The Smilovichi Felting Factory in Belarus was founded in 1928, when Smilovichi was a small Jewish settlement of craftsmen. Five of those craftsmen organized a small artel (a cooperative association of craftsmen who all live and work together), which produced warm boots called “valenki” for cold weather. Photo: Belarusian workers works at a felt boot factory in Smilovichi, some 35km from Minsk, Belarus, 16 January 2012. (Photo by Tatyana Zenkovich/EPA)

“This cheeky polar bear tried to hitch a lift off an unsuspecting driver by clambering into the back of his pick-up truck. The curious creature spent about half an hour inspecting the vehicle and its owner before casually trying to climb aboard. However, the truck must not have been up to scratch because the 7ft bear, weighing approximately 300lbs, promptly jumped back out and sauntered off”. – Barcroft Media. Photo: “Awright mate, any chance of a lift to the North Pole?” (Photo by Steven Kazlowski/Barcroft Media)

“Hellfest is an annual music festival which takes place in Clisson, France in mid-June. It is held within the Val de Moine sport complex in Clisson, approximately 35 km south-east of the city of Nantes, and approximately 400 km south-west of the nation's capital Paris. Billed as an “extreme music festival”, the programme features a variety of heavy metal, hard rock, punk and hardcore acts”. – Wikipedia. Photo: HellFest 2013. (Photo by Cesar Hernandez)

“The most serious health problem in the U.S. today is obesity.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? But that pronouncement about obesity’s primacy in the hierarchy of national health problems is not new. Rather, it’s the opening line to a remarkable article published 60 years ago in LIFE magazine. This photographs made by Martha Holmes to illustrate that March 1954 article, titled “The Plague of Overweight.” Photo: Dorothy Bradley (left), photographed for LIFE magazine article on obesity, 1949. (Photo by Martha Holmes/Time & Life Pictures)

For France, the trauma of the Algerian War (1954-1962) was not unlike the experience of the Vietnam War for the United States. But, unlike the conflict in Vietnam, few photographic documents exist from that period in Algeria: it is as if the French responded with collective amnesia. Marc Garanger’s Algerian Women is one of the few photographic essays dedicated to that painful period... Photo: A 1960 photograph of an Algerian woman in a French regroupment village. (Photo by Marc Garanger)

“Supanova Pop Culture Expo (Supanova) is a fan convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy film and TV, comic books, anime, gaming and collectables. It is held annually in the Australian cities of Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Terminator and Wolverine pose for photos during the National Cosplay Championships as part of the Supanova Pop Culture Expo at the Dome at Olympic Park on June 19, 2010 in Sydney, Australia. Cosplayers and comic book and sci-fi fans from across the state gathered to meet like-minded folk and attend guest panels with the stars of some of the popular television shows and publications of the genre. (Photo by Sergio Dionisio/Getty Images)

“Photoswapped: Mum and dads switch heads with their children in freakiest photos you'll ever see. It is a position that many young children would love to be in. And now these strange and sometimes unnerving images show what it would actually be like if babies swapped roles, and heads, with their mother or father. The photos, created by top advertising photographer Paul Ripke, are so eye-catching that they have swept across the world online”. (Photo by Paul Ripke/Barcroft Media via Fame Pictures)

Taken by photographer, Denis Budkov, 33, the Plosky Tolbachik is one of a cluster of volcanoes located in the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia. After taking a lucky group of tourists to the crater of the flat volcano, the Russian photographer managed to get less than 300 metres away from the spurting jets of lava. Photo: The underground entrance to the volcano resembles a scene from the latest Hobbit movie. (Photo by Denis Budkov/Caters News)