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Happy new year to you folks! Let's make it a good one...

Last year I blogged about a set of horrific images of Dubai's labor camps that surfaced on the web. Now Johann Hari uncovers a more gripping and scandalous report on the dark side of Dubai, it's debt problems, slavery, racism and ecological issues:

Once the manic burst of building has stopped and the whirlwind has slowed, the secrets of Dubai are slowly seeping out. This is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades on credit and ecocide, suppression and slavery. Dubai is a living metal metaphor for the neo-liberal globalised world that may be crashing – at last – into history.

This line from one of the workers interviewed for the article sums it up best:

This is the most terrible place! I hate it! I was here for months before I realised – everything in Dubai is fake. Everything you see. The trees are fake, the workers' contracts are fake, the islands are fake, the smiles are fake – even the water is fake!

The dark side of Dubai [Independent]

This underground home, located in the Swiss village of Vals, is set amidst a cluster of mountain houses and if you don't look carefully you might miss it! The most striking thing about this stone house is the majestic Alpine view through a wide, elliptical opening in the hillside, revealing spacious outdoor entertaining areas that lead to the home's main entrance.

Incredible concept! Imagine living in a place like that!

Swiss Mountain House Rocks! [Trendir]
House in Vals [Abitare]

Photo by Ralph Hockens, via Flickr.

The American Dialect Society is now accepting nominations for the "word of the year" of 2009, as well as for the "word of the decade" for 2000-2009.

What is the word or phrase which best characterizes the year or the decade? What expression most reflects the ideas, events, and themes which have occupied the English-speaking world, especially North America? Nominations should be sent to woty@americandialect.org. They can also be made in Twitter by using the hashtag #woty09.

Now accepting nominations for the 2009 "word of the year" and the 2000-9 "word of the decade" [ADS, via Kottke]

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine's version of "America's Got Talent." She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and "sand painting" skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.

All you can do is just stare with your mouth wide open. Absolutely amazing!!!

Sand Animations with Kseniya Simonova [ArtisticThings]

The Wall Street Journal ran a great article recently about the flaws and inconsistencies in wine ratings, based on a study conducted by Robert Hodgson, a retired professor who taught statistics at Humboldt State University.

In his first study, each year, for four years, Mr. Hodgson served actual panels of California State Fair Wine Competition judges—some 70 judges each year—about 100 wines over a two-day period. He employed the same blind tasting process as the actual competition. In Mr. Hodgson's study, however, every wine was presented to each judge three different times, each time drawn from the same bottle. The results astonished Mr. Hodgson. The judges' wine ratings typically varied by ±4 points on a standard ratings scale running from 80 to 100. A wine rated 91 on one tasting would often be rated an 87 or 95 on the next. Some of the judges did much worse, and only about one in 10 regularly rated the same wine within a range of ±2 points.

This is not surprising at all to me. I've been saying for years that wine ratings are subjective. Different people, different tastes.

A Hint of Hype, A Taste of Illusion [WSJ]

Between 1986 and 1990, I made approximately 8,000 color, Hasselblad images on the streets of Communist Europe. I purposely avoided dramatic moments and newsworthy events. In a cityscape without commercial seduction, banality seemed to signify everything. At first I was interested in simple pedestrian traffic. Later I doggedly documented store windows. These seemed to signify the real difference between East and West. Without the garish ad campaigns of the West, these streets felt more neutral... devoid of trumped up and pumped up urgency.

I shop: Communist era store windows [davidhlynsky.com]

There is a lot of controversy going on about the print and video ads from DDB Brazil for WWF (World Wildlife Fund), comparing the events of 9/11 terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and tsunami disasters in Asia. To me, this ad campaign doesn't make any sense. I mean, comparing a terrorist act with a natural disaster? Hello! Don't you have any compassion or what?

WWF today issued the following statement in response:

"We deeply regret that the information we provided, while given in good faith, may not have been completely accurate. We stand by our earlier statements that the ad was utterly inappropriate and should never have seen the light of day. It does not in any way reflect the thoughts and feelings of the people of World Wildlife Fund. Again, WWF-US strongly condemns this ad and offers our sincere and heartfelt apologies."

Full statement here.

Research presented this weekend reinforced previous findings that 90 percent of paper money circulating in U.S. cities contains traces of cocaine. [...] A hundred percent of the sample bills collected from major cities such as Miami, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; and Detroit, Michigan, tested positive for cocaine, but samples collected from smaller cities such as Salt Lake City, Utah; Niagara Falls, New York; and Dearborn, Michigan, had 87 to 67 percent.

WOW! That should really boost the dollar exchange rate through the roof.

90 percent of U.S. bills carry traces of cocaine [CNN]

I stumbled upon an amazing collection of photographs of Detroit, MI today. All the photos were taken within the last 5 years, all within the City of Detroit, MI. Amazing!

These seven artists have been working in the city as explorers, adventurers and pioneers for years to capture the city as it changes, evolves, devolves and transforms into something unbelievable, profound and heartbreaking. In the end they hope as a group to show Detroit as it is, not what it should be or what it was, but how it is. This in itself a provocative gesture as there are not many who feel content with the Detroit of today.

7 CONTEMPORARY DETROIT PHOTOGRAPHERS [MitchCope.com]

[Via Boing Boing, Photo credit: Mitch Cope]

Shocking and totally unexpected... R.I.P. Michael Jackson (1958 – 2009) [Filter27]

I'll be buying some fresh vinyl. You should too.

Reminder: Its a Record Store Day this weekend! [Filter27]

This site is now a part of my daily entertainment. Hilarious fail funny stories that you won't be able to resist once you start reading the site regularly. Genius and highly recommended!

Here's a couple of sample "stories" for ya:

Today, the girl I've had a crush on forever asked me why the pin on my Letterman jacket had two guys doing it. I told her it was for participating in a wrestling tournament. And she responded, "Oh I thought you were finally coming out of the closet!" FML

Today, I received my passport in the mail. They got my birthdate wrong. Then I picked up my birth certificate that I had sent in with the application. Turns out my parents have been celebrating my birthday on the wrong day for 16 years. FML

FMyLife: My life sucks but I don't give a f***

I can't get over this photo of Gisele Bundchen in the February 2009 issue of Italian Elle magazine. I've been staring at it all day long, no idea why. Stunning shot!

Gisele Bundchen in Elle Magazine, February 2009 [RandomHot]

A new major report by the Center for an Urban Future concludes that New York’s longstanding legacy as a place that both sustained a large middle class and elevated people from poorer backgrounds into the middle class is now in serious jeopardy:

In recent years, however, major changes have greatly diminished the city’s ability to both retain and create a sizable middle class. Even as the inflow of new arrivals to New York has surged to levels not seen since the 1920s, the cost of living has spiraled beyond the reach of many middle class individuals and, particularly, families. Increasingly, only those at the upper end of the middle class, who are affluent enough to afford not only the sharply higher housing prices in every corner of the city but also the steep costs of child care and private schools, can afford to stay—and even among this group, many feel stretched to the limits of their resources.

Not surprisingly, the so-called middle class can no longer afford to live in New York and are relocating in large numbers to the suburbs or cities like Houston and others:

The "New York City premium" on goods and services from housing and groceries to utilities and transportation means that a $60,000 salary earned in Manhattan is the equivalent of making $26,092 in Atlanta; $31,124 in Miami; and $35,405 in Boston. In less-expensive Queens, that same $60,000 salary carries only as much purchasing power as $37,451 in Atlanta, $44,673 in Miami, or $50,819 in Boston.

Yup, the numbers are sobering...

City of Aspiration [PDF, via Center for an Urban Future, via Gothamist]

This year's Great Performers issue of the New York Times Magazine features stunning photographs by Paolo Pellegrin. My favorites are Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Penelope Cruz pictured above.

Great Performers: Photographs by Paolo Pellegrin [NYTimes]

Sad news from Gothamist:

The city lost one its quintessential characters Sunday when the enigmatic Joe Ades died after decades spent selling his $5 vegetable peelers at the Union Square Greenmarket, and other locations around town. Ades, born in Manchester, England, was an unavoidable and entertaining presence at Union Square, and eventually became something of a media darling for his loud, hypnotic patter; his distinctive suits; and his incongruous Park Avenue address.

I used to see Joe peeling carrots and potatoes with his "magic" peeler almost every other day. The Union Square Green Market will not be the same without him. What a man and a character! R.I.P.

Photo credit: killthebird, via Flickr.