You knew whales were huge, but this image still astonishing.

Albino dolphin

If you like this pygmy marmoset and want to see whole post about them, here it is

What was this moose thinking?

A giant grape?

Is this guy too cute to be real?

Photo by Curt Fonger

What was this bobcat thinking?

Curt Fonger

A champion pigeon

Another champ.

Family Hug

What's that on the dam wall? Look closely!

This is the Diga del Cingino dam in Italy  and the animals are European Ibex.  They like to eat the moss and lichen growing on the wall. They also are licking the salt off the stone. 

This post was a group affair.  Many thanks to people who forwarded me images:  Claire Elizabeth, Louise, ABC news via Patty/Patricia, Neil.  Thanks also to:  Joan Stricker on Pinterest,, Sam Pryor on Pinterest, Roz Grage on Pinterest, and Orange Donkey.

A random encounter on Drew Street with the Houston Yellow Pages was the primary inspiration for this project. After that chance meeting, I began the search for more books, and more methods to change their appearance.
I realized I owned many books that were no longer of use to me, or for that matter, anyone else. Would I ever need “Windows 95?” After soaking it in the bathtub for a few hours, it had a new shape and purpose. Half Price Books became a regular haunt, and an abandoned house gave me a set of outdated reference books, complete with mold and neglect.

Each book tells me how to begin according to its size, type of paper, and sometimes contents.  I arrive at some of my images by chance. Others, through experimentation. Without these two elements, my work would not flow easily from one idea to the next.

British artist Su Blackwell painstakingly cuts her delicate 3D paper sculptures from vintage books.   Her magical and incredibly intricate sculptures literally free the characters and settings from the printed page, while also reflecting on “the precariousness of the world we inhabit and the fragility of our life, dreams, and ambitions,” as the artist says.

Cinderella

Using knives, tweezers and surgical tools, Brian Dettmer carves one page at a time. Nothing inside the out-of-date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries is relocated or implanted, only removed.

Thanks to Mel from Scotland for getting me started on book-art with Brian Dettmer via Karan Arora at posterous

And to Amusing Planet for info on Cara Barer

And to MoreWaystoWasteTime for info on Su Blackwell.

And to Trine for the video of the bookstore.

In northern ITALY:

A massive underground temple lies beneath a suburban house, built entirely in secret by a group of non-architects, working around the clock for 15 years. Dug out of the rock without building or excavation plans, it was all overseen by a middle-aged former insurance broker.

The underground temple spreads over 300,000 cubic feet (8,500 cubic meters) on five different levels, connected to one another by hundreds of meters of corridors.  According to the founder, Oberto Airaudi, or “Falco” as he is now known, the complex is only ten percent complete.

In August of 1978, 28 year old Falco began work on his underground temple. While he chose to keep the project a secret from the government, he did bring on others whom he felt understood his vision. Begun as a group of about 24, the following now numbers over a thousand. Built over a decade and a half, volunteers worked in four-hour shifts, slowly excavating the earth and rock. They often hid the sounds of construction by pretending to throw parties.

View into a hallway

The Italian police showed up in 1992, 14 years after secret construction was first begun. Having heard rumors of its existence, they demanded to see the temples. When three policemen and a public prosecutor were taken down into the massive and intricately decorated complex they were stunned.  The structure contains a number of spaces, some with ceilings over 25 feet high. One room is a four-sided pyramid covered in mirrors and topped with a glass dome. The ceiling of the “hall of spheres” is covered entirely in gold leaf.

Hall of Spheres

One of the tunnels

Layout of the various rooms

The house it started under.

Now known as “The Damanhur Temples of Humankind.” Falco says the temples are the re-creations of “visions” of elaborate halls, or temples, he experienced as a child.

Some people call the leader and his followers a cult.

Thanks to: Atlasobscura for much of the information, Cosmic machine at blogspot for many of the images, and Merry for turning me onto the story.

 NOW, THAILAND, THE WHITE TEMPLE

The White Temple is the creation of Thai artist Chaloemchai Khositphiphat who started building it back in 1998. He has completed only the first of 9 main buildings planned.  In an interview, he said “I will dedicate all my life to this work. Also, I have at least 2 generations to continue it after my death. I estimate that it will take about 60-70 years to complete.”

The main building is painted white to symbolize the Buddha’s purity, and is covered in mosaics of mirrors to sparkle in the sun.

Photo by kurt van aert on flickr

There seem to be meanings to every detail in the temple. In order to go to the main hall (heaven), you’ll have to cross the pit of hell.

But not the toilet.

World's fanciest toilet in gold

World's fanciest no-smoking sign

No one is allowed to take pictures inside the temple, so these examples seem to be from the booklet about the temple.

Because the temple is financed by the artist and contributions, Khositphiphat is free to update the traditional Buddhist temple as he sees fit.  Much of the inside of the temple is adorned with a mural which includes contemporary scenes from Hollywood movies and current events.  Among them are superheros like Superman, Spiderman, Neo from the matrix as well as Avatar characters, Jabba the Hut and Darth Vadar from Star Wars, the attack of the twin towers on 9/11, then spaceships, aliens, luxury goods, a gas pump and many things “western.”

Twin towers

Keanu Reeves as Neo from the Matrix is on the left, creature from Avatar flies in the center.

Thanks to Jennifer Heller for getting me started on the white temple.

There seems to be no end to appealing, and quirky images of animal friendships across species.  Also, don’t miss reading the story of the elk and the marmot at the end of this page.

Here’s a stirring example of cross-species connection from The Daily Mail via Good News Network.

Keepers at Pocatello Zoo, Idaho, were worried when they noticed Shooter, a four-year-old elk, acting strangely at his water trough.  At six feet tall with another four feet of giant antlers, he can be scarey.  He’s punctured tires with his antlers and some zoo staff are afraid of him. 

Staff noticed him trying to dunk his head in the trough but his antlers kept getting in the way.  He was trying to dunk his head in the water, but his antlers kept getting in the way.

If you like these and want to see more mixed species, click here for mixed species, number one,  and here for mixed species number two.

Thanks to Terri, Gary, and Good News Network.

Lucca, Tuscany, Italy

Awa'awapuhi Trail, Kauai, Hawaii

Benteng, Chittorgarh, India

Baatara Gorage Waterfall, Tannourine, Lebanon

Bern, Switzerland

Ben Bulben, County Sligo, Ireland

Aiguill e du midi, Chamonix, France

Devetashkata Cave, Bulgaria

Etretat, Normandy, France

Four Seasons Hotel, Bora Bora

Ice Canyon, Greenland

Gardens of Prague Castle, Czech Republic

Lower Lewis River Falls, Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington State

Marble Caves, Chile Chico, Chile

Multnomah Falls, Oregon

Neist Point Isle of Skye, Scotland

Alesund, Norway

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

Preachers Rock, Preikestolen, Norway

Rice Field Terraces in Yunnan, China

Vernazza, Cinque Terra, Italy

Fjords, Norway

Canal of Leiden, Netherlands frozen over

Shark Island, Sydney, Australia

Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island, Hong Kong

Spirit Island, Magligne Lake, Alberta, Canada

The Gardens at Marqueyssac,Vézac, France

The Pearl Waterfall, Jiuzhaigou Valley, China

Keukenhof Gardens, Netherlands

Thanks to TheCoolHunter for these images.  Thanks to Jen H. for turning me onto this site.

Click here to explore more at Cool Hunter.

HIV virus

The goal of British artist Luke Jerram is “to present the dichotomy between the beauty of pathogens like the HIV virus and the havoc they wreak on humanity.”  His works depict viruses and bacteria at approximately one million times their actual size.  Jerram consulted with virologists from England’s University of Bristol to ensure his forms were scientifically accurate, then he teamed with highly specialized glassblowers to bring his vision to fruition. Only five editions of each microbe are produced for sale—unfortunately, their potentially lethal counterparts aren’t nearly so rare.

Malaria, just after it entered red blood cell

Ecoli bacteria

Avian or bird flu

Smallpox

Swine flu

T4 Phage

SARS pneumonia

Human Papilloma virus

H1N1 virus

The art of  Fernan Federici  Jim Haseloffand on WellcomeImages on flickr utilizes stains and a powerful microscope to highlight the patterns in bacteria.  None of these are photoshopped.

Thanks to buzzfeed, Merry,

“The best dog show ever”.  It’s long but keeps coming up with different tricks.

Best of all is these dogs are all rescues.

Thanks to Louise, Jeremy and Gary

Lightning bugs are able to light up come using bioluminescence, which is created when a pigment and chemical react and is most often seen in sea creatures.

Hiramatsu spent nearly four years between 2008 and 2011 photographing these tiny creatures in Okayama Prefecture, Japan.

Fireflies over a meandering stream as dusk falls

Fireflies can be found on every continent except Antarctica.

According to firefly.org, fireflies emit light mostly to attract mates, although they also communicate for other reasons as well, such as to defend territory and warn predators away. In some firefly species, only one sex lights up. In most, however, both sexes glow; often the male will fly, while females will wait in trees, shrubs and grasses to spot an attractive male. If she finds one, she’ll signal it with a flash of her own.

They can be found on every continent except Antarctica.
From: Daily Mail online    via Gary Whitney.  Thanks.

Those are the questions the videos in this post brought up for me.  I hope you share my surprise and amusement at the expanse of the human repertoire represented here.

Because I had to satisfy my own curiosity,  I’m sharing  brief descriptions with links for anyone interested in seeing or learning  more about how and what you are seeing.

BEATBOXING

Beatboxing is the art of producing drum beats, rhythm and musical sounds using one’s mouth, lips, tongue and voice.  It can also involve singing and the simulation of horns, strings and other musical instruments.

HIKAKIN is a Japanese beatboxer.  Be sure to give it at least 30 seconds.

Here is a 7 year old boy, Nana Kyei, from Ghana, beatboxing via Wine and Bowties

MOUNTAIN BIKE STREET TRIALS

Mountain bike trials are a discipline of mountain biking in which the rider attempts to pass through an obstacle course without putting their foot to the ground.

This video features Danny MacAskill  the best known practioner of street trials which are a freestyle and non-competitive version of mountain-bike trials. Thanks to his breathtaking skill and subsequent interest on youtube, MacAskill has become a professional street trial rider.  You’ll soon know why.  MacAskill was born and raised in Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

Thanks again to Wine and Bowties.

SILHOUETTE PERFORMANCE

By ATTRACTION BLACK LIGHT THEATER

Thanks to Patricia Selk
This is the story of Exodus from the Bible.

HALLELUJAH CHORUS, ALASKA STYLE

Fifth graders at Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat School in Quinhagak,Alaska, a Yupik village of 550 people located on the Bering Sea coast in Southwest Alaska, decided to make a class project to present at a Christmas program for the entire village.  It’s well past the holiday, but if you haven’t seen it, it’sl fun.

Thanks to Kathleen.

TIME LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY AND MOVING ART

Louie Schwartzberg is an award-winning cinematographer, director and producer whose notable career spans more than three decades providing stunning imagery for feature films, television shows, documentaries and commercials.  He has a channel on youtube, Moving Art.

If you don’t have time to see the whole thing, at least stay through the hummingbird twirling as it chases a bug….or the fish leaping up the water fall….or

Thanks to Jane and Merry.

3-D FACADE MAPPING

This extraordinary example of facade mapping was projected in Berlin, Germany as an ad for LG Optimus One cell phones on September 29, 2011.  The sounds you hear in the background are people watching from the street.

Facade mapping is a kind of 3-D animation projected against the side of a building, and initially, at least, “mapped” to perfectly match the buildings surface, allowing the animators to play with the building, both as a subject and as a surface for projecting other images.

Thanks to Kathleen.

High speed photography involves both artistry and technological wizardry.

A standard photographic flash lasts around a thousandth of a second (a millisecond). But high speed photography creates a flash of light around a microsecond (a millionth of a second). This allows the photographer to freeze time at a precise moment.  Check out the delicate beauty these ingenious artists  have created.

High speed photographer Jim Kramer uses food coloring, water, and dishwater soap to help thicken the water, and captures the moment a drop of liquid explodes into a multicolored splash in these incredible images.

Using a timer to track the path of falling drops, a flash is set off at the exact split second of impact and captures the shot.

Alan Sailer likes to shoot bullets through inanimate objects, then capture the resulting carnage at the moment of impact.

Using an air rifle, he has set up a system that lets him take a photograph at the exact moment the bullet pierces the object.  Knowing that the pellets shot by these rifles can reach speeds of up to 656 feet (200 meters) per second, an elaborate triggering system was needed. When the pellet is shot, it goes through a laser beam which itself triggers a 17,000 volts flash and the photography is taken during a microsecond (or 1 millionth of a second.)

play dough

The liquid sculpture of Martin Waugh is amazingly intricate.

“Sometimes I have a very specific goal, like, “create a splash in the shape of a
martini glass,” and I design a method for doing that. Other times, I might think, “I
wonder what happens if I increase the viscosity of the drop’s liquid?” Then I set out
experimenting. In both cases, serendipity is a rich source of new ideas and effects.

I can spend several days getting things ready to take a shot. I may have to build
equipment or electronics, and work to get the lighting the way I want it. Then the
liquids will get uppity and require taming. This process can burn a few thousand
shots. Then, I have everything cornered right where I want it, and I can get
dozens of shots that are keepers. Those I choose from.”

From an interview posted on:   liquid-imagination.com

Martin Waugh kindly shares his techniques on his blog, and he also sells prints of his work.

Here’s a video where he discusses how he works.

Heinz Maier started photography only about a year ago, but his high-speed water drop photos are stunning.

Here are more photos using high speed techniques.

by Wayne Fulton

By Muhammad Ahmed

by Corrie White

by Corrie White

Corrie White

Corrie White

Flower by fotoopa

by Fotoopa

Now feast your eyes on these images by Marcus Reugels.

As if the above aren’t unique enough, Reugels devised a different approach, using the vibration from a speaker to jostle liquids.   To create this work he stretches a black balloon over a bass reflex tube which sits over a speaker. He adds a spoonful of water to the middle of the balloon, drops in some coloring, cranks some techno basslines through the speakers.

Finally, here is a sampling from his refractions series. Single droplets of water with images refracted within them – apparently focus and lighting are the tricky parts.

The world on a string

The Moon

Evil clown

Big World in a Little Drop

Finally, if you want to sit back and enjoy a slideshow with music and high speed images posted by Corrie White, here you go:

Thanks to Merry for getting me started on this.

Thanks to huffingtonpost.com for post about Jim Kramer.

Thanks to www.demilked.com for images from Heinz Maier and weburbanist for images and quotes.

Thanks to Hadro at  feedonthis.blogspot.com for images and info about Alan Sailer.

Thanks to  artsintherightplace  for images by Marcus Reugels.

Fifteen-year-old photographer Marlin Shank was fortunate enough to capture

several images of a rare albino ruby-throated hummingbird while in a park in

By R D Watson

Poor skunk with no stripes

Even ladybugs

 Not all albinos are pure white.

Ooops

Thanks Tim Little for getting me started on albinos, and

Lifeinthefastlane

dumpaday and

oddee

Emotional Outlet

Overachiever

Bored of education

Light rock and lead balloon

Biotechnology

nightbulb

Athletes foot

Eggregation

Headshots

Under the weather

Delmotion

Food coloring

Light reading

Off the wall

Scourge

Shannon Calvert also shares his artistic sensibilities with nature photos.

Here’s another chance to wander through the images on hireimagination.

The image below is by Banksy, probably the most well-known street artist/graffiti criminal.

The following are by Julian Beever, 3-D artist.

For more 3-D street art by Julian Beever go to mind-bending 3-d art on my site ,  or the artist’s site.

For more Banksy go to:  graffiti with a chuckle or the artist’s site.

Many thanks to Gary Whitney.

Below, revenge for above?

By Gotinha

Below, more joy to rub off.

O.K.  So here are a couple images with no people, but humans are a crucial ingredient.  Then there are a couple shots of kids too cute to leave out.

Many thanks to DayFunny and to OrangeDonkey.

jan anderson

Thanks to:  Theberry.com and Friends of Irony

Thanks to German photographer Hans Silvester we can witness the dazzling artistry of the Surma and Mursi people of the Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia as they perform their ancient tradition of temporary body decoration on themselves and each other a few times each day.

Here’s a link to Hans Silvester’s book about people of the Omo Valley at Amazon.

Thanks to Claire Elizabeth.

The peregrine falcon can fly at 90 mp, and reach 200 mph (322kmh) while diving to catch prey.

The longest migration

Every year the Arctic tern flies  around 50,000 miles (80,500km) from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again, further than any other bird during its migration .  It performs almost all its tasks in the air.

The Arctic Tern flies as well as glides through the air. It nests once every one to three years (depending on its mating cycle); once it has finished nesting it takes to the sky for another long migration.

 A poisonous bird?

The Pitohui bird of New Guinea is the only known poisonous bird.   Its toxic skin and feathers protect it from predators.

A bird with no wings

 The kiwi is the only bird with no wings.  He looks like he has fur rather than feathers, doesn’t he?

The Champion, both fast and intrepid

The great snipe can fly non-stop over a distance of around 4200 miles (6760km) at a phenomenal 60mph (97kmh). Swedish scientists put tiny data chips into 3 snipes and found that one bird flew 4225 miles (6800km) from Sweden to central Africa in just 3.5 days. The other two birds flew 3833 miles (6169km) in three days, and 2870 miles (4619km) in two days.

The peregrine falcon is fast.  The arctic tern goes far but not particularly fast.  Scientists have long known that snipes are incredibly fast birds. The word ‘sniper’ originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India: if a hunter was skilled enough to kill an elusive snipe, he was called a sniper.

For more on the Great Snipe you can go here.

Now on to the gorgeous and cute.

Next is a Silver-Laced Sebright Bantam.

By Mark Robinson, UK.

by Mark V.Muller

Thanks Gary, and http://sites.google.com/site/animalbiologyspring2010/class-aves/interesting-facts

and http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/news/story.aspx?id=983

HANOCH PIVEN

While on vacation this summer I happened upon an exhibit of  these colorful and witty works  by Israeli artist Hanoch Piven.  He uses common everyday objects to create amusing portraits of notable people.  A closer look at the particulars of the objects  only makes it more fun.

If you’re not sure who is represented, hold the cursor over the image.

MARK JENKINS

Mark Jenkins has been busy since my first post of his Scotch Tape Sculptures.  Here are some of the new ones, still deserving of chuckles.  In some of the images you might have to search to find the sculpture–the baby.

In Dublin

 Philadelphia

 Moscow

Winston-Salem

Bordeau, France

Winston-Salem

Baltimore, MD

Canary Islands

Amsterdam

Canary Islands

Fairfax, VA

Washington, D.C.

  Tokyo

Washington, D.C.

Martinsberg, W. VA

Vote for your favorite combo in the comments.

And don’t miss the videos at the end.

Oops, not sure these next ones are friends.

Yes, it’s a kimodo dragon.

Make sure you notice what this bear is hugging–that is a hug, right?

Thanks, Ginny for the video and Jean for the cactus cat.

By jacklee

By Karamochi

by bouti blog

Below is the town of Guilin.

By eric finlanson

Guilin rice harvest.

 The following image is so striking, I had to check to make sure it was real.  The story that goes with it makes it even more striking.   Here’s a description by photographer Michael Anderson at his website.  ” I wandered alone on the riverbanks and met a cormorant fisherman who showed me his traditional methods. They fish at night and the lantern attracts fish toward the raft so the cormorant can dive in and catch them. The fishermen tie a loose string around the cormorant’s neck so they can’t swallow it completely, and the men pull out the fish and store them in a basket. This method of fishing has existed for over a thousand years.

KARST TOPOGRAPHY

The Guilin tower karsts are an example of karst topography,  land formations caused by rainwater combining with carbon dioxide in the air to become slightly acidic.

The acidic water works its way into any crack, fault or fissure in limestone rock and chemically erodes the rock.  Over time, the openings caused by the acidic rain are widened into passages or caves and initial trickles of water become streams.  Sometimes the cave ceiling collapses forming  sinkholes or a cenotes.

The following are examples of the breathtaking variety of karst  topography from images taken around the planet.

Viet Nam, Halong bay

By steve vidler

Viet Nam

Viet Nam

By Paul Smit

Viet Nam

Viet Nam

Viet Nam

by Michael Buckley

Karst Forest, Madagascar

Via Flatrock.org

Haiti Karst

By Tequila Minsky

Bryce Canyon Karst, Utah

El Torcal de Antequera,  Spain

El Torcal de Antequera,  Spain

Shilin, South China

Akiyoshidai Karst pinnacles in Mine, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan

Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, U.S.A.

Mammoth Cave is the longest cave in the world, with over 350 miles explored so far.

 Corn karst, Chocolate Hills, Philippines

Australia, Nambung National Park

Sarisarinama sinkholes of Venezuela

Large sinkhole, Mitchell Plain, Indiana

 Sinkholes, Winslow, Arizona, U.S.A.

 The Zacatón cenote, Mexico

The “islands” in this cenote are made of floating reeds.

Thanks to Bukisa and DarkRoastedBlend

If you’re up for it, leave a comment voting for your favorite.

by #timflach

Thanks to:  Sam Pryor and Joan Stricker both at pinterest,

to pixdaus

and to Kathleen J. and Gary W.

By Adriana De Barros

  Turkish airlines offers a new food service.

Eggregation by Shannon Calvert

Biotechnology by Shannon Calvert

Food Coloring by Shannon Calvert

by Pierre Javelle & Akiko Ida

by Pierre Javelle & Akiko Ida

by Pierre Javelle & Akiko Ida

 Take a careful look at these next images.

Everything in these images by  Carl Warner is made from food.  The mountains are bread, rocks are cheese, the cloud is cauliflower.   Each scene is photographed in layers from foreground to background taking two to three days to build and photograph.

And the ocean is salmon.

Below is Carl at work.

Making this image.

The image below of a Chinese junk is made from Chinese food.

Image of Tuscany is made from food common in Italy.

by lola

From sam pryor, pinterest

These next two are a bit of cuteness overload.   I can’t believe they’re real–though I’ve done my best to figure it out and it

seems they are.  Opinions welcome.

from Sam Pryor on pininterest

COMING SOON:  CUTE AND FUNNY CATS AND DOGS

Thanks of Kathleen J, Gary W., Claire E., Pixdaus, Sam Pryor on pinterest

The Sky Park stretches longer than the Eiffel tower laid down or four and a half A380 Jumbo Jets, with  40682 square feet (12,400 square meters) of space, the Sands SkyPark can host up to 3900 people.

The Sky Park sits on a highrise hotel, and the resort includes a convention center, “ArtScience museum” two large theaters, ice skating rink, casino and of course many shops and restaurants.

Thanks to Claire Elizabeth de Sohpia.

Piano Stairs

Volkswagon sponsored a contest on a website called “The Fun Theory” “dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behavior for the better.”  Here’s my favorite entry.

For more winners of the fun theory click here.

American Apparel highlights one talented kid, “Lil Demon” and Jalent Testerman in this breakdancing video set to the perfect music.

Next up, Samsun in France got this cool dude to do something I’ve never heard of, finger tutting, to sell their Galaxy 2S cell phone.  Don’t give up until you see the light marvels.

By Yoram Shplrer

This remarkable image got me started thinking about the California condor, the largest flying bird in North America.  This is probably not a condor but it sure is a big vulture, like the condor.

Here are some interesting things about condors and the efforts to save them from extinction.

1)  Condors have a wingspan of 9 ½ feet, and can weigh up to 25 pounds as adults.

2)  Using thermal updrafts, condors can soar and glide up to 50 miles per hour and travel 100 miles or more per day in search of food.

3)  They feed primarily on large dead mammals such as deer, elk, bighorn sheep, range cattle, and horses.

4)  They can live up to 60 years in the wild, and become sexually mature at six or seven years of age.

By Meng Tang

5)  Condors mate for life and females lay a single egg, about five inches in length and weighing around 10 ounces, every second year. Male and female condors share incubation shifts.

6)  California condors are curious, intelligent, and playful. They are very gregarious and often feed, bathe, roost, and play together.  According to Sophie Osborn of the Peregrine Fund’s California Condor Restoration Project in Arizona, “tug-of-war and punting empty water bottles around with their bills are two of their favorite “games.”

Am I crazy for thinking this fellow (or gal) looks sorta cute?

7)  They are more closely related to storks than birds of prey and are close to ravens in personality.

The populations’ low point was in 1982, with only 22 remaining, 21 in the wild and one in captivity.  Their numbers were decimated by years of shooting and poisoning. The poisoning came in two forms: condors became indirect targets when they fed on carcasses that had been laced with poisons to kill predators such as coyotes; condors also succumbed to lead poisoning by eating the remains of animals killed by hunters using lead bullets.

9)  In 1987 the controversial decision was made to bring all remaining condors into a captive breeding program before it was too late.

10)  Because condors only lay one egg every two years, captive breeding techniques were developed in which eggs are removed as they are laid, usually causing the captive condors to lay a second and sometimes third egg. The extra eggs are incubated.

11)  These chicks are raised by caretakers using a hand puppet shaped like a parent condor head. The puppet prevents the young condors from imprinting on people.

This is a puppet mom or dad, in case you couldn’t tell.

This video shows a puppet feeding a two-day-old chick.

12)  Condor chicks that are not raised by puppets, are raised by their parent birds. As a result of captive breeding, condor populations have increased dramatically from 22 birds in 1987 to more than 270 birds in 2005.

For information and thanks to:  California Literary Review article by Paul Comstock

and

Arizona Game and Fish Department

By Allan Wallberg

The Sardine Run by Alexander Safonov

by Miguel Angel de Arriba Cuadrado

By Sam Lim

By Brad Wilson

bird tornado by Nuray Gonulalan

Wall-to-wall reindeer by Mik-Mak

By Sam Ho

Shepherd riding camel in Mongolia by Amy Para.

By greg mclemore

Combat by Bonali Giuseppe

By Sam Lim

Akuna Matata by Alex Tish

]]> http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/more-exquisite-animal-images/feed/ 4 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/animal-camouflage/ http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/animal-camouflage/#comments Tue, 21 Jun 2011 05:22:19 +0000 Dusky Pierce http://www.duskyswondersite.com/?p=2397 Continue reading →]]> This post is divided into sections:

I) Animals disguised as leaves

II) Animals as flowers

III) Larger animal camo, with hints–for this part I number them.  Some are easy to see and some not.  So if you are having a hard time finding the animal, you can look at the end of the section and I will give a hint.

IV.  HELP! This section has a few images I have found in other posts about camouflage, stared at for longer than I can tolerate, and not been able to find the animal.  So I invite you to find it and post a comment that describes where to look and what to look for.

V.  Videos–Don’t miss the videos at the end.  A chameleon and an octopus like you’ve never seen.

LEAVES

Bugs are some of the best at camouflaging as leaves, but did you know frogs, lizards and snakes do a pretty convincing job too?

Note:  a decaying-leaf bug.

An unfolding leaf stick bug.

A praying mantis mixture of dead and alive.

Fresh leaf.

By Igor Siwanowicz

Half dead leaf.

A leaf-mimic katydid

A dead leaf butterfly

Praying Mantis

Frog leaf

A cryptic frog.

Lizard leaf.

These leaf-fish in the Amazon are remarkably stealthy.

Leaf fish

II.   FLOWERS

Some bugs prefer mimicking flowers more than leaves.

By Igor Siwanowicz

Crab spider.

This praying mantis is looking for the right flower.

III.  Larger animal camo with hints

No. 1No. 2

No. 3

No. 4

No. 5

No. 6

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Can you spot the green chameleon?

How about now?

Names and hints:  1) Cheetah  2) Three toed sloth  3) Grizzly in snow  4) Kangaroo (on left)  5) Owl  6) Python  7)  Wolf (on right)  8)  Jaguar  9)  Something in the deer family  10)  Lion cub 11)  Lizard  12)  Crocodile  13)  Elephant  14)  Frog  15)  Rocky Ptarmigan chick in nest  16)  Mimic Octopus  17)  Giraffe  18)  Snake  19)  Owls  20)  Ermine weasel  21)  Waterfall frog  22)  Some kind of reptile  23)American Bittern bird,  24) tawny frogmouth bird.

HELP!!

If you see a wolf in the image below, please explain where.

Please post a comment if you see anything in the following images.

Many thanks to Moominmom3 who explains where to find and explain where to look for two wolves and some kind of reptile under the comments section below.

O.K.  Now you just have to check out this chameleon.  Sorry if you don’t like the music but wait until the end.  It’s the best.

Super chameleon

This octopus video is a section of a TED talk by David Gallo. It’s hard to believe it’s real, but it is.  The whole talk can be seen here.
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Here’s another way to point out the animals hiding in my “help!” images, thanks to Mel in Scotland.

WHITE KNUCKLES

When OkGo told Roland Sonnenburg at the Talented Animals training company they wanted to make a video with dogs that was “magical and charming” AND they wanted to film it in one continuous take, they were told that sounded impossible.

“Working with animals we use cuts and optimal camera angles for everything. Without cuts, the animals would have to all work at the same time with their trainers far away, and we would need to get each dog and trainer and bandmember and crewmember to nail every single behavior all in the same take,”  according to Sonnenburg.

This is how they did it: 12 trainers, two furniture movers, 12 dogs, one goat, 38 buckets, a bunch of furniture, spreadsheets, flow-charts, and recorded audio instruction, four weeks, 124 takes and practice, practice, practice.

They rehearsed the routines with each dog practicing their own moves with their trainer. When things started looking good the band came in and got integrated with the dogs. They started practicing at half speed. The last four days they began filming. Around take 49 things started clicking. Around take 60 a new problem arose: the dogs were getting so good and enjoying it so much they starting doing it faster than the music. Finally they settled on take 72.

Thanks to Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo for this info and more.

OK Go – White Knuckles – Official Video from licked on Vimeo.

THIS TOO SHALL PASS

The video for this song showcases a Rube Goldberg machine with moving parts that take exactly the length of the 3.5 minute song to unfurl.   The machine rolls metal balls down tracks, swings sledgehammers, pours water, unfurls flags and drops a flock of umbrellas from the second story, all perfectly synchronized with the song.

The requirements were that it had to be interesting, not “overbuilt” or too technology-heavy, and easy to follow.  The machine also had to be built on a shoestring budget, synchronize with beats and lyrics in the music and end on the same moment as the song, play a part of the song, and be filmed in one shot.  To make things more challenging still, the space chosen was divided into two floors and the machine would use both.

“We wanted to make a video where we have essentially a giant machine that we dance with,” said the band’s Damian Kulash, Jr., in a short “making-of” video posted on YouTube.  Synn Labs, a Los Angeles-based arts and technology collective was hired to dream up the most outlandish and elaborate mechanism they could to “dance” along with the music.

It took about 55 – 60 people about a month and a half of very intense work.

This includes eight “core builders” who did the balk of the design and building and another 12 part-time builders.  Additionally Synn Labs recruited 30 or more people to help reset the machine after each trial run. Because of the machine’s size and complexity, even with all those people helping, it took close to an hour to re-set it.

It took more than 60 takes, over the course of two days, to get it right. Many of those takes lasted about 30 seconds,  getting no further than the spot in the video where the car tire rolls down a ramp.  “The most fiddly stuff, you always want to put that at the front, because you don’t want to be resetting the whole thing,”  says Adam Sadowsky  president of Syyn Labs.

Below is the music video, followed by a short video about making it.

Here’s a short video about making the Rube Goldberg machine.

If you want to see an interactive map of the floor plan in the Rube Goldberg machine, go here.

HERE IT GOES AGAIN

This video was choreographed and directed by Trish Sie, the sister of OkGo lead vocalist Damien Kulash.  It took a total of seventeen attempts to complete.  According to Kulash, “We were really lucky that my sister had this great idea to do this dance on treadmills and we had a week off so we could actually do the whole thing and it didn’t cost too much money.”  This video too was made in one continuous take and is the first that went viral.

To see more OkGo videos go here.

By Per H. Olsen

Cuckoos  are famed for laying their eggs in host species’ nests, leaving unwitting “foster” birds to raise their chicks.  Known as “brood parasites” they are able to specialize their eggs’ appearance in order to disguise them in the nests of other birds.   In a mere ten seconds, the cuckoo hen swoops down and lays an egg very similar to her host’s, and flies off with one of the host’s eggs in her bill.

By John Markham, Bruce Coleman Ltd.

When the young cuckoo hatches, its first act is to dispose of any other eggs: it heaves them out of the nest, leaving itself as the sole occupant.

What happens next is peculiar. The foster parents don’t appear to notice they are rearing a monster. Instead, they work hard to satisfy the demands of the chick, even though it sometimes becomes so large that it no longer fits inside the nest, and has to sit on top. It’s one of the oddest sights in nature.

These ethereal sculptures are the creation of Milan, Italy-based artist Benedetta Mori Ubaldini. She describes her pieces made of chicken-wire as coming “from a childlike side of my imagination. What I love is creating installations as three-dimensional pictures. The simplicity of this material contains the magical power of transparency that is capable of giving each piece the lightness of an apparition, a ghost-like quality, like a trace from memory.”

Red Riding Hood

Donkey and friend.

Click on any picture to reach the artist’s website.

]]> http://www.duskyswondersite.com/human-ingenuity-category/chicken-wire-apparitions/feed/ 3 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/birds/ http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/birds/#comments Thu, 05 May 2011 06:30:44 +0000 Dusky Pierce http://www.duskyswondersite.com/?p=2217 You don’t have to be a bird lover to appreciate this mix of beautiful, funny and a couple weird bird images.

by Beeboo Hani

By Adrie Hubregtsen

By Adrie Hubregtsen

By John Zimmerman

By Larry Bennett

By Alec Ee

By Kjartan Trana

The Birdie Sisters in concert by To-To

By David Paeme

Thanks to Pixdaus for many of these images.

To see more images go to Johansson’s website.

Thanks for Gary Whitney for turning me onto this artist.

THE IDEAL PALACE

Ferdinan Cheval was delivering mail in April, 1879.  He tripped on a stone and  inspired by its shape, he started collecting stones.   For the next 33 years, Cheval carried stones from his delivery rounds and at home used them to build his Palais idéal, the Ideal Palace. First he carried the stones in his pockets, then a basket and eventually a wheelbarrow.

Cheval spent the first two decades building the outer walls. The Palace is a mix of different styles with inspirations from the Bible to Hindu mythology.  The stones are bound together with lime, mortar and cement. Cheval also wanted to be buried in his palace. However, since that is illegal in France, he proceeded to spend eight more years building a mausoleum for himself in the cemetery of Hauterives. Cheval died on August 19, 1924, around a year after he had finished building it, and is buried there.

For more info and photos go to oddity.

ELEPHANTE

Everything in Eliphante, a property in Cornville, AZ, USA is made from found materials.  The three acre site was created over 28 years by Michael Kahn and his wife, Leda Livant and includes a  residence, Hippodome, which has 25-foot ceilings and incorporates rocks and scraps from construction sites and a studio, one wall of which is the Ford pickup that brought the couple west.

Hippodome has electricity, heat, a phone line and water, but no bathroom or toilet. To wash, one goes across the property to the bathhouse, where the solar-heated shower is a length of chopped hose but the windows are stained glass.

Hippodome

Ceiling fan

The kitchen

For more info on Elephante follow this link to the New York Times.

The Mushroom House, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Another unique home made with found and used materials of wood, glass, tiles, and shells selected to make the building “look like it belonged in nature.  Terry Brown spent over 14 years building this home with the help of his architecture students.

The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea

NO, THIS IS NOT PHOTOSHOPPED.

This monstrosity is a testament to North Korea’s bizarre totalitarian leadership.  Construction began in 1987 and was designed to be 105 stories, have 3000 rooms, 7 revolving restaurants, casinos, nightclubs and Japanese lounges.  Originally scheduled to be completed in 1989, by 1992 construction was completely halted due to funding problems amid electricity shortages and famine.
Japanese newspapers estimated the cost was US $750 million, consuming 2% of North Korea’s GDP.

Even more strange,  the North Korean government denied the building’s existence for many years!  Though mocked-up images of the completed hotel had once appeared on North Korean stamps, the government manipulated official photographs in order to remove the structure, and excluded it from printed maps of Pyongyang.  Imagine denying this!

Stone House-Guimarães,Portugal

The Crooked House-Sopot, Poland

Low impact woodland house                     (Wales, UK)

Boeing-727 house in Benoit,Mississippi

This house cost Joanne Ussary $2,000, cost $4,000 to move and $24,000 to renovate.  The stairs open with a garage door remote and one of the bathrooms is still intact.  Check out the jacuzzi in the cockpit.

Bird Island Zero Energy Home (Kuala-Lumpur)

Cob-House-Vancouver-Canada

Cubic Houses (Kubus-woningen) Rotterdam, Netherlands

Earth house Dietikon Switzerland

Forest Spiral, Darmstadt, Germany

The Church of Hallgrimur Reykjavik, Iceland

The Piano House, Huainan, China

The old Mill House in Vernon, France

Cactus House Rotterdamn, The Netherlands

Dar al hajar house, Wadi Dhahr, Yemen

A House in a maze, Cordes sur Ciel, France

Hang Nga Guesthouse a.k.a Crazy House, Vietnam

Kansas City Library, Missouri

Lotus  Temple, Delhi,  India

Olympic Stadium Montreal, Canada

Shoe house Abel Erasmus Pass, Branddraai, Mpumalanga South-Africa

Spaceship house , Chattanooga , Tennessee

The Basket Building, Ohio, USA

Thomas Point Lighthouse, Maryland, USA

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

The National Library, Minsk, Belarus

Okinawa tree house at entrance to Onoyama Park

House Attack Viena, Austria

Outdoor sculpture at the Museum Moderner Kunst

For more details about many of these buildings go to weburbanist.

Thanks to Claire Elizabeth for inspiring this post.

]]> http://www.duskyswondersite.com/human-ingenuity-category/architectural-oddities/feed/ 2 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/exquisite-animal-images/ http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/exquisite-animal-images/#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 06:05:39 +0000 Dusky Pierce http://www.duskyswondersite.com/?p=2055 Continue reading →]]> These images were chosen for the artistry of the photograph more than the animal/s themselves.

By Roger Becker

Camels crossing oasis.

The Unbald Eagle

by Andrew Wong

Check how this flock of flamingos in the Gulf of Mexico are in a bird shape.

Goat watching man watching goat.

by Tom Leeson

Lone bull elephant by Victoria Falls, Zambia, Africa

By Mike Bueno

by Jason Wickens

These are fireflies with timed photo.  The white circular lines are stars moving.

Cattle egrit.

by Troy Lim

A timed photo of moths coming to a light.

Golden pheasant.

by David Castor

By Octavianus Darmawan

Thanks to:

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/

http://www.wineandbowties.com/

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/11/national_geographics_photograp.html

http://amolife.com/image/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/category/graphics/

Florida

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

The Nile River.

The Nile River at night.

Mt. Fuji by Noguchi.

London and Paris.  Note fog around London.

Sunrise over the Andes.

The space station makes one rotation around the Earth every 90 minutes, at a speed of 17,500 miles (28,163 kilometers) per hour or 5 miles (8 kilometers) per second.  Therefore, according to Wheelock, “We watch sunsets and sunrises every 45 minutes.”

Patagonia lies at the southern end of South America. This view includes rugged mountains, massive glaciers, fjords and seas.

Italy.  Note the boot.

Pico De Orizaba, Mexico’s highest mountain by Noguchi.

San Francisco, California’s Golden Gate Bridge by Noguchi.

The dome through which these images were taken.  This pic was taken by Russian astronaut Fedor from the window of the Russian docking compartment.  It shows Wheelock preparing the camera for the evening flight over Hurricane Earl.

View from inside the dome.

Space shuttle approaching the space station.

Shuttle about to land at space station, by Noguchi.

The moon from space.

Space station.

Astronaut Douglas Wheelock.

Thanks to cousin Mike.

]]> http://www.duskyswondersite.com/cosmic-category/view-from-space/feed/ 2 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/human-ingenuity-category/buddhist-monastery-engineering-marvels/ http://www.duskyswondersite.com/human-ingenuity-category/buddhist-monastery-engineering-marvels/#comments Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:48:20 +0000 Dusky Pierce http://www.duskyswondersite.com/?p=1918 Continue reading →]]> Ancient Buddhists in the East seem dedicated to constructing engineering feats.

Let’s start with the Tiger’s Nest Monastery in Bhutan.

This temple complex was first built in 1692, around a cave where a revered  Guru Padmansambhanva is said to have meditated for three months in the 8th century.  Padmasambhava is credited with introducing Buddhism to Bhutan.

The monastery buildings consist of four main temples and residential shelters designed by adapting to the rock (granite) ledges and eight caves.  All the buildings are interconnected through steps and stairways made in rocks. There are a few rickety wooden bridges along the paths and stairways also to cross over. The temple at the highest level has a frieze of Buddha. Each building has a balcony, which provides lovely views of the scenic Paro valley down below.

Special permission is required for non-Bhutanese to visit the monastery, usually granted only to practicing Buddhists on a religous retreat.

Young monk peeks out of temple.

Next is The Hanging Temple or Hanging Monastery in China.

Built into a cliff (75 m or 246 ft above the ground) in Shanxi province , the Hanging Monastery was built more than 1,500 years ago.

The temple was constructed by drilling holes into the cliff side and inserting crossbeams halfway to serve as the foundation.  How did they do this 1,500 years ago?

If you look carefully above, you will see somebody walking on this uninviting stairway.

Many thanks to fly_silence@163.com for photos of the Hanging Temple.  If you want to see a video with music of these photos go here.

Next up:  Popa Taungkalat monastery in Myanmar, formerly Burma.

Rising to 2,417 feet (737 meters) from the flat, surrounding plain, the Mt Popa Taugnkalat Monastery is built on the core of an extinct volcano last active 250000 years ago.  At one time a Buddhist hermit, U Khandi, maintained the stairway of 777 steps to the summit of the pedestal hill named Taung Kalat.  It is said the shrine is home to 37 Nats, or spirits, with statues depicting them at its base.

Above, a close up of the 777 stairs.

Now to central Java in Indonesia, and the 9th-century temple, Borobudur.

The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.   A main dome, located at the center of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside a perforated dome.  Some scholars think that this massive monument is a gigantic textbook of Buddhism. To read this textbook in stone requires a walk of more than two miles.

For more info on Borobudur go here.  And thanks to Sacred Destinations for info and photos.

Back to Myanmar/Burma for Kyaiktiyo Pagoda also known as Golden Rock.

This small pagoda (7.3 metres (24 ft)) built on the top of a granite boulder is covered with gold leaves pasted on by devotees. According to legend, the Golden Rock itself is precariously perched on a strand of the Buddha’s hair. The rock seems to defy gravity, as it perpetually appears to be on the verge of rolling down the hill.

Now Tibet

Location, location, location.

Finally, Tongtian Avenue, in China is a long road cut along side the mountain to the tourist attraction of Tianmenshan.

This  “Avenue”  has exactly 99 turns. Heaven supposedly has 9 palaces.

Thanks to cousin Mike for the link that started this exploration of Buddhist Monastery wonders.

Thanks Kathleen.

This is a 4-hour-old orangatan.

Baby platypuses.

O.K.  Now we’re getting into dangerously, purely cute.

During a severe drought in Australia, some koalas were so thirsty they approached humans for water.

Above is a mizra zaza.

Photo by: floridapfe on flickr

A fennec fox.

I confess, baby snubnosed monkeys are so cute, they get two photos.

Photo by Chris Otto

O.K.  That’s it.  Now please go to comments below and VOTE on your favorite.

Thanks to the people and places below:

http://amolife.com/image/animals/index.php

Monica and Kathleen

]]> http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/animals-funny-and-cute/feed/ 12 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/peculiar-bird-mating-rituals/ http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/peculiar-bird-mating-rituals/#comments Sun, 13 Feb 2011 16:49:02 +0000 Dusky Pierce http://www.duskyswondersite.com/?p=1760 Continue reading →]]> I wouldn’t believe this video was real if it weren’t presented by  respected writer and narrator of BBC’s “Life” and “Planet” series, David Attenborough. The male lyre bird’s remarkable mimicry repertoire goes far beyond imitating over 40 different song birds.

This poor Lyre bird in the Adelaide, Australia zoo heard ample human sounds as the zoo constructed a new panda exhibit nearby.

The lyrebird’s syrinx (the bird equivalent to the human larnyx) is the most complexly-muscled of the songbirds, allowing its extraordinary, unmatched vocal repertoire.

This bird of paradise performs an amusing dance to attract its mate.

The Manequin bird does a little moon walking to show off to a potential female mate.

Albino peacocks prefer having the male wear the wedding dress.

b

Turns out this is a lenticular cloud and for people who live around certain mountains  it’s relatively rare but not as surprising as it was to me.

Mt. Rainier, Washington, By Tim Thompson

My policy on this site is not to say anything I can’t understand myself.  So after reading about 15 sites explaining how this cloud is formed, I still can’t say I understand.  I do know these clouds look like they are stationary over the mountain.  Actually they are air currents, which usually run horizontally, going vertically over a mountain and creating a pattern on the down-wind side that oscillates and  forms clouds, then evaporates, then forms, in a wave pattern….or something.   http://www.collthings.co.uk/2008/06/10-very-rare-clouds.html gives the best explanation of all kinds of clouds along with photos.

Photo by Cindy Diaz

Next are Mammatus clouds.

Below are fallstreak clouds.

Photo by Tyla Healton

Guess what.  It’s a wave cloud.  Over Mt. Shasta, California

Photo by Beverly Shannon

Photo by Clare Lewis

Also known as a kelvin-helmholtz wave cloud.

These roll clouds look ominous.

Photo by Rob Sharrock

Above, a cousin of the roll cloud, a shelf cloud.

This is a super cell cloud.  Yes, indeed.

More mean-looking storm clouds.

Friendlier weather.

Can’t talk about weather without lightening.

Photo by Igor Kovalenko

Lady Liberty takes a hit.

Photo by: Malcolm

And a combo of our previous and next weather topic:

Now hurricanes

Hurricane Hugo, 1989–notice Florida

Hurricane Wilma, 2005, from higher satellite.  Notice, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

After tornadoes and hurricanes, ice storms don’t seem so bad–but this was a bad one.

More ice than this tree could handle.

Photo by Marc F. Henning

Thanks to the sites below for several images and explanations.  Each offers many additional weather photos.

http://weatherpix.com/images.htm

http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/

http://www.collthings.co.uk/2008/06/10-very-rare-clouds.html

As always, when I could find a photo credit, I put it in with a link to the site.

]]> http://www.duskyswondersite.com/nature/wierd-weather/feed/ 3 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/bugs-like-youve-never-seen/ http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/bugs-like-youve-never-seen/#comments Sat, 29 Jan 2011 07:30:37 +0000 Dusky Pierce http://www.duskyswondersite.com/?p=1646 Continue reading →]]> I am NOT into bugs or generally creepy crawlies of any kind.  But these remarkable macro photos by  Igor Siwanowicz have changed me.  And that is his intention–to help us see and hopefully come to appreciate these creatures in a new way.  Join me in a new attitude.  Cute bugs?  Funny bugs?  See for yourself….If you can resist regular bugs, try the caterpillars below.  If that doesn’t do it for you, at the end I’ve added a couple non-bug cuties by the same photographer/artist.

This next one almost creeped me out because its fuzzy nature reminded me of a spider.  Hopefully it’s not. His antennae finally won me over.   If I ever do a post on cool spiders, you can be sure these wonders have transformed me into a new person.

I know they are bugs, but maybe because they are associated with butterflies, caterpillars seem less buggy.

The photographer, Igor Siwanowicz, calls this one “bad hair day.”

The following are chameleons and geckos.

Rosette-Nosed Chameleon

For hundreds more amazing small creatures captured up close compliments of Igor Siwanowicz , go to:

http://photo.net/photos/siwanowicz

]]> http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/bugs-like-youve-never-seen/feed/ 5 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/human-ingenuity-category/graffiti-with-a-chuckle/ http://www.duskyswondersite.com/human-ingenuity-category/graffiti-with-a-chuckle/#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2011 07:18:26 +0000 Dusky Pierce http://www.duskyswondersite.com/?p=1577 Continue reading →]]> Update:

Graffiti meets Academy Awards

New graffiti by street artist and notorious recluse Banksy  is popping up in L.A. ahead of the Academy Awards in what might be the most unusual Oscar campaign in history.   The film directed by Banksy, Exit Through The Gift Shop, was nominated for Best Documentary.

The most interesting aspect of this nomination is that many people (including me) believe that Banksy’s film is a hoax;  not a documentary but a continuation of his satirical, irreverent humor,  providing political and social commentary.  For a synopsis of the movie’s plot go to The Atlantic.

Execs at the Academy are in a tizzy.  “The fun but disquieting scenario is if that film wins and five guys in monkey masks come to the stage all saying, ‘I’m Banksy!’ Who the hell do we give it to? […] That’s the fun part of this job. There’s always some crazy-ass wrinkle you never thought of before.” And with that, Academy executive director Bruce Davis is plotting a “procedure” by which the elusive graffiti artist can claim his Oscar should Exit Through the Gift Shop win.

When Banksy was nominated Jan. 25, he put out a statement: “This is a big surprise. I don’t agree with the concept of award ceremonies, but I’m prepared to make an exception for the ones I’m nominated for. The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house, it was me.”

Note below, bullets are crayons.

If you’re familiar with Banksy, scroll past his work to see other graffiti artists.

The above graffiti is by the elusive graffiti artist Banksy, probably the most famous anonymous artist alive.

Banksy started as a teenage tagger in Bristol, England and has managed to become a well-known artist making million-dollar art while keeping his identity a mystery.  His stenciled graffiti continues to pop up on streets, walls and bridges throughout the world.

In his book, “Wall and Piece” he claims that as he was starting to do graffiti he was always too slow and was either caught or could never finish the art in the one sitting. So he devised a series of intricate stencils to minimize time and overlapping of the color.

This piece depicts “the gray ghost,” a New Orleans local who makes it his job to rid the city of graffiti–and who has successfully covered over this work and several others by Banksy that appeared in that city in 2008.

The next three were painted on the West Bank barrier wall in Israel on the Palestinian side of the wall.

Sometimes he just makes a comment.

When new graffiti is found in a style similar to Banksy, various people, photographers and websites debate whether it’s a genuine Banksy.  Photos of some of his work appear on his website so there is no disagreement.  But many don’t.  Click here if you want to visit his official site.

A well-received documentary was made by Banksy, “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”  It is the source of much speculation about whether it is a spoof or straight-up story.  Here is a link to Vanity Fair’s take on it.

A London artist, known only as Slinkachu, calls this unusual graffiti  ‘Inner City Snail – a slow-moving street art project’.  Slinkachu is keen to point out that non-toxic paints were used.  The 28-year-old said: ‘No snails were harmed – they just had their homes vandalised.’

Peter Gibson (a.k.a. Roadsworth) was frustrated with the lack of safety provided for cyclists in today’s cities.  The Montreal artist began (illegally) spray painting extra bike lanes onto the streets in 2001. It wasn’t long before he began to branch out and address other civic and environmental issues.

In 2004, Gibson was arrested and charged with over 80 counts of public mischief. With public support on his side, his sentence was lenient: a minor fine and 40 hours of community work which entailed creating legal artwork. Today he is often commissioned to create works of art.

Misc. other graffiti art

Photo by San_Tiago on flickr

Photo by : *luis*l* on flickr

Photo by: bo2krocketman on flickr

Photo by Michael Hughes on flickr

]]> http://www.duskyswondersite.com/human-ingenuity-category/graffiti-with-a-chuckle/feed/ 4 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/pangolin/ http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/pangolin/#comments Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:13:48 +0000 Dusky Pierce http://www.duskyswondersite.com/?p=1544 Continue reading →]]>

Pangolins are African mammals that can roll themselves into such a tight ball that it takes considerable force to unroll them. They use powerful muscles and the cutting action of their armor-plated scales to inflict serious wounds on any animal that tries to get between the plates.  The weight of the protective keratinous scales and skin make up about 20% of the pangolin’s weight.  They clean themselves by using their hind claws to reach under their scales and scratch their skin.

Photo by: J. Dennis / www.nhpa.co.uk

Pangolins have anal scent glands that emit strong, foul smelling secretions.  They are toothless so they have  gizzard-like stomachs for grinding food.  The grinding is helped along by the small stones and sand they eat.  They have no external ears, although their hearing is good. Their sense of smell is well-developed, but their sight is poor.

Pangolins have tongues up to 16 inches long.  In a resting position the tongue is pulled back and stored in a pouch in the chest. They use their sense of smell to locate termite and ant nests.  Large salivary glands coat the long tongue with a gummy mucus to which ants and termites stick.

The young are 6 inches long and weigh 12 ounces at birth. Their pale, soft scales begin to harden by the second day. The baby is folded in the mother’s lap or rolled-up body.

Photo source: CBC Radio As it Happens

Nursed for 3 to 4 months, babies begin to eat at 1 month. At this time the infant begins to accompany the mother, often riding on the base of her tail.  When Mom senses danger, she rolls up with Baby inside.

Pangolin’s have prehensile tails that can grab branches and allows them to hang upsidedown in trees, like monkeys.

Thanks to http://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/pangolin for info.

By guiding these roots, villagers can slowly grow a strong, permanent bridge.  In fact, because they are living, the bridges get stronger over time.  Some can hold up to 50 people.

In order to make a rubber tree’s roots grow in the right direction—say, over a river—the Khasis people use betel nut trunks, sliced down the middle and hollowed out, to create root-guidance systems. The thin, tender roots of the rubber tree, prevented from fanning out by the betel nut trunks, grow straight out. When they reach the other side of the river, they’re allowed to take root in the soil.

They take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional.

But then they last for hundreds of years, growing stronger.

Above is the longest known root bridge, about 100 feet.

There’s even a double-decker.

In Japan’s remote west Iya valley, locals use wisteria vines, growing from opposite sides of a river and woven together to form a bridge.  They then weave planks into them at 6-12 inch intervals.

While some (though apparently not all) of the bridges have been reinforced with wire and side rails, they are still harrowing to cross. With planks set 7 inches apart and a drop of 4 1/2  stories to the water, they are not for those with a fear of heights.

]]> http://www.duskyswondersite.com/human-ingenuity-category/living-bridges/feed/ 2 http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/mice-acrobats/ http://www.duskyswondersite.com/animals/mice-acrobats/#comments Fri, 24 Dec 2010 06:14:59 +0000 Dusky Pierce http://www.duskyswondersite.com/?p=1450 Continue reading →]]> Harvest mice siblings hang out together.

These stunning and rare photos document the lives of the elusive harvest mice.  Louis Klein and Marie-Luce Hubert  spent 12 months photographing these tiny, acrobatic creatures in Alsace, France.  They weigh .2 ounces, or less than a penny.

This mom keeps watch from the safety of her nest made from reeds.

Inside her nest, a female regurgitates to feed her ten-day-old babies.

Mom rolls her baby carefully up a plant stem towards her nest.

Like a monkey, the harvest mouse has a prehensile tail, using it as a fifth leg. The tail is mainly used to keep balance while climbing among grass stems. That way, the mouse is free to use both his hands.

Heads as well as tails can be convenient for exploring an interesting object in the distance.

It takes three siblings to get a good, safe grip.

Reaching for a flower.

Getting a drink while balancing.

Having a grasshopper dinner while balancing.

Checking out a camera while balancing.

The photographers shot the maternal behavior in a studio using mice from captivity.  They wouldn’t have been able to get this in the wild without disturbing the mother and there was a danger a wild mother might have abandoned her babies.

When shooting in the wild, they didn’t need to hide. They just had to find a good spot, lay very still for a long time, and wait for the mice

Above photos via:

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2010/09/secret-life-of-harvest-mice.html

Photos: BARCROFT MEDIA

Thanks Daily Mail.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club is donating tennis balls to help The Wildlife Trust in Avon, Glamorgan and Northumberland, England provide safe places to nest.  The grain fields where Harvest Mice live are threatened by intensive farming techniques.

These mice are nesting in one of the tennis balls.

There are over 50 floating islands, each with about 4 or 5 families living on them.

The Uros use the totora reed, which is plentiful along the edges of the lake, to make their homes, their furniture, their boats, and the islands they live on.  The islands are fixed in place by long stakes that are shoved through the reeds to the bottom of the lake, 60 feet deep. If they want to move they can pull up the stakes and push the island around.

Once a week the top layer of reeds needs to be replenished as they rot from underneath.

by Jill Scoby

These boats are also made from reeds.

By Marivi Jimenez

Thanks to Myates at www.travelpod.com for the travel blog.

Check out where this boom box came from.

Note the passenger.

Helpful mule.

Oops, lighten that load.

Lighten this load too.

Note they each have a load.

Yikes, be careful.

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