Picture This

[longknife]

[I was certain I'd started this thread before but can't find it on a search]
These come from de Spiegel Online

Superstorm

Thick black clouds roll in over Victoria harbor before a major storm in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Weather forcasters predicted winds in the city could reach speeds of 100 kilometers per hour. Officials in the special administrative region of the People's Republic of China issued a heavy rain warning as skies formed that could come straight out of a Hollywood disaster flick.

 

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Divine Plowing

Italian artist Dario Gambarin is famous for his land art -- an eco-friendly and extremely transient art form that sometimes lasts less than a day. He plows his motifs with a tractor, never knowing exactly what they will ultimately look like from above. This art work in a field near Verona, Italy is dedicated to Pope Francis. The caption reads "Francis with you" in Italian.

 

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Flush of Hope

Members of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic party (PAS) pray for their party's success at the polls during a gathering at a stadium in Kota Bahru on May 3. Malaysia's upcoming general elections, scheduled for May 5, may have historical implications. For the first time since the country gained independence in 1957, the opposition stands a realistic chance of defeating the National Front coalition of Prime Minister Najib Razak, which has been haunted by frequent allegations of corruption. The ruling coalition's successful drive for economic advancement could however secure widespread voter support.

 

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9 May 2013
by Telegraph Staff Pictures of the day: 9 May 2013 - Telegraph
Marching owls, a squirting elephant and a tanned Kate Moss.
Wow!

 

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Standing Firm

The Chinese government has been angered by a malicious new smear campaign. Bloggers on China's equivalent to Twitter, Sina Weibo, have suggested the unfinished Beijing office building of the People's Daily -- the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China -- looks like, well, something else. Along with the China Central Television main office, whose shape has earned it the nickname "big underpants," Bejing's cityscape now appears to celebrate the nether region. But Chinese officials are not laughing. To protect their citizens and the reputation of their party, censors have blocked all images capturing the recent erection behind the Great Firewall of China.

From der Speigel Picture This: Standing Firm - SPIEGEL ONLINE

 

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Miracle in Bangladesh

The death toll of the horrific garment factory collapse in Bangladesh is more than 1,000. But on Friday, workers struggling to recover the bodies of the dead found something they were not expecting: a survivor. Fully 17 days after the building collapsed a woman, identified as Reshma, was pulled from the rubble to wild cheers. She had apparently been in a prayer room in the basement of the eight-story building. Even more miraculous, she seemed to be in decent shape despite her ordeal and could even walk under her own power. "She was fine, no injuries. She was just trapped. The space was wide," said Lt. Col. Moyeen, an army official at the scene, according to the Associated Press. @ Picture This: Miracle in Bangladesh - SPIEGEL ONLINE

 

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Blast Wall

A man checks an apartment in a damaged building at the site of a blast in the town of Reyhanli in Hatay province, near the Turkish-Syrian border, May 13, 2013. Syria's information minister has blamed Turkey's government for deadly car bombings near the Syrian border and branded Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan a "murderer", state-run Russian TV company RT reported on Monday. It said he repeated a denial of Syrian involvement in car bombings that killed 46 people on Saturday in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli. Turkey has accused a group with links to Syrian intelligence of carrying out the attacks. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: CIVIL UNREST)
A man walks through a destroyed apartment building in Reyhanli in Turkey's Hatay province. Two car bombs exploded in the small town close to the Syrian border Saturday, killing 43 and injuring 140 people. The area is known as hub for Syrian refugees and rebel activity. Ankara fears the pepetrators may have had ties to Syrian intelligence, but Damascus has denied the charges.

 

[longknife]

Tulip Time

It's tulip season in Germany. Customers can pick their favorite flowers for a more personal bouquet in this colorful tulip field in the German town of Plön in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Sadly, they've posted much better pictures than this.

 

[longknife]

Cosmo Chameleon

Chinese artist Liu Bolin -- also known as "The Invisible Man" -- is painted by students of the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, in southern Germany, to blend into a wall of magazine covers. With his art performances that explore the relationship between humans and their environment, Liu has garnered attention across the world. He began his famous "Hide in the City" series, for which he painted himself into various cityscapes, to protest the destruction of Beijing's artist village Suo Jia Cun in November 2005. His artworks are understood as social commentary on pop culture and governmental oppression that aim to create a space for those who have been rendered invisible.

 

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Jelly Invasion

A boy watches jellyfish swim in a large tank at the Vancouver Aquarium in Vancouver, British Columbia May 16, 2013. The tank contains around 2,000 spotted jellyfish and is part of a major display of 15 various species from around the world.

A colorful mix of jellyfish from all over the globe are on display in a new exhibit at the Vancouver Aquarium, in Canada. The tank contains around 2,000 spotted jellyfish and many species that are rarely seen at the aquarium. Between 1,000 and 1,500 different species of jellyfish are known today. Jellyfish are the oldest multi-organ animals in the world. They have roamed the sea for at least 500 million years.
From Picture This: Jelly Invasion - SPIEGEL ONLINE

 

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Colossal Tricolor

Some 200 residents of the Romanian village of Clinceni, 35 kilometers (22 miles) southeast of Bucharest, unfurl what Guiness World Records says is the largest flag ever made. It took hundreds of hours and 70 kilometers of thread to produce the red, yellow and blue tricolor Romanian flag. Weighing five tons, it measures about 349 meters (1,145 feet) by 227 meters (745 feet). Windy weather conditions proved an obstacle to those trying to unroll the flag as live national television cameras looked on. They ultimately managed with the help of sandbags.

 

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On the Dot

A little girl stands inside the installation "Dots Obsession" by avant-garde Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama at the Japanese Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Hanoi on May 28, 2013. The exhibition, "Yayoi Kusama: Obsessions," is part of celebrations of the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Year 2013.

 

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Muddy Meadows

A regional Deutsche Bahn train passes through flooded fields near Hildesheim in the German state of Lower Saxony on Tuesday. Days of heavy spring rain have led to floods in many parts of the country

 

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The Law is an Ass

Who says a donkey can't make a superb pet -- at least once you get it up the stairs? Here, a woman in Brussels argues with the police after neighbors complained about her animal, which is part of a theater show, and got it banned from the apartment complex.

 

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Spanish Moss

The Spanish town of Bejar in the Salamanca province celebrated Corpus Christi on Sunday, where the Hombres de Musgo, or "Moss Men," are a traditional part of the local religious procession. Legend has it that Christians were able to reconquer the town and pass the Muslim guards in 1397 by camouflaging themselves with moss.

 

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There Will Be Light

Light projections will illuminate the Cologne Cathedral every night until Saturday as part of the Eucharistic Congress organized by the German Bishops' Conference. The light and sound installation by artists Sabine Weißinger and Friedrich Förster, known internationally as "Casa Magica," is called "Lux Eucharistica." The hour-long program alludes to Jesus' utterance "I am the light of the world."

 

[longknife]

Think Positive

A little bit of flooding is no reason to let things slide in Austria. A resident of the village of Stein-Krems, about 80 km (50 miles) from Salzburg, mows his lawn while the worst flood in centuries in Central Europe rages on the other side of the wall. After torrential rain, the water levels of the Danube River have risen and caused severe flooding in many areas. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate their homes.

 

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Squished – from der Spiegel

As part of a project by Austrian artist Willi Dorner, dancers squeeze their bodies into various architectual structures in Porto, Portugal. "Bodies in Urban Spaces" is intended to throw fresh light on the city as an urban structure and highlight the limitations it poses on human movement.