Oh dolls, that marker of childhood innocence. That wonderful toy that many a wee child had as a favorite plaything, that oddly horrifying object that has turned so many into a quivering thing in the corner.

So, the below isn’t the ‘typical’, nor are they safe for your sanity. They are however incredible takes on such an innocent toy. Any of these would be more at home in a horror movie than in a toy chest, but they do show a lot of talent (horrifying, horrifying talent).

Click an image to start the gallery, attribution in under all images (the other works my these artists are as incredible):

Okay, before the break, a warning that this post may not be entirely work safe.  Or really, safe for you sanity.

Don’t get me wrong, some of these are completely fantastic, others.. well not so much.  Many of these will have you questioning humanity, but the others really are great designs.  Artists and art lovers do want to express themselves, and while oftentimes the results can really be incredible at others, they can be downright insane.

Below, some of the questionable and some of the awesome (really an interesting mix, at most).

Choosing the way you display your art and photography can be as important as your work itself.  Finding a simple and stunning choice with so many options out there can be difficult and time consuming.   Below are 12 stunning options that are as simple as they are elegant.

GalleryView

Demo/Download

GalleryView is a very simple but wonderful option.  If you are looking for something lightening fast and simple, it could suit your needs perfectly.  The overlay title and description is a wonderful part of the GalleryView script (plus, it really looks amazing with the simplicity). It definately success in it’s mission to provide jQuery users with a flexible, attractive content gallery that is both easy to implement and a snap to customize.

Supersized: Fullscreen background/ sideshow jQuery plugin

Demo/Download

Supersized really lives up to it’s name.  It’s a fullscreen gallery that is great for high definition photos, and anything with a lot of color would really pop out.

* Resizes images to fill browser while maintaining image dimension ratio
* Cycles Images/backgrounds via slideshow with transitions and preloading
* Navigation controls allow for pause/play and forward/back

Moving Boxes – jQuery Image Gallery

Demo/Download

MovingBoxes is  a very fun little gallery.  It’s incredibly simple to use, and the look is fantastic. The script uses there are buttons to change panels and the panels zoom in and out.

PiroBox

Demo/Download
Here are just some of the features:

* The script now weights only 12.5KB, (9KB Minified)
* There is a choice between five different styles
* Slideshow option More…
* Multiple image set option More…
* PngFix for Internet Explorer 6
* Keyboard navigation: Right arrow [next], Left arrow [prev], ESC [close]
* Broken Link Check
* Automatic repositioning of the image in the browser window
* Browser compatibility = FireFox 2+, Opera9.5+, Chrome, Safari (Mac/Windows), IE 6+

You can even check out some of the fantastic themes that the plugin uses.

PiroBox is similar to lightbox (and the many other versions) and is great for a simple and effective option.

Image Rotator with Preview

Demo/Download

You can use the Image Rotator for images, blog posts, and a few other things as well. It’s a great way to display portfolio pieces, eCommerce product images, or even as an image gallery. With both a simple and effective design, it’s also easy to implement and customize.

Spacegallery – jQuery plugin

Demo/Download

SpaceRotator has a fun and elegant animation when switching views.

AD Gallery

Demo/Download

AD Gallery is another simple, but visually pleasing option.

Zoomer Gallery

Demo/Download

Zoomer Gallery is really fun and it would be a great choice for someone that has a lot of images to display (much like PiroGallery) it adds in a simple ‘zoom’ effect, and could easily be customized to fit other needs as well. It has flash-like effects but is written in javascript.

ImageFlow

Demo/Download

ImageFlow is a very graceful and elegant gallery/ slider.  It has a gorgeous reflection and while it’s simple visually- it is still very user friendly and beautiful. It has quite a few features for such a considerably small plugin.

jQuery jsGallscroll Plugin

Demo/Download

Another simple and effective option. jsGallscroll takes list of images and creates a smooth scrolling photo gallery scrolling vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The plugin will also create pagination to allow you to flow through your photos.

Galleriffic

Demo/Download

Gallerific allows you to have a full featured and easy to navigate (and set up) gallery. It comes with a ton of options including pagination, graceful degradation if a user doesn’t use javascript, and a ton of others including many different user-options as well. If you want something that has more features and can allow you to customize more than Gallerific can definitely be for you.

Dynamic Image Gallery and Slideshow

Demo/Download
The Dynamic Image Gallery and Slideshow is incredibly lightweight, at only 3kb. It’s elegant in addition, and it’s a user-friendly and easy choice for someone who may want the simplicity without too many other things cluttering things up. The developer has released a new version however if you want a few more options.

Space has long been the subject of intense fascination by humans.  With modern technology we are better able to see thing that once were thought to be just the subject of fantasy.  Incredible images have been captured and have fueled more fascination for our cosmic home.

We are learning more and more about the universe, and while at times things we learn serve mainly to give us more questions than answers, the images we have are beautiful and truly serve to show that beauty is truly universal.

Click an image to browse the gallery.

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There is something to be said about human ingenuity, either that or our collective insanity.  In  a previous article I covered Strange Homes People Actually Live In, and it’s become a top article on this website.

So, by popular demand below are some more completely insane homes (that are actually lived in).

Guest House From Hang Nga, Vietnam

Images: You Live Where

Nakagin Capsule Tower (Tokyo, Japan)

Epcott House Arizona (?)

Upside Down Wonderworks Building

Snowball House

Shell House, Japan

Jenga Complex

Maze House

Suspended Home

Island Home, Literally

Iceberg House

While the last two are claimed to be real, I’m not entirely sure that they are.

I’ve included it just due to it being awesome, but if you know the story please let me know in the comments.  That also goes if you know where any of these are located (Country and City preferably) or if you know the original source of any of the above (well, save for the Worth 1000 images, as they are watermarked).

The actual Amityville Horror house if for sale. While the story itself if debatable at best, as the Lutz family may have made up everything in a bid for fame (by may have, I of course mean they did), the DeFeo murders however were very real.

The house on 112 Ocean Avenue (different address, as the name had been changed) is infamous for being haunted by demons, flies, and an evil (demon) pig named Jodie.

The books themselves scared me when I was a kid (but in a good way, I love me some horror novels) and it wasn’t until a few years later that I I found out that the actual murders were a real part (considering we are talking pre-internet days of the 1990s cut me some slack here).

The house itself has been through a few different owners, and only the Lutz family reported anything out of the ordinary. The house has been through a huge facelift as well, and it’s beautiful and doesn’t’ have any sort of creepy factor at all.

With the story by the Lutz family, it’s pretty easy to forget that the home is still the place of a real and brutal crime, by someone who was either ill or strung out (as the DeFeo’s own stories go).  In real life Ronald DeFeo Jr, killed his: mother, father, two sisters, and his two brothers.  Right now he is still in jail, and during his trial the prosecution has argued the murders were due to issues Ronald had with drugs and mental conditions.

The psychiatrist for the prosecution, Dr. Harold Zolan, maintained that although DeFeo was an abuser of heroin and LSD, he had antisocial personality disorder and was aware of his actions at the time of the crime.

Source: Wikipedia

Ronald himself has changed his story many times over, and only one was claiming anything out of the ordinary (presumably for an insanity defense, although there isn’t any sort of proof- just assumptions).

Admittedly, the home is beautiful regardless of it’s macabre history.

One of the reasons so many still believe in the Amityville Horror tale is the various ‘researchers’ who have supposedly confirmed the existence of many things that go bump in the night.  The researchers that had made by far the biggest impact are the famous Ed and Lorraine Warren, who claimed that it wasn’t a hoax and the house was indeed haunted by demons.

Lorraine Warren told a reporter for The Express-Times newspaper (Easton, Pa.) that the Amityville Horror was not a hoax, saying about the Lutzes, “We know them”. Beneath pleasant outward appearances, the Warrens’ Web page on Amityville casts them unfavorably in describing the Amityville case’s most vociferous critic, the late Stephen Kaplan, coauthor of ”The Amityville Horror Conspiracy.” The Warrens write: “It’s believed that the hoax rumor began with a man who called himself Dr. Steven Kaplan, although he held no doctorate degree from any university. This fact was exposed on several occasions, yet that never stopped Mr. Kaplan from making these claims. He was the self-proclaimed president of the Parapsychology Society of Long Island and some other related societies, presumably founded by himself.” The Warrens failed to note that they, too, had founded their own paranormal organization and saw nothing wrong with it.

Source: Wikipedia

Would you buy a home with as much of a sordid history as this one?  If you believe in the Lutz family story, would you live there? Just in thinking about how many random people would wind up on your doorstep, buying the infamous house may be more trouble than many think it’s worth.

Do you believe in any part of the Amityville Horror story?  Why or why not?

BP’s comedy of errors in fixing the leak is having a lasting effect on the environment and economy.  With their many flawed attempts at fixing the leak, they may be doing more harm than good.  The wildlife and sea creatures in the areas effected are dying and creating an alarming and lasting environmental tragedy in the area, while the ocean environment itself is being irreparably damaged by both the leak itself and some of the more questionable leak control methods.

The devastation and tragedy are completely overwhelming.  The lasting effects are horrible, and there is seemingly no end in sight.  For such a large, multi-billion dollar company, it’s a PR nightmare.  For the rest of us, a environmental terror.   It’s an unfortunate fact of modern life, that this type of horror is going to happen.  No matter your opinion on global warming, our Earth is the only one we have.  We still need to protect it, and sadly our dependence on fossil fuels will continue to have an impact on the environment. 

.  AP Photo

Tama/Getty

Gay/AP

Live Feed Capture

AP

  Live Feed Capture

Associated Press

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

   AP Photo

If you have been around long enough you have seen the American Apparel advertisements.

With a heavy voyeuristic 1970’s era porn feel, and hyper-sexual imagery.  They also manage to work in a whole ‘real person’ manifesto to their campaigns, all purporting to use everyday employees as opposed to models (which has of course been proven false time and time again, but no matter your opinion- it works for them).

Using sexual suggestion and imagery is nothing new, it’s actually a borderline cliché.  Why is it still used? Hell, it works.

A campaign that is both mocking, and yet still overtly positive (even with the same hyper-sexual imagery) is creating waves and second looks where it’s appearing (presently in Toronto).  The series of photographs are all styled after American Apparel’s own advertising, and is called American Able.  As one walks by, they tend to do a double take, which alone speaks volumes for the campaign (and the traditional standard for advertising) itself.

By creating carbon copies of American Apparel’s own advertising, photographer Holly Norris and friend Jes Sachse have created a series that speaks out about the lack of disabled people in media and advertising. The campaign uses American Apparels’ ads due to their prevalence and ease of replication. In  Norris’ own words:

‘American Able’ intends to, through spoof, reveal the ways in which women with disabilities are invisibilized in advertising and mass media. I chose American Apparel not just for their notable style, but also for their claims that many of their models are just ‘every day’ women who are employees, friends and fans of the company. However, these women fit particular body types. Their campaigns are highly sexualized and feature women who are generally thin, and who appear to be able-bodied. Women with disabilities go unrepresented, not only in American Apparel advertising, but also in most of popular culture. Rarely, if ever, are women with disabilities portrayed in anything other than an asexual manner, for ‘disabled’ bodies are largely perceived as ‘undesirable.’ In a society where sexuality is created and performed over and over within popular culture, the invisibility of women with disabilities in many ways denies them the right to sexuality, particularly within a public context.

Too often, the pervasive influence of imagery in mass media goes unexamined, consumed en masse by the public. However, this imagery has real, oppressive effects on people who are continuously ‘othered’ by society. The model, Jes Sachse, and I intend to reveal these stories by placing her in a position where women with disabilities are typically excluded.

The reason that the series is taken as shocking is due to the prevalence of the typical body type we are used to seeing in ads.  Tall, thin, and perfect are the typical. Yet, Norris and Sachse have created something truly unique in this that highlights our own perceptions of the ‘real women’ used in these campaigns, and manages to do it in a way that creates a stir while highlighting their point.

Traditionally, women shown in media are Photoshopped into some type of ‘otherness’  that isn’t and cannot be real, it’s a movement that is both relatively new, and has many vocal opponents (so, it’s unnecessary to go into it all here).    American Able may not change this, but it does succeed in pointing out the expectations the public has upon viewing and consuming advertising. Otherwise, these wouldn’t be nearly as shocking.

All Images © Holly Norris

You can also read more about the purpose behind the exhibit at: Contacting Toronto

Just because something is being called strange, it definitely doesn’t make it a bad thing.  The homes below are really amazing examples of the things humans create.  To be honest the homes below are all fabulous and I seriously want to live in most of them.Some people have created an art form out of architecture, and the homes below are amazing tributes to that.

Dr Seuss Dream Home

Located in France, and in all reality called the Bubble House- it looks like something right out of a Dr Seuss story.  While sure, that wasn’t the intent, I think I would live there based on that (I’m a huge Dr Seuss fan.. still).

UFO

Tennessee UFO home.  While I would love to just say, hey why not- this guy really has a think for ET.  At least, one could assume that based on the home.

The Teapot

I love this Washington Teapot house.  It’s creative, and really- this is just awesome.

Old Mother Hubbard’s Old Place

Apparently Old Mother Hubbard needed new digs, so she put her home on the market.  It’s a real guest house in Pennsylvania.

Toilet Home

A Korean man’s dream home (no, that isn’t a joke- this was really his dream home).  He has a thing for toilets.  This one is probably no stranger to those who have been online a while, as it’s been shown on a ton of different websites.

Frodo’s Old Digs

I admit, I would live here. When you also consider that it is located in Arizona it’s a great way to beat the heat.

Strawberry House

The house is located in Japan. I really love those colors, and the look of this one.

Steampunk House

Sure I may have some preference for this one, due to certain reasons (and okay, this isn’t a house).

Boathouses of India

These are so drastically different from the boathouses we have in the states (which to be honest are much more like barges than a boat).   The boathouse above is simply gorgeous.

While there are as many different ways to accomplishing a vintage look using Photoshop, I like this method due to being able to control the look fully, by using layers and the brush tool.  This is an incredibly quick and easy tutorial, it uses a few things that have been talked about here as well (linked for ease).

Here are the three images used (right click, save):

1.) Load your images in Photoshop

I’m using two different paper images.  While, you can just as easily use one- I really like the ‘clean’ look of the one to the right, plus the more destroyed look is great as well for a bit more dimension to the finished image.

2.) Define your brushes(to see a full tutorial on how to do this, click here:Creating a Pattern in Photoshop while it is the pattern tutorial, it’s also applicable for brushes).

Here’s the ‘define brush’ tool (it’s location: Edit > Define Brush ).  While you could easily only pick and choose an area that you prefer, this is shown using the whole image.  Repeat this with the other image as well.

3.) Put each new brush on it’s own layer.

Only one layer is started right now. Simply make the brush larger to fit the image, and click (the brush will look faded).

A darker brown color suits the vintage look best.

4.) Toy with your layers until you have it just how you like it (similar to the zombie doll tutorial).

Note in the image above the two different layers and flipped image. 

Each brush is in it’s own layer so it is easier to toy with the overall look, and the image is flipped because I’m lazy and don’t really feel like playing with the brush options (at least I’m honest).