Long before Instagram, photo booths or even the common ownership of a camera, you could get your photograph taken sitting on the moon. Often a fixture at fairs, parties and carnivals, people sat in the crescent of a smiling “paper moon,” as if lifted to the stars. A photographic phenomena primarily of the early half of the 20th century, it captivated the imagination of a world pre-Photoshop and gave many a memorable image of great times. [Read more...]
A rich space tourist who earlier payed $20 million to visit the International Space Station, is now working to promote an even more ambitious project – a manned flyby around the planet Mars in 2018. Much like the Apollo 10 mission which proceeded the famous Apollo landing, this mission would be only intended to make a quick flyby of the red planet, in fact only spending about 10 hours at its closest point 100,000km above the planets surface. [Read more...]
For people living in the west, it’s hard to imagine anyone living in an apartment this small. We think a small New York loft cleverly designed to make use of all its 200 square feet is impressive and maybe even attractive… but how about these cramped apartments in Hong Kong? Many of us have closets this size. [Read more...]
Many people in our modern world feel trapped in the rat race, daily struggling to make ends meet in their constant battle against bills… but for what? For Richard Roberts the answer after he looked around his apartment was simple: he didn’t need all this stuff. His TV and Playstation sat idly while he worked all day as a piano tuner trying to pay off years of remaining school debt. What use was an apartment if he didn’t have the time to enjoy it. Robert’s unusual and minimalist solution: go homeless. [Read more...]
Charming. It was the word that came to mind when we ran across the work of Icelandic/Norwegian illustrator Rán Flygenring and her improvisational, doodling style of drawing and watercolor. She captures her nomadic lifestyle on small pieces of paper, coloring a beautiful world of interesting people, tasty food and worldwide travel. [Read more...]
For those that missed it (and considering the massive impact few could), a huge meteorite hit earth last week in Russia. In the land of the dash camera, videos far and wide captured the very rare event in its full shining glory – a missile like streak through the sky and an incredible window breaking crash following soon after. For the Russian population the event was one that stirred memories of the not so distant past, one of the tree flattening Tunguska event in Siberia just over 100 years ago. That blast was the largest impact event on earth in recorded history. [Read more...]
“They killed my mother and father. I will kill them with my knife. I will kill them like I would kill a goat,” says Kachadur Manukian, the 25 year old Syrian fighter above. The darkly vignetted image is the work of photojournalist Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini, who spent 2012 with Syrian rebels as they fought against soldiers loyal to the regime. [Read more...]
We in the western world take healthy cooking completely for granted. You turn the knob on your stove and magically gas or electricity heats the food before you. Many people in the world aren’t that lucky however: much of the worlds population still use indoor wood stoves of questionable design. They pump smoke into the surrounding air, use many more trees than necessary and eat up the income of people already living on the edge. Now, the organization Enlace is working to bring smart and simple eco-stove designs to the people of world, beginning their life saving mission in El Salvador. They call the project Cooking Up Love. [Read more...]
Have you ever wondered where the richest people in the world get their money? Have you ever been curious about what country holds the most of these ultra-rich? If so, Bloomberg has recently published an excellent interactive graphic highlighting a slew of facts about the 100 richest people in the world. [Read more...]
It’s now considered a masterpiece of the modern design world – perhaps even one of its most recognizable items – but in 1956 the Herman Miller Lounge Chair was “quite a departure.” Here it is featured for the first time on national television, making its debut on NBC’s “Home” show with Arlene Francis. There to introduce the chair are none other than designers Charles and Ray Eames. [Read more...]
