American media personality and socialite Kylie Jenner shows off her figure in a little white dress in the second decade of December 2024. (Photo by kyliejenner/Instagram)

A person dressed as Santa Claus jumps into the sea during the Copa Nadal (Christmas Cup) swimming race in Barcelona, Spain on December 25, 2024. (Photo by Bruna Casas/Reuters)

American television personality Stassi Schroeder visits The Empire State Building on April 23, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by John Nacion/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)

English model, television personality and former beauty queen Christine McGuinness attends the Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards 2025 at The Roundhouse on October 08, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Instagram)

Andy Goldfarb, a staff biologist at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, plays with one of the four clouded leopard cubs currently at the zoo Friday, June 5, 2015 in Tacoma, Wash. The quadruplets were born on May 12, 2015 and now weigh about 1.7 lbs. each. Friday was their first official day on display for public viewing, usually during their every-four-hours bottle-feeding sessions, which were started after the cubs' mother did not show enough interest in continuing to nurse them. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

“The knight and his steed”. This picture was taken in a natural but controlled environment. There are pictures that can not be done in nature or that would imply a very high cost of both time and money, thats why photography workshops are run conducted at strategic locations and bringing EVERYONE who is interested, the basic notions (lighting, camera handling, composition, etc...) or the specimens, and afford them the opportunity to take pictures like this. Although controlled, this shot was not prepared at all, I was performing a workshop with the agalychnis callidryas treefrog from Costa Rica when the frog managed to jump to the branch where this huge titan was sleeping... I had my gear ready so I only had to change a few settings and shoot... the rest is history. (Photo and caption by Nicolas Reusens Boden (Sweden)/2014 Sony World Photography Awards)

Do you think that history is a science? Well, not exactly. First, and foremost, history is the state's “legend of wars”, it’s official regalia. Of course, public historians are not interested in scientific truth – quite the opposite. In this respect, any attempt to present a state’s history as altruistic and benevolent as possible is welcomed and encouraged – as opposed to any revisionism attempts that may be more accurate. In this matter, Chinese have surpassed us all – they revised in highly creative manner (but rather shamelessly) the technology already invented by Europeans, a process that resulted in oldest state on the planet. Here is an interesting paradox: ask any sinologist about the Middle Kingdom during second century B.C., and he will describe it to you in such a vivid manner as if he has been living there all his life – but as soon as you will ask him to describe Chinese history in the 19-20th centuries… let's say, his eagerness will be greatly diminished. However, we will discuss China in a different article, and in the meantime we will try to understand how exactly historic “legend of wars” is formed and functions – based on a specific and well-known example. A great example is Ferdinand Magellan's first voyage around the world.

New Zealand photographer Niki Boon captured her children, who are growing up with limited electronics, in the photo series “Childhood in the Raw Photos”. Niki Boon began taking photos as a hobby while she was working as a physiotherapist in Scotland. However, the New Zealand native found her interest in the art waning while she travelled, and it wasn’t until she had returned home and started raising a family that her passion was rekindled. “Childhood in the Raw”, an ongoing photo series of her four children’s technology-free life on her 10-acre property in New Zealand, is the perennial fruit of this passion. (Photo by Niki Boon)