Link Banana

Though quotidien chaos in the streets is hardly unique to Iran, this video certainly makes me glad that I don’t have to drive there.

(via Donklephant)

A great new — and HD — video of Matt dancing “that dance” all over the world. (Backstory)

Matt Kirkland has stripped away the fluffy cuteness behind Elmo and other plush toys to reveal the creepy-looking robots underneath.

(via kottke)

Worst title ever? In any case, Strange Maps has a striking maps of where federally-owned land in located around the United States. You may be surprised to know that Nevada has the most (84.5%), while Connecticut has the least (0.4%). And no, neither number is a typo.

This recent Metafilter post was a great collection of eagle awesomeness (YT are YouTube videos):

Bald Eagle Attacks Swan | Eagle vs Goat [YT] | Eagle vs Fox | Eagle vs Sandhill Crane | Golden Eagle vs Deer [YT] | Eagle vs. Eagle [YT] | Hawk vs Pet Mouse [YT] | Eagles vs Human Children | Eagles vs Our Primitive Ancestors

I have no idea how this picture was made, but it looks really really awesome. That is all.

(via Matt Yglesias, who actually links to this story about rapidly chilling beverages)

Charles Blow’s chart yesterday was rather interesting. It profiles along race, gender, and age — the rate at which people enter treatment for given drugs.

Rather than painting on walls, Paul Curtis cleans them.

(via PSFK)

Pictures of abandoned filling stations.

The Morning News has some great photos by Phillip Toledano of those people you always wondered about. The captions are also fascinating.

(via MeFi)

The Big Picture has some pictures of a phenomenon I’d never heard of.

Two years ago now, on 28 May 2006, gas company PT Lapindo Brantas exploring for gas in Sidoarjo, in East Java, Indonesia, drilled a borehole. At 5 AM, a secondary stage of drilling began and the drill string went about 9,300 feet down, after which the first small eruption of water, steam and a small amount of gas occurred at a location just southwest of the well. Several other eruptions followed over the next few days. The flow of hot mud has not ceased since.

Fourteen people have been killed and 30,000 people have been evacuated from the area. At least a dozen villages, with more than 10,000 homes have been destroyed while schools, offices and factories have also been wiped out and a major impact on the wider marine and coastal environment is expected.

Architectural Record has an interesting run-down of the most innovative skyscraper designs that were never realized.

Some pictures are just too great for me not to link to them.

Nothing in this table about the cost of driving different vehicles should surprise you, but the presentation’s rather clever.

Two have come to my attention recently:

• Sunset on Mars
• The Earth from Mars

This has circulated a lot, but I just noticed that the artist’s site is actually back online. Korean artist Yeondoo Jung offers real-life recreations of the often-misproportioned childrens drawings.

Think of it as a post-Rapture Christian gloating service. As Threat Level snarkily points out:

The e-mails will be triggered when three of the site’s five Christian staffers “scattered around the U.S.” fail to log in for six days in a row — a system that incorporates a nice margin of safety, should two of the proprietors turn out to be unrepentant sinners or atheists.

(via Waxy)

Inspired by the now-defunct Life magazine, The Boston Globe has introduced a great section of high quality picture-stories on it’s website.

(via Waxy, who points to Kokogiak’s announcement)

Where Bolivia’s indigenous women meet the WWE. (The link is to a video story.)

(via Passport, who have some breathtaking images of the sport)

In today’s “awesome-looking but mostly purposeless charts” category, I submit Chris Harrison’s Digg Rings.

(via Information Aestetics)