Strandedvandal - March 12, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link

I just changed to a picture I took when I was in Costa Rica. Warm, sunny. Good to look at that when weather outside is miserable.

getsmartin - March 12, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link

I’m cocky, but I’m good!

RSR - March 12, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link

Dharma Initiative. I like this one, but there’s tons if you google it: http://lifehacker.com/5252599/the-dharma-desktop

cleek - March 12, 2010 | 12:27 pm · Link

i’ve got mine set to rotate through the default Win7 landscape shots.

my desktop is usually completely obscured, tho. so it doesn’t really matter.

FPN - March 12, 2010 | 12:28 pm · Link

Kathy Ireland’s SI Swimsuit cover. Old school!

Robertdsc-iphone - March 12, 2010 | 12:30 pm · Link

POTUS & FLOTUS

jibeaux - March 12, 2010 | 12:32 pm · Link

Mine’s of a food truck in Puerto Rico called “SOL FOOD”, with a sign on it in the middle of the day saying “Gone snorkeling / hasta manana.”
For some reason it never makes me feel bad even though it is the opposite of my life.

Meg - March 12, 2010 | 12:33 pm · Link

My husband suggests this.
Frog eats snake! or not?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared.....html/1.stm

Tim F. - March 12, 2010 | 12:34 pm · Link

I’m fond of the blue screen of death.

To get the maximum effect in the workplace, use it as a screensaver. On a mac.

Keith - March 12, 2010 | 12:34 pm · Link

I second Cleek. The Win7 wallpaper slideshows are great.

Lavocat - March 12, 2010 | 12:35 pm · Link

Waterfalls with a sound link.

So soothing that you might actually fall asleep at your desk.

Then again …

Xecky Gilchrist - March 12, 2010 | 12:36 pm · Link

Avoid the problem – get Win 7 starter, which doesn’t let you change the wallpaper.

BeccaM - March 12, 2010 | 12:37 pm · Link

Go for Ryan Bliss’s work at DigitalBlasphemy.com. I bought a lifetime subscription and my desktop wallpaper has been one of his for years now.

Even without a paid subscription, he has a ton of great free wallpapers. Plus a trial period if you’re not sure.

gwangung - March 12, 2010 | 12:41 pm · Link

Suggestions?

The usual. Anorexic supermodels and actresses.

J.W. Hamner - March 12, 2010 | 12:44 pm · Link

I found Glen Greenwald’s latest to be both bizarre and absurd.

The only people arguing that there were 50 votes for a public option were on FDL and DKos... the fact that we now know there aren’t and weren’t, doesn’t prove a Democrat conspiracy to punch hippies… it proves FDL and DKos were wrong when they kept screaming about how much more awesome things would be if we tried to do HCR solely through the reconciliation mechanism. Not only would we have lost all the regulations and the like, we wouldn’t even have gotten a public option.

So the Progressive “strategery” thrown about by people like Armando all summer and fall is shown to have been seriously wrong… and yet it’s all Obama’s fault.

Classic.

freelancer - March 12, 2010 | 12:46 pm · Link

@Sentient Puddle:

Yes, Shuttle launch taken in infared.

MobiusKlein - March 12, 2010 | 12:48 pm · Link

rainbows!

ThatLeftTurnInABQ - March 12, 2010 | 12:49 pm · Link

Given how things have been going for the last year, this image of LBJ and JFK together on the campaign trail has been growing on me. I’d like to see Obama and Biden do a re-enactment for the 50th anniversary of the event. IIRC it happened in your neck of the woods, John.

Frank Chow - March 12, 2010 | 12:50 pm · Link

Smashing Magazine http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ has designers from all over send in wallpapers each month with or without calendars. Highly recommend.

Here is this month’s, http://www.smashingmagazine.co.....arch-2010/

Enjoy!

Legalize - March 12, 2010 | 12:55 pm · Link

Boobs.

Bmac - March 12, 2010 | 12:56 pm · Link

I give you…. THE DEVIL PUPPET

http://www.houseoffun.com/fun/wallpaper.html

BenA - March 12, 2010 | 12:58 pm · Link

My background is almost always just black. A throwback from the days when putting a background on a Windows box would cause your harddrive to churn like a chainsaw through concrete.

A Mom Anon - March 12, 2010 | 1:05 pm · Link

The PBS website had a few really nice pics from the National Parks you can use for wallpaper. I rotate between some of those and a B&W of John Muir taken somewhere in the Sierras.

(I also really loved the Ken Burns National Parks series,I have it on DVD and I watch it whenever I’m having an especially crappy time of it. The story of Stephen Mather is interesting,I wish more was known about him and his life)

The Raven - March 12, 2010 | 1:07 pm · Link

Try something abstract. Or, here, you might try this rainbow.

schrodinger's cat - March 12, 2010 | 1:13 pm · Link

@EvolutionaryDesign:
Or strange attractors

jron - March 12, 2010 | 1:19 pm · Link

http://helenfergusoncrawford.b.....gress.html

the field series landscapes are a nice size for a desktop. and very soothing.

licensed to kill time - March 12, 2010 | 1:20 pm · Link

I have a cool picture of a crop circle taken with a fisheye lens that shows the sky, the field and the (apparent) curvature of the earth. A friend saw my desktop and said “it’s not real, you know” and I said maybe not, but it’s a beautiful image. Some of them are incredibly complicated and lovely. Just be prepared for some friendly ribbing if you use one.

(I was going to say tickling, but…..)

theturtlemoves - March 12, 2010 | 1:22 pm · Link

@BeccaM: I’ll second the Digital Blasphemy rec. While right now I’m sporting the Lone Wanderer walking into the sunset with Dogmeat at his side (I am still addicted to Fallout 3 over a year on), I’ve had some Digital Blasphemy background up off and on for years.

Sentient Puddle - March 12, 2010 | 1:26 pm · Link

@freelancer: OK, if the thread is going to devolve, I will be quite satisfied as long as the desktops look this awesome.

Maude - March 12, 2010 | 1:28 pm · Link

Have a look at desktopnexus Black Horse. It is for Xp, but it nice for about two days.
Go to technology, Windows.
It has a lot of great wallpapers. You can also enlarge the wallpaper to see if you like it before you download it.

Third Eye Open - March 12, 2010 | 1:30 pm · Link

can’t go wrong with Alex Grey

John Smallberries - March 12, 2010 | 1:35 pm · Link

Vlad Studio

http://www.vladstudio.com/home/

some weird stuff here.

jose

srv - March 12, 2010 | 1:46 pm · Link

John, yes, go spend some time on flickr, deviantart or photo.net. If you find something from there, throw some karma or dough – these people don’t upload fine pics not to be used somewhere.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/l.....143028788/

There’s a kid from the Seychelles or Maldives that just has incredible shots. I don’t think this is the guy, but an example:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/m.....948335686/

Slappy White - March 12, 2010 | 1:50 pm · Link

HDR photography wallpapers

http://bit.ly/bbeMU5

duck-billed placelot - March 12, 2010 | 1:57 pm · Link

Braid! The blue is a great background; not overpowering but beautiful.

greg - March 12, 2010 | 2:09 pm · Link

http://mandolux.com/

Check out the archives.

gbear - March 12, 2010 | 2:10 pm · Link

My wallpaper is landscape photos taken on the Wisconsin side of Lake Pepin. I’ve had them up for a couple years and I love the area so much I never get tired of looking at them.

Pick an unbusy photo that you’ve taken on your absolute favorite drive. It will always transport you away from the computer.

Tax Analyst - March 12, 2010 | 2:23 pm · Link

John,

I sent you an e-mail with my wallpaper suggestion.

Russs - March 12, 2010 | 2:26 pm · Link

I have Artist A Day on my Google Home page and select a new image each day as the background. Change is good.

Charity - March 12, 2010 | 2:28 pm · Link

I suggest deep ocean fish like barrell-head fish, viper fish, vampire squid, gulper eel, etc.

I love this guy’s work with large whales.

http://www.mmcta.org/

James K. Polk, Esq. - March 12, 2010 | 2:32 pm · Link

@David: Nearly all my wallpaper comes from interfacelift.com. I love that site.

anonymoose - March 12, 2010 | 2:53 pm · Link

Too bad you are tired of Hubble stuff. I was going to suggest some of my own astrophotos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/z.....862353570/

Not Hubble quality, but at least I can say that I took the images myself in our backyard :)

wasabi gasp - March 12, 2010 | 2:57 pm · Link

Try something sexy.

soonergrunt - March 12, 2010 | 3:12 pm · Link

Your x-ray/ct imagery and PT reports to keep you motivated?

J.W. Hamner - March 12, 2010 | 3:18 pm · Link

@craptractor:
For the most part you are right… he’s is just blaming Dems in general for not wanting a public option and jerking Progressives’s chains. However there is this:

I’ve argued since August that the evidence was clear that the White House had privately negotiated away the public option and didn’t want it, even as the President claimed publicly (and repeatedly) that he did.

It probably isn’t enough to justify the assertion that he is “blaming Obama” exactly, but I’m probably more sensitive to the “Obama conspiracy against the Public Option” since I’ve argued with Greenwald supporters about in the past (Mainly at Yglesias’s place).

Bob K - March 12, 2010 | 3:21 pm · Link

I’ve always been partial to fractal art.
http://images.google.com/image.....CA8QsAQwAA

craptractor - March 12, 2010 | 3:34 pm · Link

@J.W. Hamner: Yeah I saw that part, but given that it was towards the bottom and he’d opened the piece by mentioning Congressional Dems multiple times I didn’t really feel like it would’ve been accurate to say he was blaming the O. I mean, I am a Greenwald supporter and from observation of the WH’s behavior I’m extremely sympathetic to the idea that the PO was a bargaining chip. To me that just stands to reason based on the way they’ve tried to dance around making any kind of concrete pronouncements on the issue since taking office. All the same, I realize this is just a theory (which, by the way, Greenwald explicitly states in his post as well) and his link supporting the claim that there were 50+ votes for the PO goes to an FDL list that requires leaps of faith, ie. Senator X voted for Bill Y which contained the PO, therefore Senator X supports the PO. By that logic we have 60 Senators who publicly support the Nelson/Landrieu deals.

At the same time, the point Greenwald raises about Dems potentially being whipped to oppose the PO is troubling. Ok, so maybe they’re doing that in order to get Sanders to back down by demonstrating that his roll call vote would crash and burn, but wouldn’t that mean they’d assume Sanders isn’t willing to call the vote unless he thinks he’d win? If it can win let him call the vote; if it can’t win and he won’t call the vote as a result then nothing gained/lost; if it can’t win and he’ll call the vote anyway then what is gained by putting more Dems on record in opposition? Greenwald’s explanation might not be right but from what I can see the alternative requires beating the 11th dimensional chess horse into an even finer puree. Am I missing something?

Randy P - March 12, 2010 | 3:39 pm · Link

@licensed to kill time: Wait. Not real? But if this wasn’t created by aliens, who could have done it? Or wanted to?

On another topic, since this seems to be the current open thread, I haven’t seen anyone else mention this: Bizarre update to the story of Amy Bishop, the professor who shot up her department at the University of Alabama. Police sent a robot into her house and there are reports of “a small boom followed by a larger boom.”

http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=12131188

Why would they use a robot for this in the first place? Suggests to me they suspected booby traps.

licensed to kill time - March 12, 2010 | 3:45 pm · Link

@Randy P:

That pic just shattered my beliefs {{{sob}}}
My tinfoil hat is now a crumpled cat plaything.

brendancalling - March 12, 2010 | 3:58 pm · Link

hardcore pornography.

Jon H - March 12, 2010 | 4:04 pm · Link

Page3.com

Persia - March 12, 2010 | 4:09 pm · Link

The Big Picture is always a good source of images.

Claudia - March 12, 2010 | 4:11 pm · Link

How about a little realism?

Raenelle - March 12, 2010 | 4:21 pm · Link

cave art

AuldBlackJack - March 12, 2010 | 4:35 pm · Link

Here’s some Chuck stuff..

http://image.wetpaint.com/imag.....JmQ1634509

http://image.wetpaint.com/imag.....OpfA137205

http://image.wetpaint.com/imag.....7x-UQ28116

Mnemosyne - March 12, 2010 | 4:45 pm · Link

I’m planning for my St. Patrick’s Day dinner and discovered that you can make brownies with Guinness … and they’re (reasonably) low calorie, too!

Black and Tan Brownies (from Cooking Light)

So that’s going on the menu along with the traditional corned beef and cabbage from the crockpot. Some years we watch The Quiet Man, but I’m feeling more “Father Ted” this year.

Ted and Dougal trying to write Ireland’s entry for the Eurovision song contest: “My Lovely Horse”

Sentient Puddle - March 12, 2010 | 4:56 pm · Link

@AuldBlackJack: A fine point. Need more hot Sarah wallpapers, STAT!!

Matthew C - March 12, 2010 | 5:02 pm · Link

I like to search flickr for decayed or abandoned buildings. That’s what I use for my wallpaper.

And thank you for calling it wallpaper and not your screensaver. I don’t know why it bugs me so much when people do that, but it does.

kilo - March 12, 2010 | 5:06 pm · Link

It won’t help your Windows box, but your Mac can fire up your favourite screensaver as a desktop background:

http://forums.macosxhints.com/.....hp?t=80541

Might even be something similar for Win7 on teh google…

BruceJ - March 12, 2010 | 5:15 pm · Link

The Botany Photo of the Day is a good source as is NASA’s Earth Observatory “Image of the Day”.

Raoul - March 12, 2010 | 5:35 pm · Link

William de Kooning’s Mother (No. 4)

4jkb4ia - March 12, 2010 | 5:45 pm · Link

Notre Dame is looking sensational. YOU try to beat them. That is all. Shabbat Shalom.

(Evidently SLU looked sick today)
(Illinois won!?)

4jkb4ia - March 12, 2010 | 5:49 pm · Link

Our wallpaper is the standard globe picture that came with the Mac.

AJS - March 12, 2010 | 5:58 pm · Link

I like a dark image. Uses less power and is easier on the eyes.

Something like this

Mnemosyne - March 12, 2010 | 6:22 pm · Link

@jl:

I’m not going to worry about it—if G can order a black and tan at Finn McCool’s, which is owned and run by Irish immigrants, then clearly no one in California is all that upset about it.

I remember some people whining about Ben & Jerry’s having a black & tan ice cream, but they sounded like the proverbial Some Guy With A Fax Machine who were looking for things to be upset about.

andy - March 12, 2010 | 7:46 pm · Link

Fooey. Well, the link works!

wasabi gasp - March 13, 2010 | 3:22 am · Link

I’ve tried to post a wallpaper of this adorable sex kitten three times already, but WP just wouldn’t have it. Fuck that, I insist.

Bruuuuce - March 13, 2010 | 10:09 am · Link

I’ve recently switched to this pic of the Count from Sesame Street delivering justice to a WTF vampire wannabe:

http://poopbear.deviantart.com.....-153668816

Because sometimes you want to see things turn out correctly :-)