Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner's great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby. In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the 'infant', he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn.

“The young adult humpback could have a plot waiting for it at a whale graveyard hidden in bushland at Garrigal Garigal National Park”. – Janet Fife-Yeomans via AdelaideNow

Photo: People gather on the beach to see the carcass of a male sub-adult humpback whale that washed up at New Port Beach overnight at Newport Beach overnight on August 1, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne)

A boat, center, is surrounded by Japan Cost Guard's patrol boats after some activists descended from the boat on Uotsuri Island, one of the islands of Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, in East China Sea Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. Regional tensions flared on the emotional anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender as activists from China and South Korea used Wednesday's occasion to press rival territorial claims, prompting 14 arrests by Japanese authorities. The 14 people had traveled by boat from Hong Kong to the disputed islands controlled by Japan but also claimed by China and Taiwan. (Photo by Yomiuri Shimbun/Masataka Morita/AP Photo)

“Der Jen (Dezhen; 德珍繪館) has achieved fame in her homeland and that fame is now spreading to other parts of the world as more and more people become familiar with her beautiful paintings. This Taiwanese artist depicts these beautiful ladies in classic, traditional dress that would have been worn by members of the royal court or an empress herself. Traditional hair styles and jewelry depicted in her pieces are also considered authentic. Der Jens art can be found in Chinese advertising, childrens magazines, romance novels, tarot cards, and even on public transit tickets. Its also making its way to our pcs as desktop wallpaper”.

Photo: Der Jen (Dezhen; 德珍繪館) – “The beauty of Brocade” (please click to enlarge).

A woman dressed as the Star Trek character “Leeta” (C) and man dressed as “Rom” (2R) arrive to attend the “Destination Star Trek London” convention at the ExCeL centre on October 19, 2012 in London, England. The three-day convention, which opened to the general public today, will be attended by all five actors who played captains throughout the 46-year-old series. (Photo by Oli Scarff)

A model of a ghost made from translucent fibreglass is lit from inside at Gem's (Wax Models) Ltd, in the Portobello Road area of west London. The ghost is due to go to the Capistrano Mission Museum in California, where tourists are told the legend of how he frightened a young Indian girl novice to death. 1st May 1965. (Photo by Chris Ware/Keystone Features)

Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)

An isolated five-floor building stands in the middle of a new road on November 22, 2012 in Wenling, Zhejiang Province of China. Zhejiang Province of China. 67-year-old Luo Baogen and his 65-year-old wife from Xiazhangyang village still live in the half-demolished residential building, because they are dissatisfied with the relocation compensation. The road, which leads to the Wenling Railway Station, has not been put into use. (Photo by China Foto Press)