The images and text below were previously been featured on Wikipedia:Picture of the day. For an image-only archive without the text, see Template:Pic of the day/Image archive. To use the pic of the day on your own user or talk page, type {{pic of the day}} or {{POTD}}. For more recent images of the day, see Template:Pic of the day/Archive.
Mickey Mouse, Saturday, 14 August, 2004
A
medieval image resembling the
cartoon character
Mickey Mouse was discovered on November 14, 2002 during restoration of a church's outside wall in the town of
Malta in
Austria. It is part of a 14th-century
fresco depicting
Saint Christopher of the
Roman Catholic Church, who is often shown accompanied by fabulous creatures. Photo credit: Unknown 14th century source
City Hall, London, Friday 13 August, 2004
City Hall in
London is the headquarters of the
Greater London Authority, and stands on the south bank of the
River Thames near to
Tower Bridge. The building was designed by
Sir Norman Foster and opened in July 2002. It has an unusual bulbous shape, intended to reduce the
building's surface area and thus improve
energy efficiency. City Hall was constructed on a site formerly occupied by
wharves serving the
Pool of London (a stretch of the
River Thames). Photo credit:
ChrisO
Santa Cruz Mountains, Thursday 12 August, 2004
Skyline Boulevard runs through the
Santa Cruz Mountains, here near
Palo Alto, California. The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the
Coast Ranges, are a
mountain range in central
California. They form a ridge along the
San Francisco Peninsula, south of
San Francisco, separating the
Pacific Ocean from
San Francisco Bay and the
Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south, bordering
Monterey Bay and ending at the
Salinas Valley. Photo credit:
Jawed Karim
Mackerel
sky, Wednesday 11 August, 2004
A mackerel sky is an indicator of moisture and instability at high levels. If the lower
atmosphere is stable and no moist air moves in, the weather will most likely remain dry. However, moisture at lower levels combined with temperature instability can lead to spectacular
thunderstorms should the rising moist air reach this layer. In
weather lore, a mackerel sky portends changeable
weather. Photo credit:
Denni Windrim
Machu Picchu, Tuesday 10 August, 2004
Machu Picchu is a well preserved
Pre-Columbian town located on a high mountain ridge above the
Urubamba valley in modern-day
Peru. It is thought the city was built by the
Inca emperor
Pachacuti starting in about 1440 and was inhabited until 1532. The city was re-discovered in 1911 by
Hiram Bingham. This
World Heritage Site is a popular
tourist attraction. Photo credit:
Chmouel Boudjnah
Central Arizona Project Aqueduct, Monday 9 August, 2004
The
Central Arizona Project Aqueduct is a diversion canal in
Arizona in the United States. The
aqueduct diverts water from the
Colorado River from
Lake Havasu City into central and southern Arizona. The Central Arizona Project is a multipurpose water resource development and management project that was designed to provide water to nearly one million acres (4000 km2) of Indian and non-Indian
irrigated agricultural land areas as well as
municipal water for several Arizona communities. Photo credit:
US Bureau of Reclamation
New Scotland Yard, Sunday 8 August, 2004
New Scotland Yard, located at Broadway in
Westminster, is the headquarters of the
Metropolitan Police Service who are responsible for
policing
Greater London. The name derives from its original location on a street off
Whitehall called Great Scotland Yard. The exact origins of this name are unknown, though a popular explanation is that it was the former site of the residence of the
Scottish kings or their ambassadors when staying in England. Photo credit:
ChrisO
Thunderstorm, Saturday, 7 August, 2004
A
thunderstorm is a form of
severe weather involving
lightning and
thunder. Thunderstorms have had a lasting and powerful influence on mankind. Romans thought them to be battles waged by
Jupiter. Thunderstorms were associated with the
Thunderbird, held by
Native Americans to be a servant of the
Great Spirit. Photo credit: John Kerstholt
Fennec Fox, Friday 6 August, 2004
The
Fennec Fox is a small
fox found in the
desert of Northern
Africa. The fennec is the smallest
canid, only weighing up to 1.5 kg. The fennec is
nocturnal and hunts for rodents, insects, lizards, birds and eggs at night. The fennec is rare and is not often seen. It is often hunted by humans, even though the fox does not cause any harm to human interests. Photo credit:
Ralf Schmode
London by night, 5 August, 2004
London is the capital of the
United Kingdom and of
England. The city of Londinium was founded by the
Romans on the north bank of the
River Thames in around 50 AD. By the 18th century London was the biggest city in the world. It was the most populous city in the world from 1825 until 1925, when it was overtaken by
New York City. Photo credit:
NASA
Schlern, 4 August, 2004
The
Schlern is a 2,563 m high
mountain of the
Dolomites in
South Tyrol,
Italy. The
Dolomites are a section of the
Alps in northern
Italy. The name Dolomites is derived from the French mineralogist
Deodat de Dolomieu who was the first to describe the mineral
Dolomite which is responsible for the characteristic shapes of these great limestone mountains. Photo credit:
Fantasy
Halong Bay, 3 August, 2004
Halong Bay (Vịnh Hạ) is a
body of water in north
Vietnam in the
Gulf of Tonkin near the border with
China. Its name means "Bay of the Descending
Dragon" in
Vietnamese. The bay consists of a dense cluster of 1969
limestone monolithic
islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise spectacularly from the ocean. Photo credit:
David Stewart
Darby and Joan, Monday August 2, 2004
Royal Doulton Darby and Joan figurines. "
Darby and Joan" is a term used to describe a happily
married couple. In
England, clubs for senior citizens are appropriately called Darby and Joan Clubs. The first mention of John Darby and his wife Joan is believed to be in a
poem by Henry Woodfall in 1735. At that time Woodfall was apprentice to Darby, a printer from the town of Bartholemew Close. Photo credit:
Paul Darby
Yellowstone National Park, 1 August, 2004
Yellowstone National Park is a
United States National Park located in the
states of
Idaho,
Montana, and
Wyoming. Yellowstone is the first and oldest
national park in the world. The park is famous for its
geothermal features and is home to
grizzly bears,
wolves,
bison and
elk. Photo credit:
Daniel Mayer
National Gallery, Saturday 31 July, 2004
The National Gallery at night, illuminated for an event to promote the launch of a
Pepsi commercial. The
National Gallery in
London is an
art gallery designed by
William Wilkins. It holds part of the National Collection, particularly Western European art from 1250 to 1900. The collection of 2300 paintings belongs to the British public. Photo credit:
Michael Reeve
Weather lore, Friday 30 July, 2004
Weather lore, the informal folklore related to the prediction of the
weather, suggests that the
cumulus humilis clouds in this
sky indicate a good day ahead. Such clouds show there is very little
convection in the lower
atmosphere, and the fact that it is well-formed indicates light
winds at low levels. There is no
cloud aloft, and thus no moisture or stable conditions or both. The cumulus congestus on the
horizon suggests
showers may be possible three or four hours from now, at the earliest, but chances are good it will remain a pleasant day through until the evening. Photo credit:
Denni Windrim
Darlingtonia, Thursday 29 July, 2004
Darlingtonia (Darlingtonia californica), also called the California
Pitcher plant or Cobra Lily, is a
carnivorous plant in the family
Sarraceniaceae. Darlingtonia is native to
California and
Oregon and grows in bogs and seeps. The name Cobra Lily is from the resemblance of the tubular leaf to a rearing
Cobra, complete with "fangs". The genus Darlingtonia is
monotypic. Photo credit:
Daniel Keshet
Icefish, Wednesday 28 July, 2004
Icefish are a type of
Antarctic fish belonging to various families, including the
Channichthyidae family. They have no
haemoglobin and their
blood is transparent. They feed on
krill,
copepods, and other fish. Icefish rely on well-oxygenated water and absorb oxygen directly through the skin as they lack
red blood cells. Photo credit:
Uwe Kils
Mount Cook, Tuesday 27 July, 2004
Mount Cook, a peak in the
Southern Alps is the highest
mountain in
New Zealand. Mount Cook is also known as Aoraki, meaning "Cloud Piercer" in the
Kai Tahu dialect of the
Maori language. The mountain is located within the
Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park and was formally declared one of the
United Nations World Heritage Parks in 1953. Photo credit: User:Dynabee
Tawaret, Monday 26 July, 2004
Tawaret was a popular deity in ancient
Egyptian mythology. She was a
household deity who protected women during pregnancy and childbirth, in conjunction with another deity,
Bes. Tawaret was depicted as an amalgam of human and animal with the head of a
hippopotamus,the arms and legs of a
lion, the back and tail of a
crocodile, and the breasts and stomach of a pregnant woman. Photo credit:
ChrisO
Pin tumbler lock, Sunday 25 July, 2004
The
pin tumbler lock is a
lock mechanism that utilizes a group of pins of varying lengths to prevent opening the lock without the correct
key. Pin tumblers are most commonly employed in
cylinder locks, but may also be found in tubular or radial locks. When the correct key is inserted, the gaps between the key pins (red) and driver pins (blue) align with the edge of the plug (yellow). Photo credit:
Eric Pierce
Four-stroke cycle, Saturday 23 July, 2004
The
four-stroke cycle of an
internal combustion engine is the cycle most commonly used for automotive and industrial purposes today, including
cars,
trucks, and generators. The cycle was invented by
Nikolaus Otto in 1876, and is also called the Otto cycle. The cycle is characterized by four strokes, or straight movements in a single direction, of the
piston. Photo credit:
Eric Pierce
Zootomical terms of location, Friday 23 July, 2004
Zootomical terms of location differ from the terminology used in
human anatomy. In animals, the head end is called the "cranial end" and the tail end is the "caudal end". The side of the body normally oriented upwards is the "dorsal" side; the opposite side, typically the one closest to the ground when walking on all legs, swimming or flying, is the "ventral" side. Photo credit:
Jonathan Merritt
Geisha, Thursday 22 July, 2004
Women dressed as
geisha in
Kyoto,
Japan. They are wearing traditional
kimonos and
geta. Geisha (芸者) are traditional Japanese artist-entertainers. Geisha were very common in the 18th and 19th centuries, and are still in existence today, although their numbers are dwindling. The geisha tradition evolved from the taikomochi or hōkan, similar to court
jesters. Geisha were traditionally trained from young
childhood although modern geisha begin their training, which remains extremely long and difficult, at much older age. Photo credit:
Michael Reeve
Water Buffalo, Wednesday 21 July, 2004
The
Water Buffalo is a very large
ungulate. It probably survives in the wild in
India,
Nepal,
Bhutan and
Thailand; is very widespread as a domestic animal in
Asia,
South America.
North Africa and
Europe; and is feral in northern
Australia. Wild-living populations of Water Buffalo also exist in much of
South-east Asia but their origin is uncertain: they may be the descendants of wild Water Buffalo, formerly domesticated ferals, or a mixture of both. The population of wild Water Buffalo has become very sparse. Photo credit:
Chmouel Boudjnah
Planet Mars, Tuesday 20 July, 2004
Mars, the fourth
planet from the
Sun, is named after the
Roman god of war because of its blood
red color. Mars has two small, oddly-shaped moons,
Phobos and
Deimos, named after the sons of the
Greek god
Ares. At some point in the future Phobos will be broken up by
gravitational forces. The atmosphere on Mars is 95%
carbon dioxide. In 2003
methane was also discovered in the atmosphere. Since methane is an unstable gas, this indicates that there must be (or have been within the last few hundred years) a source of the
gas on the planet. Photo credit:
NASA
Bryce Canyon National Park, 19 July, 2004
Bryce Canyon National Park is distinctive due to its unique
geological structures, called
hoodoos. In winter, most
birds in the park migrate, but
jays,
ravens,
nuthatches,
eagles, and
owls stay. The Mule Deer, Mountain Lion, and
coyotes will migrate to lower elevations.
Ground squirrels and
marmots pass the winter in
hibernation. Photo credit:
National Park Service
San Francisco Bay Area, Sunday 18 July, 2004
The Skyline Boulevard in the
San Francisco Bay Area stretches through the
Santa Cruz Mountains, here near
Palo Alto, California. Three large cities dominate the San Francisco Bay Area;
San Francisco,
San Jose, and
Oakland. As well as constituting one of the world's greatest metropolitan areas, the Bay Area includes some exceptional natural coastal and rural landscape. It includes significant
national parks such as the
Point Reyes National Seashore and a large number of
state parks. Photo credit:
Jawed Karim
Compound eye of a
dragonfly, Saturday 17 July, 2004
A
compound eye is a visual
organ found in certain
arthropods. The compound eye consists of between 12 and 1,000
ommatidia, little dark/bright sensors. The image perceived by the arthropod is "recalculated" from the numerous ommatidia which point in slightly different directions. In contrast to other
eye types, there is no central
lens or
retina. Though the resulting image is poor in resolution, it can detect quick movements and, in some cases, the
polarization of light.
Dragonflies have about 30,000 facets to their compound eyes, giving them nearly a 360° field of vision. Photo credit:
David L. Green
Sistine Chapel, Friday 16 July, 2004
The
Sistine Chapel is a religious
chapel and one of the most famous artistic treasures of the
Vatican, built between 1475 and 1483, in the time of
Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere. The chapel is known worldwide both for being the hall in which
conclaves and other official ceremonies are held, including some
papal coronations, and for having been decorated by
Michelangelo. The subjects of the pictures were historical religious themes. Michelangelo was employed to paint only 12 figures, the Apostles, but when the work was finished there were more than 3,000. Photo credit:
Adrian Pingstone using a
artchive.com source
Yellow rattle, Thursday 15 July
Yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor) is a
flowering plant in the
family
Scrophulariaceae. This family comprises 220-300 genera and 4000-4500 species. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, with the majority found in temperate areas, including tropical mountains. Other members of the family include
Digitalis,
Linaria and
Verbascum. Yellow rattle is a
semi-parasitic plant that gains some of its nutrients from the roots of neighbouring plants. The name refers to the seedpods, which contain loose, rattling
seeds when ripe. Photo credit:
sannse
Painter's algorithm, Wednesday 14 July.
The
painter's algorithm is one of the simplest solutions to the
visibility problem in
3D computer graphics. When projecting a 3D scene onto a 2D plane, it is at some point necessary to decide which
polygons are visible and which are hidden. The distant mountains are painted first, followed by the closer meadows; finally, the closest objects in this scene - the trees - are painted. For detailed scenes, the painter's algorthm generally proves to be a slow solution. Photo credit:
Fredrik
Notre-Dame, Tuesday 13 July.
View of
Paris from the
Notre-Dame showing the
River Seine and the
Eiffel Tower. The Notre-Dame de Paris is a
gothic
cathedral on the eastern half of the
Île de la Cité in
Paris,
France. The cathedral is probably best known from
Victor Hugo's novel,
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was first published in 1831. Photo credit:
Michael Reeve
Moon, Monday 12 July.
The
Moon is the only
natural satellite of
Earth. During the
ancient period, it was not uncommon for
cultures to believe that the Moon
died each
night, thus descending into the
underworld. As late as the 1920s (or so), it was believed that the Moon might have a
breathable
atmosphere. In 1969,
Neil Armstrong and
Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to land on the Moon. Photo credit:
Michael K. Fairbanks
Mad scientist, Sunday 11 July.
A
mad scientist is a
stock character, often
villainous, who appears in
fiction as a
scientist who is
insane or
eccentric. He is usually working with some utterly
fictional technology in order to forward his evil schemes. Recent mad scientist depictions are often
satirical and
humorous, and some are actually protagonists, such as Dexter in the cartoon series
Dexter's Laboratory. Photo credit:
J.J. McCullough
Brisbane, Saturday 10 July.
Brisbane at night.
Brisbane is the capital city of the state of
Queensland,
Australia. It is situated in the southeast corner of Queensland and straddles the
Brisbane River. The city is named after Sir
Thomas Brisbane, a soldier and colonial administrator born in
Ayrshire,
Scotland. Photo credit:
Gary Curtis
Lincoln Memorial, Friday 9 July.
The focus of the
Lincoln Memorial is this sculpture of
Abraham Lincoln, seated.
Daniel Chester French studied many of
Mathew Brady's photographs of Lincoln, and depicted the president as worn and pensive, gazing eastwards down the
Reflecting Pool at the capital's starkest
emblem of the Union, the
Washington Monument. One hand is clenched, the other open. Beneath his hands, the Roman
fasces,
symbols of the authority of the Republic, are sculpted in relief on the seat. Photo credit:
Raul654
Passchendaele, Thursday 8 July.
Soldiers of an
Australian 4th Division field artillery brigade on a duckboard track passing through Chateau Wood, near Hooge in the
Ypres salient, October 29, 1917. The photo was taken in the vicinity of the
Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, which was one of the major battles of
World War I. Photo credit:
James Francis Hurley
Madrid metro, Wednesday 7 July.
The
Madrid metro is the large
metro system serving
Madrid, the capital of
Spain. It is one of the largest metro systems in the world, despite Madrid having a population of only four million. The metro opened in 1919 under the direction of the Compañía de Metro Alfonso XIII. Metro stations served as air raid shelters during the
Spanish Civil War. Photo credit:
Montrealais
Bolzano (Bozen), Tuesday 6 July.
Bolzano (Bozen) is a town in the
Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region of
Italy. It is the
capital of the Italian/German/Ladin speaking
Autonomous Province of Bolzano-Bozen, officially trilingual. The province is almost completely mountainous, and is extended on the
Adige valley north of the town of
Salorno (Salurn). Photo credit: Roland Wolf
Queenstown, New Zealand, Saturday 3 July.
The Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu from Queenstown.
The Remarkables are a 540 acre (2.2 km2)
mountain
ski field located south of
Queenstown, New Zealand. The other ski fields in Queenstown are
Cardrona,
Coronet Peak, and
Treble Cone. Queenstown is a
resort town in
South Island and is surrounded by the
Southern Alps. Photo credit:
Tiles
Radcliffe Camera, Tuesday 29 June.
The
Radcliffe Camera in
Oxford,
England was built by James Gibbs between 1737 and 1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library. The building was funded by a £40,000 bequest from
John Radcliffe. After the Radcliffe Science Library eventually moved into another building, the Radcliffe Camera became a reading room of the
Bodleian Library. It now holds books from the
English and
History collection. Photo credit:
Michael Reeve
USS Port Royal (CG-73), Saturday 26 June.
The
USS Port Royal (CG-73) is a
United States Navy
guided missile cruiser, the last to be constructed in the 20th century, and the first cruiser to integrate women into the crew. The ship was deployed in 1996 as part of the
Nimitz (CVN-68) battle group. Photo credit:
Christopher Mobley
Gold Coast, Australia, Friday 25 June.
The
Gold Coast is a coastal region approximately 70 kilometres south of
Brisbane,
Australia that, over the past 50 years, has coalesced from a collection of scattered villages into a city of approximately 400,000 people. The
subtropical climate, attractive surf beaches, and savvy marketing have attracted millions of
tourists. Photo credit:
Gary Curtis
Weather lore, Thursday 24 June.
Red sky at
night,
sailors delight. Red sky in the
morning, sailors take warning. A red sky occurs primarily at sunrise or sunset, when the sun's rays are passing through the greatest thickness of atmosphere. In
weather lore, morning red skies are a good indicator of coming rain, evening red skies usually indicate clearing conditions. Photo credit:
Denni Windrim
Che Guevara, Wednesday 23 June.
Che Guevara statue at the site of his death in
Bolivia. Che Guevara was an
Argentine-born
Marxist
revolutionary and
Cuban
guerrilla leader. Guevara was a member of
Fidel Castro's
26th of July Movement, which seized power in
Cuba in 1959. After the revolution Guevara became second only to Fidel Castro in the new government of Cuba. Photo credit: Augusto Starita
English Springer Spaniel, Tuesday 22 June .
Spot Fetcher.
U.S. President
George W. Bush's dog. The
English Springer Spaniel is a
gun dog used for flushing and retrieving game. This
spaniel is an older breed, appearing in paintings as early as the 1600s. It is possibly the ancestor of most modern spaniels; Springer spaniels and
cocker spaniels were not recognized as separate breeds until the 1800s. Photo credit:
Paul Morse
Cell growth, Monday 21 June .
Three types of
cell reproduction;
Binary fission and reproduction involving
mitosis or
meiosis. In the context of reproduction of living cells, "
cell growth" refers to the "growth in cell numbers by means of cell reproduction." During cell reproduction one cell (the "parental" cell) divides to produce
daughter cells. In other contexts, "cell growth" refers to increases in cell size. Photo credit:
John Schmidt
Roundabout, Sunday 20 June.
A diagram of movement within a
roundabout in a country where traffic drives on the left. A roundabout is a type of
road junction, or
traffic calming device, at which
traffic streams circularly around a central island after first yielding to the circulating traffic. Unlike with traffic circles, vehicles on a roundabout have priority over the entering vehicle,
parking is not allowed and
pedestrians are usually prohibited from the central island. Photo credit:
Fredrik and
Mintguy
Parliament of Canada, Saturday 19 June.
Centre Block and Library of the
Parliament of Canada. The
Parliament of
Canada is housed in a complex on Parliament Hill, on the banks of the
Ottawa River in downtown
Ottawa, in a
Gothic revival suite of buildings. The best known is the Centre Block, with its prominent Peace Tower, a national symbol. The richly decorated interior of the centre block contains allegorical scenes. Photo credit:
Montréalais
High Cross, Friday 18 June.
High Cross at the
Rock of Cashel in Ireland. A High Cross is a standing
cross with a circle, made of stone and often richly ornamented. High Crosses exist in
Celtic parts of
Britain and
Ireland; the Irish High Cross has become more famous because of its distinctive shape (the ringed
Celtic Cross) and the amount and quality of decoration. The Rock of Cashel, also known as Cashel of the Kings, is situated in
county Tipperary in
Ireland. Photo credit:
Chmouel Boudjnah
433 Eros, Thursday 17 June.
The
asteroid
433 Eros was named after the
Greek god of
love
Eros. This
S-type asteroid is the second-largest
near-Earth asteroid. This image shows the view looking from one end of the
asteroid across the gouge on its underside and toward the opposite end. Photo credit:
NASA
Chèche, Wednesday 16 June.
Chèche.
Headgear is the name given to any element of
clothing which is worn on one's
head. A "chèche" or "tagelmoust" turban is a form of headgear worn by men and women in
Saharan
Africa as protection against wind and sand. Photo credit:
Anthere
Circlestrafing, Tuesday 15 June.
Circlestrafing. In
video games, particularly in
first-person shooters,
circlestrafing is the technique of moving around a target in a
circle while facing it. It allows a player to fire continuously at a target while simultaneously dodging attacks. In this diagram, the blue player circlestrafes around his red adversary, firing continually as he does so. Red, unable to keep track of the moving blue, misses with most shots. Blue will prevail. Photo credit:
Fredrik
Eastern Yellow Robin, Monday 14 June.
The
Eastern Yellow Robin (Eopsaltria australis) is a common resident of coastal and sub-coastal eastern
Australia, from the extreme south-east corner of
South Australia through most of
Victoria and the western half of
New South Wales and north as far as
Cooktown, though tropical northern
Queensland birds are mainly restricted to the cool heights of the
Great Dividing Range. Photo credit:
Tony Wilson
Earth at night, Sunday 13 June.
Earth at night.
Earth is the third
planet outward from the
Sun. The northernmost settlement on Earth is
Alert,
Ellesmere Island,
Canada. The southernmost is the
Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, in
Antarctica. Photo credit:
NASA and NOAA
Potato plant, Saturday 12 June.
Potato plant.
Potato plants are low-growing and have white
flowers with yellow
stamens. They grow best in cool, moist climates such as
Maine,
Idaho,
New Brunswick,
Prince Edward Island,
Germany,
Russia, and
Poland, though they are widely adaptable and are grown on a small scale in most temperate regions. Common varieties of potatoes do not produce
seeds; the flowers are sterile. Instead, they are propagated by planting pieces of existing tubers, cut to include at least one eye. Confusingly, these pieces are called "seed potatoes". Photo credit:
Agricultural Research Service
Champs-Élysées, Friday 11 June.
Looking east along the Champs-Élysées from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. The
Champs-Élysées is a broad
avenue in the
French
capital
Paris. With its
cinemas,
cafés, and luxury specialty shops, the Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world. The name refers to the
Elysian Fields, the kingdom of the dead in
Greek mythology. Photo credit:
Michael Reeve
USS Iowa (BB-61), Thursday 10 June.
The USS Iowa firing during target exercises near Vieques, Puerto Rico.
USS Iowa (BB-61), the
lead ship of
her class of dreadnought
battleship, was the fourth
United States Navy ship with this name. Iowa was
launched on 27 August 1942. As of 21 April 2001, Iowa is part of the Reserve Fleet at
Suisun Bay, San Francisco. Photo credit:
Naval Historical Center
The London Eye, Wednesday 9 June.
The London Eye observation wheel. The
London Eye is the largest observation wheel (a type of
Ferris wheel) in the world. It stands 135 metres (443 ft) high on the
South Bank of the
River Thames near the
Houses of Parliament in
Lambeth,
London,
England, close to
Westminster Bridge. The Eye has become a major landmark and tourist attraction since its official opening on December 31, 1999 Photo credit:
Fantasy
Yarra River, Tuesday 8 June.
The
Yarra River is a river in southern
Victoria,
Australia. Its lower reaches travel through central
Melbourne. It is approximately 242 kilometres in length, and its mean annual flow is 718,000 megalitres. Like virtually all of Australia's rivers, annual flows vary greatly due to the effect of
El Nino. The river's source is a series of
swamps on
Mount Baw Baw. Some of the Yarra's major tributaries include the
Plenty River, and the
Merri Creek. Photo credit: Russell Degnan
Geography of the Philippines, Sunday 6 June.
Physical map of physical
geography of the Philippines. The
Philippines is an
archipelago of 7,107 islands. The largest of these islands is
Luzon. The islands are volcanic in origin, being part of the
Ring of Fire, and are mostly mountainous. The highest point in the country is the peak of
Mt. Apo in Mindanao, which is 2,954 m above sea level. Most of the islands used to be covered in
tropical rainforests, however, due to illegal logging, the forest cover has been reduced to less than 10% of the total land area. Photo credit:
Seav
Bumblebee, Saturday 5 June.
The
bumblebee is a flying
insect of the genus
Bombus in the family
Apidae. Like the common
honeybee, of which it is a distant relative, the bumblebee feeds on
nectar and gathers
pollen to feed its young. Bumblebees tend to be larger than other members of the bee family. Most, but not all, bumblebee species are gentle. Bumblebees are the
pollinator of choice for modern
greenhouse tomatoes and some other crops. Photo credit:
Mark Burnett
Dust storm, Friday 4 June.
Dust storm, Spearman, Texas, 1935. A
dust storm is a
meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. The
dust picked up in such a storm can be carried thousands of kilometers: Sahara dust storms influence
plankton growth in the western
Atlantic Ocean. Photo credit:
US NOAA
Epicyclic gearing, Thursday 3 June.
Epicyclic gears. A
gear is a toothed
wheel designed to transmit
torque to another gear or toothed component.
Epicyclic gearing is a system consisting of outer gears, typically mounted on a movable arm, rotating about a central gear. Photo credit:
Wapcaplet
Tamar Bridge, Wednesday 2 June.
A panoramic photograph taken from the
Tamar Bridge between
Cornwall and
Devon, England, showing the
Tamar Valley and the
Royal Albert Bridge. The Tamar Bridge was the longest
suspension bridge in the
UK when it opened in 1961. In 2001 it became the world's first suspension bridge to be widened using
cantilevers. The Royal Albert Bridge was designed by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Photo credit:
Tony Tapp
Butterfly, Tuesday 1 June.
Blue Morpho butterfly (Morpho menelaus). A
butterfly is a flying
insect of the order
Lepidoptera. As Lepidoptera, butterflies have four wings, but unlike moths, the fore and hindwings are not hooked together, permitting a more graceful flight. Unlike most insects, butterflies do not experience a
nymph period, but instead go through a pupal stage. Photo credit:
Gregory Phillips.
Peppermint, Monday May 31.
Peppermint and Corsican mint plant.
Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) is a sterile
hybrid
mint with a high
menthol content, often used in
tea and
confectionery. Peppermint is the oldest and most popular flavour. Photo credit:
Michael Thompson
Villain, Sunday May 30.
Snidely Whiplash, an example of a stereotypical villain. A
villain is a
bad person, especially in
fiction. Villains are the
fictional characters, or perhaps fictionalized characters, in
drama and
melodrama who work to thwart the plans of the
hero. There are many villain
stereotypes. In the era before sound in
motion pictures villains had to appear very "visually" sinister, and thus many villain stereotypes were born. Photo credit:
J.J. McCullough
Geyser, Saturday May 29.
Strokkur geyser exploding. A
geyser is a special type of
hot spring that erupts periodically, ejecting a column of hot
water and
steam into the air. Strokkur geyser is found in
Geysir in the
Haukadalur valley,
Iceland.
Photo credit: Hannah Beker
Sainte Jeanne d'Arc Church, Friday May 28 .
Sainte Jeanne d'Arc Church at night. Sainte Jeanne d'Arc Church is a Catholic church in Nice, France which is noticeable for its original architecture. The church was built between 1926 and 1933 by the architect Jacques Dror in reinforced concrete. The style was influenced by Art nouveau. Photo credit: Ericd
Lift Engineering chairlift, Wednesday/Thursday May 26/27.
Towers and chairs on a Yan triple lift.
Lift Engineering, was formerly a major
ski lift manufacturer. Founder Jan Kunczynski was credited with being the first manufacturer of ski lifts to incorporate aesthetics into the design of his equipment. Photo credit:
Vancouverguy
Sand castle, Tuesday May 25.
A
sand castle is a type of sand sculpture which resembles a miniature
building, often a
castle. Sand castles are typically made on
beaches with wet fine
sand and, optionally, tools such as
shovels and buckets and reinforcers such as
wood, usually by children, but also by adults who engage in sand sculpture contests, in which the goal is to create large and complex structures which do not appear to be constructed purely from sand. Photo credit:
Guy King
Io moon, Monday May 24.
Io moon taken by
NASA's
Galileo probe. This image shows two volcanic eruptions. The one on the horizon is 140 km high, the other is 75 km high. Io is the innermost of the four
Galilean
moons of
Jupiter. It is named after
Io, one of
Zeus's many love interests in
Greek mythology. Photo credit:
NASA
Black
Puma in Belize, Friday May 21.
The
puma (Puma concolor, or Felis concolor) is a type of large hunting cat found in
North and
South America. It is also known by the regional names of cougar, mountain lion, panther, catamount and painted cat. Pumas have the largest distribution range of any New World land animal, spanning 110 degrees of latitude. Photo credit:
Belizian
Zabriskie Point, Wednesday May 19.
Zabriskie Point is an area in
Death Valley National Park noted for its beautiful
erosional landscape. It is called a
badlands due to its difficult to traverse topography. Photo credit:
Daniel Mayer
Gallium, Tuesday May 18.
Crystals of 99.999%
gallium. The
chemical element gallium is a rare, soft silvery metallic
poor metal. It occurs in trace amounts in
bauxite and
zinc ores. Gallium is notable for its stunning silvery color and its solid metal fractures
conchoidally like
glass. Photo credit:
Foobar
Sydney Opera House, Monday May 17.
The
Sydney Opera House in
Sydney,
New South Wales ,
Australia. Situated on Bennelong Point at
Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Opera House is one of the most distinctive and famous 20th-century buildings, and one of the most famous
performing arts venues in the world. Photo credit:
Chmouel
Abbey of Senanque, Sunday May 16.
Abbey of Senanque, located in
France,
Provence,
Vaucluse,
Gordes village. An abbey is a
Christian
monastery or
convent, under the government of an
Abbot or an
Abbess, who serve as the spiritual father or mother of the community. Photo credit:
Greudin
Cat in Greece, Saturday May 15.
The
cat is a small
feline
carnivorous
mammal that has been
domesticated for several millennia. A male cat is usually called a tom cat, a female cat is called a queen. A young cat is called a kitten (as are baby rats, rabbits, hedgehogs and squirrels). Photo credit:
Chmouel Boudjnah
Virgin River Narrows, Friday May 14.
The
Virgin River Narrows in
Zion National Park, located near
Springdale,
Utah, is a 16-mile (26 km) long
slot canyon along the
Virgin River. Recently rated as number five out of National Geographic's Top 100 American Adventures, it is one of the most rewarding hikes in the world. Photo credit: Jon Sullivan, pdphoto.org