Photo of the Year candidate

This is from last night's Brewers-Giants game (a walkoff win for the Brewers), and it is absolutely awesome. Great work by the cameraman, AP's Morry Gash; not such great work by number 8, Ryan Braun. Thanks to Deadspin for the heads up.

You'll get him next time, Brauny.

Jail the Venetian meteorologists!

Since the Italian justice system decided it was necessary to imprison the seismologists who failed to predict 2009's deadly L'Aquila earthquake, I think it's only fair that meteorologists also be forced to pay for their sins in the wake of the worst flooding in Venice in two decades. After all, Mother Nature is much easier to predict than Crazy Uncle Earthquake over there, right?

Why can't everyone be more like Nate Silver, huh?

[Guardian]

Old-time NYC in photos

I'm always a sucker for old-time photography (and videography), so this gallery of early-20th century photos from New York City (courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives) was right up my alley. Enjoy.

Picture of the Day

Every once in a while I get the urge to share a photo that catches my eye. Today, this picture did just that, and I thought it was worth sharing. I've always thought the Bay Bridge deserved more love than it got--always living in the shadow of the Golden Gate--and hopefully this cool lightning strike picture helps it get some of the love it deserves.

[Yahoo]
(via Flickr)

Dedication (Pic of the Year)

Courtesy of Deadspin, this might be my favorite picture of the year so far.

In other news, Instagram has no revenues but sold for a billion dollars. I am in the wrong business.

Picture me rollin'

Last week, I came across this crazy photo gallery of rare color pictures from early-20th century Russia. The photographer, Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, was a pioneer in color photography and these shots are staggering--the clarity and vividness of the colors makes many of the pictures look as though they could have been taken yesterday.

The whole gallery is worth a look, but I got stuck on one particular picture (#23 in the gallery) that absolutely cracked me up. This is just perfect. They see me rollin'...

Extraordinary picture

There's so much to take in here. So much awesomeness packed into such a small space. I'm like a kid in a candy store with this picture. Come, join me.

(h/t Michael)

A snapshot of America

Before I launch into this post, a disclaimer: much like in this post on racial profiling, the study I am going to cite here suffers from self-selection bias--that is to say, it's not necessarily reflective of the population at large, and it should therefore be taken with a large grain of salt. But it's still a little troubling.

Times Square and Rockefeller Center often top the must-see list for New York City-bound tourists, but the Lourve-inspired [sic] Apple store on Fifth Avenue is surprisingly the number one most photographed attraction in Manhattan.

Researcher Eric Fischer mapped and analyzed millions of photos on Flickr that were taken throughout the city and looked at their geo-tagged information -- such as time and date they were shot --to determine patterns of interest.

Although the sleek glass exterior of the Fifth Avenue Apple store gets the most pictures, Rockefeller Center (no. 2), Columbus Circle (no. 3) and Times Square (no. 4) were also on the list.

Oh, dear God, people... really? Okay, look, I get that the Apple Store is right at the base of Central Park, and therefore it's a heavy traffic area, and so it's very recognizable and hard to miss, and... and... really!??! You go to New York City for a weekend to see the sights, and you take a picture of... THE APPLE STORE?!??! That's like going around the country taking a picture of all the great Wal-Marts throughout the nation. Hey, look! There's the Wal-Mart in Las Vegas! And there's the Wal-Mart by the Golden Gate Bridge!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since recent research suggests that love for Apple lights up the same part of the brain as religion--in that case, the Apple Store on 5th Avenue is for Apple lovers what St. Peter's is for a Catholic. Pardon me while I throw up a little bit.

Yup, this is America.

[LiveScience]
(h/t Barry Ritholtz)

Cool timelapse

Last weekend's blizzard might have created a nightmare in New York and New Jersey, but that doesn't make this timelapse any less cool. I personally have always enjoyed blizzards, as long as I haven't had anywhere important to go or anything pressing to do. In some ways, it can be nice to have an excuse to spend some time at home and chill out. But maybe that's just the New Englander in me trying to justify the Boston winters I survived growing up, or my inner 12-year-old wishing I could still have snow days. Either way, I enjoyed this...pretty cool.


December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.

[Paul Kedrosky]

The Year in Photos

Since there's apparently still nothing going on in the world, and every news agency seems to be relegated to Year-in-Review columns and sure-to-be-wrong predictions for 2011, I'll play along and post one of the more fun end-of-year toys, The Year in Photos (courtesy of the Wall Street Journal).

Click Here to View Gallery

The Journal's graphic is cool in that it allows you to sort pictures by category, by date, or by region. It's a good way to waste some time, since that's really all I'm trying to do myself until the New Year comes. Here are some of my favorites from the compilation. Which ones do you like?

Bank CEOs (Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America) testify before Congress in January.

A giant sinkhole engulfed a three-story building in Guatemala City in May.

NYSE traders reacted to the United States' goal against Algeria in the World Cup in June.

[Wall Street Journal]

Visual Awesomeness

Following in the trend of photography-related posts, I thought I'd send it into the weekend with this gallery of pictures from (amateur?!) photographer Sean Heavey. Cool stuff.

[Daily Mail]
(h/t to my friends at the Shuckstaposition blog)

Cool photography

I've been trying to get into photography lately, and I'm always impressed by really good photographers. I think underwater photography is especially cool, so I was a sucker for this photo gallery. Just thought I'd share.

[Guardian]