Those right there are heroin stamps—showing the fascinating ways in which illegal drugs are branded, marketed, and sold just like anything else under the sun. The collection of images are photos of stamps collected from the New York City drug trade, which are then blown up really big, and then—in theory, at least—mounted in a... Read & Discuss
I don't know if it's possible for a frog to smile, or a whatever-this-is to be quizzical (it's a Laysan albatross, apparently), but judging by the photographs in the National Wildlife Federation's annual contest, I'd say it is.
A slideshow of the 60 finalists—many of them taken by amateurs and a few of them by kids—is totally amazing, and... Read & Discuss
Amazing, Allison. And that's the idea. Take something that exists naturally (a child's endless energy) and make it useful in an unpredictable way. Gorgeous.
Well, this is awesome: a charming-looking rocking horse that harvests kinetic energy while kids play on it. As it gathers more energy, the lights on the handles get brighter, and then they can be removed and used as flashlights.
Never mind how practical that specific use is—I haven't used a flashlight in about a decade, have you?—and focus... Read & Discuss
Apparently this isn't breaking news, but was to me, and is very cool: A Canadian company has found a way to source gold, silver, and bronze out of motherboards and other electronics at the end of their lives, and turn them into Olympic medals. Pretty cool, and a nice way to draw attention to e-waste, irresponsible... Read & Discuss
That gorgeous thing above is Hubble's newest finding: a suspiciously spaceship-like object zooming around outer space at 11,000 miles per hour, leaving behind it some X-shaped dust.
So far NASA has floated the idea that this might be a comet, the result of two asteroids colliding, though they add that "the filamentary appearance...is... Read & Discuss
It's always a little uncomfortable when horrible things are captured beautifully, as is the case with a new photo series by Andrew MConnell about American and European e-waste in Ghana, not far from the capital of Accra.
We've all by now heard about entire villages decimated by e-waste in China, but apparently it's... Read & Discuss
Things are heating up in the organic beauty products department, and it was only a matter of time. As it stands, the so-called "organic" personal care industry—from toothpaste and bar soap to shampoo and mascara—is a total free-for-all. There are very few rules in place about what companies can and can't say to sell you a... Read & Discuss
Behold the N Building, a new structure in a Tokyo shopping district that at first glance looks kind of like a giant Tetris screen until you realize that the fancy geometric design on its facade isn't merely ornamental: It's code—QR code, to be exact. What that code allows passers by to do is nothing short of amazing.
From Buzz Beast:
This... Read & Discuss
This month there are two amazing new photo stories by Matt Rainwaters (probably best known for his awesome portfolio of outrageous beards) documenting prison life. The two series—one about a five-time prison escape artist, the other about a woman who stabbed her husband 193 times—show two very different versions of the prison... Read & Discuss
Amazing, Allison. And that's the idea. Take something that exists naturally (a child's endless energy) and make it useful in an unpredictable way. Gorgeous.