Public Posts

A cavalryman of the French Republican Guard during the Bastille Day military parade. This regiment is responsible for special security duties in Paris (including guarding important public buildings) and for providing guards of honour at official ceremonies.

Jebulon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Seed pods of Heracleum sphondylium. Focus stack of 89 photos.

Agnes Monkelbaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

A dragon blood tree (Dracaena cinnabari) in the Diksam Plateau, on the island of Socotra, Yemen.

Alex38, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Soba noodles deliveryman in Tokyo, 1935. Photo by the Mainichi Shimbun. Piles of soba bowls were packed on the shoulders of bicycle couriers.

Mainichi Shimbun, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Saint Anne, an 8th or 9th century Makurian wall painting, painted al secco with tempera on plaster, found at the Faras Cathedral within old Nubia in present-day Sudan.

Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Rifling of a M75 cannon (year 1891, Austro-Hungarian). Exposition of Ljubljana Castle (Ljubljana, Slovenia). The photo was made by macro stacking of 43 pictures.

Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Statue of a saint, placed above the facade of the St. Anthony Cathedral of Breda, in the Netherlands. In her left hand she holds a cross and in her right hand a ciborium (host chalice). Above the chalice floats a radiant host, a prominent expression of regained Catholic pride. Below the statue is written: "A.D. MDCCCXXXVII", Anno Domini 1837, the year the cathedral was built.

ReneeWrites, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Diamond vault of the neo-Gothic Collegium Novum in Kraków, Poland.

Jar.ciurus, CC BY-SA 3.0 pl, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth and current Dalai Lama, is the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1959, he escaped from Tibet to India following the Tibetan uprising against Chinese occupation of Tibet, and established the Tibetan government-in-exile, which continues to function in Dharamsala, India, where he resides. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Today is his 90th birthday.

Luca Galuzzi (Lucag), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) male ringed, Għadira Nature Reserve, Malta. Bird ringing is a vital activity that helps protect birds. In Malta, birds are humanely caught in mist nets which are checked every ten minutes. Each bird is ringed and weighed before being released. About 10% are retraps (i.e. they have been ringed before). The programme is carried on by BirdLife Malta.Ringing has shown that birds from at least 48 countries use Malta during migration. Unfortunately, Malta has the densest population of bird hunters in the European Union. The high numbers of wild birds illegally shot in Malta has led to the European Commission taking legal infringement proceedings against the Maltese Government over Article 5 of the Birds Directive.

Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Twelve Apostles at Port Campbell National Park, Princetown, Victoria, Australia.

Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.

Apse of the higher church in the Royal Monastery of San Juan de la Peña, Huesca, Aragon, Spain. It was one of the most important monasteries in Aragon in the Middle Ages. Its two-level church is partially carved in the stone of the great cliff that overhangs the foundation. San Juan de la Peña means "Saint John of the Cliff". The lower church includes some mozarabic architectural surviving elements, although most of the parts of the monastery (including the impressive cloister, under the great rock) are Romanesque. After the fire of 1675, a new monastery was built. The old monastery (built in 920) was declared a National Monument on 13 July 1889, and the new monastery in 1923.

Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. View source.