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

Outside magazine recently asked a handful of nature photographers to discuss the most difficult shots they ever captured.  The photos are, unsurprisingly great, as are the stories behind them.  However, I agree with @hikelley that from a strictly design standpoint, Outside really dropped the ball on this feature.

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]

French Photographer Guillaume Herbaut has recently published photographs of a relatively secret Ukrainian tribe of women that have purposely segregated themselves from society due to the country’s high rates of sexual trafficking and gender oppression.

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.

Somehow the world’s most famous photographer is $24 million dollars in debt. Hard to believe considering her stature and that so many of her magazine covers or photo shoots are embedded as cultural iconography.

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.”