Snowball gun. // Photographs of Antarctica. // How to Build an Igloo. (1951) // The Clangers build a pipe organ. // How to make wine in prison. “An odd burning sensation accompanies the first sip.” (h/t, Coudal) // Water pipes. // Monstrous yacht. // Self-assembling machines. // The geometry of beauty. // Ana Serrano’s cardboard sculptures, including Cartonlandia. // Watchmen montage. Rorschach, Moloch, Nixon! // Desirable goggles. // The American Widescreen Museum. // Low-cost video object manipulation. // Fun with “bullet-time”. // What’s a turbaconducken? (h/t, Daimnation!) // Head wipes. (h/t, PooterGeek) // A Photograph of Jesus. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Les 5 De l’Harmonica.

Snowflakes photographed by Kenneth Libbrecht.

More. How to photograph snow.

Her name is Jessica and she’s fond of coffee.  

I know, I know. Now you all want one. Via Maggie’s Farm. 

Real-time global map of distress calls and disasters. // G-Speak spatial interface. // Space station bachelor pad. // The world of washing machines. // The museum of art museum toilets. (h/t, Mick) // Art museum guards. (h/t, Coudal) // The collected Jonathan Meades. (h/t, Georges) // Irony. // Clever Monkeys. // When birds flock. // Underwater robot rescues fish. // Bioluminescent fungi. // Transmogrifier. // Vintage pop-up books. // Mannequin moustaches. // Art cars. // Concept cars. // Honda’s V4 concept bike. // Groovy antique scooter. // Knitted motorcycle cosy. (h/t, Wild Slutty Womens) // And, via The Thin Man, it’s Mr Burl Ives.

I have no idea what, if anything, this piece of CG art by Zeitguised is meant to convey. The obligatory written guff is mercifully short, but guff nonetheless, with references to “six imaginations of disoriented systems” and “the installation of an irreversible axis on a dynamic timeline.” Pseudo-explanations aside, the film itself is worth a squint. It doesn’t seem particularly organised or finished, but some of the animation is dreamlike and oddly suggestive, as though the rendered objects don’t quite fit in the usual three dimensions. 

Peripetics by ZEITGUISED from NotForPaper on Vimeo

A high resolution version can be downloaded here and there’s also a “making of” in which very little is explained. (Via Shape + Colour)

Enhance the moment with a vibrating toilet seat. // Beefcake. Mostly cake. // Knitted frog dissection. (h/t, Coudal) // Biology videos of note. Tissue generation, shrimp on a treadmill. // Robot camera meets magnapinna squid. // When pandas sneeze. // Impressive hair. // Crosswind. // Ships with very large cargo. // Robotuna. // Your very own HAL 9000. // Bit Blob. Hours of fun. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus) // Miniscule revisited. // More microphotography. // Nanofilament fibre doesn’t get wet. // BAM, the ceramic alloy. // Meteor filmed over Edmonton, Canada. // Zeus: the directed energy weapon. // Base jumping in Dubai. (h/t, AC1) // And, via The Thin Man, the return of Ms Valaida Snow.

Readers with an interest in mental hospitals may recall an ephemera item on the Danvers State Insane Asylum, with its decayed interiors and elaborate underground tunnel system.

In a similar vein, Lisa Rinzler has catalogued and photographed items found in the attic of the abandoned Willard Psychiatric Centre in New York’s Finger Lakes. Among the items found are hundreds of suitcases belonging to former residents, with photographs, drawings and notes by staff. One note, regarding a patient named Ethel, reads:

She is a manic of rather neurotic type, who is inclined to pout and grumble and find fault. It was discovered yesterday that she and Miss ___, another patient, had been in the habit of getting into bed together, probably at night, but they were found in bed together in the daytime and said to be having a jolly time. When discovered by Miss McMahon, charge attendant of the ward, they giggled and chuckled and told her there was a place for her if she would like to get in.

The site also includes recordings of recollections by former staff and inmates, spanning the 1940s through to the 1980s, with graphic descriptions of the facilities, treatments and the experience of a typical night shift. If the psychiatry of yore is a subject that intrigues, it’s worth a visit. Though you wouldn’t want to stay.

With chessboxing in mind, here’s a thing. If Bruce Lee played table tennis.

(h/t, Mick Hartley) 

Chinese calligrapher Wu Xubin takes an unconventional approach to his art. He uses his nose as a brush. 

Zhang Huan prefers to use his face as a canvas.

Unfortunately ambiguous Christmas decoration. // How to make silver bullets. // Melting steel with sunlight. // “When can I destroy humanity?!” // Magnetic air cars. // Strangely redundant exercise machine. // Plantbot. // Fridgehenge. A thing of beauty. // A history of chili. // Cunning penguin escapes being dinner. // PES: Moth. // Saturn’s northern aurora. // Space station spider’s whereabouts unknown. // More reconstituted Star Trek. // Eyelash bling. More. // Hug your bosons. // Visual thesaurus. // Meat water. // And, via The Thin Man, it’s the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Oh, good grief.