number 61

The HAARP Conspiracy

Right or wrong, the Norwegian Sky Spiral appears to have brought renewed scrutiny to the Department of Defense’s disturbing, ionosphere-boiling HAARP Project. The accompanying gallery of pictures.

Soviet Russia had one too. It’s since been abandoned. Here’s some pictures of that.

Nuclear Polygon, Kazakhstan

The test site, named the Semipalatinsk Polygon, would go on to host 456 atomic explosions over its 40-year existence. Residents in the surrounding area became unwitting guinea pigs, exposed to the aftereffects of the bombs both intentionally and unintentionally.

The Big Picture blog’s heartbreaking photo essay.

The Perfect Place to Die

Via Coudal. Photographer Toby de Silva‘s pictures of Aokigahara, an eerie-looking forest at the base of Mount Fuji that also happens to be one of the world’s hottest destinations for suicides.

If Taxi Driver is a Metaphor for Gentrification, Travis Bickle Won

Scouting New York, a cool blog written by a film location scout living in New York City, recently started a new feature called New York, You’ve Changed.

The idea is to compare shots of New York City in movies with shots of the city today. Here’s Part 1 of Taxi Driver.

Part 2, published yesterday, here.

On Google Street View

An interesting essay on (and collection of screencaps of) the metaphysics of Google Street View.

Street View collections represent our experience of the modern world, and in particular, the tension they express between our uncaring, indifferent universe and our search for connectedness and significance.

Via Kottke.