NPR's Top 100 Listener Picks For 2013

1. Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires Of The City

2. Arcade Fire, Reflektor
3. Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
4. The National, Trouble Will Find Me
5. Lorde, Pure Heroine
6. Chvrches, The Bones Of What You Believe
7. Kanye West, Yeezus
8. HAIM, Days Are Gone
9. Neko Case, The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You
10. James Blake, Overgrown
11. Volcano Choir, Repave
12. Phosphorescent, Muchacho
13. Queens Of The Stone Age, ...Like Clockwork
14. Kurt Vile, Wakin On A Pretty Daze
15. The Avett Brothers, Magpie And The Dandelion
16. The Civil Wars, The Civil Wars
17. Janelle Monáe, The Electric Lady
18. Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience - 1 of 2
19. David Bowie, The Next Day
20. Local Natives, Hummingbird
21. Atoms For Peace, Amok
22. Sigur Rós, Kveikur
23. Foxygen, We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic
24. Rhye, Woman
25. The Head And The Heart, Let's Be Still
26. Tegan And Sara, Heartthrob
27. My Bloody Valentine, m b v
28. Typhoon, White Lighter
29. Phoenix, Bankrupt!
30. Jason Isbell, Southeastern
31. Iron And Wine, Ghost On Ghost
32. Disclosure, Settle
33. Laura Marling, Once I Was An Eagle
34. Chance The Rapper, Acid Rap
35. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
36. Kacey Musgraves, Same Trailer Different Park
37. Daughter, If You Leave
38. The Flaming Lips, The Terror
39. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Push The Sky Away
40. Elvis Costello & The Roots, Wise Up Ghost
41. Savages, Silence Yourself
42. Death Cab For Cutie, Transatlanticism (10th Anniversary Edition)
43. Frightened Rabbit, Pedestrian Verse
44. Earl Sweatshirt, Doris
45. Nine Inch Nails, Hesitation Marks
46. Yo La Tengo, Fade
47. M.I.A., Matangi
48. Lucius, Wildewoman
49. The Lone Bellow, The Lone Bellow
50. Josh Ritter, The Best In Its Tracks
51. Deerhunter, Monomania
52. Deafheaven, Sunbather
53. Patty Griffin, American Kid
54. Junip, Junip
55. Okkervil River, The Silver Gymnasium
56. MGMT, MGMT
57. Mikal Cronin, MCI
58. Jim James, Regions Of Light And Sound Of God
59. Drake, Nothing Was The Same
60. Youth Lagoon, Wondrous Bughouse
61. Paul McCartney, New
62. Washed Out, Paracosm
63. Justin Timberlake, The 20/20 Experience - 2 of 2
64. Boards of Canada, Tomorrow's Harvest
65. Valerie June, Pushin' Against A Stone
66. Bill Callahan, Dream River
67. Jay Z, Magna Carta Holy Grail
68. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, We The Common
69. Waxahatchee, Cerulean Salt
70. Danny Brown, Old
71. The Strokes, Comedown Machine
72. Dr. Dog, B-Room
73. Childish Gambino, Because The Internet
74. Darkside, Psychic
75. The Knife, Shaking The Habitual
76. Bonobo, The North Borders
77. Franz Ferdinand, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
78. King Krule, 6 Feet Beneath The Moon
79. San Fermin, San Fermin
80. Blood Orange, Cupid Deluxe
81. Run The Jewels (Killer Mike & El-P), Run The Jewels
82. The 1975, The 1975
83. Jon Hopkins, Immunity
84. Frank Turner, Recovery
85. Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Love Has Come For You
86. Death Grips, Government Plates
87. Jake Bugg, Shangri La
88. The Beatles, On Air - Live At The BBC, Vol. 2
89. Unknown Mortal Orchestra, II
90. Best Coast, Fade Away
91. Dave Grohl & Friends, Sound City: Real To Reel
92. Superchunk, I Hate Music
93. Pusha T, My Name Is My Name
94. Bombino, Nomad
95. Sleigh Bells, Bitter Rivals
96. Grouplove, Spreading Rumours
97. Moon Hooch, Moon Hooch
98 Laura Veirs, Warp And Weft
99. She & Him, Volume 3
100. Ty Segall, Sleeper

2013 National Geographic Photo Contest Winners

(Nature category) - An over/under water split level image of beautiful crimson red waratah anemones in a rock pool at low tide in Australia. What I really love about over/under photographs is that it gives the underwater element a sense of place. For the viewer it marries the underwater environment with our own familiar world. It links the unknown with the known.

Photo and caption by Matt Smith

(Places category) - Quiraing, Isle of Skye, April 06, 2013. The Quiraing is probably one of the most photographed locations in Scotland. I spent the whole previous day looking for a different point of view, since almost all pictures of this vista seem to have been taken from the same standpoint. Taken at 5.30 AM after many attempts. The lighted hill on the right is just what I was waiting for to get a much more interesting light.

Photo and caption by Guido Tramontano Guerritore

SKUNK by Yago Partal

SKUNK by Yago Partal    (for ZOO PORTRAITS)

NSA tracking

Gromia sphaerica, the giant ameoba

This is a large spherical testate amoeba, a single-celled organism classed among the protists and is the largest in the genus Gromia.

It was discovered in 2000, along the Oman margin of the Arabian sea, at depths from 1163 to 1194 m (3816 to 3917 ft). Specimens range in size from 4.7 to 38 mm (0.2 to 1.5 in) in diameter. The test (organic shell) is usually spherical in shape and honeycombed with pores. There are filaments on the bottom of the organism, where it is in contact with the seafloor, and it is mostly filled with stercomata (waste pellets).

In 2008, 30-mm (1.2-in) specimens were found off the coast of Little San Salvador in the Bahamas by researchers from the University of Texas. These Gromia were discovered to make mud trails as much as 50 centimeters (20 inches) in length. It was previously thought thatsingle-celled organisms were incapable of making these kinds of trails, and their cause was previously a source of speculation. The mud trails made by the Bahamian Gromia appear to match prehistoric mud trails from the Precambrian, including 1.8 billion year-old fossil trails in theStirling formation in Australia.

(via: Wikipedia)

Xenophyophores: Giant 1-celled Organisms of the Deep Sea

These are giant unicellular organisms found throughout the world’s oceans, at depths of up to 10,641 meters (6.6 miles). When first described in 1889, the xenophyophores were placed with the sponges. Later they were classified as testate amoeboids (Arcellinida), then in their own phylum of within the Protista. A recent genetic study suggests the xenophyophores are a specialized group of Foraminifera.

Xenophyophores are found in the greatest numbers on the abyssal plains of the deep ocean. They are placed in two orders in 13 genera with approximately 42 recognized species; one species, Syringammina fragilissima, is among the largest known single-celled organisms at up to 20 cm in diameter.

Abundant but poorly understood, xenophyophores are delicate organisms with a variable appearance; some may resemble flattened discs, angular four-sided shapes (tetrahedra), or frilly or spherical sponges. Local environmental conditions—such as current direction and speed—may play a part in influencing these forms. Xenophyophores are essentially lumps of viscous fluid called cytoplasm containing numerous nuclei distributed evenly throughout. Everything is contained in a ramose (highly branched) system of tubes called agranellare, itself composed of an organic cement-like substance.

Their glue-like secretions cause silt and strings of their own fecal matter, called stercomes, to build up into masses (called stercomares) on their exteriors. In this way, the organisms form structures that project from the sea floor; this characteristic is also the source of their name, which may be translated from the Greek to mean "bearer of foreign bodies". A protective, shell-like test is thereby agglutinated around the granellare, which is composed of scavenged minerals and the microscopic skeletal remains of other organisms, such as sponges, radiolarians, and other foraminiferans.

(read more: Wikipedia)

William Heath and the Thames

An etching by William Heath depicting a woman dropping her tea-cup in horror upon discovering the monstrous contents found in a magnified drop of Thames water. In the nineteenth century, sewage and waste contaminated the River Thames in London, making it a prime source of water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

From Wellcome Collection via Cabinet Magazine issue 44

snowflake, the only known albino gorilla

Today is the tenth anniversary of the death of the as of yet only known albino gorilla, Snowflake

congress continues to debate climate change

raise minimum wage

Sexegenarian Albatross Breeds Again!

The albatross Wisdom, at almost 63, the world’s oldest banded wild bird, laid another egg in late November, a year and a day after her last one. She’s at Midway Atoll Refuge, nesting site for 71 percent of the world’s population of Laysan albatross.

Watch live video: http://bit.ly/19kfDEy.
More photos by Pete Leary/USFWS: http://bit.ly/1hAU1fs

(via: USFWS National Wildlife Refuge System)

alligators behind my apartment?

boardWALK

Why the Platypus Will Never Have a Stomach

by Charles Q. Choi

Bizarrely, many species of animals, such as the carp and platypus, lost their stomachs in the evolutionary past, and new research suggests they may never evolve the organs back.

The stomach is the part of the gut where the main part of digestiontakes place. Glands in this organ secrete enzymes known as pepsins, which break down proteins, and strong acids that soften food and help the enzymes work. The glands first appeared about 450 million years ago, and they represent an evolutionary innovation found exclusively in jawed creatures with backbones.

Surprisingly, the gastric glands that define the stomach are missing in a number of jawed vertebrates. In 1805, the French zoologist Georges Cuvier discovered that many teleosts, or the largest living group of fish, such as the carp family, lack stomachs. The past 200 years of research suggests that up to 27 percent, speaking conservatively, of all teleost species may lack stomachs. Primitive bony fish such as lungfish and some cartilaginous fish such as chimeras lost the organs as well.

(Read more: Live Science)

two moles per liter

funky fungi

bird eggs

crinoids

taming monsters

protruding skull

Discomedusae from Ernst Haeckel

ammonite suture patterns

Illustration from The Naturalist’s Cabinet by Thomas Smith

blue crab life cycle

Sophie Malgat in the Jardin d’Hiver of Christian Dior’s hôtel particulier in Paris. 1953, Evening dress, Autumn-Winter 1953 Haute Couture collection, Vivante line. photo © Mark Shaw.

Sophie Malgat - the wife of the film director Anatole ‘Tola’ Litvak—was one of the rare models who starred on the catwalk and had ''cover girl'' status in magazine editorials. ''Sophie knew how to move in clothes and how to pose,'' says Brigitte Tortet. ''She defined truly elegant.'' Shaw photographed her in the Jardin d’Hiver of Christian Dior’s hôtel particulier on boulevard Jules Sandeau in Paris’s 16th arrondissement.
1953, Evening dress, Autumn-Winter 1953 Haute Couture collection, Vivante line.
photo © Mark Shaw.

Sammy Slabbinck

yatzer

Scott Campbell’s Skulls made of US Currency

Scott Campbell’s Skulls made of US Currency.

skateboard skull

Skull by HAROSHI
Used skateboards
8 5/8 × 5 1/8 × 6 3/4 in // 21.9 × 13 × 17.1 cm.
Courtesy of Jonathan LeVine Gallery.
Photo by Taro Hirano / Pictureman Studio.

Our Exquisite Corpse

Our Exquisite Corpse Huichol Black Skull Made Exclusively For LN-CC.