The Big Picture is featuring beautiful photos of Martian Landscapes shot from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

What’s better than one Slave Leia?  How about two catching some rays.  Kottke came across this photo of Carrie Fisher and her stunt double napping during the Tatooine shoot in Return of the Jedi. Enjoy!  But just know that I’m going to need a moment or two to catch my breath.  [via]

David D’Angelo flies from Denver to Singapore and back with stopovers in Chicago, Los Angeles and Tokyo. I could watch these types of moving photographic summaries all day. [via]

Above is our Sun, “photographed using a special filter which matches the specific shade of red light emitted by hydrogen gas. The image was then inverted to enhance the visibility of the Sun’s chromosphere, giving it the ominus blue glow seen above.”

[via & via]

This is how I often feel in the morning before I’ve had any coffee.  [via]

As shot at Rotture in Portland, OR.  Funny how a light show can make it look like Jedi Knights and Sith Lords are about to get into some shit.  If only any of the most recent Star Wars movies had something this cool looking.

Science rocks.  If I were a school superintendent I would put tables like this all over every school in my district.

Update: In 2003, Wake Forest University students Nazila Alimohammadi and Anna Clark built this picnic table.

The two women students created the sculpture as part of a public art course taught in the fall by David Finn, associate professor of art. Students in the class were paired up and assigned to work with campus organizations in creating works for public display. “We wanted our project to be fun and functional without a lot of emotional or political content,” Clark says. An aspiring dentist, Alimohammadi had taken several chemistry classes and suggested working with that department. They devised their “Periodic Table” concept — a pun of the familiar Periodic Table of Elements configuration — and the department responded enthusiastically. Alimohammadi did the structural steel work and Clark hand-painted the surface tiles. The piece, which was dedicated in an informal picnic ceremony on April 15, is accurate in every detail, right down to the auxiliary lanthanides and actinides tables that constitute the table’s bench.

[via & via]

Indonesia born photographer and illustrator Agan Harahap uses his Photoshop skills to insert pictures of superheroes like Spiderman, Superman, The Flash, Darth Vader (?) and Batman into memorable political and wartime photos from the mid-20th century.  His new project is called “Superhero Photography”  I love the instant alternative history of this, with superheroes helping us win WWII, and how he makes their costumes look old and from that specific time period.  But why not Captain America and Red Skull?  Too obvious? [via here/here]

Mars missions from 1960 to present by Bryan Christie Design for IEEE Spectrum’s special report “Why Mars? Why Now?” You can check out a larger version at the IEEE site.  Totally worth it.

[via]

Looks like somebody at mlb.com jumped the gun last night and is probably losing their job right now! As I type this!  This is no Dewey vs. Truman moment, but still.

For anyone interested in the game, Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies had the game-winning hit.  Phillies 5, Dodgers 4.  They’re up 3-1 in their series versus Los Angeles and I’m starting to get that feeling that this Phillies team has a bit of dynasty in them.  I mean, something good was bound to happen for the city at some point, no? (Thx, Ben)

Frightening, no? 

Anyway, it’s all part of Scientific American’s slideshow of the recent Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition.  And if that’s not enough to satiate your appetitie for microphotography (and really, how could it be?) Wired was kind enough to do a 35-year retrospective that will positively make your mind explode on this lazy Monday.

Amazing:

Part of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Reunion show featured two massive marionettes, the Big Giant, a deep-sea diver, and his niece, the Little Giantess. The storyline of the performance has the two separated by a wall, thrown up by “land and sea monsters”. The Big Giant has just returned from a long and difficult – but successful – expedition to destroy the wall, and now the two are walking the streets of Berlin, seeking each other after many years apart.

You do not want to piss off the European dairy farmers.  For they understand how to truly protest.

Camille Seaman selected the above supercell traveling from Nebraska to South Dakota:

We tracked this supercell from Nebraska to South Dakota, over a distance of 800 miles, in June 2008. We were driving 95 miles an hour to avoid getting swallowed by this thing, and then we’d stop for just a few seconds to snap photos. The idea is to stay in the sweet spot, away from the storm’s precipitation, and follow it while it develops. Warm, moist air fuels the cloud until it can’t hold any more, and then it blasts out gusts of cold air and rain. This was taken right before the storm dropped golf-ball-size hail on us.

[via]

Herbaut’s photos date back to 2004 when the Ukraine was amidst the Orange Revolution.

The Asgarda, as the women refer to themselves, number around 150, and hope to revive “the tribal traditions of the Scythian Amazons of ancient Greek mythology.”

Primarily students of varying ages and backgrounds, they “train in martial arts, taught by former Soviet karate master, Volodymyr Stepanovytch, and learn life skills and sciences in order to become ideal women.”

[via]

Intense dust storms have turned Sydney, Australia into an apocalyptic terror.  The place looks like Mars:  “It’s also been wreaking havoc, disrupting transport and placing health authorities on alert for widespread respiratory illness. International flights were diverted from Sydney, ferries on the harbour were suspended, and motorists were warned to take care on roads as visibility was dramatically reduced.”

And yet, that hasn’t stopped people from going to the beach to surf! There is something strangely beautiful about the faint orange glow.  There are still many photos going up on Flickr, but for now, you can check out this gallery, which is being aggregated by Tom Coates. [via]

A special pimp bus for the special little pimps inside.  Seriously.  The only thing this bad boy needs are some 22 inch rims and some hydraulics.  Honestly, who puts a spoiler on the short bus?  That person wins.

[Note: I'm hoping this becomes a regular column that could be half the stuff I find and half of the best readers on the web, otherwise known as ya'll, sending funny stuff our way!]

The Big Picture has a collection of photos from the The 176th Oktoberfest, which kicked off last Saturday by Munich Mayor Christian Ude.  “With predictions of over 6 million visitors heading to Munich, the festival runs until October 4th. This year, a traditional liter of beer will cost visitors about 8 euros (11.75 dollars). And new this year: Oktoberfest iPhone apps, including a dictionary, ordering assistant and a blood-alcohol calculator. Collected here are a few photographs from the first couple of days of Oktoberfest 2009.”

Whoa.  Whoa.  Whoa.  Whoa.  Our President really is a gigantic dork.  Here he is wielding a lightsaber after a fencing demonstration on the White House lawn yesterday during a photo op to promote Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.

I know people said Dubya would be fun to have a beer with, and for sure I think he would (if he’s drinking), in a sort of let’s watch sports or go fishing kind of way.  But, Obama looks equally as fun, in a man we’re giant dorks let’s discuss our Warcraft guild or debate the inherent shitiness of Episode I. [via]

Ken Murphy plans to shoot 365 day-long time lapse sequences of the sky above San Francisco’s exploratorium. Here are his first 42 videos, played in sync, side-by-side.  Can’t wait to see all 365 videos presented in a giant square side by side to see what, if any, patterns emerge.  Either way, this is something hypnotic.  [via]

Yesterday, NASA released the first set of Hubble images since the 19-year-old telescope was released back into space in May following a long-delayed servicing mission.

“Hubble is back in action,” Heidi Hammel, senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, told the Baltimore Sun. “You’re only getting the tiniest taste of what astronomers are planning to do with Hubble over the many years it’s going to last.”

Above is the Carina Nebula.

Her debts now total a staggering $24 million, consolidated with one lender with whom she is engaged in a lawsuit and due in September. If she can’t meet that deadline, she may lose her homes and the rights to her life’s body of work.

Friends say Leibovitz has begun to think of herself less as a celebrity artist leading a charmed life and more as a single mother of three fighting to keep a roof over her head and food on her family’s table. It isn’t surprising, then, that she bristled at a lifetime-achievement award. The fear of no longer working is terrifying to her. She has to work. What remains mystifying is the simple question on everyone’s mind that night: How on earth could something like this have happened to Annie Leibovitz?

Photographer Anthony Karen cozied up with the KKK for a series of startling and often-times sad photos of the terrorist group in their homes, at rallies, and at Klan gatherings.  It’s a stark reminder that hate, ignorance and prejudice may dissipate but certainly don’t go away.  But there’s something more at work here, as well.  There’s a lonely marginalization to many of these photos. 

Many of the photos  are from Karen’s new book, “The Invisible Empire: Ku Klux Klan,” which he shared with Life Magazine.  In all, Karen spent four years working on this project, traveling from Germany, Canada and throughout 25 states here at home. 

Karen says: “I guess I prefer stories with a little edge to them. I find it extremely interesting to document a controversial belief system — to capture people when they’re in a vulnerable state, running on raw emotion. It’s about being allowed into someone’s personal space, respecting that trust, being grateful for the chance to see something that most don’t get to see.”

Minneapolis’ Uptown movie theater marquee reads, “Co-written by Dave Eggers / Away We Go / Yup. Co-writer on Top.”

Quirky and bizzare for sure, but I guess it’s a reminder that the movie — directed by Sam Mendes and starring, the new “Zack Braff”, John Krasinski — might have more up its sleeve than the loathesome trailers suggest. 

Not that we don’t have anything against the coming-of-age roadtrip movie, it’s just that, well, we do.  Why hasn’t anyone bothered to spoof this genre yet? [via The Awl]

Unrelatedly: Slashfilm, one of the best movie websites, going got caught selling out their journalistic integrity (is there such a thing when it comes to blogs?) by running a sponsored post on director Sam Mendes.  Needless to say their readers weren’t happy and they recanted.  As far as ethics and whatnot, these things do happen and you’ve got to learn your mistake and move on.  Seems like Peter and Co. realized they crossed a line and they should be forgiven.

The above photo is the Russian Sarychev Peak volcano in the Kuril Islands exploding through the atmosphere on June 12. 

The photo was captured by  the International Space Station; scientists are excited because it shows the shock wave and top of the blast steam bubble and conditions had to be absolutely perfect for it to happen. 

As NASA scientists M. Justin Wilkinson writes, “there must be almost no wind for the plume to shoot so high into the atmosphere undisturbed.”

And on the seventh day the neighborhood watch rested.  [via The High Definite]

So this exists and is spreading around the internet today like a super-strain of herpes. 

Asian Poses is a website full of examples of typical female Asian poses like the giant heart (shown above), fighting, adjusting glasses, and of course the V sign (or peace sign). 

It’s run by a Chinese man and I guess it’s one of those things that seems weird and racist, but is actually quite normal because everyone in Asia (China, Japan, Korea anyways) poses like this. 

You can slot this site right between I Can Haz Cheezburger and This is Why You’re Fat for things that boggle the brain. 

[via these fine sites and the entire internet]

Your daily animal cuteness.  [via reddit]

“William Castleman captured this amazing time-lapse of the starry night sky at a Texas Star Party on April 21-22, 2009 (9:20PM to 6:43AM). Using a 15mm fisheye, he captured many images of the sky at 20 second exposures every single minute and then put them together in this video which shows the images at 15 frames per second. You can clearly see the Milky Way in all of its splendor. Wow. Just WOW!”

[via Dooby Brain]

It would be easy to make fun, but my first thought when seeing this picture was how awesome would it be to live here.  Right?  It’s like a trailer park version of Ewok Village.  Throw in some rope swings, a few bridges and I’m sold.  Well, okay, you’d have to fix up the trailers and make them pimp inside with granite counters, stainless steel, etc.  But otherwise.  (Thx, Scott)

Your daily improper Sesame Street/Muppet photo.  And yet, Elmo is so freaking adorable, that even when he’s strung out on JD and willing to work for tickels, my first thought was, dang that’s a cute picture.

So how far could you push Elmo before he’s no longer cute?

This elegant shot of a Roomba’s path was acheived by “shutting off all the lights in the room for 30 minutes and taking a long exposure of the path the Roomba took while cleaning up.”  Beautiful.  [via Geekologie]

These night shots by Carl Wooley conjure the cold desolation of the dark.  I love how cinematic they are, like a scene is about to unfold in these very photographs.  All of his photo sets are worth checking out, especially his ones from Amsterdam.  Somehow he captures the stillness, the vibrancy, the aura of the night in every photograph. [via BOOOOOOOM!]

Really?  They couldn’t wait to get back to their apartment for an unmasked smooch?  A simple hug wouldn’t suffice?  Or maybe they’re just whispering sweet nothings to each other while deciding whether to have bacon, sausage or ham for dinner. (Thx Amy, Kristen, Theresa)

I don’t speak the French, so this could all be harmless, but I don’t like what’s going on in this picture.  Both the x-rayed human-horse copulation and the perfectly tri-colored horse.  It looks like that chocolate, vanilla, strawberry ice cream flavor. 

Anyways, have it at in the comments. [via]

As David Horovitz explains: “Take a photograph of your head inside a freezer.  Upload the photo to the internet (like Flikr).  Tag the file with: 241543903.  The idea is that if you search for this cryptic tag, all the photos of heads in freezers will appear.  I just did one.”

Why is it that I feel compelled to do this just to see my head in a freezer on the internet?

[via Waxy]

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is now a year into its extended mission and will probably continue until September 2010.  The Big Picture has rounded up a nice collection of photos from the misison.

Documentary photographer Tomas van Houtryve snuck into North Korea by posing as a businessman looking to open a chocolate factory.  Really, North Korea?  You believed that?

Despite 24-hour surveillance by the government, he still managed to take photographs of Pyongyang (North Korea’s capital city) and its people — rarely captured images and even more rarely distributed.  Published by Foreign Policy, “they show stark glimmers of everyday life in the world’s last gulag.”

Artist Brock Davis takes photographs and puts those googly eyes things on them giving birth to his “Born with Googly Eyes” series.  It’s equal parts hilarious and scary, much like the end of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where Christopher Lloyd starts melting.  That’s what I think of every time I see on of these pieces.

Anyway, we’re pretty much in agreement with The Daily What, that this is one of the best things on the internet going.

Above: Collette