A student falls asleep as she holds a book containing a portrait of China's late chairman Mao Zedong during a lesson at the Democracy Elementary and Middle School in Sitong town, Henan province December 3, 2013. In a remote part of central China, the day starts at the Democracy Elementary and Middle School with a pre-dawn jog, some revolutionary songs and then an activity long since forgotten at other schools: reciting quotations from Mao Zedong's famed “Little Red Book”. While the ruling Communist Party that Mao led continues to hold him in esteem as the leader of the Communist Revolution, his radical policies and teachings have been largely shelved since his death in 1976 in favour of a pro-market approach that has turned China from a backwater into the world's second biggest economy. The 120th anniversary of Mao's birth is on December 26, 2013. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Roland Miller is on a mission to document the deserted sites of America’s space race. He has photographed launch pads, bunkhouses and research facilities across the country, some of which no longer exist or are closed to the public on secure military bases. His book, “Abandoned in Place”, is published by the University of New Mexico Press in March. Here: Launch Pad and Gantry with Hermes A-1 Rocket – V2 Launch Complex 33, White Sands missile range, New Mexico in 2006. (Photo by Roland Miller)

The illustrations created by Joao Carvalho are not just simple 3D drawings. By making it look as if various characters were drawn on regular note book paper, Joao fools our minds into thinking that the flat objects we see on the picture are actually 3-dimentional. To create these pieces of art, Joao first draws the lines of the “notebook” paper already bent, as if they stretch over the object that is about to be drawn. Then he applies shading and his masterpiece is all done! By looking at his pictures it is almost impossible to view them not as simple 2D drawings, but as real 3D objects. (Photo by Joao Desenhos)

Meet Booboo, the 2-year-old guinea pig. Her hobbies included eating chicory and posing for pictures. Described optimistically as ‘spirited’ by owner Megan, she can generally be found knocking about with her guinea pig crew, Titi and Teddy. But don’t worry, these gangsta guineas are lovers not fighters (didn’t the chicory give you a clue?). In fact, they’re pretty cerebral, often to be found quietly reading a book, or staring contemplatively into the distance next to a sprig of lavender, that kind of thing.

Julia Gunthel aka Zlata is just a lovely person who lives and operates in Germany. She is just 27 year-old and is considered to be the absolute most flexible/ bendiest person in the world. Remarkably she is also included in the Guinness Book of Records for a bit. Julia can very quickly hide in a package of 50x50 cm. She currently broke many earth files simply because of her unbelievable flexibility.

Full-time feline photographer Andrew Marttila from Washington, D.C., captured blissful expressions of various cats on catnip, which he used to compile a book, “Cats on Catnip”. The photographer dedicated his time to capturing the euphoric expressions of kitties high on catnip – and the results are absolutely hilarious. (Photo by Andrew Marttila/Caters News Agency)

The book “Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern” (Electrical Protection in 132 Pictures) was published in Vienna in the early 1900s by a Viennese physician named Stefan Jellinek (1878-1968, a founder of the Electro-Pathological Museum). The pictures are nice and direct and unambiguous; they teach, graphically, that the surest way to kill yourself with electricity is to form a complete path from source (usually the bright red arrow) to ground (the screened back, pink arrow). Arrowheads provide the path for current flow. (Photo by The Vienna Technical Museum)