TIL:

The Sakurajima volcano in southern Japan was caught erupting in early January. Magma bubbles so hot they glow and shoot away as liquid rock bursts through the Earth’s surface from below. Photographer Martin Rietze .

[Cheers laughingsquid]

I have a feeling Ahn Jun of South Korea doesn’t have much of a problem with it. Take a look at these amazing self-portraits of her feet dangling hundreds of feet above the bustling city streets of Seoul, Hong Kong and New York below.

South Korean capital

The artist herself, half in and half out of a New York skyscraper window

Ahn Jun running along the edge of a skyscraper in Seoul

Ahn Jun climbing gingerly onto a New York parapet

At the edge of the window as a Manhattan fireworks display lights up the background

Manhattan

[Cheers gaurdian]

So when Ilona Szwarc got a chance to snap the seemingly endless parade of real-life girls and their versions of mini-me’s, she jumped at it.

Szwarc calls the project “American Girls,”and for more than two years she has worked on it, traveling across the country and photographing roughly 100 girls.

“I’ve noticed that girls do not really care as much about the books and stories that come with the dolls,” wrote Szwarc. “They are much more interested in clothes and accessories, so the educational message functions as a marketing tool for parents rather than as an inspiration for girls to learn.”

The one question Szwarc is repeatedly asked is why her subjects aren’t smiling. She said that was intentional.

These pictures make me think there is some sort of a taboo on portraying American children without a smile?

[Cheers slate]

Rather than the usual wrapping of presents this year, photographer Wes Naman and his assistant Joy Godfrey took a bunch of tape and wrapped it around peoples faces making for a hilarious photo shoot.

There’s still a lot of bending of noses and lips, but Naman also likes to accentuate people’s eyes by stretching their eyebrows. People with jowly cheeks or beards get their skin and hair squeezed between strips of tape.

[Cheers wired]

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures this nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels surrounding the yellow nucleuswhich is about 120,000 light-years wide and only 600 million light-years away in the constellation Serpens.

Even more interesting is an object that bears an uncanny resemblance to Hoag’s Object can be seen in the gap at the one o’clock position.

This unusual galaxy was discovered in 1950 by astronomer Art Hoag. Hoag thought the smoke-ring-like object resembled a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. But he quickly discounted that possibility, suggesting that the mysterious object was most likely a galaxy. Observations in the 1970s confirmed this prediction, though many of the details of Hoag’s galaxy remain a mystery.

High resolution image here.

[Cheers wired]

Photographer Francois Brunelle’s newest collection, entitled I’m not a look-alike!, features a range of individuals from North American and European backgrounds who are not related, side by side…and look identical to each other – creepy!

[Cheers dailymail]

Russian photographer Andrew Osokin has done an amazing job of capturing some bizarre looking but beautiful ice formations.

[Cheers thisiscolossal]

As part of his ongoing alternative energy photographs using fruit, vegetables, and other objects, Caleb powered this LED light held in the center of these orange slices. All the electricity comes from the orange itself…the nails inserted into the wedges react with the citric acid within them, and copper wires direct the generated power through the light.

Unfortunately, the light generated was so dim this particular photograph required a 14 hour exposure.

[Cheers thisiscolossal]

The 54-year-old UK-based photographer has created a collection of surreal photographic portraits aptly named ‘More Than Human‘, of animals so intimate they reveal the complex emotions of their subjects… And the emotions on show look strikingly familiar to our own, especially the naked chicken who just happens to look fabulous!

[Cheers io9]

This is now my phone background.