Can we give my friends a ride to school??

Roadside rest

Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival

The Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival opens on January 5th.  The month long event is held in the Heilongjiang Province in North East China. The weather stays cold enough to keep the sculptures frozen for the event.  The Ice comes from the Songhua River.  More images can be viewed here.

Mad Max

Schmid

The Copenhagen Wheel

iPad users click here to watch the video

Merry Christmas

Simulated aging process

Christmas watch dog

Native bee inventory

Sam Droege is head of the USGS Native Bee Invertory and Monitoring Program in Maryland.  Who knew there are thousands of bee species in the US?  Sam is on the way to documenting them all.  Enlarge the image by clicking on it to appreciate the detail.

See additional images as well as a video here.

Manarola, Italy

Those damn hippies

The Hornet

Blocking the bread aisle

Cadillac concept car- 1959

Taking the plunge

Global nuclear detonations

Have you ever wondered just how many nuclear devices have been detonated on our planet?  The US has won the gold medal in this category.  The Soviets have fallen short in their efforts, but have managed to take home the silver.  Any guesses on the bronze medal winner?

iPad users click here to watch the video

Free Bill Posters

Hiro Yamagata art

Sometime around 1995 Hiro Yamagata spent $20M in frame-off restorations of twentytwo Mercedes 220a cabriolets.  He then painted each of the cars differently while maintaining a nature theme.  The project was titled Earthly Paradise. The cars were displayed at the Hollywood Oscars in 1996.  Eleven of the cars remain in the US while the other 11 were shipped back to a Japanese museum.

This example is currently for sale for $295,000.  Arrangements to purchase can be made through Hemmings Daily.

Earthscape artist

The Brown sisters

Nicholas Nixon has documented his wife Bebe and her sisters Heather, Mimi, and Laurie for thirty years. Click here and then scroll down to walk back through time with the Brown sisters.

Tilting bridge

Located in Gateshead, England is the Millennium Bridge.  It is the world's only tilting bridge.

The Bear and the Hare

People seldom think about the time and effort needed to create the things in our lives with which we come in contact.  I think this video can serve as an illustration.

Watch the two minute video and try to imagine how it might have been produced.  Then watch the second video that shows just a portion of the vast amount of work that was necessary.

Is your doctor making you sick?

As with every study there are unanswered questions, but this study suggests that your doctor's tie and long sleeves may be a real risk of transmitting germs from one patient to another.

Juan Gonzalez, keeper of the glasses.....

John Lennon was murdered 33 years ago tonight.  13 years ago a bronze statue of Lennon was installed in a park in Havana, Cuba.  People kept stealing the iconic Lennon glasses.  When they tried to glue them on people simply broke them off.

A 96 year old Cuban, Juan Gonzalez, has become the guardian of the glasses.  Juan has spent most of his days in the last 13 years in the park.  When tourists show up to take pictures Juan takes the glasses from his pocket and gently places them on Lennon's face.  When they leave he removes them and tucks them into his pocket.

Russian police tactics

iPad users click here to view the video

Self service

I would have guessed that self service was the way gasoline is purchased in the United States, but I would be wrong.  Laws in Oregon and New Jersey (since the 1950's) make it illegal for persons to pump their own gasoline.  As an odd twist to the law in New Jersey, those consumers wishing to purchase diesel for their vehicle can pump it themselves.

Welcome back, Radio Pants

With a winter storm warning and falling snow it seemed like a good day to put up the Christmas tree.  Radio Pants was liberated and took up his seasonal post on the tree.  It is his twenty- fourth Christmas with us. Read the story of Radio Pants here.

Riding the range

Troubling addiction

Golden Gate

This striking image of the Golden Gate Bridge was captured by Ali Erturk a San Francisco based photographer.

Dutch cycling paths

iPad users click here to view the video

Menswear Dog

You live in NYC and see a puppy in the window.   You take him home and name him Bodhe. You raise him to be a model.  You design/create a wardrobe for him and start a blog.  It is fun as well as successful so you quit your day jobs and ride the wave.

Follow the blog at http://mensweardog.tumblr.com/

Pushmobiles

100 years ago they raced "pushmobiles" in Worshester, Massachusetts.  The April 1914 issue of Boys Life had an article that gave plans for making your very own pushmobile.  See it and additional photos here.