Artist Matthew Albanese creates amazing miniature landscapes made from sugar, chocolate and even bits of ostrich in his living room. All the models were painstakingly recreated in his living room, which he uses as his studio. Each gruelling piece can take up to as many as 700 hours to complete. Photo: A stormy version of “New Life 2” created by Matthew Albanese. (Photo by Matthew Albanese/Barcroft Media)

Photographer and former dancer Jesús Chapa-Malacara, head of art production company fotosjcm, announces the launch of Esprit de Corps, an innovative book of ballet photography unlike any seen before. The high-end art book, currently being independently financed and offered exclusively through a Kickstarter campaign, will feature world-class dancers from top ballet companies, including Michaela DePrince of Dutch National Ballet, Jared Matthews and Yuriko Kajiya of American Ballet Theatre, among others.

McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research centre located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as the United States Antarctic science facility. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.

Son doong cave is a cave in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, Bố Trạch district, Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam. Currently the biggest known cave in the world, the cave is located near the Laos-Vietnam border. Inside is a large, fast-flowing underground river.
In early August 2013, the first tourist group explored the cave on a guided tour at a cost of US$3,000 each. The group had six members from Australia, Norway, Russia and USA and spent 7 days and 6 nights for the tour. Next exploration trips will be arranged.

Take a walk on the wild side around some of the most down right dangerous places in the world - and all without leaving your desk, courtesy of Google Street View. Since 2007, Google's amazing technology has given people the chance to visit the Eiffel Tower, peer out over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge or walk along a beach in the Bahamas. But as well as mapping the tourist-friendly hotspots, Google also ventured into places you really wouldn't want to find yourself. Here is a collection of some the most notorious areas captured by the infamous roaming camera cars from around the UK and the world.

From sandwich-saurus to a scary leprechaun the sometimes terrifying and often hilarious foodstuffs are the creation of New York artist Kasia Haupt. The 29-year-old advertising art director has even had her work commissioned as prints making her a real-life Salvador DELI. Photo: “Kasia Haupt's sandwich monsters: Love Bunnies”. (Photo by Kasia Haupt/Caters News)

Liu Yi, Chinese painter, was born in Shanghai in 1958. He was a Fine Arts graduate from the Hua Dong University for Education. He did his postgraduate study of watercolor painting at the China College of Fine Arts. He lectures at university for painting and design. He is a member of the Chinese Artists Association and is also a member of the Watercolor Painting Artists Association. He is the retired Deputy President of the Shanghai Watercolor Painting Society, and is currently the Deputy Principal of the Shanghai Arts and Technical College. He is a very accomplished watercolor painter in China.

Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal is an international mosaiculture competition held in Montréal, Canada. According to their website, mosaiculture “is a refined horticultural art that involves creating and mounting living artworks made primarily from plants with colourful foliage (generally annuals, and occasionally perennials).” The 2013 competition and exhibition opened June 22 and runs through September 29 at the Montréal Botanical Garden and features some 22,000 plant species and cultivars distributed throughout 10 exhibition greenhouses and 30 themed gardens.