Devotees gather to take part in the celebrations to mark the Krishna Janmashtami festival at a temple in Jalandhar on August 26, 2024. (Photo by Shammi Mehra/AFP Photo)
“The giant clam, Tridacna gigas (known as pā’ua in Cook Islands Māori), is the largest living bivalve mollusc. T. gigas is one of the most endangered clam species. It was mentioned as early as 1825 in scientific reports. One of a number of large clam species native to the shallow coral reefs of the South Pacific and Indian oceans, they can weigh more than 200 kilograms (440 lb) measure as much as 120 cm (47 in) across, and have an average lifespan in the wild of 100 years or more”. – Wikipedia
Photo: Tridacna Gigas, or Giant Clams spew water as a traditional fisherman passes by a small sanctuary on January 23, 2004 near Bolinao in the Northern Philippines. The clams, prime builders for coral reefs and providing shelter for spawning fish and other marine life, are exposed by low tides in the sanctuary. Overfishing and pollution throughout the country are not only threatening food security, but are also starting to choke one of the few working clam sanctuaries in the world. (Photo by David Greedy/Getty Images)
Christian Faur is an artist based in Granville, Ohio. Looking for a new technique, he experimented with painting with wax, but he didn’t feel the results were satisfactory.Then, at Christmas in 2005, his young daughter opened a box of 120 Crayola crayons he’d bought her, and everything clicked into place. Faur decided he would create pictures out of the crayons themselves, packing thousands of them together so they become like the colored pixels on a TV screen. He starts each work by scanning a photo into a computer and breaking the image down into colored blocks He then draws a grid that shows him exactly where to place each crayon The finished artworks are packed tightly into wooden frames. He actually makes the crayons himself, hand-casting each one in a mould.
The sun bear (Ursus malayanus), also known as the honey bear, is a bear found primarily in the tropical rainforest (the dense lowland forests) in Southeast Asia; North-East India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Southern China, Peninsular Malaysia, and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.