Commentary Ticker
- Irony In Stone: Ancient Greek Statues Dressed as Modern Hipsters
June 19, 2013 | 9:40 amAfter a day spent wandering around the Louvre in Paris, France, studying the idyllic nude bodies of ancient Greek statues, photographer Léo Caillard got to wondering about the nature of clothing. Each of the statues represented the maximization of human perfection—the human body taken to the extreme. But most people don’t have the ideal Greek [...]
- When in Rome… Make Better Concrete: How An Ancient Mix Beats Today’s Best
June 18, 2013 | 10:40 pmFrom the Hoover Dam and the Burj Khalifa to the Panama Canal, concrete underlies the greatest of modern architectural achievements. But modern concrete, it seems, doesn’t hold a candle to Ancient Rome’s. A little history for you: the Romans were the first to engineer concrete in mass, and it was upon this concrete that they [...]
- Google Wants Balloon Internet for Everybody
June 15, 2013 | 11:06 am“Balloons. That’s right. Balloons,” says the voice of a young girl in a video for Google’s latest endeavor: bringing the world online with massive balloons. The initiative, called Project Loon, comes from Google X, the experimental lab within the company whose sole purpose is to dream up big, borderline insane, ideas. Google X created self-driving [...]
- Watch Researchers Discover a Sunken Egyptian City
June 13, 2013 | 9:36 pmThonis, the legendary port city that served as an entryway to the Egyptian empire, was long considered to be a myth. The tales of its immense power and vast riches conflicted with the evidence of its existence—mainly that there was none. Cities of such grandeur do not typically disappear off the face of the earth. [...]
- “I Am The Nucleus” and Other Bizarre Quotes By Kanye West
June 12, 2013 | 10:06 amKanye West says the darndest things. On his unrelenting quest to become his own species of hip-hop artist, he has established a reputation as irreverent, controversial, and unapologetic. Though he makes time for public grandstanding by claiming a US President “doesn’t care about black people” or interrupting the VMAs, he remains mostly quiet when it [...]
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Incredible Images: Finalists from Smithsonian’s Annual Photo Contest
A solar eclipse while the sun is setting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May 20, 2012. Photographed by Colleen Pinski of Peyton, Colorado
For ten years Smithsonian Magazine has held their annual photo contest that attracts some of the greatest images from around the world. On March 4, 2013, Smithsonian posted the finalists from the 2012 entries. The images come from the contests five categories: The American Experience, The Natural World, People, Travel, and Altered Images.
The Airspace collected 13 of the 50 incredible finalists here. You can view all of the images on the Smithsonian site, and vote for your favorite to win the Reader’s Choice award.
Rice plots in the Bac Son Valley, Vietnam. Photographed by Hai Thinh Hoang, of Hanoi
Ants holding seeds, by Eko Adiyanto, of West Java, Indonesia.
Lone Acacia, Sossusvlei Sand Dunes, Namibia. Photographed by Bob Bush of Altadena, California
Bagan, Myanmar photographed by Han Tha, from Yangon, Myanmar
Musicians arriving at a bullring in Quito, Ecuador. Taken by Raul Amaru Linares, of Bogota, Colombia
A man-made ice geyser in Duluth, Minnesota, by Nathan Carlsen, of Duluth
Streets of Chicago, by Javier Arcenillas of Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain
Aftermath of Iowa tornado, in Mapleton, Iowa. Photographed by Timothy Wright of Omaha, Nebraska
Rice terraces in La Pan Tan, Mu Cang Chay, Yen Bai, Vietnam. Taken by Vo Anh Kiet of Ho Chi Minh City
Policemen run across the National Congress in Brasilia during a demonstration. Photographed by Olivier Boels from Brasilia, Brazil
Altered image of Il Duomo di Firenze, by Garret Suhrie of Los Angeles, California
River ferry in Xiao Donjiang, China, by Teng Hin Khoo, of Shah Alam, Malaysia
Attribtution
Smithsonian Photo Contest 2012
The Atlantic