Don’t get me wrong. I love my Lego bracelets, my Lego earrings, and my Lego hair clip. I enjoy using our Lego ice cube tray, Lego salt & pepper shakers, and Lego minifig kitchen timer. I’m just not sure yet how I feel about these Lego nose studs. Maybe there is a limit to alternative uses for our household’s favorite polymer-based plaything.

I am willing to risk sacrificing my office’s paper shredder in an attempt to try to make these.

Oh Bret and Jermaine, say it isn’t so!

I’m still reeling from the news posted on the Flight of the Conchords site yesterday that there will be no season 3, no more episodes, no more Flight of the Conchords. It was our family’s favorite show. Ouch. At least we still have the music. If I could just get my kids to stop singing “Mutha’uckas” at school…

Found via What’s Alan Watching?.

According to this Chinese media blog, the city of Wuhan was isolated from the outside world earlier this week by extreme fog, with some of the freeways into the city being closed for up to 9 hours. The photographs published by the Wuhan Evening News are stunning.

Coat hooks or the coolest holiday decorations ever?

Found via the always excellent Badder Homes and Gardens.

And you thought your neighborhood was trashy. I found it hard to believe, but Mokattam Ridge in Cairo is a real place, and there is actually this much garbage there. A community of Coptic Christians called the Zabbaleen live there and make their living by collecting, sorting and disposing of Cairo’s waste. This striking photo taken by Bas Princen shows how Mokattam Ridge lives up to it’s nickname of “Garbage City”.

Mokattam Ridge, Cairo (Garbage City) by Bas Princen

I was amazed at these photos of the Lockheed Aircraft Plant in Burbank, California being camouflaged during WWII with huge swaths of painted canvas to make it look like a residential neighborhood from the sky. My folks grew up in LA and my father tells me that similar camouflage techniques were also used at North American and LAX. Sadly, there only seems to be seven published photos of this effort. Check out the whole set and larger versions of the images at MilitaryPhotos.net.

Before and after images of hiding Lockheed:

Side of a building or a grassy hill?

I wonder what kind of tricks our government has up its sleeve to obscure defense installations in these days of high-resolution satellite imagery and Google Earth?

Thanks, Mom!

I love the new photography site Pictory put together by Laura Brunow Miner. It combines themed, high-quality, user-contributed photos with short narratives about each image. Check out the Overseas and Overwhelmed feature (25 true stories about culture shock) to get a taste of what’s to come here. I’ll be checking back often.

In Living Color by Adam Rose

Found via Daring Fireball.

We just got back from Los Angeles where we celebrated my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary! Congratulations Mom and Dad!! Here are some photos from one of the parties. Arlo was also documenting the event with Monique’s camera phone, I’m wondering if he got any better pictures…

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Flickr set of Anniversary Party photos

Not in this amazing stop-motion video put together by the New Zealand Book Council. This style of video-making seems to have had a resurgence in recent months, with a spate of Lego-based stop-motion clips making the rounds. This is the most impressive example I’ve seen so far.

Found via AdCritic.