A green jumping spider (Lyssomanes viridis), in a forested area of Cerro de la Muerte, in San Jose, Costa Rica, 20 May 2025. International Day for Biological Diversity is celebrated every 22 May around the world. (Photo by Jeffrey Arguedas/EPA/EFE)

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)

If the most popular foods of Rio de Janeiro have one thing in common, it is their informality. You can find fine restaurants in the city, but they do not set Rio apart from other places. What does set it apart, and what invariably brings its residents, known as "Cariocas," together is the unpretentious food they eat in bright, loud, crowded bars and restaurants, on busy street corners, or after a day at the beach. Here: A view of traditional bolinhos de bacalhau (fried codfish balls) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 7, 2016. (Photo by Sergio Moraes/Reuters)

An aerial view shows the Amazon rainforest at the Bom Futuro National Forest near Rio Pardo in Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, September 3, 2015. The town of Rio Pardo, a settlement of about 4,000 people in the Amazon rainforest, rises where only jungle stood less than a quarter of a century ago. Loggers first cleared the forest followed by ranchers and farmers, then small merchants and prospectors. Brazil's government has stated a goal of eliminating illegal deforestation, but enforcing the law in remote corners like Rio Pardo is far from easy. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

For more than a century, the Barcelona skyline has been graced (or marred, depending on who’s talking) by the spectacle of the Basilica designed by Anton Gaudi, first started in 1882. If you want to know what it’ll look like when finished, don’t fret — 2026 is right around the corner. Or you can watch this video, released last week on YouTube by Basílica de la Sagrada Família and titled simply “2026 We Build Tomorrow,” a 3-D artists’ rendering of the building stages through completion.
(If 144 years sounds like a long time to finish a cathedral, keep in mind that there were decades that they didn’t work on it — and that Notre Dame de Paris took 182 years, although the 13th century Parisians didn’t have diesel-powered industrial cranes.) Now, if only the video could show us what the admission and hours will be in 2026 (and how to avoid the inevitable long lines).

A billboard for JELL-O stands at the corner of Grand Street and West Broadway on August 2, 2011 in New York City. The billboard acts as a mood-meter by analyzing Twitter and guaging the number of happy and sad emoticons used at any given moment, causing the billboard's face to change between a smile and a frown. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Why would you want to buy a Christmas tree if you have a luscious full beard? Or maybe you have a friend that is willing to volunteer? Just glue some ornaments onto his facial forest and make him stand in the corner. Just don’t forget to feed him! You don’t want your Christmas tree to go bad before the holidays are over! Stephanie Jarstad had created something similar in her project, The Twelve Bears of Christmas, in order to honor the Decembeard (much like Movember), in order to bring awareness to Men’s health problems. (Photo by Stephanie Jarstad)

Owners and their dogs take part in “HK Doggie Dash 2018”, an event held to raise money for for abandoned and surrendered dogs in Hong Kong on April 15, 2018. Dozens of pugs and dachshunds compensated for their modest speed with peppy spirits at Hong Kong’s inaugural “doggie dash” on April 15 that raised funds and awareness for the city’s abandoned and rescued dogs. (Photo by Isaac Lawrence/AFP Photo)