As the regime of Hosni Mubarak fell, the world witnessed the birth of a democracy. Today, the compelling images streaming in from Tahrir Square have mostly come to an end, but the struggles continue. Early this summer, the reborn nation will host its first presidential elections in 5,000 years. The candidates face a dismal economy, [...]

Few things give one the perspective that staring into the cosmos can. These star trails were captured with long-exposure on their journey through the night’s sky. Get starry eyed with more images of alien galaxies here. Photograph by Jack Fusco

To have any kind of real understanding of the Arab Awakening, we must look to the role of women and challenge the word “revolution.” In the West, we tend to idolize the struggle for democracy, and rightly so, but that is no excuse to overlook the egregious misogyny pervasive across the Middle East, including institutionalized [...]

Fifty-seven years ago, Rosa Parks, “the first lady of civil rights,” made a stand of peaceful civil disobedience by refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Although we live far from a post-racial society, seeing President Barack Obama in remembrance on that very bus is indeed powerful. Photo courtesy of [...]

Soe Than WIN/AFP/Getty Images After two decades of democratic struggle, many of which under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi has been elected by the people of Myanmar (Burma) to hold a seat in parliament. As leader of the National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi’s triumph represents a profound shift from military dictatorship towards democracy. [...]

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust takes in orphaned elephants to their Nairobi-based nursery, caring for the creatures until they are no longer milk-dependant around the age of four. “Any wild elephant group is, in essence, one large and highly sensitive organism. Young elephants are raised within a matriarchal family of doting female caregivers, beginning with [...]

Young girls at a Holy Procession wearing the traditional black mantillas. Photo by: Cristina Quicler/AFP/Getty Images Source: WSJ.

Nujood Ali was just 10 years old when she was married off by her father to a man in his 30s. After being subjected to rape and daily beatings, the little girl fled to the Yemeni capital of Sanaa where she wandered into a courthouse and demanded a divorce. According to TIME, 52 percent of [...]

A gorgeously arousing scrapbook of places we all wish we were.  Gratuitous shots of sky and quilts of unbearably green leaves – sunsets and snow-blanketed weary wood homes. You can keep your XXX-sites, this my favorite kind of porn.

Mozambique’s economic growth has been one of the strongest among African nations in the last decade, thanks in large part to the export of metals including aluminum and gold. But the GDP growth is not without human costs. Inhalation of silica dust from gold-bearing rocks, for example, can cause diseases like silicosis, which in turn [...]

These gorgeous time lapse photographs of fireflies at night by Tsuneaki Hiramatsu are so beautifully fantastical it breaks my heart. I would wallpaper the back of my eyelids with these if I could. Summer can’t get here soon enough. {Images by Tsuneaki Hiramatsu, via Anthology Magazine}

Children in Uganda are the ongoing victims of the longest-standing armed conflict in Africa. Led by Josephy Kony, The Lord’s Resistance Army have reigned terror across central Africa for over two decades. The LRA have only maintained their existence through the recruitment of thousands of child soldiers; brainwashing them with a twisted preaching of fanatical [...]

Photography by: Marketa Kalvachova The beautiful, in-foul mares of Southern Iceland. Via National Geographic.