“Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky

Photographer Dmitry Kokh took these amazing pictures of polar bears who have taken over a meteorological station on an island between Russia and Alaska are so captivating. I can’t quite figure out which part captivates me– the bears, the pictures of decay, Kokh’s eye. It seems to shift, the longer I look at them, which might be the definition of a good photograph. Go find the pictures here.

(Thank you to Tom McIlroy of Canberra, Australia who alerted us to them at the Slate Gabfest. They were our listener chatter this week.)