THE SERENITY SWING Photograph by Mebi on Reddit Located at the top of hill on a big oak tree is the Serenity Swing in Poly Canyon. For those interested, it’s a short hike just outside of San Luis Obispo in California. The photo was taken and posted to Reddit by user…
A CLOUD ILLUMINATED BY LIGHTNING Photograph by Mike Jones (mrjones131 on Flickr) While on a diving trip in the Grand Cayman Islands this past September, photographer Mike Jones captured this incredible lightning storm illuminating a storm cloud. Featured last week in The Telegraph’s ‘Pictures of the Day‘ gallery, Jones explained: “I…
The age of the universe is about 13.75 billion years. The diameter of the observable universe is estimated at about 28 billion parsecs (93 billion light-years). As a reminder, a light-year is a unit of length equal to just under 10 trillion kilometres (or about 6 trillion miles). The Observable Universe consists of the…
THE FIVE PEAKS OF TINDHOLMUR Photograph by Arne List Tindhólmur is an islet on the southside of Sørvágsfjørður, west of Vágar in the Faroe Islands. It has its name from the five peaks, which are named Ytsti, Arni, Lítli, Breiði, and Bogdi (Farthest, Eagle, Small, Broad, Bent). The islet is uninhabited,…
Austria’s Felix Baumgartner earned his place in the history books on Sunday October 14, 2012 after overcoming concerns with the power for his visor heater that impaired his vision and nearly jeopardized the mission. Baumgartner reached an estimated speed of 1,342.8 km/h (834.37 mph) jumping from the stratosphere, which when certified will make him…
A TINY RIVER HOUSE IN SERBIA Photograph by Irene Becker for National Geographic My friend Dan G. emailed me this wonderful photograph by Irene Becker that shows a tiny house in the middle of the Drina River near the town of Bajina Basta, Serbia. The capture was highlighted by National Geographic…
*Update: The Top 100 ‘Pictures of the Day’ for 2012 have just been published. Click here to check out the most up-to-date post! After the positive reception from last year’s “Top 50 ‘Pictures of the Day’ for 2011“, the Sifter promised to highlight the top 25 ‘Pictures of the Day‘ at the end of…
THE TUNISIAN SAHARA Photograph by Alex Erkiletian on Flickr In this beautiful photograph we see the vast Sahara desert from Tunisia. Photographer Alex Erkiletian originally took this shot in 2002. In the photograph description on Flickr, Alex says: “This is another old 35mm kodak slide that I shot and had under…
THE ALL NATURAL CANADIAN FLAG Artwork and Photography by J. Gutierrez (Cuervo2099 on Reddit) As a fellow Canadian this made my day. It’s the Canadian flag made from red maple leaves and birch bark. Now someone please pass the poutine and maple syrup, I’m already late for my hockey game 😛…
THE HIGHEST OF ALL CLOUDS Photograph by Kelly Speelman/National Science Federation In this photo by Kelly Speelman of the National Science Federation, we see Nacreous clouds observed on January 6, 2011. These polar stratospheric clouds at 80,000 feet (24,384 m) are the highest of all clouds. They only occur in the…