This extraordinary panoramic photograph of Manhattan by Sergey Semonov won the 2012 Epson International Photographic Pano Award in the Built Environmental catagory. Based on multiple photographs taken from a helicopter trip over NYC, the 3D panorama is an awesome stitch-up. Russian-born Semonov is part of a peripatetic group called AirPano that travels the world creating astonishing aerial images.
San Antonio, Texas Judge Nelson Wolff is a bibliophile with a surprising mission. Even though he owns an extensive personal library, with more than 1,000 collectible first editions, the Bevar County judge and library board chair has been the torchbearer for a plan to replace the county’s library system with the BiblioTech, an entirely bookless library.
This electronic library will eschew all traditional paper books and instead loan county residents e-readers preloaded with their e-book selections. By sharing e-readers rather than downloading to personal devices, the BiblioTech would circumvent many copyright issues.
Cities in California and Arizon have floated similar schemes, but have withdrawn them due to public outcry. What’s your take on this elitist plan?
Travelers the world over are frequently blindsided by immoderate hotel taxes that boost the cost of overnight stays. The United States is no exception. When guests book hotels, they rarely explore the potential additional costs of local, city or state taxes on the final bill.
You probably won’t be at all surprised to learn the New York City has one of the highest lodging tax rates in the U.S., but check out this neat info graphic from the folks at away.com to see how it compares with other cities around the country.
From the outside, we tend to view the Germans as a monolithic culture, but stories like this one demonstrate how wrong that viewpoint can be.
There is an internecine war brewing in Berlin’s trendy Prenzlauer Berg District between native Berliners and Swabian “immigrants” from southwestern Germany. The first blow in the Spätzle War was struck last week when the “Free Schwabylon” activists attacked a monument to beloved artist Käthe Kollwitz in P’berg’s Kollwitz Platz with a large pot of spätzle noodles, which is a Swabian staple. The Free Schwabylonians followed up the pasta raid with a manifesto demanding the creation of an autonomous Free Schwabylon within the very heart of hipster Prenzlauer Berg.
Even though this seems to be a whimsical exploit by yuppies with too much time on their hands, it actually highlights the ongoing antipathy between gentrifying newcomers and locals being priced out of their own neighborhoods , as well as the continuous conflict between prosperous southerners and the dependent German northern regions.
Although the Free Schwabylon activist rallying cry, “Kollwitz Platz is our Tahrir Square”, is tongue-in-cheek, their contentious relationships with long-term residents are all too real and growing.
Penguin UK has decided to mark the sixty-third anniversary of George Orwell‘s death by launching “George Orwell Day” and by issuing a series of new paperback editions of his most beloved books. The series has all original covers designed by David Pearson.
Some of the new covers are quite compelling, especially the Nineteen Eighty-Four with dramatic embossed titling under black foil, but others, such as the line drawn image on Homage to Catalonia seem to miss the mark.
Are you in the market for a very special book collection? Do you have an interest in True Crime ? Well, eBay seller uswego has an offer just for you. For the farcical price of $1,000 (plus $250.00 shipping) you can own a share of convicted swindler Bernie Madoff’s personal library.
According to the eBay seller, the books, along with a variety of other Madoff property, were purchased during the U.S. Marshal seizure auction of the Madoff’s property in 2011. Highlights of the 110-book collection? The Joys of Yiddish, Billy Bathgate, The Interpreter of Maladies, The Robber Bride, a few Philip Roth titles, and The Chronicles of Narnia seven-book set.
Who needs the Guggenheim ? And who says that math is boring? Certainly not the creative folks at New York City’s newest museum. Opened to the public on December 15, 2012, the National Museum of Mathematics, in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, is North America’s only museum completely dedicated to mathematics.
Funded by more than $23 million in grants, including a boat load of cash from Google, the museum is geared to school-age children, but is fun for all ages (even math-impaired oldsters).
Featuring thirty permanent exhibits, as well as special events, the museum is all about the hands-on, interactive approach. With exhibits like “Tessellation Station”, Coaster Roller” and a square bicycle ride, this is one museum that kids will beg to visit.
The museum is located at 11 East 26th Street and is open daily from 10am to 5pm.
This ingenuous short documentary by Max Monty is entitled “A Traveling Photographer”. The film documents the unpretentious, but often poignant work that photographer Kevin Russ creates on his wanderings through the U.S. west and in Mexico. Russ’ pared down technique involves random, spontaneous shooting with a standard iPhone sans lens attachments or gimmicks.
If you are moved by Kevin’s straightforward approach, you can follow his work on his blog or actually buy prints here.
Faktum Hotels is not your ordinary hotel brand. In fact, it doesn’t actually rent hotel rooms at all. Instead, Faktum Hotels is a clever media campaign to bring attention to the plight of homeless people in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Website visitors are shown ten “hotel rooms” around the city that are regularly used by the homeless. Each room has a pithy, touristy description. Such as:
“This delightful dwelling is just a stroll from the romantic Dreamer’s Quay: A source of inspiration to musicians and artists alike. And all under the noble eye of the Skansen Lion from his centuries old fortress.”
Faktum patrons can donate SK 100 ($15) to “book” one of the ten rooms providing the charity with funds for safe housing and help for the homeless.
Yesterday, a Swedish train cleaner succumbed to that universal urge to be a train engineer and went for a three minute joyride with a suburban Stockholm commuter train. Unfortunately, she lacked the skills to keep the Saltsjobannen train on the tracks and ran the commandeered train into an apartment building in the waterfront town of Saltsjöbaden. Luckily, no residents were injured in the 3am crash. However, the 20-something cleaner was slightly injured and charged with allmänfarlig ödeläggelse (public devastation).
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