A fruit bat eats lettuce as it hangs from a rope during a behind the scenes interactive live stream from the Oakland Zoo on April 16, 2020 in Oakland, California. Since the Oakland Zoo has been closed to the public during the shelter in place, they are offering a subscription based service that will feature five weekly behind the scenes live streamed interactive programs that will feature animal keepers and their animals. Viewers are able to interact with the keepers by submitting questions to about the animals. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Young dancers practice by the Kenya – Uganda railway line, prior to the start of a Christmas ballet event in Kibera, the Kenyan capital's largest slum, Friday, December 15, 2023. The ballet project is run by Project Elimu, a community-driven nonprofit that offers after-school arts education and a safe space to children in Kibera. (Photo by Brian Inganga/AP Photo)

London Fashion Week makeup artist Val Garland in the first decade of September 2025 has created the definitive airport look ahead of Fashion Week, designed for long haul travel and inspired by Heathrow. Made entirely with cosmetics available in Heathrow’s World Duty Free beauty offering, passengers will have a chance to get the look themselves, as well as other immersive experiences as part of the Redefine Your Beauty campaign. (Photo by Daniel Lewis/Heathrow)

Without mincing words we would like to present a feature: Self-Publishing, let's call it Samizdat. :-) Sure we aren't Flickr, StumbleUpon or add_whatever_you_like, we're really small in comparison with these giants but we have constant, very attentive and grateful audience. All we can offer you is a place on the main page and attention of all our visitors to your posts, the things that are hard to achieve on numerous social services. Who knows, maybe tiny and humble indie project like AvaxNews will be much more helpful in searching of your audience than facebook for example. %-)

In this Monday, March 10, 2014 photo, a 9,000 year-old mask is on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The exhibition called “Face To Face” shows eleven stone masks, said to have been discovered in the Judean desert and hills near Jerusalem, which date back 9,000 years and offer a rare glimpse at some of civilization's first communal rituals. (Photo by Tsafrir Abayov/AP Photo)

A Hindu holy man, or sadhu, sits beside a fire after smearing his body with ashes at the premises of Pashupatinath Temple, ahead of the Shivaratri festival in Kathmandu, Nepal February 21, 2017. Hindus mark the Maha Shivratri festival by offering special prayers and fasting, with sadhus arriving at Pashupatinath to take part in the event, which takes place on February 24. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Vickie Leuenberger (L) practices with a mermaid tail with AquaMermaid founder Marielle Chartier Henault in a pool in Montreal, February 19, 2015. The school teaches kids and adults how to swim wearing mermaid tails, and offers mermaid-themed parties. (Photo by Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

New York City is populated with millions of people that each serve as an essential piece of the city's eclectic pie. The Big Apple's offering of unique and diverse individuals is arguably unmatched. We always hear about what a melting pot this immense metropolis is with its endless supply of quirky characters and the ongoing photo series known as Humans of New York proves it.