Six Flags New Orleans, also abbreviated to SFNO, is an abandoned theme park in New Orleans, Louisiana, that has been closed since just before Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005 and is currently owned by the city of New Orleans. Six Flags had previously owned the park since March 2002, but after assessing the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the related exorbitant expenses of repairing the damage, sought to terminate their 75-year lease with the city, beginning in July 2006 and finally succeeding in September 2009. The park is located in Eastern New Orleans, in the Ninth Ward of the city, off Interstate 10. Despite various announced plans to redevelop the site, as of 2014, it is still an abandoned amusement park in extremely poor condition. It is a well-known urban exploration destination.

Now celebrating its 40th year, Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum to recognize proficiency and photographic excellence of photography taken under the microscope. To select the winners, competition judges analyzed entries from all over the world covering subjects ranging from chemical compounds to up-close-and-personal looks at biological specimens. The 2014 winners will be revealed on October 30th. In 2014, the competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. (Photo by Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World 2014)

“The Lun-class ekranoplan (NATO reporting name Duck) was a ground effect vehicle (GEV) designed by Rostislav Evgenievich Alexeev and used by the Soviet and Russian navies from 1987 until sometime in the late 1990s. It “flew” using the lift generated by the ground effect of its large wings when close to the surface of the water – about four metres or less. Although they might look similar and/or have related technical characteristics, ekranoplans like the Lun are not aircraft, seaplanes, hovercraft, or hydrofoils – ground effect is a separate technology altogether. The International Maritime Organization classifies these vehicles as maritime ships. The name Lun comes from the Russian for harrier”. – Wikipedia (Photo by Igor113)

As part of FLAIR Melbourne – a Flinders Lane art festival – Melbourne’s Lisa Minogue presents stylised photographic portraits of Australian women of colour, their faces painted vibrantly to accentuate their individuality and encourage the viewer to study each face more closely. Minogue asked each woman the same question: “What do the words “coloured girl” mean to you?”. (Photo by Lisa Minogue/The Guardian)

Under Exposed: Pekka Tuuri (Finland) – Great white shark, Isla Guadalupe, Mexico. “Isla Guadalupe is the world capital when it comes to observing great white sharks, but cage diving seriously limits the possibilities to take ‘fresh’ pictures. When I took this, the water close to the surface was quite milky, making photography very challenging. From out of the “mist”, I saw this great white shark lurking behind a school of fusiliers. I quickly focused on the shark and set a wide aperture to get focus blur on the fish, along with a fast shutter to avoid excessive motion blur”. (Photo by Pekka Tuuri/The Outdoor Photographer of the Year/The Guardian)

Belgian-British teenager Zara Rutherford closes the canopy of her Shark Ultralight airplane as she prepares to take off at the Kortrijk-Wevelgem airfield in Wevelgem, Belgium, Wednesday, August 18, 2021. A Belgian-British teenager took to the skies Wednesday in her quest to become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo. Nineteen-year-old Zara Rutherford took off from an airstrip in Wevelgem, Belgium, in an ultralight plane looking to break the record set by American aviator Shaesta Waiz, who set the world benchmark at age 30 in 2017. (Photo by Virginia Mayo/AP Photo)

Scenes from the popular Walking Street normally packed with tourists filled with bars and restaurants in Pattaya, Thailand on March 10, 2020. Thailand depends on tourism, currently tourist arrivals have plunged more than 50% and are expected to continue for months ahead. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Thailand there has been 59 confirmed cases of Coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) with 6 new, only one death with around 1,903 persons under treatment. Latest information on the Novel Coronavirus has infected more than 118,000 people and killed close to 4,300. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

A man dressed in Andean attire as “Ukukus” or “Pabluchas”, a traditional character that acts as a vigilante imposing social order, uses a whip as a threat to force people to maintain their distance and remind them to wear face masks and gloves as a preventive measure against the novel coronavirus COVID-19, in the Vinocanchon market area in San Jeronimo district, close to the Peruvian Andean city of Cusco, on May 2, 2020. The government has identified public markets as major hotspots of the new coronavirus in Peru, where 40,459 confirmed cases and 1,124 deaths were reported on May 1. (Photo by Jose Carlos Angulo/AFP Photo)