Smithsonian announced the 2012 Photo Contest 50 finalists on March 4, 2013. Now it’s your time to vote for the Readers’ Choice Award winner. Voting will be open until March 29th at 2PM EST.

I really like this one - tiny yet strong ants holding on to the fruits and each other. And the eyes and those mandibles… yikes. Photo by Eko Adiyanto (Bekasi, Indonesia). Photographed in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia.

For a better look at more neat photos, visit Smithsonian.com and cast your vote!

The 11th annual contest is now open until November 29, 2013 at 2:00 PM EST. On a weekly basis beginning April 2, Smithsonian judges will post the best of the incoming entries to Smithsonian Retina. Finalists will be announced on March 3, 2014.

Smithsonian also notes, “This year we are also looking forward to highlighting the best photographs taken with mobile devices. Let us know that it was taken with your phone or tablet reader and show us the wonders of this new generation of photography.” So that means folks with smart phones and tablets can enter to win too.

Here’s what the judges look for in a winning photo:

“Technical quality, clarity and composition are all important, but so too is a flair for the unexpected and the ability to capture a picture-perfect moment.”

Photo Contest Prize Details

Fifty finalists will be selected, ten for each of the five categories. Smithsonian will notify the 50 finalists by February 28, 2014. Finalists’ entries will be published on the magazine’s Web site on March 4, 2014. At that time, readers can vote online for one readers’ choice winner. The Smithsonian will award eight prizes, as follows:

Grand Prize: $2,500

Category Winners:
The winners of each of the five categories will receive $500

Readers’ Choice:
The winner of the online Readers’ Choice award will receive $500

Mobile:
The best photo in any of the five categories that was taken with a mobile device will receive $500.

One cash prize per person; winners may receive additional noncash prizes. Winners must sign a release and license, declaration of eligibility, and will be responsible for paying any taxes they may owe on a prize.

Photo from Smithsonian.

In the remote mountains of Indonesia’s Foja Mountains comes frogs, gecko, and even the world’s smallest wallaby. The other recent discovery was of the golden-mantled tree kangaroo out of New Guinea. It’s always good news to hear that scientist have discovered new species.

This cute little guy is the world’s smallest wallaby. Photo by Tim Laman of National Geographic/Reuters

The other new animals discovered by researchers include an oversize yet tame woolly rat, a new bat that feeds on rainforest blossom nectar and a small tree mouse. There is even a new flowering shrub.

This part of Indonesia’s rain forest is very undeveloped and undisturbed without any roads. The elevation and tropical environment also provides much isolation. There are also local forest-dwelling people that depend on this place for resources. And the locals don’t take more then they need from the rain forest.

Bruce Beehler, a senior research scientist at Conservation International said it best, “While animals and plants are being wiped out across the globe at a pace never seen in millions of years, the discovery of these absolutely incredible forms of life is much needed positive news. Places like these represent a healthy future for all of us and show that it is not too late to stop the current species extinction crisis.”

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When I first started making soap in 2008, I bought palm oil without knowing much about it’s source.

Palm oil has desirable qualities which include producing a mild and hard bar that lathers well.  From my own experience, I’ve found other good substitutes such as olive oil, rice bran, and coconut oil to be just as nice.

It wasn’t until recently that I knew about the environmental and social implications of using palm oil.

As for the social impact, forests are usually cleared in large tracts of land through burning and clear cutting. This has alienated communities and created tension between locals and the company executing the project.

For the environmental impact, large areas of Indonesian and Malaysian rainforest have been cleared to make way for palm plantations. The spaces used to expand palm plantations are often created by draining and burning peatland, which sends carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

The removing of rainforest is also effecting the orangutan population that dwell in the forest. It is estimated by Borneo Orang Utan Survival Foundation UK that orangutans can disappear in five years. But there is still hope.

Indonesia’s Center for Orang Utan Protection has rescued many baby orangutan orphaned by palm oil companies. As many of the orangutans are seen as pest and are killed off. The center to protect orangutan ask that we use orangutan friendly palm oil (from sustainable palm oil farm) in our food and household products.

This baby orangutan (photo above) seem to be having fun.  Image source.

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