Former Skinhead Removes Facial Tattoos and Embraces Family Life
This combination of eight photos provided by Bill Brummel Productions shows the progress of tattoo removal treatments for former skinhead Bryon Widner. For 16 years, Widner was a glowering, swaggering, menacing vessel of savagery – an “enforcer” for some of America’s most notorious and violent racist skinhead groups. Though his beliefs had changed, leaving the old life would not be easy when it was all he had known – and when his face remained a billboard of hate. (AP Photo/Duke Tribble, Courtesy of MSNBC and Bill Brummel Productions) Continue reading »
Pan American Games End with Colorful Closing Ceremony
Fireworks at the Omnilife stadium during the closing ceremony of the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, on October 30. (Roberto Escobar / EPA) Continue reading »
Autumns Leaves Shimmer in Switzerland
Pedestrians walk in the Sauvabelin Forest in Lausanne, Switzerland on Oct. 31, 2011 as the autumn sun illuminates the changing leaves. (Laurent Gillieron / EPA)
Defense Attorney Haunts Tennessee Courtroom
Rich Heinsman, a Chattanooga, Tenn. criminal defense attorney, turns heads in Judge Barry Steelman’s courtroom Monday, Oct. 31, while haunting the city courts building as a Halloween prank. (Dan Henry / Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)
Taking a Bath is so Much More than Just Getting Clean
14,345 Chinese participants attempt to set a new Guinness World Record as they gather for a bath at a hot spring in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality at Ocrober, 30. The former world record was 10,121 people having a hot spring bath at the same time in China’s Hubei province. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) Click image to zoom.
Cleaning the Ads
An employee cleans an advertisement on a shop window at a mall in Mumbai, October, 31. (Indranil Mukher/AFP/Getty Images)
iPad2 Halloween Costume
A description of a relatively simple Halloween costume using 2 iPad2s to make it look like you have a huge hole in your torso. You’ll also need a MiFi hotspot (if you don’t have a WiFi network available where you want to use the costume). Basically you start a FaceTime chat between the iPads and then tape one to your front and one to your back. Add a little red paint and you’re good to go. It’s supposed to look like you have a gaping hole in your torso. If you spend more time than I did on the blood and the flesh part and lining up the iPads it could look pretty cool.
In the Swim
The Laguna Woods Village retirement community in Californian has its own synchronised swimming team, called the Aquadettes. It has been running for 46 years, has up to 25 members at a time and every year stages an annual 90-minute show, the Aqua-Follies. (Zackary Canepari/Panos) Continue reading »
Halloween Surfing in California
Surfers take to the water for Blackie’s Halloween Costume Surf Contest in Orange County, California. (Graham Whitby Boot/Allstar) Continue reading »
Vintage Food Packaging
Black treacle
Photographer James Kendall has taken pictures of the dusty tins and packets he found in his wife’s grandmother’s cupboard. The contents may have lost their flavour, but the packaging is a nostalgic treat. Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Follow the Red Rabbit
A rabbit jumps over a hurdle at an obstacle course during the first European rabbit hopping championships, which Lada Sipova-Krecova of Czech Republic won, in Wollerau, Switzerland. Rabbit hopping is a growing sport among rabbit owners in Central Europe. (Harold Cunningham/Getty Images) Click image to zoom.
MCM London Comic Con
Joely Olsen wears a turret costume from the computer game “Portal,” Kaitie Rule wears a full “Smurfette” costume and two visitors wear “Pikmin” costumes at the “MCM London Comic Con” convention in London. Running over two days, the event will see thousands of comic, sci-fi and gaming enthusiasts coming together to buy, sell and celebrate everything from sporting heroes to Japanese “Steam Punk” characters. (Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images) Continue reading »
Visitors Ride Three-Story Slide at New York’s New Museum
A visitor to the Carsten Holler: Experience exhibit at the New Museum in New York rides “Untitled (Slide)” during the press preview. (Mary Altaffer / AP) Continue reading »
Fake or not?
Art experts compare a newly-discovered painting by Spanish artist Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazquez to a book featuring Velazquez’s painting ‘Jaun Martinez Montanes’ in Bonhams auction house in London, England. The previously unknown painting has been confirmed as Velaquez’s work after extensive research by Bonhams and is estimated to sell at auction on December 7, 2011 for GBP 3 million. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)
The Death of Marat
Visitors look at Chinese artist He Xiangyu’s work “The Death of Marat” featuring compatriot Ai Weiwei lying dead exhibited at the Balmoral Artists residence in Bad Ems, western Germany. A local resident filed charges to public prosecution for disturbing the peace of the dead, as he presumes that the work is made of plastinated human skin. (Thomas Frey/AFP/Getty Images)
The World’s Highest Lego Tower
People look at the world’s highest Lego tower, at a stand at Kidexpo, a fair dedicated to games and leisure for children, in Paris (FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images)
The Other Me
Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro (right) sits next to the Geminoid HI-2 robot, a tele-operated robot that looks exactly like himself in Kyoto, Japan. Ishiguro is director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University. (Barcroft Media)
Facebook’s New Server Farm in Sweden
An architect’s drawing of Facebook’s new server farm in Lulea, Sweden. The plant on the edge of the Arctic Circle is Facebook’s first outside the US and is aimed at improving the performance for European users of the social networking site. Facebook confirmed it had picked the northern Swedish city of Lulea for the data centre partly because of the cold climate, which is crucial for keeping the servers cool, and the access to renewable energy from nearby hydropower facilities. (EPA/SWECO/THE NODE POLE)
Photo of the Day: Dogs of War
Indonesian Kopassus commandos soldiers and dogs descend from a helicopter during a joint anti-terror drill in Jakarta on October 27, 2011. The joint anti-terror drill is part of the country’s effort to combat terrorism acts, and comes ahead of Indonesia hosting the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in November. (ADEK BERRY/AFP/Getty Images)
Pittsburgh Zombiefest 2011
Zombie Fest founder Mark Menold has been organizing charity zombie walks all around the world as part of World Zombie Day. Pittsburgh Zombie Fest, which is now in its fifth year, is the headquarters for the global charity event and has earned Pittsburgh the Guinness Book World Record for “Largest Gathering of Zombies”.
By virtue of the success of the movies from Pittsburgh pioneer filmaker George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow), and our now world famous zombie walks, Pittsburgh has become what Mr. Menold refers to as “The Zombie Capital of the World”. Furthermore, Zombie Fest is a socially conscious event, collecting food donations for those less fortunate and cash donations for Komen for the Cure. It provides a fun and harmless way to accomplish that charitable mission. Continue reading »
Photo of the Day: Festival of Lights
A NASA Satellite photo over India, as the festival of lights begins. Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, stretches beyond India, a five-day holiday encompassing multiple stories from around the world, involving Hindus, some Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains. For India, however, where roughly 80 percent of the population practices Hinduism, Diwali 2011 is and will be a massive and deeply Hindu affair, one involving dancing, shows, religious worship and lots of fireworks. (NASA)
Photo of the Day: Little Mama
Little Mama slowly wakes up from sedation after having dental work to remove a few bad teeth at Lion Country Safari. (Bill Ingram /The Palm Beach Post)
NASA Turns to Exploring Our Planet With a New 3D Map
Mount Whitney, California; The 3D map is produced from images taken by the ASTER camera aboard Nasa’s Terra spacecraft. The 3D effect is created by taking ‘stereo pairs’ of two slightly offset images. Continue reading »
