These are some of the most striking photographs I've seen in a while. I can't stop looking at them; there is some metaphor in them that I'm unable to properly articulate.

Basically, a photographer in China was shooting a wedding when the quake struck.

Life, huh?

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(Compiled by Xanga user Leland Wong, click here for the rest, they're pretty amazing. Photos from Dragon Photo, ND Daily and Sohu.com.)

My pops once asked me why I juggle multiple, unrelated gigs rather than having a steady, and asked me why I'm willing to go thousands into debt just to have an airplane take me over the ocean. I told him I don't care about money and said I don't want to work for anybody. He said, But you do work for somebody--you work for the credit card companies.

That shut me up. Smart man, my pops. He gave me DNA, half his brains, a roof over my head, ass-whippings when I needed 'em and three squares a day. Good guy.

Here on my own I'm down to two squares a day, kind of squandered my half of the brains. And the last ass-whipping I earned, over on 7th and Bleecker, never came to fruition; the gorilla-sized man and his bigger friend got back in their car and drove away with unbruised knuckles. Guess they had a party to go to.

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At parties or the bar people ask me what I do and I say, You mean for a living. Like they're gonna say No, I meant what do you do to find spiritual peace and larger meaning in this world.

Whenever they ask I'm always tempted to answer I'm a hustler, but that sounds self-aggrandizing or like I'm cooler than I am. But I am a hustler, that's what I do for a living. Not a grifter, there's a difference. I find three or four things to do that have paychecks attached and I do them until the mailman brings me that envelope.

There's a certain amount I have to earn each day, week and month to get those two squares and the spirits to wash 'em down, and a certain amount to shut the landlord up, keep the lights on and prevent Mastercard from calling me when I'm trying to enjoy said squares. Some days it's a bitch, others it's cake, still others I find myself holding the bar down with my elbows while I try to decide which it was.

In Manhattan, the bars stay open late.

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We've got luxury cars and luxury airplanes, but trains are the transport form that best lend themselves to traveling in style. With no pain-in-the-neck aerodynamics-based curves to contend with, the boxy shape of a train car is just begging to be filled with building-based luxe touches, and several travel operators have taken full advantage. Let's take a look at some of the more notable ones from around the world.

South Africa's Blue Train has been voted the "world's leading luxury train." The five-star-hotel-on-wheels cruises through the vineyards and colonial towns of the dark continent and is one of the few trains in the world to feature en-suite bathrooms with actual bathtubs. And if you drop the silverware on the Persian rug, a 24-hour butler scuttles out to take care of it, so you needn't sully your hands.







India's Palace on Wheels promises "heaven on Earth for seven days" with ultraluxe air-conditioned rooms, two different restaurants for the picky, an opulent bar, a library, exotic fabrics, and stiff-upper-lipped service people who will probably not complain if you slap them. Tour touches include being greeted at some of the destinations by "caparisoned elephants." Alas, guests will have to bath standing up in a shower. Savagery!







Southeast Asia's Eastern & Oriental Express has pretty much the same luxuries as the aformentioned trains--gourmet food, a boutique, servants with funny last names, and a disturbing racial divide between who gets to sit down and snap pictures and who gets to stand up and fetch drinks. Globalization, you cheeky monkey!









The crown jewel of the Venice-Simplon Orient Express is a baby grand piano in the bar car (how the heck did they get that thing in there, did they assemble it on-board?). On the Orient Express, you "can never be overdressed" as you move about in cars filled with lacquered wood, polished brass, crystal and French silverware. Bonus: murder someone on board, then frame a French guy by stuffing a kimono in his luggage--it's all part of the fun!











Additional sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

One of the best scenes in Michael Bay's 1998 actioner Armageddon is New York City's Grand Central Terminal hosting the arrival of a flaming meteor, rather than the 3:12 from Brewster. In the brief pre-disaster establishing shot of the station's interior, done in CG, shafts of sunlight stream through the clerestory windows as they hadn't for decades. In reality the original clerestory design feature had long been upstaged by the many light-blocking skyscrapers erected around Grand Central over the years.

Someone who remembers the original sight is 77-year-old interior designer Boris Klapwald. Half a century ago Klapwald was a Pratt Institute student with a camera, and he took a crapload of photos of Grand Central's interior:

"It was a place of contemplation, really--the exact opposite of what it is today," he recalled. "...I liked the quiet of it. It was like a cathedral. You didn't have to pray; you could reflect on yourself."

The Times has an article on Klapwald and a slideshow of 14 of his photographs. The rest of his shots can be seen on display at the actual Terminal, in the lower level.

Is there anything advertisers won't do to get your attention?



Apparently these guys peaked in '05, but I must have been living under a rock as I've never heard of them: The Circlemakers are a team of guys who make corporate advertisements in the form of crop circles.

With mandates from the Nike Free, Microsoft X-Box, Sanrio's Hello Kitty and Shredded Wheat cereal, their "billboards" were presumably not cheap, but as their website's not been updated in nearly a year, perhaps the tap has stopped running. Fine with me; I prefer the ones done by actual space aliens. Sure, aliens might suck a few of us up with that light beam and probe us or whatever, but they never ask you to buy anything.



"I just want to make art."

This kick-ass bi-level London apartment by Hogarth Architects makes heavy use of timber, and was "designed as a large piece of furniture to provide all the functions required by a man about town." Kitchen, living room and original fireplace downstairs; bedroom and swanky shower up on the mezzanine. If I lived here, I'd blog more, because I'd never go out.



Click here for the rest of the pics, taken by shooter James Brittain.

via dezeen

Why is most technology such a bitch to use? A Family Guy video (courtesy of hulu.com) shows us why if R2D2 was running Windows, Princess Leia would've been screwed:



Here's another embed, for those in countries where the first won't open:

How good is your design eye? We're loving ApartmentTherapy's "Guess the Decade," (latest installment here) where you peep the photo and try to figure out if the room was designed before or after America went to hell in a handbasket.

For once, we here in the 'States are technologically ahead of the guys in Korea: South Korean police are only now proposing to have the tech wired up so people can be tracked by cell phone and satellite. What's totally suspect is the reasoning:

The new proposal is submitted in a bid to combat the increasing incidence of kidnapping and other crimes against women and children, the police said.

Why suspect? Because:

...the system does not work well indoors, where satellite signals are blocked.

I don't think this is going to be a tough technology to beat. Tip to kidnappers: When you nab someone a) take their phone away or b) avoid leaving them outside in the yard.

via textually

Although it's no longer in debate whether meditation changes our brain chemistry--Buddhist monks "in the zone" have been proven to emit different brainwaves than the rest of us ADD-addled folk--researchers are wondering if using tools changes up the wiring in our grey matter.



To put this to the test, scientists at Japan's Institute of Physical and Chemical Research have taught rodents to use rakes. After 60 days of training, the rodents (not really rats, something called a degu) were able to use a miniature rake to reach bits of food that were placed out of their ordinary reach. As the Times reports,

...it has long been thought that tool use is a hallmark of higher intelligence.... Training [animals] to use tools in captivity provides insights into the plasticity of their brains.

Our guess as to where the study's going next:



via the new york times

Yes folks, British regulator Ofcom has paved the way for cell phone use to be permitted on airplanes.

That is perfect, and exactly the way to make flying a more peaceful, enjoyable experience. The next step is to make sure that crying babies are equipped with cell phones so they can do double duty. And the step after that is to allow me to open the cabin doors whenever I need some fresh friggin' air.

via bbc

This worn-out keyboard shows you why certain letters are worth more in Scrabble; they just don't get that much play. Of course, I'm guessing that when he/she gets home, the medical transcriptionist who wore this keyboard out is thinking less about Scrabble and more about cures for carpal tunnel.

Also, that exclamation mark over the one's looking kind of faded--I'd hate to think what kind of medical report requires a "!"

via scissorfighter on Picasa and boing boing

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