How are the beaches in Hawaii? Take a look yourself

by Jerry Guo on

I’m sure many of you have a pretty picture of a tropical island or cozy beach hanging up in your office. But here’s a thought: what if you could be there, just for a moment (virtually of course).

You see, recently a batch of “surf-cam” sites have popped up that hosts streaming videos of various beaches across the states–and around the world–taken by cameras set up on everything from hidden bushes to lamp-posts.

Two are particularly well-developed: WaveWatch and Surfline. Sure, you might not be a surfer, but this kind of service is a great way to kick back and daydream a little about the tropical lifestyle. WaveWatch is a very addictive site; you can actually control the video-cams and have a look around the beaches (which are surprisingly empty. At Surfline, you can’t control the cams, but they have more locales (several in Bali, a couple in Europe and Peru, etc).

Eye-opening ruins (but in Detroit?)

by Jerry Guo on

There’s a trove of clubs that go out and explore urban ruins. And if you really think about it, there’s no better place to do that than in Detroit, a city that has been in constant decay for decades (yeah yeah they always seem to have some sort of revitalization project going on).

Two especially interesting, abandoned structures in Detroit happens to be the Michigan Central Station and the Detroit Public Schools Book Depository. These pictures, by the way, all come from a local photographer in Detroit. You can check out more of his shots here.

I just came back from Machu Picchu, the abandoned Incan citadel in the Andes that was rediscovered about a hundred years ago. It’s interesting to think about the parallels and differences between an Incan ruin and a Detroit ruin. In 500 years, will tourists flock to the Michigan Central Station and gawk at it like a work of art? Probably not. To be honest, I don’t think the Empire State Building or Grand Central will even get the star-treatment Machu Picchu gets. Maybe we could learn a thing or two from the Incans.

Snazzy slide-show from NYT readers

by Jerry Guo on

I just came across a well-done slide-show at NYTimes.com entitled “why we travel.” It’s a travelogue written by everyday travelers with their mini-stories from life on the road. What initially caught my eye was the first slide of a guy jogging at Sacsayhuaman (pronounced “Sexy Woman”), an Inca ruin right outside of Cuszo, Peru.

I was there last week and trust me, there were definitely a lot more people at the ruins than from what you would think looking at the shot. I wouldn’t have thought to get up at 5 in the morning, and take a jog there, but now that I think of it, that would be a pretty memorable experience–just watch out for muggers and lack of oxygen.

Anyways, there are some interesting ideas in the slide-show for your next vacation or adventure. Check it out.

Yale to Hand Back 4000 Artifacts to Machu Picchu

by Iva Skoch on

After years of battling over the thousands of pieces of pottery, jewelry and bones, taken from Machu Picchu 90 years ago, Peru is winning the war. The artifacts were lent to Yale University for 18 months but the university has apparently kept them ever since one of its alumni, U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham, rediscovered Machu Picchu in the Andes in 1911.

Like museums in Greece or Egypt trying to get the United Kingdom and other countries to return their ancient treasures, Peru has been fighting to get back theirs from the US. Since we officially frown on imperialism, why do we drag our feet returning that stuff?

Gigapixel Photographs by Scott Howard

by Justin Glow on

Scott Howard spent two days in 2005 taking almost 200 photos from an area near the Adler Planetarium to create this gigantic image of the Chicago skyline at night. Using a piece of software called Zoomify, the images were then stitched together and packaged in a Flash project that allows you to zoom in — waaaaaaay in — on any part of the image.

He used the same technique on two more stunning locations: Sydney, Australia, and Machu Picchu in Peru. Impressive! [via]