First thought: the worlds ending.

Or maybe not…

This Los Angeles Times info-graphic made me look twice.

from Sweet Juniper

In other sorta-news, my favorite feral houses back in Brooklyn are staring down the barrel of oblivion.

…but we’ve left town.

You can follow our progress here and there

Invader’s Top 10 exhibit arrives today at Jonathan Levine Gallery

by way of twbe

On Thursday, an online petition began circulating asking Google to go green for a day in support of the Iranian opposition movement and in memorial of those that have died in the post-election violence.

While it is hard to imagine Google stepping into the controversy with such a overt statement, they have contributed – albeit gingerly – by debuting a new Farsi translation service allowing Iranians and the rest of the world to keep lines of communication open during these rapidly developing days.

At Friday prayers, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei demanded that the ongoing protests cease. Calling last week’s elections a “definitive victory” for incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Khamanei mocked the opposition claims of widespread electoral fraud:

“How one can rig 11 million votes?”

“It’s just too early to say but my expertise tells me what is going on is extremely interesting.”

via lucasthorpe

When newlyweds Alex and Heather decided to travel to Iran for a traditional Persian wedding, Alex’s sister Marjan Tehrani  followed and documented their journey. The trip would be Heather’s first to the country and the Tehrani sibling’s first since a childhood visit with their Iranian father in 1977.

Arusi Persian Wedding premieres tonight on PBS’ Independent Lens.

Alex Tehrani’s photography can be seen here

On this day in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip and his First Fleet of twelve ships sailed into Sydney Cove after nearly 7 months at sea.

Hoisting the Union Jack on land just south of what would one day be the site of a famous opera house, these military men began a new experiment in British colonialism: the penal colony.

Over the next 70 years, relying on a policy of forced migration and indentured servitude, the Empire shipped millions of poor and illiterate convicts from Britain and Ireland to a land they knew next to nothing about, creating early settlements at New South Wales, in Van Dieman’s Land, and at Moreton Bay, that would one day – January 1st, 1901 to be exact – form the Commonwealth of Australia.

Famine, free settlers, ethnic cleansing, a gold rush, Lamingtons, fair dinkum, spaghetti on toast, Aussie-rules football, Tim-Tams, the Sydney-Hobart yacht Race, the stubby cooler, and this author were just a few of the many results of this fateful day in history.

Australians of all stripes will be heading to the beach or firing up their barbies today in this, the height of summer the southern hemisphere. Those of you in warmer climes, I suggest you do the same. For the rest of us, make your way to Eight Mile Creek or the Sunburnt Cow and grab a cold one with a few of the estimated 35,000 Australian ex-pats currently living in New York.

Good onya, Aussie!