Most probably, every person who has read the Harry Potter books imagined themselves as a wizard. Wouldn’t it be cool to perform all sorts of magic or to whizz around on a broom? Well, actually, if you think about it, whizzing around on a broom might not be such a good idea after all… Just think of all the bugs you’re going to come across! Such an encounter might prove fatal for the bugs. However, you will most likely lose all your desire to ride the Nimbus 2000, once a few dozen bugs will smash into your face! (Photo by Halno)

The Atlantic Puffin is definitely a curious-looking bird. The special coloring that this bird develops for the breeding season in the spring is very reminiscent of tropical birds. The bright colors of the beak and the markings around the eyes serve no particular advantage and have evolved as a result of sexual selection. However, Puffins don’t look that pretty all year round. They shed all these festive colors in partial moult after the breeding season is over. They lose the ornaments around their eyes, their face becomes darker, and their beak becomes very different. The natural habitat of these birds is the cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Do you like jabots? Personally, they are not my cup of tea. If your outlook on jabots is similar to mine, then you would consider the idea of Sasha Goldberger rather strange. Just think about it. Who could have thought that putting a ruffled collar on Marvel and DC characters would completely transform their well-recognized appearance? And only a genius would think that taking photos of such an obscenity is a good idea. If some unfortunate child would look at those superheroes, he might think that calling them ‘super’ is an exaggeration. Let’s just hope that he won’t have nightmares after having such a horrific experience. (Photo by Sacha Goldberger)

A worker manually changes the direction of the bonde, the typical tram line in Santa Teresa neighborhood, using a rope in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 9, 2015. The Santa Teresa bonde, called “Bondinho” in Portuguese, is running with passengers as a part of a test period, after the service was suspended in 2011 following an accident that killed six people, according to residents. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

A firefighter holds a red panda (Ailurus fulgens) from its tail while removing it from a tree at a residential area in Kunming, Yunnan province, July 3, 2014. The animal was spotted in the residential area and was brought down from the tree after residents reported its sighting to the police, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

“You wouldn’t normally associate power stations with beautiful scenic shots but one photographer has traveled nearly 2000 to track down the ugliest energy plants and show them in a whole new light. Czech snapper, Radek Kalhous, uses Google Earth to find the perfect locations for his unique pictures and arrives at each site after sunset to create the atmospheric shots”. – Caters News. Photo: Nuclear power station Temelin, Czech Republic. (Photo by Radek Kalhous/Caters News)

Vardzia is a cave monastery site in southern Georgia, excavated from the slopes of the Erusheti Mountain on the left bank of the Mtkvari River, thirty kilometres from Aspindza. The main period of construction was the second half of the twelfth century. The caves stretch along the cliff for some five hundred metres and in up to nineteen tiers. The Church of the Dormition, dating to the 1180s during the golden age of Tamar and Rustaveli, has an important series of wall paintings. The site was largely abandoned after the Ottoman takeover in the sixteenth century. Now part of a state heritage reserve, the extended area of Vardzia-Khertvisi has been submitted for future inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List

In one of the best collaborations this blog has seen in ages, professional illustrator Mica Angela Hendricks has been collaborating with her 4-year-old daughter on a series of wonderful drawings that pass back and forther between mother and daugher until reaching an always unexpected final form. Each drawing begins with Hendricks drawing a detailed retro-ish head, after which her daughter snatches away the sketchbook to create rudimentary body (or animal!) parts as well as other random details. Afterward Hendricks goes back in to polish things up a bit and behold: dinosaur women, slug ladies, and beaver astronauts are born.