Link roundup

1. Use Google Alerts as an Identity Theft Watchdog.

2. Relatedly, find out how old Google thinks you are.

3. And here's one more: Ever since the big Google Reader change, the "explore" function has been useless - - I used to find lots of neat links there, but now it just shows me Lifehacker and XKCD posts (and I'm already subscribed to those feeds!). I'm guessing that the Explore feature never points to obscure, cool posts any more because it's now reliant on Google+, and no one uses Google+ to mark blog posts they like.

4. Visit The Village from The Prisoner on Google Maps.

5. Free download of an audiobook version of Cory Doctorow's Martian Chronicles.

Link roundup

1. Like the Prisoner, but with good intentions:

Its detractors may end up dubbing it "Dementiaville", but Switzerland is brushing aside a debate raging among geriatric-care experts with plans to build a mock-1950s village catering exclusively for elderly sufferers of Alzheimer's and other debilitating mental illnesses.

Via.

2. "What do Army junior officers actually recommend reading?: Their own top 10."

3. A hobbyist piloting a drone spotted a river of blood - - a meatpacking plant in Dallas was simply ejecting blood into the river. Via.

4. Sam Wolfe Connelly has a new shop featuring some illustrations I've featured.

5. Paul Pape's having a sale on his custom made stuck in carbonite sculptures.

11 churches (and one minaret)

Reading Between the Lines in Belgium.



Chêne chapelle in France.



Las Lajas Sanctuary in Colombia.



Holy Family Shrine in Nebraska.



Borgund Stave Church in Norway.



Church at Stow-on-the-Wold, England.





Rainbow Church by Tokujin Yoshioka.




Our Lady of the Rocks in Montenegro's Bay of Kotor.




The United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in Colorado.





The Tree of Life Chapel by Imago inside St. James Seminary in Braga, Portugal.




The Green Cathedral in the Netherlands.





The Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan.

Link roundup

1. Christmas comics by Kate Beaton.

2. 58 Joralemon Street in Brooklyn is a brownstone that's actually a disguised emergency subway exit in New York.

3. M.S. Corley illustrated a version of The Jungle Book for the iPad.

4. Will Leitch on his childhood:

The main daydream I had: that there were a vast number of people out there, somewhere, who were just fascinated with my life, who were obsessed with everything I was doing, who needed constant updates on my love life, my grades at school, my stats on the baseball team. This is probably not unusual, or at least I hope not: For a kid in a small town who was neither tall nor short, fast nor slow, cute nor ugly, the most fantastical notion my 12-year-old brain could concoct was that someone in the world might care that I existed. I imagined these people as breathless fans who cheered my successes and mourned my failures. Rather than write a diary, I put together something called "The Will Street Journal," which actually posited my day-to-day existence in newspaper form. Sample headlines included "Nikki From Biology Passed Note To Will Thursday" and "Church Camp Is Next Month: Will Will Find a Girl?" (I balanced out the hard-hitting metro section with a sports page in which I merely copied the current standings from the Mattoon Journal-Gazette.) I'd even give myself little quotes, like, "I'm hopeful camp will work out this year. Last year was a bust, but I'm still looking forward to it." After all, with fans beckoning, you had to release a statement; you had to say something. I actually did this. I don't think anyone ever read it, though if my parents did, they were kind enough to have never told me.

5. io9 has a frame by frame breakdown of the Prometheus trailer.

*Buy Prometheus posters at eBay.

Link roundup

1. "The Shell Grotto is an ornate subterranean passageway in Margate, Kent. Almost all the surface area of the walls and roof is covered in mosaics created entirely of seashells, totalling about 2,000 square feet of mosaic, or 4.6 million shells. It was discovered in 1835 but its age remains unknown." Via.

2. Free font designed to be turned into papercraft letters. Like so.

3. Mike Doyle posted some close-ups showing how he creates his Lego decaying mansions.

Link roundup

(The last batch of starred items saved in Google Reader.)


The Mississippi River Basin Model. Via.




"World champion freediver Guillaume Nery special dive at Dean's Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world filmed entirely on breath hold by the french champion Julie Gautier. This video is a FICTION and an ARTISTIC PROJECT." Via.




Pete Rose via.




"Zuckerberg's Bizarre Facebook Insignia Revealed, And What It Means." Via.




April Fool's prank makes a copier voice-activated. Via.

Alice in Wonderland-esque climbing wall

Nendo:

The second branch of the ILLOIHA fitness club is located on two below-ground floors of a building. Since the gym is spread out over the two floors, we decided to use a studio with an unusual two-story ceiling to unify the space.

To express the original brand concept of "becoming beautiful through movement", we chose the theme "rock-climbing in Omotesando" and developed a design that uses the mismatch between a rugged outdoor sport and Tokyo's fashion district to its advantage. Instead of the usual rough and outdoorsy climbing wall, we came up with the idea of using interior design elements like picture frames, mirrors, deer heads, bird cages and flower vases to create a challenging wall with hard-to-find holds and unusual finger grips. We hope that our uniquely Omotesando-style climbing wall inspires newcomers to try out the sport, and starts a new wave in fitness with style.

Via these sites.

Pool on the beach (right on the beach)

The Bondi Icebergs Club features a salt water pool. There's pool cams if you want to check out the current conditions. Via.

Link roundup

1. Envelope with mysterious styrofoam cube.

2. "A German Ghost Town in the Heart of China." Via.

3. "How to Fix Internet Embarrassments and Improve Your Online Reputation."

Link roundup

1. Kim Jon-Il's exiled grandson is named Han Sol.

2. Hand signals used by restaurant staff. Via.

3. Mysterious Russian radio tower. Via.

4. The Daily seems to be doing terribly, but it does feature a lot of great articles, such as this one about Zach Baron's misadventures in Las Vegas.