Hand-Made Road Sign
A frustrated homeowner has painted a 15ft road sign on the side of his house because he became tired of speeding cars racing through his village. Tim Backhouse, 47, spent five hours painting the sign after he had repeatedly written to the Highways Agency asking for a review of speeding on the road outside his home. The father-of-three finally snapped and with the help of a friend designed and painted the mural on the side of his four-bedroomed semi-detached house. The house is situated on a busy main road on the side of the A3072 in Bow, near Crediton, Devon. (Adam Gray / SWNS.com)
Season Food Styling
Andrea Bricco and food stylist Diana Perrin depict the changing seasons through the medium of food, with spring, summer, autumn and winter created using ingredients ranging from blue cheese for the ocean to sliced lemon for the summer sun. (Andrea Bricco/Diana Perrin / Rex Features)
Elf Sculpture made from Engine Parts
An elf sculpture made from engine parts by Tom Samui. The Swiss artist has created hundreds of sculptures and statues made entirely from scrap car parts. Tom Samui and his team of 15 people spend hundreds of hours building sculptures of animals, vehicles, people, fantasy creatures and furniture. (Tom Samui / Rex Features)
Skin Rug Made of more than 500,000 Cigarettes
Chinese artist Xu Bing’s tiger skin rug art work made of more than 500,000 individual cigarettes is pictured in Richmond, Virginia. (Xu Bing / Barcroft USA) Continue reading »
Golden Christmas Tree
An employee of Japanese jeweller Tanaka Kikinzoku unveils a 150 million yen (£1.24 million) Christmas tree which will be on display till Christmas Day at the company’s main shop. The 2.4 metre tall Christmas tree is decorated with heart and orchid shaped ornaments, ribbons and a star made of gold. (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)
Last Days of Autumn Season
A fly fisherman tries his luck in the Naches River against a backdrop of autumn color near Cliffdell, Wash. Oct. 24, 2011. (Yakima Herald-Republic / Gordon King) Continue reading »
Recycling Grandma’s Replacement Parts
An employee of OrthoMetals separates parts for recycling on a conveyer belt in a warehouse in Zwolle, eastern Netherlands, on Nov. 14. Imperishable body parts are recovered from the ashes of cremated people, and precious metals are also recovered by the crematoria and offered to the family or placed in the urn. (Peter Dejong / AP) Continue reading »
Artist’s 5,000 Lightbulbs Brighten up an English Winter
Ed Manders makes final adjustments to lighting artist Bruce Munro’s latest installation ‘Field of Light’ in the grounds of the Holbourne Musuem on November 23 in Bath, England. (Matt Cardy / Getty Images) Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Sad Ending
In a cove below the San Diego City Wastewater Treatment Plant in Point Loma, Calif., city lifeguards Wednesday towed away the body of a rare 67-foot female fin whale that washed up Saturday. Scientists hope eventually to determine the cause of death. (Earl S. Cryer/Zuma Press)
Alien Bar
MUSEUM HR GIGER BAR
in Château St. Germain, Gruyères, Switzerland
The interior of the otherworldly environment that is the H.R. Giger Museum Bar is a cavernous, skeletal structure covered by double arches of vertebrae that crisscross the vaulted ceiling of an ancient castle. The sensation of being in this extraordinary setting recalls the tale of Jonah and the whale, lending the feel of being literally in the belly of a fossilized, prehistoric beast, or that you have been transported into the remains of a mutated future civilization. Continue reading »
Want to Join the Jet Set? Water-Powered Jetpack Propels Fliers up to 30ft into the Air… but it still Costs $230 a Go
For years their use has been limited to the rich and famous or wealthy James Bond enthusiasts.
But walking on water with a jetpack is now one step closer thanks to a device which uses water from the ocean to propel users across the waves.
The $94,000 Jetlev uses jet stream technology to propel fliers up to 30ft in the air by sucking up water in a huge hose from the ocean and blasting it back out of the pack.
Flying without wings: The Jetlev jetpack propels fliers up to 30ft into the air by sucking up ocean water and powering it back through the pack. (Chris Parsons / Mail Online) Continue reading »
Steaming Ahead, the 180-Year-Old Toy Train that’s the Oldest in the World
A rudimentary model of Stephenson’s Rocket that was made by a father for his son after seeing it chug past their home has emerged as the oldest toy train in the world. The simple wooden toy was hand-crafted out of scraps of wood by the loving dad who whittled them into the shape of the legendary steam locomotive.
Made from sight in the late 1820s or early 1830s, the model is almost as old as the first real locomotives. The ten-inch long toy has four wheels attached to a block of wood, a cylindrical piece that may have been a stair banister for the boiler and a chair leg for the iconic blast pipe. (Daily Mail Reporter)
Photo of the Day: Penguins on the March
Cape Penguins, wearing colorful ribbons, take a walk at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, Japan. (AP)
NASA Releases Sharpest Ever Moon Map
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) science team has released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the Moon ever created. Though the Moon is the Earth’s closest neighbor, yet knowledge of its morphology is still limited. “Due to the limitations of previous missions, a global map of the Moon’s topography at high resolution has not existed until now,” said NASA while releasing the map.
LRO’s Wide Angle Camera and the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument will help scientists portray the shape of the entire Moon at high resolution accurately.
Click image to zoom.
Tiny Critter Becomes a Big Wheel
An extreme close-up of a type of rotifer known as Floscularia ringens has won first prize in the 2011 Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition, which showcases photos and movies of life science subjects. The image was the top selection out of more than 2,000 entries in this year’s contest — and it earned the photographer, Charles Krebs, $5,000 worth of Olympus imaging equipment.
Photo of the Day: Taking the Test
More than a thousand students took mid-term examinations on the playground of Sihuang Middle School Thursday in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. (Zuma Press)
Sarasota Chalk Festival 2011: Best International Artwork
The Sarasota Chalk Festival, an annual international street art exhibit and competition in Sarasota, Fla., closed on Nov. 7, 2011 after a week of events, and this year, latecomers were in for an unwelcome surprise. For the first time ever, Sarasota officials were spraying down the sidewalks the day after the 2011 festival, erasing the hundreds of chalk traditional, mosaic and 3D artworks created by artists from around the world.
Juandres Vera, of Mexico, finishes his submission for the 3D Pavement Art category at the 2011 Sarasota international Chalk Festival. Continue reading »
Most Expensive House in Brooklyn for Sale
For a cool $14 million, you can own the most expensive house in Brooklyn. The house sits at 70 Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights and boasts some extremely luxurious features. There are 18 rooms total – 11 bedrooms, 7 full baths, and 1 half bath. It is approximately 9,000-square feet with a 2,000-square foot basement. Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Flood and Glamour
A woman sits on a fridge outside a closed restaurant while surrounded by floodwaters in Bangkok on November 9, 2011. Thailand plans to hire at least 2,000 extra rubbish collectors in the capital Bangkok to tackle a mountain of trash that has piled up in inundated areas, officials said on November 9. (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)
Armless Man Dreams of Teaching
Fan Ling, 21, studies at the library of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. Fan lost his right arm and most of his left arm, and one ear after being hit by high voltage wires at the age of 6. Fan says he wants to teach in less-developed areas after graduation. (CFP) Continue reading »
Soong Ching Ling Statue Going up in Central China
A 24-meter stone statue of Soong Ching Ling (1893-1981) is going up in Zhengzhou, capital of Central China’s Henan province, on Nov 3, 2011. Soong Ching Ling is former vice-president of China and wife of Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the 1911 Revolution that toppled the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), China’s last dynasty. The statue’s base is designed as a meeting hall with an area of 800 square meters and construction is expected to be completed by the end of this month, according to construction workers. One of the workers said the statue belongs to the Henan Provincial Soong Ching Ling Foundation. (CFP) Continue reading »
World’s Tallest 48-Meter Buddha Statue in Eastern China
A statue of Amitabha, also known as the Buddha of Infinite Light, is going up in Jiujiang, Jiangxi province, Nov 4, 2011. The 48-meter statue is one of the world’s tallest. (CFP) Continue reading »
Beautiful Gingkgo Trees Attract Visitors
Amateur photographers take photos of a model in a gingkgo wood in Tancheng City, East China’s Shandong province, Nov 6, 2011. The beautiful scenery of gingkgo trees in the county attracts tens of thousands of visitors every autumn. (Xinhua) Continue reading »
All
More than 120 of Maurizio Cattelano’s artworks dangle from the ceiling of the Guggenheim Museum for the artist’s career retrospective, ‘All.’ (Ramin Talaie for The Wall Street Journal )
Horses, Gigantic Wooden Table and Two Chairs
Horses stand in the shadows of a gigantic wooden table and two chairs during nice autumnal weather at a meadow near Doellstaedt, central Germany. (AP)
