Photo of the day

I’m feeling kind of lame for not even knowing this is one of the Seven Wonders of the World (via Alan Taylor and a Brazil photo set):

View of Iguazu Falls, one of the Natural Seven Wonders of the World, from the Brazilian side, on April 11, 2012, in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil. The waterfall system, 2.7 km long, consists of 275 falls, and has an annual peak flow of some 6,500 cubic meters a second. An acute drought has hit the famed falls, cutting back the tumbling waters to reveal the rocky sides. Only a third of the usual volume of water is now flowing over the top. (Norberto Duarte/AFP/Getty Images)

And here’s a much less dramatic rainbow, but it actually appeared right in the middle of my back yard:

Photo of the day

From Smithsonian Magazine best nature photographs:

Small World Highly Honored: Cane Toad

“I was visiting a ranch near Laredo in April 2010. The area had experienced a dry spell until massive rains brought about an abundance of toads, frogs, and wildflowers. I knew I had a chance for a great shot when I saw this six-inch-long toad bounding across a field of yellow dogweed.” - Photographer Rolf Nussbaumer

Photo of the day

Well, you know I’m a sucker for historical photos, so I love this In Focus set of the American West from 150 years ago:

The mining town of Gold Hill, just south of Virginia City, Nevada, in 1867. (Timothy O’Sullivan/LOC)

Photo of the day

From a Big Picture set of Daily Life photos:

A Pakistani girl uses an umbrella for shelter from the rain while she and her father herd their sheep, near the site of the demolished compound of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, April 29, 2012. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)

Photo of the day

Via an In Focus set of photos from a recent earthquake in Northern Italy:

A boy looks at the damaged old tower of Delle Rocche castle after an earthquake in Finale Emilia May 20, 2012. Shortly afterward, a strong aftershock brought down the remaining half of the tower. (Reuters/Giorgio Benvenuti)

Photo of the day

Very cool set of Big Picture photosof this week’s solar eclipse.  Really hard to pick a favorite, but as a former West Texas (when I was at TTU from 2000-2002), I’m going with this:

An annular eclipse appears, May 20, 2012, north of Odessa, Texas. (Albert Cesare/Odessa American)

Photo of the day

Interesting story about the latest deaths in an attempt to climb an overcrowded Mt. Everest.  Here’s one from the accompanying photo gallery:

Very much reminds me of what remains my favorite non-fiction book ever (I probably should read it again some day), Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air.

Photo of the day

From the NYT’s Lively Morgue photo archive:

Nov. 23, 1968: The Times wrote about the White House photographer Yoichi Robert Okamoto, right, who produced most of the 250,000 photos of President Lyndon B. Johnson housed at the time in a laboratory in Georgetown. The reporter, Nan Robertson, called the collection the “greatest album of candid pictures ever made of an American president.” She continued: “Some persons are appalled by the size and expense of Mr. Johnson’s picture operation. Others believe the price is little enough to pay for pictures that will be priceless to historians.”Photo: George Tames/The New York Times

Photo of the day

Really cool set of London at night from above (via Alan Taylor).  Now here’s some soccer fields for urban density:

Five a side football pitches, 20 Union Street, Manchester. (© Jason Hawkes)

 

Photo of the day

From a really cool Big Picture set of wind-themed photos:

A wildfire that forced authorities to temporarily close a section of U.S. Highway 34 east of Yuma County, Colo. This wildfire caused at least a half-million dollars’ worth of damage on Colorado’s plains was sparked by a power line snapped by strong winds, according to a report on March 23. (Tony Rayl/Yuma Pioneer via Associated Press)

Photo of the day

From a cool National Geographic photo feature about solar storms:

Photograph by NASA SDO

September 22, 2011
An X-class flare and a strong CME erupt from a magnetically active area rotating into view in the sun’s corona. If directed at our planet, extreme solar storms—occurring only once every few centuries or so—would light up skies all over Earth with colorful auroras and potentially cause long-lasting blackouts.

Photo of the day

I really love historical photos.  Alan Taylor brings us this terrific set of photos from 1962.  The whole thing is well worth a look.  One of my favorites:

In this March 20, 1962 photo, President John F. Kennedy’s daughter Caroline Kennedy rides her pony, Macaroni, on the south grounds of the White House in Washington. An unidentified handler runs along to keep pace. (AP Photo)