A young YPJ recruit (in pink) arrives to the training base for her first day in training near Derek City, Syria. The YPJ schedule is demanding and requires discipline – new soldiers in training get about 6 hours of sleep a night and wake up at 4 AM to begin exercising; afterwards, their day consists of a full schedule of drills and classroom lessons. Before joining the YPJ many of the girls had never participated in physical activity or sports before. (Photo by Erin Trieb/NBC News)

Nasar, an Arabian horse, stands in the office of doctor Stephanie Arndt at her home on February 19, 2014 in Holt, Germany. Fearing for the horse's safety, Mrs. Arndt brought the horse into her house during the Xaver heavy storm back in December, and the horse now wanders through the house daily, inspecting details and looking for snacks. Mrs. Arndt says she doesn't mind, and though the horse never spends the night, it does occasionally take a nap in the house. (Photo by Patrick Lux/Getty Images)

Latvian cyclists have decided to show the automobilists just how absurd it is to have only a single occupant in a car. The car takes up an enormous amount of space on the road; however, everyone is so used to it that no one ever notices it. It’s not hard to guess the thoughts of automobilists, and how they cursed those cyclists for taking up so much space. However, they have only themselves to blame. If everyone rode only bicycles to work, then there would never be such a thing as a traffic jam, the air in the city would become cleaner, while people would live longer, healthier lives, since cycling is a wonderful way to use the extra fat on your belly as the “fuel” for your bike.

The combination of two different drawing styles in one picture never ceases to amaze us. The works of Allison Kunath are a vivid example of this technique. The background of her pictures is drawn using watercolors, while the actual image is broken down into rough geometrical shapes. This creates a very striking contrast, thanks to black, bold lines of the image on the forefront drawn over soft, cloudy shades of color. The skill of Allison is clearly seen in the way she manages to draw something as amorphous as a squid without making any curved lines. (Photo by Allison Kunath)

Elements of nature are too powerful for humans to subdue, yet it didn’t stop the most courageous individuals from trying. Conquering air, land, fire, water, and even the very fabric of reality – this is the ultimate goal of humanity. For now, we can only marvel at the beauty and tremble in awe before the Mother Nature. A short film “Ocean Gravity,” written and directed by Julie Gautier and Guillaume Nery, reminds us of how small and insignificant a human body is, as it is being swept away by an ocean current. Nevertheless, it never stopped people from attempting to subjugate these unstoppable forces, and someday, maybe the humanity will come out victorious.

This fascinating photo series looks at the bleak isolation of Chernobyl as never before. Employing infrared filters, photographer Vladimir Mitgutin is able to bring out details of decay – an abandoned bus, a radar system, an amusement park, a doll, a sports hall, a piano – frozen in time. Here: Simon – a friendly fox, who often approaches tourists in the exclusion zone, asking for food. (Photo by Vladimir Mitgutin/Caters News Agency)

Israeli designer HIlla Shamia has found a way to mix “oil and water” or aluminum and wood – two materials I’ve never seen fused together. The product designer has created a novel way to meld both poured aluminum with irregular wood chunks to create modern tables and benches with a warm industrial feel. Old world and new world in one.

We’re showcasing photo-manipulation by Jan Oliehoek, a Dutch artist with a love for animals, photography and Photoshop. Oliehoek loves creating animal species that somehow never made it into our biology books, such as felines with rodent heads, lambs with the body of a squirrel, zebra rhinos and hippo-frogs! He’s currently having two of his pictures featured in Crazy Photography, an upcoming title from Vivays Publishing