SIGNS OF LIBERATION Libya. ”The fall of a dictator necessarily comes with mockery. The graffiti on this wall in Benghazi addresses Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s self-declared title, ’The King of Kings of Africa’. The Arabic writing reads ’The Monkey of Monkeys of Africa’. The artist is unknown.” Photo from AP/Alaguri, “In Focus”, The Atlantic

SIGNS OF LIBERATION Libya. ”Apparently Libya is a land of artists. An anti-government protester walks near the main square of Tobruk.” Photo by Asmaa Waguih/Reuters, “In Focus”, The Atlantic

SIGNS OF LIBERATION Libya. ”The creators of this sign were speaking to a Western audience.” Photo by Hussein Malia/AP, Washington Post

SIGNS OF LIBERATION Libya. ”This sign, understood in all languages, was obviously hand-painted.” Photo by Hussein Malia/AP, Los Angeles Times

SCIENCE AND NATURE Hungary. ”Tornados made out of fire…that is bad news, no matter how you photographic it. This fire tornado rises from a blaze at a plastics processing factory in the city of Kistarcsa on March 1.” Photo by Viktor Veres/Reuters, Washington Post

SCIENCE AND NATURE Cyber Man. ”Like the mad geniuses in horror movies, there are scientists who volunteer their own bodies for experimentation. (In the movies, that almost always ends badly.) For a Time magazine story about these bold researchers, Jim Naughten shot Professor Kevin Warwick, who, in 2002, allowed British surgeons to place a silicon chip with 100 spiked electrodes into his nervous system.˝ Photo by Jim Naughten, Time, February 28

SCIENCE AND NATURE Space. ”It’s a pity that the photo credit for this image didn’t name the person aboard the International Space Station who took it. The photo shows the space shuttle Discovery, on its final flight, approaching the Space Station during rendezvous procedures.” Photo from NASA via Getty Images, ”Lens”, New York Times

SCIENCE AND NATURE Pollen, Part 1. ”The truth is, none of us would exist and be able to fly into space, attach electrodes to our bodies, or create fire tornados if it weren’t for the creatures that pollinate our food crops and spread out all that wonderful biodiversity. For a National Geographic story on pollinators, Mark Moffett got this shot of a honeybee at dusk in Hawaii.” Photo by Mark W. Moffett, National Geographic, March 2011

SCIENCE AND NATURE Pollen, Part 2. ”Can you spot the bird getting nectar from a plant? The bird is called a Japanese white-eye.” Photo by Mark W. Moffett, National Geographic, March 2011

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS Chicago. ”Rahm Emanuel leaned on voters in Chicago to make him their next mayor, and it worked: Emanuel, former chief of staff for President Obama, won the election without the need for a runoff. Now if he could do something about the Cubs...” Photo by Callie Shell, Time, February 28

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS London. ”Is the point of this picture that no one stands to the right of Conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron? It was taken at a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at 10 Downing Street, but Ben Stansall created some visual tension by leaving Karzai out of the frame.” Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images, Los Angeles Times

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS Greece. ”The policeman on the left has just been hit by a gasoline bomb thrown by protesters after fighting broke out during a mass rally in Athens. His colleague on the right is coming to his aid.” Photo by Dmitri Messinis/AP, ”Lens”, New York Times

PEOPLE IN THE NEWS New Zealand. ”A couple in Christchurch look at the remains of a house destroyed by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that struck New Zealand on February 22.” Photo by Mark Baker/AP, ”Lens”, New York Times