Chinese Dog Asylum Is A Labour Of Love

Six years ago, Wang Yanfang established a dog asylum to save strays from the pound, where they could be euthanized. There are currently more than 1300 dogs at the shelter. The 60-year-old and four other elderly volunteers rise at 4AM every morning to prepare 400 kilograms of food for the hungry pups. The shelter, which is supported solely by donations, makes sure that these animals are fed, cared for, and even groomed regularly.



My Modern Met

Thanks Bruce!

Wes Anderson Inspired Luggage Collection

If you enjoy travel and Wes Anderson in equal measures you will definitely covet these hand painted travel bags inspired by the original one-off set, custom-made especially for Anderson's film The Darjeeling Limited by Louis Vuitton. Alberto Favaretto, an Italian Wes Anderson fan, decided to produce the luggage under his brand, Very Troubled Child, named after a fictional book of the same name featured in Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom.

The Very Troubled Child Etsy shop sells everything from notebooks and iPhone cases to bathrobes, “Team Zissou” swimwear, “Grand Budapest” T shirts and of course, the travel bags.



More: Messy Nessy Chic

Zard Apuya's Plastic Junk Food Munnies

Munnies are do-it-yourself toys just waiting for you to work your magic on them. Artist Zard Apuya Has created a sweet little Munny series inspired by junk food.

More Munnies:  Foodiggity.com

Rare Abraham Lincoln Campaign Button Goes Under the Hammer

This ambrotype portrait of the 16th President was taken just hours before he delivered his famous address at New York’s Cooper Union in 1860. The image, captured by famous Civil War photographer Matthew Brady, probably appeared not only on pins but in engraved and lithographed portraits, woodcuts for weekly newspapers, and even caricatures. It required some gentle retouching as the original negative displayed “one eye looking in a different direction from the other.”As well several wrinkles required removal. It is expected to fetch between $4,000 and $6,000 at auction.

Front within a gilt metal frame

Back with pin, clasp, and an orange printed card reading
"FOR PRESIDENT/Hon. Abraham Lincoln.
MANUFACTURED BY/GEO. CLARK, Jr., & Co./AMBROTYPE ARTISTS
No. 59 Court Street./BOSTON.,"

More here

When Hollywood Went To Pot

 On January 1, 1976 art student Danny Finegood and 3 of his college pals transformed the iconic Hollywood sign with $50 worth of fabric. It was a statement on the relaxed California marijuana law that went into effect that day.

He turned it in as a school assignment and received an “A.”



More: Dangerous Minds

80-Megapixel Camera Captures Urban Rio in Motion

These mind blowing 80-megapixel images of Rio De Janeiro were shot by Los Angeles-based photographer Joe Capra to illustrate the capabilities of the PhaseOne IQ180 camera. Capra keeps zooming in to highlight just how much one can capture and see.

10328x7760 - A 10K Timelapse Demo from SCIENTIFANTASTIC on Vimeo.

Make sure you watch it in fullscreen mode.
Link
Via  Urbanist

Rice Terraces from Above

Photograph by Jialiang Gao | www.peace-on-earth.org

This aerial photograph of the magnificent rice terraces of Yunnan, China looks like a painting. Terraced rice paddies have been cultivated in Yunnan’s Yuanyang County for at least  1300 years by the Hani people.



Via TwistedSifter

An Indie Label Office 1991

In 1991 a Switzerland public access station brought fuzzy VHS cameras to the 1st Avenue offices of  New York City indie label Tommy Boy, whose pioneering hip-hop and electronic releases included De La Soul and LFO.



More: The FADER
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An Ashtray That Makes You Think About Smoking

Via Cliff Pickover on Twitter

A Portable Photo Studio For Restaurant Instagramming

Do you get annoyed when fellow diners snap photos of their dinner? Then the MWEB #dinnercam will make you apoplectic. It is a placemat-sized portable studio for food photography. It's opening phase is at El Burro restaurant in Cape Town, South Africa. Diners who upload the hashtagged photos to their various social networking sites receive free prints of their images.



I was relieved to find that it is actually a tongue-in-cheek project designed to start a debate about  how WiFi and the web are changing everyday life in public spaces.
More: Food Republic

Blake Little's New West

Los Angeles-based photography Blake Little is well known for his ability to intimately capture the energy and personality of his subjects. You may have seen his photographs of people drenched with honey. In June 2012 Blake took photographs of rural Albertans, from working cowboys and cowgirls of all ages, to rodeo contestants, rodeo princesses, stock contractors, elders, farmers and feedlot workers.

Thanks Bruce!

The Animal Chair Collection

The Animal Chair Collection constitutes a diverse range of species, from mammals to reptiles, and even  insects.  This collection attempts to reflect and capture the beauty of nature in each living thing.

Walrus chair

Octopus chair

Hippo Chair

 More: Maximoriera.com

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Boston Snowstorm Facebook Statuses With Sad Fiddle Music

Random Facebook statuses about the Boston Snowstorm read in the style of the Ken Burns Civil War documentary.



Via

Henry VIII's evidence to support break with Rome turns up in Cornish library

In the 1530's King Henry VIII tried to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled by the Pope so that he could marry Anne Boleyn and produce an heir. Part of the evidence he and his lawyers gathered to support his case has been discovered in the library at Lanhydrock, a National Trust mansion in Cornwall. The Pope refused to annul the marriage but Henry married Anne Boleyn and established himself as the head of the Church of England. The breach with Rome was complete and the course of British history was changed.

The book is a summary of the theories of the medieval philosopher
 and theologian William of Ockham.
Photograph: Steven Haywood

“The book is important not only for its provenance but for the notes entered in it by Henry VIII’s advisers and no doubt intended for him to see. They draw attention to precisely the sort of issues that were so relevant to the king’s policies in the years leading up to the break with Rome.”

More: The Guardian

25 Places To Stick A GoPro

Burger Fiction strapped a GoPro to everyday objects to provide a unique perspective on the world.



Via 

Time-Lapse of an $8 Million Dollhouse Being Put Back Together

Silent film star Colleen Moore created this Fairy Castle in 1935 at a cost of $500,000 ($8m in 2015 dollars). It had luxurious amenities including a plumbing and electrical system. Tiny gold plates, crystal glasses and miniature needlepoint tapestries were custom made for the interior.

Moore donated it to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago in 1949. The Museum recently subjected it to a 9-month conservation with up to 5 conservators working 6 -7 days a week. See the castle being put back together by the conservation team in just 3 minutes in this time lapse video:



The conservators had to wear face masks when handling some of the tiniest objects to prevent inhaling them.

More: Mental Floss

How To Explore London’s Museums And Galleries

I'm going to London in a few weeks and will be looking for things to do.  Londonist has put together this handy chart to the city's museums and galleries both large and small.

See a high-resolution image. In most browsers, you’ll then need to click once more to zoom.

The best way to browse is to home in on one of the major museums (in red), then follow the arrows around.

Theo Fennell's Rings Feature Drawbridges And Secret Compartments

British master jeweller Theo Fennell's rings are not only beautiful, they are also entertaining. They feature doors and secret compartments that open to reveal tiny painted scenes and small treasures inspired by popular novels like Narnia,  The Wind In The Willows and The Wizard of Oz.

Wear several of these at once and you'll have the world's most elegant knuckledusters.



More:  Beautiful/Decay 

Barney synced up to ‘Straight Outta Compton'

I always knew there was something not quite on the level about that purple guy.



 theCHIVE
Via 

Pictures of Ireland in 1954

Photos by Austrian born photographer Inge Morath/The Inge Morath Foundation/M

More: vintage everyday

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The U.S. Map Distorted by Population

Social networking site MyLife created this map, which resizes the states based on their population. Wyoming has the smallest population (576,412).California has the highest population (38,041,430) and, in the midst of this freakishly cold Canadian winter, I understand why.

Via Mental Floss

Finding Love After a Heart Transplant

Kellan Roberts died suddenly at 22. His organs were donated. Connor Rabinowitz, a Minnesota high school student, received his heart. A year later Connor visited Kellan's family in Seattle and met Kellan's sister Erin. What followed is a moving love story.


Via Kottke

Kitty Sweater

Knitters and cat lovers, you'll love this sleeveless mohair top with a hood/collar. I wonder if it comes in tortie.

Buy the pattern at Ravelry

Via Blort

Photos Made With Potato Starch

The archives of National Geographic have almost 15,000 glass autochrome plates. In 1907, the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, introduced the process which used dyed grains of potato starch as a filter. The first natural color photograph to appear in National Geographic magazine was an autochrome depicting a flower garden in Belgium, published in 1914. The magazine used the autochrome into the early 1930s when it was replaced by other newer processes, including Kodachrome.

Taking a Break
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic

An Evening in the Park
Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams, National Geographic

Photograph by Jacob J. Gayer, National Geographic

"We're all familiar with old black and white images, so much so that we often think of images from the early 1900s as being exclusively in black and white," said Adrian Coakley, photographic research editor at National Geographic. "With autochrome, you're seeing those images in a way you wouldn't imagine them. It's like a look at history in color."

Link

Via

The "Million Bottle Temple"

Some monks brew beer, others build structures out of recycled beer bottles.

Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew (or the “Million Bottle Temple”) was built in the mid ’80s by Buddhist monks in the Sisaket area of Thailand. To promote recycling the monks asked their neighbours to bring them beer bottles that would be used to build a temple complex. The result is stunning.

Images: Flickr/Mark Fischer

More: First We Feast

Arthur

In this short action movie directed by Serge Ramelli Arthur's day is off to a bad start and it gets worse before it gets better.

 

Link

1960s Soviet Super-Sled Glided Over Snow, Ice and Water

The Siberian landscape is one of the most inhospitable in the world and traversing it has always presented challenges. Snow, ice,water, marshes, it has them all. But mail and medical supplies had to get through and people needed to be taken to hospitals in emergencies. Luckily the propellor-driven amphibious A-3 Aerosledge, designed by aeronautics engineer Andrei Tupolev in the 1960s was up to the challenge.

"Only around 800 A-3 Powersledges were ever manufactured, with production ceasing in the early 1980s. Only one – a 1978 model – was known to have made it to the US, after the new owner found it in Russia and had it restored to pristine working condition with the help of experts from around the world. It was sold at auction in 2007 for $187,000 and again in January 2015 for $220,000."

More here

Starring Adam West

When I was a kid I used to hurry home from school to watch Batman with Adam West as the caped crusader. Starring Adam West is the story of a Hollywood survivor, a family man, and the loyal fans that will stop at nothing to see their super hero justly rewarded with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Fun movie about a really likeable guy and this song is pretty cool too.

'Canadian Sniper' Combines Drama, Suspense, Moose, Tim Hortons

"I'm going out to save Canada from those gosh-darn moose."



Link

American Shokunin

Ryan Neil has been practicing the delicate art of Bonsai for nearly two decades, aspiring to become a master in the art form.

American Shokunin from Ryan Bush on Vimeo.

Via 

A Look Inside Track 61, The Secret Train Platform Under The Waldorf-Astoria

Track 61 is found behind a locked door on 49th Street in NYC. It has been out of service for decades but once upon a time was the secret train platform used by Franklin D. Roosevelt and other VIPs  to enter the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. FDR, wanting to keep his disability out of the public eye, had his armor-plated Pierce Arrow car drive off the train, onto the platform, and straight into the elevator.



More: Gothamist

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Parked Cars And Their Surrounding Architecture

French and New York-based photographer Franck Bohbot explores the relationships between parked cars and the surrounding architecture in this wonderful series of photographs.

More: Creative Boom

Via Blort

100 photos du vieux Paris

Paris ZigZag has posted a wonderful collection 100 photos of Paris from 1859 to 1992.

Vue sur la Seine et Notre Dame en 1859 – © Auguste Hippolyte Collard

La place Saint André des Arts en 1898 – © Eugène Atget

La rue Mouffetard en 1900

Montmartre et le Moulin de la Galette en 1912

Vieux couple de parisiens en 1960

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16,000 Flowers In The Lobby Of A Manhattan Skyscraper

British artist Rebecca Louise Law has installed 16,000 flowers in the lobby of a Manhattan skyscraper.  The project, called “Outside In”, is meant to give city folk a bit of a break from the hustle and bustle of urban life.

When initially installed the fresh flowers gave the lobby an outdoorsy spring like smell. As the days pass and the flowers dry, the lobby at 1515 Broadway in New York’s Times Square will become a potpourri scent tank.

More:Beautiful/Decay

Feelings

Nate Milton wrote down his thoughts, images and memories for three weeks, animated the ones that gave him a tingly feeling and created a stream-of-consciousness trek through his life.

FEELINGS from Nate Milton on Vimeo.

Music by Robert Bohn

Swedish Handbag Protest

Swedish artist Susanna Arwin created a statue inspired by a 1985 photograph of a woman swinging her handbag at a Nazi supporter.

The statue was scheduled to be installed at the main square in Växjö, Sweden until the council’s culture committee changed their decision, claiming the statue promoted violence. However it appears that many Swedes disagree with the council's decision and are placing handbags on statues across Sweden in protest.

Such a peaceful and creative way to express an opinion!



More: Nothing To Do With Arbroath

Thanks Katrina!

Architecture Inspired by Nature

Biomimetic architecture uses nature's functional forms as its inspiration.  Architizer has posted images that illustrate the dialogue between architecture and nature.

Cyrtoidea – Ernst Haeckel's illustration of Clathrocanium reginae [top row, second left]
and Cyrtoidea Pterocanium trilobum [middle row, far right]. Image via Wiki Commons

Image: National Gallery of Art

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