Northern Cardinal

Photography by Richard Schaffer

 

Advent Magic in Zagreb

Photos by Goran Mehkek / CROPIX

 

"I have learned that there is more power in a good strong hug than in a thousand meaningful words." Ann Hood

Picture: Johnny Nguyen/AP 

 Portland police Sgt. Bret Barnum, left, and Devonte Hart, 12, hug at a rally in Portland, Ore., where people had gathered in support of the protests in Ferguson. via

 

Uggh, come back tomorrow.

Who turned out the lights?

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Toy broke by Sergey Ivanov

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Lego Santa and reindeer land in Covent Garden

As in so many households across the land, the aftermath of the arrival of Santa’s sleigh was scattered pieces of coloured plastic needing to be picked up and put back in their proper place. In this case, they needed to be carefully glued back into position among the 700,000 Lego bricks making up the full-size sleigh, nine reindeer, sack of presents and the man in red, which have landed in Covent Garden in London. “We’ve packed a few spare antlers too, just in case,” Duncan Titmarsh said.

 

Satirical Cartoons by John Holcroft

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Is Your Flight Delayed? Siberians Laugh at Your Misery

This sounds like a setup for an “In Mother Russia…” joke, but it happened at the Igarka airport above the Arctic Circle. The flight to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk was in danger of being cancelled because the plane was frozen to the ground! Technicians said that the plane’s landing gear was greased with a lubricant that was not suitable for Arctic temperatures- and at 52 degrees below zero, that’s important. The airport’s tractor didn’t work, either, because its brake pads were frozen. What to do? The 70 or so passengers waiting for the flight were mostly oil field workers who wanted to go home, so they did what they had to do: they pushed the plane.

 

Poor Turkey

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Everyone loves a parade

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Britain today

“ Here in Britain, of course, it’s Thank Fuck We Got Those Weird Jesus Bastards On The Boat Day ” - Warren Ellis

 

First snow, Lochinver

As St Andrew’s Day approaches, the VELUX Lovers of Light annual photography competition have pre-released a selection of stunning Scottish landscapes to celebrate Scotland's national day.

 

Macro Images of Micro Worlds

Macro photography has the power to transport us into tiny new worlds. Check out a collection of Your Shot images that magnify everyday scenes.

 

Word on the Street

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We are just standing here

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Two Seasons in One Picture

The picture was taken in the Arnastapi area of Iceland, where the Stapafell mountain can be seen to divide the picture into summer to winter. The photos were taken by Maciel Winiarczyk.

 

You Newer Know How Long You've Got!

Calvin and Hobbes

 

Oh, I guess I’ve been doing it wrong…

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Soup

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"The problem is not just a Ferguson problem, it's an American problem"

A dozen US cities have seen new protests over the decision not to charge a white policeman who shot a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. Demonstrations from New York to Seattle were mostly peaceful but rioting broke out in Oakland, California. There was some unrest in Ferguson itself, with police making 44 arrests, but the town did not see rioting on the scale of Monday night. The officer who killed Michael Brown there says he has a "clean conscience".
 Darren Wilson, who shot the 18-year-old on 9 August, told ABC News that in the struggle which preceded the shooting, he had felt "like a five-year-old holding on to [US wrestler] Hulk Hogan". Many in Ferguson's predominantly African-American community had called for the officer to be charged with murder, but the grand jury's decision means the police officer will not face state criminal charges over the shooting. Lawyers for Mr Brown's family denounced the grand jury's decision as "unfair" while condemning the violence that followed the decision.
 Protests were reported in 12 cities: St Louis itself as well as Seattle, Albuquerque, New York, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Oakland, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Portland, Chicago and Boston. In Oakland, in the San Francisco Bay area, rioters vandalised police cars and attacked businesses in the centre during a second night of unrest in the port city of 406,000 people. On Monday night, 43 arrests were made in Oakland as police struggled to control a crowd of some 2,000 people. Long-standing grievances about Oakland's police department are believed in part to be fuelling the protests there. Speaking from Chicago on Tuesday,
 President Barack Obama said there was "no excuse" for destructive behaviour and criminal acts of rioting. Accepting that "many communities of colour" had a sense of laws not being enforced "uniformly or fairly", he said he had ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to look at what steps could be taken to build trust.
 via BBC News 

 

REM’s 6 greatest performances

The band called it quits back in 2011 after more than 30 years and 15 albums — but this week, REM is releasing a visual document of their career in the form of a six-CD box set that chronicles the vast majority of their performances for MTV (and other Viacom networks), as well as an all-new documentary. It’s the perfect way to see how one of America’s best bands developed from scraggly post-punk kids to revered elder statesmen of rock.
Here are six of their best performances over the years.

 

You're home!!

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It's Cold! So Look At Penguins

Winter is drawing closer, and the cold air of recent days continues to sock it to, well, anyone it can on the weather map. It seems a fitting time, then, to chill with some penguin photo gallery goodness.