Wednesday, Jul. 13, 2011

Say ahhh: Kagawa University professor Hideyuki Sawada displays his talking and singing robot, which has motor-controlled organs such as vocal cords, a vocal tract and a nasal cavity to generate voices like human vocalization during a robot exhibition in Tokyo. The robot is used for voice training of the hearing-impaired.

Thousands of years from now, what will archaeologists say it means? The sun sets during the Manhattan Solstice or Manhattanhenge in New York City. Twice a year, the setting sun aligns with the east-west street grid of the borough.

Here's mud in your eye!: Cole Argo of Novi, Mich, was crowned as Mud King during the annual Mud Day in Westland, Mich. Wayne County mixes more than 200 tons of topsoil and over 20,000 gallons of water to ensure that the mud is just right.

Hail of a storm: Dave Hefenieder, a city employee in Cheyenne, Wyo., uses a pitchfork to unclog a storm drain. A thunderstorm brought hail as large as golf balls.

Why should Pamplona get all the fun? Revelers jump into the ocean followed by a bull during the Bulls to the Sea festival in Denia, eastern Spain. Bulls are later brought back to land by small boats.

Bringing her to life: Dancers perform during a dress rehearsal for Nederlands Dans Theater, a leading contemporary dance company known for its innovative use of puppets, as they prepare for their opening night in Melbourne.

Surfing for nectar: A ladybug crawls across the blooms of a plant at Blueberry Park in Bremerton, Wash.

Warning: Just one of these a day may be fatal: Tobacco farmers smoke giant homemade cigarettes during a protest against a bill on stricter tobacco control outside the presidential palace in Jakarta.

Give me four! An adorable Bornean orangutan girl (left) and boy, the offspring of father Vandu and mother Raba, were born at the Hong Kong zoo on July 8, the first born there.

No place for a dog: Andia, an Iranian woman, caresses a stray dog, a mother who lost her puppies, at the Vafa animal shelter in the town of Hashtgerd. Iran's government is trying to ban the public appearance of dogs due to their "uncleanness" and to combat "a blind imitation of vulgar Western culture."

Hot times in Manhattan: Max, a red-nose pitbull, cools himself in the Columbus Circle fountain during a heat wave in New York City, where the heat index was expected to reach 100.

Philadelphia heat-slake: Aniyah Davis, 7, kisses her cousin William Respes, 1, as they play in water from a garden hose to beat the midday summer heat in Philadelphia.

Maximum displacement: An African elephant cools off in a pond at Six Flags Great Adventure's Wild Safari in Jackson, N.J.

Good place to go barefoot: A shopkeeper takes a nap during hot afternoon in Quetta, Pakistan.

And after all that heat, come home to San Francisco: Temperatures in the City by the Bay hovered around 60, with plenty of fog.

Old-fashioned light: Pakistani vendor Rahim Khan lights gasoline lamps to rent them out to shopkeepers. Pakistan faces the worst power crisis of its history as many areas remain without power for up to 16 hours a day.

Zinger: Lightning illuminates the night sky during a thunderstorm over the Vosges mountain range in Gundolsheim, eastern France.