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. %-)

Frontier soldiers run as a storm surge hits the coastline under the influence of Typhoon Fitow in Wenling, Zhejiang province, October 6, 2013. China issued a red alert ahead of Typhoon Fitow, which is expected to lash east of the country on Sunday evening. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

This outrageous display of facial hair configurations made an appearance at the 4th Annual National Beard and Mustache Championships in New Orleans. Luckily Las Vegas-based photographer Greg Anderson was on-hand to give us a front-row seat as the bizarre spectacle of facial hair paraded in front of his camera lens. The championships involved some 150 contestants from the U.S., U.K., and Canada who competed in 17 different categories.

“The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and also the Riau Islands. In Thailand, this festival is called Tesagan Gin Je, the Vegetarian Festival. It is celebrated throughout the entire country, but the festivities are at their height in Phuket, where about 35% of the population is Chinese. It attracts crowds of spectators because of many of the unusual religious rituals that are performed”. – Wikipedia. Photo: A devotee gest pierced at the Bang Neow shrine in Phuket. (Photo by Paula Bronstein)

Revellers gather for the start of the Annual SantaCon Bar Crawl at Father Duffy Square, a section of Times Square, on December 14, 2019, in New York City. SantCon is an event where people make donations to charitable causes and dress up as a Christmas character and visit bars around the city. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

People wear face masks as they ride an E-scooter in the Old Elbe Tunnel in Hamburg, Germany, Thursday, October 15, 2020. To avoid the spread of the coronavirus the use of a face mask in the 117-year-old tunnel under the Elbe river is mandatory. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

French actress Pom Klementieff (L), Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman (C) and US actress Tessa Thompson pose on the red carpet on arrival to attend the UK Gala Screening of the film “Thor: Love and Thunder”, at the Odeon Luxe in London on July 5, 2022. (Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP Photo)

Participants kiss on a platform as they take part in the annual event “No Trousers Tube Ride” in London, Sunday, January 8, 2023. The No Trousers Tube Ride returns to London, the first time the event had taken place since January 2020, due to Covid. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)