Landscape Light Sculptures, Wonderfully Mysterious!

Artist Barry Underwood photographs wonderfully mysterious light installations that he installs on-site in forests, mountainsides, or near lakes and rivers. Via his artist statement:

"By reading the landscape and altering the vista through lights and photographic effects, I transform everyday scenes into unique images. Light and color alter the perception of space, while defamiliarizing common objects. Space collapses, while the lights that I install appear as intrusions and interventions. This combination renders the forms in the landscape abstract. Inspired by cinema, land art, and contemporary painting, the resulting photographs are both surreal and familiar. They suggest a larger narrative, and yet that narrative remains elusive and mystifying."

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2012 - INFOGRAPHIC

Is anyone else terrified of the Black Friday festivities that are about to commence? People turn into selfish, vile entities of greed during the shopping process (I guess that’s why it’s called Black Friday). I decided to attend Black Friday last year just for the fun of it, to see what all the hype was about. And good gosh, I was absolutely horrified. While I was examining a pair of shoes (the last size 7′s I might add) some women came and actually snatched them out my hand! Luckily I was too full of Thanksgiving turkey to really care, but the nerve!! I’m sure any other day this lady wouldn’t dare to have done that, but because it’s Black Friday she suddenly had reason to be rude?!

Therefore, I will never brave Black Friday shopping again. Cyber Monday offers a safer, more civil shopping experience that can be enjoyed from home, local coffee shop, or any other place with internet. Today’s inforaphic offers some interesting stories and information about Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Good luck to all you brave shoppers out there, get those deals and stay strong!

What your Pee and Poop are Telling You About Your Body - INFOGRAPHIC

Far from crude, this infographic has a lot of information that could let you get a picture of your health.

Too refined to talk about poop? Well, you might not want to let the subject be completely ignored… Your poop can tell you if there is something seriously wrong with you.

The author asserts the three S’s that could save your life : size, shape, smell and shade. If you ever turn around after relieving yourself too see any of these 4 S’s strikingly unusual, you might want to see a doctor. No, I’m not advocating that you carefully inspect your excrement regularly. Just that you keep an eye out for oddities. These can be indicators of serious problems. Don’t let them go unnoticed.

The World’s Quietest Place!

can you stand the silence?! The longest anyone can bear Earth’s quietest place is 45 minutes.

The ‘anechoic chamber’ at Orfield Laboratories in South Minneapolis holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s quietest place. It’s 99.99 per cent sound absorbent and if you stay there too long you may start hallucinating. The longest that anyone has survived in it is just 45 minutes.

Steven Orfield, the company’s founder and president, explained that the room is so silent that whoever goes becomes the sound of the area. “When it’s quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You’ll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly”, he adds.

Sea Gypsies: The Life Of The Bajau Laut People

The Bajau Laut people of the south-western Philippines and Indonesia live their entire lives on the sea. Known as “sea gypsies” or “sea nomads”, they inhabit amazing villages built on stilts in the middle of the ocean.                                                      

Many Bajau people do not set foot on land except to trade fish and sea cucumbers for rice and (ironically) water, build new boats, or bury the deceased. In fact, they sometimes report feeling “landsick” when they do!

Even when their fragile, driftwood settlements are decimated in the typhoon season, or ransacked by pirates, they just take to their boats and start to build a new house.

These amazing people are so at home in the water that their bodies have physically adapted to it, giving them better underwater vision and the ability to hold their breath for up to five minutes while free-diving for their dinner.

The Secret Life of Ants, Shot by Andrey Pavlov

We’ve seen insects used as art protagonists before. Mike Libby turns them into steampunk hybrids, and Ubyka creates armed insect cyborgs, but I haven’t seen anything like what Andrey Pavlov does with ants.

Andrey Pavlov spent a lot of time studying ants, and he learned that they all follow a very specific path when they’re working. So all he has to do is find them, put the props right on their trail, set up some flash backgrouns and light reflectors, and just stand on the sidelines photographing the ants.

(clickt to enlarge)

The photo series created by this talented Russian photographer is called “Ant Stories”. And what beautiful stories they are… Have you ever seen something this extraordinary?

Sweden’s classroom-free school, Vittra Telefonplan – The Future of Education?

Facts:
• No classrooms.
• Each student receives a computer from the school which is used as a major tool for learning.
• Students are free to work independently.
• The ‘village’ is a tiny house meant for group work, and ‘organic conversation furniture’ allows the kids to interact with each other as well.
• Grades are not awarded!

(click photo to enlarge)

Goal:
they believe that by breaking down physical class divisions, children can be taught to live with intellectual curiosity, self-confidence and communally responsible behavior. According to the principal of the school, Jannie Jeppesen, the design is intended to allow ‘curiosity and creativity’ to flower in the children.


Official Website