believe in anything

Alexa in the Limelight (by AlexaMeade)

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 22:02:22 -0400

Alexa in the Limelight (by AlexaMeade)

"But then Mandel realized that we had been looking at the market incorrectly. Fine art, he said, is..."

Wed, 30 May 2012 21:09:48 -0400

“

But then Mandel realized that we had been looking at the market incorrectly. Fine art, he said, is not really part of the overall global economy. Instead, it’s part of the economy of a small subset of the super-superrich, whom some economists call Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, or U.H.N.W.I.’s. And their economy, unlike ours, is booming. In that alternate world, fine art as a percentage of the economy has stayed stable over the last decade, in part because a flood of new U.H.N.W.I.’s in China, India and other developing nations has entered the art-buying market with great enthusiasm. In 2003, the sales at Christie’s Hong Kong totaled $98 million. Last year, they were $836 million.

The art market, in other words, is a proxy for the fate of the superrich themselves. Investors who believe that incomes and wealth will return to a more equitable state should ignore art and put their money into investments that grow alongside the overall economy, like telecoms and steel. For those who believe that the very, very rich will continue to grow at a pace that outstrips the rest of us, it seems like there’s no better investment than art.

”

- How the Art Market Thrives on Inequality - NYTimes.com

"Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge..."

Fri, 25 May 2012 15:40:21 -0400

“

Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights.

As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can’t afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bing’s plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. Maintenance would be contracted out, saving the city $10 million a year.

[…]

“You have to identify those neighborhoods where you want to concentrate your population,” said Chris Brown, Detroit’s chief operating officer. “We’re not going to light distressed areas like we light other areas.”

”

- Half of Detroit’s Streetlights May Go Out as City Shrinks - Bloomberg

(via 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962 - In Focus - The Atlantic)

Thu, 17 May 2012 14:37:04 -0400

(via 50 Years Ago: The World in 1962 - In Focus - The Atlantic)

(via Blow Job on the Behance Network)

Thu, 17 May 2012 13:35:52 -0400

(via Blow Job on the Behance Network)

scotts5thavenue: Jean Dupas - Les Perruches - 1925

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:00:38 -0400

scotts5thavenue:

Jean Dupas - Les Perruches - 1925

(via The Last Horse Drive - In Focus - The Atlantic)

Sun, 13 May 2012 21:36:15 -0400

(via The Last Horse Drive - In Focus - The Atlantic)

quietintheworld: Sully loves getting ribbons

Fri, 11 May 2012 00:30:40 -0400

quietintheworld:

Sully loves getting ribbons

When ‘Harry Leon Crawford’, hotel cleaner of Stanmore was...

Wed, 09 May 2012 16:04:08 -0400

When ‘Harry Leon Crawford’, hotel cleaner of Stanmore was arrested and charged with wife murder he was revealed to be in fact Eugeni Falleni, a woman and mother, who had been passing as a man since 1899. In 1914, as ‘Harry Crawford’, Falleni had married the widow Annie Birkett. Three years later, shortly after she announced to a relative that she had found out ‘something amazing about Harry’, Birkett disappeared.

(via Vintage Mugshots from the 1920s [30 Photos])

Two Steps to a Bikini-Ready Body

Wed, 09 May 2012 01:00:06 -0400

princessnaphthalene:

1. Look in the mirror and say “Bitch, I’m fabulous.”

2. Don bikini.

"Then as the days dragged on, the terrifying realization set in that he was trapped. He had been..."

Fri, 04 May 2012 22:01:07 -0400

“

Then as the days dragged on, the terrifying realization set in that he was trapped. He had been forgotten in a 5-by-10-foot windowless room, hearing only the muffled sounds of voices and toilets flushing in the Drug Enforcement Administration facility in San Diego.

On the third day, he began to hallucinate. He urinated on a metal bench to be able to drink his urine. He stacked a blanket, his pants and shoes on the bench and tried to reach an overhead fire sprinkler, futilely swatting at it with his cuffed hands to set it off. Then, the engineering student says he gave up and accepted death. He bit into his eyeglasses to break them. He says he used a shard of glass to carve “Sorry Mom” onto his arm so he could leave something for her.

He managed to finish an “S.” He says he considered ending his life with the glass to quicken his death.

”

- News from The Associated Press

College student picked up in a drug bust, left in a cell without food or water for four days. Holy crap.

(via the realist: Why I Quit)

Fri, 04 May 2012 09:35:46 -0400

(via the realist: Why I Quit)

Doodle Music (by Vihart)

Thu, 03 May 2012 10:01:08 -0400

Doodle Music (by Vihart)

(via The rise of premature affluence | The Grid TO)

Wed, 02 May 2012 17:31:08 -0400

(via The rise of premature affluence | The Grid TO)

Photo

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:02:00 -0400

Photo

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:01:58 -0400

"But one thing remains constant: Samuel L. Jackson works. It’s all but impossible to turn on a TV set..."

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:44:20 -0400

“

But one thing remains constant: Samuel L. Jackson works. It’s all but impossible to turn on a TV set any night of the week without happening on one of his movies (and sometimes two or three).

[…]

Friedkin said that some people say Jackson works too much, but he dismissed actors who wait around for “Hamlet.” “You take what you can get,” he said, “to keep your engine tuned. An artist doesn’t burn out with age because he works too much. Working hones his craft.”

”

- How Samuel L. Jackson Became His Own Genre - NYTimes.com

(via Skeletons of Cartoon Characters | Retronaut)

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 10:01:04 -0400

(via Skeletons of Cartoon Characters | Retronaut)

Dilbert

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 10:01:56 -0400

Dilbert

comiques: Bessie Smith at the office The second panel is...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:01:14 -0400

comiques:

Bessie Smith at the office

The second panel is probably the most obscene thing I’ve seen all week and sadly that’s really saying something.