First spotted on Kottke.org; self-taught photographer and fellow Canadian, Hanah Pesut @ SincerelyHana.com, shot this fun and playful photo series entitled, Switcheroo.

In this series, couples pose for shots first in their normal attire, and then swap clothes and attempt to mirror the original shot. It’s most entertaining when there is noticeable contrast between the couples’ size and stature and/or when they try their best to mirror the original positioning. There are a plenty more examples from this series on Hana’s site, check it out!

Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China’s Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China’s first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

Shenzhen’s modern cityscape is the result of the vibrant economy made possible by rapid foreign investment since the institution of the policy of “reform and opening” establishment of the SEZ in the late 1979, before which it was only a small village.

Both Chinese and foreign nationals have invested enormous amount of money in the Shenzhen SEZ. More than US$30 billion in foreign investment has gone into both foreign-owned and joint ventures, at first mainly in manufacturing but more recently in the service industries as well. Shenzhen is now reputedly considered as one of the fastest-growing cities in the world.

Being southern mainland China’s major financial centre, Shenzhen is home to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as well as the headquarters of numerous high-tech companies. Shenzhen is also the third-busiest container port in China, after Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Shenzhen has seen its population and activity develop rapidly since the establishment of the SEZ. Shenzhen’s population is roughly ten million. About six million of these people are migrant workers who return home on the weekends and live in factory dormitories during the week. Shenzhen is the largest migrant city in China. [Source: Wikipedia]

David Mach’s incredible sculpture, The Devil, is made entirely of matches. It was part of his exhibition “Precious Light: King James Bible – A Celebration 1611-2011” at the City Art Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In an act that was both performative and transformative, David set his sculpture ablaze to create something new and remarkable. The end result was a charred sculpture that looked similar but felt completely different. For those fortunate to witness the transformation, the final artwork is even more startling and impactful.

Below you will find a chronological recount of this fascinating process. Be sure to watch the video at the bottom of the post. Not only do you get to see the work set ablaze, but David provides an interview as well.

First spotted by scorecardup on Reddit

Being a sculptor leads everything I do. Every project I take on starts from that point.

I believe that an artist must be an ideasmonger responding to all kinds of physical location, social and political environments, to materials, to processes,to timescales and budgets.

I also believe that sculpture just about encompasses everything – a painting can be a sculpture, a TV ad can be a sculpture, a dance, a performance, a film, a video – all of thse kinds of art and many more can be sculpture.

When I have ideas I want to make them, and not just some of them, but all of them. As a result of that my sculpture covers a multitude of sins. I like to work in as many different materials as possible. It’s no understatement to say I am a materials junkie – jumping from highly-painted realistic cast fibreglass pieces to sculpture with coathangers, to a thatched barn roof laced with fibre-optics to designs for camera obscuras (or at least the buildings to house them) and layouts for parks.

Recently, collage has had a huge influence on my sculpture. I spend so much time on collage, looking at, sorting out, re-arranging, and sticking thousands of images a week that ideas for sculpture will pop into my head whole, complete with a list of materials to make them with and a take on the different environments, museums and galleries they will inhabit.

The sculpture you will see in this section covers a lot of figurative work, made from a variety of materials, Scrabble pieces, dominoes, coathangers, heads from matches, fibreglass installations on ships and performance outside in the street, but you will have to jump from heading to heading to get the full range of my sculpture.

A new species of Leaf Chameleons (Brookesia) from northern Madagasar have been discovered and they are the tiniest in the world. Adult males of the species grow to just over a half-inch (16 mm) from nose to bottom and about 1 inch (30 mm) from nose to tail. This makes them one of the smallest vertebrates ever found on Earth! Two smaller vertebrates include the male angler fish and a tropical frog (shown below).

The team of researchers, led by Frank Glaw, searched for the tiny lizards at night as they slept. While they sleep ‘up’ in the branches, those branches are a mere 4 inches (10 cm) off the ground (still a distance at their size!). The team found the tiny reptiles in the northern region of Madagascar during expeditions between 2003 and 2007.

For the full scientific article, be sure to visit the open access journal PLoS one.

Sources

- PLoS ONE: Rivaling the World’s Smallest Reptiles
- Live Science: World’s Tiniest Chameleon Discovered
- Live Science: Small Claims – Big Debate Over Tiniest Creature Title

The Ninety Mile Beach is a sandy stretch of south-eastern coastline of Victoria, Australia along the Gippsland Lakes region of East Gippsland on Bass Strait. The beach is just over 151 kilometres (94 mi) long running north-eastward from a spit near Port Albert to the man-made channel at Lakes Entrance. The beach is located just over 250 kilometres (160 mi) from Melbourne and can be reached from the South Gippsland Highway passing the coastal towns of Woodside, Seaspray, Golden Beach, and Loch Sport.

The beach is made up of long sandy dunes which separate the various lakes and lagoons from the ocean. For the northern part of its route the beach runs along a sandbar on what amounts to a series of tidal islands and behind which are several large lakes and numerous shallow littoral lagoons. The three main lakes are Lake King, Lake Victoria and Lake Wellington. The area comprises The Lakes National Park. [Source]

The comments on the original post and a search on Tineye did not identify the source of the picture. Similar, but not identical photos were spotted in a Google Image search that sourced Tourism Victoria, but I was unable to find an exact match. Please let us know in the comments if you know who the photographer is.

The Langkawi Sky Bridge is a 125 metre (410 ft) curved pedestrian cable-stayed bridge in Malaysia. It is located 700 metres (2,300 ft) above sea level at the peak of Gunung Mat Chinchang on Pulau Langkawi, an island in the Langkawi archipelago in Kedah. The Langkawi Sky Bridge is accessible by the Langkawi Cable Car and offers stunning views of the surround area. [Source: Wikipedia]

Helicopter pilot Mike Schaeffer and Panhandle Helicopter owner JR Hott captured this incredible phenomenon along the coast of Panama City Beach in Florida. When the conditions are just right (a perfect mix of temperature, humidity and winds), a dramatic fog rolls over the high-rise condos located right on the coastline. Apparently this may happen only a handful of times a year. These photos were taken on February 5th, 2012 @ 12:40pm local time.

Panhandle Helicopter offers various helicopter tours as well as aerial photography services. The company was purchased by the Hott family in 2008. The helicopter can hold up to 3 passengers (max weight of 300 lbs per seat) and is restricted to a radium of 25-miles.

Witnessing one of these events in momentous enough, but both at the same time? That’s what happened to photographer James Appleton when he captured this fantastic shot in Iceland. Check out his description below [via National Geographic]:

A volcanic eruption and the eruption of light from charged particles in the atmosphere—called the Northern Lights—occur at the same time in Iceland. The island nation was created by volcanic activity and today has 35 active volcanoes, which provide the country with plentiful geothermal power.

Welcome to the Shirk Report where you will find the 20 funniest images, 10 most interesting articles, and 5 most viral videos from the previous week of sifting. Enjoy!

*For those that prefer the links open in a new tab/window, try holding the CTRL key whilst clicking a link with your mouse

Stay sifty my friends

20 IMAGES

- 720 Double-Tail Whip. What’s up
- New Troll Fan killing it right now ||| Exhibit B
- In China, no brand is safe from appropriation
- Haters gonna hate ||| The remix ||| Again! ||| AGAIN!!
- Rare photos of famous people past and present. Great gallery
- Dog is photographed from an awkward angle
- The Sugar in Things
- 5pm Tuesday
- Don’t tell me what to do
- Takin’ sh!t to the next level
- David Robinson Getting Photobombed Hard
- “Hold me back dawg”
- Fun with statues
- Message in a bottle for the 21st Century
- Meanwhile at Wal Mart
- Friends Face Swap Makes Me Uncomfortable
- An excellent hiding spot
- How could she not smile?
- Poor execuution
- Priceless expression

10 ARTICLES

- 10 Controversial Pictures and Why
- List of Crazy Items the TSA Seized Last Week. What were people thinking?
- Every World Press Photo Winner from 1955-2011
- The Mystery Monk Making Billions With 5-Hour Energy (thx again Mr. Morton!)
- The Best of LIFE: 37 Years in Pictures
- The GoPro Army: How a scrappy little camera company turned its customers into a stoked sales force and became a $250 million industry (thx for sharing Morton!)
- Rock Legends Posing with their Parents
- 21 CEOs Name Some of Their Favourite Books
- Visiting the Actual Star Wars Locations in Tunisia
- How Companies Learn Your Secrets (long but fascinating read. Thanks to both Mr. M Stoute and Mr. D Ruta for sharing)
 

5 VIDEOS

Thx for sharing Sifted Videos!

Gyroscopic self-leveling pool table on board a cruise ship. Thx for sharing @MikeChops!

Thx for sharing Peter K J!

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In this striking multiple exposure shot, Korean photographer Ho-Yeol Ryu shows an assortment of planes taking off at Hannover Airport in Germany. While it may seem like a lot of airplanes, this scene is quite typical. Now just imagine this occurring at airports all over the world, every single day of the year and you start to realize just how much air traffic there really is. Be sure to check out the startling simulation of air traffic in a 24-hour period below, it may surprise a few of you
 
*Update Feb. 18, 2012: @flyingwithfish has done a very intriguing analysis that proves this image is a work of art vs a multiple exposure, our apologies. From the actual planes/airlines seen in the picture, to the takeoff positioning relative to the airport; @flyingwithfish’s post is a worthwhile read.

A few additional reasons below (updated Feb. 22, 2012):

- The size of the planes are all relatively the same in the image but not in real life (e.g., Boeing 747s and 777s)
- Several of the airplanes/airlines do not serve Hannover (e.g., Air NZ Link ATR-72-500)
- An actual multiple exposure shot so many times for each aircraft shown in this image would result in overblown white field (and things in background like cloud formation would likely have changed)