The Year Of Good Things

Link to interactive calendar 

Some pretty nasty stuff went down in 2015 but Slate has opted to accentuate the positive with this excellent interactive calendar of stories that made us feel grateful, optimistic, inspired, or awed over the past year.

Via

Earthrise From The Moon

This is a composite photo of an earthrise taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from 84 miles above the moon's surface.

Full-res version HERE

Via: Geekologie

Tugboat Printshop’s ‘Overlook’ Woodcut Print

Valerie Lueth and Paul Roden of Tugboat Printshop have produced 'Overlook', a colour woodblock print that was three years in the making, with thousands of hours invested in preparation, drawing, carving, testing, and printing.

The limited edition of 100 prints are available for pre-order here.
More: Colossal

The World's Loneliest ATM

Wells Fargo installed an automatic teller machine (ATM) back in 1998 at McMurdo Station, the U.S. Antarctic research center. McMurdo is a small community (pop.250 - 1000). Because some places only accept cash and others have a credit card minimum people often rely on the ATM. What happens if it has a malfunction?

Wells Fargo trains McMurdo staff to make simple repairs and there is a second ATM that can be cannibalized for parts. Machines are serviced every 2 years and the vendors chosen for that job undergo a psychological exam and a physical to make sure they’re equipped to deal with the Antarctic climate in case they get held over.

More: Mental Floss

The Best and Worst of 2015

What a year it's been!



Via Holy Kaw!

The Leather-Clad Rock Queens of Botswana

Botswana’s heavy metal scene has been on the rise since the early 1990s. Its members, the Marok, or ‘rockers’ in the local language of Setswana, are now an internationally recognised part of heavy metal sub-culture. South African photographer Paul Shiakallis spent eight months with them.

More: The Guardian

Christmas Tree

Time to start preparing for next year.

From the book "Stitch by Penny Black", Belfast Helles Khaki linen, Waterlilies, various beads, 90x112.

Link

Penguin Christmas

"Christmas has come early for the Gentoo penguin colony at The National Sea Life Centre Birmingham as the cheeky birds were treated to a tasty Christmas lunch by their keepers. No festive feast would be complete without crackers, which resulted in the traditional Christmas squabbles for the prize, which was in this case, a herring."

Link
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Indoor Beekeeping?

The BEEcosystem is a hexagonal cedar observational hive, “small enough to be manageable in non traditional beekeeping spaces,” but also large enough to produce cut-comb honey. The viewing window on the hive allows people to see the bees at work on the hive.
The unit is easy to maintain – it has a cleaning drawer that collects debris from the bottom of the hive, while keeping the bees safely away. A top feeder allows bees to be fed when certain flowers are in bloom.

Each hive can produce about half a kilogram of raw cut-comb honey.

Via Oddity Central 

If Economists Wrote Christmas Cards

Could you design an entire set of Christmas cards from famous economists' actual quotes? Might it make the perfect new line of season's greetings from Hallmark?

More: The Atlantic

Teeny, Tiny Train

Nebraska-based painter, muralist and carver Cindy Chinn used a magnifying glass and X-Acto knife to carve a tiny train out of a pencil and its lead.

Her art can be purchased here.

More: My Modern Met

A Harold Lloyd Christmas

Harold Lloyd's Christmas tree at his Greenacres estate was assembled from three large Douglas firs wired together to make one enormous tree. It was 20 feet high, 9 feet wide and almost 30 feet around. It took from Thanksgiving until Christmas to decorate the tree with thousands of one-of-a-kind ornaments Lloyd had collected from all over the world.

His granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd writes:

One year we counted over 5,000 ornaments hanging from the tree and we still had enough left over to decorate 3 more trees just as big! Every year the tree grew larger to hold more ornaments; then one year it became a permanent fixture in our home. It was simply too large, too decorated and too engineered to disassemble. So we had it fireproofed and celebrated Christmas every day of the year!

More: HaroldLloyd.com

Via 

Bali Cat

Met this little girl at the Thai restaurant near our villa. She looks a little grouchy but was quite sweet and her fur was soft as silk.

Gingerbread Overlook Hotel from 'The Shining'

Independent filmmaker, twin, board game and book enthusiast, and gingerbread artist, agkeeling posted some awesome photos of this Gingerbread Overlook Hotel from 'The Shining'

More photos

Volcanic Ghost Villages in Indonesia

Associated Press photographer Binsar Bakkara recently visited the newly-formed ghost villages of Guru Kinayan, Simacem, Kuta Gugung, and Sibintun, documenting the crumbling houses and personal belongings left behind after the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung . These abandoned objects serve as “eerie reminders of how life suddenly stopped when the volcano erupted and everyone was forced to evacuate their homes.”

More: The Atlantic
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Drone Tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House

The proliferation of drones will be a game-changer for everything from real estate and construction to architecture and travel. Curbed has posted an excellent collection of drone footage from 2015. I like Houzz TV's drone tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House:



See more drone footage

Impulse Lighting Installation

Toronto-based Lateral Office, Montreal-based CS Design and EGP Group have created Impulse, an installation that will transform the Place des Festivals in Montreal into a vast illuminated playground.

The interactive work on the Place des Festivals presents a series of giant illuminated and sound-producing seesaws. To activate them, visitors straddle them like any other seesaw. Once in motion, the built-in lights and speakers produce a harmonious sequence of sounds and lights, resulting in a constantly evolving ephemeral composition.

More: urdesignmag

Fun Vs Effort

Tiny Living Christmas Trees

Spirobranchus giganteus, aka the Christmas tree worm, builds a calcium carbonate-based shell around itself to protect it from predators. When it comes out of its shell, it sprouts appendages that look just like mini Christmas tree branches.

Photo via Matt Kieffer

Photo via Wikimedia

Photo via Jon Connell

More: My Modern Met

Nunavut Tea Toss Photo at -40 C

The photo shows Pangnirtung, Nunavut resident Markus Siivola throwing hot tea into the air as he bends backwards. In the –40 C weather, the tea freezes as soon as it's tossed.
Photographer Michael H. Davies used science to capture the shot. He knew he needed 40 below, calm winds and the sunset in the background.

More: CBC News

Mathematical Present Wrapping

If you're anything like me you waste a lot of Christmas wrapping paper by cutting pieces that are either too big or too small for the present. Mathematician Katie Speckles shows you how to do it mathematically.



Thanks Bruce!

The Roots Of SantaCon

SantaCon is an event that features tens of thousands of Santas parading the streets, getting a little too jolly. It turns out that SantaCon is more than just another bar crawl, it's an event whose purpose is constantly changing, thanks in part to its surprising origins.



Read more: Vox

Early Photographs of Animals at Night

Early 20th century photographer, George Shiras, is credited with taking the first-ever nighttime wildlife photographs using a hunting trick from the Objibwa called “jacklighting”. He focused a gaslight on Canadian and US shores to capture the attention of the forest animals. He also developed remote-triggering snares that used a trip wire to activate a magnesium flash gun to capture animals in action, in the depths of the wood. His wildlife images were the first to use both flash photography and camera trap equipment.

Images from George Shiras: In the Heart of the Dark Night, by Jean-Christophe Bailly from Editions Xavier Barral.

More: Literary Hub

Pedestrian-Only Places from Venice to NYC

Banning automobiles from densely populated urban centres may seem like a radical concept, but being able to wander around a city on car-free streets is a pleasure for me. Barcelona and Venice are two of my favourite cities to do that.

This post from WebUrbanist is about car-free places around the world, and pedestrian-only proposals for cities like New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

It's Edith Piaf's 100th birthday

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Edith Piaf. Piaf was a French cabaret singer, songwriter and actress who became widely regarded as France's national chanteuse. Also known as "The Little Sparrow" she lived a short and tragic life and died in 1962 at the age of 48. Here is the trailer for  La Vie En Rose, the story of Piaf's life starring Marion Cotillard.



More:  TYWKIWDBI

Santa University

Where do fledgling Santas go to ho-ho-hone their skills? Santa University of course. Noerr Programs in Colorado (aka ‘Noerr Pole’) recruits and trains its own 70-member Santa Claus team, teaching them how to how to pose for pictures, how to deal with social and mainstream media, how to sit with a child on their lap, what to do if a child asks for something intangible for Christmas, and how to stay healthy and hydrated during the holidays. The Santas interact with each other over two BBQ sessions that promote goodwill and an atmosphere of support.

More: Collecting Oddities

RIP Rosie The Roach

There had been a dead cockroach on a stairwell in the Texas A&M University's Anthropology building for at least two weeks. Someone made her a little shrine. Over a period of two weeks others added tributes.

It began like this on December 3:

And then it evolved

On December 20 she was cremated. Go safely, go dancing, go running home, Rosie.

More photos on Imgur
Thanks Katrina!

Best Holiday Cards You’ll Receive This Year

Robert E. Jackson has spent almost 20 years building a collection of nearly 12,000 vernacular photographs, mainly from the 1920s through the late ’60s, with a particular eye for the strange and uncanny. His expertly hand-picked photos have drawn attention largely for their ability to transcend nostalgia with what he describes as “pure photographic moments.”

More here
Via

La Liste Ranks the World's Best Restaurants

The French Foreign Ministry has announced La Liste which may be the ultimate restaurant ranking.
The list of 1,000 restaurants was assembled via a computer algorithm that drew on data from sources that included 200 food guides in 92 countries. La Liste looks at food quality, ambience, wine lists, and service.

Here are the top ten:

1. Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville, Crissier, Switzerland
2. Per Se, New York
3. Kyo Aji, Tokyo
4. Guy Savoy, Paris
5. Schauenstein, Fürstenau, Switzerland
6. El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain
7. Kyubey, Tokyo
8. Maison Troisgros, Roanne, France
9. Auberge du Vieux Puits, Fontjoncouse, France
10. Joël Robuchon, Yebisu Garden Place, Japan

I'm unlikely to find myself chowing down at them so next time you eat at any of these let me know if you agree with the ranking.


Via Grub Street

An Aerial View of Rush Drummer Neil Peart's Set

  Via CBC Music

Welsh Farmhouse Abandoned Decades Ago Remains As A Time Capsule

Who owned this Welsh farmhouse and why was it left to rot? Photographer Dan Circa takes us inside this stone built property that has been abandoned for years - untouched since the moment its previous owners picked up and vanished.

More: Daily Mail Online

Cat Vs Cardboard Box

It's Elliot the cat vs a cardboard box. After three months Elliot claims victory.



Via Geekologie

Snow Globe Cocktail!

Paige Russell has created holiday spirit in a glass. It's created with a few simple ingredients and supplies. Instructions here.



Via Foodiggity

The Island Without Green

Kashima, a tiny Japanese island,was once the most densely populated place on the planet. It was developed as a coal mine in the early 1900s. During WWII, Korean and Chinese prisoners of war were used as forced labourers and over 1000 of them died due to wretched conditions.

After the war ended Japanese workers were used. Schools, restaurants, brothels, and gaming houses were erected. The island with a population of 6,000 was so densely built up with concrete structures it became known as "Midori nashi Shima," or the island without green.



The mine closed in 1974 and the island is now a Unesco World Heritage Site.


More: Atlas Obscura

Skating with Bror Myer (1921)

Delightful images from a 1921 illustrated guide to figure skating by Bror Myer, a Swedish champion in the art. Myer felt the guide necessary as in “latter years the art of skating has made such rapid strides”.

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