This photo was taken in a small Southern Indian village during the Mayana Soora Thiruvizha festival. The festival is devoted to Angalamman, a guardian deity worshiped in Southern India. It was the merit prize winner of the National Geographic Travelers photo contest.

Mahesh Balasubramanian / National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest Via BusinessInsider

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While this shot may seem beautiful, it takes on a sinister aspect when you realize it’s a photo of the polluted Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn taken by photographer Steven Hirsch. Via BusinessInsider

Rods

“Rods” are one of the most fascinating and intriguing Earth mysteries of recent times. Discovered accidentally by filmmaker Jose Escamilla in March of 1994, what he calls “rods” are strange flying things that can only be seen on slowed-down film and videotape, and sometimes captured in still photographs. Apparently, these things – whatever they are – move too quickly to be seen with the naked eye. Escamilla first noticed them in film footage he had taken in Midway, New Mexico, and he (along with others) have since filmed and taped them in several other locations.

According to Escamilla’s own definition, rods are “cigar or cylindrical shaped objects that travel at high velocities barely visible with the naked eye. They appear to be alive as they move through the air like fish swim in the sea. They appear to have fins or appendages along the torso and the torsos bend as they travel.” Escamilla has several film clips and stills of the creatures on his website.

The rods measure from just a few inches to several feet in length and there seem to be a few varieties with different kinds of appendages. They have been spotted and recorded in Mexico, Arizona, Indiana, California, South Dakota, Connecticut and even Sweden. Some have even been seen underwater.(Source)

Hyper Endurance

This is long distance runner Dean Karnazes. Dean has superhuman endurance levels. His extraordinary feats include running on a treadmill for 80 hours non-stop (350 miles) and running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 consecutive days. Dean’s science team has concluded that if he was kept properly hydrated and fed, he could literally run at around 7-10 MPH until he died of old age. (Source)

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The Strokkur geyser in Iceland erupts every four to eight minutes, blasting water up to 130 feet into the air. Hot magma under the Earth heats water until it spews out of a hole in the ground. (Source)

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Nick Brandt took mesmerizing photographs of birds and bats at Tanzania’s Lake Natron that look as if they have turned to stone. They’re not really stone, but have been made “rock hard” from the high levels of soda ash and salt in the lake. (Source)

Visual Memory

Stephen Wiltshire has the ability to look at a subject just once and create a drawing of the subject in full detail and accuracy. Wiltshire was able to accurately recreate New York city after a brief helicopter ride above it!

British photographer Tim Flach created a series called “More Than Human,” which captures the emotions of wild creatures through intensely close shots, including this stunning picture of a tiger drying off.

Via BusinessInsider

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Residents of Wenzhou, China, woke one July morning to find that a river had turned red as blood due to pollution in the area

Bullet fired at a wall

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