Link roundup

1. "[I]n South Asia, millions remain victims of a wicked form of slavery known as peshgi, or bonded labour. Human Rights Watch estimated as far back as 1999, that India was home to some 40 million bonded labourers. In Pakistan, over one million bonded labourers are currently enslaved in the brick kiln industry alone." Via.

2. Knock-off Ikea store in China. Via.

3. Monastery at dusk. Hell's escalator.

Link roundup

1. "Grocery Outlet, Supermarket Chain Where Oddball Products End Up." (Oddball products like Cleavage Creek wine.)

2. Relationship advice.

3. "Book Of 'Roadside Prostitutes' Made Entirely With Google Street View."

Link roundup

1. The five finalists in the Bioshock Infinite t-shirt design contest.

2. "Use seawater or vinegar to treat jellyfish stings, not urine."

3. "Artist EVOL Installs Miniature City Underneath Grassy Field."

4. Jess Nevins's Annotations to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume III Chapter Two, a.k.a. Century: 1969 (10% off at TFAW).

Image roundup (and one video)

Valve mascot cosplay.



Man-eating bus.




Emma Stone (and Jimmy Fallon and the entire studio audience) vs. the shake weight.



Chimp feeding a tiger cub.



Gas Mask Tourism on the Izu Islands. Via.

Link roundup

1. Llama overlooking Machu Picchu.

2. Apparently I need to eat at Black Market Liquor Bar in Studio City. Via.

3. Another Google+ horror story. I have no idea why they delete not only your G+ account, but also your Google Reader account.

4. And this is why Google wants so bad to force people to use their real names on their social service. Via.

Image roundup

North Korea is like an Escher drawing.




Best friends.




Batmobile limousine.




Love.




Children's section entrance in the Cerritos Millenium Library in California.




Confident ninjas.

Link roundup

1. It wasn't (just) an iceberg that sank the Titanic. Via.

2. Two really cool Google Street view events. Click ahead one step to see sudden winter and the rapture. Via.

3. The SWAT team that protects NASA.

*Buy patches at eBay.

Link roundup

1. File away this prediction by Bill Simmons:

Best-case scenario: NBA season starts in Feb. And that's the best-case scenario. I don't think I've ever been more disenchanted with Stern.

2. Map of time capsules buried under Los Angeles. Via.

3. More 3A Toys news:

ThreeA is proud to announce that it has partnered with amazing Japanese artist Kow Yokoyama to produce Maschinen Krieger in both 1/12 and 1/6 scale! If you think you know Maschinen Krieger think again - ThreeA is about to bring you a whole new world.

Furthermore we will be producing figures for the upcoming blockbuster Reel Steel in 1/6th scale. The Reel Steel movie directed by Shawn Levy stars our own boy from Oz, Hugh Jackman.

4. "The Billionaire Sheikh Who Carved His Name Into an Island." (You can see it from space.)

*At Toycutter: Custom 3A Toys.

*Buy 3A Toys at eBay.

Giant sand geyser in Saudi Arabia

"Suddenly, a 9-meter Sand fountain (geyser) apparead, in the Al-Ahsae City, Eastern Saudi Arabia." Via.

Link roundup

1. It's 60% off posters at Zazzle with the code ZBDAYPOSTERS -- I recommend posters by Steve Thomas, Franco Brambilla, and Adam Koford.

2. Apparently there are 60,000 unsolved murders in Rio de Janeiro, and 24,000 victims haven't even been identified. Via.

3. An assertion that China will lose interest in the NBA with Yao Ming retiring. (It's certainly interesting that there's been no other Chinese players to make an impact in the NBA since him.) Via.

4. Portal to another world. And a similar photo from the same street.

5. Remastered children's books of questionable taste.

Link roundup

1. Two great photos of Hang En Cave, Vietnam.

2. House for sale in Utah that looks like Carl and Ellie’s home from Pixar's Up.

3. Scan of an Elektra story by Frank Miller. (Site is NSFW.)

*Buy Elektra toys at eBay.

Magic pyramid in real life

Incredible photograph by Juan Carlos Casado. Why does the volcano's shadow look like a giant pyramid? Click through for an explanation. It's like the highway of the gods. Via.

Image roundup

Duckling.



Sleeping polar bear.



Farewell.



Hearse.



Tiny monkey.



Spider-Man.



Chameleon.



Spirited Away, perhaps.



Please do not sit on crocodile.

Wild basketball court

Occupational School Center Munich, Germany.

*Previously: The Site of Reversible Destiny.

Link roundup

1. It's mildly interesting from a karmic standpoint that the National Enquirer supposedly videotaped To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen cheating on his wife. It's more interesting to wonder who tipped them off so they could get the scoop.

2. Photo gallery of China's 26-mile Jiaozhou Bay bridge (the current longest ocean bridge in the world). Via.

3. Scientists think these ants raise other bugs for food. Via.

Link roundup

1. Is this why they're called honeymoons?

In many parts of Europe it was traditional to supply a newly married couple with enough mead for a month, ensuring happiness and fertility. From this practice we get honeymoon or, as the French say, lune de miel [lit. "moon of honey"].

2. This is the kind of place that could star in American Gods (I wonder which god would be in charge?):

The secretive business havens of Cyprus and the Cayman Islands face a potent rival: Cheyenne, Wyoming.

At a single address in this sleepy city of 60,000 people, more than 2,000 companies are registered. The building, 2710 Thomes Avenue, isn't a shimmering skyscraper filled with A-list corporations. It's a 1,700-square-foot brick house with a manicured lawn, a few blocks from the State Capitol.

Via.

3. T-shirts are 17.76% off at Zazzle with the code LANDOFTHETEE. Might I recommend Adam Koford's store.

Insane zoo

At the Lujan Zoo near Buenos Aires you can apparently pay $50, sign a waiver, and frolic with ridiculously dangerous animals. Via.

*Previously: Funny warning sign at the zoo.

Image roundup

Six-year-old Yu Gi Oh cardshark.



This will kill you, painfully.



Australian Peacock Spider. (You can see them dancing here.)



The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by Victor Vasetnov.



Long jump landing.



Hungry slippers.



Ta Prohm temple wallpaper.

Image roundup

Scary bridge.




Moon wallpaper.




Up wallpaper.



SR-71 (?) wallpaper.



Dramatic cat.

Oasis

Lop Nur, Xinjiang, China:

NASA image acquired May 17, 2011

Located in China’s resource-rich but moisture-poor Xinjiang autonomous region, Lop Nur is an uninviting location for any kind of agriculture. It sits at the eastern end of the Taklimakan Desert, where marching sand dunes can reach heights of 200 meters (650 feet), and dust storms rage across the landscape.

Yet for all it lacks in agricultural appeal, Lop Nur offers something valuable to farmers the world over: potash. This potassium salt provides a major nutrient required for plant growth, making it a key ingredient in fertilizer.

The discovery of potash at Lop Nur in the mid-1990s turned the area into a large-scale mining operation. The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite captured this natural-color image of Lop Nur on May 17, 2011. The rectangular shapes in this image show the bright colors characteristic of solar evaporation ponds. Around the evaporation ponds are the earth tones typical of sandy desert.

During the early and middle Pleistocene epoch, this area held a large brackish lake. Uplift of the northern part of the lake in the late Pleistocene created hollows that became receptacles for potash deposition. The main potash deposits found at Lop Nur today are brine potash, and this site is the second-largest source of potash in China.

Lop Nur slowly dried up in the Holocene. The area now receives average annual precipitation of just 31.2 millimeters (1.2 inches), and experiences annual evaporation of 2,901 millimeters (114 inches), according to a study published in 2008. The study found, however, that this area has experienced seven major climate changes since the end of the Pleistocene, including climatic conditions far more favorable to farming and settlement than today.

Examination of plant and mollusk remains at the lake, as well as studies of sediments, indicate that the Lop Nur region experienced a severe drought about 3,000 years ago, followed by wetter conditions. Between 1,250 and 400 years ago, Lop Nur likely experienced the conditions most favorable to farming and settlement, and red willow trees grew in the area. Pottery dating from the Tang and Song dynasties further testifies to welcoming conditions at the lake centuries ago.
Starting around 400 years ago, however, a more arid climate took hold, completely drying out Lop Nur. Today, by providing potash, the desiccated lake still supports agriculture, but it does so for farming efforts further afield.

NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Michon Scott.