California wildfires cause thousands to flee homes
A wildfire spurred by high winds is raging across Southern California, scorching more than 8,000 acres of land and sending thousands of resident fleeing from their homes as new evacuations are ordered.
More than 2,000 homes in the Camarillo, Calif., area have been threatened, while 15 have sustained damage. About 10 percent of the fire has been contained as more than 900 first responders are on the scene battling the flames. There have been no reports of injuries.
Fertilizer plant Explosion north of Waco, Texas
Up to 15 people are feared dead after a massive explosion tore through a fertilizer plant in Texas. The blast, described as "like a nuclear bomb," leveled dozens of homes.
WWII Re-enactment in Assen, the Netherlands
Several hundred participants from all over Europe re-enact 'Operation Amherst'. Operation Amherst was a special mission during World War II to liberate Drenthe (a province of the Netherlands). Authentic blank firing guns where used during the re-enactment.
Kim Jong-un looking to start a war
War is about to start between the almighty USA and the impish North Korean lad Kim Jong Un. While the world holds its breath, the Koreans try their best to take some fear away from the world. Check out these official press pics below, and rest comfortably knowing that it takes a helluva lot more than one loopy dictator to bring us to our knees.
NASA's Giant Pool: The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory
The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) is an astronaut training facility maintained by and located at the Sonny Carter Training Facility near NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The NBL consists of a large indoor pool of water, in which astronauts may perform simulated EVA tasks in preparation for upcoming missions. The NBL contains full-sized mock-ups of the International Space Station (ISS) modules and payloads, visiting vehicles such as the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) HTV, the European Space Agency ATV, the SpaceX Dragon, and the Orbital Sciences Corporation Cygnus. Previously there was also a mockup of the Space Shuttle payload bay, but since Space Shuttle retirement it has been removed.
The NBL tank itself is 202 feet (62 m) in length, 102 feet (31 m) wide, and 40 feet 6 inches (12.34 m) deep, and contains 6.2 million gallons (23.5 million litres) of water. Divers breathe nitrox while working in the tank.
Geneva International Motor Show
March 5, 2013, the press day of the The Geneva International Motor Show in Geneva. It opened its doors to the press under a dark cloud, with no sign of a speedy rebound in sight for the troubled European market. The event, which is considered one of the most important car shows of the year, will again be heavily marked by the crisis in Europe after an already catastrophic year in 2012.
Before and After SliderPics!
Kijk. Dit kunnen ze bij de dode boom niet, bij de GeenStijl lekker wel. Semi-automatische SliderPics®. Fotoos met een bionisch schuifbalkje™ die dankzij de ingebouwde micro-elektronica het heden met het verleden verbinden middels gepatenteerde swipe technologie. Met één veeg uit de pan ziet u toen én nu gevangen in één beeld. Tijdreizen was nog nooit zo makkelijk, en het kan gewoon vanuit uw luie stoel, cubicle en of Klippan. Moraal van dit fotooverhaal met onder andere Mark Rutte, Diederik Samsom, Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, Hare Majesteit, Yvon Jaspers. We worden allemaal ouder maar niet jonger.
Crazy Goose Pulling Fest in the Netherlands
In Grevenbicht in the Netherlands and in parts of Belgium and Germany, is 'goose pulling' part of the traditional Shrove Tuesday celebrations. It is referred to as 'Ganstrekken' in the Netherlands, 'Gansrijden' in Belgium and 'Gänsereiten' in Germany. In 2008 the Dutch Party for Animals (PvdD) proposed that it should be banned; the organisers, Folk Verein Gawstrèkkers Beeg, rejected the proposal, pointing out that there was no question of cruelty to animals because the geese were already dead.
Chicago warehouse freezes over
Firefighters spray down hot spots on an ice covered warehouse that caught fire Tuesday night in Chicago January 23, 2013. Fire department officials said it is the biggest fire the department has had to battle in years and one-third of all Chicago firefighters were on the scene at one point or another trying to put out the flames. An Arctic blast continues to gripped the U.S. Midwest and Northeast Wednesday, with at least three deaths linked to the frigid weather, and fierce winds made some locations feel as cold as 50 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-45°C)
The Netherlands covered in snow
Between five and 10 centimetres of snow have fallen in southern parts of the country, with up to five cm in central areas. But according to one report, up to 19 cm may have fallen in The Hague, making it an exception to the rest of the country. Isolated snow showers are expected to continue for most of the day, weather forecasters say.
The temperature is expected to remain below zero all day and plunge to as low as -8 Celcius overnight, as the big freeze continues towards the weekend.
Bushfires raged out of control across Australia
Intense wild fires, or bushfires as they are called in Australia, are burning out of control across southeast Australia with authorities describing the condition as “catastrophic.”
A drop in temperatures helped firefighters in Australia to grapple with fires raging across the country on Wednesday, though 30 blazes were still burning out of control, forcing more people to flee and laying waste to homes and livestock.
New Year's Eve celebrations around the world
Fireworks, champagne and "oil balls". GigaPica takes you on a trip around the globe to see how people are celebrated the new year. Includes a video in HD of the awesome London fireworks show.
Copahue & Tungurahua volcano eruptions
Increased activity at a volcano on the border of Chile and Argentina and
the Tungurahua volcano in central Ecuador has authorities in both countries on alert.
The Copahue volcano, in Argentina's Neuquen province and Chile's Biobio region, began spewing ashes and gas early Saturday, but officials say it's still in an early eruption stage.
The Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador keeps spewing gas, ashes and red-hot rock, forcing hundreds to evacuate from their homes. The country's Geophysical Institute says incandescent rock shot from the crater of the 16,479-foot (5,023-meter) high mountain fell about half a mile (a kilometer) down its flanks. Explosions early Wednesday rattled windows 9 miles (14 kilometers) away, while rain-borne ashes have been falling to the southwest of the crater.
Miss Universe crown 2012 goes to... Miss USA. HURRAY!
Cranston's Olivia Culpo was crowned Miss Universe in Las Vegas Wednesday night, beating out more than 80 other beauty queens from around the world.
For her interview question she was asked: "What is something you have done that you would never do again?" Culpo said she regretted picking on her siblings growing up, prefacing the statement with "I'd like to say that every experience, good or bad, no matter what it blablabla..."
A photographic study of wasted British girls
Nothing can light up an already perfect night out like a drunk British gal shitting herself. Once drunk British girls are thrown into the mix great usually becomes legendary. Really, nobody on this planet has a greater talent for making themselves look like ridiculous fools like drunk British girls. We've collected this photographic study of them to prove these points. Disclaimer: some of the pictures show drunk British boys, but if we would've put that in the header you wouldn't have clicked.
Cargo ship sinks in North Sea after collision
Belgian Sea King helicopters participated in a rescue mission after two ships, Baltic Ace transporting cars and container ship Corvus J, collided in the North Sea yesterday evening. Dutch sea rescue services launched a major rescue operation for 11 missing sailors after two ships collided in a busy North Sea shipping lane off the coast of Rotterdam with one ship sinking. Rescuers, including the Dutch navy, on December 4, plucked 13 survivors from the water after the Baltic Ace car carrier collided with the Corvus J container ship about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Rotterdam. A Belgian sea rescue helicopter found another body this morning, the coastguard said, bringing the confirmed death toll to five. Late on December 5 Dutch coastguards called off a search for six crew still missing after their cargo ship sank in the North Sea, saying there was "zero" chance of finding survivors in the icy waters.
Journalists waiting for things
Whether they like it or not, the topical velocity of the world wide web dictates the pace of traditional news media. Fast news on the Internet is on high demand, yet almost instantly forgotten after it breaks. Still, journalists are competing more than ever for scoops, causing a rapid inflation of what is considered to be actual breaking news. Especial in the political arena, journalists of dozens of different outlets hang around, sitting, waiting, wandering. GigaPica collected some images of journalists waiting for things.
Poverty of the past
Europe is in crisis. The Netherlands are having trouble forming a government that can adequately deal with the economic downfall and social turmoil that naturally follows when jobs are lost and mortgages become unaffordable. Apart from that, there's fear of growing inequality and a widening gap between rich and poor. But as GigaPica shows, poverty in the Netherlands is of all times.
Obama vs. Romney
"Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. F*ck Hope.'
- George Carlin -
Hurricane Sandy in Pictures
Hurricane Sandy's wild and crazy weather will continue across much of the eastern United States through at least Wednesday, including heavy rainfall, strong winds, a continued threat of coastal storm surge and even snow blizzard conditions in some locations, according to local National Weather Service forecasts.
Famous people versus gravity
People get older every day - that's a given. But everybody deals differently with the process of ageing. In the case of famous people, some carry it with dignity while others go grey kicking and screaming. Many grow fat while a few drink themselves thin, and some people never stop pretending they're still in their early twenties - while behaving accordingly, much to the annoyance (or malicious pleasure) of the audience they force their wrinkled personalities on. Here's a few (mostly Dutch) celebs and their battle against gravity.
Internet Archeology: web pages back in the day
By now, the internet has quite a long memory lane. Not only those who remember the first emails on green-on-black screens, or the first html bases news groups and chat boards can walk this path and remember what they see, younger generations of internet users can also join in the joyful reminiscing. Or is it more a game of point and laugh? Gigapica takes you back to the days of flash art and clock radio-like stat counters, when emoticons were still a cool use of interpunction symbols and Hyves was still growing in popularity. Enjoy.
Beer & Boobies! Oktoberfest 2012
Das Oktoberfest! The biggest beer party in the world. Two weeks of beer, babes und bratwurst. The party has ended, but the photos prevail. GigaPica collected dozens of sharp images of not-so-sharp party people roaming the streets of Bavaria, occupying beer gardens and relieving themselves of copious amounts of food and alcohol, interspersed with fine images of beautiful German girls & women flaunting their luscious curves: the only reason anyone really cares about the tradition and the costumes of Oktoberfest. Zum Beifall!
Food crisis at the Paris Fashion Week
Remember, when fashion models were ravishing beauties, stunning in their appearance with glowing skin and shining hair, even without the illumination of the catwalk spotlight or photographer's flash bulb? Well, those were the days - and they are gone. Today's models appear to be quenched, spoilt, and bored. But most of all they appear to be very, very hungry.
The Sophia Loren of the Low Countries
The 'famous' Halina Reijn is best known for showing up at events without any reason, writing her own wikipedia page and owning a private seat in café De Smoeshaan. As of today, her acting career has been anything but successful. Sure she's had some roles in blockbuster movies, and yes, she did write a book, but that doesn't explain why she keeps turning up at film premieres. It is rumoured Halina suffers from 'compulsive attending disorder', a common disorder among lesser known actors and television personalities. In the Netherlands, she is often referred to as 'The Sophia Loren of the Low Countries', but we prefer to call her 'That freckled redhead standing in the shadow of Carice van Houten'.
Please enjoy these pictures of her public appearances.
The Big Picture goes Sumo Wrestling!
Sumo is the national sport of Japan and is almost 2000 years old. It's not only the oldest of Japan’s various martial arts, it also evolved into the most distinct and ritualistic. We've selected some pictures of Sumo Wrestling worldwide.
