The antennas of the European Southern Observatory's Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array, also known as ALMA, are set against the splendor of the Milky Way in this picture by Babak Tafreshi. Construction of the full ALMA array is due to be completed in Chile's Atacama Desert in 2013, but the facility is already making scientific observations with a partial array of antennas. (Photo by ESO/B. Tafreshi/TWAN)

The bloodwood tree (Pterocarpus angolensis) is a deciduous tree with a high canopy, reaching about 15m in height and has dark bark. The red sap is used traditionally as a dye and in some areas mixed with animal fat to make a cosmetic for faces and bodies. It is also believed to have magical properties for the curing of problems concerning blood, apparently because of its close resemblance to blood. The name bloodwood for these trees stems from the dark red to brown sap that accumulates on wounds on the trunks.

Throughout the course of the long war in Afghanistan, Coalition troops have relied on thousands of military working dogs to help keep them safe, and make their jobs easier. The dogs are trained to detect explosives, to find illegal drugs, to search for missing comrades, or target enemy combatants. Not only are they active on the front lines, but behind the lines they serve as therapy dogs, service dogs, and loyal companions. They also share the same risks as the ground troops, suffering injuries and sometimes death on the battlefields. Gathered here are images of these dogs and their handlers in Afghanistan and back home, from over the past several years, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.

A girl struggles with winds from approaching Typhoon Matmo along the eastern coast of Keelung, northeastern Taiwan, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (Photo by Wally Santana/AP Photo)

Why would you want to buy a Christmas tree if you have a luscious full beard? Or maybe you have a friend that is willing to volunteer? Just glue some ornaments onto his facial forest and make him stand in the corner. Just don’t forget to feed him! You don’t want your Christmas tree to go bad before the holidays are over! Stephanie Jarstad had created something similar in her project, The Twelve Bears of Christmas, in order to honor the Decembeard (much like Movember), in order to bring awareness to Men’s health problems. (Photo by Stephanie Jarstad)

Being able to look at this world in a different light is the main thing that distinguishes a true artist from a common person. We can clearly see that Lucas Levitan is a true artist despite the crude drawings that he makes. By hunting through thousands of photos that people post on Instagram, he finds the ones that might have a completely different, surprising, and comical theme. For example, a sensual photo of lady’s eyelashes is transformed into a scene in which a farmer is harvesting his crops. This is imagination at its finest, which is why the art works of Lucas Levitan are so interesting to look at. (Photo by Lucas Levitan)

The ingenuity of people is endless. Could you imagine that broken pieces of maple wood could be used to create beautiful jewelry? Well Marcel Dunger has done just that! By using colored bio-resin and broken bits of wood, he was able to create marvelous pieces of jewelry. The result has a very futuristic feel to it. The angular form and strict design make this jewelry seem as if it was taken from a sci-fi movie. People often consider the most bizarre things to be art. However, in this case, the resulting creations were actually very aesthetically appealing. (Photo by Marcel Dunger)

Iain Blake is an amateur photographer that has gained his popularity on the Internet thanks to his photoset of “Stone Footprints”. By finding the right stones and perfectly arranging them, Iain was able to make a number of very appealing pictures. For some reason, these “footprints” look adorable. It could have something to do with the cartoony appearance that they have. In our opinion, the finest photo out of this whole set is the one with a large footprint and a smaller one on top of it, as if a child has stepped into the footprint left by his or her parent. (Photo by Iain Blake)