It’s often hard to wrap our minds around what will excite the people of the world. If you take a look at the originator of a viral Twitter post or video, it’s not uncommon for them to be just as baffled at their work’s success as anyone else.
But although we don’t know what elevates certain images to prominence over others besides luck and attention, it’s sometimes easy to see what about these images was worth talking about.
Sometimes they tie into a specific social issue, or sometimes they just present such a striking scene that we can’t ignore them. But however they got there, these photos made quite the impression this week.
As if a heat wave wasn’t tough enough to deal with on its own, they can come with this lovely little problem.
What we’re looking at here is the tar melting off a roof and flowing down the drain pipe because that’s just how hot it got around here.
If you ever wondered why there was a mountain on Toblerone bars, wonder no more.
You may know they come from Switzerland, but they’re specifically named after Mount Toblerone near the town of Zermatt.
Someone recently made the trip to line one of the bars up with its namesake.
When somebody saw such a familiar shape to this foliage, they knew what they had to do.
One can only wonder if this is what happens to Marge’s hair when she doesn’t go to the salon for long enough.
Burbank Airport actually has a bathroom for pets and it looks like they’d be very comfortable using it.
As for what happens to the pee after the dog drops it off, the likely answer is that the astroturf here is permeable enough to let it through and it travels down a drain underneath.
There are more than one version of these paintings hanging at this Berlin museum.
One is the original work, while the other is a “touchable” version that gives blind people a chance to experience what the artist was doing.
It’s not unusual to see a little rainbow as you play in a sprinkler, but it doesn’t usually show up this clearly.
Not only was someone able to get the sprinkler rainbow on camera, but they were able to make this little girl look like she conjured it out of thin air.
The uploader rented a house, but nobody told them that this was one of the rooms featured in it.
Yes, it actually has a secret room behind a bookcase like they’re spending their vacation in Dracula’s castle.
Sadly, there isn’t a hidden treasure trove behind it. The room was apparently empty.
It was hard to tell what this even does at first, but it’s still hard to tell if it does it effectively.
These pipes are supposed to collect air rushing past the car outside, which makes the interior cooler.
The question, however, is whether this does anything that couldn’t be accomplished simply by opening the window.
Although their future is uncertain, the Surma people aren’t giving up their homeland in Ethiopia’s Upper Omo Valley easily.
Given that photographer Louisa Seton told CNN that AK-47s weren’t a rare sight among the area’s Suri tribe, we’re likely looking at a member of them right now.
Both the Suri and the neighboring Mursi tribes are facing displacement as a result of the Gibe III hydroelectric dam’s construction.
We’re used to seeing albino animals with white fur, but that’s not always how it works.
For instance, here we have a brightly colorful albino turtle.
It’s just as sensitive to light as its counterparts in other species, but it’s hard to have white hair when your species is generally bald.
It doesn’t look like it, but there’s a certain kind of #Trashtag contribution at work here.
Instead of picking up garbage at the side of the road, this person decided to remove a bunch of old fishing lines and nets off the coast of Muscat, Oman.
As poachers get more sophisticated, so too must the people trying to protect their targets.
Although the cases of the Siberian Maldives and the California superbloom prove that selfie stars aren’t always good at heeding these types of warnings, we can only hope they’ll appreciate why it’s best to take this one seriously.
This historical shot is as heartbreaking as it looks.
Here we see Sahnish Tribal Council Chairman George Gillette crying as he signs over ancestral land for the construction of the Garrison Dam in North Dakota.
In case the picture doesn’t make it clear enough, he was coerced into doing this.
It’s hard to tell what this oil tanker has even pulled up, but it’s a good reminder to be cautious if you ever see something similar.
When this ship raised its anchor, the crew discovered that they had also picked up an unexploded torpedo. Yikes.
This is not the kind of fog that anyone wants to be in.
That’s because this was the result of a fire at what is likely a chemical plant judging by the uploader’s assertion that the air around them now has chlorine in it.
It could be smelled for miles, but it really shouldn’t be.
The uploader found a frog so small that this doorbell looks massive by comparison.
This would be a cute little one even if it weren’t clear just how little it is, but that certainly helps.
These are the houses that stand across from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church.
The Pride colors on the house on the left should be obvious, but the house on the right features the colors shown on the Transgender Pride Flag.
It’s hard to tell whether this would attract more or less unwanted attention from the anti-LGBTQIAA+ group, though.
This couple stayed together for 72 years before they had the opportunity to marry.
Vivian Boyack and Alice Dubes of Iowa finally had the legal backing to marry each other once the state allowed same-sex marriage in 2009 and they officially tied the knot five years later.
It’s hard to make out what it’s the backseat until someone tells you, if only because it seems like it couldn’t be true.
However, somebody indeed managed to get a cow into the backseat of their car. It’s ill-advised and very unlikely to be all that comfortable for the cow, but they did it.
This little fluff ball with a strange pointy end becomes a lot more recognizable once someone tells us what we’re looking at.
And what we’re looking at is a baby hummingbird. The beak was always pretty clearly defined, but the rest of it looks more like it crashed through a whole botanical garden.
