Swans on Tea

Chinese DIY Inventions

One visible sign of China’s recent economic growth is the rise in prominence of inventors and entrepreneurs. For years now, Chinese farmers, engineers, and businessmen have taken on ambitious do-it-yourself projects, constructing homemade submarines, helicopters, robots, safety equipment, weapons and much more. Some of the inventions are built out of passion, some with an eye toward profit, (some certainly safer than others), and a few have already led to sales for the inventors. Gathered here are recent photos of this DIY movement across China. [39 photos]

Some of these are pretty cool.

Microscope images

Amazingly Detailed Macro Portraits of Bugs

A peek into the control room of space shuttles

[Photographer Ben] Cooper brings us an insider look at the Flight Decks of the Endeavour, Discovery, and Atlantis space shuttles.

Flickr: The Elements

Check out all three pages.

Smithsonian Magazine’s 2012 Photo Contest Finalists

11 Unbelievable Microscopic Images From Nikon’s 2012 Small World Competition

It’s a slideshow, but the images are cool.

flickr: afterlife

Skeleton light sculptures

flickr: Light Topography

I’ve had this mad idea of tracing entire rooms with one LED and now I have finally gotten started!

Walk on the Moon with Neil Armstrong in a Beautiful Interactive Panorama

Unusual Long Exposure Firework Photographs by David Johnson

imgur gallery

The technique I used was a simple refocus during the long exposure. Each shot was about a second long, sometimes two. I’d start out of focus, and when I heard the explosion I would quickly refocus, so the little stems on these deep sea creature lookalikes would grow into a fine point. The shapes are quite bizarre, some of them I was pleasantly surprised with.

Keep in mind as you put together your Neil Armstrong packages tonight…

In fact, if you’re hoping to use a picture of Armstrong on the moon tonight: Rots of Ruck to you. Armstrong and Aldrin only walked on the moon for about two-and-a-half hours that night in 1969. Most of the time, Armstrong carried the primary camera. Aldrin carried a camera but was assigned to shoot specific, technical things.

The result: Lots of pictures of Aldrin. But hardly any of Neil.