Battling Huge Waves!

Link
Scroll down for today's pictures & links.

Battling Huge Waves

Plus rocks! Razor-sharp rocks only meters away from the wave-tossed ship (possibly SS "Cork" on the Bering Sea)... A harrowing video, good addition to our popular "Heavy Seas" series:

url

Today's pictures & links:

Gigantic Beetles

Goliath Beetles weigh almost a quarter pound (think about a burger), and are the heaviest insects in the world. Being a species of a scarab beetle (which plays a major part in Ancient Egypt mythology), these creatures live mostly in Africa - but a beetle on the lower right image - Megasoma acteon (caleóptero) - lives in Equador and can easily crawl up the map to North America, if it so desires.

(images via)

Scarab beetles in Ancient Egypt apparently were as big as a dog... which is a scary thought:

------------

Gotham City: Moscow, circa 1930-1931

Robert Byron took this haunting picture as part of his exploration of Russia and Tibet, see the whole gallery here.

(image via Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)

------------

Tic-tac-toe for bored construction workers

(image credit: Erik Johansson)

Erik Johansson's portfolio is worth checking out for more looney and surreal images:

(image credit: Erik Johansson)

------------

Stunning Urban Art in Canberra

(image credit: National Geographic)

Photo by Akka Constantin - She says, "Believe it or not, this scenery is in the city heart. Intrigued? Come visit Canberra, Australia."

We had further communication from Akka Constantin, which sheds better light on what's this all about: this is the work of an Indonesian artist and it refers to the Indonesian political dissidents:

"The series of heads... refer to the relentless cruelty of humankind among those of different faiths or political systems. The disappearance of multitudes of Indonesian political dissidents during the mid-1960s purges, when Dadang's father was lost without trace, is a recurring theme in the artist's oeuvre."

------------

Mixed fresh links for today:

Submarine Construction and Decommissioning - [interesting]
Professional Fire Fighter Photographer - [portfolio]
Tent City in California, just like during Depression - [economy]
Ski Jump Toilet - [cool design]
Neat new site about high-end motorcycles - [bike design]
You know you're (fill in nationality) if... - [lots of links]
Almost infinite Tetris - [addictive page]
Film, Film, Film! (full version, with subtitles) - [cool animation]
Surfing Biggest Waves, a Classic - [wow video]
Neat Food & Drink Ads - [promotion]
Make stunning Flash websites for free! - [promotion]

------------

Enlightened Obama

Exorcising U.S. economy takes all the natural strength, and then some:

(art credit: Alex Grey)

Click here to see artist Alex Grey working on this piece.

This you've probably seen before:

(image via)

------------

Gothic Coal Castle - Black Diamond Colliery

Preservation Photography, a growing urban-exploration and abandoned places photography site, is featuring the ghastly remains of a Black Diamond Colliery:

(images credit: Preservation Photography)

"These buildings, some constructed as early as 1930, remain standing as a testament to our nation’s mining history. No two look alike, but they all served the same purpose: process raw coal and break them into useful sizes. One feature most had in common was a covered conveyor that ran from the head of the mineshaft to the top of the preparation plant. There the coal would start it’s descent through cleaning and crushing machinery, through sizing screens and then moved out of the building. In some plants, this process happened in as little as 12 minutes. These once modern wonders have been replaced with more efficient plants, but will continue to stand until time or vandalism finally takes it’s toll." (source)

See another gallery of this incredible place at Urban Atrophy

------------

Photogenic Primates

(image credit: Zainal Abd Halim, Malaysia)

A one-year-old female orang utan smiles (sort of) at the camera at Bukit Merah Resort in Malaysian central state of Perak. "Having started with just three orang utans in 1999, the island primate population has grown to 23, twelve of which were born on the island itself."

A weird appearance on the streets of Mumbai:

(original unknown)

------------

Down the Rabbit Hole

"Best of the Best" of Spiegel Photography (see a huge gallery) yielded this gem, by Andreas Teichmann:

(images credit: top - Andreas Teichmann, bottom left - Antje Egbert, bottom right - Achim Multhaupt)

------------

A Piece of Internet Meme-rabilia

Don't worry if you can't figure out what this means. Here is an Internet Meme Database, if you are still curious (some nsfw).

------------

Events:

Seattle, Washington's Northwest Film Forum will be hosting a screening of two classic films from Lon Chaney, Jr: "The Ghost of Frankenstein" and "The Mummy's Curse" on Monday, March 16 at 7:00 p.m. The event is going to be hosted by "Shambling Towards Hiroshima" author James Morrow. Check out the details (there's a five dollar donation at the door to cover expenses). Here is a very atmospheric poster and some screenshots: