teratocybernetics:

taktophoto:

the most beautiful abandoned places and modern ruins i’ve ever seen

Oh, wow, can I visit these?

teratocybernetics:

quirkyprotagonist:

Nastya Zhidkova – albino model

She captivates me tonight.

Holy shit.

theremina:

laurennmcc:

Sworn Virgins of Albania – Women who have chosen to live their lives as men. 

(Portraits by Jill Peters)

“Sworn Virgin” is the term given to a biological female in the Balkans who is chosen, usually at an early age, to take on the social identity of a man for life. As a tradition dating back hundreds of years, this was necessary in societies that lived within tribal clans, followed the Kanun, an archaic code of law, and maintained an oppressive rule over the female gender.The Kanun states that women are considered to be the property of their husbands. The freedom to vote, drive, conduct business, earn money, drink, smoke, swear, own a gun or wear pants was traditionally the exclusive province of men. Young girls were commonly forced into arranged marriages, often with much older men in distant villages. 

As an alternative, becoming a  Sworn Virgin, or ‘burnesha” elevated a woman to the status of a man and granted her all the rights and privileges of the male population. In order to manifest the transition such a woman cut her hair, donned male clothing and sometimes even changed her name.  Male gestures and swaggers were practiced until they became second nature. Most importantly of all, she took a vow of celibacy to remain chaste for life. She became a “he”. This practice continues today but as modernization inches toward the small villages nestled in the Alps , this archaic tradition is increasingly seen as obsolete. Only a few aging Sworn Virgins remain. The number of new cases are scant and tend to be considered less authentic by younger generations.’

infinity-imagined:

City lights photographed from the International Space Station and Neurons imaged with fluorescence microscopy.

Source images; Cities (1) (2) (3) (4) (5), Neurons (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

darklyeuphoric:

Prada Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear

I might call this “Orwell Chic.” Grim and utilitarian, yet subversive in the details.

Sarah Mower writes for Style.com:

One thing’s for certain: Miuccia Prada is not going to the eighties disco for Fall. Instead, her collection seemed to be a call for austerity measures, if that’s what you can read into boiled wool forties-style coats and suits, clothes that might have been appropriated from domestic upholstery fabric, and (possibly for women going back to the land for survival) kinky fishing waders. It was a bizarre take on utility even Prada found hard to explain. “I didn’t want to do anything about the city,” she said, “more something about sport and the outdoors in general—freedom and nature. But in the end, I realized I liked coats and suits. It was serious, in a way. It was about a need for feminine empowerment.” Prada’s women, with their violently frizzed-up hair, certainly had a disconcerting look about them as they advanced, with red-rimmed glitter-ringed eyes catching the light with a nearly malevolent glint. What they were wearing was constructed from substantial tweed and stiff leather, slit to reveal sexually incendiary flashes of naked leg and red knit underwear.

vietnamization:

Lenin at the Bottom of the World;

Scientists trekking towards the South Pole of Inaccessibility were rather surprised to find a bust of Soviet revolutionary Bolshevik Vladimir Lenin peering across the icy wastelands towards the former Soviet Empire.

The bust marks the place where an old Soviet base was established and occupied for a few weeks in 1958.  The cabin which made up the base now lies buried under the ice.  Before the Soviet team left, they fixed a bust of Lenin on the chimney which is now the only part of the structure visible over the ice.

The Inaccessibility Pole marks the point on Antarctica that is furthest from the ocean. At 3718 meters above sea-level it is in the Australian zone and seldom visited.  Supposedly, if you dig down through the ice and into the remains of the cabin, you’ll find a golden visitors book to sign.

scienceetfiction:

The Postman (1997), Directed and interpreted by Kevin Costner, adapted from a novel by David Brin published in 1985.