Smokers gonna smoke, even if the decades-old War Against Cigarettes has exiled the persecuted puffers to outdoor shelters where no one wants to linger.

Forever A Logan

Someone oughta point out how disturbingly inappropriate it is to display a “SKYJACK” company logo at Boston’s Logan Airport… just don’t mention it when you’re lined up at Security. That said, this rather passive-aggressively designed “Designated Smoking Area” ironically demands users be considerate with their refuse, while the design reflects a bare minimum of consideration for smokers’ comfort and privacy. Flickr member Wil C. Fry snapped the bare-bones smoking shelter in late June of 2014.

Green Deal

Contrast Logan Airport’s glorified bus stop with the much more welcoming set-up above. You’d thing they WANT smokers to stick around… and you would be correct, because the Smoking Area above is an extension of a British pub. Comfort is a relative thing, however, and one wonders how these open-air nicotine nooks will fare over the average inclement English winter… and spring, summer and fall. Flickr member Gordon Joly took the photo above outside a pub in Westferry, London, in July of 2007.

Unfiltered

This abandoned, overgrown and partially-collapsed smoking shelter in Sunnyside, NY appears to have been erected on a roadside – if that’s indeed the end of a yellow guard rail we spy just outside the entrance. We’re not sure why anyone would use this shelter other than to take cover from a sudden storm, which may partly explain why it’s in such a neglected state… of repair, not of the Union. Flickr member Jason Eppink stopped by for a snapshot in June of 2013.

On Location

The long-running (since December of 1960) British TV soap Coronation Street has long-featured scenes shot in the smoking shelter above, proving that even the venerable Rovers Return Inn’s gotta follow the law of the land. When Flickr member Mikey visited the “Corrie” set in Manchester in late August of 2014, he made a point of sneaking ’round the back of the pub to check out – and likely test out – this most famous of smoking shelters.

Inhales In Wales

Smoking may be tightly regulated nowadays but smoking shelter design remains remarkably rule-free. Thus, for every miserable minimalist lean-to there’ll be a sumptuously furnished sanctuary like the hexagonal hut above. Flickr member Permacultural photographed this ornate refuge in March of 2012 while visiting the Artist’s Valley in Furnace, Wales. No doubt one might be tempted to take up smoking just to enjoy the rustic roost’s cloying creature comforts!

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Liquor by any other name may sell the same but these closed and abandoned ‘package’ stores couldn’t succeed in what most say is a can’t-miss business.

The OTHER White Castle

What the heck is a “package store”, anyway? Why not call a spade a spade? Blame the lingering effects of the Twenty-first Amendment that repealed the Eighteenth Amendment (aka Prohibition) but left alcohol marketing in the hands of individual states. Local idioms and societal culture led to retail outlets being named Package stores, ABC (Alcohol Beverage Control) stores, and South Carolina’s famous Red Dot stores.

Flickr member Robby Virus captured the shuttered store above, located in Omaha, Nebraska, in July of 2016. Sad to say that even including “package” and “liquor” on the sign couldn’t stanch the flow of red ink.

Don’t Drink OR Drive

Prohibition was literally the Law of the Land for over a decade – and for some states, even longer: Mississippi didn’t relax its state-wide booze ban ’til 1966. Other states such as Connecticut went the Package Store (“packie”, in local parlance) route, as shown in the above shot of an abandoned gas station / package store combo (“two great tastes that taste great together”) snapped by Flickr member Greg (63vwdriver) in the summer of 2016.

Dispeptic

What isn’t rusted is faded (and vice versa) at this VERY long-abandoned market and package store in Belcher Square, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. How long? Well, that particular Pepsi logo was used between 1940 and 1950 so… yeah. Flickr member Lisa DeLange (LisaSez) captured the desolate, post-apocalyptic storefront in December of 2009.

Coors’s, Foiled Again

You won’t find any Coors (or any Coors-competitors) in this ramshackle abandoned package store in Federalsburg, MD. Plenty of free parking, though… just don’t park a hot vehicle over those mangy weeds. Flickr member Adam Myers (adamkmyers) snapped this way overgrown and woefully understaffed wobbly-pop shop in the fall of 2016.

Packaged Deal

This blockhouse-like abandoned package store in Watertown, MA would make a great anti-zombie fortress, even without shelves stocked with “adult beverages”. We can’t say why this structure, seemingly built to withstand an atomic apocalypse, couldn’t withstand the mid-2000s retail apocalypse. Flickr member ChinatownKicks recorded the concrete cube corner colossus for posterity in May of 2008.

Joe’s Deli-cate Condition

It’s a Package Store, it’s a Deli, it’s… the poster child for abandoned shops! It’s not certain which of the two buildings dispensed drinks while the other served eats but both have seen better days, MANY days ago. Likely the same can be said for “Joe”.

Flickr member DjD-567 visited the decrepit and decayed short-bus of strip malls in Brimfield, MA back in October of 2011. “The inside is in much worse shape, from what I saw through the window,” states the photographer. Contrast that with the still sharp-looking sign out front – Joe shoulda got his sign guy to work on the interior.

Flown the Coop

Signs are known for their staying power; sometimes a store’s sign manages to hang (literally) around longer than the store itself. Such was the case at Cooper’s Package Store on New Park Avenue in Hartford. CT. Nothing lasts forever, mind you. “I’m so glad you got a picture of this sign,” stated one commenter at Flickr member Pixel (improbcat)’s post dated September 17 of 2008. “I went there to photograph it a few weeks ago and it’s gone.” One might say, this package has been de-livered, de-listed, and deleted. We’d buy Pixel a drink in tribute to their excellent timing but… oh.

Telltale signs of snowflake-ization are all around if one knows where to look but these 10 “Beware Of” signs prove we really are living in a world of hurt.

This bit of fore-shadowing comes courtesy of Pixabay member aitoff and Charleston, SC golf bag retailer The Elliott Company. The seriously circumspect sign at the Royal North Devon Golf Club in Bideford, UK could relay several different meanings – just ask any “golf widow”. Note that the golf bag, artfully propped beneath the weathered sign, features a miniature replica of said sign. Impressive, even if you’re not Xzibit.

MAXI Driving Excitement

When driving in the UAE, one must expect the unexpected… if you don’t believe us, just read the sign. Flickr member Jerry “Woody” (woody1778a) snapped the er, surprisingly ambiguous sign while on a 2006 road trip through the Emirates.

Subtracters Say…

I was told there would be no math… oh, you mean snakes. That’s umm, NOT better, right Indy? In April of 2009, Flickr member WordRidden was moved to photograph the above warning sign in Goonhilly Downs, which just happens to be located on the UK’s most southerly point of land… The Lizard. Aha, now it’s all adding up.

Fronds in High Places

Don’t stand, don’t stand, don’t stand so close to tree. Just imagine: if Isaac Newton had lived in Hawaii instead of England there would be no gravity today, and therefore, no need for this warning sign. Seriously though, getting conked on your coconut BY a coconut is no laughing matter. Physics can’t be reckoned with, no matter how many palms you grease. Flickr member anokarina snapped this ominously armed & fabulous tree early in 2013.

Panic at the Disc, Oh!

Alien abduction just ahead, hold onto your butts! Flickr member Michel Curi chanced upon this odd – some might say “otherworldly” – warning sign from Largo, Florida in the spring of 2017. Now he spends his days constructing miniature replicas of Devil’s Tower out of mashed potatoes while muttering “This means something. This is important.”

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An art project launched four years ago illustrated how scraps of DNA found in public could be turned into eerily lifelike composite sketches and three-dimensional models — now the police appear to be taking that technology in new (and potentially disturbing) direction.

Heather Dewey-Hagborg collected strands of hair, discarded cigarettes, chewing gum and other found materials and worked them into hauntingly realistic masks as part of Stranger Visions in 2012. But her resulting sculptures were at best approximate — DNA can only tell you so much about what a person looks like. Such limitations are not stopping law enforcement agencies, however, from pushing the limits of the technology.

Companies like Parabon NanoLabs that specialize in DNA phenotyping, however, are working with the Department of Defense and other agencies to use similar approaches. Their Snapshot technology references databases that pair genetic information with physical traits. Agencies can thus send in DNA and get back a genetic profile or even a composite sketch.

Used as a means of eliminating suspects from the pool or identifying remains, this technology could be fine. However, since it can’t tell weight, age and other features (even race can be ambiguous), it is also possible that such renderings would mislead investigators — or worse: influence trials in the wrong direction. Photo-realistic images and models have a way of skewing the perceptions of the observer — once seen they are hard to unsee.

“Ancestry becomes a sort of short-cut term for race,” Dewey-Hagborg worries. “When it’s a person reading their own genealogical information, they’re going to look at that in light of what they know about their own personal history. But when it gets into the hands of the police, that all gets thrown out the window, because there is no self-knowing subject there.” Advocates of the technology point out that these is not how they intend it to be used — but still, in comparing it to data gathered from eyewitness accounts or surveillance cameras, they risk going in that direction anyway.

More from the artist about Stranger Visions: she “creates portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic material collected in public places. Working with the traces strangers unwittingly leave behind, Dewey-Hagborg calls attention to the developing technology of forensic DNA phenotyping and the potential for a culture of biological surveillance. Designed as an exploratory project based on emerging science, the forecast of Stranger Visions has proved prescient.”

A creative response to a new legal loophole, this structure is designed specifically to test the limits of a Swedish planning law allowing buildings under a certain size to be constructed without prior structure-specific approval.

Jägnefält Milton of Stockholm worked with Arup engineers to work within the confines proposed by the legislation, which include dimensional limits of 25 square meters and 4 meters in height.

The intent, though, is not to push the limits but to respect their intent and create a low-footprint, eco-friendly pavilion that respects its environment.

The design calls for using the timber cleared from the site to construct the structure and use a tension system of structural anchors to maximize views, minimize outside materials and take advantage of a large stone on the site.

Supported off the ground, the lower platform is mirrored by a roof of the same organic leaf-like shape and a fabric cover can be deployed around the entire building to provide some privacy as well.