Paradise for the Chickens: Heritage Hen Farms in Boynton Beach
If only you knew just how hard Svetlana and Marty Simon — and their few hundred chickens — worked for each egg they harvest, you’d never look at breakfast the same way.
The Boynton Beach farmers are up at 4 a.m. to feed the animals at their Heritage Hen Farms, change their water, chase the goats to the pasture, clean out the coops, collect eggs, find rogue egg layers, scrub the duck tubs, check the bees, check the fences. Then they go to their day jobs, only to return later for more farm work.
“To produce nutritious food like this takes so much labor,” Svetlana says.
Yes, but it’s paradise for the chickens. The Heritage hens (and geese and ducks and guinea hens and one lone turkey named Thomas) live a truly free-range lifestyle. (Photos by Libby Volgyes)
A sign welcomes visitors to the coop, where families can see firsthand where the eggs come from. Continue reading »
Demi Moore Returns for Ann Taylor 2011 Holiday Campaign
Despite the recent Ashton-Sara Leal controvery and regular tabloid reports about their marriage failure, Hollywood star Demi Moore has decided to distract herself and return as the face of the 2011 Ann Taylor Holiday campaign. Continue reading »
Solar-powered Catamaran Makes a Stop in Singapore
The MS Turanor PlanetSolar yacht arrives in Singapore for a stop on its global tour on October 12. PlanetSolar is the largest solar powered boat in the world and hopes to be the first to circumnavigate the world’s oceans in a 22,000 mile two-year odyssey. (Stephen Morrison / EPA) Continue reading »
Superhero Arrested in Seattle for Assault Investigation
This Feb. 18, 2011 file photo shows Seattle superhero Phoenix Jones during a patrol of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Seattle’s superhero, who has gained fans and a bit of fame as he works the streets of Seattle, was arrested and booked into King County Jail early Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011 for investigation of assault after an early morning incident involving pepper spray. His spokesperson says he was breaking up a fight and they have video of the incident. Police say he came up behind a group of people leaving a bar and sprayed them with pepper spray. (Joshua Trujillo / seattlepi.com via AP)
Photo of the Day: Survive
A dog stands on a car inundeated with floodwaters in the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya, 80 kms north of Bangkok, on October 12, 2011. At least 269 people have died in more than two months of floods that have damaged the homes and livelihoods of millions of people, according to the government. (PORNCHAI KITTIWONGSAKUL/AFP/Getty Images)
Deers in Richmond Park, London
A fallow deer buck watches from the cover of a bracken thicket after sunrise during the autumn rut at Richmond Park on October 10, 2011 in London, England. Autumn sees the start of the ‘Rutting’ season where the stags and bucks bellow in an attempt to attract female does and hinds. (Dan Istitene/Getty Images) Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Finger-licking Trouble
Customers lined up at ‘Obama Fried Chicken,’ opened by university students, in Beijing Sunday. The owners changed the name to ‘UFO’ amid trademark-infringement accusations from KFC, but kept the likeness of President Barack Obama in suspenders, which resembles KFC’s Colonel Sanders. (ChinaFotoPress/Zuma Press)
Underwater Giants: The Magnificent Manta Rays of the Maldives
Swooping gracefully through the water like giant bats, these huge manta rays gather to feed on microscopic plankton. These amazing pictures were taken by British photographer Warren Baverstock, who spent nine days on the Maldives to capture these beautiful creatures. Up to 200 mantas gather in Hanifaru Bay, which is just the size of a football pitch, to feed and be cleaned of parasites by smaller fish.
Manta rays are the world’s largest ray and have the biggest brain to body weight ratio of their cousins the skates and sharks. They feed on plankton and fish larvae either on the ocean floor or in open water. They filter their food from the water passing through their gills as they swim. Mantas frequently visit cleaning stations where small fish such as wrasse, remora, and angelfish swim in their gills. (Time) Continue reading »
Wifi Dowsing Rod
Today’s technology advances at such a speed that consumers are often left in awe of it all. The high tech terminology, the ultra small, ultra portable, metallic or white devices we carry around with us are, to the vast amount of consumers, simply baffling. The Wifi Dowsing Rod aims to work against this. By basing the design for a wireless Internet detector on century’s old technology, the user feels immediately at home with the product, whilst feeling less intimidated by the simple shape and natural materials. Project by Mike Thompson. Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Comedy Carpet in Blackpool
The final touches are put to Comedy Carpet by Gordon Young. The installation on Blackpool’s promenade immortalises the UK’s favourite comedians and comic writers from the heyday of music hall to the present day. The artwork took five years to compete and features catchphrases, jokes and sketches, made up from more than 160,000 letters cut from black and red granite and cobalt blue concrete. (Christopher Furlong / Getty Images) Click image to zoom.
Steve Jobs’s Top 5 Hits in Pop Culture
1. The 1984 ad (1984) The spot that introduced the Apple Macintosh aired only once, on Jan. 22, 1984, during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. People haven’t stopped talking about it since. Envisioning a hellish dystopian future (or was it the present?) of drones under the thumb of a televised Big Brother, the Ridley Scott-directed ad brought on a hot Valkyrie with a hammer to smash through the screen and liberate the masses. What did this have to do with computers? Not much, but it established once and for all the terms of home computing’s dominant rivalry: fascist PCs vs. freedom-fighting Macs. The Apple board got cold feet about showing the ad at the last minute, but Jobs and cofounder Steve Wozniak held firm. In 1999, TV Guide called it the number one commercial of all time. (Ty Burr / The Boston Globe) Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Fuck Oil!
A penguin found on the beach coated in oil gets washed at the Oiled Wildlife Response unit set up in a makeshift camp in Tauranga, New Zealand. The belly of the penguin is normally colored white. The 47,000 ton Rena, a Liberan container vessel, struck a reef on Wednesday causing an oil leak that has spread over five kilometers. Authorities are preparing for the worst environmental disaster in New Zealand history should the vessel break up and spill 1,700 tons of fuel into the Bay of Plenty. (SUNLIVE New Zealand, Getty Images)
Apple Futureshock
Concept video showing off the applications behind Apple’s “Futureshock” Knowledge Navigator concept device from 1987. Siri was here.
Photo of the Day: I Love Steve
Flowers and an iPad showing a picture of Steve Jobs are placed at a makeshift memorial for Jobs at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, and a tag is painted outside Apple’s flagship store on 5th Avenue in New York. Apple founder and visionary Steve Jobs, 56, died from cancer on Wednesday, a premature end for a man who revolutionized modern culture and changed forever the world’s relationship to technology through inventions such as the iPad and iPhone. (Getty Images, AFP) Click image to zoom.
Photo of the Day: Superman Dog
A dog performs during a comedy dog show at the pet fair in Barcelona. (Josep Lago / AFP/Getty Images)
Zombie-boy for Schön Magazine
Rick Genest in photo session for Schön Magazine. Photographer: Matthew Lyn. Continue reading »
Irina Shayk for Spanish Shoe Brand XTi
Her career keeps getting hotter, and Irina Shayk is the new face of the Spanish shoe brand XTi Shoes.
The new promotional shots feature the Russian stunner posting with a handsome male model and hardly places the emphasis on footwear. Continue reading »
Popular Trail Closed After Two Giant Sequoias Fall
One of two downed trees lies across the popular Trail of 100 Giants at Sequoia National Forest, California, temporarily closing the trail. The Forest Service said the downed trees were reported Friday and no one was injured. Officials are still working to determine the ages of the trees and why they fell. Some of the giant trees in that area are 245 feet tall and have diameters of 18 feet. (Sequoia National Forest via AP) Continue reading »
Colorful Spaces
‘Colourful spaces’ is a serie of work by Laura Niubo, graphic designer based in London. An exploration of colour and geometry as the means to evoke a parallel dimension full of energy. Mixing shapes, experimenting with colour and sensations. A new colorful space for delighting and for letting people mind and heart to imagine and feel. Continue reading »
A Mongol ‘Cloth of Gold’ Silk and Metal Thread Robe
A Christie’s employee looks at a Mongol “Cloth of Gold” silk and metal thread robe at Christie’s auction house in central London. The robe is expected to fetch between GBP 200,000-300,000 ($312,000-470,000 or euros 230,000-345,000) when it is auctioned at the Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds sale in London. (AFP)
Workers Prepare to Move 340-ton Rock to L.A. County Museum of Art
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to push a giant rock up a hill for eternity. In modern-day LA, the city’s largest museum has spent months — and $5 million to $10 million — trying to get a 340-ton boulder from a dusty quarry in Riverside onto its campus west of downtown.
Joe Schofield stands in front of a 340-ton rock as he and other workers prepare to transport the rock from Riverside County to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at Stone Valley Materials in Riverside, Calif. (Jae C. Hong / AP) Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: England Basks in its Hottest October Day on Record
Crowds of sun seekers fill the beach on October 1 in Brighton, England. The U.K.’s national weather service the Met Office says Saturday’s temperature reached 85.8 F (29.9 C) at Gravesend in southeast England. That is the highest October temperature since records began a century ago, beating the previous high of 84.9 F (29.4 C) reached on Oct. 4, 1985. (Peter MacDiarmid / Getty Images / AP)
Glass Ceiling: American Girl Doll
Photographer/artist Jill Greenberg poses at her home to promote her Exhibit “Glass Ceiling: American Girl Doll” And Billboard For LA on September 29, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images North America) Continue reading »
Mahjong Gets an English Face
Xue Shengli, the English mahjong designer shows his homemade mahjong tiles, Sept 25, 2011. (CFP) Continue reading »
Container Community for Migrant Children
Migrant children play games in Heiqiao “Magic cube” community in Beijing on Sept 28, 2011. The community, located in Chaoyang district in Beijing, has become a study and playing center for migrant children living nearby. Classrooms in the community are all remodeled containers. For migrant children who used to play or study on the roadside, the community is a good place where they are taken care of and taught by volunteers. There are six container communities funded by Compassion for Migrant Children in Beijing and Shanghai, benefiting more than 7,000 migrant children. (CFP) Continue reading »
