subways!

I have a special love of abandoned/disused subway stations, as they combine two things I love: subways and things that used to be Very Interesting and have now fallen into disrepair. Here are a few links of picture sets on this topic.

Paris stations

Abandonded stations from around the world - and in at least one case, a whole system.

London tube stations - I couldn't possibly pick just one to highlight!

prison tattoos, decision making, taxidermy

Your friendly Russian prison tattoo primer

America, meet your puppetmaster - How Eddie Bernays got you to buy books, wear hairnets, and eat bacon for breakfast

I don't know what to say about this taxidermy. Except it's amazing.

kid, pools, home

Possibly the most polite little boy ever.

8 very cool terraced pools

Possibly (probably) the world's narrowest home.

library songs, paradoxes, victorian surgeon

Song of the library staff and for good measure (ha!) Song of the cataloguer

11 "Brain Twisting" Paradoxes

One of history's most famous (infamous?) surgeons

Google, statistics, Kentucky

Google's data centers are oddly endearing, and cute to boot. I like #10, with the bike employees use to get around.

In 2011, the US was third best at liking the US.

There are more bourbon barrels in Kentucky than people.

river, subway, pictures

Could there be an underground river near the Amazon that is many times longer and wider?

The human body as a subway map. Just generally cool, but maybe also a way to introduce city kids to biology using something they're familiar with

Neat set of pictures - 25 are added quarterly to culminate in a best 100 of the year. I of course quite like this one

San Francisco

Great set of photos (two sets, actually) blending the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and current scenes of SF shot from the same place.
Part 1
Part 2

Bonus: The now-abandoned building that used to house a pool so large it was patrolled by lifeguards in rowboats.

molasses, vowels, con man, honda

I know it's weird to say this, but this is my favorite disaster, possibly because it's so strange. Or at least it's one of them, I have a fascination with disasters.

How Americans near the great lakes are changing the sound of English.

Allegedly at least, the smoothest con man who ever lived.

This guy drove 1,000,000 miles in his Honda. So Honda threw him a parade.

Roma, boards, secret pool

The homes of the wealthy Roma in Romania. Very interesting, particularly the bathroom thing.

A surprisingly interesting article about wooden pallets.

Awesome pictures of the Woolworth Building, including the pool(!) in the basement.

octopi

A series of awesome octopus videos - I'll post the link to the list rather than put them all up here. But here's a sample.

1948 Olympics, books

Some neat info on the state of the world last time London hosted the Olympics (1948) and a very interesting female athlete to boot.

Judging books by their covers - a six year old guesses what classic books are about by looking at the covers

olympics, olympics, olympics, pandas

How to ship Olympic horses

A Nigerian rower finished in dead last to a roaring Olympic crowd, having only learned rowing 3 months earlier.

An Olympic swimmer had never been in an Olympic sized pool

Why pandas are terrible investments

Legos, politician awe, drowned buildings

All the Lego sets, ever. *drools*

I know John McCain gets all the "badass politician" press, and he did have some very heroic wartime experiences. But honestly, Daniel Inouye should make the top of any badass politician list by far. In fact, he should BE the list. Check out paragraphs 3-5 here.

Amazing drowned buildings.

bleeding, sandbox, legos

What to call your period in other countries. Love the Danish one.

The most awesome sandbox bottom ever. So cool I'm not even previewing it here - click the link.

Repairing things on the street with Legos!

veggie shark, chicago

The world's only vegetarian shark.

The Chicago skyline. From Indiana.
This incredible photograph of the Chicago skyline by photographer Tom Adams was number one on the front page of Reddit a couple days ago. The striking view was captured from a beach in Porter, Indiana (approx. 1 hour drive from Chicago).
The body of water in the foreground is Lake Michigan and Tom took this photograph using a Canon 60D with a medium telephoto lens. He made a slight adjustment to the exposure in Lightroom.
The setting sun adds an incredible richness and colour to this photograph and it’s certainly one of the most beautiful the Sifter has seen in recent time. Full kudos to Mr. Adams on a truly stunning capture.
(http://twistedsifter.com/2012/07/picture-of-the-day-the-chicago-skyline-from-indiana/)

wife carrying, canadian borg

A brief history of the wife-carrying championship.

library, lego, military

what do you do with an abandoned walmart? move the town library in!

life-size lego forest in the aussie outback.

quite impressive, i must say. not long, i promise.

day/night, harry potter ON glasses

day to night is a very cool set of pictures where it all looks like one shot, but blends from daytime to nighttime.




Excellent video, very impressive.

photographer, apple

Robert Landsburg was a photographer who died at Mt. St. Helens, and used his body to protect his film.

Apple stores have a very precise setup, to get you to touch their stuff. Because touching = wanting = buying.

water, college, gone

12 unusual lakes. by which i mean ones that boil, and ones that nobody's ever seen.

Meet the man with 29 college degrees.

Very cool things that no longer exist.. but once pretty much defined their neighborhoods. I'd go see most of these.