Nat Geo - 18 Amazing, Intimate Camera Trap GIFs of Serengeti Animals

Nat Geo - Biologist Craig Packer has headed the Serengeti Lion Project since 1978. The director of the Lion Research Center and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota has spent countless hours on the Serengeti plains, studying lion ecology, genetics, health, and other factors. (Hear some of Packer’s expert commentary in the interactive Serengeti Lion experience and read more in “The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion.”)

Packer spoke to National Geographic on the phone from Zanzibar, where a Muslim call to prayer could be heard in the background. “I was always puzzled as to how lions fit into the broader context of the Serengeti,” Packer said.

“They have the reputation as the king of the beasts, but what does that really mean?” he asked.

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Aston Martin reveals Batmobile-like anniversary speedster

 

To celebrate 100 years of Aston Martin, the car company has unveiled the CC100 concept car, which looks like something Adam West's Batman might drive in 2013.

It looks strangely like something Adam West's Batman might drive in 2013, but Aston Martin's 100th anniversary CC100 speedster wasn't designed with superheroes in mind, camp or otherwise. Instead, the yellow-and-blue-gray speedster is an homage to the company's heritage as a manufacturer of luxury sports cars.      More

Aston Martin's crazy concept speedster (pictures)

 

  

Products that seemed so weird...at first (pictures)

CNET - New technology may seem bizarre at first, but it can very quickly become integrated into our daily lives.

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Nat Geo, 125 Year Celebration - The Highest Points of Exploration (Photos)

In 1960 Joseph Kittinger jumped from an open-air gondola 18.5 miles high wearing a duct-taped suit. He set a record for the highest jump and lived to tell the tale in the December 1960 issue of National Geographic.

Photograph by Volkmar K. Wentzel, National Geographic

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28 Glimpses Into North Korea’s Technological… Prowess?

 

Gizmodo - By now you may think that North Korea is only good for nuclear bluster and general insanity. But! Beneath that strange veneer lies actual technology, architecture, and design. Some of it's just a little more polished than others.

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Nat Geo Pictures - Wolves

Photograph by Joel Sartore

The wolf is the largest member of the dog family. With thick, shaggy hair and a bushy tail, it looks a lot like a German shepherd dog. Wolves have long legs to run great distances and powerful jaws to grab prey and hold it. The gray wolf pictured here lives at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota.

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'Star Trek Into Darkness' - Trailer & Pics

Digital Spy - Another of the images highlights Benedict Cumberbatch as villain John Harrison, standing amidst a crowd of Starfleet cadets.

Director JJ Abrams has promised that the sequel, which sees the Enterprise crew struggling to protect the Earth from a force of terror from within their own organization, will be a tearjerker.

Abrams has also spoken on several occasions about the decision to post-convert the film into 3D,
admitting that he was forced into the decision by Paramount.    More

Official Website

Trailer

Most anticipated tech of 2013

CNET -

 

 

Samsung Galaxy S4
 

The Samsung Galaxy S3 was arguably the biggest Android phone release to date, so it's hardly surprising that the inevitable S4 is leading the pack as one of the most anticipated phones of 2013. While details on the device remain strictly in rumor mill territory, the best guesses include a 5-inch 1080p HD display, a 13-megapixel camera, and integrated support for Visa wireless payments. But one thing we know for sure: we'll be getting all of the relevant details on March 14 at Manhattan's Radio City Music Hall.

Read: Samsung Galaxy S4 rumor roundup

Read: "What I want to see in the Samsung Galaxy S4" 

 

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Nat Geo - Excellent Vintage Photos

 

Great Pyramid and Sphinx, Giza

Photograph by Hans Hildenbrand, National Geographic

Men on camelback ride past the Sphinx and Great Pyramid in Giza, Egypt.

 

Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

Photograph by Walter Edwards, National Geographic

A man and woman look out at the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial.

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Nat Geo - Top 25 Photographs from the Wilderness

 "Curious cub" by guide Kyle de Nobrega at Lion Sands Private Game Reserve. "Nothing quite like the curiosity of a cat."

 

 

Kyle de Nobrega

 

Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist and marginalized by the demands of sustained development in emerging markets. Guides, rangers, researchers, ecotourists, photographers, artists and conservationists around the world apply themselves everyday to sharing, studying, photographing, writing about, protecting, conserving and celebrating the “wild” with their guests, co-workers, colleagues, and local communities. These amazing photographs are a window into their world, a world where the lions, elephants, orangutans and leopards still reign supreme and we can dream of that perfect morning in the wilderness…View the Pics!

BMW Concept 4 Coupe takes over where 3 Series left off (pictures)

 

DETROIT--At the 2013 North American International Auto Show auto show, BMW's Concept 4 Series Coupe indicates a future design direction for the company, and fills a hole in the lineup. The car serves as a more focused sport vehicle than the current 3 Series, which became watered down when BMW attempted to make it suitable for both performance and luxury seekers. Design cues seen on the front are the light pipes around the headlights and machined, inset pieces on the intake.

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Per These Leaked CES Pics, Sony Is Actually Capable Of Making A Memorable Android Phone

 

TechCrunch - Quick! What’s Sony’s current high-end Android phone? Anyone? Yeah, Sony has a problem with brand recognition, one it likely hopes will be resolved with a big CES debut next week. While that could still happen, Sony’s Japanese press site just prematurely posted pics of the Xperia Z “Yuga” and the Xperia ZL “Odin”. And, surprisingly, the phones actually look worth remembering.

Sony, and before that, Sony Ericsson, has long floundered about in the mobile waters. Besides the Sony Ericsson gaming phone, none have been particularly interesting. Somehow Sony manages to make forgettable phones even though past models looked great and packed top-notch specs. Hopefully, and I mean that, these upcoming phones will hit the market with a bit more pizzazz.

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Nat Geo Big Cat Week - Snow Leopard of Afghanistan

 

The Snow Leopard

Photograph by Tom Brakefield / Getty Images

A Snow Leopard walking on snow.  This big cat lives in the mountains of Central Asia.

 

Lovely Leopard

Photograph by Stuart Berman / Getty Images

A closer look at the Snow Leopard's face.  This type of leopard's fur is long and thick.

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Nat Geo: Best Wild Animal Photos of 2012

 

Overall Winner

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic

Emperor penguins rocket toward an exit hole in the ice in the winning picture of the 2012 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, announced last Wednesday. 

To get the shot—taken in Antarctica's Ross Sea for a new National Geographic article—photographer Paul Nicklen used polar survival skills he'd learned as a child among the Inuit on Canada's Baffin Island. Nicklen began by lowering himself through a hole in the ice and breathed through a snorkel while waiting for the penguins to return from foraging.

"They soared underwater like fighter jets in a dogfight," Nicklen told National Geographic's Luna Shyr. "Then they'd fly out, land, push down with their bill, and stand up, going back to that slow, waddling bird. It was a privilege to see." (Get more behind-the-scenes details.)

In a statement, competition judge David Doubilet said "Bubble-Jetting Penguins"—which also took top honors in the Underwater Worlds category—"draws us in for a glimpse of the emperor penguin's private world at the end of the Earth. I love this image, because it shows perfectly organized, infinite chaos. My eyes linger over it trying to absorb everything that's going on here." (See more emperor penguin pictures by Paul Nicklen.)

Now in its 48th year, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is an "international showcase for the very best nature photography," according to the website for the contest, run by London's Natural History Museum and Wildlife magazine.

Each year an international jury of photographers judges tens of thousands of entries in 18 categories.
—Ker Than 

 

Eric Hosking Portfolio Award

Photograph courtesy Vladimir Medvedev, VEWPOY

Vladimir Medvedev was driving through Canada's Jasper National Park when he spotted a red deer stag lying in the grass by the highway. The photographer pulled over and swiftly positioned his tripod and snapped this picture just as a truck thundered by.

After taking the picture, Medvedev left as quickly as possible to ensure the deer's peace. "The stag may have been inconspicuous, but I wasn't," he said in a statement. "As long as I stayed there, he was no longer invisible. So I left straight away, so as not to betray his presence."

The shot, titled "Life in the Border Zones," won Medvedev the Eric Hosking Portfolio Award, intended for photographers aged 18 to 26 who submit portfolios of their best work.

 

Commended, World in Our Hands Award

Photograph courtesy Paul Hilton, VEWPOY

Workers at the Donggang fish market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, process frozen shark fins to help meet a growing worldwide demand for shark-fin soup.

"It was sobering to think how many sharks had been killed to produce this pile of fins for a soup that isn't even healthy," photographer Paul Hilton said in a statement about his picture, titled "The End of Sharks." The image was a runner-up for the World in Our Hands Award, focused on the "relationship between people and the environment."

An increasingly popular dish among the middle-class in China, shark-fin soup is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of sharks annually, scientists say. Many sharks are taken solely for their fins and then thrown back in the ocean, where it takes several hours for the fish to die.

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Nat Geo - Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week

 

Black-headed herons are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. They differ from their closest congener, the Grey Heron, in that they prefer to hunt well away from water, taking large insects, small mammals, and birds.

Rodnick Clifton Biljon

1 / 25

Cape parrot sitting in a Cape lilac tree whose yellow fruits are reputed to be poisonous. These Endangered parrots feed on this fruit from India, SE Asia and Australia when local food resources become depleted. There are less than 1,000 of these shining, amazing parrots left on earth. Please watch this informative National Geographic video on the Cape Parrot Project: http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/specials/in-the-field-specials/boyes-cape-parrot/

Rodnick Clifton Biljon

The little-known spectacled barwing is found in China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, where they prefer subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. Photographed here in Thailand.

Trevor Hardaker

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Nat Geo - Photo Gallery: Bison

Close-Up of a Bison

Photograph by Sam Abell

With their large, sharp horns, bison are formidable foes. During mating season, bulls fight for the right to breed with harems of cows, but rarely duel to the death.


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Nat Geo - Extreme Weather Photos

 

Volcano Lightning, Iceland

Photograph by Sigurdur H. Stefnisson, National Geographic

Lightning cracks during an eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010.

The eruption’s ash clouds delayed European air travel for nearly a week.

Storms over volcanoes contain the same ingredients as storms over your hometown—water droplets, ice, and occasionally hail. The interaction of all of these elements creates an electrical charge that sparks lightning. Active craters add ash to the mix.

(Related: “Iceland Volcano Pictures: Lightning Adds Flash to Ash” and “Pictures: Volcano Lightning, Illuminated.”)

For an in-depth exploration of extreme weather events around the world, read National Geographic magazine's September feature "Weather Gone Wild."
--Tasha Eichenseher

 

Volcano and Waterspout, Hawaii

Photograph by Steve and Donna O’Meara, National Geographic

The eruption of Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano inspires the formation of a waterspout in this undated photo.

Waterspouts can emerge the way traditional tornadoes do, but not always. Many are created when near-surface winds suddenly change direction under a cloud that is producing a growing updraft. Unlike a tornado, a waterspout vortex and funnel cloud are created from the ground, or water, up.

(To learn more about volcanoes, see our video Volcanoes 101 and volcano photo gallery.)

(See more pictures of a recent Kilauea eruption: “Kilauea Volcano Pictures: Hawaii Eruption Spurts Lava.”)

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Nat Geo - Photo Gallery: Bears

Wet Polar Bear

Photograph by Paul Nicklen

With their slightly webbed paws and powerful muscles, polar bears are excellent swimmers. Their favorite meal is seals, but they will eat anything they can catch, even scavenging through garbage in areas where their habitat overlaps with humans.

 

Brown Bear Hunting

Photograph by George F. Mobley

A brown bear hunts for fish in Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge on an island off the southern coast of Alaska. A male Kodiak brown bear can rear up some 10 feet (3 meters) and, at 1,500 pounds (680 kilograms), move at speeds as high as 35 miles (56 kilometers) an hour.

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The Mojave, the beating heart of the aviation world (pictures)

CNET -

SR-71 Blackbird

MOJAVE DESERT, Calif.--Although aviation history started in North Carolina and is carried out -- often at a high level -- throughout the world, there's likely no place on Earth more devoted to -- or accomplished at -- the craft than the communities and facilities, both civilian and military, of this huge, arid, mostly flat, often sweltering desert north and east of Los Angeles.

Whether it's Edwards Air Force Base, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, the Mojave Air and Space Port, the Southern California Logistics Airport, or elsewhere in the area, the desert almost seems to breathe aviation. This summer on Road Trip 2012, and during previous forays to the area, CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman took in some of the best the area has offered the world -- and it is a world-class list.

This is the Lockheed SR-71, a Mach 3 reconnaissance aircraft, located at the Air Force Test Flight Center Museum, at Edwards Air Force Base. According to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, "No reconnaissance aircraft in history has operated in more hostile airspace or with such complete impunity than the SR-71 Blackbird. It is the fastest aircraft propelled by air-breathing engines. The Blackbird's performance and operational achievements placed it at the pinnacle of aviation technology developments during the Cold War. The airplane was conceived when tensions with communist Eastern Europe reached levels approaching a full-blown crisis in the mid-1950s. U.S. military commanders desperately needed accurate assessments of Soviet worldwide military deployments, particularly near the Iron Curtain," and the existing U-2 was too slow to do the job.

B-52D Stratofortress

This is a B-52 Stratofortress at the Air Force Test Flight Center Museum, at Edwards Air Force Base. According to the museum, the first B-52 first took flight in 1952. Eventually, nearly 750 were build. "Records set by B-52s include the world's first nonstop round-the-world flight by a jet aircraft and the first hydrogen bomb drop. B-52s began flying combat missions in Southeast Asia...(in) 1965." Eventually, B-52s flew 126,615 combat sorties, during which 17 were shot down.

NASA X-48C

This is an X-48C, a prototype of a hybrid wing body airplane currently located at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. The goal of a plane like this -- which is an 8.5 percent scale version of an eventual full-sized plane -- is to show the the genre of plane has potential. NASA and its corporate partners, Boeing, and Cranfield Aerospace, have already conducted 92 test flights with the X-48C's predecessor, the X-48B.

The team has yet to fly the X-48C, and the expect it may be 10 years or more before the full-sized version flies.

Hybrid wing body airplanes are hoped to offer a wide range of utility, from being bombers, tankers, cargo transporters, command and control planes, or commercial airliners. Some think that since the design can't support windows, paying passengers won't fly on them. But seem think the solution is to build in virtual windows.

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Nat Geo: Birds of Prey (Photos)

Young Eagle

Photograph by Jacky Gerritsen, My Shot

Young eagle with an attitude

Horned Owl

Photograph by Joe Dubberly, My Shot

A horned owl stopped by to get a closer look at me. What I found most amazing was the curiosity of these little guys to the activities of humans.

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