In this photo from 1926, we see George A. Van Biesbroeck (1880-1974), an astronomer at Yerkes Observatory, observing Mars when it approached close to the Earth that year. Van Biesbroeck is shown using the observatory’s 40 inch refracting telescope, the largest of its kind in the world.

A refracting or refractor telescope is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image. The refracting telescope design was originally used in spy glasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used for long focus camera lenses. Although large refracting telescopes were very popular in the second half of the 19th century, for most research purposes the refracting telescope has been superseded by the reflecting telescope.

George Bokhua is an illustrator and graphic designer from Tbilisi, Georgia. Last month, Bokhua posted a series of animal illustrations to Behance that used negative space to give the animals their recognizable form.

You can find highlights of the series below. Be sure to check out George Bokhua’s entire portfolio on Behance for more creative illustrations and graphic design.

This is the breathtaking view from the outdoor pool at the Cambrian Hotel in Adelboden, Switzerland. Situated amid the pristine scenery of the Swiss Alps with mountain views in every direction, the year round destination is also within walking distance to the closest ski hill.

On May 23, 2013, LEGO unveiled the world’s largest LEGO model, a 1:1 replica of the LEGO® Star Wars™ X-Wing starfighter, in New York’s Times Square. The massive replica took 32 master builders, five million LEGO bricks and over 17,000 hours to complete.

The model weighs nearly 20,865 kilograms (46,000 pounds), stands 3.35 meters tall (11 ft) and 13.1 meters long (43 ft), with a wingspan of 13.44 meters (44 ft). The Model will eventually be installed at LEGOLAND® California Resort where it will be for the remainder of the year.

LEGO Star Wars is the original and most successful licensed product collection in The LEGO Group’s history and remains among the best-selling global toy lines.

Some Mind-boggling facts about the world’s largest LEGO model:
• Contains 5,335,200 LEGO bricks
• Weighs 45,980 pounds/20,865 kilograms
• Height: 11 feet / 3.35 meters
• Length: 43 feet / 13.1 meters
• Wingspan: 44 feet / 13.44 meters
• 32 builders spent 17,336 hours to construct – about 4 months
• Built in the LEGO Model Shop in Kladno, Czech Republic
• Is a one-to-one replica of LEGO Star Wars set #9493; The model is 42x the size of the retail building set

[Sources: LEGO.com, CoolThings.com, Wired]

Welcome to the Shirk Report where you will find the 25 funniest images, 10 most interesting articles, and 5 most viral videos from the previous week of sifting. Most images found on Reddit; articles typically originate from Twitter, RSS and email; videos come from a variety of sources. Any suggestions? Send a note to submit@twistedsifter.com!

25 IMAGES

- These goats just discovered a trampoline
- Honeybadger. Still not caring
- Precision flying
- Veteran Moviegoer
- What the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really look like
- What 8 years in the NHL will do to you
- Miguel’s devastating leg drop ( Vid of WWE’s Jim Ross calling it)
- Which way is the subway going? Look again
- Hilary Clinton’s Pant Suit Rainbow
- The third wheel
- Help out your fellow animal
- Nice shot
- College. Where things like three-level couches happen
- Just a minute
- How Superman rides an escalator
- Rice is great
- Shhh it’s a secret
- How macaroni is made
- That’s some classy toilet paper
- Michael Bay got nothing on Bollywood
- Wait for it… x2
- The bowtie/tie supercombo
- Recreating a precious childhood moment
- Winter Summer is Coming
- Who has four paws and is ready for the weekend? This guy

10 ARTICLES

- Inequality and the Modern Culture of Celebrity
- The Creator of the GIF Says It’s Pronounced JIF. He Is Wrong
- Life Lessons in Fighting the Culture of Bullshit
- How the ‘World’s 50 Best’ List Changed the Way Elite Restaurants Do Business
- The Luckiest Village in the World
- Meet the Man Who Sold a Month-Old App to Dropbox for $100M
- Why isn’t New Orleans Mother’s Day parade shooting a ‘national tragedy’?
- Why You Like What You Like
- The Girl Who Turned to Bone
- Welcome to Google Island
 

5 VIDEOS

Experimental House was designed by famed Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in 1952. The house was built to serve as a summer getaway and also as an experimental laboratory to test out construction and architecture philosophies such as: foundation systems, free-form brick construction and passive solar heating. [Source]

According to galinsky.com:

“The house is a simple courtyard scheme with an inward focus and carefully directed views out to nearby Lake Paijanne. The three surrounding enclosures of the courtyard serve as screen, living rooms, and bedchambers. In the middle of the courtyard stands a well-used fire pit. Viewing the inner courtyard walls shows over fifty different types of bricks arranged in countless patterns. The bricks are placed not only to test their aesthetic values, but also to gauge how they hold up in Finland’s harsh climate. Inside, a raised loft area held in tension by large wooden beams was used as a painting studio.”

[Sources: ArchDaily, Nico Saieh Photography, galinsky]

 
The Experimental house is located south of Jyvaskyla and Saynatsalo Town Hall on the water of a village called Muuratsalo. The house is open to the public from June to August (exception: closed June 22 for Midsummer). Guided tours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1:30pm to 3:30pm. Visiting the area is only allowed via the guided tour. The maximum number allowed at one time is twenty people.

From Jyvaskyla in a car: Take 9/E63 south out of the city. Get off on the Saynatsalontie road exit. Take a right onto Saynatsalontie at the end of the curved exit ramp. Saynatsalontie will turn into Kinkomaantie. You’ll cross over a body of water and at the T intersection take a let onto Parviaisentie. After you cross over a bridge take a right onto Saaritie. Two bridge crossings later take a right onto Vuorenlahdenkatu. Stay on Vuorenlahdenkatu and bear left onto Melalammentie. The house is on the right down a small path leading from the road. Check in is at the entry fence near the road.

For more information contact the Alvar Aalto Museum Ticket Office: +358 (0)14 624 809, fax +358 (0)14 619 009, email museum@alvaraalto.fi

Last week, Redditor banana_rhino compiled two large galleries of biopic actors and their real life counterparts (here and here).

From artists and musicians, to politicians and sports figures, the biopic is a popular film type in Hollywood and can be a defining role for many actors. While the selection below runs the gamut of ‘critical acclaim’, the visual resemblance is quite uncanny.

To see the complete galleries compiled by banana_rhino visit the following Imgur albums: ALBUM 1 | ALBUM 2

[via Reddit 1, 2]

In this beautiful capture, the sun is about to come up over the South Pacific Ocean. The colorful scene was photographed by one of the Expedition 35 crew members aboard the Earth-orbiting International Space Station between 4 and 5 a.m. local time, May 5, 2013.

The outpost was at a point above Earth located at 27.4 degrees south latitude and 110.1 degrees west longitude, a few hundred miles east of Easter Island.

It’s hard to believe, but all of the sculptures you see below are made entirely of wood and then painted. The person responsible is artist and educator Tom Eckert, who uses traditional processes to carve, construct, laminate and paint his pieces.

Tom says his preferred woods are basswood, linden and limewood because they carve and paint well and are stable. His background is in painting and drawing, where his focus was on realism. His preferred paint is waterborne lacquer applied using both spray guns and brushes.

Throughout many of Eckert’s pieces you will notice forms carved to suggest cloth. Eckert explains:

“By tradition, cloth has been widely used to conceal and shroud objects in practices ranging from advertising to church rituals. Covered forms are often more evocative – with a sense of mystery absent from the uncovered object by itself… ‘Cloth‘ carved of wood has much different structural qualities than real cloth. When this idea is applied to my compositions (floating book, floating cards, floating rock) a sense of the impossible happens – for me, magic.”

Eckert received his M.F.A. degree from Arizona State University where he now teaches. His outstanding work has exhibited in over 150 national and international exhibitions since 1966 and was part of the Craft in America traveling exhibition.

To see the complete catalogue of his incredible artwork be sure to visit his official website at www.tomeckertart.com. There is also a video at the bottom of this post that provides a glimpse into Eckert’s process.

Designed by Frédéric Bartholdi in collaboration with the French engineer Gustave Eiffel (who was responsible for its frame) and dedicated on October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty is a large neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. The statue was a gift to the United States from the people of France.

The project was a joint effort between the French and American peoples. The French would provide the statue while the Americans would provide the site and build the pedestal.

The Statue of Liberty stands at a height of 151 feet 1 inch (46 meters). From ground to torch it is 305 feet 1 inch (93 meters) tall. It is also recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Below you will find a gallery of rare photos of the Statue of Liberty under construction in 1883. The images are part of the New York Public Library’s Photography Collection.

The Statue of Liberty’s design and construction were recognized at the time as one of the greatest technical achievements of the 19th century. It was hailed as a bridge between art and engineering. The exterior ‘envelope’ was composed of brass plaques, formed by hammering them in hard wood moulds made from plaster models. These plaques were then soldered and riveted together. After Bartholdi prefabricated the figure in Paris by moulding sheets of copper over a steel framework, it was shipped to the United States in 241 crates in 1885. [Source]