As we get close to the end of the year, one comes across lots of recaps. As usual images say more than a 1000 words and in the last 12 months a lot has happened. One tends to forget really quickly, but as you go through the following images, you only realize how much has actually happened. The passing of Steve Jobs and Amy Winehouse, the earthquake in Japan, Occupy Wallstreet and the wave of demonstrations around the globe against banking and capitalism, the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the killing of Osama Bin Laden,  the London riots, terror attacked in Oslo, the continued uprisings through out the Middle East and a lot more. These happenings stay in the news for a couple of weeks and the minute the next big thing happens, one forgets about all the previous ones.

Check out the full picture feature here.

A selection of the most powerful images of 2011 we have featured after the jump.

With the holiday season heating up, you can imagine that Amazon.com has lots of orders to fulfill. The amount of packages that their fulfillment centers have to manage these days is simply incredible. Here we a look inside their Swansea, Wales, warehouse and the endless row of packages is overwhelming. The scenery is almost worth a Gursky photograph with the patterns that the packages and small warehouse personell are building.

Photography: Getty Images/Matt Cardy

What Ken Block does in his car, stunt rider Jorian Ponomareff demonstrates on a motorcycle. Check out his latest video, Drift, to see his incredible skills on the two wheels.

Enjoy!

This Thursday is American Thanksgiving and that means Friday is, well, “the biggest shopping day of the year,” also known as Black Friday. Retailers big and small are cooking up massive sales and product exclusives for all the shoppers out there, and while Best Buy’s door breaker deals are great for the masses, we’ve thought for this weeks Buyers Guide, you guys would appreciate a list highlighting a few of our niche’s biggest Black Friday happenings. There’s some cool drops and sales happening from the likes of Nike, Converse, Jordan, Stussy, UNDFTD and more.

Read on for a full run down of the festivities happening November 25, 2011.

In the previous installment of The Streetorialist I made reference to occasionally pairing hightops with a suit, and took a bit of a shellacking in the comments section.

More on that later, but suffice to say that it got me thinking, particularly about ‘rules’ in men’s fashion, and my inextricable conviction that the very concept of rules governing one’s personal style is bullshit. It’s not racquetball. It’s about ones innate instinct to express themselves aesthetically.

No two people are likely to patently agree on something as intrinsically personal as style. In the late 90s I rolled my eyes at those suburban ravers channelling Marcel Marceau with plastic pacifiers and 40″ trou cuffs just like everyone else I knew, but make no mistake, those kids were getting laid. So someone must have thought it looked good (an aesthetic determination on drugs is still an aesthetic determination).

As X said, this is a game that moves as you play. The rules keep shifting, but rarely do they get there on their own. Stubbornly determined aesthetes throw caution to the wind, and sometimes pull it off so elegantly that the rest of our sartorial convictions come running to jump on the wagon as it rolls away.

Read the rest of the article after the jump.

Earlier this week we presented the incredible new UNHATE campaign by Italian brand Benetton. Their first in 10 years, the brand starts where it stopped earlier and once again makes sure to shock and turn heads with the provocative communication.

“The central theme is the kiss, the most universal symbol of love, between world political and religious leaders, such as: Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao; Pope Benedict XVI and Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo (the most important and moderate centre for Sunni Islamic studies in the world); the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”

At this point, the UNHATE guerilla campaign has also arrived in New York City, after previously having been in Milan, Tel Aviv and Rome. Obama kissing Chinese leader Hu Jintao appears on Time Square and has been projected onto building through out the entire city.

Take a look after the jump.

I am not sure we have ever written about Italian brand Benetton here before. The good times of the brand are long gone, at least from a fashion perspective. Yet we always appreciated the provocative nature of their advertising campaigns, something the brand has always been known for. Talking about subjects that nobody dares to talk about, certainly not in relationship with their brand – religion, sex, brutality, etc.

“What does UNHATE mean? UN-hate. Stop hating, if you were hating. Unhate is a message that invites us to consider that hate and love are not as far away from each other as we think. Actually, the two opposing sentiments are often in a delicate and unstable balance. Our campaign promotes a shift in the balance: don’t hate, Unhate.”

This week Benetton has launched their new UNHATE campaign (their first in 10 years) in Paris, in support of the Unhate Foundation and it is exactly what we expect from the brand and what we want to see from them – something radical, something with a strong voice, something with strong statements. Next to an incredible image campaign, featuring world leaders kissing each other, they have also started a guerilla initiative around the globe (Milan, Rome, Tel Aviv), with people carrying around the campaign images on big banners.

“The UNHATE communication project includes a series of coordinated initiatives and events, starting on 16 November in the main newspapers, periodicals and websites around the world. The central theme is the kiss, the most universal symbol of love, between world political and religious leaders, such as: Barack Obama and Chinese leader Hu Jintao; Pope Benedict XVI and Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, Imam of the Al-Azhar mosque in Cairo (the most important and moderate centre for Sunni Islamic studies in the world); the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. These are symbolic images of reconciliation – with a touch of ironic hope and constructive provocation – to stimulate reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, even when they are divergent and mutually opposed, must still lead to dialogue and mediation.”

Furthermore they have launched the below campaign film.

The full campaign, featuring everybody from Angela Merkel, Obama to Sarcozy, follows after the jump.

Qream is an alcoholic drink created by Pharrell Williams in cooperation with liquor company Diageo. Created for women, Qream is a first of its kind vodka-based cream liqueur.

This week a first promotional video for the drink has released, with Pharrell cruising on a boat and handing the bottles to fellow captains. We are not sure what to really think of the drink and of the campaign, but maybe this is one of those partnerships that the artist should have skipped.

At least you get to listen to a new tune from the musician in the video. Check it out!

“Hear what Basketball Never Stops means to LeBron, KD, Amar’e, Dirk, Sue Bird, Coach K, Questlove, and J. Cole.”

‘On The Brink’ is an excellent short film about the new networked society. Discussed are the changes in communication and networking and how these changes will impact business, society and personal connections.

“In On The Brink we discuss the past, present and future of connectivity with a mix of people including David Rowan, chief editor of Wired UK; Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr; and Eric Wahlforss, the co-founder of Soundcloud. Each of the interviewees discusses the emerging opportunities being enabled by technology as we enter the Networked Society. Concepts such as borderless opportunities and creativity, new open business models, and today’s ‘dumb society’ are brought up and discussed.”

Make sure to check it out!