Filipino mermaid swimming teacher Genevieve Reyes (C) has her tail adjusted by students during a lesson by the Philippines Mermaid Swimming Academy in a private swimming pool in Makati, Manila, Philippines, 15 June 2013. The Philippine Mermaid Swimming Academy (PMSA) was created in 2012 in Boracay by Normeth Preglo of The Philippines and US swimming instructor Djuna Rocha. The swimming lessons were brought to Manila in April 2013. The price for a two-hour class is 37 US dollars. (Photo by Dennis M. Sabangan/EPA)

An Indian villager braving strong winds and rain walk to a safer place, in village Podampeta, in Ganjam district about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the eastern Indian city Bhubaneswar, India, Saturday, October 12, 2013. Strong winds and heavy rains pounded India's eastern coastline Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of people took shelter from a massive, powerful Cyclone Phailin expected to reach land in a few hours. (Photo by Biswaranjan Rout/AP Photo)

A Pakistani feeds his goat wearing the words “Eid Mubarak” or “Eid Greeting”, to be slaughtered on the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice”, in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, October 15, 2013. Muslims all over the world are celebrating Eid al-Adha by sacrificing sheep, goats, cows and camels, to commemorate the Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son, Ismail, on God's command. (Photo by Anjum Naveed/AP Photo)

The Longsheng Rice Terraces are located in Longsheng County, about 100 km (2 hours drive) from Guilin, Guangxi, China. The most popular are Ping An Rice Terrace and Jinkeng Rice Terrace. The terraced fields are built along the slope winding from the riverside up to the mountain top, the highest part being 880 m in elevation while the lowest part is 380 m[citation needed]. The coiling line that starts from the mountain foot up to the mountain top divides the mountain into layers of water glittering in the sun in spring, layers of green rice shoots in summer, layers of golden rice in fall, and layers of silvery frost in winter. The terraced fields were mostly built during the Ming Dynasty, about 500 years ago.

National Geographic invites photographers from around the world to enter the 2013 National Geographic Photography Contest. The grand-prize winner will receive $10,000 (USD) and a trip to National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., to participate in the annual National Geographic Photography Seminar in January 2014. Photo: “We just want to move to search to the Leopard at that morning but we found a group of giraffes come toward a small lake and start drinking it was a nice moment when the Giraffe finish from drinking and leave a letters “S” with motion in the air”. (Photo and caption by Majed Ali/National Geographic Photography Contest)

A security guard walks past a giant Doctor Who poster at the “Doctor Who 50th Celebration” event in the ExCeL centre on November 22, 2013 in London, England. The sold-out three day event in the ExCeL London convention centre celebrates 50 years of the show which has seen 11 actors play the role of Doctor Who and receives a worldwide cult following. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

How sure are you of your geographical knowledge? Buzzfeed recently put Americans’ geographical knowledge to the test with a survey in which participants had to write in countries’ names on a blank European political map. Unfortunately, they didn’t fare too well, but some of their responses are hilarious (or hilariously mis-informed). But don’t be so quick to judge Americans – when Buzzfeed posted a similar survey testing Brits’ knowledge of the 50 United States, they also came up short. On the one hand, knowing a country’s states is different from knowing independent countries, but on the other, some U.S. states are larger than some European nations, and some U.S. states have larger economies than some European nations.

An arctic tern feeds its chick on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast, northern England July 8, 2013. The Farne Islands, which lie off the coast of northeast England, are home to a huge array of wildlife. The islands are owned and protected by the British conservation charity, the National Trust, which says they host some 23 species of seabird, as well as a substantial colony of grey seals, who come to have their pups there in the autumn. Every five years the National Trust carries out a census of the islands' population of puffins, and this year's survey showed there were almost 40,000 nesting pairs on the islands – an 8 percent rise from 2008. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Reuters)