Thanks to the invention of an animal-loving art student, little Hoppa can easily move around, even without front legs.

Hoppa, a 4-year-old mixed breed dog, from Tel-Aviv, israel, has received a very special gift, created especially for him. This adorable pooch was born without his front legs, and even though his owner, Avi Kuzi, showed him all the care and affection, he had trouble moving around.

But most of his problems were solved by a wheeling device custom made for Hoppa, by an art student, who hopes his invention could ease the life of pets born with abnormalities, or with amputated limbs.

Photos by REUTERS via CCTV

From Soviet space dogs to American squirrel monkeys, the history of animals in space is long and illustrious. Many a milestone was reached during the Space Race between the 20th century superpowers, yet one of the little known animal astronauts to feature in this Cold War competition was actually a swine of Soviet extraction. This little piggy (let’s call him Pinkie) drinking what could be his last drinky isn’t asking for the moon, but by Stalin he’s being sent there. Let’s snuffle out the story.

Down the snout goes the wine – a nice drop of Kagor to sweeten the taste of being blasted into space. Let’s hope it relaxes the poor piglet; he’s got a long journey ahead of him, poor porker. But wait up a second. Why are the history books conspicuously silent about this cosmonaut creature? Are we being sold some kind of pig in a poke here?

As Pinkie is piled into his capsule and carried over to the launch pad, we wonder whether those men’s uniforms aren’t a little too WWII-looking – bearing in mind that the Soviets aren’t supposed to have shot their first mammal into space until 1951. Swine flew? Pigs might fly. These are stills from the award-winning 2005 Russian mockumentary, First on the Moon.

Directed by debutant filmmaker Aleksey Fedorchenko, First on the Moon tells the tale of an unknown Soviet space program that launched a successful moon landing in 1938. In Fedorchenko’s world, the first space rocket was built by the USSR even before the Second World War, decades before the Soviet Moonshot written in history. Mother Russia, we salute you!

In this alternate reality, a Soviet cosmonaut beats his US counterparts to the finishing post – the rest of the world just doesn’t know about it yet. And just as in our more familiar reality, scientific experiments using animals paved the way for human exploration endeavour by testing the survivability of spaceflight. Seems this pilot piglet was part of the rocket trials.

When parts of First on the Moon’s plot leaked out before its release, several Russian newspapers treated it as a documentary about a real 1938 event, referring to it as the Santiago Meteorite. The confusion may have arisen because the beginning of the film is set in Chile, where the manned Soviet spacecraft apparently landed following its return from the moon.

Is it surprising that the distinction between fact and fantasy should have appeared as muddy as a pigsty to the Russian press? Depends on how you look at it. In the British and American film traditions, reality and fiction have long been tough to tell apart: films and dramas often employ documentary conventions; documentaries can contain dramatic and fictional elements.

In the West, satire is famous for spoofing the documentary, but in Russia – certainly unacquainted with Spinal Tap if not with Borat and Brüno – the mockumentary has only just landed or emerged as a genre. Fedorchenko himself was unsure of where to place his film: “For me this is either historical drama or documentary fantasy,” the director has said.

Playful filmmaking like Fedorchenko’s was lost in Cold War Russia, but the director of First on the Moon also has a serious point to make: “Our film is about how the Soviet state machinery manufactured major products – the best people. Fine, strong and clever heroes, then rendered unnecessary to the native land – some have been destroyed, others lost in obscurity, yet others still broken by fear.”

This most piggish of guinea pigs would be one of those heroes. Pigs in Space? Watch First on the Moon. If these stills were enough to fool people online, what elevating effect might the movie have on you?

Images via Taktak

Sources: 1, 2

Michael Paul Smith is an expert model builder who uses his talent to recreate different instances of the town he grew up in. Once again, I’d like to point out from the beginning that these photos are not “photoshopped”.

I know, they look so real, but I assure you they are only miniature models made of “of Gator board, styrene plastic, Sintra [ a light flexible plastic that can be carved, and painted ] plus numerous found objects; such as jewelery pieces, finishing washers and printed material”. They are just 1/24th scale, but by lining them up with the right environment, Michael Paul Smith managed to achieve a “legit” Photoshop effect.

Take a look and be amazed.

See more here:

Artists like Courtney Love and Kelly Osbourne fought with their drug addictions for a long time, while Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger lost their lives because of them. By creating their portraits out of pills, Mecier tries to emphasize the dangers of drug abuse.

Jason Mecier’s pill-portraits will be a part of his Celebrity Junk Drawer show, held at the Ghettogloss Gallery, in Los Angeles, on March 17.

Photos via Entertainmentwise

Katheryn’s style is one that I love–pictures that compositionally don’t have a lot going on but somehow capture your attention anyway. There’s this hazy feel in her shots, usually accompanied by this distinct air of mystery, that really makes you wonder about the story behind the picture. I appreciate photographers who make people think with their work more than those who just leave viewers in admiration of a pretty subject and composition.

Swing by Katheryn’s portfolio for more, and feel free to send me other photographer recommendations via twitter.

The insect world never ceases to amaze. These colorful bugs boast familiar patterns like faces or tribal masks on their shields. While potential predators waste prescious time wondering whether it’s food, enemy or prey, the masked creatures plot their protection tactics or escape.

1. These mini warriors have pretty smart warfare defences. Shield bugs, or stink bugs, have glands in their thorax (the part between the head and the abdomen) between their first and second pair of legs that produce a foul-smelling liquid, which is used for defense and released when the bug feels threatened.

SideView

2. This is a picture example of how the shield pattern resembles a face. Like a huge sign saying “don’t even think about it” to predators – including humans – this stink bug looks slightly grumpy, and for good reason. Just recently, scientists have discovered the nutritional value of edible stink bugs. They’re a good source of protein, fat, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Stink bug stew, anyone?

Casperonian

3. In the photograph, this stink bug looks huge but it is only about 1 cm long in real life, making the markings on the mask all the more intricate.

Barca Branca

4. This too-sexy-to-be-eaten bug with his/her sunglasses is actually a crop pest. Known as cotton stainers, these bugs feed on cotton and get crushed with it during harvesting. Their red bodies leave stains, which are hard to remove.

Wesley Sng

5. These firebugs seem to huddle together to discuss their strategy. They are common in Europe and are also part of the cotton stainer family. Their scientific name is pyrrhocoris apterus.

Landersz

6. This stink bug is also found in Europe. Doesn’t its shield look like it is made of leather?

Tomasz Gorny

7. This stink bug from Singapore looks like it’s carrying a gorilla-mask on its back. Amazing, isn’t it?

InSectHunter

At Ansan military camp for kids it does not matter if you’re a boy or a girl, they will make a manly man out of you.

Located about 25 miles from the capital of Seoul, the Ansan military camp gives civilians the chance to strengthen their minds and bodies, by training in extreme conditions. The camp is ran by retired Korean marines who don’t care if you’re in primary school or in college, they’ll have you carrying logs and exercising half naked in the snow.

You can choose to withstand the torture training at Ansan camp for periods ranging between three and fourteen days, depending on how tough you think you are.

Photos by REUTERS via Telegraph.co.uk

Clockwork Love by Tjep.Dutch designers Tjep. are demonstrating a collection of jewellery comprising overlapping symbols at art Gallery Ra in Amsterdam.

Named Clockwork Love, the range includes 6 designs each representing a different emotion, and the symbols are layered to create what look like mechanisms frozen in time.

On Scotland’s northwest coast, mammoth sculptures of stone and moss crumble into the sea– some small, others reaching high into the clouds, monolithic in nature.  Scotland’s Hebrides Islands comprise a widespread, diverse archipelago of hundreds of islands, whose landscape has been celebrated since the early Celtics long before the common era.  National Geographic photographer Jim Richardson visited the Hebrides Islands, sharing their profound natural and historic diversity in this series of stunning photographs.  [national geographic via flylyf]

This is truly amazing & very touching…………

Here his wife is injured and the condition is fatal.
She was hit by a car as she swooped low across the road.

Here he brought her food and attended to her with love and compassion.

He brought her food again but was shocked to find her dead.
He tried to move her….a rarely-seen effort for swallows!

Aware that his sweetheart is dead and will never come back to him again,
he cries with adoring love.

He stood beside her, saddened of her death.

Finally aware that she would never return to him, he
stood beside her body with sadness and sorrow.

Millions of people cried after watching this picture in
America and Europe and even in Asia . It is said that the
photographer sold these pictures for a nominal fee to the
most famous newspaper in France .  All copies of that
newspaper were sold out on the day these pictures were published.
And many people think animals don’t have a brain or feelings?????