In his series Regresiones, Mexican artist Alex Castro depicts animals posed for traditional human portraits, working the curious, anthropomorphic expressiveness of animal faces for all its worth. Read more at m.boingboing.net

Less than 20 years ago, this remote jungle hamlet on the pristine central Pacific side of Costa Rica mostly saw gringos of the fringy type – eccentrics, trust fund kids and the occasional fugitive from the law – many trying to escape something. I, on the other hand, was trying to catch something. Although, from the way the board shot out from under my feet (for the 30th time) and I was chucked unceremoniously into the tropical waves, it was going to take awhile. No one knows when surfers started showing up at Playa Guiones, but it’s clear they helped set the tone for a place that it is far less about ATV tours and zip-lining than it is about the simplicity of a beautiful beach and nearly perfect waves. It seems natural to say the area has a laidback vibe – but you can’t. There is no vibe. The place just is.

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A garland of northern lights hangs above the island of Kvaløya in northern Norway on January 8.

High auroral activity in the first weeks of the new year peaked on January 7 and 8 around the Arctic Circle. But high-latitude sky watchers were treated to plenty more in the following days. Near Tromsø, Norway, on January 12, auroras began at 6 p.m. and kept up the show for the next 12 hours.

During its peak the northern lights were so bright they could be seen from as far away as Northern Ireland, according to a report on spaceweather.com. Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com