“A magician has spent the last 12 months creating a different amazing balloon model every day – including cartoon characters and even a life-sized balloon bike. Magician Rob Driscoll, or Robbie the Wizard as he is known in his magic act, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, has fashioned balloons into various shapes for the past year. He has spent time creating famous cartoon characters such as Gru from Despicable Me, Spongebob Squarepants and Sonic the Hedgehog, which he gives away to children at his shows”. – Caters News Agency. Photo: “Scorpian”. (Photo by Rob Driscoll/Caters News Agency)

Thor, Virginia Tech College of Engineering, Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, tries to connect the hose to a firehose connection during the hose task at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Friday, December 20, 2013, in Homestead, Fla. (Photo by Alan Diaz/AP Photo)

China’s new tallest building has received unexpected publicity thanks to Russian free climbers Vadim Makhorov and Vitaly Raskalov. The pair took two hours to climb 650 metres up the unfinished Shanghai Tower. They did not use safety equipment on their ascent to the top of a crane attached to the tower, from where they took these extraordinary pictures of Shanghai. Photo: Vitaly Raskalov's feet dangle from the top of the Shanghai Tower, high above the Shanghai World Financial Centre. (Photo by Vitaly Raskalov/Caters News Agency)

“The Pugs of Westeros” sees Roxy, Blue and Bono playing doggy versions of the main characters, including conniving King Joffrey. The pugs’ owners, Phillip Lauer (57) and his wife Sue (47), have been dressing their pugs up as characters from cinema and TV since they were puppies. They jumped at the chance of creating a picture series based on one of their favourite shows. Sue spent two weeks just creating the Iron Throne alone but it was well worth it. (Photo by Phillip Lauer)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

“Sokolica”. Sokolica, Poland. (Photo and caption by Marcin Kęsek/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

“Felix Baumgartner (born 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria) is a skydiver and a BASE jumper. He is renowned for the particularly dangerous nature of the stunts he has performed during his career. Baumgartner spent time in the Austrian military where he practiced parachute jumping, including training to land on small target zones”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria is seen before his jump during the first manned test flight for Red Bull Stratos on March 15, 2012 in Roswell, New Mexico. In this test he reach the altitude 21800 meters (71500 ft) and landed safely near Roswell. Red Bull Stratos is a mission to the edge of the earths atmosphere, where upon reaching altitude of 120,000 feet by helium baloon, pilot and basejumper Felix Baumgartner will then freefall to the ground in an attempt to break the speed of sound. (Photo by Jay Nemeth/Red Bull via Getty Images)

“Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim (according to Soviet records) (16 February 1941/2 – 17 December 2011), was the supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). He was the General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, the ruling party since 1948, Chairman of the the National Defence Commission of North Korea, and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, the fourth-largest standing army in the world”. – Wikipedia

Photo: North Korean leader Kim Jong Il inspects a military unit in North Korea. (Photo by Korean Central Television/Yonhap)