“The popularity of the Internet in China has driven the explosive growth of profitable Web companies and made fortunes for some Chinese entrepreneurs despite government controls on what the public can see online. The number of mainland Internet users rose to 513 million in December, up 12 percent from a year earlier, the government-sanctioned China Internet Network Information Center said”. – AP Business Writer

Photo: Shi Yongxin, abbot of the Shaolin Temple, works on the computer April 8, 2005 in Dengfeng, Henan Province, China. (Photo by Cancan Chu/Getty Images)

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.

Dutch artist Suzan Drummen‘s large-scale floor installations are mesmerizing and complex circular patterns made out of mirrors and brightly colored glass. The fractal-like arrangements feature ornate and elaborate circles growing exponentially out of each other and vibrant rings of spiraling colors winding into the surface of the floor. They are composed of crystals, chromed metal, precious stones, mirrors and optical glass. A sensory experience, and visually stimulating, the glittering installations play with the architecture of the space — climbing up walls and sweeping across the surfaces — examining the idea of illusion and optical effects.

The works of Hu Shaoming immediately catch the eye of the onlookers with their level on intricacy and uniqueness. To provide a glimpse into the intricate workings of vintage cameras he uses a very unique method. He made it seem as if the fine leather covering of the camera was opened by zipper, showing its innards. A similar technique was used on an ancient telephone, though there it looks more like an embellishment. The idea was so marvelously put into life that it seems as if those items can actually be zipped up, though of course that is not possible.

Rescued Dutch hikers exit a search and rescue snowcat after they were brought safely to Grotli, Norway, February 26, 2016. Thirteen Dutchmen who were stranded while hiking in central Norway's mountains were found after snowmobile patrols by the Red Cross. Snowcats from the Red Cross are now moving ahead to pick the hikers up. (Photo by Torstein Boe/Reuters/NTB Scanpix)

Iraqi soldiers work at a radio station at Makhmour base, Iraq April 17, 2016. The Iraqi army has set up a radio station at its base in Makhmour broadcasting into areas south of Mosul controlled by Islamic State militants. The radio, which reaches villages halfway to the northern city, broadcasts military anthems and messages to the more than one million civilians living there. Radio operators said their aim was to weaken the militants’ morale and reassure civilians that the military has not forgotten them after nearly two years under Islamic State control. (Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

Storm chasing photographer Mike Hollingshead makes a living following the worst storms in America, from snarling tornadoes chewing up the Kansas farmland to supercell thunderstorms massing over the Dakotas. His style is to get right in the path of the storm. While he says it’s less scary than you think – because most of the storm consists of heavy rain – it’s still extremely stressful. Photo: Vivid sunset under severe storm in central Nebraska August 17, 2005. (Photo by Mike Hollingshead)