — wack-ass haunted houses where instead of awesome ghouls and goblins attacking you with chainsaws, you are subjected to scenes depicting abortion and teen suicide intended to "lure people to Jesus" — are extremely dumb. In response, Toronto artist Allyson Mitchell created Kill Joy’s Castle, a lesbian feminist haunted house with terrifying rooms like THE EMASCULATOR and LESBIANS RULE.

Read more...

via http://l-uminus.tumblr.com/post/16116380666

(YouTube link)

Jigsaw, from the Saw movie series, was a terrifying villain, but what kind of roommate would he make? He'd probably stay in his room all the time, but then there's his awful puppet Billy that never stops talking. And he has no consideration for his roommates, either. If this were me, he'd be out looking for another place in no time! But that might have repercussions… see, I still haven't seen the movies. -via Tastefully Offensive

Butterscotch and chocolate cream pies !!!

by Jia Tolentino

Happy Friday, everyone! Let's just start getting weird:

[In 1991], the space shuttle Columbia launched into space a payload of 2,478 jellyfish polyps—creatures contained within flasks and bags that were filled with artificial seawater. Astronauts injected chemicals into those bags that would induce the polyps to swim freely (and, ultimately, reproduce). Over the course of the mission, the creatures proliferated: By mission's close, there were some 60,000 jellies orbiting Earth.

By mission's close, there were some 60,000 jellies orbiting Earth. 

*faints*

[The Atlantic]

15 Comments

Puppy Love

Loving French Bulldog giving some sweet puppy love to her wee little sleeping one. Awwwwwww so precious ♥

imgfave

The post Sweet Puppy Love appeared first on A Place to Love Dogs.

Photograph by Tim Kiser.

The West Virginia State Penitentiary is an imposing place. The building is on the historic register, and the prison itself, closed for years, is on every ghost hunter's list as one of the most haunted places in America.

Prison History

Photograph by Flickr user Sideonecincy.

The West Virginia State Penitentiary was founded in 1866, when land was purchased in Moundsville, and a temporary wooden prison was built. The main stone buildings were completed in 1876. It held 251 inmates then, and conditions were considered good. As time went on, the prison became more crowded, and by 1929, they were putting three men in the 5x7-foot cells. An expansion project took 30 years to complete, and barely eased the overcrowding. The prison population was up to 2,000 in the 1960s. Conditions deteriorated until the inmates ran the institution, and disease was rampant. The institution made the Department of Justice’s top ten list of the most violent prisons.

Photograph by Flickr user Sideonecincy.

On New Years Day in 1986, the prison saw a riot that lasted two days and left three inmates dead (this was the second riot; the first was in 1973). Later that year, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the tiny cells constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and the prison began to transfer inmates to more modern facilities, but not before several notorious escapes took place. The penitentiary closed for good in 1995.

The Prison Dead

Photograph by Flickr user Sideonecincy.

Ninety-four men were executed for their crimes at West Virginia State. Eighty-five were hung, including Frank Hyer, who was convicted of murdering his wife, in 1931. He fell so hard that he was decapitated, and that was the last execution that was open to the general public. Nine more men were executed in "Old Sparky," the electric chair that was built by a prison inmate. The chair is still on display at the prison.

One of the ghosts that supposedly haunt the prison is that of Avril Adkins, who was hanged twice. The first time, there was an error that caused him to fall on his head and sustain injuries. The second time, he was hanged properly until dead.

Thirty-six murders occurred inside the prison walls. And that figure pales beside the number of prisoners who died of natural causes. There is a small cemetery outside the prison walls where inmates whose bodies were not claimed by family members were buried. But even closer are ancient Indian burial grounds. After all, that's how Moundsville got its name. Tales of those restless souls still walking the floors of the prison abound and draw ghost hunters, both professional (from TV) and amateur, to the prison.

The Greenbrier Ghost

Photograph from the West Virginia State Archives.

Zona Heaster Shue was found dead in 1897. Her husband, Erasmus Trout Shue, dressed her for burial before the doctor arrived to determine the cause of death. Shue wailed and moaned and would not leave his wife's corpse until she was buried. He even provided her favorite shawl to wrap around her neck. The doctor gave her a cursory look, and wrote down that she fainted dead by childbirth. But Zona's mother, Mary Jane Heaster, had her suspicions. She testified that Zona's ghost visited her over a period of four nights and described how Shue had killed her. Heaster took her story to local prosecutor John Alfred Preston and convinced him to reopen the case. Based on the visitation, the body was exhumed, and Zona's neck was found to be broken. She also had bruising, indicating she had been manhandled. It was enough for a jury to convict Shue of killing Zona. Shue spent the next three years at the prison in Moundsville, where he died in 1900.

Haunted Tours

Photograph by Flickr user Sideonecincy.

The Moundsville Economic Development Council leased the property and set up a law enforcement training center. The prison is also open for tourists. You can see the prison Tuesday through Sunday through November. You can also book a private ghost hunting tour between midnight and 6AM by reservation. During the Halloween season, there is also the Dungeon of Horrors tour, which is a haunted house-type tour in the evening, on weekends through November 2nd.

City Council voted in favor of a resolution urging the Illinois Legislature to approve an Emanuel-backed bill requiring sentencing minimums for gun crimes. Every alderman who opposed the bill in debate voted in favor. [ more › ]

Oprah Winfrey tried to convince Diana Nyad that there is a God, and Nyad reacted like a good Christian would.

4gifs:

Scary snowman Halloween prank. [video]

Raw Story reports:

Before pushing an alternative to a Senate bid to end the government shutdown on Tuesday, conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives reportedly sang “Amazing Grace,” a Christian hymn usually reserved for funerals. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told reporters that the sing-a-long proved that House Republicans were solidly behind that bill that would make minor changes to the president’s health reform law, like stripping insurance subsidies for politicians and delaying the medical device tax. According to The Washington Post, Rep. Steve Southerland (R-FL) led the GOP caucus in singing “Amazing Grace.” Southerland has a background in the funeral home business, where he was known for singing hymns at grave sites.

Unfuckingbelievable.

lovesexyistheone:

Smile, No Ball Gazing!

The morning after the “History of Punk” sketch first aired on SNL, Seth Meyers tweeted, “Fred Armisen was born to play Ian Rubbish.” The character of the archconservative British punk is a perfect mid-point between his background as a musician and his career as a comedian. Good thing: Armisen is ... More »

Veteran chocolatier Nick Monte of the Village Chocolate Shoppe in Bennington, Vermont, made a peanut butter cup that weighs 230 pounds!

It's an impressive peanut butter cup and we have the specs: 59.5 inches wide, an impressive 70.1 pounds of chocolate, and 159.7 pounds of peanut butter on the inside. All total -- weighing in at 229.8 pounds of candy glory.

All profits from selling the pieces are going to Project Against Violent Encounters or PAVE, a local organization helping violence survivors.

Sales of pieces from Friday alone $1,280 for PAVE. Is this a world record? The papers and stats have been filed with the Guinness people, so we will find out soon. -via Laughing Squid

(Image credit: The Village Chocolate Shoppe)

It wasn't long after TV host turned TV mogul (and all around "live your best life" champion) Oprah Winfrey posted her first Instagram photo in April 2012 that she became one of the social-media network's most charming celebrities. Was it the gratuitous shots of her garden's bounty? Or the casual ... More »