My iPhone got wet in the rain in Toronto and subsequently died and I fell out of love a little. But then I got a new one and downloaded some photo apps and the love has returned. If people getting carried away with iPhone apps makes you come out in a rash look away now!

This is my kitchen sink using the Camera Bag Magazine Filter. I love the colors. It doesn’t look quite this atmospheric without the filter.

And this is my favorite, taken with the ShakeItPhoto app – it develops just like a Polaroid! And you can shake it like a Polaroid picture too! Lend me some sugar, I AM your neighbor!

I like this uplifting window display in a store on 7th Ave.

This video by Jonathan Jarvis does a great job of explaining the current credit crisis in clear, visual terms.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Hat Tip: PSFK

The older I get the more I feel like I don’t understand the world. For example, Botox. I don’t understand why anyone would want to paralyze their facial muscles with a poison so that they can possibly look a little younger but mainly just look like they can’t move their face around properly.

I saw this outside a spa in Tribeca:

Oooh fun. Cupcakes, champagne and mild paralysis. Count me in!

The fabulous Sarah Haskins has more on this:

Don’t do it people. As Mark Twain said, “Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.”

This has been such a rollercoaster week. Purple prose aside, I really do feel like I have witnessed something momentous. I’m not an American citizen but I live in this country and, in any case, I think Obama’s victory is something that the whole world has a stake in.

To cut a long story short, I am very, very happy and very, very hopeful.

Here are some photos from the night. I started out at Rockefeller Center before the polls closed in New York and then moved to a friend’s house to watch the results unfold. After the speeches (and much weeping and jumping up and down) we took it to the streets and joined the jubilant crowds at Union Square. I hugged a lot of strangers.

Rockefeller Center lit up and ready for action

Tense and hopeful at our election party

Celebrations at Union Square (I was clearly too excited to hold my camera still!)

Yup!

It ain’t a party without saucepan music!

Happy voting everyone. May the force be with you.

Banksy is at it again – you may have noticed a bunch of really big rats on buildings in downtown NYC. Here are two of them.

UPDATE: And another one!

This is very, very cool: breathingearth.net

It is a real time simulation that displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates. Make sure you move your mouse over the countries to check out their stats.

I’ve always been obsessed with maps. That’s why I love books like You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination and I am really interested to see how people are using new technology to map events, people, places, and ideas in new ways. Thanks to Lina Srivastava for the heads up.

I listened to The Giant Pool of Money show on This American Life earlier this year and felt like I finally understood how the subprime housing crisis had happened and how devastating it was for the people who bought houses they couldn’t afford (I’m sure the collapse of the subprime market was also devastating for the rip-off merchants earning huge amounts doing these deals but I find it hard to feel sorry for them). As one of the affected home-owners, Richard, said in tears: “They put you in a situation where after a while you’re going to fail.” More recently, Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson have followed up on the current financial crisis with Another Frightening Show About The Economy. Both shows are really worth listening to. Good old This American Life!