Dancers compete in the 29th All Scotland Irish Dance Championship on February 22, 2013 in Glasgow, Scotland. As many 2,000 competitors are taking part in one of the world’s largest Irish dancing competitions with dancers coming from as far afield as North America, Russia, Australia and South Africa. By Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Muhey-Deen Kamal, 11, originally from Ghana, has a haircut at a local barber in West Ham on February 20, 2013 in London, England. According to the latest census, London’s white British population is now statistically a minority, forming just 45% of the capital’s residents as a whole. The district of Newham is one of the most ethnically diverse in the country, and tops the list of areas with a decrease in the white British population. By Dan Kitwood/Getty Images.
Yang Guang feeds on bamboo as he bulks up for the breeding season with partner Tian Tian on February 20, 2013 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Experts at Edinburgh Zoo have announced they expect the giant panda breeding season may be earlier this year, as both Tian Tian (Sweetie) and Yang Guang (Sunshine) have already started to show important changes in their behavior that indicate that they will soon be ready to mate, speculating in four weeks time. By Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.
Spare doll heads are seen at Sydney’s Original Doll Hospital in Bexley on February 19, 2013 in Sydney, Australia. Established in 1913 by Harold Chapman, the doll hospital is now run by Geoff Chapman, the third generation of Chapmans to run the business and will celebrate 100 years of repairing all types of dolls, teddy bears, rocking horses, umbrellas, prams and various other items. By Mark Kolbe/Getty Images.
DL Cade admires what may be the oldest surviving photograph of a US president – a daguerrotype of John Quincy Adams at the age of 76:
It was taken on a trip to New York, during which the president visited Niagara Falls, shook too many hands, visited an all-girls school, and spent some time with a child dwarf dressed as Napoleon. We know these bizarre details thanks to the meticulous diary Adams kept.
Here’s an excerpt from that diary:
The shaking of some hundred hands then followed and on my way returning to Mr. Johnson’s, I stopped and four daguerreotype likenesses of my head were taken, two of them jointly with the head of Mr. Bacon — all hideous.
That sentence is all the attention that was paid to the historic photograph, in a three paragraph entry that devoted almost an entire third to a pebble that lodged itself in the former president’s eye. But then that’s not surprising, as far as he was concerned his photos were “hideous” and “too true to the original.”
Update from a reader:
Mildly interesting presidential trivia related to JQA: Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes had, in his long lifetime, shaken hands with John Quincy Adams (b. 1767) and John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)
Street art by Adnate in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia, via Street Art Utopia. Photo by Flickr user ajhaysom.
Amanda Gorence admires the artistry on display:
Photographer Fernando Decillis traveled to Pasto, Columbia for the elaborate Carnaval de Negros y Blancos, a five day festival celebrating the Epiphany that has been a tradition since 1912. The festival begins on January 3rd as children take to the streets in celebration for El Carnavalito (The Little Parade). The following days each have a theme rich with tradition and history, leading up to El Desfile Magno (The Great Parade), the final parade on the last day of the festival.
El Desfile Magno is a mind-blowing display of immaculately crafted floats made by incredibly talented artists. The artists are usually honored with this task through family ties and only after years of studying the traditional craft. There are 20 competing floats, with the grand prize being 30,000,000 Colombian Pesos (a little less than $17,000 USD).
Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini explains his arresting series, What They Bring to Battle:
Late last year, during a particularly bad day of fighting between the Free Syrian Army and the Assad regime, a band of rebels took refuge in the basement of an abandoned factory building in Aleppo. They had just lost two men and were in desperate need of more supplies and more fighters. As we all waited for the shelling to stop, I discovered a small hole in one of the factory walls. With that opening providing our only light, I photographed many of the rebels, each with the single item they claimed was the most crucial in their struggle against the government.
The caption for the above photo:
Kachadur Manukian, 25: “They killed my mother and father. I will kill them with my knife. I will kill them like I would kill a goat.”
Piccolomini recently won 2nd prize in the World Press Photo Award for a deeply unsettling photo of an injured baby in Aleppo.
U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) at the end of a news briefing on Capitol Hill puckers up when asked by a reporter what he had given to his wife for Valentine’s Day. By Alex Wong/Getty Images.
Pope Benedict XVI leads the Ash Wednesday service at the St. Peter’s Basilica on February 13, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Ash Wednesday opens the liturgical 40-day period of Lent, a time of prayer, fasting, penitence and alms giving leading up to Easter. By Franco Origlia/Getty Images.
The Dish 