Tag: photography

This Is Not A Fly Nose.

With vertebrates, a proboscis is a nose. With invertebrates, it’s a feeding appendage (I didn’t know that either).

[Found here.]

Nothing Much Happened Today.

Yeah, I know it went viral yesterday, but so what. That’s the first time I saw it (and I reposted it just like everyone else did, except at least I linked my sources). Besides that, it’s still an awesome pic.

When I was a teenager I witnessed a “small” tornado that passed about a mile or so away from our house. Hail was raining down, sky was black with clear orange sky underneath, the funnel was a churning slow-moving mass of brown with no distinct edges. Next thing I recall is my dad grabbing me by the collar and throwing me into the basement where we hunkered down and listened to the static on the AM transistor radio.

The following day I drove to the neighborhood that took the hit. One side of the road was untouched, but the other was all splinters.

[Found here, story here, related posts here.]

When Rainbows Attack

[Found here.]

Miss Arrowhead 1952

[Found in here, via here.]

What a drip.

As far as I can tell, that’s the work of Celia Basto. She’s got some interesting stuff on her blog.

[Found here.]

John Logie Baird’s Contribution To The World: The 1926 Televisor

The eerie image … shows the first image to ever be transmitted onto television. The year was 1926, and Scottish inventor John Logie Baird had successfully broadcast his business partner’s face through an apparatus he dubbed “the televisor”, which was of course the early version of all television sets today.

I’m guessing that’s a still from a 16mm test film, or perhaps it wasn’t animated at all and it was just a flickering image transmitted to a small (3.5″ x 2″) video display.

Another source includes this commentary:

One staff member quoted [the Editor of the London Daily Press] as saying: “For God’s sake, go down to the reception and get rid of a lunatic who’s down there. He says he’s got a machine for seeing by wireless. Watch him – he may have a razor on him.”

Following his demonstration in 1926, Baird developed colour TV and brought out the world’s first mass produced television set in 1929.

[Top image and caption found here; 2nd image and cap here.]

Moses Don’t Surf.

He makes the breaks but can never ride them.

[Found here. Related .gif in here.]

144 pixels vs. 1280 pixels

pixellated-dog-144-vs-1280

Yeah. We had one of our dogs pixellated.

[Found here.]

Job Security

[Found here.]

Sophia’s Squat Shops

Bulgarian “Squat Shops” emerged in Sophia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Bulgaria rejected fascism and communism in favor of capitalism.

In the late 80’s, private ownership of production was legalized in Bulgaria. Among the first businesses to appear were these small “Squat Shops,” operated out of floor-level cellar windows. Despite more legitimate storefront space becoming available, these small portals remained operational and lucrative – miniature convenience stores catering to the cigarette fix of the passing pedestrian or the midday thirst of those waiting on bus stops, for which patrons have no objection to stooping to street level. An idiosyncratic, now common element of the Bulgarian capital, over time the shops have evolved elaborate displays, framing the small street level openings with bottles of alcohol, coffee, and cartons of cigarettes, often in eye-catching bright colors. –Ivaylo Getov.

Did you get that? No one was allowed to own a private business in Bulgaria until about 30 years ago, and they’re still recovering from that brutal economic oppression.

[Click on any image above for detail. Found via here.]